Takes the title of the 29th for most fun show I've been to.

I bought my ticket off a fellow .netter the night before, and I went to the show alone. Coming in, everyone was wondering what was about to happen. Some thought they'd do Gamehenge, some thought they'd do a cover set.

Anyhow, they start the first set (all of the songs except Ocelot were firsts for me), and I had a great time. Divided Sky and Fluff were good upon relisten.

Then, a video played on the scoreboard, showing Fishman in a land of old NYE gags (golf carts/balls, I think I saw the hot dog, the disco ball from 2009, etc). He starts working at a broken truck, then half of it gets destroyed by an overpass. Then, the stage crew brings the truck in, "parts the sea" in the GA floor, and they bring the thing to the center of the arena. My first thought was "Lope G's gotta be pissed".

I then noticed the Hockey Sticks as mic stands, realized they were finally doing something about 30 years. Everyone who realized started to wonder: will we get a cover set? A Scarlet > Fire?

No! They came out and played Glide, and then Llama. A long pause came, and then they played Forbin's > Mockingbird. After that the show could've gotten rained out somehow, and I wouldn't have complained. But no, we were treated to Fuck Your Face, Reba, my 2nd Icculus of the year, The Lizards, and a really nice Split Open and Melt.

After that we got a setbreak with no gags apparent, so we took a well-deserved seat. By this point, I'd made friends with everyone around me (section 215, I was the dude in a Europe '72 shirt if any of you see it). We were all wondering what came next.

They brought in the new year in the simplest but best way possible. They played a Character Zero, a song that always rocks, and then had the screen count it down. Auld Lang Syne was just amazing to observe though. Everyone in the venue was enjoying themselves, there was balloons and confetti everywhere, it was great. Then, they played Fuego, which everyone seemed pretty happy to hear.

Then there's the High-Light in Light. Like usual, it went pretty far out. Twenty Years Later followed, the only sad part is that Trey didn't change the lyrics to "Thirty Years Later". Bouncing gave everyone a much needed break from all the jamming, and then YEM came to close it. During Grind Trey announced their 60th anniversary show at Madison Square Garden, 29 years and 367 days (that's with leap year days) from when I'm typing this, and they gave how old they'll be then. Show of Life was kinda a letdown for a closer, but I'm not gonna complain.

These four nights (my first multi-night Phish run) were some of the most fun I've had in a long time, and I'm really glad I chose to go to them. I'm never going to forget the 2nd set here. Speaking of the word 'here', here's to another year of great music, vibes, Phish, and all that crap.