Where I am from (Long Island), we called them "sprinkles", but I will accept "jimmies" because there are a lot more Phish songs with Jimmy and a lot of Phish covers by Jimi than anything having to do with sprinkles.
Right away, the big question was "Will they do 'Harpua'???"
To which the answer was, still surprisingly, "Yes."
But not before a first set that featured a "Runaway Jim", to fit the theme and give us another of the classic heavy hitters they have been saving for the back half of the 13-show run. The opening "The Curtain With" was well executed by the band, though poorly executed by the drunk bro behind me that felt the need to sing the guitar parts. Not the words, the guitar parts.
"Waking Up Dead" falls somewhere in the middle of 3.0 Mike Gordon tunes for me. I would rather hear "Sugar Shack", "555" and "Let's Go", but I will take it over "Yarmouth Road" and, depending on the day, possibly "How Many People Are You?" Mike's signal to play it was funny as he turned to Trey and Page and put his head on his hand then closed and opened his eyes, and then put a finger to his head like a gun.
"Esther" was a joy to hear, and "Brian and Robert" and "Nellie Kane" were good, but the highlight of the set was not the first "Colonel Forbin's Ascent -> Fly Famous Mockingbird" in two years, and not even the amazing "David Bowie" with its frenzied climax.
No, it was Page's "Home" a standout on the 'Big Boat' album, and played with great improvement over the previous version from 11 days earlier. The vocals were excellent (even the harmonies in the break down) and the jam was intense. It is the kind of Phish jam that stirs the souls of even the old 1.0-ers (I am looking at you, aLi).
The second set came on super strong with a "Drowned" that stood up to classic versions (12/31/95 and Big Cypress), only to give way to a version of "A Song I Heard the Ocean Sing" that also kept pace with previous winners (SPAC '04 and Super Ball IX - apparently, they do their best versions of this song in New York).
Just when one would think the band would take the time to hang back a bit, they bring out the first "Harpua" since Dick's 2015, and only the seventh in this millennium. Being behind the stage, with the echo of the rest of the arena bouncing back at me, I could not make out all the details of the dialogue, but it had something to do with the three-torus cosmological model - that the universe is shaped like a doughnut. And after all that space talk, of course the space odyssey of "2001" followed.
An unnecessary but fun "Golgi Apparatus" followed along with the barbershop quartet rendition of "In the Good Ole Summertime" which was previously debuted on the first night of summer tour in Chicago, which already seems like so long ago. The brief one-shot of Jimi Hendrix's "The Wind Cries Mary" put the show to bed with the knowledge that yet another show that combined amazing jamming, nerdy goofiness, and tight musical execution was in the books.
Is Phish a jam band that rocks or a rock band that jams? Like jimmies and sprinkles, they are tasty either way, regardless of what you call them.
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