Today, I will refrain from giving a play by play review of the highs and lows of this show. In lieu of this, I have a short, but personally meaningful tale to tell. As it is now 2019, I have been listening to this band for a little over a decade. It took 3 years from my first real, meaningful audible adventure to witness my first show in 2011. Despite all the reasons I couldn't get to shows during 09-10, I can credit my attendance to my first phish show to one person, and for this favor I am eternally grateful. Fast forward to Thursday June 20th 2019. Thanks to social media, I knew that mike had been hiding golden tickets to each show of summer tour thus far. With plans to attend the charlotte show with my old friend, I was excited to hopefully make it to town before the tickets were hidden. Unfortunately for me, this wasn't the case. After trolling social media at work like we all do, I soon realized mike and the band made it to charlotte before I did. He was actively hiding the ticket while I was watching his post. My heart began to race. Shit, I wouldn't be getting the tickets after all. Bummer. But wait!
Unbeknownst to him, my old friend was VERY close to the exact space mike had left the goods. After some frantic texting to alert my charlotte crew, I had hoped I could help someone at least come close to getting the tickets.

After a few exchanges, I learned that said friend from above was on his way. A few moments went by and I learned that unbelievably he had FOUND the tickets, and that he had met mike! Incredible! Sparing further details, as he left the coffee shop he said to mike, "I'll see you YA MARROW". I joked that he owed me the tickets, as I felt responsible for his surreal Thursday evening, and that he was pushing his luck with a song request.

Fast forward again to the first of many wonderful segues and jams of the night, tweezer -> passing through left us smiling from ear to ear as our night had started out wonderfully. Little did we know, our smiles would be getting bigger very shortly. As the first notes of Ya Mar filled the evening sky, our eyes opened as wide as they possibly could have and our group began to cry with laughter. It happened! Mike said yes!

All of this to say, without him I likely wouldn't be typing this, and without me, there would be no Ya Mar on the 6/21/19 setlist. Or maybe there would be... This is phish after all.