As to the silly debate about whether or not you were ripped off if you were expecting another classic rock cover: Phish doesn't owe us anything other than to play their music as best they can. They've been failing at that for most of this tour, yes, but since most fans remember little about the past 30 years, it gets lauded as the best tour since blah blah blah, and then people bitch about a whole set's worth of brand new songs on Halloween? I don't get this fanbase any more.

Anyway, the first set sounds like four old men easing into a warm bath; safe, pleasant, not what anybody was wanting to witness. Solid old-school "Stash", though. Wingsuit is what you'd expect by now: the result of Trey surrounding himself with people who are afraid to tell him his songs are terrible. "No, that's another winner, Trey! Good job buddy!" It's like if Little River Band got back together with the intent to maximize the use of the whammy pedal. Seriously though, "Wingsuit" is kind of a cool "In The Flesh?" style classic rock tune, and "Fuego" and "555" certainly have some potential. "Waiting All Night" is kind of intriguing. Otherwise I hope to never, ever hear any of this AOR garbage at a Phish show. Please let Page write the songs from now on, obviously.

Third set is pretty dull other than "Carini"; it's not groundbreaking by any means but awesome chaotic Fish/Page leading eventually to an almost Slave-esque super-bliss surge and ebullient peak. Sad how "Ghost" gets you pumped with the nice tempo upshift and then just collapses. Rote "Birds", "Bug", "Hood" and "Antelope"; at least Trey has been mostly competent on guitar tonight, only significantly bungling "Poor Heart", "Free" (although I dig the continued dubby echo-wah trip Trey's been on! Way cooler than the whale.) and "Antelope". The copious platitudes from him and Page (Page all year, actually) are beginning to sound like a desperate self-fulfilling prophecy: no matter how poorly we play, y'all will keep being "accepting" and "open-minded", and we're SO grateful. It's cool; Phish being Phish is still better than most other live music no mattet what, but I can't shake Steve Tyler's voice from that Zeppelin Behind The Music: "Fans couldn't tell a good show from a bad one."