For my money, last night is the biggest single risk the band has ever taken. What a ballsy call! Almost guaranteed to be divisive, guaranteed that for 60-75 minutes in the middle of the show, no one in the arena would be at all familiar with the music. Congrats to Phish for continuing their tradition of doing things you'd never expect a massively popular band to do.

That said, this show overall doesn't quite work. In fact, it's probably the weakest of the entire tour.

The first set is standard-great 2013 Phish rock, with a good setlist and the usual contained jamming on the usual Set I jam songs. I always love BOTT and Camel Walk, so it was nice to get that.

Set 2 is a mixed bag. The new songs range from very good to "meh" to "I doubt that will go anywhere." There were, as you'd expect, no major jams, but merely hints of what jams might look like in the future. Lyrics are similar to those of other modern songs, but way way way better than songs like Architect, TTE, Show of Life, and even maybe Steam (which has weird, unnatural rhyming to my ears).

Set 3 is the heart of the show, but overall one of the weaker jam-sets of tour. Ghost is good, but nothing to write home about, and everything else except the Carini is standard-great (predictably enjoyable) Phish. The Carini really is something though. I can't even beleive how well they are killing this song these days. They just click on this tune, and the 20 minute version last night easily sits right alongside the epics from Hampton, Worcester, and SPAC. Good stuff!

So there you have it. Phish took a huge risk and gave a slice of the future, rather than a redux of the past. Overall this is by no means a bad show--and in terms of importance, it is required listening--but it is not a stand-out winner, or even a particularly impressive 2013 affair.