Once they played a six-minute Twist without any segue, I pretty much lost hope for the second set. Everyone and their sister knew the YEM was coming, but even that didn't convey the power necessary to close the set (though the composed sections were played quite well). Just like with Walnut Creek, a well-placed cover (Sally, not Shine a Light) aided in a small amount of 4th quarter redemption, but it was essentially too little, too late.

Summer '15 is the best tour Phish has had since, IMHO, Summer '98. But the one thing missing was "double-stop" consistency. Lakewood was the only venue, out of the five, in which they played exceptionally well both nights. MPP II was by no means bad, but it was an average show in a tour where expectations were growing exponentially by the time the band swept through The South.

I'm looking forward to Watkins Glen and Dick's to close out an historic summer.

Guys, sometimes a great show is great for other reasons, and last night was one of those shows. Of course the band can't be in the habit of acquiescing to requests, no matter how personal or heavy, but when I heard "Shine a Light" in the middle of the second set, I had a feeling something else might have been on the band's mind. Or maybe not; again, we can only speculate. But word did get to the band that a very special girl was enjoying her (likely) last show and this might have had an impact. Either way, no complaints here about last nights show at all, but of course Saturday was a tough act to follow. I thought the DWD was intense but laid back, like a good trip should be. The Stash, Bowie>Possum segment did not disappoint either. And how can you ever not leave happy when you get a Sally/YEM finale? C'mon get happy!

Transcendent.

Reading the reviews, it strikes me so clearly that we get what we give with this band. I went into this show with no expectations but to hear some incredible music played by the best band on the planet right now. They delivered the perfect show for me in the moment, and it was a beautiful spiritual experience.

Be kind everyone.

I find the reviews on this show a bit harsh. True, the first set is a bit dull; true, DwD starts with a big botch-up; true, Twist is only 6-minute long; and true, YEM lacks energy, as if the band were tired. But:

- The first set ends very well with Stash/Bowie/Possum. Bowie in particular is excellent.

- Well, ok, there's nothing especially interesting in DwD after they recover, but Slave is really nice, and Light covers some great territory, verging on atonality. I don't understand why it's not noteworthy-ed. And the segue into Twist is pretty good.

- Speaking of which, Twist is short, but it's good. And it is not aborted, it ends very beautifully.

- Shine makes for a really sweet emotional breather.

- Fuego is Fuego. Well played, although unjammed. Admittedly, that's the place in Set 2 where I would have welcomed something more.

- The -> (it is a -> !) to Sally is excellent. The funk emerges from long floating notes and it gives it a special kick. Again, this cow could have been milked a little bit more, all the more as Trey was again having a great time with echo.

- An average YEM is a good YEM. Although it still is an average YEM. (Meaning I'm trying to save that YEM and don't really succeed. The vocal jam is very fun, though.)

- BDTNL is standard.

If this is a bad show, then this is a great tour. And since this is a great tour, then this can be a bad show.

The problem with the whole concept of "never miss a sunday show" has seemed to set expectation too high for many phans. This was a tight show, that involved some heady jams in the first set. The China Cat->IKYR tease in Bowie and the Possum was full of energy. What is a better bust out than Shine A Light? and Nothing? The YEM was perfect as always. Sneakin Sally had even my sober girlfriend getting down like she just got it. It was amazing to see. So, all in all, this is a really good show on a fucking great tour. Put this show in other tours, it's one of the best. Phish delivered this year and cheers to many more!

Even the "lesser" shows of this tour have given us some good highlights and this was no exception. While the 1st set didn't rise to the level of some of the recent amazing performances, it was played with an energy level and focus that has become a hallmark of this tour. There is no need to use the term "extra mustard" with this tour, because everything has extra mustard. The closing 4 song sequence was great, and punctuated by a Bowie that should make the jam chart. I think this is the 2nd consecutive Possum where Trey and Page departed from the normal structure with the give and take jamming, and it is nice not only to infuse new creativity into some predictable songs, but to do it in a way that shows the warmth between the members. Lots of laughs and affection between the band this tour. Awww shucks.

These guys are human 50 year olds. They couldn't quite get it together the 2nd set. The highlight might be another stellar Slave. A hallowed song that had gotten a little sluggish at times the last couple years, has gotten great performances this tour, and this was another. See 1st paragraph about "extra mustard". Otherwise there were a couple nice segues, a cool bust out, and a nice antics filled YEM that played better in person than it will in playback. In another show they might have been able to rally for a monster 4th quarter after a so-so 3rd, but didn't happen tonight. A little bit of a letdown show with expectations so sky high, but nobody should be complaining after what has been gifted to us the last 3 weeks.

@raidcehlalred @Philbombs77

Just wanted to agree/disagree with you guys about the two night stands this tour. I was at both Mann shows and both MPP. I can definitely say that both Mann shows were incredible. The night 1, set 1 Martian Mannster invasion set from 8.11 is amazing and served as the highlight and appetizer for the 2nd set- which wasn't too shabby either with a nice Fuego, 46 Days > Taste, and 2001 > Sand.

Mann2 needs no explanation. Brought the house down.

Ok, onto this show. The boys were coming off the massive slugfest from the night before and showing people that you can't skip ANY show at MPP- be it the Sat or Sun show. Toyfully playing with the fans request for a Sleeping Monkey they churned out a 1st set with a decent Bowie and Stash and then a 2nd set which began with a flubbed yet hilarious DWD and then plodded along until the Sneaking > YEM finale (ala Camp Oswego 16 years & 1 month before, minus the Timber sandwich meat) had me dancing in the pit to end my 4 show run. Yes, MPP2 comes in 4 of 4 for my two Mann shows and two MPP shows, but I still enjoyed the hell outta it. 94 shows and my first Undermind was nice.

Alas, this show will go down as underrated and, in the future, overlooked. That's too bad because there's some real gems here. Yes, Saturday was barn burner and people were expecting more on Sunday. But, the Phish gave us what they could and it was nice and funky show. I've had a chance to re-listen and my thoughts haven't changed.

First, I had not seen or heard No Man's Land yet because I'd been a little too busy (lazy?) to listen to the new tunes (except for Blaze on). No Man's Land has met and exceeded expectations both here and at Magna. Sand meets Undermind meets Sing Monica? Whatever it's a keeper.

Second, Bowie. I'd read that they hadn't played Bowie at MPP before. I know I hadn't seen it there. Plus, you get the Rider transition tease. Has the Slipknot tease been mentioned? If not, it's there - closer to the beginning of the tune.

Third, Sally was awesome. But, if I had one question to ask Trey and Page, it would be "were you guys thinking of playing 2001 prior to or after Sally or no Sally just 2001." Page seemed to be heading in that direction prior to Trey beginning Sally, but then Trey himself hit upon it during Sally when they went into the jam. Good stuff. I've listened to Sally about five times and it'll be heavy in my rotation going forward.

In short, not a bad show. Yes, the boys were gassed during the second set. But they delivered.

The date of this show is my 19th phish anniversary. Yes my first show of about 15 between 1996-1999 was clifford ball.

Haven't gone to live show since the first hiatus. But still enjoy watching the live phish shows that get posted to you tube. So I thought for my anny I would buy the live phish broadcast.

Lots of good points already. A couple observations.

First set was an absolute monster. I caught a very obvious back on the train tease in Possum, that phish.net hasn't attributed to the show yet. Stash though Bowie were enormous.

That tease made me very excited for set two, given the tweezer/train/free craziness from last summer.

Alas the second set just didn't live up to the situation. This is the closing set of a summer tour, preceding a festival. Sacred ground. The band had five days till the next show they could have definitely given more to this one.

If think you replace Slave with a funk party edition of Sand, move slave to the closing spot and put YEM in the encore (ala Vernon downs 98, preceding festival last show) instead of backwards, this show is very different I think, and for the better. 4.1-4.2 territory.

I'll keep listening and enjoying.

Best of luck at magna!

@ChrisPBass: Dude, 'wasn't the best show by any stretch, but c'mon; I'll seriously take this show hands-down and twice-on-Sunday over the MAJORITY of '09, and much of '10. "Worst show of 3.0" is a bit extreme; in my personal experience, and that's all it is, when I'm getting "overly" critical, at least compared to my baseline approach to any show, (I usually gauge this by when I actually get "pissed" at the band or Trey for a ripcord or whatever, or when I'm let-down or disappointed by an effort) its more just reflective of my headspace during that first listen than any HUGE sway in the band's performance from one night to the next. Unless the reviews the following morning by all of y'all seem to agree that a show really did suck, which is a rare general-consensus around here, I can rest-assured I'll probably be pleasantly surprised upon that second listen.

Be good-

Lotta valid points already made reg'ing last night's show here, so I'll just throw this out there too:

I don't think any part of last night's effort was "phoned-in", or the band's collective heart wasn't in it.....they'z just tired, y'all. With a late start to tour this summer(because of FTW/GORDO-Tour), it may not be a ton of shows but its a lot packed into a shorter timespan. I mean, sh*t; I'm kinda beat just from COUCH TOUR! (K, so I did go to AV1&2, I guess) -I mean, at least to me, I've felt like its been a lot "busier" this tour, like I'm up 'til the wee hours on nights I shouldn't be more frequently than usual...
For like a month there, there was phresh-phish to be had almost nightly, it seemed. Where they've played more two-day stops this year instead of three, they've also played a different venue the day previous each time(i.e. OH-AV-AV), not had any two-day breaks during the weekdays like most tours(at least once along the way, anyway), and have had more one-offs than any recent tour that at least I can recall. That's a lot of change from the previous 5-6 summers of touring, and a lot of moving around and living in buses when you're 50-ish. It ain't OLD, but fahk if I ain't-even-40 and DREAD hearing my lovely rugrats coming down the hall the morning after a show, regardless that i wasn't personally in-attendance
-->Dead-Horse thoroughly beaten, I'll wrap by saying that this week bring's a much needed rest for band and phan alike, and we're all gonna be mad pumped come Friday(And besides, come-the-phuck-AWN; JUST that trifecta of Stash>Bowie>Possum alone is friggin tight, dudes)I'm usually bouncing off the walls w/ anticipation by like 3-4pm on show-nights. That's normal, right?
Peace y'all

So I got a lot of hate (lol no surprise I guess) for saying night 1 lacked trey really leading the songs. Well tonight that happened, but the jams didn't. Everything before twist was aborted was a setup for perfection. I thought set 1 killed, especially with the Golgi opener & nothing bust out (first phish song I ever heard, so happy). No men through the end was awesome, trey starting to shred just a little bit! Type 2 jamming in set 1! Down with disease jam was awesome! If it hadn't cut to slave it would have been one of the jams of the tour. Slave was good, light was deeeeep! Then...

It fell off the wheels. When twist aborted, that to me was the end of the show. The yem funk jam was cool, but overall too laid back for where the set went. If they had pushed it in the second set on dwd, light or twist is have shit my pants. This wasn't a bad show but it's not up to par with this tour and I was disappointed with set 2. This was not the way to close a tour. I know they can do better, especially trey with the jam cut offs, but this was still a phish show and I'm glad I went. This isn't a show to fluff, and I'm going to try to see more shows this year to make up for last night because it did not leave me satisfied.

I have to agree with the general feeling that this show was a letdown. As my buddy said "looks like they played tonight's show last night."

Probably, and I would still feel compelled to defend the band because:

1. you're not going to explode and top yourself every night, or at least these middle-aged men aren't going to.
2. expectations for Sunday MPP summer 2015 are honestly so high, probably too high at this point.

And yet...during the second set they didn't really sound focused or like they gave a shit, which I consider to be a concerning trend in a lot of shows from 2011 until now. They screwed up the intro to DWD. How many times have they played that? Trey wrecked some pretty simple chord changes in "shine a light" and looked pretty annoyed, presumably with himself. When you're at a show and dancing, it's easy to miss this, but with these webcasts it's much easier to see the facial expressions of each member. Trey looked pissed a lot of the night.
Twist has reached some pretty amazing heights this summer, but, like, really? here? It just seemed like an uninspired call, like 'hey we've been killing this one recently. Let's do it again!" They have so many songs, and I'm not calling for some big bust-out, but something fresher would have been nice, because this one went nowhere and the best thing about it was that the band realized it was over and moved on.
Almost by definition, not every show is going to be a really, really good one. Some nights the stars don't align and you go out and play a hard, workman-like set and grind it out. They didn't even do that tonight. I wouldn't be devastated if I'd seen this show, I wouldn't have walked out pissed, just deflated, having seen some really good performances this summer.
I've always thought Magnaball was an odd choice, since Dick's has seemed to serve as the defacto summer festival (especially for those of us not inclined to travel to an inconvenient place and camp for four days in the hot summer sun), but it sold out, so shows what I know!
I hope everyone has a fantastic time and you get to hear some great music.

The strong sun and high temperature had phans setting up shade tents in the lot, which clogged the "aisles" but led to much more mingling between groups. A beautiful Merriweather Sunday.
First set highlights include the Golgi opener, 555, a rare Nothing, the Stash and Bowie.
Second set DWD opener, and then the 'Light' sequence which really is what MPP2 was all about....Slave to the Traffic Light>Light>Twist,Shine a Light, Fuego to end the fire! A nice Sneakin' Sally, then YEM
The BDTNL was a nice choice to close the weekend.

@Philbombs77

Your greater point is accurate, but I would argue, to a degree, that both Philly shows were pretty phenomenal. Lakewood is as Lakewood was - and Trey summed that venue up for us. But if you take away the Tweezer (I know), you can at least look at Philly.

The Twist assessment is on point; it really can be a tough song in this spot (and I've forever been a fan of the tune). I really loved the Slave placement, but, as I've iterated before, (and I've loved DWD a LONG time) I don't advocate for it to jump Set II any longer. It's had a nice long run there, and could use a breather (as evinced the last couple outings).

Just my opinion; I've been at some shows where they've certainly done some interesting things with it....

This said, there was still a lot to appreciate here. Great to see another Stash before the upcoming events; it has been played well, but I'd love to see it break free. And despite some flubs, it's really, really great to see a renewed interest in Bowie.

An earlier review went with a nice series of baseball analogies. Following all that's gone down, if you consider Magna and Dick's as series, it'll be cool if the band 'wins' both. And to consider the possibility of sweeps is electrifying.

And while BDTNL is polarizing, it's a great encore to cap the run. Any time the band plays it, you know they're possessed of a reason / having fun.

For some reason my review got deleted. Just wanna say, listen to this show. At least listen to NMIML through the end of the first set and Disease through Twist. Definitely the energy sagged after that (Shine a Light and a standard Fuego with no extra jamming kind of let the air out of the balloon). But this is a very underrated show that gets lost amid all the monsters. BTW, I now think 8/15 is very overrated and that Mann 2, Walnut Creek, Cleveland, Nashville, and Atlanta 1, at the very least, all blow its doors off.

Sneaking was the only highlight to me. Listen to night 1. I went to the wrong night . . i am mildly upset but w a YEM (a decent but not stand out 1) and a GREAT Slave and great Light I have to say the Rolling Stones song is my favorite song by them. . not jumping jack flash or loving cup i really like that song and hate the Stones so that is saying something. So I got a ticket stub oh yes. . when u cant figure out what to play they see us w stubs in our hands and kick it into ACDC Bag style and get the show on the road. . oh yes. It was a FUNK night. Not a great funk night but a good one. It was like 12-29 w Run Antelope and the Set 2 amazing YEM but this YEM was just not good. . it is YEM so it is awesome but FOR YEM it sucked in relation in comparison. Undermind. . No Men. . Stash was even funky sorta and Possum w kinda funky . . YEM of course always is w some nice antics and Sneaking was the best part of the night for me but too little too late like 1 critic said. So TRUE dude. And the encore sucked almost as bad as my 2 worst encores over top this one and that was 11-29-03 Friday (and this coming from a guy uy unlike most fans i actually love the composed Guitar SOLO jam from 4 minutes on. The lyrical part is a trainwreck but on purpose according to Trey cause that is what the songs lyrics are about so it fits . . but we dont have to like it as fans lol still. So yeah that bummer of an ending (Give me a 12-28-03 (STELLAR FRIDAY w better placement mid set - If there must be one - which unlike Show of LIfe which is great as an encore if perfectly played - Friday needs to be in the middle like my 2nd fav show behind 10-29-13 (Reba and 20 Yrs Later and DWD were badass) - - DWD was only better at 2-21-03 BEST DWD EVER for me that I SAW. . .of course Rochester 12-11-97 was better and even had a reprise but i was not there to witness it being better. So yeah the Friday and Secret Smile 7-30-03 total bummer ending but what a great show though. 3rd favorite show i ever got to see was actually in 03. Hell 2 of them were in 03. 2003 was not all total shit. Listen to 2-22s Gin (OUT OF THIS WORLD) and the Piper-Weekapaug alligator mouth had me shitting my pants after i thought they just were gonna do a very rare just Mikes like late 80s to early 90s like 1993 Mikes. But I was so happily surprised. I was NOT surprised tonight by anything except another shit encore (not a bad jam but just mediocre) I wanted a Curtain With or a Esther Horse>Silent in the Morning>Sand encore woulda been tight. THey had 11 min left till curfew but Sand would not have fit. . maybe a silent into Bold as Love . I am so happy listening back to this great Simple Opener . . a SIMPLE sandwich from MPP1 to Magnaball night 1. . strange opener. . I am digging the strange setlists. Give us an Esther opener or a Lizards or MFMF or PYITE but those 2 are more expected. . maybe a Sloth scritch OH YES. . .love and peace. 8-1 is all about FUNK. . worth hearing but not worth the 170 dollars i spent on a pavillion ticket thru stubhub . . what a waste of good money arggggggggggg. . lawn next time for sure cause i never know when they will kickass and when they will just have a groovy funky laid back night all over the place like 8-16. A woman right after BDTNL asked me for a cig lighter and then how i liked the show and all i could think of in the moment was . . ummmm. . it was just all over the place. I dont know what i thought of that crap. It was all very well played but that does not cut it. I dont want well played studio phish i was ragers for 170 bucks and i got a 17 dollar 2004 level show. A 6-19-04 NOT QUITE but it was as good as 6-17 which was just kinda all over the place. Not as bad as Brooklyns night 2 crap w Jay lol and not as bad as P Funk or the BB King crap show but it was in there w the 2003-04 level crappier stuff. Give me 6-19-04 and 8-12-04 (Great show and I thought it would be my last ever - I CRIED hard leaving Camden cause I was so mad and sad and happy it was so wierd) and give me most of 2003 over this show that is how all over hte map this closer was. Definitely not a 3-1-03 or 8-16-09 granted overrated for the Harpua JON and the Chomper action. . actually underrated i take that back the show got bad reviews maybe it was all just a Harpua making it "seem" like a stellar show. . .I gotta go back and listen to 8-16 again but i think i rest my case. . not a good show and all over the place 2 set tour ender w lots of buildup lots of promise w that great Golgi Undermind Julius opener but not a great night. Bowie and Nothing were the highlights behind the clear winner SALLY my girl funky little bitch that she is . . coulda used that song after and then a Run LIke a Antelope into Dog Log INTO Runaway Jim to make it an all animal scritch w a Dog Stole Things into SLoth encore . . but i never get what i want but if i try sometimes i got what i needed in YEM and DWD and Light I LOVE the song LIGHT about conquering addiction that is so INSPIRING

I saw Saturday and Sunday. Saturday was phenomenal. Even though I wasn’t into Furry et al the energy was fantastic. Sat was just a killer show. Sunday was extremely disappointing. That is the worse 3.0 show I’ve seen by a wide margin. 1st set bored me to tears. Even the good stuff just seemed to hit a low ceiling. As for the 2nd set did they not simply *stop* Sally during the jam? I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen a band do that. It just petered out.
Was psyched to hear Fuego, among others, but………..low ceiling.
I also thought the show was really quiet w/not a lot of low end. Mike was definitely in the mix but it didn’t have the low end of Saturday night. I was sitting in the exact same spot as Sat.
Just so y’all know I’m not some dude peeing on the boys…I thought Saturday was an excellent show. I’ve only seen 10 shows since 3.0 but ALL the shows have been good. Some better than others but this one…. I’ll have to listen back.
I think the fact that Twist and Sally just *ended* like some high school garage band was doing them says it all.