I locked myself out of my hotel room, so, instead of getting help, I’m gonna write this review. Overall, great show and a super fun time.

Cathy’s Crown is the reason I don’t try to guess openers anymore. It’s futile. You are doomed to fail. I will bet my life savings (all $11.46) that not a single soul in the audience had this tune on their radar to be in any Phish setlist. However, the unpredictably of this band is why we all love them, and this was a real nice opener. The retirement home of Deadheads next to me loved it & gave me some history, so I quickly loved it too.

With that, we were quickly reminded that the boys had some unfinished business to attend to, and we dove straight into Tweezer Reprise. Carini (which I was somewhat surprised to hear) kept the heads banging, and the jam had a great peak with uncharacteristic Set 2 energy. Phish didn’t come to play. Well, they did, but they didn’t. I’m hungover.

AC/DC Bag was fun, and Moma Dance was groovin’ & more comical than usual (if you like Fish banter, you’ll love this one). Great Theme, dirty Meat, rippin’ Home (I like that song more now after hearing it live), really well-built jam in Gin, and a solid WoTC to close an energetic and jammin’ first set.

CA&M got everyone in a good mood for the rest of the 2nd set. The boys took their time with the DwD jam and explored a lot of space, which included 2 modulations for you theory nerds & lots of introductions of new sounds to the jam to keep things interesting. It never really peaked, but not all jams have to peak (emphasis). If you’re looking for one song to kinda head-bop to for a good amount of time, definitely put this one on.

Thought the S&SS w/ intro was really well placed, the song kinda brought things down but another solid jam followed. Starting with Wilson, the set took a pretty different turn, moving away from long jammers and into the same sort of energetic heavyweights that we heard in S1. They were all well-performed, with Hood being the glow stick moment a lot of us were waiting for. By the way, I was pretty hype we got a FYF.

My buddy was dying to hear Fee, and I thought his eyes were gonna pop right out of his sockets when he heard the drum beat. Great encore tune. Yeah, Trey fucked up the lyrics and his megaphone wasn’t cooperating, but 1) it was awesome that they played the song in the first place, 2) it’s Trey, what else is new, and 3) this is a LIVE BAND & shit happens. You have an issue with it, go phuck yourself (and your face).

Trey: “I think we have time for a couple more.”
Audience: “OH FUCK YEA”

I really like the stuff on Ghosts of the Forest, so it was cool to hear A Life Beyond the Dream. Wouldn’t have held up as an encore on its own, but being sandwiched between two great tunes made it a pretty cool moment. Standard final song with First Tube, non-standard Trey running around the stage like a maniac and terrifying everyone by holding his koa guitar above his head like that. High entertainment value tho.

No one thinks it’s weird that I’ve been sitting outside my hotel room for over a half hour. I’ll see you in the lobby, or if you miss me I’ll be at N2. L8r sk8rz.