Well well well, the "Final" Phish show ever....THANK GOD it was NOT!!!! The only set in which the band was even remotely tight was the final set. The rest of the sets were sloppy and forced. Any passion (from Trey anyways)were seemingly derived not from his soul, but from drugs (allegedly). It was really odd, I remember looking at Fishman and thinking that he looked really really old...Simple, Piper, and The Curtain With were probably the only songs that I actually enjoyed. The overall experience of the show was overwhelmingly sad, not just because the music was so bad, and not just because of all of the rain and mud, and the thousands of people that were turned away at the gate, but because at the time we thought (kinda) that this was going to be the last show that they would ever play (This horrendous showing also gave me tremendous HOPE however, that there would be NO way that Phish would go out like this!) I think that Coventry happened to show the Phans that Phish really did need to take some time, and that they would not be missing anything special while they weren't playing.....I don't think they would ever consiciously play bad, but I think their souls and the actual music that they played was a message sent from their sub-consious. They were letting everyone know that this is going to be it, and that its ok everyone, we can't really help for awhile, and you don't need us right now....remember, "you can feel good without Hood".

The one thing that I think really sets this band apart from the Grateful Dead is something that Trey said a while back, when he said that no matter what, he did not want to become a Nostalgia band. To that I say "O FUCK YA". They want their shows to continue to be special, to be powerful, they want the shows to truly be an experience that brings about a change in appreciation, perception, or connection of synaptical pathways in the brain that prior to the show, had never been activated before. Constantly pushing the envelope and staying away from their comfort zone is the reason why so many of us will travel so far, give up so much, do anything that we can to see the quartet from Vermont.

Welcome back guys. After 13 years of listening to you, you all continue to blow my mind (and melt my face!).

Kind Regards,

Devin Tucker
[email protected]