12/29/18: Wow.. what a night
Set 1: Highlights of the set include: everything from buried alive > cities (followed by a nice breather) and the ya mar>Wolfman's>Party Time>Wolfman's. [where's the love for Party TIme guys?] The buried alive was rocking followed by a in-and-out Blaze on (I thought this version was good, fishman pushed the band with good pace to a decent peak and included a a good funk/rhythm section). The Sloth. F**k yes! [NSFW]. I’ve been waiting for this one (played only 5 times since I started seeing phish). The energy in the building was NUTS for this one. Me and my buddy were power rocking and just totally enthralled by the energy this classic tune brang to the Garden. I thought the 46 days was an especially good jam with a slinky segue into the cities. Trey working his magic with the Bm/D switches and the band all together was locked in after 46 Days started to liftoff. Next up, the Ya Mar. I love this goofy song and got a little plinko-ey just before coming to a smooth close. [although we first miscalled it for waves at the time - sorry people next to us, we’re scrubs]. Finally, the only thing that can compete with the 46>Cities is this Wolfman’s>Party time sequence. The wolfman's started strong and found really nice space in a minor key, followed by more exploration. The vocal jam was a “makeup call” IMO from Mansfield ‘16 when the sound cut out (thanks boys) and was really cool INTERWEAVED with Party Time. Just the band again showing us that they’ve been practicing and I thought they were just in tune the whole set - giving room for every band member to thrive in their moment. Also I’ll note that the bands changes were clean and smooth all set (this theme will continue throughout the run). BUT I felt this was on 12/28 after set 1. Are the boys going to be able to keep the energy up for all 4 quarters?...

Set 2: Highlights of the set include: The whole dang thang. I have been caught a few times in just moments of this feeling. It’s awe and disbelief and appreciation for what this band can do - even though it is hard to describe, we all know what it is. (jam night, powder night, 12/30/16, 12/29&30/18 are some of mine). That tweezer had me jaw to the floor when it came back (and with a strong extra 7 minutes). The carini finds a nice jam and peaks but is just cut a little short and shadowed by other monsters in this set. Namely, the tweezer is just an amazing jam with good diversity and I think the Kasvot song fits in there perfectly. When they brought it back you could just feel the entire Garden go nuts (similar the way disease came back from melt during the Dozen imo). Then the No quarter was a nice breather. Led Zeppelin felt like a breather, woah. I’ll take that in the ballad slot every night. 2001>First tube is a great ending [dare I say perfect?] to an Phish set, with the 2001 being slightly extended at the beginning and a longer set of peaks (first opinion, haven’t compared times thoroughly though). Let me note here again that the bands segues were really clean as they just slinked from one song to the next all set (and all night). *Note: I liked the woo section here, but I wish it stopped here. I feel like they were asking for it all weekend, lets just get back to stop-start jamming. But I digress...

Encore was good-not-great again. I love the “make every song you sing your favorite tune” lyric and it was appropriate for the night. Followed by the “greatest 4 minutes of rock and roll”, and absolutely stunning night of Phish was capped off. Overall, I thought tonight was a barn burner. Everyone was talking about 12/30 being THE night or 3rd night of the run being the best, but, let us not forget that Phish is the band of ultimate regret. And they’ll make you pay for missing a “sleeper night”. I’ll hold off on making any sort of ‘97 comparisons for now. But this show deserves being discussed for a long time.. As will the next..