Ignore the naysayers. The rough patches are just standard first-show-in-a-month knots and kinks, and the good parts are *huge*.

Highlights: a choppy, dark Light that shares DNA with the Timber-inflected version from earlier this month; a complex, triumphant Stash; the return of Roggae featuring a gorgeous jam only slightly marred by mistakes in the written portion; and a spectacular Makisupa > Hood > Contact run that's all about the inimitable Mr Michael 'Cactus' Gordon. Mike is ON FIRE all throughout the show, actually. You'll hear complaints about the energy level in Set One, and it's not a classic set or anything, but the boys got themselves warmed up and knocked the rest of the show out of the park.

(And who can complain about the performances of Roggae, Stash, or Beauty of a Broken Heart? Even Phish's warmup shows feature some fantastic playing.)

As the seats fill and the energy builds to Thursday night, I bet the NYE run will eclipse the run of strong MSG shows in short order.