The first set felt stunningly commonplace up until Stash. The Stash - Bowie - Possum segment was my favorite 35-40 consecutive minutes of a first set in quite some time.

I don't know if I have ever had feelings so mixed about a performance of a song as I do with last nights Slave.

The transition into it was flawless, the jam section was devestatingly great. But it immediately induced a feeling of "shows ending" melancholy that put me in a weird spot for the rest of the night. Strange having a song ruin your night while simultaneously getting you really excited on an intellectual level.

The Light jam was the other set 2 standout, and I can see why Fish was mad. Percussive and synthy, it was early unique and dark. Perfect way to shock us out of the malaise. Then a great segue into Twist made things weird again, but with how Twist has been, it was hard not to get excited. I don't have a problem with short genius jams that latch on to a perfect segue and then keep the show moving. Especially when the song they're slipping into is the tour MVP.
Unfortunately the Twist was plagued by communication issues, and they killed it as quick as it started. Shine A Light was surprisingly welcome from my perspective.

Was the band saying something about the floodlights illuminating the lawn at setbreak levels the entire show? DWD with the lawn reference, and then 3 of the next 4 songs have light in the title, and the other one is about Twisting. Maybe twisting a dial? Its terrible how much a bunch of floodlights can murder the collective experience. People were miserable about the lights and with good reason. I didn't even know the band had come back out because the ambient light didnt change at all. Gross.

YEM and Number Line were both a ton of fun. Maybe I defend Number Line a bit too much, but as far as joyful encore/late set 2 solo songs go, they're playing Number Line significantly better than your Juliuses and Loving Cups.

Just one of those things where the difference between the Internet and reality is so incredibly stark. Internet is super negative about the Number Line, the show crowds love it. The Internet would make you think Phish fans only care about deep type II improv, in reality, vets and noobs alike talked all through the psychedelic improv and gave rapt attention to the Possum lyrics segment,

Can't wait to hear Stash, Bowie, DWD-> Slave, Light-> Twist and Possum. I hope I can stand by my assessment of the last 3 first set songs as major highlights from the last 15-16 years of those tunes.