the show was rock solid from beginning to end, and although the new "new songs" kind of suck, the old new songs don't suck quite as much as they used to (wolfman's brother, not sample). the band has actually gotten better with age (theirs or mine, don't know, hadn't been to a show before last night in 13 years). the jams were always phenomenal, but it’s even more effortless now and they end up weaving in and out of more micro-songs. seemed like there was a newfound passion and truer mastery, less playful and more intense. i think trey cemented himself in my mind with the best ever; page was actually slightly on the disappointing side at times (organ just sounded LOUD), but it all worked out. and the lyrics are funny in a different way now, kind of like the punch line instead of the joke.

the crowd was on the young side (definitely felt like an old-timer), and i was surprised by the realization that phish will be around for many more years to come: it’s just slightly different incarnations of the same thing as time passes (think phish in the 90s => the dead in the 70s, phish today => the dead in the 80s).