What a show! My girlfriend's sister lives literally across the street from Fenway, I can see the park from the window beside me as I type this. Couldn't ask for a better commute to the venue. We went in around 7:15. It was pouring rain but the forecast said that things were supposed to clear up completely around 8 so we were optimistic. They were not letting anyone who wasn't in the grandstands (which are sheltered by the pavilion) go to their seats because of lightning. It is impossible to convey how sweaty and airless and disgusting it was inside. I suggested we go up in search of air. We started climbing stairs and just headed towards where people were not. There were Fenway staffers checking tickets at most of the junctions where more appealing sections met less appealing ones. At one such junction a man was arguing with a staffer about his ticket and we just walked through while a second staffer looked right through us. So we found ourselves in the corporate box suite section which I think is sort of a weird place to want to be for a Phish show but to each their own. It was nice because we could breathe and we weren't getting soaked. We chatted with a very nice and very drunk guy who asked us if we had deodorant (we, of course, did not) and invited us into a box. We declined because neither of us drinks or does anything else anymore because, well you get it. A park employee told us that the band was going to start at 830 and that they were given the go ahead to break Fenway's strict 10:30 curfew IF they did not take a set break. This had us intrigued as it meant we were probably in store for a full 3-ish hour show with no breaks. We walked around the top of the park for a while before making our way to our seats which was arduous because everybody going onto the field has to have their tickets checked again and although we were not on the field we were close and so had to wait in 80% of the line to get to our seats.

SO THE MUSIC
Look, I am writing this just after the show, I can't really speak to the re-listen value of most of the songs. This was a phenomenal show to be at, so glad that I was there. That Carrini opener was perfect and really energized the soggy crowd. Into Possum, great, fun. SYSF sucked a little bit of the energy back out but you know what? That's bullshit. Sure, the lyrics were apparently written by Elmo, but this is a good song, Trey obviously has fun playing it and they played it well tonight. I almost always end up liking this song when I stop judging the lyrics and I really dug it tonight. I don't really have anything to say about Thread. Wolfman's got everyone back into it. I was extremely excited when they started up Reba after Wolfman's but I was increasingly less excited as it seemed like Trey was doing an experiment where he tried to play Reba as if he had only ever heard it once before playing on a boombox that had been buried about a foot underground. In all honesty it sounded to me like there were some sound issues that were throwing him off but I'm speculating. They recovered towards the end of the tune and started up a very nice Back on the Train. Mound was Mound, I don't really know About to Run so I don't really remember much about it. DwD through to the end of the show I thought was really, really great. Were any of these the ultimate version of these songs? No. But I really just loved the whole run. DwD got everyone going again after a bit of a lull. Simple was short, yes but really fun. I honestly really like hearing BDTNL, if you don't that fine but I was happy to hear it tonight. DDHVL was short and fun and 46 Days kept the energy going and had a nice mini jam that sort of but didn't really segue into What's the Use. Mexican Cousin was fun and Trey looked like he was enjoying himself. Also Sprach wasn't a particularly strong version but was fine and I though SOAM was really very good. Suzy was Suzy and Page was on fire, like really really great during this version. I seriously didn't stop dancing for this entire run of songs which the woman next to me appreciated and gave me a high five. This is information that you need. Rise/Come Together was well-played and fine but Wilson was a perfect way to end what for me was a really really great experience. Some people online were quick to denounce this show as a worthless dud, as they have for every show this tour. To which I honestly ask, can you still have fun? Phish brought it tonight. I don't know when people started to demand every show being 3 hours of deep jams with three or four cooldown songs. Most shows are not this. What makes for a good streaming experience is maybe not what makes a for great live experience. I'm going to try to keep that in mind and I think I'll be happier about listening along to the tour.