Not a review, more an observation. Up early doing the laundry, decide to finally check out what happened at start of this mini tour. Read that they started with 46 Days. My brain immediately freezes up and I audibly go "Hmmmmm...".

I was at SPAC3. Sunday July 27th. "46 days and the coal ran out"..."47 days and the coal came home".

Mofos were on a 46 days hiatus since SPAC3 and returned to the stage on the 47th day. These mofos don't miss a trick. I've laughed my ass off all morning since. How can you not love a band like this. Through Wolfman's and so far they sound like they came ready to play. Hope y'all out there enjoy the tour, I'll be enjoying the replays.

They were slotted for 3 hours; first set was well played and festival-friendly, though short (65mins); intermission was also very short (19mins), and they ended up going about 10mins past the alloted end time
The 2nd set to me felt like about 50% pure improv, which blew me away under any circumstances, but particularly in a general festival setting. Granted, it was the end of a long day at a hot festival, and the effects of hours of partying and that i wasn't taking notes certainly must be factored here. . .

Festival sets often get mixed reviews and I thoroughly understand why. However, this show really had maybe two moments where they lost their groove.

Moma Dance and Free are always a welcome combo and Timber never disappoints so the band was definitely there to keep fans on their toes, as usual, and play for new listeners. Capping off the set with ADITL > Possum might just be my favorite first set closer I've seen all year. Given the bullshit going on in our country, ADITL hit me like a freight train, reminding me this is why I go out of my way to catch as much Phish as possible. Opening the second set with Sand is always fun and this was definitely a memorable performance. I immediately heard the Leaving On A Jet Plane tease and it brought the child in me back being a song we'd always sing at camp. Next up Chalk Dust even had its moments even though the songs kind of gotten old for me. Albeit short and sweet, the transition into Ya Mar was perfect and it most certainly had the audience singing along.

As for my soapbox on 2001, I've felt like it's gone back to its gimmick status as the bands excuse to let Kuroda get creative and do his light show. Whenever the song goes under ten minutes it kind of feels like an opportunity for the band to save their voices, but this was nonetheless a great version with Trey getting weird as usual. Making it even better, the band broke into a terrifying Carini which had the audience real spooked. I wonder what the new listeners thought of that one! And before you know it, it was time to feel good about hood.

Take it or leave it, the encore was really just for show and I'll dub it the "Sunday Football Encore" because you can hear snippets of those songs any Sunday if ball is your thing. I'm sure our die hard phans have mixed feelings about this show, but overall it was a great time and I was real happy to see Phish headline a festival that was not their own creation.