This was another incredible show in the midst of the SEA > PDX > SF run that I was lucky enough to witness. Had a great time exploring the Seattle downtown (Pike's Place, Gum Wall, some great pizza and beer, and a lot of other little cool detours) with the Phishcord crew that I also met up with at Dicks and MSG 2024.

Got to my seat early this time. The concession prices are absolutely ridiculous at Climate Pledge so I brought in a bunch of little Fireball shooters instead. It was also Bicycle Day and so you knew Phish was gonna bring it and it was gonna be special that evening. I did indulge in the Bicycle Juice as well just a little

Free as an opener is always a good time - got the crowd into it. Bathtub Gin surprised me as I thought it would appear later in the set - this is a really good Gin. Clocking in at a touch over 20 minutes, it will definitely be jam-charted at some point and it departs from what you'd consider a "standard" Gin at this point and time. It also just provides more proof that things can just take off at any time in any set with they way they are playing (really ever since they came back in 4.0). I was thinking about the 11/9/1998 show with both the standout Free and Gins. Both N1 and N2 I believe each song in the first set was given extra juice. This is probably the most apparent with this version of EVOLVE. This is by far the best version of Evolve performed up until this time. It is one of the longest Evolves and really the only one I've heard with a substantial Trey solo during it. He was killing it and was animated during the Evolve and the crowd was feeding right back into it. I am a big Evolve-Head so you can take my word for it.

Stash that comes next was also a very good version - I wouldn't make any claims or rate it compared to any others, but it was very nice and did the job, I recall it getting fairly dark. Pebbles and Marbles came next and I was over the moon - it was my 21st or so show and first Pebbles & Marbles. Any time this song drops it is welcome and I thought it was a nice rendition, they were saving the gas for later in the show. The Farmhouse placement I like, maybe in early 3.0 it would have ripped out of a Down With Disease jam or something in the early third quarter but this was a delicate spot, not in the way of anything, and it was my favorite Farmhouse jam that I've seen in person - delicate, nice, and a bit extended. If you like Farmhouse it's worth seeking out. One of the things that marks 4.0 for me as well is just that Trey has gotten a lot better at song placement and selection and knowing when to drop the slower songs (song #3 of the entire MSG run, for example). Walls I always like and this was fun - we also got a Walls two years ago in Seattle and enjoyed it then as well.

Pretty sure my tab was kind of a dud at this point but I was nice and crossfaded anyway and didn't really need to go to outer space LOL. The second set is wonderful and I had such a good time during it. The Chalk -> Light -> Chalk is obviously the meat of the set, but the entire Chalk through Monsters stretch is a lovely slab of Prime Phish, and it was a blast. Light is a really good version, probably my favorite of the opening couplet. It does sound like they are teasing songs quite a bit during this run, perhaps a conscious decision. When they went back into CDT to end it, the crowd went wild (of course). Fuego -> Monsters is another bomb stretch, Fuego went hard and then a great segue into Monsters, one of my favorite new songs, this was a perfect spot for it. Piper and BDTNL were kind of exclamation points on the earlier exploration. Solid set for sure!

The encore was definitely interesting in a "weird" way - Sleeping Monkey is always sweet - I got one in the encore of my first show (10/17/14 Eugene) and then certainly an unexpected treat - MF MF next, a song that has gotten incredible treatment lately. They went dark with it real quick, and CK5 was showing off with the lights, it was very red and scary. An intriguing choice, almost like they deliberately went with it to go different - the first MFMF encore since 4/291993, which was the only other time it was in an encore, and this was the first time it closed a show. Definitely left us hooked as to what would happen next. This time after the show I stuck with my crew and we had a short sleep (some of did not sleep due to the acid) and then awoke for the next morning early to take the train down to my hometown PDX for the first hometown show in 26 years. What a run in Seattle - I hope they really enjoy this arena because I'd love to come back in 2027!