wow, i was really wondering if they could top clifford ball, but they blew it out of the water. i was not at either, but i've listened to the tapes for years.

the 4:20/makisupa opener is very nice, and it leads into the 2nd half of the harpua from the clifford ball. this was a quasi surprise, but it really gave some closure... anyway, chalk dust finishes the "sound check." there are some flubs and miscues, but it is still pretty solid. theme gives the boys their first chance to dig deep, and they find some nice areas in theme. punch gets the funk thing going, and ghost really seals the deal. this is a nice funky ghost with some great page work in the jam. a very good yem appears to close the set before train, zero, and coil are tacked on.

wolfman's opens this set in grand fashion. this is a full on bad boy 97 funk wolfman's. this one is easily my favorite of the u.s. summer tour. fishman and gordon provide great rhythm and page and trey just funk wail over the top. eventually, it starts hitting a more rocking feel with a lovely simple. this one covers a lot of ground before hitting an odd couple jam driving it into my soul. this gives way to a nice spacey jam that serves as a lead into a mind blowing slave. trey just rips this one. rocky top is nice and snappy, and even julius has a few interesting twists that are worth checking out.

now, the 2nd set was good, but i think that i have to take the 3rd set. it's even better. halley's is a nice funky exploration that finally works its way into a low, nasty, dirty cities. of course, phish already slows this song down tremendously, compared to the talking heads version that is, but this one is sooooo much slower than that. it's almost comical how cool this one is. fishman and trey are particularly kicking on this one. now, as for "the jam factor," i might have to take the deer creek version from a week before over this one, but this has one gets very serous "weird points." the funk jam out of cities finally starts to pick up as the boys find themselves in a very hot llama. like the 2nd set though, i felt that this set was also quite front loaded. there were fireworks during funky bitch, but obviously, that does not carry over all that well on my ipod.

highlights:

set 1:
makisupa>harpua, pyite, ghost, yem

set 2:
wolfman's>simple>my soul, slave

set 3:
halley's>cities>llama