I love SPAC.

The lawn, the lot. The park, the palace. The people. It’s a homecoming, almost as regular on the 3.0 schedule as Dick’s. It’s a thing. The only time we don’t get SPAC is when there’s a festival, and that is wholly forgivable.

It wasn’t always that way. This is a 3.0 tour development. Prior to this run, Phish had played here 17 times -- 16 headliners and an opener for Santana -- but only thrice in 1.0. Our more-or-less annual independence jaunt to ‘Toga is a new staple on the calendar, relatively speaking. The toney town might not have worked for us in the mid-to-late ‘90s. Or, more likely, the stop did not make sense if we were annually festivaling in the region. But for now, this is a town with not only a pool and a pond, but also springs, and a spa. And in recent years, our traveling contingent has been warmly welcomed to whichever of the above we can afford.

SPAC has had its share of highlights over the years. The massive “DWD” -> “Free” in ‘95 and the whole damn 2004 run stand out, but in recent years, while there have been some memorable moments every stand, most would sooner associate “solid run, awesome fun” than “holy cow the SPAC xxx” with the events of the past five out of seven years. But enough backstory -- you can get all that and more in The Phish Companion, 3rd Edition. Let’s talk about now.

I want to describe the first set as hot garbage. But I can’t. The sound was more of a tepid, muddled, pukey stew from our spot in the balcony. A flaccid “Stealing Time From the Faulty Plan” opener took us collectively from midnight to six, and perfunctory runs through a bunch of staples fought to keep the crowd engaged. The “Cities,” “David Bowie,” “Free” sequence looks like it should move the needle on paper, but in reality barely did. I’m pretty sure Fishman was killing it for stretches of “Bowie,” but I can’t confirm -- again, the sound was mush. Felt like I was listening to a boomy 3rd gen ‘99 AUD of the show.

Things crystallized and grooved a little after that, but let’s just stipulate that when “Halfway to the Moon,” “New Song,” “Waiting All Night” is the part of the set that gets things moving, you have issues, and you start to primarily appreciate the environment, your friends, the fact that nobody has stubbed into your spot, etc. For the record, “New Song”, AKA “Let’s Go” is awesome. Sounds like a Bruce Hornsby tune -- maybe something off Spirit Trail.

The new lights are cool as shit. I’m generally much more concerned with and cognizant about what is going in my earholes than my eyeholes at a show, but this was the kind of set where I took notice of whatever else was going on around me. The screens are a bold and very welcome departure from what we’re used to -- subdued and atmospheric, as compared to a bazillion technicolor watts flashing at you.

“Golgi Apparatus” started, and it was like a welcome to us all. Some old school, prototypical tension and release. It seemed like the first song of the run -- a departure from the first set to end all first sets. We headed out of the balcony through “Squirming Coil” and I the sound was orders of magnitude better literally every step of the way, including in the bathroom, than where we were in the balcony. We resolved to find our friends on the lawn for the second set.

And that we did, dead center. When “Sand” kicked in there was a palpable relief -- like something might happen here. And it did.

Sometimes it seems like Phish can flip a switch. I’ve caught this phenomenon a good handful of times and often wondered how they can straight from 0 to 11? Is it intentional? Why don’t they do it all the time? I have no idea, but that’s what happened. Game on for SPAC, and game on for summer 2016.

“Sand” > “Carini” > “Chalk Dust Torture” is the stuff Phish dreams are made of. Trey stepped up and decided to play assertively. That doesn’t necessarily mean a million notes per second, but rather, masterfully manipulating the Echoplex and effects to bounce sound waves off his bandmates and all of us. The rhythmic echoes deep in “CDT” are a Phish, and a music, that I haven’t heard before. And I love it. But let’s blend some old with the new -- they somehow land near the Camden ‘99 “Chalkdust.” Again, is this intentional? Have they decided to jam on their own jams, or did they just meander over to one of their pantheon soundscapes? I don’t know, I’m not behind the curtain.

The run from “Prince Caspian” through “Sleeping Monkey” looks atrocious in a second set, for those that prejudge such things. But again, I’m here, reviewing from the ground. And we were so deep into gravy territory that I’m pretty sure it was phenomenal. Re-listens will tell. They packed a metric assload of “2001” into six minutes, and then Trey absolutely let rip on “Fire.”

Phish seems once again to be playing a type of music that maybe “they haven’t quite invented yet” and I love the process and the ride, detours along the way, warts and all. Some bands, you want to catch on their first night of a tour or run. They blow out a pent up energy, but don’t have a ton to add after that. Phish is not that band..

I think and hope they dropped it into gear last night. Let’s get this show on the road.

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