I pulled this from the archive and had to post it. Being vocally self critical, this is a gawd-awful review…WTF did I want Golgi…LOL. Song by song sectional account of the evening. No mention of the actual content of Cities!? But I do recall this evening vividly, nearly collapsing at one point from the pressies I had taken, eyes rolling like the turnstile at the fleet center on a sold out evening. Stumbling just enough to stay afloat before being ushered out into the frozen tundra that is Boston in December, I drove with my then fiancé, now ex-wife, back to New Haven, CT so I could wake up and report to my job as a pizza delivery driver. I then awoke the following day and decided I needed to recount my experience by emailing the dot net crew my horrible dribble via one of those weird Macs that was just a monitor from my now ex-wife’s email account…hence the Akire.

The music was encouraging if not sad, in a palpable way, owing to the status of the band and Trey, though that wasn’t readily apparent from stage right of the tapers section.

I hope someone stumbles across this addition to the interweb record of all things historical and embarrassing upon retrospect and is struck by the madness of almost 20 years passing since this 20 year anniversary and has a similar head shaking experience.

Mahalo Nui,
Matthew Golia

Now read on and laugh your ass off!!

Date: Wed, 3 Dec 2003 19:06:37 EST
From: Akire
Subject: 12/2/03 Boston Fleet Center

With all things fleeting, slipping through our fingers as easily as grains of sand, so shall it be, or should I say, so it was for Phish's twentieth birthday. Though I say fleeting, for about four hours at the fleet center the phab phour have proved that they have evolved over the years, retaining all that they have learned; thus enabling them to pull out all the stunts, all that twenty
years experience can give you. With that said, What a cold freaking night.

Hood: as the song goes, You can feel good about Hood, always, but as an opener, sweet, solid sections all leading up to the last with the crowd anticipating the explosion through the tension the song builds up.

Cavern: This song just gets you down and dirty, but what made it extra special were stumbled over lyrics, always makes me smile to see a mistake, if you
can even call it that, it only adds to the authenticity of the experience.

BOAF: with birds it seems, and it has seemed from the last few shows that we get a rise of energy from one song to the next, I found here that this was a
step down from Cavern, "it's easy sometimes when you just coast along"

Ya Mar: Then there it is, energy packed up in Ya Mar enveloping the audience, in the ocean of the audience the heads moved like waves splashing into one
another in a sort of orchestrated storm.

Horn: then we get slow, as we felt the rush coming from the previous song, so it gets subsided. But nice to hear a Horn again, which, without a segue,
moves nicely into…

Piper: Here, like Divided Sky, the hold of the tension, then the resulting
release, drives the listener crazy to the point of ecstasy. It's as if they were saying let's pick it up again, get em going for the ride. The song still
resonates in my head, tension release, tension-release, But...

Anything But Me: What Tom has done in Round Room with the lyrics is a new step for the band. The movement away from the absurd and surreal, has brought them into a different level. The metaphors these songs carry with them are universal themes, transcending time. But it sure slowed me down. People have compared Phish to the dead musically and lyrically. Not only is this unfair, it's
impossible, two different bands, two different times, yes they have attributes with run a current through both, a following, a joy in the music, etc...
anyways!?

Water in the Sky: Brings me right back to the cypress opener, such fun and happiness wrapped up tightly in this song, then a solid jam, and we are back.
The energy has been raised once again, not quite as high as you want it but its getting there.

DWD: BAM!!! Mike in the spotlight, bass solo- the whole band- back to Mike in the spotlight- All i can say is, there are 1000 barefoot children outside,
dancing on your lawn. That riff trey has, every time i hear it and i am sure you all know what i am talking about, just shocks my body, legs moving, heads
bouncing, To the right of the tapers right on the floor, i might of had the happiest group of people around me, all smiling at eachother, knowing somehow, without words what the other was feeling.

Then the 20th anniversary retrospective coming out of DWD, the screen drops as the band fades out, and we roll into what appeared to be a dorm room, tiny
apartment, or basement, with Fluffhead. Gotta love the hair on Mike and Trey. Fittingly the song is cut short before fluff's travels, and beginsa montage of
the last twenty years, an NO2, Marley dog, New Years, The Hot Dog, Halloween, small crowds, big crowds, no Crowds, Ha-lley's Comet, Ha-lley's Comet. The of
which equals "Phish's Travels, whether that was there intention or not.

So we break, security guard change, i felt bad for the guy, the new guy was too timid and on top of that his flash light wouldn't work. Thanks to him i got
a huge spot to dance. And maybe a chance to here my screams on a taper's copy of this show.

Set II
Rock and Roll: Classic Paige, solid rock n roll, bluesy, to say the least, and when Page screams in that high voice, "She started dancing to that fine fine
music, you know her life was saved by rock n roll" I just have to smile, Page has made this his own. Enough said.

Weekapaug: got blind sided by this one, but once i heard Mike, i was sure, The crowd got put on a roller coaster to star this second set, with nothing but
a straight drop down, in other words, the intensity raged at the fleet center, "And I'm Sharing in weekapaug groove. Just a nasty rendition, full of what
you want a solo Weekapaug to be.

Reprise: I turned to my buddy Sideburns during this one, we made eye contact, just pointed up at each other, then boom, Each song this set so far had
brought with it its special intense energy, reverberating through the crowd, and all of us who were at Albany were sure to feel that anticipation, knowing we
were going to find, magically in the middle of some set somewhere, a Tweeprise. But no, no, no, it just gets better.

Frankenstenin>Kung>Frankenstein: This was the highlight of the show for yours truly. Talk about a journey of musical escapades, being driven by music and almost unable to control what it does to you. It was in a Phrenzied Phan Phelt
Phervor that Phish hit Frankenstein, possibly, along with Kung, the most solid piece of musicianship of the night, maybe even the Thanksgiving run. For all
of us who shared one thanksgiving with our families, we were now sharing in another with our friends; with Phish, with something and someone special. Two
songs, at different poles, at opposite sides of the spectrum, come together, seamlessly, bringing spinning bodies and flailing arms into slow methodic rocking motions; a crowd in a trance at the beck and call of the band- and slowly------subtly-------skilfully------------BAM!!!! It's hard to put into words what
the music expressed so clearly and distinctly-we're back, we don't know where we went, But we are aware, but only after, that we were unaware cut out of this
fleeting space and time lost, if only for a moment, in something that is timeless, that is universal, that is constant. And you know it when you are head
deep in it, focused so intently. Not every song does this, not every show does this, but here we were privy to this display.

AOTD: Then we are slowed down, and i think the band needed it too. Comments on this refer back to Anything But Me.

The Wedge: So we begin again, still aware of that energy that flowed through our bodies, and we start to pick it up. I stopped for a moment and turned
around to face the crowd. All i saw were smiling faces, lips moving in unison, singing along. And we were "bobbing on the surface, and our shadow glides below"

Boogie On: I had been awaiting this song, i thought it was going to come as an encore, but i was not disappointed that it was earlier. That reggae beat
those dancing feet, hungry to hear more, and to be rocked. My fiance and i did our dancing together during this one, spinning eachother around and around, Just a fun song. Funky, exhilarating.

Cities: Cannot complain at all about this one,

Maze: Oh yeah. Fitting, not only to the Fleet Center, but to a career of a legendary band, who i hope is gonna be stuck in the maze for many years to come.

Waste: What a way to close the set. Although i would have liked to hear the band talk to the crowd, the one thing that i have learned in my decade with Phish is that message of freedom, happiness, anticipation, overwhelming joy, a sense of sadness, is all wrapped up, is all found in this music, and any day of
the year, i will, come waste my time with you. But further than just the band, the population of good people at these shows, this friendship and family are
something that i come to waste my time with.

Encore
Bug: There seems to be a lot of interpretations on this one. I am not going to say i know the answers, but I do think that they are right, on this special night, there is nothing more special than the night before, or three years before, it is all special, and we must appreciate all the days. not just because "it doesn't matter" but because, "nothing i see can be taken from me"

To be completely honest, when i left the show i was not as excited about the show as i am now (I really wanted Golgi). But I absorbed everything, reviewed
in my head and saw something special, I saw something magical, something
unique, and certainly something fleeting, but i have learned, since July of 94 at Sugarbush, that through music, not just Phish, but through music in general,
we are able to speak across language barriers, we are able to step back from the rugged day to day, we are able to experience something new, something always
evolving, and timeless, Phish does this so well
Happy Birthday guys

Matthew Golia