SET 1: My Soul: Standard.

Mike's Song: Long one at 11 minutes plus and just super well played and has a sinister edge to it with great loops from Trey. The second jam is serene and beautiful. Definitely a major chord jam and has some bliss jamming. Outstanding version and to open a show this way surely shows intent to crush stuff.

Driver: Standard, seems pretty well received by the crowd. Could be perceived as a momentum killer after that strong Mike’s Song – but actually seems to fit pretty well.

Brian and Robert: Now this one does take the edge off of the momentum. I almost wonder if the band felt the crowd was too amped up in such a small venue and that the whole place needed to cool down? This in effect did that particular job:

The Wedge: The brings back a good bit of the energy that B & R squandered. This one is standard other than the slight difficulty with the intro.

Limb By Limb: The beginning of this jam starts off very quiet. The band gives this one a pretty decent ripping although there was plenty of room for more where that came from, but they let off that gas pedal. Decent version.

Fikus: LOL

Billy Breathes: Well, the momentum is definitely lost at this point – they will have to build it back up from scratch. Trey struggles briefly with the solo at the beginning but recovers and the rest is played as it should be.

Beauty of My Dreams: Standard.

Weekapaug Groove: They rip this solo ever so briefly and some nice trills from Trey, but I wouldn’t say that this is a notable version – it seems fairly average to me. But wait! There’s more…In typical Phish fashion instead of ending this one after the fairly standard solo they turn it over to Page and slow it way down and he gets a chance to get them into the funk zone. After that Trey thanks everyone for coming and lets us know how special it is to be back at UIC. Then, they give this one a proper ripping. At this point, I have changed my mind and would say that yest – this is a notable version. They play that second solo at basically double speed.

SET 2: AC/DC Bag: I would say we are officially type II in that mid to late six-minute range. In the late 13-minute range it almost sounds like they are about to go into Caspian. In the 15-minute range they are relying on heavy effects for a deeply psychedelic sound. At 18 minutes or so they come out of that effects laden segment and into what seemingly will be a triumphant, upbeat finish. This is a fake out as they never get back up to speed – this one just slowly peters out and into loops signaling the beginning of Ghost! ->

Ghost: Check out the backwards delay effect from Trey at 11 minutes and 20 seconds is this one of the first instances of the effect that was so heavily in rotation the following year? Sounds like it could have gone into Makisupa in the late 13-minute range. I really cannot describe this Ghost as notable – I believe it is below average to average.

Reba: Seems like kind of an average version to me – the peak sounds good from Trey but somehow the whole thing doesn’t seem as synced up as usual or as coordinated somehow in what we would see out of an above average or great version.

Farmhouse: Sounds awesome, very clean version. Enormous ovation from the crowd after this one is over with. Odd to close out the set with this though.

ENCORE: Guyute: Really, really strange placement in the encore slot IMHO. Little bit messy at the end.

While My Guitar Gently Weeps: In the second lyrical section Trey’s bungles the lyrics. Other than that this one is standard.

Summary: Well this was quite a show. I really love the Mike’s Song and feel like it is an all timer, quite frankly. Solid version of Weekapaug and that has replay value as well. AC/DC Bag is definitely very notable certainly for the length, but it just does not have what some of the great can offer such as 12.30.97 or 9.14.99. The jam is fairly subdued. I would rate the show as a 4.3 out of 5. Some serious jamming at this show! This was a great start to the three-night run.