This is a comprehensive post...thanks @Icculus for taking the time with detailed dedication to the breakdown of what Leg 1 means in relation to the rest of this band's exhaustive catalog.

It's funny how things work with this band...yesterday after coming off the beach, my wife and I were settling in for a chill night of ice cold beer, some grilling (bbq and otherwise) and tunes. As we cracked open a couple of Dos Equis and pondered what to listen to...she said, 'put on a Phish show.' As if there was an real debate about who we were going to listen to, it was now a matter of what and when. So, feeling somewhat nostalgic, I put on 6.4.09 (the first show we saw since Coventry) to relive that night that I thought would never come.

As we were listening to Set 1 and then Set 2, it occured to me that this band in their fifth show since returning from a five year absence had not only erased the ignominy that was (we thought) the end of a BRIALLIANT career but offered something more. This was a band hell-bent on redemption. They were out to re-claim (as if any band in their absence had laid claim to the title) their rightful place as the best touring band in the land. This was not just redemption but a full blown renaissance.

I remembered walking out of JB that cold, damp June night thinking that this band was back with a purpose. They were focused, crisp, clean and having fun. As I re-listened last night, I thought of the many highlights of the last four years that I was lucky to see in person and the shows/highlights I wasn't in attendance for but have loved all the same. I guess my point as it relates to this post is this:

There have been brilliant and transcendent moments throughout 3.0, but I don't necessarily see the band as moving forward into a new and uncharted territory. I think that assertion may actually be selling them a bit short. I believe that since they've returned, they've broadened and widened their scope and have moved outward.

To borrow a line from Mike Greenhaus' Relix review of 11.28.09...'every few shows, the band would reach a new milestone as the musicians loosened up on stage, nailed their most complex compositions, busted out long-shelved rarities, found a balance among equals, tapped into innate geek-rock tendencies and eventually settled into a new, retro-sounding style of jamming that meshed the hyperactive energy of the band's classic mid-90s period layered with grooves of its late-90s renaissance.'

They're not simplying moving forward because even for this great band that's just not enough. They're moving forward, backward and outward...and last night, I didn't need to look any further than 2009.