I was pumped to be getting back on the road after having done the whole winter tour. I set out from Denver and picked up a phooker in Golden and we lit out for Phoenix. We met up with two other phookers in Phoenix and checked into a hotel. We didn’t leave our hotel until after 6pm. We figured the lot would be slim pickings w/ the temperature hovering around 110-115. Not to mention the lot is on blacktop. Got to the lot. Nothing going on. There is definitely a security presence in the lot here. Drank a couple of beers and headed in. I tried to bring a pack in to no avail. Had to check it at guest services. Malcolm and I had 8th row Mike's side, nice seats.

SET 1: Stash: Nice opener! You have to love when they open a tour w/ a big gun like Stash. Nothing to crazy here clocking in at 11 and a half minutes. Good jamming just nothing mind blowing. Mike sounded great, very fast and pronounced.

Sample in a Jar: Eh, at least it keeps the energy up. A couple of minor flubs by Trey.

Billy Breathes: Nice breather, well placed. >

Waves: Very tight, could have been jammed out a little more but was good.

Spices: Phish debut of this TAB song. We figured we wouldn't hear this until Shoreline after Trey's little speech after playing this at the Warfield a couple of months ago. I really liked Page's playing during
this. Other than that, not much to say about it. It does have some decent jamming potential but this one was just 8 and a half minutes long.

Anything But Me: Breather #2. I like this tune but at this point the momentum is nowhere to be found.

David Bowie: Holy flub Trey. Between 21 and 30 seconds in the intro it's almost like he dropped his pick on the ground or something. Ouch. But they do find the groove shortly thereafter. The ending coda is sick with Trey just making his guitar scream at the end.

Dirt: Weird placement. I love this song; love it - but weird placement. Gorgeous rendition, nice vocals by all.

Possum: Great buildup in the intro. A typical high energy Possum cranks everyone into a frenzy. Really good Possum.

SET 2: Birds of a Feather: Good opener, gets everyone on their feet and moving. This one gets pretty funky around the 5-minute mark and stays that way for 3 minutes.

Wolfman's Brother: Heavy, dark, and spacey. You can really hear Mike's new bass tone; I like it a lot! You can also really hear a new tone from Trey too - very heavy/chunky if you will. This one has a heavy metal edge it. Very, very dark. Loops at 11:15 – didn’t really hear hardly any loops during the winter tour. This section will tug on your psychedelic helmet for sure. Segue into something that is not familiar at all ->

Scents and Subtle Sounds: I really liked the lyrics and the jam segment that follows; very Hood/Slave esque. I loved it and personally think it is better than anything on Round Room.

The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday: No, it couldn't be! I was thrilled considering this was my first in 61 shows! Page and Trey have some difficulty syncing up in the intro. > Avenu Malkenu: Of course this is another first for me and it did what I expected: flat out rocked. Mike just tears this up and again his new bass tone is very evident here. >

Walls of the Cave: : I felt like this was the highlight of the set along with Wolfman’s > Scents. Great jam that does not let up for a good 15 and a half minutes. Although there are some odd key changes in the last minute or two. >

Prince Caspian: This was a real WTF moment. Couldn’t believe they were playing this tune this deep into the set and then to find out it was the closer? Not great!

ENCORE: Character Zero: Standard.

Replay Value/Summary: Wolman’s and Walls of the Cave I would recommend. Outside of that, this show was disappointing. Fun to be back on tour, but this really fell flat. My third tour opener and I was learning the hard way what that really meant. Back to guest services to claim my stuff and the lot for a beer. Back to the hotel to party it up and get pumped for Chula Vista the next day.

Score: 3 out of 5.