I love Phish and all the shades they come in, but these days I prefer the shred. Not interested in frolicking or cruising, I want to dodge asteroids at high speed whilst face melting. The darker, the heavier, the stickier, the better.

There was a bliss segment of the Tweezer jam that was suddenly (and pleasantly) hijacked and trampled by orcs. The soft meadows and flowers were turned to ash with great vengeance and furious anger. It blew my hair off. As far as type II shred goes, the whole second set was phish crack. We’ve all have those moments when we were like “is it just me, or is this fire?” Judging the energy and faces of the crowd- it wasn’t just me. Not tonight at least.

Blast of an ending to easily one of the strongest overall runs I’ve seen. Wolfmans and Stash were solid highlights in the 1st and some of the tightest and most pumping versions in recent memory. Thread though was the real treat… true experimental jamming, with hints of darkness that even Trey had to mention how much fun they were having. Drift wasn’t everyone’s favorite closer but I enjoyed it as they injected some extra energy along with the bliss.

SYSF was a solid opener.. the TWEEZE>GHOST though… the whole segment was top shelf Phish. The Tweezer felt like a big boy birthed from the Bill Graham 30 minute one characterized by patient jamming and builds with some of the more intense and spaced out elements of the Manchester Tweeze fest. Adding on a perfect segue into an absolute rager of a Ghost, doesn’t get much better. A strong Golden age and I’m sure I wasn’t the only one thinking 4 song set… would’ve hit almost an hour 20. But LBAD, while I do like it.. did not seem the vibe. To the point that Trey even forgot how to start it. Slave was solid. The encore made up for any stumbles... Danceathon (the whole crew was chasing Turtle in the Clouds) into a Tweeprise that rattled the building. Cup is full once again goin into Philly. Can’t think of 3 shows in a row that were this memorable. Grateful.

While not achieving the heights of Saturday night, Sunday was still an excellent show. Returning to the type 2 style jamming of night one, said jams had a much more natural flow and consistent energy, especially in set one. The highlight of which was the "evil" jam out of Thread. It was obvious they were having fun before Trey confirmed it with the audience, "hope you has as much fun listening to that as we did playing" 🤣❤️ The other highlight of set one was the cover of Walk Away which caused the crowd to erupt!

Set two featured a great Tweezer > Ghost. The Golden Age jam meandered a bit but the energy level recovered with a strong Slave set closer.

The party out triple encore of Meatstick, Turtle In The Clouds and Tweezer Reprise was a feel good ending to an excellent weekend.

Weird 1st set with disappointing lows (how did Trey forget how to play Jim?) and very well played moments like the Wolfman’s, Stash and Walk Away with a few curious placements (Thread, 555, Drift While your sleeping as closer?)

What a difference set break apparently makes for our favorite 60yr olds because the 2nd set was pure fire. First SYSF of the tour into Tweezer was excellent make up sex and after 47 minutes of bliss, the segue into Ghost was perfect. Ghost and Golden Age were must listen to material before giving us a breather before a well played Slave to send the A+ crowd into happy land.

If you had Meatstick, Turtle in the Clouds in your encore bingo, congratulations to you. Super fun continuation of the 2nd energy into the greatest 3 minutes of music ever (reprise).

Congratulations to those of you who were there with me, that a ride we won’t soon forget (and it was more than an adequate make up for the last Sunday show played in Chucktown.

Dear Ernest,

I believe that you read these things. So I’m going to put this plea here instead of writing an old fashioned letter simply because I’m old and too lazy to do so. The guilt machine is also such a sloth creator; it’s just so damn easy to do it this way. Now that I got enough in to meet the minimum, I want to ask you to play Thread more. It rocks. They all do, but this version is extra “Thready.” You know it. It should have been in the regular rotation after it’s first performance, but it is not to late to atone for that. Don’t knock it until YOU try it.

You’re a genius anyways,

A Fan

A really enjoyable, if not a bit more chill, show for night three. Thread started out a little wonky, but Paige gave Trey a look and played a couple dark funky notes and they were off from there.

The highlight was the Tweezer (~30 min) through Golden Age for me, and the encore was supremely enjoyable. A great way to end three days with The Phish from Vermont!

Around 26:55 deep into the Tweezer sounds like a pretty good DEG jam…

Other notes this entire second set is legit, should have closed it with a GTBT. Ghost is “short” but stays minor and contains a pretty nice peak courtesy of Trey. Golden Age is a middling cover in my opinion but this version cooks with little wasted noodling.

Give the encore a chance, front to back - on paper it looks odd but man it is a killer.