Since we are on the heel of a 10 year anniversary of this particular night in the town they call sin city in Nevada, I feel like it’s a good time to write my review of this show.

Now, I’m a 3.0 baby (Hampton 09 Sunday). But by 2014 I had seen my fair share of shows. There was always this silly debate on what, and how the band has been playing since coming back, especially when it comes to the jams (or lack there off?!). Bear with me, because it ties in very well with this show.

I somehow managed to score 2 tickets to 10/31/14 during the on sale (only show I did of the run). I was 25 at the time, and living with my future ex-wife. I pretty much told her “this is where we’ll be on Halloween” she obliged.

I managed to score a strip of WoW the night before we leave to the airport. We arrived on 10/31 probably around 1:30 or 2pm. Check in, get dressed in our costumes (pulp fiction), and go hit the strip. About 2 hours before show time (or ticket time) I’m like “oh yea, take this”. I rip the strip in 1/2 and off we went….

Now I barely remember how we found our seats, but we did. They were in the behind the stage, about 20 rows up Mike Side. At that point I couldn’t care less, the energy in that building was electric.

Set I: The lights go down and they open up with Buried Alive (oh snap!!), now for me there are just a handful of songs that sets the tone that the show your about to witness is going to be Fire. Buried Alive is one of them (Soul Shakedown is another one that comes to mind).

Ghost > “of course they play ghost, duh it’s halloweeeeen” is probably the only thought that crept in my gooey brain. Decent Ghost, nothing groundbreaking, but it was more of statement piece.

SOAM kept in the “creepy Halloween” music genre quite nicely. Having witness the one in Chicago that summer, I thought it was good, but not quite as immersives

Reba…. My favorite song of all time by any band. “Of course they’d play Reba, it’s a sure sign of a heady Halloween show like 10/31/94, or 10/31/96!! Well although that Reba didn’t touch either of those, it was still a Reba, and a Reba can only be appreciated and criticized in the scheme that no matter what, Reba jams are godly to see and experience. Def shorter jam version of what I caught in Chicago that summer, but it ripped, and I was on cloud 9.

Rest of the set with 46 days, BBFCFM, Saw it again felt like the “spooky songs” to keep the Halloween vibes to a max.

Set II: now Keep in mind I was completely disconnected on what was going to happen. Neither me or my future ex wife even got the Bill when we managed to get into the venue. I also don’t remember being able to look or read my phone for a good 12 hours that night. By the time the lights went down for set II, we both couldn’t communicate, and would just give each other a little head nod every 30 mins or so telepathically communicating “you good?” “Yea I’m good”.

Remember how I had seats behind the stage? Oh yea, well the combo of being on a head full, not seeing anything in front of me but fractals, and those seats, I didn’t even realized that they were playing on top of haunted house. I didn’t see the graves, nor did I even knew there were dancers. All I knew was that Phish was inside this Box a few yards away from me. (Storage jam!?? Part 2?!?) and they were playing music I had never heard before. Before the big revealed of the elevated stage, I was so confused. I thought it sounded like they were playing “Wipeout”. “Are they doing Beach Boys this Halloween!?”. Lol, no they’re not. Once “The Dogs” started, and I was finally able to see them, I realize that they were using some types of samples and were just jamming.

This whole set for Me was a big jam. Broken down in different parts by these specific samples the band was using, and it was electric! Pet cats, The Birds were ridiculous, I remember dancing like there was no tomorrow during those songs the arena was pulsating. Martian Monster was just insane. Having Trey tell You “your trippin your trippin your trippin” over this infectious groove sent me to the stratosphere. Over all, I loved every single notes. Again, for me it was just one big jam because 1. I had 0 idea what they were doing, and 2. All the songs weren’t “songs” in the same way Wingsuit was an album and performed the prior year. Just amazing, weird, funky music.

Set III: We both managed to go hit the bathroom, and got us some waters at concession. Both of us were “still good”. I loved Set III so much. You could tell the band was so loose from having delivered that incredible set II. Sand, Tweezer are highlights for me. Guyute was also awesome to hear. Heavy things I thought Trey was saying “boooo boooo hahaha” like a cute little ghost to be like “gotcha mother fuckers, you didn’t expect that did you?”.

Then the encore: I was by no mean a cohen fan, nor do I think I had even heard that song before in my life. But it was the most perfect and beautiful cover I have ever heard. Perfectly placed and played for this occasion. This cemented my feeling that Phish was quite in tune with its fanbase (is this what you wanted!?).

Yes phish, this was everything I ever wanted out of my first Vegas and Halloween show.

10 years will now have passed here in less than a few months of me writing this review. And I wish I could still live in that Haunted house for one more night.