Phish at Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Saratoga Springs, N.Y., July 2, 2016

We Phish phans love the unexpected.  That is why we keep going back - you never know what will be in store for any given show.

However, we also love tradition.  There are, of course, the big ones like the Halloween "musical costume" and the letter and word games ensconced in the Dick's set lists.  But there are little ones, too - like "Silent in the Morning" often showing up on New Year's Eve or "The Star Spangled Banner" on July 4 - and it seems there is a new one: "Crowd Control" as the opening song of at least one SPAC show of each run.

Shmaltz brewery in Clifton Park, N.Y.

Shmaltz tasting glass

John, Meredith and Aaron in the SPAC lot

The entrance to SPAC

After spending the afternoon at Shmaltz, an excellent craft brewery in Clifton Park, N.Y., my friends and I were not surprised, yet completely delighted, that the little ditty from 'Undermind' opened the July 2 show, night two of the back-to-back-to-back at SPAC.  After a relatively uneventful "555", my favorite 2.0 jam-vehicle "Seven Below" kicked in and I was ready for some big stuff.  Instead, it gave way to an unexpectedly excellent "Back on the Train" (complete with "Sleeping Monkey" quotes to emphasize the train motif).

"Crowd Control"

The rest of the set was a healthy mix of every era:  They brought some more of the best of 2.0 with "Army of One" (always a treat), "46 Days" (particularly rocking), and the set-closing "Walls of the Cave" (good, but not great - in particular, the blast-off from the F# to the B before the final "silent trees" refrain needs to be huge and it was not).  The original 1997-style slow version of "Water in the Sky" seems to be the norm now and other oldies like "Divided Sky" and "Rift" surely kept the Phish vets happy, while "Martian Monster" (Halloween 2014's most played tune) had Trey Anastasio ditching his guitar for Fishman's Marimba Lumina.

Meredith and me during the first set

Phish had been on a second-set roll lately, so when the funk was dropped on us with "No Men in No Man's Land" as an opener, it was once again time to throw down.  A solid "Fuego" that included some nice exploration at the end gave way to the MVP jam of the night with "Light" (my favorite 3.0 jam vehicle!), which did all the great things a "Light" jam should and could do, including a tease of a previous song ("No Men"). 

Things went a bit south after that, though, as "Golden Age" and "Taste" failed to soar, so it was no time for the oft-bungled "The Horse" (which Trey just stops playing on guitar now, leaving Page McConnell to play the chords on piano) and a strained "Silent in the Morning" in which Trey had great difficulty playing the repeated 16th notes.

Thankfully, "Julius" brought the party back to life in time for a set-closing "A Day in the Life" - the third Beatles cover of the tour (though much more common than "Dear Prudence" and "I Am the Walrus".

The usual 50/50 mix of groans and cheers could be heard for the "Bouncing Around the Room" encore, but I told my friends John and Meredith - "I call 'Antelope'," mostly because many of the first bunch of Phish tapes I owned (shows from 1992 and 1993) had a "Bouncing > Antelope" combo. 

Sure enough, we were treated to an utterly fantastic "Run Like an Antelope" to close what was a mixed bag of a show, with some great (but not classic) high points.