[This recap is courtesy of user @mikh2wg Rob Hammel. Recaps of shows strictly reflect the opinions of the authors and not necessarily the opinions of any of the volunteers who manage and post content to this website. -Ed.]

The Hampton Coliseum is one of my favorite venues. It’s kind of my hometown spot. Richmond doesn’t have an arena. I’ve been seeing shows at the Mothership since I won tickets to an Aerosmith show on the radio in 1993. The design, the vibe, the lack of advertising… The fact that I drove down 64 over and over again as a kid to visit my mom’s parents and the Collamusem (Coliseum is a hard word for a kid) was one of the major landmarks of the trip. It meant we were about ⅔ of the way there. This building has been an important part of my life ever since I can remember. It’s very exciting when I get to see a show here.

My sister bought a house in Norfolk just three weeks ago. She’s letting me stay here for the weekend. It’s a pretty great spot. We walked around and explored the neighborhood a bit this morning. Saw a slim, elegant egret who bellowed at us with the voice of a dinosaur. We played Palace (we call it Crackhouse) and I won four hands! The cards were with me. I headed over to the dot net meetup around 4pm.

Great times at the meetup, all thanks to great organization. Ate a hotdog, played some cornhole. My winning streak continued. Until it was time to go in.

One not great thing about Hampton is that there’s only one door. The line, or huge mass of waiting folks, took about an hour yesterday. Today it was closer to 90 minutes. Spirits were high in line and we chatted excitedly with our neighbors. We got in at 7:40 and our plans to sit in a big group in front of the stage evaporated. We split up and managed to find a few stray seats just before the lights went down.

“Boogie on Reggae Woman” and “Undermind” started us off. A pair of quite different songs serving a similar purpose. One reggae, one blues. One a cover, one an original. Both a nice mid tempo groove and great opportunity to get the blood flowing. Stretch the hammies as @aphishianado says. [Editor's Note: This was the first time BORW opened a show. -Ed.]

“Bouncin around the Room” came next. I was not sure about the placement here but "Bouncin" is always pretty and it's not too long. After that long wait in line, I took the opportunity to rest my feet.

Then we were ready to go Type II for the first time of the evening. “Birds of a Feather” brought soaring psychedelica once it rolled into the major key. Trey was using these long, sustained notes to build momentum. Then Page led us into a driving rock section. At the peak, they created a fusion of the two ideas with Trey screeching out the sustained notes over Page's rock stomp. They did go back into Birds at the end, but Page and Trey did a nice little chord riff as a bridge to keep the energy up. So it was a smooth return and a rocking ending.

At the very end of “Esther” Mike and Fish struggled to find the groove a bit but it was an otherwise well played version. Spooky and haunting in all the right places.

“Funky Bitch” featured some good ol’ rock and roll wailing. Mike put extra mustard on lyrics to take us out on the sidewalk as we yelled at that low down dirty…

“It's Ice” had a little flub going into the breakdown and it was not the amazing, stretched out version where it finally realized it's full potential. But still alright.

“Ether Edge” was a low and slow build. Page and Trey developed this one melody all through the back half, trading it back and forth, harmonizing, elaborating. It also went back to a little outro but it was only an instrumental tag. Not as effective as the return in Birds of a Feather, I thought.

“Moonage Daydream” gave us the moment of catharsis at the end as we all screamed and waved our hands together. Good first set with some rarities and some strong playing. At setbreak I mostly took notes for this review. Seems like that strategy paid off. How am I making out so far?

“Everything’s Right” kicked off the second set. The jam sounded menacing and ominous like the theme song for someone who steals your lunch money.. It didn’t last long before we rode a smooth segue into "Simple."

“Simple” started with something that sounded a little bit like the beginning of Baba O'Reilly. Then it began a slow, plodding swampy jam that was a little bit like a fishier version of "Jesus Just Left Chicago." The jam shambled along like that for a bit and came to a medium-sized peak before we slid over to…

“A Wave of Hope.” This one brought the energy up temporarily but when the jam started the band members opened up a lot of space for each other and moved into an Airy major key lilting sort of a thing. We floated along on the backs of dandelions here before we went back to “Simple.”

In the "Simple" reprise Trey did some really cool noodling around the riff. He explored it and developed it in different ways I hadn’t heard before.

“Beneath a Sea of Stars Part I” was a weird choice for me here. I was wanting something funky or something dancier. This really seemed to bring the energy down. My friend said it was a welcome rest song and we all had a nice break in our chairs. Musically, Mike kept a pedal point going while the rest of the band noodled. It got really dissonant and scary for a little while and then there was a nice, smooth segue into “Gotta Jibboo.”

"Jibboo" was a breezy type I version but it did give me the funky dance tune that I was looking for. Then we got a pair of set closers. “Suzy Greenberg” and “Julius” both rocked really hard with Page especially standing out in both songs and the rocking continued in the encore with “Izabella” and “Possum". I was getting tired and hungry at this point so I enjoyed the encore from the concourse. I was happy to see the York High School Band Boosters were still selling snacks. I munched some chicken poppers and pumped my fist along with the crowd.

Overall, this was a more groovy, down tempo night than Friday. Slow and low. Not my preferred kind of Phish, but maybe it’s yours. I would have preferred for the energy to go a little higher in the second set, but I really enjoyed "Ether Edge" and "Simple."

On the way out we walked down one of the beautiful, sweeping ramps on the side of the Collamuseum. One of the features I’ve seen countless times from the car as we sped down 64 on the way to Grandmas. Two thirds there. There’s something special about being in a building this well designed. Seeing the beauty of the structure that’s supporting you in every strut and curve. Without the advertising or premium boxes cluttering the view, Hampton functions only as a place to gather. Even when it’s not my favorite show I’ve ever seen, it’s still exciting to be in the room.

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