After multiple views from the couch and misaligned spring and summer schedules, I finally got the lady out to her first live Phish for three(!!!) days on the beach. She's hooked. Let's leave aside that N1 was just about the perfect first-timer show to experience what "all that jamming" is really about and talk about N3...

As the lady rightfully observed, every show was different and special in its own right. Tonight's flavor was specially calibrated to be *her* show, as a classically trained pianist. Page was all rage tonight and really got the spotlight in a way that tickled her ivories with the increase of composed sections in the Sunday show. I think that defines tonight for me too, the joy the boys had in executing so well what they've been playing for almost four decades. On Fluffhead in particular (what good version for her first listen) she kept looking around to confirm that her show neighbors were capturing the complexity of the sound. At one point mid-Fluff she leaned over and shouted "This is like a Mozart fugue!" The lady is not wrong.

She spent the morning watching a professional musician on YouTube break down YEM. Only three shows after Blossom, I was sure we weren't going to get one. So when the doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo arpeggio started, I yelled. That exceptional Wave of Hope (j'adore the extended treatment non-traditional vehicles are getting) into the YEM is really the meat of the second set and required listening for 2022. As others have observed, it's heartening and exhilarating that they're still finding new caves to explore in YEM, all these years later. The post-vocal jam began like warm butter and grooved our sandals right off our feet.

The Mountains and Wading were beautifully placed ballads and the whole show had clean and upbeat flow. Ocelot is always a joy and that Carini was extra screamy. If I had my druthers, we would have gotten an extended Mercury or Gumbo, but they can't all be Friday's show. All in all, it was a top-shelf weekend that sent us off with a bang on Sunday. Here's to hoping the AC run becomes a summer mainstay.