My first Phish show.
I've been a phan since my dad had me listen to ALO in '97, I was only 6 but it blew my mind. I was already a huge Led Zeppelin fan, but Phish was something different. By the time I was ready to go see my first show by myself at 13, I heard the news that Phish was breaking up after a festival in 2004.

Flash forward to 2010, I had tried to go to MPP in 2009...but I had just graduated High School, and had literally no money or car at the time...so I finally got my chance in 2010.
I remember walking into MPP lot, past all of the big scary policemen staring at me so pompously, and seeing a culture that I had never experienced. I remember my dad taking me to see RatDog, Phil Lesh & Friends, and The Dead when I was younger...but I never remembered it being like this.
I saw funny Simpsons t-shirts, selling sandwiches, giving out beer...I was flabbergasted. I immediately fell in love with this culture of people, phriends if you will...

Being a long time daily LivePhish listener...I thought to myself, and even said to my friends as we were standing in line to get in. "I hope we get a good opener, maybe a PYITE". I had remembered reading on Phish.net (shout out), that the night before the setlist was ridiculous...filled with rarities. So, I was kind of disappointed...not even expecting anything amazing, but it was my first show...so I was going to love anything.

So they took the stage, I saw Trey and chided (I'm not going to lie, I kind of blamed Trey for the breakup when I was younger...so I had a grudge held, even if I did see TAB twice before this just because it was the closest thing I had to Phish...), then was pleased to see the rest of the members of my favorite band take the stage, especially Mike (my favorite).

1st set.

Jumping up and down ready to rage, I heard them start up "Crowd Control"...to which there was immediate disappointment on my part...either way I kept listening, and actually really started to dig the song I once disliked.
I hadn't listened to much of "Joy" at this point...but I had heard them play "KDF" on at other concerts LivePhish so when I heard the opening lick, I really got into raging, very tight "KDF" in my opinion.
This was followed by a solid jamming "AC/DC Bag" which saw me scream "NOW THIS IS MORE LIKE IT!"
Then into a groovy song I hadn't heard before called "Sugar Shack" (now one of my favorite 3.0 songs), that saw some serious grooves from the Cactus and Leo, and also I felt like in mid-dance I forgave Trey.
The forgiveness spread even farther after I heard him start "Tube", one of my favorite short funky songs.
I won't lie, I used the Neutral Milk Hotel song as a bathroom break...but after I heard the opening lick of "Stash" I ran like the wind back to our seats for that crowd pleaser, WITH added sick jam. Followed by a #Line, which I'm not a huge fan of, so I'll let it be. The NICU wasn't super special...but an NICU is exactly that...a sick jam weather it's 5 minutes or 10 minutes, which segued (first segue of the show) into a sick 46 Days, and Suzy Greenberg full of Fish yelling about how Leigh Fordham "sold them out".
During the set break I finally felt my "party favors" that we got during our bathroom break kicking in...ready to full on rage as the sun finally hid itself.

2nd set.

Now I normally am not a fan of "Rock & Roll" but this one was truly something special...the guys came back after the set break and literally blew me away...every complaint I had about the 1st set seemed minuscule to what was happening before my eyes and ears. This was the Phish, I had been waiting to see for most of my life, jamming through songs, segueing through ballads.
Needless to say, the jam stapled on the end of "Rock & Roll" blew my mind, and now what was once a song I skipped over...I make sure I listen to...simply because of the end jam. Into a rocking "Free", that I will never forget full of glowsticks and amazing vocals from all the guys. "FEFY" was a great speedbump for the 25 minutes of blazing rock we had all just witnessed, perfectly placed. Next was a "Sparkle" which had us all singing along and setup an amazing "Tweezer", that I truly believe Mike jammed harder then I had ever heard before.
Next, The Horse > Silent in the Morning was another amazing cool down to segue us into, an set ending like I would never have imagined WB > Slave > Tweeprise. Wolfman's Brother was short and sweet, but contained an amazing vocal jam, which I think about everytime I hear WB. Into a Slave which will always be close to my heart, because I love Slave, and never thought they would play it.

Encore:
Show of Life is eh, but I never expected to hear them play one of my other favorite bands...GTBT, such a great energetic rocker to end the night.

So basically...that was my first Phish concert...and have been obsessed ever since...