Chicago On Fire: UIC Review, Night One

   Phish absolutely destroyed the UIC Pavilion last night. Absolutely destroyed it. From the first note of Back On The Train to the last sweaty, fucking exhausted note of Hood at the end of the EPIC five-song encore Phish blasted every note, shook every seat, drained every ounce of water from every single pore in the place, exhausted vending supplies, and ripped the heart out of every single person in the building. The encore was so epic I thought we were being held hostage...ahh, in a good way. Bad analogy. You get the point. It was bananas. This show will be talked about in 10 years. As in, "Were you at that UIC show in 2011? You know, the indoor show in 90 degree Chicago in the middle of August?" Yeah, we were there. And we're lucky we made it out to tell the tale. Last night was on a different level. There's been a lot of talk about "types" lately in reference to jamming, etc. So much so that 2011 MVP Cacto "Soft G" Gordon (by the way, where the fuck are the Micheal Gordon shirts in Chicago?!?!?!) has dialed in his opinion. So if Type-II is "you can't really recognize the song anymore because the jam is getting so deep" then I'll categorize Chicago 1 as Type-What The Fuck? And that was the entire Second Set. OK, I'm getting  ahead of myself.

   Chicago is awesome. It's like New York with way less people and no attitude. Beautiful buildings, great food, great bars, even sicky hotels. The cab rides are relatively cheap and the walks are relatively short. The rivers at least look clean and the people seem genuinely friendly. Locals, am I getting this right? The lot was poppin', kind of. Most of the normal lot kids were selling their great food, and the cops and security seemed pretty cool. Security getting into the building was a fucking joke, but that could have just been our toolish 19-year-old security guy. He was emptying out people's cigarette packs...literally...one by one. Once we got into the show the energy was building by the second. People packed into the smallish venue, which seemed oversold. It was fucking sweaty. It was like being in a cave, except the cave was 90 degrees. If the show wasn't one of the sickest shows I've ever seen, it would have been unbearable. But it was bearable...how could it not be:

Set I: Back on the Train (8:16), Rift (5:55) > Guelah Papyrus (6:37), Scent of a Mule (7:22), Jesus Just Left Chicago (8:06), Wolfman's Brother (13:24), Anything But Me (5:40), Babylon Baby (6:50), Reba (12:15), Alumni Blues (3:42) > Letter to Jimmy Page (0:56) > Alumni Blues (3:42)

   It was on from the first note of BOTT. Thick, groovy, sick. Rift followed and > an INSANE Guelah Papyrus. A standard Scent followed before a most appropriate Jesus Just Left Chicago. The Wolfman's of late continue to rage. The first Anything But Me since SPAC '09 followed before the debut of Gordon's Babylon Baby. SICK. A pretty standard but still sick Reba followed before some college venue inspired Alumni Blues > Letters To Jimmy Page > Alumni Blues blew the roof off the place. I wish, it would have been a lot cooler inside. The First Set was unreal and it was just the beginning. And I can't stress that enough.

Set II: Sand (12:36) > Light (10:25) > Dirt (4:24), Waves (12:09) > Undermind (13:06) > Steam (8:10) > Fire (8:05)

   It got murky right off the bat in the Second Set with Sand, which blasted > another insane Light before the boys slowed it down and > Dirt, a mesmerizing version. Waves lifted off before slowing to a near stop after a crazy jam, just to blast right back into an even SICKER jam. AHHHHHH!!!! Waves and Sick Jam went right > the best Undermind any of us have heard in A LONG TIME. All of this craziness went directly > STEAM AND IT WAS FUCKING STEAMY AS FUCK! HOLY SHIT THIS SHIT WAS EPIC!! The hot Steam turned > Fire, which about summed it all up. Absolute FIRE.

E: Camel Walk (5:02), Guyute (10:10), The Horse (1:18) > Silent (5:22), Hood (14:57)

   Can you see this encore? I'm leaving it at that. We're headed to the UIC right now and I'm not sure if I can even say more about this show. Download it...listen to it...melt. End of story.

- Trigger Treinta Uno

Trigger31.com

Thanks to Phish.net & LivePhish for the set list help.