The rating of this show (currently hovering around 4.00) is bonkers. If 2024 Phish has taught us anything, it's to actually listen to the show instead of just rating it based on the setlist alone. In 2024 the song - any song - has become mere pretext to wildly exploratory and transformative jamming. This phenomenon has slowly been asserting itself since mid-2022, was reinforced all this summer, and got supercharged by the spectacular ambient set at Mondegreen. Need proof? How about Thursday night? Ether Edge (a song I have dismissed as Christian Rock-lite and might actively dislike) goes deep and thick in the first set and the second set explodes with 40+ minutes of Sigma Oasis>Pillow Jets. Setlist lurkers alone probably look at that and think "meh">"meh", but you'd be sadly mistaken.

Saturday showcases more of the same. The first set is so hot it feels much more like the third set of Friday's masterpiece. Every song is loose yet confident and ready for liftoff. 46 Days brings the wah soaked funk right off the bat in the jam. Oblivion blossoms and devolves and blooms anew. Evil Phish and bliss peaking in one package. The Gin is 19 minutes of fire. Maze features an incredible extended Page Peak. And MEAP finally gets the attention it deserves - well sung, well played - demolishing the final chord progression that has been begging for hose ever since it was written. Trey loved it so much you can very clearly hear him shout "yeah!" at 8:29. The floor at Dick's (Mike's side just behind the stack - respect the boogie yall) straight exploded.

You reviewers might not have loved it, but the second set opener of Cup is pretty stark evidence that the band thought they were doing just fine, thank you very much. What follows is another setlist reviewer blind spot - KDF>WGTYM. Or more like KDFalls Apart>WGTYMindf@&*k. At just under 26 minutes, the KDF jam is loose limbed, brave and spectacular. Multiple movements. Tempo changes. Fully formed passages built, deconstructed and scuttled for new ground. Then it all collapses into noise followed by a neat segue into WGTYM. Like many newer Trey compositions the song itself feels a bit too cute and on the nose, but it's just a jumping off point. They leave the song structure entirely and go industrial evil, nudging up to the effects laden jamming of Mexico 2024 and rising to a tidy peak before chording into C&P. Combined - 42 minutes of inspiration. And somehow if those exact same jams were in a DWD, Tweezer, Bowie or any other old school, tent pole jam vehicle, the .net would be raving about back to back all-timers.

Often in these reviews the reviewer mentions what's "worth" listening to. Howsabout we try listening to the whole damn thing? I know my brain got wired before the advent of a la carte music via Spotify, etc., but if you are rating a show it deserves your full attention. Looking at the setlist alone in 2024 gives you very little information about the quality of show itself. Many of the highlights of this show, and of the entire Dick's run, just don't stand out on paper. Cities. Ether Edge. Sigma Oasis. Pillow Jets. Steam. Oblivion. KDF. WGTYM. MYFY. SYSF. Not exactly crusty vet setlist magic. But these are the foundational jams of 3 1/2 nights of incredibly nimble and explosive music. Hell, even the outtro jam of Monsters has some extra sauce on it.

We have been extolled through the years to Read The Book. I'd like to add Listen To The Show to the mantra as well.

Thank you to the Texas crew, Maui crew, Cali crew and security personnel getting the bleep down at the floor entrance just to the right of the stack Mike's side on all four nights. Apologies to the chompers and standers that we joyfully and gently ushered past our collectively swirling mass.