Excellent recap of an excellent show. This has been an interesting tour for a number of reasons, not least of which is the overarching conversation going on within the fanbase.

I find the apoplectic tone of the discussion surrounding this tour to be very strange. Sure, this tour hasn't quite scaled the lofty heights set by Summer 2015, surely one of the best tours in the band's storied career. But there have been what I believe to be some excellent performances. The band are clearly having a lot of fun on stage, and I find so many fans' declarations of "there's a rift in the band" or "maybe they need to know when to stop" or "they're not getting along anymore" to be nothing more than pure speculation and projection. If you remember, Summer 2011 and Fall 2014 weren't the best tours in terms of consistency and risk-taking, but they still had some jams for the record books. These guys are in their 50's and Phish isn't their whole life anymore. They could have come back in 2009, played a few jam-less greatest hits stadium shows and called it a day, but they didn't. They're about to release their third new album since the reunion (fourth if you count Party Time), they've continued to take old favorites in new directions, they've played some of the best shows of their career, and they are visibly enjoying being together again.

They aren't playing 150+ shows per year anymore, so not every show is going to be absolutely electrifying to those of us who remember the "good old days." But if you accept this fact and enjoy Phish for what they are now, instead of pining for the 90's which are never coming back, it's a much more peaceful existence. By all means, call a bad show a bad show. LA wasn't great. But neither was 10/22/13, and that fall tour was amazing. Last summer was legendary, but that Austin show sure wasn't. Every year and every tour has its duds. This is nothing new. It doesn't mean something's wrong with the band and they hate each other and they're breaking up. Remember Coventry? As long as they don't return to that, we're in good shape.

Frankie Says "relax..."