Oh and Avelnu Malkenu spurred me to start going to temple again.

Alright so this is my fourth show of the tour and total show count way too many to remember. ive never done a review. but here goes.

SET 1: Alumni Blues was a good energetic opener. Well played as everything almost is with 3.0. Sadly TMWSIY>AM>TMWSIY was RUINED by the audience around talking through the entire song. this was a recurring theme of the show Ill talk about later. Mike was great in kill devil falls, set took off during intro to Moma Dance which was funky as ever, song was well played. Gumbo sounded much better than when I heard it in AC. Now Bowie..what is going on trey..this is the second time this tour Ive seen Bowie, and the jam has started to get great, and then Trey smothers it by rushing into the outro. Good besides the rush. Alaska had the longest non set break bathroom crowd ive ever seen. Suskind had some interesting improv, then the obvious fishman antics to end the set which truly need no recap besides WOW purple rain Id never thought Id hear it.
SET 2: This set started off nothing short of great, on par with the rest of the tour. Boogie on up through Rock N Roll should be sought out by anyone who loves this summers jamming style. Tweezer was excellent, My dad though he heard teases of "The Wheel" by Grateful Dead in the Twist jam and while its hard to tell, the jam did seem slightly dead-esque to me (which was great). Taste had some different, interesting improv and Ive never really heard a version like this.
Now where it went wrong and why many will not like this show or bash it. I love horse and silent, and understand the band may need a breather, but it was just an awful choice after how great rock and roll was. You could feel the band and audience deflating during Silent and they never really regained the energy. This Hood, to me, explained why they havent finished that song alot this tour. The "feel good about hood" vocals at the end seem uninspired as if the band didn't really want to sing them. Shine a Light would have been tolerable, and was played quite well, but Show of life...what can I say. If the band felt the need to play a ballad I could have thought about ten others Id rather hear (If i Could, Lifeboy?) and at that point not even the moon coming out over the water during Slave could save the deflation that started with Silent.

Encore was ehh. after seeing the storage jam at super ball I really can never hear Sleeping Monkey the same again as all other versions pale in comparision. and Tweeprise, of course rocked.

Overall I give this show a 3.75 because everything was played excellent, but some problems that are typical of 3.0 were revealed..poor late 2nd set song choices, and certain jams just cut too short seemingly by Trey pushing a segue. Overall still a great time as always.

SIDE NOTE: Ive never seen an audience as disrespectful as this one. Whenever the band wasn't playing loud, EVERYONE around me was talking, and not even talking about the band or music, just bullshitting. Multiple times I yelled "shut the fuck up"(and im not much of a yeller) because people were talking over the music (especially during TMWSIY) and I couldnt hear the band well. Honestly Ive never been so appalled at how little the people around me seemed to care about the music. IF you want to talk and catch up with your friends, get the FUCK out of the concert.

What a spectacular show. I'll admit, I was center pit, two heads back (shout out to @Jayanastasio), and my enjoyment was chemically enhanced...but DAMN! That was a hot show. The energy was palpable and the boys showed a flow and determination the likes of which we seldom get to see.

I wouldn't change anything about that first set. Set I of the year so far. From set II I would only lift out The Horse>Silent and TSoL. And even then, gently, with a delicately fingered crane, the kind you see in the arcade game...only more gentle.

Really, the whole show was impeccable. Everything was well played (to my live ears anyway). The Tweezer>Twist>Taste is my nominee for jam of the summer or stretch of the summer or whatever. Topping even the previous night's Sand->Golden Age. Such patience and communication from all 4 guys. Get this show, get to SPAC, get webcasts...do whatever you gotta do to see this band now!

Also, Head Held High AND Hold Your Head Up in the same set?!? No slouching for these guys on this night. Tucking and head holding go hand in hand, it seems.

WOW !!! EPIC !!!! WOW !!!!
So happy to see alumni-letter-alumni THEN man-avenu-man
sooo f--n cool to see a band who does not ignore their past and yet does not wallow in it show after show either.. now lets add in two hotel songs, and and head songs all in one set, wow phish you came up with a set list masterpiece of brain tuck material !!!! ya lets toss in a bowie and prince just for the hell of it to boot...

And if someone complains about horse-silent I am gonna kick your...well ok not really but I have to say I LOVE SILENT in the morning its soooo beautiful, I sing it sometimes to myself, its just a really lovely song..

@harpua ... that sucks that ppl were talking so much during MWSIY>avenue malk, i've been waiting for that all tour and missed it...i guess some don't understand how special that is...maybe as they keep listening they will

was there not a Push on 'til the day tease durring the latter part of the boogie on jam?

i could have sworn i heard a funky bitch tease at the end of alumni blues (outro). no?

so playing 2 hotel songs and 2 heads held is impressive? cool.

For me this show was a definite letdown, I hope this trend of 33 songs and hardly and risk taking and jamming doesn't carry over to spac. Everything was pretty straightforward except the twist. The twist was definitely a highlight but at the same time cut way way tooo short. Suskind was another standout which occured during the first set. Overall after the prior throwdowns this tour the boys set the bar high. And hate to say imho fell very short of it last evening. Hope they read this and bring out a couple 5 song second sets at spac hehe. I can dream.

phish is not a coverband!

I only watched part of the show from my couch. I will not rate the show, but the end of the show did not do much for me. I was sort of let down that they did not rage on RnR. Page started playing on the clav, I think, and then Trey just turned his guitar off and started getting tuned for the next song. The segue from RnR to Horse was nice, but was hoping for a little bust out session. And then everything else seemed textbook. I do not like tSoL. So perhaps that tainted the second half of the second set. Maybe I am being to harsh.

Just wanted to point out that I don't think I've ever seen horse sung over piano only -- and it didn't seem like Trey forgot how to play it, but had told Page he wanted to do this.
TMWSIY was awesome -- but between the description of the crowd & the second set after the T-trifecta, I'm glad to have caught this one on the couch!

From my perspective in the Orchestra on Fishman side, TMWSIY> Avenu Malkenu> TMWSIY was the highlight... Then again, that was my first Avenu Malkenu and being a Jew who has to say that prayer every time he goes to Temple, that was really something special!

Great show, great time, great run... I did a pair of JB shows in '09 and again in '10, and was sad the venue was passed over in 2011 (damned jumper!), so I took both those shows as a grand return... Welcome back boys!

That being said, I didn't love set 2 on the 4th. It had some GREAT highlights, but Silent in the Morning/Show of Life/Slave to the Traffic Light all were a tad dull. Following the rage party the night before and the grandiosity of set 1, it was all good though... Did a lot of thinking during that set (mushrooms help) and just had a very life affirming journey as a whole over those two nights! Sad to miss SPAC (family wedding) but looking forward to San Fran in August.

Is it too bold a statement for me to declare that Summer 2012 as a whole has been the best tour since '97? Josh says no.

Harpua1214
I have had numerous instances where people have talked loudly or just been plain rude. I have been seeing shows since 98 and I have never had this problem as badly or as much as this year.

What to say....hmmm. Stoked to trust my spirits on this venue. WELL BALANCED! Nice, nice, nice opener. Love it when i hear new things and when i get the chance to see the antics of the artist formerly known as prince? Awesome. Nice touch on the STAR SPANGLED BANNER ...really liked the echo. Boogie On with Mile mikes touch couldn't have been better! Thnx. Twist was different and it just didn't seem like the crowd was the same, or the song as i remember it from 99? Ohh well..hope it comes back. Julius is one of my favorites. And who don't like tweezer and Hood. NOT ME. Great show. Page on slave...next time give it to us.

Um, how did my previous comment get a -1??? C'mon guys... Must we drool over every song in every show to comment? Please, get over it.

The 4th of July at Jones Beach.... ahhhh nostalgia but all joking aside, this was my favorite first set that I saw this whole tour, mainly in part because of the opening sequence being extremely old school with Alumni Blues>LTJP>Alumni, Head Held High bustout (god I hope they bust that one out again a la Skin It Back) into TMWSIY>Avenu Malcanu>TMWSIY. TMWSIY is one of my all-time favorite Phish songs, I compare it to YEM as one of the quintessential Phish songs. Not too mention that this rendition of this extremely old school Phish song was nailed. After such an amazing start to the show, a run through KDF proved to be standard which in turn, turned into a standard Bittersweet Motel. Guess that one was sort of a bust out, not played since 09. Not gonna lie though, since this 1st leg was my first real tour and having caught the monster Burgettstown show, this Bittersweet Motel gained novelty points for its halfway between eerie and Pittsburgh line. First dose of funk for this show comes in the form of a standardly-awesome Moma Dance. Gumbo got a lot of play on this first leg of 2012, but all versions were performed damn near flawlessly. This is one of them. Gumbo was followed by a rare mid-set David Bowie, which was truly a raging Bowie. From what I remember, they tore this Bowie a new asshole! Trey particularly was on during this awesome-average version of Bowie. Bowie went into Alaska. They played Alaska at the Riverbend bustout heavy show too, but I had to run and fill up a water bottle and take a quick whiz at the Riverbend show. So this was my first time actually watching them play this, gotta say that even though I had a head full of some amazing fluff, I was put on board the Alaska train with this reading. Trey particulary was on fire. Susskind Hotel, yes! I was really hoping I'd see this one during the tour. I can officially say that I have been at every single performance of this song. Good quirky Mike tune that always reminds me I'd much rather see MGB than TAB any day of the week. Very climatic version of Susskind lead into the end of the set pretty much. Fishman antics with HYHU (complete with vaccuum) into a Purple Rain Bustout!?!? HAHA wow, picked the right night to drop some L and surrender to the flow. Pure madness, and it was this time I learned of the tucking joke. Followed by the Fishman part of the first set, we get a lovely reading of our great nations national anthem. Gotta love the America reference on the 4th of July, expected, but yet still absolutely amazing how in touch these guys are with everything around us. Amazing first set, one for the 2012 books IMHO.

I wanted to write my review of the first set only, but what I will say about the second set is that yeah, towards the end they kind of petered out with several ballads, but with a short but nonetheless triumphant Hood, and haunting Slave complete with a full moon coming out during the slow build up and peak. Now that was awesome sauce and a highlight of the whole tour, along with the TMWSIY>Avenu>TMWSIY in the first set. At the time it was going on, my tour buddy Eric said that this was the most interesting Tweezer jam that we'd seen on this tour yet, but it was unfortunately abandoned for Twist, which had been a monster on this tour (c.f. Riverbend 2012 and even Bader Field Piper>Twist) But the twist, like Tweezer, just didn't lift off very much. Over all, the botched Taste doesn't help this shows ranking at all. But on this night, this didn't bother me. Also loved the attempt to re-up the energy with a Rock and Roll that had potential to go type-2, but Trey went for the straight-ahead rock type 1 jam, nothing wrong with that though.

This was the first show that me and my massive tour crew of 6 (10 from AC to Alpine, only 6 of us went to NY after Alpine) got to all see a show together since the AC shows where it was all GA, and we all had heads full of fluff. We were at the very top, dead center, front row. Great sound and seats. So this show is one of my favorites not just because of the music, but also because of set and setting. I love this show, I love all of you, and I'm so excited to be at the first 2 nights of MSG this year. Anyway, sorry for getting off track, but this show I guess gets the appropriate rating music wise, but all around show wise this was easily a 5-star show for me, which I rated it. I hope they play the 4th of July there again this year, or maybe back to the good ol' Watkins Glen

Side note: the next show (7/6 SPAC) I LOL'D when they brought back the Friar Tuck. God this band is having so much fun right now, I can't wait to see whats in store for us at the Garden!