Well this show had a lot to live up to from night one and at the get it was aiming for the stars. Back on th Train was for me and my wife who had not seen the band in over four years because of the pandemic and having two kids. Then shit got down with disease like nobodies business. I clocked it at 18 minutes and it did not disappoint until Trey decided to jettison the song and feed it to the dogs. There was some sort of loop in the dogs that was like growling and metal grinding together and I thought my wife was gonna leap from our fake aisle seats and rip someone’s head off.

The rest of set one had huge shoes to fill compared to the previous night and unfortunately it was like amateur hour in comparison. While the band tried to achieve lift off, no song quite elevated but as Moonage Daydream drew to a close Kuroda’s light rig nearly smacked me in the face and the syncopation of the strobes transported me to setbreak.

Set 2 decided that I was gonna go for the jugular. The band dusted off the setbreak tightness with The Wedge and then Fuego took us to Elysium. Spanning 30 minutes, this Fuego secured its spot in the jam charts with a sonic brilliance that puts any question of this bands relevance to rest.

Just when I thought I could call this night a success, Wingsuit came in and made me realize that I am in love with this song. While it didn’t go far the 10 minute set two catalyst just brought the pain. From here the set could have fizzled and I would have still found satisfaction but 2001 decided it would play reverse negative to its earlier visage and go straight for the jugular. No slow build here but once the build happened the band went interstellar deciding not to close the loop on this bad boy.

What happened next is stuff of legend. A sparkly Fishman takes center stage for a cracklin Rosie bust out and then the band reminds me that I will always remember where I was when THAT happened.

Simple delicate farmhouse first tube encore and I find myself at the halal stand trying to make heads and tales of the night.

So it didn’t get the treatment like Friday. But, this was one that on paper might cause some head scratching but to anyone’s ear was top notch Phish, still destroying America, 40 years later.

Mahalo and Namaste