The most highly anticipated weekend of the year for Phish has come and gone. The build up lasts forever and then it's over in the blink of an eye. I ended up getting into two of the three shows through tickets from a friend (Thanks Mitch!). Unfortunately Halloween was the one I missed, but it wasn't from lack of effort on my part. I was on the boardwalk at 8:30 am on Sunday, but eventually ran out of energy. The prices, as expected, were outrageous and I've never paid over face value for a ticket. The thought definitely crossed my mind since leaving the party early sucks. I didn't gamble all weekend and wasn't about to start on Sunday. Football, World Series and Couch Tour were the consolation prizes. Driving home I was 100% satisfied with the two shows I did see.I found myself on the floor Friday due to a last minute ticket upgrade (Thanks Jon and Liza!). This was the only night I was able to tape. The first set was a showcase of many tunes with little jamming until the Moma > Cities > 46. The selection leading up this was great and included a recently un-shelved but still rare Traffic cover, Light Up Or Leave Me Alone.
The second set was laced with more jamming and definitely a more cohesive set of music. Much like the first set, it scratched me the right way with tunes like Punch, Carini and Corinna. The intro to Piper is solid and the Slave ending was downright majestic. We even got a gratuitous Fluff for good measures.
Saturday was straight up balls to the wall! This show ranks among the best I've seen Phish play and definitely one of the funnest. In typical Phish fashion, the band threw us a curveball. It's traditional for Phish to cover an entire album on Halloween during set two as a "musical costume." One of the heavily rumored albums this year was Physical Graffiti by Led Zeppelin. Instead, we were treated to a Zeppelin themed show with twists and turns throughout on mischief night instead of Halloween. The insane amount of energy in the building is captured perfectly in this video:
There's not much to dislike about this one. Aside from the healthy dose of Zeppelin, some of my favorites were Guelah, Walk Away, Chalkdust, Bowie and Sleeping Monkey > Tweeprise. It was such a fun and beautifully crafted show that the energy spilled into the corridors and eventually onto the boardwalk. The cheers from the crowd leaving rivaled those inside the venue earlier in the evening. It was a feeling like we won game six of the World Series and were ready for game seven. Bravo PHiSH
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