Phish at Jones Beach, Wantagh, NY, night one

It is my guess that this show will be forever remembered as the show that busted out "Skin It Back" (first time played in almost 24 years) and "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" (first time since Phish covered the entire Beatles White Album on Halloween 1994). But that stuff happened early on and there was an entire memorable show in the hours following.

In many ways, it was a perfect example of Phish 2012, striking the balance between extended jams, varied song selection, and economical playing. In addition to the rarities he first set contained the standard classics also played in Atlantic City - "Possum",  "Mike's Song -> I Am Hydrogen -> Weekapaug Groove", "Golgi Apparatus" and "Axilla I", but solid playing and short, to-the-point jams made it fun for vets and newbies alike.

"Ya Mar" was fun, though I do miss the extended ending from years ago, when drummer Jon Fishman would do some extra fills and bassist Mike Gordon would scat sing through a few bars.

There was one flub, in "Tube", and it was made by Fish, who tried to pull the ripcord on the jam way too early, causing a cacophony of his push to the swing beat while Trey resisted and kept pulling on the funk rhythm.

Rarities aside, the highlight of the set was the trifecta of "Joy", an awesome rendition and tour debut of ZZ Top's "Jesus Just Left Chicago" and the happy "Backwards Down the Number Line". The former was beautiful, despite disinterest by much of the crowd; and the latter definitely redeemed the sloppy mess it created on Atlantic City.

There were nine songs in the second set and four of them stretched longer than 10 minutes. Not exactly the hardcore-phan-favorite four-song sets like the days of yore, but enough to keep us satisfied - what with the funk of "Sand", its sick segue into "Golden Age", and the organ solo that had many folks swearing "No Quarter" would follow. (It didn't.) A perfectly executed "Fluffhead" and a frenzied set-closing climax of "Run Like an Antelope" (complete with call-and-response between band and audience of "Mike-O!" Gordo!") satiated the need for extended songs. 

Second set opener "Chalk Dust Torture", still the song I have seen them play the most (at about a third of my 82 shows), "Wolfman's Brother" and "Bug" were short and succinct, but packed a lot of punch in their brevity, a reminder that the running time is not enough to judge the quality of a Phish performance.

And in the "that came from left field" department of oddly placed songs, "The Wedge", a personal favorite of mine from 1993's 'Rift' album, seemed to blow in from nowhere and...well...wedge itself between the monsters of "Fluff" and "Antelope".

A rocking but standard "Character Zero" sent everyone home feeling good about the show, almost forgetting about the historic bust-outs at the beginning. Almost.