I've been obsessed with the Gamehendge saga for decades. Being a fantasy and concept album fan, Trey's college thesis is a fun romp filled with wild characters. Sadly, my first Phish was a year after the last performance of the suite. So I've been essentially chasing the white whale since 1995, making and posting mixes, hunting pins, shirts, buying prints by phan artists, the ranger gear, etc, etc, -- calling it as a possibilty at various shows over the years while friends said "not gonna' happen" -- holding out hope.

Hope rewarded.

Since I saw the t-shirt design with Madison Square Garden transformed into a castle, I knew this was the show. I mean - they telegraphed it - sort of in the way last year's had lyrics to "Ghost" on it. They even did a last second merch drop of some "Save Gamehendge" socks!

The first set started with "Everything's Right" (just hold tight!), a nice "Tube" and an awesome performance of Trey's "Ether Edge" - followed by "Reba" - the first Gamehendge related song of the night. A couple of Ghosts Of The Forest songs followed, capping off the set with a "Character Zero."

After set break, Phish launched into "Down With Disease" -- and then the fun really began.

They started in on "Harpua" a rarity played 4 times in the last decade, and... another Gamehendge related song. Half way through the song, a bed emerged from the stage featuring actors playing Jimmy and his grandmother (played by actress Annie Golden) who began telling him about how the man who owned Harpua was also the same man who gave Esther the doll in her eponymous song as well as the one who helped Reba make liquid meat. The stage then transformed into a giant Rhombus framing the band and it was official - we were seeing the first Gamehendge since 1994.

Actors, dancers and puppets brought beloved characters of Colonel Forben, Tela, Rutherford The Brave, The Sloth, McGrupp, The AC/DC Bag, Errand Wolfe (my namesake here played by the amazing Jo Lampert), a multibeast and the Famous Mockingbird (which unfortunately ran out of juice and softly "crashed" into the crowd before the final theatrical handoff of the Helping Friendly Book.)

The suite included all of the original songs from Trey's "The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday" thesis (with the exception of "Possum" which showed up at the end of the final set), as well as later add-ons to the saga like "Punch You In The Eye," "Llama," "Divided Sky" - but sadly, no "Icculus" which has actually never been performed as part of the "official" Gamehendge sets. So maybe it was never intended to be played, or it got nixed at the last moment because of the Mockingbird malfunction.

Everything sounded great and the work Phish put in really showed. They threw in some sonic twists - cool reverbs, backing vocals, etc to really punch it up!

There were other add on songs not played, of course, like "Esther," "Axilla" (part II was played on Thursday) or "Kung." Either way, it was a absolute dream come true and a game changer in how some of us view the future. After having such a longed for, fervent dream granted -- part of you is like... "what now?"

After midnight, the Lizard dancers retook the stage as a "volcano" erupted and they were pulled down during "Split Open And Melt" and the Rhombus receded. As the crowd reeled from the experience, Phish rounded out the set with a rousing "You Enjoy Myself," "Loving Cup" and the aforementioned "Possum" with an encore of "Cavern," "First Tube" and "Tweezer Reprise," keeping the rager going to the last minute!

I'm still processing this one, but it's going to live on as one of my favorite Phish experiences. Thanks to the band, my friends who were there for it, the crew, the crowd... just everyone.

What a beautiful buzz, indeed!