I walked into this weekend of shows telling my friends "I hope I get a Brian and Robert." I know that song isn't a great show song, but it means a lot to me. Little did I know what was ahead of me as I walked into Alpine Valley the night of what was my second show...

First off was the Very Long Fuse, and I hadn't heard it, but it was a cool jam. It set a neat tone that everybody had no problem dancing along. And then that chord. The intro to Col. Forbin. The audience lost it. I knew it was something special happening, but I didn't know what. Forbin crossed over to Mockingbird, with a flub or two (who cares?), and Trey's narration about the shitting bird. Funny story. It winds down...and then I hear it. "Doot doot doo, doot doot doo..." Brian and Robert. I got choked up and everyone I was with started patting me on the back. One of the guys said I must be good luck since I got the B&R, plus the Forbin/Mockingbird rarity bust out. Anyway, Saw It Again is another tune that folks love or hate, and I am in the former category. Esther, Weigh, the Sloth, and Sanity were all solid performances (remember, this is written 3 years later...) and set up a nice platform for a fun Split Open and Melt. The last notes of that tune rang out, and the lights came up for set break, I knew I had just seen something. Not sure what it was at the time. But it was something.

Set two was deep funky jam city. Antelope picked up where SOAM left off. Carini took things deep underwater, while Waves had everyone pop up for air. Tweezer was...Tweezer, amazing and massive. It set things up for the nice cool down that was Dirt, another of the "some like it, some don't" songs that I love. Often times those songs (Or the Jerry ballads for ye Dead Heads) popped up in sets at inopportune times. The tunes played on this night did not. Then we got Mike's. Mike's one had use grooving. On the ride up to East Troy, my buddy and I talked about the long history of first and second Mike's, and how it had been absent for a long time, but had come out. We wondered if we got a Mike's, would we get a second jam? Boy, were we rewarded. Massive and tasty. It settles down into a nice second line for Blaze On. Blaze slowed things down for a nice breather before a ripper of a Weekapaug, and then a tasty Tweeprise to cap off the set. Wow.

Contact was fun. Frankenstein was the end of the show.

All in all, I don't know that in 3.0 I could have gotten a better first and second show. I'll never have the opportunity to see some of the amazing shows of 1.0 or 2.0: I am a 3.0 Phish fan in terms of live shows. But I am glad I have had the opportunity to see this band perform, because as we all know, things might have been different. So thank you Trey, Page, Mike, and Fish for making my "opening" Phish weekend a stellar success. Here's to many more shows!