Um, "Fuego" is not universally loved. It's a painfully awkward mishmash of a song with godawful lyrics. As for the album being generally well-received, I guess that's possible. It only goes to show how old, out-of-touch and complacent the fanbase has become, if so. I think it's funny that Phish played all of the tolerable cuts from the album for the first night. All the Fuego songs not played last night are embarrassing examples of a songwriter who's out of ideas yet surrounded by sycophants encouraging him to keep at it for fear that he might start doing drugs if his ego gets bruised. Of course that's purely conjecture; maybe everyone Trey hangs out with is also clueless and thinks "Winterqueen" and "Wombat" are awesome. Either way, very sad. Hard to be optimistic about the future of a band that would admit to having written those songs, let alone have the bad judgment to put them on an album.

But the show certainly leaves room for optimism. Trey's not relying on his gadgets for every interesting bit of guitar playing. He's very shaky and timid for the first half of set one by by "Stash" he seems to have regained his mojo. It's admittedly disappointing to get yet another go-nowhere "Mike's", clunky non-segue into "Simple" and drab, lifeless "Free". But "Ghost" showcases some real attempts to connect between all the guys, and the segue into "Weekapaug" is superb, and "Hood" is absolute brilliance. Enough to make me take a couple extra vacation days off work right there. Stoked.