Wonderfully fun show, though a bit lite for June '04 in retrospect. The band's enthusiasm and affection are palpable from the start. If you like Phish of a 2003-04 vintage, certainly buy 'Live in Brooklyn' (for the crystal-clear audio if nothing else), but the deep cuts don't really start until the tour hits SPAC on the 19th. 46 Days > Possum is all strutting cock rock with a letter-perfect segue, Suzy heads out from clav-driven dance madness to 2004-standard uptempo haze, and Moma > Free is *spectacular*; hell, even 2001 gets a zippy dance workout; the show really does deserve its status as an official album release. But nothing here has the underground-cavern vibe that set in at SPAC (cf. the 6/20 version of Seven Below), and if you like your Phish deepwater dark and fathoms below sea level, this show will seem a touch inadequate.

But if it needs saying: this is a better-than-average Phish show, which is to say very few rock bands can do what this band does, on this night, without so much as breaking a sweat.

The first show after the announcement of Phish's impending breakup was eagerly anticipated by the fanbase. Would Trey reference the letter in words or in music? What would the band's chemistry be like? Truthfully, there were few signs musically that the band was running out of gas. Thanks to limited access to the general-admission field, we were able to park ourselves 30-40 feet back from center-stage and have plenty of room to dance.

ASIHTOS sounded like it could go deep early, but it was really a taste of where this song would go in the future. Dinner and a Movie was the appropriate and predictable call for the simulcast, while the Curtain With (first since Vegas 2000) was an obvious statement song ("Please, we have no regrets") that was quite pleasant, especially in light of the debacle that the song was at Coventry. Moma>Free is pure beauty and funkiness, while the rain began to fall during Nothing. Maze had us screaming "You'll never get out of this rain" as we were soaked to the skin.

46 Days>Possum showed off a beautiful segue and Suzy sounded at the time it might be the final-ever version (which it wasn't, of course). The second set was fun and danceable, but my favorite part of Weekapaugh was the brief Main Street hint. The clearing sky inspired the encore, which was welcome but botched. The Moma>Free and 46 Days>Possum are worth watching and hearing, but the jamming doesn't reach the heights of the SPAC.

Moma Dance is unfinished.

Things other reviewers have not mentioned....

*Very smooth segue from 46 Days->Possum
*18 minute Suzy with Reprise Jam. Straight funk (reminiscent of the 9/14/2000 Suzy) until about the 10:20 mark and then things take a turn for the nasty. Typical 2.0 dark jam sound.
11:40 Fishman starts this open hi-hat beat and Trey lays some nasty distorted chords and the jam kicks into high gear, very dark sound. Trey does some wanky oxy-chords but Fish and Mike never stop driving the jam. Eventually at 16:00 Trey explodes with rhythm, classic two chord vamp, and the jam comes full circle before eventually fizzling out (17:15 Trey does some weird stuff, they seem to get disjointed and fall off) but you can tell they are wanting to rage, hence following it up with a killer Axilla.