This may be one of the most underrated shows of Phish 2.0. It was incidentally also my first show of 2.0. The first set is quite solid, starting out with a topical pairing of My Sweet One (Valentine's Day) and Cover of the Rolling Stone (legend has it that the morning of this show they heard they'd be on the cover of Rolling Stone a few weeks later), and the normal leadoff hitting Chalkdust bats in the three hole. But then shit gets interesting -- Fee seemed to suck a little wind out of their sails (at least from my perspective that night), but the outro jam to Fee was stunningly beautiful and led into one of my favorite Tastes. Trey (save his typical flubbery at the *very* end) absolutely rages the jam, which leads into a *really* deep, cathartic Bathtub Gin. I'd personally put this Gin on the same level as the uplifting 2/22/03 version from Cinci. The early 2.0 sound is raw in tone, but the groove is palpable, and this is another perfect example of the full-blown group catharsis on stage that happened seemingly every night in 2003... and we were just in the fifth show back since The First Hiatus. The set closes in fine fashion, but things were already damn interesting from the atypical start and the -> Taste, Gin (both must-hear starting with the Fee outro).

The second-set opening Possum is fine, but the ensuing WotC might be the best rendition of the tune I've heard. Shit gets ridiculously dark before leaving orbit around the 18 minute mark, and we ultimately land on Carini. Though Carini isn't on the level with the 3.0 versions we've been spoiled with thus far, it keeps the darkness rolling. AoTD provides a little breather, and though Trey has trouble hitting the high notes, I found it to be a pleasant song. This was the point in the show where I got pensive, introspective, and emotional (does that happen to anyone else during some of these songs?). Anyway, enough about me... LxL is fine with a big almost ADITL-like build-up to close, and the OKP > Bag -> Caspian (unfinished feedback fadeout) is pretty great with a crazy dude jumping on stage during Bag and screaming something like "LUCY! I LOVE YOU! HAPPY VALENTINE--" [dragged off stage]. Kind of fitting that her name was Lucy (dude likely had a head full of her) and that the line the band sang as he ran on stage was "no future at all". In any event it was a unique way to end the second set. Loving Cup'd and we're on the way out into the filthy Inglewood air. This show is a solid 4 star show, and I am so thankful that my wife (then girlfriend) didn't leave me for ditching her to go see a show on VDay in her hometown (LA). Thanks babe!

On another personal and historical note: I was in my last year of college when 2.0 started, and by summer tour I had graduated, so these were my prime Phish-seein' years. It's a shame they were cut short but I'm glad they're back today and healthy, even though work, wife, and kids put me in a situation where I can only see a couple shows a year. I started *really* getting into Phish in late 2000, right before the end of 1.0, and during the first hiatus I "did my homework" and really listened back carefully to much of the bands' history. I got really into August '93 and December '95 (in the last few years I've graduated to Fall '97 and I don't think I'll ever make it out of here). When 2.0 was actually happening, I was stoked with a lot of the jams, but being a musician myself, I would get super flustered with all the flubs Trey was making. It was evident to me that they weren't really practicing much anymore, which was really frustrating. In some sense I was down on 2.0 at the time, having spoiled myself by spending years listening only to the best of the best (at least technically). But I slowly began to realize a few things: there have always been flubs; there weren't always this many exploratory jams; and not every show is going to be epic. This is all a long-winded way of me saying that looking back ten years after the fact (I've now listened to *every* show from 10/6/00 to the present), Phish 2.0 was pretty freaking awesome and I'm glad I got to see a bunch of shows during that brief stretch. As @andrewrose points out, this show really marks the beginning of Phish 2.0, and it's a very solid show for which I'm glad I made the 6-hour drive from Berkeley!