well, this was my last show on my 4 show run. i had some pretty lofty hopes for this one, and by damn, phish just about met them....

set 1:

brother: very hot/surprising opener. this one got the crowd jumping big time. it was nice to know the band's family was all out there. sharp version.... really nice to catch brother

wolfman's brother: this one seemed to be a notch above the burgettestown version from a couple of days before. they seemed to be a bit more tight/focused. gordon and trey had some nice grooves on this one.

funky bitch: they came out of the gates blazing here. they brought a lot of energy to this one. it didn't tear it up like i've heard in shows past, but they played a nice solid version.

the divided sky: they wailed this one. trey seemed to really want to come out of the silent part blazing and he sure did. there were some open mouths after this trey solo. nimble first set trey playing is usually a really good sign for later in the show.

joy: good cool down. this song didn't do much for me.

gbott: this got me back out of my seat. pretty standard version. if you're into this song, skip this version and check out cincy in the fall.

taste: looks like they are starting to gear up to close this set out well. trey, once again, had some really nice nimble playing on this one.

poor heart: hell yeah, i never seem to catch this tune, and i am always up for a nice little phish blue grass goofiness. nice clean version.

the horse>silent: this was a nice gentle rendition of both tunes. they really seemed to enjoy this tune and it worked beautifully into...

tmwisy>ave>tmwsiy: ho hum, nice! you could tell a lot of people at this show were new to phish because many were not prepared to turn that corner into avenu malkenu. you could see the pleasant surprise on many faces. great to see this one pop up in the first set. nice sharp take on this one.

time turns elastic: this was my first time seeing this one live. i didnt like any of the other versions i had heard, but i wanted to give it a fair shake. all in all, i can still do with out this song. i think part of the problem is that they try to do too much vocally on this song. they want to hit notes/harmonies that they really can't hit. not too mention, the music just wasnt that strong. there are some interesting parts, but all in all, blah. i was argueing with a friend after the cincy show about this song. she was saying it was just nice to hear phish piecing together some longer numbers again, but what's the point if the quality is declining. listen to fluff head or guyute and then listen to time turns elastic.... hear the difference? time turns does not have the intensity and the tension/release of some of the older composed numbers. oh well, i gave it a shot. really good first set none the less.

set 2

cross eyed: this audience seemed to be begging for this song and phish really delivered. fishman sounded good on vocals while keep the band locked into the cross eyed groove. about 10 minutes it sounds like they might start petering out, but then trey hits a little breakdown that gets the boys back up and running. this guitar lick is must hear. good stuff before they do peter out and slip into....

dwd: back to back rockers. this dwd left the basic dwd framework almost immediately after leaving the "song part." trey and page were really laying it down here. after seeing a very sharp but straight forward dwd at star lake, it was nice to hear them completely depart from that theme. it finally worked it's way into...

bug: like caspian, i hate this one. why, oh lord, does this song follow me everywhere?!

piper: like dwd, this one was nice and exploratory. they seemed to cut loose with relative ease. piper may have been the song of the summer. it is the only one they consistently felt comfortable jamming out and well, being phish! really good piper. i was hoping that it may work its way back into the dwd ending but they dropped off into...

velvet sea: hmmm... kind of fucking with the momentum now

boogie on: sounded a little goofy following a downer like velvet sea, but it did get everyone up and grooving again. this was nothing compared the alpine 04 take, but hey, it sounded good none the less. it worked nicely into...

slave: the last slave i saw was at deer creek in 04. trey was almost non participatory on that take, but it left a lot of room for page to lead the way. this time, they worked together to build a really nice alpine worthy climax. the slave was good enough to get me to stop bitching about bug....haha.

enc:

grind: i really like this one. what can i say, it cracks me up. unlike starlake, they nailed this one.

frankenstein: on a five neck guitar, trey really got gassed for this one. when i saw the guitar, i figured we were either getting frankenstein or a really odd new cover. frank it was. page, on key tar, squared off against trey on the 'ol 5 neck. fantastic ending.

overall:

this show is very good. it is must hear, especially, if you are interested in tracking the "regrowth" of phish. i did not attend, but from what i heard, i was not bowled over by a whole lot that they played in the first part of june, but by deer creek, they seemed more willing to cut loose and play like fucking phish!! the first set here was a nice diverse set, and the second set had some good playing with really nice peaks, i do not think they established a lot of good flow. all in all, definitely worth the money and the drive.

highlights:
set1:
brother, wolfman's, tmwsiy>avenu>tmwsiy

set 2:

crosseyed>dwd,piper, slave