Bakers Dozen, Night 7 (Cinnamon Glazed) - Phish at MSG, July 29, 2017

 It still feels so weird to me when I type these post titles with "Phish" and "2017" in the same line.  Ten years ago, I would have never thought it possible. Yet here we are, and the fact that the band's playing is top notch - definitely as well as their lauded late '90s years - is practically a miracle.  

More than anything, the eighth show of this Baker's Dozen run felt like a lesson from Phish, similar to 12/31/13, the culmination of four shows with neither cover songs nor repeats; when the only gimmick was to play a set of their '80s material in the middle of the arena floor. The lesson is, was, and always will be that it is Phish what makes a Phish show great.  Gimmicks are fun, but in the end, what counts is that the band delivers the goods.

So after the pre-show Woodstock parody message on the PA ("Don't eat the brown doughnuts!") all that speculation about Phish covering Neil Young's "Cinnamon Girl" for the first time in 20 years, or how they may even surprise us and do Prince's different song of the same name, or even my sudden thought of the possibility of the Butthole Surfers' "Pepper" (a popular '90s song that mentions "cinnamon and sugar") had to be put on the back burner when the band came out swinging with the first fast-tempo "Llama" in three years. In much the same way, the set also featured a return to the uptempo "Water in the Sky" since they returned to the original '97-era slow country approach last year. 

Sure, the set featured standard versions of "Ya Mar", "Vultures", "Train Song"and "Horn", but with the exception of latter with some rough struggling from Trey, they were all executed in a way that let the fans simply enjoy the show.  It did not have to be anything more than that. Beyond those, the rest of the set's songs - old and new, rare and tried-but-true - found a renewed freshness in simple ways: the extended mouth-drum break in "Wilson", the solo-guitar opening of "Stealing Time From the Faulty Plan" (OK, so Trey flubbed a lyric), the more powerful than usual end of "The Line", and the thousand-times-more-powerful-than-that coda to "I Am the Walrus" that had Chris Kuroda destroying us with his incredible light show. 

Plus, we had the first "Tela" since last year's Hartford show and only the fourth performance of "The Birds" ever.  Fun fact - I have been to 136 Phish shows; since my first show they have played "Tela" 38 times and "The Birds" four times. Yet I have seen both twice.  Weird.

Set two was a real smoker that opened with an enormous "Blaze On" jam that was right up there with the version that rang in 2016 in that very venue and a "Harry Hood" that proved the oldies can still soar to the heavens.  In between, the only songs older than the three-decade-old "Hood", "Alumni Blues" and "Letter to Jimmy Page", were as much fun as ever. Even "Twenty Years Later" which has a history of not quite achieving liftoff in its 10/4 time signature coda found its sweet spot and hit it hard and heavily. 

And though "Meatstick" was fun(ky), the fact that nobody (except Gloria and me) actually does the dance anymore was almost as frustrating as the misplaced "Dirt" that followed.  Still, even "Dirt" had a lovely ending that, to my ears, teased the "Hood" to come (along with the very "Hood"-like jam in "Meatstick").  

So by the time the encore of "Cinnamon Girl" happened, it was almost unnecessary.  By that point, the facts that the song had not been played by Phish since 1997 and was the sole tie-in to the night's doughnut flavor was secondary to the fact that Phish played an excellent Phish show. Let that serve as a reminder to all. 

Oh, there was one more thing - thanks to the keen ears of my friends John and Meredith, "Pepper" was the first post-show song on the PA.

Baker's Dozen, Night 6 (Double Chocolate) - Phish at MSG, July 28, 2017

According to my friends, Meredith and John, who had been checking social media to see the song predictions for the night's flavor of double chocolate, we were not the only ones that had "You Sexy Thing" by Hot Chocolate on the brain. It was an obvious choice - right in Trey's wheelhouse of classic '70s soul.

But who could have predicted the ridiculous mid-'00s internet sensation "Chocolate Rain"? (No one.) As an a capella opener, complete with moving their mouths away from the microphone to take a breath?!

As the rest of the band took to their instruments, Fish stayed at the front mic for just a little while longer to sing his awesomely silly "Ass Handed" (my first time seeing him do it!). Once again, Phish proves that dads in their 50s can still be wacky and have fun. These guys are definitely not phoning it in.

As if to drive that point home, they proceeded to play a set that combined the tight execution of difficult composed material in "Weigh", "The Oh Kee Pa Ceremony" and "Divided Sky"; the simple, rock out jams of "Free" and "The Dogs"; and surprises such as "Undermind" (which is not a big surprise for most people, but for some reason I keep missing it - seriously, I have see them play "Ride Captain Ride" and "No Quarter" more often) and "Destiny Unbound". Ending the set with the cute "Things People Do" and the deep funk of "Sand" gave this set the feeling of a mid-'90s super-Phish show (when they would cram a little bit of every style and genre into their shows).

Busting out "Have Mercy" at the start of Set II is one of those moves in which the song selection, not the actual song, sets the tone - in this case indicating that even almost halfway into the Baker's Dozen, with zero repeated songs (about 100 played), anything can happen and any song is on the table.

That said, next up  was "Chalk Dust Torture", which is still my most frequently seen song - more than 50 of my 137 shows. The great thing about "Chalk Dust" is that it can still astound after all these years (7/13/14 comes to mind), and this one did so by keeping the middle solo section short before hitting the final chorus, and then taking off into a big jam.

As expected, "You Sexy Thing" appeared and its delicious chocolatey groove had us dancing with delight. To make things even better, the second  performance of "Mercury" in the Northeast (prior to the previous week's Pittsburgh show, the closest the song ever got was South Carolina) finally let me experience this fantastic piece if music in person. The segue back into "You Sexy Thing" put the exclamation point on the sequence.

Usually, when Phish brings out "Backwards Down the Number Line" to end a set, it comes after a set of songs that already killed and just serves its purpose with a decent climax. Not only did this "Number Line" stand tall on its own, but it did not even end the set as "Rock and Roll" (the third Velvet Underground song of the run) instead capped it off with more of the high energy this set had been cranking out.

I am not really a big fan of "Fee" anymore, so the encore seemed like it would not do anything to move the needle either way on my opinion of the show, but when they brought out the barbershop quartet arrangement of David Bowie's "Space Oddity", it proved once again that these dudes have been practicing. The harmonies, shaky throughout the 2016 performances of the song, were much better - as good as a rock band composed of middle-aged guys playing in Madison Square Garden can be, anyway.

Like that super-dedicated employee character in those old Dunkin Donuts commercials, Phish is obviously taking the extra time to put the work in when it is "time to make the doughnuts."

Baker's Dozen, Night 5 (Powdered Sugar) - Phish at MSG, July 26, 2017

The doughnut of the day was billed as "traditional powdered sugar".  Gloria speculated on the sugar angle ("Sugar Shack" perhaps, plus a zillion possible cover songs?).  My friend Jim took a darker approach to the "powder" aspect with allusions to Trey's past addictions - "Casey Jones" and, more on the nose (so to speak), "Cocaine"?

My good buddy aLi, who attended the show with me on Wednesday, was hoping for something that leaned more toward the "traditional" description - a show filled with old-school Phish - perfect for the Nineties Phish gal she is.  Maybe a classic "Mike's Groove" or an "Alumni Blues -> Letter to Jimmy Page", or any of those other old tunes Phish played in the '80s, early '90s, and on top of the truck in the middle of MSG on 12/31/13.

Instead, we got a lovely a capella of an opener that neither of us recognized, followed by a pretty standard show.  But at least it was a standard show to which we could dance, what with "Cars Trucks Buses", "My Soul", "The Very Long Fuse" (which has only been played once each year since its debut on 10/31/14), "Gumbo" and a long, funkified set-closing "Tube".

There were also the ascending chords of "Roses Are Free" to get us all fired up and the surprising (and well-played) return of "Pebbles and Marbles" after a three year absence, but not everything was fantastic.  "Farmhouse" was just OK (remember when I used to get totally jazzed about that song?) and this was my sixth time hearing "Yarmouth Road" which I still do not like.

Set 2, however, was a lot more like the previous night's show.  Sure, Tuesday was the jam-filled night, but you can not have a show like that and then close the door and walk away.  Instead, you start the set with the kind of "Carini" that we have come to know and love - a so-so song that leads to a sick, sick jam.  After 15 or so minutes, I could see and hear (from great seats on the side of the stage) Fish start playing the unmistakable beat to "Mr. Completely" and sure enough, the band launched into it. After being a staple of the Trey Anastasio Band for many years, but only attempted by Phish once (7/15/03) no one would have expected it to come back into the Phish fold again - let alone twice in as many weeks. But then, why not?  As a vehicle to allow the kind of jamming that Phish does best these days, it makes total sense. 

What made less sense was the return of Prince's "1999" for the first time since its debut on 12/31/98 (though I am definitely not complaining - the trade-off vocals and funky groove were wonderful to hear).  But what made even less sense than that was the way the song dipped down and turned around a bit and became another big 10-minute jam that peaked into the 3.0-standard bliss jam.

About that - aLi mentioned that they played three songs in a row with the "exact same jam" and there is truth in that.  But everyone (including the band, I would bet) knows that this is something Phish does particularly well these days (better than ever, in my opinion), so why not exploit it to its fullest.  Clearly, the crowd loves it because every time Trey peaks and Chris throws open the big white lights, everyone is ecstatic in the joy of the music.

"Steam" is always a delight to hear, but this version seemed a little to fast and not slinky and sexy like previous performances.  Though I still enjoyed it, I could see that steam was something aLi seemed to be losing (and I so wanted her to have a good time!), so I figured the segue into "No Quarter" would get her jazzed because she loves Led Zeppelin.  Instead, she said, "I would have preferred ANY other song from 'Houses of the Holy'."  D'oh!

No one, however, could be glum with the straight-up house-shaking rocker of "Character Zero" to close the set.  And the encore was another big rocker.  Though I did not recognize it (while many in the crowd did!), I pointed out that it sounded very Neil Young-ish.

So much for the flavor theme, then, huh?  What did all this have to do with powdered sugar doughnuts?

It turns out the opener was "White Winter Hymnal" by Fleet Foxes and the encore was, indeed, a Neil Young song called "Powderfinger".  So there you go.  There is your theme.

But that point was moot.  What mattered most was that it was another damn fine show, the fifth night with zero repeated songs and enormous happy jams from the greatest, and most creative and fan-friendly band that ever set foot in an arena. 

Baker's Dozen, Night 4 (Jam-filled) - Phish at MSG, July 25, 2017

Never miss a Sunday show?  Feh.  Try this monster of a Tuesday show on for size.

If you want proof that Phish can still get wacky, that they can still create jams that hold up to their classic era from the Nineties, and that they can surprise you at almost every turn, listen to this show.  Now.

While some of our speculations for the jam-filled flavor of the night were based on the "honey and raspberry" qualifier - leading us to expect songs like "Raspberry Beret" and "Honey Pie" - this show made good on the singular promise of a show that was, indeed, full of jams.

"But wait," you say, "does Phish not always jam?  Is not every night a jam-filled night?  How was this different?"

In the first two minutes, things did not seem different at all.  A "Sample in a Jar" opener sure seems like the start of a pretty normal show.  But then...left turn...after the bridge, instead of resolving to the tonic of "A" for the chorus, a jam appeared out of nowhere in the transitional "E," and it went on for several minutes before a remarkably tight return at the end.

Well!  That was unexpected.  After picking my jaw up off the floor, I watched as Page came out front to croon "Lawn Boy", and the same thing happened again - the bass solo section finished and, instead of returning to the chorus, Page started playing his keytar and a jam ensued.  And the jam went on...and on...until it did not resemble "Lawn Boy" at all.  

For more than a half-hour, the jam ebbed and flowed, with peaks and valleys. Gloria and I had the good fortune of obtaining floor tickets for this show. Every note was crystal clear, and every twinkle and flash of Chris Kuroda's lights looked amazing.  Plus, we could see the facial expressions of the guys in the band and we could not stop noticing what a happy camper Trey was.

Things normalized a little with a mostly standard "Stash", but still bigger than usual jams in "My Friend, My Friend" and "Bathtub Gin", the latter with a huge jam that had me grinning ear to ear so hard that my face started to hurt.  And with that, Phish ended its first five-song Set I in God-knows-how-long, and the best first set since 7/4/12.

Set II got off to a promising start with the first half of "Fuego", but got shaky with a jam that never really hit the mark or took off properly; and its segue into the second performance of new song "Thread" did not make things get much better.  "Thread" is an interesting tune in a weird meter; and while it seemed to work last week in Chicago, it seemed to stumble over itself at this show.

But the course was corrected when they launched into a "Crosseyed and Painless" that was so good (and long, at 33 minutes) it reminded me of the excellent and truly memorable version from 12/31/99. The segue into "Makisupa Policeman" was fun, but the real treat for dorques like me was the live debut (finally!) of "End of Session", from 1998's The Story of the Ghost album.  Closing the set with a wildly peaking "Tuesday" (which was also played last Tuesday in Dayton, Ohio, natch) and the always reliable "Cavern" left everyone in the place sufficiently sticky from the sweet jam filling.

But oh, that was not all.  Sure "Julius" still suffers from being slow and dragging and lacking any oomph whatsoever, but it is still a fun time when you are there in the house.  

And the gooey icing on the cake (frosting on the doughnut?) - the final chord of "Julius" crashed into the ending of "Lawn Boy", to bring to a conclusion the unfinished tune from almost three hours prior.  It was a satisfying, hilarious and awesome way to end the most creative and daring Phish show of the 3.0 era.  

You can have your Sunday shows.  Sign me up for another Tuesday.

Baker's Dozen, Night 3 (Red Velvet) - Phish at MSG, July 23, 2017

I have never understood the whole "Never miss a Sunday show" thing. The ratio of shows that have blown me away on Sundays to shows that have blown me away on any other day of the week is pretty even.  

This particular Sunday show was good.  Very good.  The weakest of the three so far, but very good, nonetheless. 

The "red velvet" flavor theme secured an appearance of "Wading in the Velvet Sea" and some Velvet Underground.  While I figured the choice VU song would be tried-and-true "Rock and Roll", we were treated to a debut of "Sunday Morning", complete with Fish playing frontman (with Trey on drums) dressed as a bishop and sprinkling holy water on the crowd and a kneeling-while-playing-a-bass-solo Mike Gordon.

After that opener, it was down to business, though it seemed like business as usual. I certainly will not complain about a well-played "Axilla" or "Glide" or even "Theme From the Bottom", and I do love to shake my tail to "Your Pet Cat"; but the Mike Gordon tune "How Many People Are You" (better than "Yarmouth Road" and "Waking Up Dead", but not as good as "555" and "Let's Go") went on a little too long without a good payoff and "It's Ice" went on much, much too long while meandering about and getting nowhere.

Still, the set had merits.  "Back on the Train" had a jam that flew off the tracks and into the air, peaking perfectly in its patient but elevating 10 minutes. And the set-closing "More" was a climax that shook the whole arena. Truly a highlight, even for my friend, Alan, who is not a Phish fan but attended his first show out of sheer curiosity and an appreciation for all types of music.

Unfortunately, the second set was much like the first.  There was greatness - check out the huge jams in "Wolfman's Brother" and "Twist" - but sometimes things fell a little flat (a lot flat, with the sluggish "AC/DC Bag"). While "Waves" showed potential, it did not deliver much of interest until things started getting weird and spacey.  As it wound through some wild soundscapes (much like the previous night's "Melt"), it would have been a perfect time to segue to "2001".  Instead we got a misplaced "Miss You" and a funky but standard "Boogie On Reggae Woman", that suffered from Mike's bass being way too low in the mix.

Still, the encore was "Sweet Jane", a VU song that Phish had not played in five years.  It rocked with such ease, and the crowd was so into it (I was behind the stage again, so I could see the incredibly happy reactions of the fans on the floor), that I could only wish that more of the rest of the show, instead of the handful of highlights, would have been this good.  

A bad show?  Not on your life.  But the bar has been set pretty high with the Baker's Dozen and this one came out just a bit undercooked.

Baker's Dozen, Night 2 (Strawberry) - Phish at MSG, July 22, 2017

As soon as the doughnut flavor of the day - strawberry - was posted, my friends (John and Meredith) and I started guessing the opener of Saturday night's show.  My pick was "Strawberry Fields Forever".

Though I was correct, I did not anticipate that Phish would do it a capella barbershop style.  Which they did.  And they nailed it.

At least I think so.  Like I said in my previous post, those acoustics in MSG are very forgiving.

"Halley's Comet" kicked the set off proper, with its line about "thick strawberry goo" getting a wave of cheers. The rest of the set contained some damn fine uptempo rocking and swinging with "Funky Bitch", "Mound" and "Foam", but the big jams came in "The Moma Dance" (natch) and "Breath and Burning" (surprise!). "Roggae" took it down with a low-key and pretty jam and "The Squirming Coil" ended the set on a beautiful (as usual) Page solo.

Not even the drunk guys next to me, constantly trying to talk to me throughout the show - one raved about his fishing trip to South Carolina and how hard it was to find drugs in New York City, the other about living in Doylestown, Pa., and his upcoming wedding - could ruin that set for me (though the latter guy trying to sing the harmonies, caused the person behind us to shush him).

The second set opened with "Down With Disease" which is a typical, natural, predictable thing to do...and it pretty much works every time.  The jam was joyous and peaking, and had me dancing up a storm for the entirety of its 19 minutes before the night's doughnut theme continued with the old Brothers Johnson R&B tune "Strawberry Letter 23".  "Birds of a Feather" was enjoyable, but it was the 10 minutes of nonstop groove in "I Always Wanted It This Way" (a 'Big Boat' favorite of mine) that had me shaking my booty like a dancing fool. And how about those lights from Chris Kuroda!

I have long been a big defender of the 'Round Room' ballads, and to see my first "All of These Dreams" since 2004 was a treat. Though I really, truly tried to get into "Split Open and Melt", it was another case of the dark, noisy, 3.0 "Melt" jam with impressive sonic soundscapes that would have thrilled me much more if it was in any other song.  The big redeemer, though, was the segue back into the coda of "Down With Disease".  If you know me, you know I love bookends, so the set could have ended there and I would have been a happy camper.  But a decent "Shine a Light" (not the best, but not the mess of the prior Chicago performance).  

Just as the previous night's "Mango Song" encore eliminated any future of a mango doughnut flavor, this show's encore of "Peaches en Regalia" gave us no hope for some peach in the coming weeks.  On the plus side, it was well played and was only the first in a rare three-song encore.  "Cities" and "My Sweet One" kept the energy high right up to the very end. 

Another remarkable show in what is already shaping up to be a memorable run.  Sorry, rest of the world, but Phish playing in New York City for 13 straight shows turned out to be a damn sweet idea.

Baker's Dozen, Night 1 (Coconut) - Phish at MSG, July 21, 2017

Sometimes you have to be there. 

The energy in the crowd was intense as the lights went down and Phish came to the stage for the first of 13 nights at Madison Square Garden, opening the show to thunderous applause with "Shake Your Coconuts," a song by Junior Senior. Even though I am pretty sure that almost nobody watching (at home or in the arena) had ever heard the song before, it got us sufficiently excited because it is a ridiculously silly and fun song in which Trey altered the lyrics to say "It's Baker's Dozen time!"

Plus, it solidified the doughnut theme of the series. Prior to the show, Phish tweeted that they were giving away free doughnuts to early comers at each show and the featured flavor on the first night was coconut. Would they play a flavor-themed song each night?  Who knew? 

There would be time for speculation later because after the insane fun of "Shake Your Coconuts", it was time to rock with "Martian Monster", a song they had played a few nights before.  That answered my previous question about the "no repeat summer" theory, and though it was slightly disappointing, it also did mean that I got to rock out to a heavy duty "Martian Monster" and that everything else was on the table, too.

Throughout the first set, the continued electrified energy between band and audience made songs like "Timber (Ho!)", "555" and "Pigtail" that much more of an exciting experience.  Were the coda to "Halfway to the Moon" (best version I've seen since Hartford 2013) and the jam in "Reba" (a song that mentions coconuts in the lyrics) really that huge, or did the enormity of MSG and its very forgiving acoustics just make it seem that way? 

Maybe, but with the second-ever performance of "Moonage Daydream", it would be hard to argue that it was one of those by-the-numbers nothing-really-happening first sets. And to close it with "Walls of the Cave", nailing that burst from F# to B before the final chorus (not to mention a jam that rocked so incredibly hard), this had to be the best first set of the tour, right?

My friends up in the far reaches of section 209 begged to differ, texting me that the set was "ho-hum". 

So not only do you have to be there, it matters where you sit, too.  That is why I am very picky with my ticket selection at a Phish show. (Pro tip - side/rear stage tickets are awesome - you are close to the stage and the sound is excellent)

Set two came on strong with back-to-back jam vehicles in "Tweezer" and "Seven Below", both of which showed off what these guys do best these days. "Billy Breathes" and "Sparkle" were nice to hear, but I would bet those did not come off so well on the recordings. No matter, because the set aimed, shot and hit the mark in the back half with the second Phish performance of Trey's new "Everything's Right", one of the happiest songs you will ever hear (and included an MVP jam), followed by a gorgeous "Slave to the Traffic Light" and a rocking "Suzy Greenberg". 

The set-ending a capella rendition of "Coconut" (as in, "You put the lime in the...") topped off the set with a bookend on the theme.  The only thing I love as much as musical themes are musical bookends, so yes, you could say I was pretty happy with this turn of events.

The encore of "The Mango Song" put to rest any speculation that there would be a mango flavored doughnut in our future (as well as any notion that they can actually play the song well - sheesh) and the old reliable "Good Times Bad Times" put the show to bed with a heavy dose of Zeppelin rawk.

Did you have to be there to feel it?  Maybe.  Or maybe just enough of that palpable energy in the room translated on the webcasts.  

Or maybe we were all just totally sugared up from doughnuts.

Phish's summer so far

Things got off to quite a start in Chicago last Friday.  And since then, it has been a dizzying ebb and flow of the awesome and the disappointing.

Opening with “What’s the Use?” and burning through a super energetic first set was enough to give goose bumps to any phan that had patiently waited six months for a new Phish show. It certainly had my head spinning - especially that “Wolfman’s Brother”; and the second set kept the high-octane sizzle coming with a “Your Pet Cat -> Golden Age -> Your Pet Cat” sandwich that was as awesome as it was odd.

Things started to slip at the end of that first show, with a bungled “Shine a Light” and a dull, lackluster “Julius”.  My friend aLi and I were recently talking about how every “Julius” used to always be the “best ‘Julius’ ever!” and now it was like a bad lay – it makes you wonder who is getting any pleasure out of it and why.  When “Golgi Apparatus” landed with a thud in the encore, I worried that the initial promise of the show was going to sour quickly.

That worry only got worse in the first set of Saturday’s show. It seemed like it was impossible for the four guys on stage to get hooked up. There were a few highlights, like “Halfway to the Moon” and “Martian Monster” (which is always a gimme), but when “Party Time” even fails to ignite a fire, things are going badly.  The climax of “Wingsuit” offered some powerful redemption, but even I cannot defend the “Bouncing Around the Room” that came next. Somehow, “More” managed to close the set with at least some dignity, if not full triumph.

The second set was something else altogether.  Suddenly, the band snapped back into place with a monstrous “Simple” jam for the ages that dovetailed into sequence of “Winterqueen > Light -> Scents and Subtle Sounds -> Cities” that demands several re-listens.  It was the kind of set that truly reminds us why we love Phish.

And, boy, we do love Phish, do we not?  How else can one explain why we can go from a limp first set to a killer second set and back to a subpar first set the next night and still manage to keep our sanity (or at least keep wanting to experience this bipolar insanity)?  Because Sunday night’s first half was right back to the doghouse.  Sure, we got some good songs, and I am never one to complain when there is a “Lawn Boy” involved, but not even the “Stash” jam could truly take off. “Birds of a Feather” was decent and “Run Like an Antelope” offered a good enough climax, but this was hardly the band that brought the thunder in the second set on Saturday.

Good thing that schizophrenia continued because a blowout “Carini” jam set the stage for another amazing second set – one in which even “Twenty Years Later” soared.  And I defy you to find a better version of “2001”.  Seriously. Clearly Trey wanted to rock out hard, because an encore (albeit a bit sloppy) of “Wilson > Character Zero” can only mean that he intended to bring down the house to close the three-night stand in Chicago.

I watched Tuesday’s show from Dayton, Ohio, on the free webcast with Gloria and aLi, and though we were having fun socializing, we also enjoyed a decent first set.  But once again, it was set II that knocked us out.  Though aLi had to leave and Gloria went to bed, I continued to be amazed at the quality of jamming in “Ghost” and “Chalk Dust Torture”, and the surprise turns of the “Wombat” jam.

That brings us to Wednesday night, which was almost the breaking point for my brain, as it contained the worst first set of the run so far.  Their voices were so flat and creaky that even “Home” the standout Page McConnell track from ‘Big Boat’ seemed to die a thousand deaths.  And then, from the ashes, the best “Prince Caspian” since Magnaball, coming close to being as amazing.

And here we went again into a second set that brought the first “Mr. Completely” since its epic Phish debut in 2003 with a jam that rivaled it. If that wasn’t enough, one of my favorite newer tunes, “Mercury” followed and segued right into a new song “Rise/Come Together”.  And with a super slinky “Steam” to back it up, the (finally) excellent closer of “Backwards Down the Line” was that much better.

It is important to note, as most phans have been doing, that there have been a total of 93 songs played thus far and exactly no repeats.  Will they reset that count for the Baker’s Dozen?  Will this insanity of flaccid first sets followed by killer second sets continue?

We shall see.