Phish in WNY is a great thing, While i do my fair share of traveling for the band it is nice to be able to come back home to Buffalo( I live in Columbus) and take a short drive to CMAC. I got their a bit late and had to grab a ticket from the box office which was luckily still open. It was 2 of my friends first shows so their energy was really feeding my excitment for my first show of the tour.
Buried Alive-First one i've gotten and i was excited it wasnt a Kill Devil falls opener.
Twist-Woo Pretty standard version but the placement had me fired up even though it was not jammed like a set 2 would be.
heavy Things- Dancin in the Bathroom line, It's a good song and was placed well in the set, as far as not interrupting anything.
555- Groovy yet lacked the energy the last few have had, It would be cool to maybe put it in Set 2 and see what happens
Halley's- Kinda disappointing at this point fun to sing but it doesnt give you much else, and man this bathroom line is 3 songs long!!
Gin- I was hoping for another monster type 2 in the first set, but this jam was still great as a real rockin jam.
Wingsuit- This song has really grown on me since hearing at Halloween and being utterly confused, Trey didnt let mike use his drill though before dropping into Divided Sky but it was worth no drill for the beautiful and inspiring rendition of this song, They played the ending out more than i have seen and everyone was on point the entire song.
Wombat was a great funky dance party, Trey really get's into thte echoplex and lets Mike and Page weave their own funky lines in and out of it. Amd to Cap off a good first set was..
Bowie-MANNNN the boys were on point with the composed segments this show i didnt hear a missed note all night this bowie was getting to hose territory and was a great way to get everyone going before setbreak.
Disease- This is always a good start to the second set and was defiantly the basis for the rest of the set, while it was rockin and blissful at times it was all about the groove and sway of this one. While the jam was cut a bit short the transition into BOTT really wasnt as ripcorded as people leave it to be, i thought it was well timed and in good taste.
While keeping with the groove theme BOTT did its best to keep the dancing alive. Typical rendition and was a bit dissapointing it didnt go off the rails into deeper waters.
Again another good transition into NICU which apparently is the first one this tour so thats fun.
Gotta Jibbo is another fun groove song that keeps this set theme in tact. Again like the train it was fun but didnt get to where some might have wanted it to.
Theme was theme and a pretty standard version.
Meatstick- This song is just fun and always nice to do the dance, and it as well as pretyy much all the tunes transitioned nicly into the next song
Fuego- My friend before the show being the person he is said he really didnt like fuego the tune all to much. After this version that stayed in between the lines but was a nice jam into the end seguement, he was converted.
At this point we were on the lawn mike side all the way up front for all the show, When the wedge came on the security guard checking people into the pit ( who was dancing and loved the music all night) decided to leave and so we made our move down to get a closer look.
The Wedge was a nice little wrap up tune before the real end of the set
ANtelope- or should i say Fuegolope man this version was a tease factory and we loved every minute of it, the jam was straight fuego and trey was really putting on the mustard for this version while it didnt stray to far from type 1 it was exciting and really got people into the Character Zero encore.
As we left to go back to our KOA campground we were all happy, drunk and hyped up from the show we just saw. listening to it again i remeber a thought i had as i was driving to the show. My friend said this was supposed to be a sleeper show and really knock your socks off, but my thinking was that the band probably needed a break and while it would be a good show with some good tunes, it wont be remembered in the best of the best for this year. It was a great show but pretty standard over all with the exception of the bowie and antelope (who my friend after the first fuego tease turned to me and said fuegolope so yes im claming he started it)
Not all shows can be amazing type 2 jams with epic songs, it shouldnt be that way because then we wouldnt keep chasing the shows hoping that we will be at a show were something historic happens at.
Keep Chasing my friends