oh, make ups can be so sweet! phish and the town of morrison kissed and made up, and phish fans reeped the benefits. of course, this ticket, if you didn't get it through the "traditional means," was muy expensivo, but phish came out, and really made it worth the money. this show is loaded with pre hiatus gems, and they play pretty damn well.

the divided sky kicks this one off appropriately. happy to be back at red rocks, the boy's playing is filled with inspiration. ocelot is one of my favorite new tunes and it works really well here in front of the wedge. the wedge, along with divided sky for that matter, in my opinion, are very good "red rocks songs." the wedge, after years of tinkering, really seems to have come into its own in 2009. i really enjoy this and the deer creek versions, in particular. they both just have a nice breezy feel. poor heart gets the crowd jumping, as does the deep funk of the moma dance. the horn is a nice rocker, which also reminds everyone that they will be "picked up at 8" for the next 3 nights. stash gives the boys some room to really move, and they take advantage of it. trey really steers this one into some nice, murky realms before bringing it back home. the horse/silent is nice breather before a good rocking possum closes out the set.

after introducing mike to the crowd and a few antics, the boys crank into a really nice set opening mike's grooves. mike's climbs relatively high before simmering down into hydrogen. gordon leads the charge in weekapaugh, with trey playing quite nimbly in between. they bring out another big gun with ghost. this is one of my favorites of the year. gordon and fishman really do an excellent job supporting trey and page on this one. they provide a super thick back drop for the boys to explore. this jam is nice and textured and it flows oh so well. sticking with the funk theme, wolfman's pops out of the back section of this jam. trey really rips the wolfman's. it is one of the better ones of the year. they opt not to slow down quite yet, and they pull out a nice limb by limb. they don't take it out too far, but they nail the "spirally" limb closing jam. billy breathes and the coil give the band a quick breather. you just kind of have a feeling coil is not going to close this one out, and it's confirmed when the band does not leave for pages solo. they work it nicely into a good solid bowie. not ground breaking, but a good way to end a pretty stacked show. page has some nice work in the middle section. loving cup is a pretty standard encore, not my favorite.

it is tough to say which night of red rocks is the best, but either way, this is a damn fine start. the first set is very well paced with a nice assortment of quality phish tunes with a couple nice improv heavy tunes in the mix. the second set comes out rocking and it doesn't slow down for an hour. from start to finish, this set might be the most complete, but i have to say the jam of the run has got to be that drowned>crosseyed combo, just nasty.

highlights:

set 1:
the divided sky, the wedge, stash, possum

set 2:

mike's groove, ghost>wolfman's