Decent review. Being there I had a lot of things going on in my head concerning the tour, the opening show, their playing, their jamming, "horns," new songs, etc., mainly from all of the banter going on here on .net, but all of that stuff are silly things that are not worth mentioning here.

This first set was not like most first sets I've ever seen. Normally I shrug my shoulders at least once at a minimum during first set of any show, based on song selection or where they decided to take a song. I was completely beside myself for this first set. I just need to say that the extreme loudness of all the talking (coming from the FLOOR of all places yes I'm calling YOU out floor-goers) during this masterpiece of a TOUR OPENER and band debut was embarrassing. It was actually louder than the band at some points. When my wife and I finally listened to Big Boat we heard Petrichor for the first time outside of the symphony recordings, and I said to her, "these long 'Trey-alone' passages, if he hits one wrong note live or misses anything it could completely ruin the song, and if they ever play it live, and there are flubs, they won't play Petrichor much at all." Well Trey nailed it, all of it. I need a relisten, but I actually was listening intently to see if he was going to miss anything because the song is THAT impressive to me. Obviously the people in my town that showed up last night mailed in their attendance and probably missed one of the rarest things I've ever seen at a Phish show: the debut of a completely complicated song as the show and tour opener.

But the rest of the first set never wavered from the 'rage face' category (and thank you floor for raging as the set moved on). I'm normally counting on something as a distraction to reach down and grab my water bottle for a still moment. Didn't find many chances for that during this set. You can throw your hunt for a "type 2" anything out the door: the type 1 stuff these guys are throwing us lately, at least last night, was beyond much I've seen. Gin in 1st set, sure, it's a, if not THE, highlight of the 1st set. But all these songs were on point and rocked hard. Please don't think that you need to skip to the 2nd set for "phish."

Lastly, Home was just way, way too intense to see live! I knew it would be intense AF the first time I heard it. I knew it would translate live extremely well. I had NO idea that it would completely own my a$$ like no tomorrow!! I am frank and 100% honest in saying that the middle section of Home was the most intense live segment of Phish I've possibly ever seen. And I don't even know if I've ever even had to think about something like that before. But Home provided me that chance to make that judgement, and I gotta stand by it. Captivating is maybe the only other word I can use for it.

Let's all hope for more fun tonight, and hope for a smoother entry process...what a joke N. Chas Coliseum management, y'all acted like you've never put on a show before last night...