Not a show review, but a memorable experience that the Timber Ho and I were recalling just last night.

We'd been to the Cincinnati shows earlier in the tour and, upon checking into our hotel in Cincy, received a high quality Christmas Bell as a holiday gift. I brought it to the two Cincy shows, annoying the living piss out of my wife (and perhaps others) as its loud clang penetrated throughout the Firstar Center on both nights.

I was not permitted to bring it inside the Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh--where we jumped back on tour--but sneaked it into Hampton without her knowledge. Like I said, she hated the damned thing while I loved it.

She discovered the bell soon enough as I let out a celebratory clang while settling into section Z or Y at the back of the Coliseum. Anyway, as we waited for the show to start, we noticed a guy dressed in a Santa suit wandering along the walkway that separates the lower bowl from the upper bowl. The guy was bellowing "Ho ho ho, Merry Christmas!", and was, shall we say, obviously in a good mood.

I went down to him and said, "Hey, Santa, you're missing a bell. Here, take this." He whooped with joy and went tearing around the walkway clanging the bell with great vigor, screaming "HO! HO! HO!" at the top of his lungs.

Even the Timber Ho thought his bell ringing was cool, and it remains one of our favorite holiday Phish memories.