This is a warty show. At the time I was rather underwhelmed, preferring instead the two previous nights. With time, though, I've really come to appreciate this night and am even thinking of buying the DVD. I call it warty because it's just that, the opposite of perfect or polished. Yet it's the unpolished playfulness that makes this show rather guileful and fun.

The Wolfman's -> Cities segue is jagged and abrupt, the Guyute antics are fun, but lead to somewhat of a train-wreck in Wilson, Antelope is very unique and features far better Guyute antics than Wilson, the Drowned -> Sand segue is not so much a segue as a ripchord, and the return to Split from Piper is perhaps only 60% together. The first time I listened to this show I was expecting a "perfect" show. A show with smooth segues and coherent jams and antics that complimented the music. I wasn't sure that's what I got.

Now, with the benefit of time, I realize I did get a "perfect" show, just not perfect in the way I was expecting. The Wolfman's -> Cities segue is jagged and abrupt, but both versions are good in their own right and despite it's abruptness the segue makes for two tightly book-ended songs. Non-stop music is always a plus. The Guyute antics in Wilson are still more or less a train-wreck, but they deserve a hand for being so robust and balls-out about it. Way to go for it!

Antelope is definitely the most exploratory of 3.0. Perhaps not the best, but there's not another like it. The first half of the jam is a melt to low energy space very unusual for the song (and for the band, really, it sounds a bit more like a Dead jam than a Phish jam). Drowned -> Sand is still a ripchord, but why dwell on the negative? What positive will come of that? It's time to get down to the groovy-goodness of Sand. And finally, the end of the Split sandwich might be a disjointed, but the first 20 minutes are seriously smooth and coherent jamming. What's a little hiccup after all that?

Fall '10 has been in heavy rotation at the Penn42 stereo for a couple weeks now, and, leaving Manchester out of the equation, Guyutica is getting the most play time. What a fun, care-free, joyous, celebration of music this night was!