Best night of weather of the 3 nights- not as muggy! So it had that goin for it pre show. I was about 20 folks back from Fishman around 2 hours before showtime, just hanging and meetin' and talking with people i only see and new people i only meet at a show- and usually we only get to talk before the show! After it started we're all usually out there! And after we Phish off!!
One guy and his wife were at the '98 Van Andel show and i told them i saw them 4 days later in Tennessee and it sucked in comparison. They laughed...how could any phish suck?? Some of it does. A tiny bit.
Then about 5 or 6 people I knew showed up and made space next to the wiry, tireless, inventive, sun-craisin next to us who was scooping sand out of a 5 foot diameter circle so he would have a harder, more level surface to dance on- cuz about 2 feet under the sand is basically smooth, hard sand. The dude took up about a football teams huddle amount of space with all the excavated sand, but no one really cared. Except an ingenious fan who circled the dudes dancin' pit with glowsticks cuz sooo many walkers crumbled into it during the first set. Oh and the tunes.

My friends showed up with paper so i had 1, which kept me up til I got home the next night at 2am! Good stuff. But i only was on it for an hour before the show, so of course whatever they played first was gonna be weirdish and it was to me, as this is how i saw things, how i felt'em, what i thought. Just me! The Landlady! My first time hearing it as it once was, so that was happiness in papers weird form, no matter how janky the song was played at times. Then the first "OMAHA"! of the night with the S&SS intro into Moma! WELL PLAYED S&SS intro, too! That intro could soundtrack a scene of Shakespeare, ya know? The show had its first unforgettable moment. And the Moma was a helluva effort- extended to new sounds that showed why I come to shows still- their supreme improv. They're the best at it! The greatest. And the longer they play together the better they can be at it.
The Landlady nowadays is as slow as an elder landlady might walk, but the improv in Moma was as piercingly forthright as a landlady should be in order to be good at her job.
The Final Hurrah sounded like Blaze On, and it mighta been at first, or they mighta just hit an incorrect note or two. I like The Final Hurrah. I think it's amazingly arraigned and the lyrics are great melodic humor.
Hell yes it's Mike's. And a shimmering, gruff, worthwhile Mike's it was! So then the beauty of Hydrogen kinda reminded the drug to perform. What a song. Such eternal beauty!!! Off to Weekapaug for the Sock Hop! We danced.
Phish is about the only music I will actually dance to. So they owe me something for forcing FORCING me to embarrass myself like I do.
Fishman's "Yeaaa" vocal effect after Weekapaug was well timed.
They did The Sloth well. Love it. Been feelin' real outcasty as this pandemic continues.
Anyways, we now hear one of only two 1.0 songs I think have peaked in 3.0 and beyond. Roggae didn't have its best night on the swell Atlantic City shore, and neither did Carini (the other 1.0 song that got better- I feel hit it its peak at Dicks in '17. Idk which Roggae is my favorite, but it's definitely after 2008.)
Back On The Train is a fav of mine cuz I heard it on the radio in '00, right after the station played Zero- I was just passing through Montana when I heard it, and back home in Tennessee I had only heard any twice- Free on our college station in '97, and in 2000 i heard Heavy Things on the same station (but I count that as a Hanson cover

BOY!! A real nice YEM- especially the beginning 3 or 4 minutes while on the paper... is like hearing the music of a bunch of dead yet immortal lords of composers. The dude who was at Van Andel and I looked at each other and I had a huge deafening smile going as we shook hands for some reason as I muttered, "THEY STILL HAVE IT!!" He nodded goofily and we haven't spoken since!
Such as a setbreak is.
My friends and I spoke though! What about, I hardly know. But i do remember laughing. Hell yeah.
So then the best part of the show for me. The Carini jam put my mind in a nice space cuz the music was just so good, so damn goooood. I started to feel grateful. And lucky to be alive, unlike 3 friends I knew back home who died from Covid. One of them my uncle. I was surprised that I was feeling my way. But, this pandemic is unprecedented and being at one of my favorite places was quite the emotion. I took a chance even going, and everything worked out for the most part. I began to get some tears though, and they reminded me how powerful these guys' music is these days. Their art.

Then during Set Your Soul Free, a song I'm not likin' yet although I do usually enjoy its improv, I began hearing consistent talking. No talking during improv, please. Especially 2nd set-I might die/I might pass on a disease that dies ya/i spent too much money- improv. So after 5 minutes of on and off talking I just, for the first time in my life, turned around and asked, "could you please tell your story in 50 minutes or an hour, please?" The New Jersey accent was torturing my acid soaked southern ears, and how could 2 "pleases" not work? As I turned around I put my hands together like I was praying they'd stay quiet, and they did! Thank y'all.
My first time hearing Beneath A Sea of Stars was ok. It def needed quietness to work as a song. Being near the sound sweet section helped this tune- Mike's bass floated us around in a soothing bog.
That Piper rocked! The show did, too. It was my favorite of the 5 shows i saw this year. Oak Mt and n2 Alpharetta being the others.
If it sounds like I'm done rambling I am! Fluffhead was fine and dandy, but not as Phish because of their lack of flowing speed during the slightly impossible up and down parts in The Chase and Who Do? We Do! It didn't, to me, this night, have the same effect as it has in the past, but that's ok as can be! It's fuckin' Fluffhead!
In the moment I wanted something besides Number Line to end it, but within 30 seconds I was into it and all that is behind its history. It just takes being there, as the song and the surrounding joy of the crowd and band pointed my mind into remembering the good times with my uncle...
Thank you Phish.