Wow - let me start off by saying that N1 was quite the trip in a number of ways. We started our day in Richmond and meandered down counting the cars with likeminded stickers, and even picked up a fellow phan in need of a ride on the way down. We grabbed lunch at The Blue Apron, and it is highly recommended if anyone is in need of a solid stopover on the way home. To begin with, the music was absolutely peak Phish. My (new) husband and I just got married last weekend and decided that Hampton, Virginia would be a nice place for a mini-moon…which looking back is one of the funnier decisions I have puppy dog eyed my way into.

Our friends who couldn't join us had called Fluffhead opener earlier in the day, and the vibes were high when that call was right. You always know it's going to be a great show when you look around and everyone in the arena is right on cue, and the energy was instantly almost tangible - the mothership was taking off. After a very crisp fluffhead, the coal ran out and we got a nice 46 days. There's a moment that My Friend, My Friend wants me to think it’s a different song entirely, but this time I wasn't fooled. It's pretty apt that Phish played it last night, as unconfirmed rumors swirled about an incident on lot earlier in the day.

The lore of Hampton obviously goes back to the days even far before Phish. The Dead performed 21 concerts at Hampton between 1979 and 1992, and Phish is at 24 now if I'm counting correctly. The Mothership is really something. She ain't been changed in any way since probably the opening day in 1969. Whatever magic is contained in these walls, it is very well preserved. I want to give a big shout out to all the staff who absolutely crushed it in the chaos as phans from across the country descended upon you in a cloud of gemstones, donuts, and sparkle.

While game respect game Hampton, please for the love of anything you hold dear, we need more bathrooms and more water stations. Those mobile ones they had at Folsum were truly game changing for the staff and attendees to decrease strain.

Back to the music! As always, Rift's twangy call got us hopping around and hollarin. Souls ignited, we went right into the hot hot hottest of soups, Gumbo. Now, we've been calling any good music hot soup for a while now, and this Gumbo was in fact, hot soup. The perfect reminder that soup season is upon us, and a call for cozy nights spent with friends reminiscing about summer tour and planning the next trip (rumors I hear of Japan….again).

There are certain Phish songs that are magic and Pebbles and Marbles is one of them. We all know the feeling of a brain worm, something a friend said at one point and it stuck and it changed the course of our life. I can think of a few people that have had that impact on me and my mind always wanders to how fickle and funny and blessed life and its choices are.

We then meandered our way through Army of One, got a fun tell em like it is moment with Ya Mar, and did I think this was going to be set? Yes! Was it? As we know now…absolutely not.

I love the Wedge and was jazzed to hear them sing about two car garages. And then, the Walls of the Cave. You ever see a song and then see it again at some other point in time and it's like all the other times you've seen it before don't exist? That's what this Walls of the Cave was for me. What a special treat it is to see them have so much fun with that song, and the crowd vibes at this point were between astonished high fives and just hands on heads wondering how it could be this good.

And that's set folks. We were talking at set that we think they were just having so much fun up there that they forgot to take a break. But we all needed that break, and we went off to stand in our various lines that seem to make up so much of the Hampton experience. Shoutout out to the wonderful man from Vermont who birds with his daughter…I hope you get rain soon!

Ready to go for Set 2, the opener was Energy which is quite the perfect choice for what was contained in the mothership. And then……the Tweezer. Those opening chords hit and everyone knew it was about to be something special.

There was a lot of things that happened in the Tweezer. If you were a first time show-goer and you stepped into the freezer last night, can I just say that was ARTIC. My friend decided to send her aunt a birding postcard, I thought about my life's paths up until this point, Anthony mapped out his future….one of those jams where you get lost in the sauce and the music takes you to all good places. The Phish were all really shining through on this one and you can hear what they each add clear as day. Mike was feeling the funky groove, Trey is peacocking, Fishman is in back holding it together, and Page needs to be turned up because I always need more Page in my life. The absolute lock in that we experienced during this Tweezer is truly unparalleled. Go take a listen or relisten if you haven't yet.

We then touched the stars with our fingertips and swam on up into a nice and bouncy Ruby Waves. Keeping it going into a singalong No Mans land but then…back into Tweezer. Again, so many things happened during that Tweezer, y'all. To cool it us down, we wasted some time together, as to reminisce on my recent nuptial's and the thought of wasting time with my beloved.

To close off Set 2 we got an electric old timey Rock and Roll that again really just teleported you to another time of housewives in the living rooms dancing with the vacuums. A little break and we were then ready for encore.

I have been a Narnia fan for my entire life and it was the first fantasy bookset ever given to me by my Papa, so Prince Caspian is always a treat. If the song isn't based on the books, I don’t know another reference so fill a girl in. Bug is always and forever one of my favorites, and it really just doesn’t matter. As we were packing up to go, counting it as one of the best niights ever, the Boys from Vermont did it again and wholloped us with Tweeprize. Like damn, its like you know what you're doing.

And that’s a wrap. The roses are always free.