A wonderful beginning to what will surely go down as a canonical Phish weekend.

The set-closing Gin will get a ton of attention, and for good reason, but don't skimp on the first quarter's bizarre and perfect combo of Simple>Dogs>TMWSIY suite. It's perplexing on paper and equally so to listen to. It makes me wonder if anyone at Magnaball was seeing their first Phish show, and what they possibly could have been thinking after getting The Dogs and Avenu Malkenu within the first 30 minutes.

The second set doesn't break down any barriers or offer anything wholly different from what the band has been doing lately, but when sets of this high quality are accused of seeming rote, that only speaks to the embarrassment of riches we are currently experiencing. The triple threat of Hood>Waste>NMINML is the highlight to my ears. The Hood is gorgeous and exciting, breaking free of its usual structure and instead creating its own on the spot, and Waste is a perfect call to follow up, and is played flawlessly. Then the dancey groove party of No Men gets everyone moving again. Three songs of wildly different styles, united here in that way that only Phish seems to be capable of.

Spirits were high after this opening show and it's not hard to see why. Point for point, this might be the weakest of the 3 Magnaball shows, but honestly, by the time the fireworks went off two nights later, the band was just running up the score anyway.