This show contains the single largest spur-of-the-moment missed opportunity in all of Phish-dom. That moment would be, of course, if they had ended Chalk Dust Torture as Run Like An Antelope. Chalk Dust Torture goes into a full-on pull-all-the-stops peaking Antelope jam that extremely precariously finds it’s way back into Chalk Dust. The first time I heard this I almost shat bricks thinking they were gonna Chalk Dust (Beginning) -> Antelope (End). That right there, folks, is the single largest missed opportunity in all Phish-dom. However, it doesn’t detract from this awesome show, it just would have been crazy cool if it had happened.

I suppose one more treat atop this already uniquely stacked show would have just been too much! We’ve already got arguably the peakiest YEM post ‘95, the longest Meatstick ever, a 2001/Split Open and Melt fake-out thanks to Mike, and Kung into jam craziness -> melty jam -> jaminess -> awesome jams for days segment. If you count the whole thing as just SOAMelt it’s over a half hour long. And the Fishman led tempo changes in the split jam proceeding Kung are silky smooth. I can’t recall hearing improvised abrupt tempo changes this smooth from this band before. They do tend to speed up gradually in many Ghost or Gin jams, though those are certainly far less conscious than these tempo changes. If nothing else check out Melt preceding Kung just for those.

Plus, for us non-jaded’s out there, the first set Farmhouse is probably the best one ever played.

This is right up there with the best of that summer. 7.10 and 7.25 make way, we got another badass in da house!