First order of business - get up before the crack of dawn and start running.
I planned out a 19-mile run from Galloway, east through Absecon, then south through Pleasantville and Northfield, then back again. I love these long runs on Phish tour because I get to really see the neighborhoods, not just the areas surrounding the venues and hotels.
It was early, I was tired and groggy, but it was imperative I got out there before the heat really kicked in. It was already in the 70s and the sun was coming up. The goal was to keep it slow and steady and get it done so I could join my wife and friend for some lunch and head over to the second night of Phish on the beach in Atlantic City. As the run went on I slowed from low 8s to low 9s, and then took a wrong turn to end up doing more than 20 miles. My overall pace was 8:46, and that was fine, especially after a night of dancing and five hours of sleep on a crappy bed.
The first set of the second show had some neat surprises, like my first "Slow Llama" and "Soul Shakedown Party" in years, and the always welcome back-from-the-dust-bin "Destiny Unbound" (a song I have been hearing a lot as I have been listening to all of the 1991 shows). But for the most part the first set was very first-set-y. "Tube" had us dancing, "46 Days" had us rocking, "Reba" was pretty standard and, well, "Melt" is going to "Melt" these days (the light show is fun to watch on the latter, but that is all I can really say). For a brief moment, I think I had an idea of what those Mexico Phish shows must be like, as Phish played the breezy island sounds of "Ya Mar" while I splashed around in the ocean. But before I knew it, the set was closing with "The Squirming Coil".
Trey Anastasio's solo album from last year yielded a few songs that have worked their way into Phish's set lists, so it was not much of a surprise to hear "I Never Needed You Like This Before" to open the set, but the doors blew wide open for a big "Drowned" jam, which eventually gave way to "Ghost" - always reliable for a groovy jam - and then, to my delight, the criminally underplayed "Scents and Subtle Sounds". Unfortunately, they skipped the intro to the latter, as they tended to do back in 2004, and then cut the jam jarringly short. Of course, it is hard to complain when the ripcord is pulled only to fire up "Chalk Dust Torture".
When "Chalk Dust" fizzled out and led into "No Quarter", I could not help but think they were playing the wrong Led Zeppelin song. I mean, they played "The Ocean" in Mexico, why not do one for the folks on the beach in the U.S.?
A beautiful "Slave to the Traffic Light" and a rollicking "Suzy Greenberg" ended the set and my poor legs were tired from all the dancing after all that running, so when the ballad "A Life Beyond the Dream" was played for the encore, I was happy to hear it, even if it ended up not being a great performance of it.
I figured they would save "Tweezer Reprise" for the end of Sunday's show, but...nope....here it was, and I had no choice but to dance and leap as I have been doing since my 20s when that song is played, sore legs be damned. Another satisfying end to another good show, though I think I enjoyed Friday's show better (or at least Friday's second set).
Gloria, Ali and I wanted to find somewhere to hang out post-show within A.C. but the boardwalk, the casinos and the restaurants were overflowing with people. The crowds were too big, and it was all too much for me to handle. There was nowhere I felt comfortable at all, let alone somewhere I would have felt comfortable enough to remove my mask. So after a lot of walking around (and with a grand total of 56,405 steps for the day), we retired back to the hotel room.
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