I need to preface that is was my wife's first show in five years since she became pregnant with our daughter and I think the Phish Gods were on her side last night ???? What a night.
I got to say I was a little disappointed with the opener and had a fear that since the previous night was an old school banger that tonight would be a new song snoozefest ????, but I was definitely mistaken.
Yes Turtle in the Clouds is new, but I enjoy it and they seem to play it , doing a little dance and whatnot, it's a fun song . Vultures is always welcome, My Sweet One is one of my favorite bluegrass songs, I got it at my first show in 95 so it'll always have a place in my heart (but I was glad they were one and done w bluegrass songs ????), Undermind was nice and had some nice Fishman action, Fast Enough for You was the chill, slow, bathroom break song, but it's beautiful and one of best slow, bathroom break songs they have so I'll gladly take it. Divided was great as usual and of course Suzy was top notch! Thought they were gonna end there, but no, they gave us Ghost, nothing too crazy but a solid Ghost.
Ok, now onto the main event!
Prince Caspian, ok, I mean, its Prince Caspian and it was a solid Caspian but then came the highlight of the show imo, Cross Eyed and F**king Painless ????, absolutely ripped this one and had some deep groove jamming! Fishmans drums were on point w this one (I mean, they always are but this song and basically all night, he was on another level). Then comes to what I'd say was the only let down, Miss You, I figured they had another song in them before slowing it down and this song basically brought the show to a halt lol, but ok, they fired it up again w Set Your Soul Free, not my favorite, little corny imo but they usually jam it out so I was patiently waiting for the jam and of course they didn't disappoint. That jam was another heater that went up a notch right after the Cross Eyed tease. They ended the SYSF jam by going back into and finishing Caspian respectfully. Twist around is always welcome, as is Carini, and I know Carini is borderline overplayed nowadays, but this one definitely had a little more gusto on it, a ripping Carini to end the set.
Encore time ????
I honestly thought they were going to end w Horse Silent after that 2nd Set, and I would have been content, it's beautiful and could easily been a good encore.. but not today! Fuck your Face killed as usual , ok great ending, wait! Buffalo Bill ???????? was amazing, a fun rarity, but they still weren't done ???? They ended w a homage to the original Woodstock by absolutely shredding Jimi Hendrix's Fire w a Star Spangled Banner tease taboot!
Overall it was quite the show, definitely top shelf Phish with minimal fluff, and if you weren't there, the 2nd set/encore is definitely worth spending some time with ????