It really speaks to how strong the boys' first sets have been recently that even a fairly solid one like this can seem like somewhat of a disappointment. There are highlights: The unexpected Roggae opener is a treat, as is the short-but-sweet Tube, and it's always great to hear semi-rarities like Driver and Saw it Again. Unfortunately, the debut of Keeping it Real is pretty shaky, Waking Up Dead is barely held together, and the closing duo of Number Line and More aren't quite as lively as the best versions of those songs. In general, this set just feels a little aimless, closer to the first sets of the early 3.0 years than the sharp ones of recent tours.

Luckily, set 2 is great throughout. Set Your Soul Free immediately launches into one of the long, wonderful effects-driven jams that have been the hallmark of summer tour so far. Twist and Scents both contain tight, thrilling explorations, and the song-selection throughout the set is impeccable.

Lizards is always a wonderful pick for the encore, and this one is played near-perfectly.

All-in-all, not the best show of the tour so far, but a really solid show that portends great things for the rest of the summer. I couldn't be more excited to see what they offer next.

While set one was more or less a let down, don't miss out on the few diamonds in the rough. Roggae had a solid jam even though it was a weird way to start a show. Runaway Jim peaks nicely and has some great playing by Page. Ocelot takes another dark turn. I really hope that Ocelot gets the type 2 treatment at some point this summer as they're really pushing the boundaries on what this song could be. BTTNL gets a lot of hate, but this song consistently has a good solo. Nothing above average here, just Trey rocking out.

Set your soul free had a great start at the Gorge and you could feel it coming. I said before that it was only a matter of time before the new songs got a huge jam, but I didn't think it would be so soon. The jam takes a deep dive right away for some dark, murky space. Around the 9 minute mark, we get a subtle major key shift and a mellow ambient jam pursues. Page starts driving this jam towards more upbeat waters and the rest of the band follows in suit. Rather than opt for a full of peak, Trey takes a funkier path and things really get dancy. The jam leading up to the 20 minute mark is just pure space funk at it's finest. This is definitely my jam of the tour so far. Twist is a great fit in this slot, but doesn't go anywhere too crazy of unheard of. Clearly some audio troubles in this Makisupa that gets even more ridiculous than usually in a funny way. I'll never complain about S&S in this spot. This song is just beautiful every time, unless it gets the treat (8/4/17), but even that version ended with a serene-ish jam. Weird spot for the Wedge but this Possum is straight ripping. You can hear Trey's smile as they break back into the song.

Too bad this first set isn't better or this would have been almost as solid as the night before. Expectations are clearly high when we are expecting the first set to contain jamming. Consider that a testament to how strong this tour has been so early on.

Overall, this show paled in comparison to the previous night.

Not much to highlight about the first set other than a surprising and pleasant opening Roggae, in which Trey sounds very good.

Tube>NICU>Runaway Jim, Horse>Silent are all standard fare. Fun but unexceptional.

Keeping It Real was a Mike debut, that was rough around the edges, but not unenjoyable.

Driver was nice to hear but did little to elevate the set before Saw It Again cranked the energy up a notch or two. Ocelot was the set highlight with a very good jam that threatened to make a move, but stayed within the confines albeit creatively.

Waking Up Dead was not super well played, BDTNL and More were fine, but neither were fantastic takes. Overall, pretty weak first set, but still a good time.

Set II was much improved, although still failed to match the previous night. Set Your Soul Free was a huge jam spanning 24 minutes and exploring some good territory from spacey funk to bliss and is well worth a listen. It resolved very nicely into a Twist that was compact and purposeful and had a nice jam.

Makisupa was fun after that pretty darn epic opening 35 minutes and they followed with SASS (no intro), which also managed to pack a solid jam into a shortish version. They dropped into the now commonplace What's the Use? which is always welcome.

The Wedge>Possum concluded the evening on a positive with solid versions of each. A Lizards encore is of course a great choice.

This show won't be anything to magical to most, but there's not much wrong with the second set, particularly the opening 35 minutes! Snag that.

Why isn't this show being rated more highly? To me, this was the best of the tour so far. Friends and I went to Tahoe and watched Gorge online. My other friends went to Gorge. We all went to BGCA both nights. 7/25 to me was the best so far, because Trey was on pretty much the whole night. BGCA 2 was his night. Not to disparage his performance on the other nights, but to me it felt like he was more present for this one. This was a raging show. I loved it.

Set I
Best "Trey looks at the ceiling" moment: Tube
Best Leo solo: NICU
Best runaway dog: Jim
Best song shout-requested by a guy in the crowd: Sing Monica
Best space jamz: Ocelot
Best Surprise jam: Waking Up Dead

Another weeknight, another show at BGA! A couple of songs (Roggae, Tube) from 4 shows ago kick off the festivities. During Tube Trey forgets the lyrics, remembers, forgets, then remembers > Trey asking for forgiveness in NICU. Cactus and Leo to the rescue! Surprised to hear it but nice version of Silent in the Morning. I love the rolling guitar. Maybe not perfect but doesn't matter because Mike was Keeping It Reel with a new debut! So the set is moving and the pace changes frequently with a setlist that keeps you guessing. If you dig that type of set 1 then you're loving the show. Driver. Ok. Saw It Again. Sure. Great lights! The crowd was re-energized. A mellow, spacy Ocelot follows that tricked me into thinking it was standard fare. I was wrong. Phish took the time to explore our headspace a bit. This is why we listen! Short, dense jam, never rushed. For me, this was the set highlight. IMHO, not one of the better set I's on this young tour.

Set II
Songs to avoid while on operating heavy machinery: Set Your Soul Free
Best bathroom break: Makisupa Policeman
Most contemplative stretch: Scents > What's the Use?

Set II begins and we get the awesome Set Your Soul Free. I love this song as a set opener. It really fits 3.0 and Trey seems to enjoy singing it. The jam was mighty and righted the big boat in a promising direction. It was steady, contemplative. The crowd swayed. I melted in my seat a bit. 24 min or so of bliss. A cool Twist (w/ mini jam) followed. Every song that followed was well-played and introspective but I can't help myself from thinking about the previous night. That show was sort of hanging over tonight. I know I'm leaving out a huge chunk of the show but (for me!) it seems like the right thing to do. I did enjoy the quiet moments in set II. I'm sure it was awesome to be in the room. Until next time!

Sometimes, you think you know wine. Then, you speak to an oenophile, and you are almost embarrassed you had an opinion. So, too, with this show. Sure, I have only been to 12 shows, (spread out over 24 years). But, then, over the past five years, this band got a hold of me in a big way. I have since listened to countless gone phishin' shows. Plus, I have the Live.Phish app, which I use daily. I have even been to some impressive shows like 8/06/17. So, it was with confidence, when I turned to my daughter/phellow-phan right after the show and said "Wow! Wasn't that the best Phish you have ever heard?!" In fact, I said "Wow" countless times throughout the second set, and, mind-you, I am a pretty sedate phan. Set one wasn't bad, and set two was mind-blowing. "Set your soul Free, has all the familiar ingredients of a good Phish show, and they already launched it into a dark jam, and pretty much kept going. Everyone on stage look energetic and happy. Wonderful, extended jams. Songs melding one into another. I could really see Trey being one with his guitar...Then, I excitedly get back to the hotel-room and log on to Phish.net, eager to see if this show will be in the vaunted 4.7 territory. Then came the early results. It's like a stock going public, opening at a disappointment 3.7! Yeah, it briefly ranged into 4.0 territory but I knew that these early returns were dismal, and here we are. Today, it's holding steady at around a 3.6. So, in short, what I thought was one of my best shows is a 3.6. I better stick with grape juice.

First and foremost, we are looking at an extremely underrated show. I was there. Night one was show show of the year at this point. And looking a jam chart versions and seeing how many are from this night, should tell us something.
This is a must hear show. Very interesting and intimate. Great playing and the energy inside the building is unreal.
Night one was a touch better, but that should take nothing away from night two.
This show, IMO is easily a 4.4 or better show.
Night one is easily 4.5 or better.

I concur with a couple other reviews that this great show is vastly underrated here. What's up with that!? Guess I need to give this one some love as my first review here:

The Roggae opener (first since '98) followed by the energized Tube > NICU > Jim trifecta were all top form. Could not have asked for a much better song sequence so early in the first set. It seems Trey has a new, resounding guitar tone that served the Roggae jam well (as it did at The Gorge), and it set the mood nicely for the show. Some of the recent NICUs have been slower and sluggish sounding to me, but this upbeat version took me back to earlier days. They were making the vocal efforts this song desperately needs to get it right. The Jim was super charged coming out of NICU. Even Phish.net notes this as having a special jam/vibe to it (the last time Jim made it to the "Jam Chart" was 2013), with a superb climax to keep this set in high gear. The Horse > Silent in the Morning was yet another old school surprise, played delicately with no flubs from what I could tell. I started to wonder, as I hung out with some good people on the balcony who appeared just as excited as I was, whether this show would potentially surpass the epicness of night one, which I also attended. (Maybe it did?)

That's when Mike dropped his new Keepin' It Real song (were they referencing the first six song classics they had just nailed?), and it appears there were mixed reactions to this one. I personally thought it had a nice forward-thrusting groove to it in the same vein as Mike's Babylon Baby, Susskind Hotel, or How Many People Are You—some good, jammed out versions of those songs are out there. Keepin' It Real could be a future jam vehicle as well, if only Type 1. Back to the tried and true goods, we get a well played Driver bust out that was likely a response to the huge Driver request sign hanging from the balcony the night before, followed by the show-friendly Saw It Again—reminding me that the last time I saw Driver live was Alpine '03!

Ocelot takes us into our first major effects-laden jam of the night, giving the song some more room to breathe and a chance to space out a bit before slowly building to its satisfying conclusion. Like the Runaway Jim as of late, this version also gets a rare inclusion in the noteworthy Jam Chart. Waking Up Dead brings us back to the Mike Zone, and I think many could have done without it given the weird vocal flubs and lackluster execution of the main body of the song. Page and Trey bring some nice interplay in the short jam portion, but it still falls flat in the end. Backwards Down the Number Line and More were standard 3.0 fare and a bit disappointing given where the set was headed earlier on, but they still both rocked as a "double-whammy" set closer. Overall, a solid first set worth coming back to, with the first half being the stronger portion.

The second set is one of the best from the West Coast leg of the tour. Set Your Soul Free has proven to be a great jam vehicle, and this 24 minute version is something to behold. It goes in several different directions, from mellow ambient grooves to some raunchy funk, followed by some ethereal spaciness. It feels fresh and innovative, without falling back on the more "typical" jamming styles. They are definitely taking us someplace this night—which evolves into a sinister Twist that hearkens back to the dark ambient jams of 2.0. Trey digs deep here with his guitar effects, especially toward the end. It was amusing that a girl wearing a "Make Phish Evil Again" hat walked by during this rendition of the song. Makisupa was a nice way of bringing us back to Earth for some mid set Phish fun before launching us back out again with an extended Scents and Subtle Sounds that departs from its delicate intro into some soaring and intense playing that could have just as well been part of a Steam jam, which is quite alright by me. While not quite hitting the kind of climactic peaks in the previous night's second set (see Carini), this show's set two jamming is all about dark ambient grooves and exploratory space, which is why it seemed highly appropriate to drop it all into the sustained drones of What's the Use?. Not always my favorite song to hear in set 2, but it works well here as part of the journey. A standard but always welcome Wedge, followed by a uniquely raging set-closing Possum, seemed like what we needed to bring the night full circle. Ending with Gamehendge's Lizards was the icing on the cake, reminding me how the BGCA run nearly began with Gamehendge as well with the much loved McGrupp as the second song. Shows like these are why I keep coming back to see Phish.

Roggae opener was a nice way to get the show going and always a welcome tune in my book. NICU and Runaway seemed to bring the energy a bit. Thought the first set was decent but nothing out of the ordinary. Keepin' It Real I thought was a bit all over the place . Driver was nice, but again, I though the entirety of the set seemed a bit all over the place and a bit aimless. Not bad but average.

2nd set I thought was very good. Set Your Soul Free was a perfect opener and everything up to Possum I thought was fantastic. One can never feel down about The Lizards encore and it was executed incredible well.

All in all a good show... At the end of the tour I would suspect this will be on the lower end of the performances but still solid and fun.

Gotta say, GREAT SHOW. The energy was slow at first but was truly amazing after Tube loosened up the crowd. Opener was great to break into the night. Tube definitely shocked me tho. First set highlights include the light show. Started off slow and then WOW. Anyone who has ever seen a light show and saw those lights must have been blown away. Jim was a real treat and the follow up with The Horse and Silent sure to come made for a nice middle chunk of funk for Keepin which apparently was a debut. Driver drove. Sweet and simple. Saw it Again kept the crowd screaming into Ocelot. Definitely had some major jam material. Nice to see that one can take any shape. Two of the newer songs sandwiched Backwards. I have been coming around to the last two albums... That being said I was looking forward to the second set!

Set Your Soul was a new one to me. I should know every tune ya?.... Twist Was Ridiculous = Fun Fun Fun! Man did the crowd get down on that tune. Gotta love "police man" harmonies... Trey is Hilarious. Never seen a SASS without the intro. That was cool. Right into it. What's the use really had trey using the reverb and feedback with that sustain. Love those tones.... The Wedge. What else can I say. We had our whole band there and it inspired us to add it to the set list!!! Love that tune. Second set ender Possum was, as usual, a toe tapper. THE LIZARDS. What else can I say. They ended with a tale and big finish. Crowd was wonderful... Loved the lights. !!!