Another 20th anniversary listen for me. This one's the 6th highest rated show of all time on the dotnet! So let's get down to the nitty gritty, let's get this show on the road!

Set I starts off with a short yet face-melting Birds of a Feather. I haven't heard much versions of Birds, but this one's gotta be one of my favorites so far. It packs so much intensity in just 8 minutes that I couldn't even imagine how the crowd must've felt hearing that as the first song of the whole show. And if that wasn't enough, next up is Destiny motherfuckin UNBOUND. While that song may just be an ever-so-often first set filler tune nowadays, back then it hadn't been played in over 12 years! Almost 800 shows! Not only a bust-out, but a bust-out in demand (most notably heard at the start of the Hampton Halley's in 1997.) Folks wanted this song and they got it, with the band playing it without any rusty gears left inactive since fall 1991.

This bust-out was then followed by a quick and nice rendition of "Horn", which isn't the biggest song of this set but that riff makes up for it anyways. After Horn the band goes all out early on a 21-minute Bathtub Gin that rocks into the cosmos. If you told me that Gin came from a fall 1997 show I wouldn't even notice the difference. The band takes a little breather afterwards with the calm little number Sleep, a favorite of mine. After taking a break from melting close to 15,000 brains, the band revs things up again with the bluesy rocker Back on the Train. Like most BOTTs, this one doesn't go too far in its 12 and a half minutes, but it keeps energy tight and folks focused. Well-performed crowd favorite Bouncing Around the Room keeps everyone up as well, and then the band goes into a final detour with new Round Room tune Walls of the Cave. I don't think I've heard this one before, but fucking WOW. I wasn't expecting this one to be so proggy and exciting, especially for this era of their songwriting. Easily my favorite part of this set.

Once Phish come back on stage and the crowd roars into excitement, they get hit with the TWEEEEEEEEZAAAA!!! Much like the surprise YEM show opener from the night before, the band easily woos everyone by keeping these dope tunes at the start. But this isn't just any average Tweezer, I'm afraid; The band takes no time at all to exit the fan favorite, and slowly segues into a dark buildup that evolves into a beautiful peak around the 16-minute mark. Yet somehow, it just isn't over yet. Once Trey's done with that excellent riffing peak, the band falls into a sort of unpredictable mania that decays into a dark void. 27 minutes. WOAH.

A bust-out on a much smaller scale occurs shortly after this, the return of Bob Marley's "Soul Shakedown Party", a tune that was tried out twice in Europe six years beforehand in 1997 and then immediately shelved. I liken this strange change of tone to Jerry and the boys closing out an intense, absolutely historical 30-minute Dark Star with a segue into the goofy Marty Robbins cowboy tune "El Paso", 30 years prior on a farm in Oregon. When I first heard Amsterdam, a box set that starts with the debut of SSP, I had completely cringed with this tacky attempt at the song, much like people that hate Phish would whilst listening to one of their normal songs. On this Soul Shakedown Party, they happen to do some interesting reggae jamming for a bit, and that's where I learned to keep calm and sink into the white trash. At the end of this bust-out you can hear them get a little bored, which is when Fish suddenly transitions into the intro beat to "David Bowie". The rest of the band follows suit, and we are treated to what is possibly the last great Bowie the band ever did. This Bowie melds the straightforward rage that defines the 94-95 classics with some sweet 2.0 darkness.

Next up on the docket we're treated with the rather new Mike tune "Round Room", a song that was trialed twice before on this tour, and would be performed once again before being shelved for the remainder of 2.0, only returning twice after Phish's comeback in 2009 as of writing. Likewise, you can tell the band is struggling a little to make this song come to life. However, halfway through we're treated with a nice tiny ambient jam that has already made its way into my playlist. I would've wished for this one to go out a little longer, but oh well. After getting the hint that the audience may not enjoy "Round Room" as much as "David Bowie" or "Tweezer", the band makes amends by launching into the classic "Harry Hood". Like many good Hoods, this Hood isn't necessarily much of a jam more than it is extremely well played. Yet even after ten years since the glory days of Hoods and Slaves and YEMs, I'd still recommend having a fire extinguisher on stage.

After a minute or two, the band comes back for a finishing encore, starting with the goofy novelty tune "Contact", followed up with the just-as-dumb "Mexican Cousin", a somewhat triumphant tune that works really well in this encore slot (even if it is nothing but a terrible, stupid ode to Latin liquor.) And then out of nowhere, a SLICK -> to TWEEPRISE!! BADASS first set BADASS second set BADASS encore BADASS show. YEAHH!!!