The boys took it to another level last night.

They came out of the gates with Caspian, which in 185 shows I had never seen as an opener, but it still didn't change my personal opinion of the song. Being my first show of this tour I was eladed to get a No Men's... A new song thst has amazing energy and got my dancing feet going early after the snoozy start. Ghost is and always will be in my top 5 songs to see live. My crew and I call it getting "Ghost'd" and they certainly gaves us a wonderful combination of slow funk and spontaneous exploration all throughout. The Wedge was clean and fun and kept the good spirited high energy rolling. The Moma came in thick and heavy and the entire crowd seemed to all start dancing a little harder as this set was picking up some serious momentum. How many people came on and while it certainly is not my type of song it didnt slow down the momentum the boys had been acquiring. The rift was sloppy and flubby, yet still shocked and persuaded my soul to ignite. I dont know if that sloppiness carried over into the mikes song, but what for 5 seconds sounded like was going to be an epic disaster, turned into the slowest funkiest Mikes Song intro any Phish fan has ever heard. It was really nice to wind down to the sweet sounds of Hydrogen and then take off into a Weekapaug that was straight fire from the gates closing out a first set that easily smashed my expectations.

Kill Devil got us rolling into the second set, which I was fine with because the song has good energy. Unexpectedly they turned it into a jam vehicle and played hands down the Jam of the night weaving in and out of some transcendent shit. Trwy came out just ready to melt faces. They segued into Martian Monster, which has become a personal favorite. Earlier in the week I had spent close to an hour driving through the foothills of Maine and New Hampshire listening to the Halloween version on repeat. Our trip was anything but short as Mike and Trey played from their backs then Trey went behind Mike to play bass, behind Page to play leys, then behind Fish to play drums. Mike met Trey on the drum kit as Fish picked up the bass. Then Mike went over to Treys guitar and every ma fcka in the building was about blast off. They each got back to their instruments and went into a smooth, slow, funky twist, that I personally felt could have gone longer. But they kicked it into high gear with BOTT and no one missed a single note. Straight heat through and through. During BOTT my buddy and I made a mad dash for the pit, to get a better view, and no one checked our stubs. The Reba was the cleanest Reba I have ever seen, and I do not say this lightly as I have seen over 30 of them. The Rebalope from Gorge 11 was my favorite, byt this was the cleanest. I look at my buddy and say "they better not fuck up the whistle." To my disgust they completely skipped the whistle and started right into bathtub. I was pushing my buddy and so irritated. After the first verse of Bathtub, as only this band can do, there comes the Reba whistle just to stick it in my face that after all of these years they still blow my mind over and over and over again. Bathub was fire all the way through as all 4 members were hearing each other beautifully and just absolutely slaughtering. The whistle kept coming all through the song to further my amazement. Job well done.

Farmhouse came on, again not my favorite, but after that show they couldve come out and played time thrns elastic and I wouldnt have been upset. Character Zero was high energy and got the whole crowd going again one last time before shutting it down at 11pm on the nose.

A complete show through snd through. The first set was beyond ragin for a first set and got everyone excited. The completely segued second set was absolutely perfect and made me so happy. I think this is just the beginning of an absolutely incredible summer. With Jerry's Birthday tonight everyone is anxious to see if Phish is going to swallow their pride and give the fans a Grateful Dead tune. While I am skeptical, I remain hopeful. Cant wait to get back out there and do it all over again.