This is an interesting "snapshot" show, in that it captures the band at the beginning of what we might be able to call, years later, the worst summer of their career. Even in the midst of that, there were fine shows of course, but this ain't one of them.

Set I is the better of the two, with the 3.0 debut of Cities, a nice Reba, and surprisingly excellent If I Could closer. Possum is a solid offering, and hints at why the band decided to play it so relentlessly for the next few years: it was one of the songs they could reliably bring down the house with. It gets the job done here, and I particularly like Trey's country pluckin' during the intro.

Set II is probably the worst set I've been in attendance for. The entire Mike's Groove is kind of a sloppy snoozer, with little that begs additional listening. The segue to Weekapaug in particular is ugly, ugly stuff. But hey--it's all about trajectory, right? Think about all those butter smooth segues of 2012-2013. Those don't happen unless the boys had first built themselves back up from depths like this.

The bright spot is the Hood, which is unusual and spacey. Very interesting version, and caught me totally off guard. The transition back into normal Hood territory doesn't go according to plan, but that doesn't keep this from easily being the #1 highlight of the night.

All in all, I see June 2009 as a sort of Pilgrimage for devoted Phish fans. These shows are worth hearing, and are so crucial to the current (phenomenal) state of the band, but if you are making the trek through these 15 shows, be prepared for some bumps and stalls.