1) you are entitled to your opinion of course, but I have a hard time with your mindset that this was a show that needed "saving" because it was "drowning." If you are so jaded that you're the type that is only excited by them playing something like Harpua>Slave>YEM every night followed by a second set Gamehendge then you should just put down your pen and stop going to shows. This one was a gem by every stretch of the imagination. Multiple highlights, succinct jams, great tone, awesome audience vibe, fantastic musicianship and let's not forget the fact that the light show has never been better than its current state in the 30+ year history of Phish. I keep no count of how many shows i've been to, but I was there for 12/31/95 and 12/30/94 and countless other MSG shows. I can tell you that you might be the only fan who left unhappy last night.

2) Trey flubbed a guitar part once or twice, get over it - the man is human and played music non-stop without looking at a chart for 2.5 hours. He might have played 500,000 notes last night, maybe 3 million, I don't know. So if 5 or 6 were wrong, who cares.

3) the band was loose and having fun, trading smiles all night - this always makes for good music. After 30 years, they still find ways to keep the shows interesting, whether its an a capella opener, improved light show, or by playing 4 songs that havn't been played in almost 200 shows. The fact that their repitoire is as deep as it currently is and they played over 250 different unique songs this year alone is probably more songs than any 5 bands combined will play over the course of the same period. Think about that for a second.

4) People need to have realistic expectations from these 4 guys. Just go and listen to the music, relax, and forget about rankings, stats, "good" "average-good" 2.0, 3.0 Type I jams, and all the other BS terms that get thrown around to try to catalog something that needs no taxonomy. Its about the music and the vibe. As its been said, just surrender to the phlow.

Ive never posted on this site in the 22 years ive followed it, but I just couldn't help commenting on what was an incredible night of music and fun. Happy and healthy new year to all.