What a complete and utter joy; a celebration of this band and this city and these seven shows. This was a culmination of the entire run, and will always be one of my favorite memories of this summer.

Thank you Phish, thank you Madison Square Garden, thank you New York, and thank you fans: these nine days will be ones we will tell stories about. We will ask, were you there and do you remember when?

Maze. Caspian. Divided Sky. Tweezer. Divided Sky. Everything’s Right. Harry Hood.

As good as it gets and better than should be expected for a band 40 years in.

Holy shit my mind was completely blown tonight!!! I’ve been to over 300 shows and I was left totally speechless. What an incredible show. From start to finish it felt perfect. The band was so locked in and msg was on fucking fire tonight. I honestly can’t put it into words. WOW. WOW. WOW. I love you so much Phish!!!!!!

I am gonna get critical, like it or not. Feel free to thumbs down and dislike, but I’ve always been a firm believer in sharing constructive feedback as opposed to gladhanding mediocrity.

Disjointed at best is how I felt being ushered out of MSG into the warm breath of mid town. The fragmented second set, while wholly enjoyable in some morsel size sections, did not carry with it a continuous thread…though it was a humblebrag in nimbleness from the band, weaving a tweezer through the colors in the void.

The reverse show ensues with a Loving Cup opener and while I love the “keeping me on my toes” mentality I think there is a point when you just want phish like you ordered it, as the 7th course of a gourmet meal, slightly funky, fully marinated, and with a plinko (yes plinko) crust that flakes off with the skin. I’d pair it with a Pinot noir or some shit, smell the cork and pretend I knew what I was doing. I mean I paid good money for this. Lol!

Standard good loving cup, maybe hoping to stoke the embers left by the last week of shows to ignite this fire early but the coal runs out and knowing they dropped Bowie already and weren’t in a place to repeat (I mean a repeat would have been a left field sort of caught off guard thing) Maze came in the two slot. Standard average and succinct if not short Maze, it was like they were easing in to a marathon when we already did 25 miles.

Out of the msg cloud comes the funk and Martian Monster is like this glimmer from the heavens, flying saucer style, reflection of the previous night’s super moon still gleaning off it. I see Kang and Kodos grooving octopus style in their hippie attire and am ready to get up to get down. It was six minutes in heaven and when I got there, was left to float on a cloud for the opening riff of divided sky. A cleanly played divided sky is like phish porn at its finest, the high production value kind, and this was IT. Clean, patient, with what felt like an extended silence, the garden bouncing at 7 beats per second and I am seeing, nay feeling, a flow build to elysium.

So when Caspian drops I say, oh dear prince, let’s now take this ship for spin to the edge of the sky, let the song dissolve and show us what men should fear from the deep abyss of the unknown. And so it is, veering from the song proper with some growls and groans from the belly of the garden, and myth meets modern day with some (as I wrote in the moment) electro funk space mix, digitized goodness that deconstructs into fragmented pieces to be injected by the listener and to flow directly into the blood stream. It was like dial up meets ai robot machine learning faster than Neo in the matrix. Then a subtle break from the electric mayhem with a white light peak of a type II’ish major key jamming, boom, back into the nether regions of the alien AI flying saucer control module. Really soaking in this halcyon anti-groove and hold my breath as the deconstruction is reconstructed as NICU.

NICU, fun, meh. Steam, fun, yeah, middle jam doesn’t get artificially intelligent snd so pales in comparison to the Caspian gone plaid. Oh, but do I hear a reggae beat coming through the speakers, makisupa to close the set, NOPE. A solid l, if not tangential version, bringing the sea of folks swimming in this fish bowl to another white light communal hug of a sing along. Hey, I was singing and swaying too.

77 minutes in and we saw elevation and valley, energy level high, cohesion a b plus if I’m generous. But set break emotions are purely positive, the dopamine hits of Tweezer fueled anticipation firing across the sky bridge like synapses. Everybody buzzing, Tweezer Tweezer Tweezer like a fly toying with the zapper.

30 minutes (on the dot) later and Set Your Soul Free opens set two, continuing the love fest that is the last night of tour. I am in full on norepinephrine mode, staying focused to the here and now knowing we could be achieving lift off again, or taking the service elevator to the basement of the garden (where i hear it is like a swampy bog). The less than inspired romp through the sections of SYSF is a far cry from the previous nights set two setbreak rust shedding openers, it’s a straight up tease in that it doesn’t do much in the 9 plus minutes that it owns the stage but then the waiting does pay off with the iconic Tweezer opening. Buh, buh, wait, we are just gonna, why didn’t we just start here and infuse the Tweezer with 9 additional minutes of heaven (or hell).

Forgetting what I was complaining about, the warm embrace and taffy pull out of uncle ebenezer and it feels like Trey is being present and trying to hold back setting course straight back to white light major key blisstopia, let’s Mike lead with the bass and as whole band interplay ensues, Vultron is formed and ready to battle.

About 7 minutes into this blistering maelstrom and I look up from my deep in prayer contemplative dance groove, think the Virgin Mary meets Lil dicky, out comes my pad as I go Thinking Man, full squint tryin to discern the muffled lyrics being sung far from the mic. Oh boy, it only took me forever to hear Guy Forget, and I do think they were in this “song” for much longer than most realize because we were still trying to sync back with time. Trey bending his way out of power tweezer, semi spacey, into this ultra rare bust out. We all know who the ghost really is, now get back to it…I squint and grimace slightly as a i half laugh cause all I really want is a hard left back to the galaxies version of the EAC, the band acquiesces and for the next 23 minutes we get a jam that fuses many of the metallic jungle alien ai themes that were mined from the ether. Mike really coming through to hold shit together and when I try to double click on the base lines, I hear just tantric rhythms echoing from Fish (or Fosh as he was called tonight).

Then the ungluing. The dissolving of joints. What’s the Use is a beautiful runway to land the flying saucer as it reenters the stratosphere. A longer build is what I heard, time bending a little or turning elastic (yikes, my bad) and the laser effect that rises, I think, from Page’s synths or the boggy innards of the garden takes dead sim at my soul and I am thinking, I get it l, set my soul free. I could have ridden these laser beam effects into the Manhattan night and back up north to my warm bed.

Cue the biggest tease. Fucking SaSS, perfect name, my eyes feel like they are rolling in the back of my head. Nailed opening section, spectral colors in the void, loving the shared moment as we descend from the subtle sounds and who knows what could happen, but this should shape up to be a nice little Saturday. Nimble stick and move, sting and sooth, slip back into Tweezer. Let’s SaSS and Tweeze our way to the finish line, just a neck and neck race to the finish. NOPE.

Lovefest central. The oxytocin is coursing through the floorboards, captured in anything that conducts and Kuroda’s rig gets hijacked and starts a care bear stare of straight ghost buster slime, yup I went there. Everything is Right, but i oh so don’t want it to be. I want to be under my seat in a fetal position thinking the second coming is alien Egyptians. I want that Terminator type apocalypse calypso soundtrack. And for shits and giggles Trey reminds me that he could play a funkafied Manteca, but it only gets a note, a quick shout out before, yes yes yes, big u turn back into Tweezer, oh wait. That’s right, love fest. Number Line. I have seen the writing on the wall, I am gonna sway and sing and high five and hug right into the Tweeprise.

High intensity is an understatement but I would say it was a 60 40 split the majority going to the crowd that embibed the good vibes and fed off the collective energy. Can we bottle it and sell it as renewable energy?

What lovefest is complete with out the original love fest anthem. Swap out Hood for Love and you can feel good feel good good about love.

I want to end on this note. Of the two sections I split time between tonight, strangers at one and friends at the other, the collective vibe was exhilarating. Positivity abounded and the glow was infectious. I had a good time, what Phish show isn’t a party, but I left, as I said earlier, more hungry than when I walked in, disjointed and I guess that is okay, cause I want to come back in search of whatever it is that I think I am looking for, even if I don’t find it, it’s worthy of the search.

We can feel very good about being in this hood. Long time reader of reviews on here. Long time receiver of the email requesting to review a show. Finally coming around to giving it a try. Attending 7 shows in 9 days, I'd say is the perfect amount and frequency. I am tired, but not exhausted. My throat is sore, but seemingly not from wook flu. I get into my seat mere minutes before the show starts after what seems like the most challenging night getting into the venue and the lights go out to begin everyone's most common seen encore song—and a phenomenal one at that, especially in the opener slot of this encore night of the run. Loving Cup is always a pleaser, though I must say the only beautiful buzz I'm feeling at this stage of the evening is of my belly relieved at the bathroom break I had to take during the song. Which is a shame because the Maze Page solo is one of my favorites, but alas I'm back in my seat by the start of Trey's solo and as standard and well played as it is, the peak is always a nice Phish moment.

I'll take a brief pause here and remark about a great thing regarding seeing this band—the songs are the same, the structure is the same, but the placement, execution, timing, set, setting, life circumstance, what you ate that day, what your friends told you before the show, it always makes individual moments that much more special. Before parting ways with my friend outside the venue to go into our separate entrances, I'd told him "because of the incredible speed that you are walking your trip is short" only to be rewarded with Martian Monster in a personally-coveted third song slot. Nicely played and nicely placed in the grand scheme of things.This friend, by the way, blew my crew's mind at the conclusion of A Life Beyond The Dream on N6 and announced that his wife was pregnant, and immediately following that, Trey began the notes to The Lizards. Again, Phish moments and the context surrounding them... Magical memories. On the morning of N6, my wife and I closed on a house in the NYC suburbs where we hope to spend the next several decades raising a family. I'm as excited as I can possible be to say bye bye to 20 minute subway rides to the Garden.

Another privilege of seeing the band over a 7 night run, is that predictions going into N7 were going to be fairly accurate. I assured my friend's wife that we'd get Divided Sky, and we did, and all were happy. The lights were so damn bright, the song was so damn special as always, and we were still in the first quarter. After the catharsis of this anthem, Prince Caspian was either going to find us a place to land, or to blast off. Epic jam reminiscent of the Magnaball Caspian, though obviously with different motifs this time around, 8 years later. Crazy to think it's been that long. I'm a sucker for smooth transitions and the move into NICU was noteworthy for me. The song was bouncy and it occurred to me after seeing it dozens of times over the decades, the lyrics are far more cerebral and deep than the light and peppy feel of the tune. I seldom listen to lyrics when the cacophony offers my soul more depth than mere words. But this time the words struck a chord. Steam came next and with it we were treated to a haunting new "ooo ooo ooo" melody during the usual steam firing part of the song. I liked it. The jam was meaty too. DWYS, like other newer songs with heady lovey dovey lyrics, initially receives a lukewarm reception from the folks in my area, but I know after ~165 shows with this band that you simply must take what you get and all will be well. Love carried us all through a wonderful rendition of the song, and and important one to send us into the final setbreak with an important message in this day and age.

SYSF evokes memories of pirate ships and dad rock. Nothing wrong with either of those, especially since the band seems to like this song and once again they seem intent on filling our soul tanks with inspiring messages before kicking off the 3rd quarter in earnest. We finally get the Tweezer everyone's been waiting for during this run, and between the quality of the jamming and the reception from the crowd, it's safe to say everyone's quite satisfied with this rendition. I've been seeing this band since Hampton '09 (yep, 3/6 was my first show) and I can safely say last night's second set contained more mid to late 90s-sounding cow funk than I've ever encountered at a Phish show. Spacey dancey stuff. The Live Phish app claims the following Guy Forget was a 17 minute version, and that's not necessarily wrong, but I would call it more of a Tweezer jam with some loose mentions of Guy Forget in the middle. Nice to get that for the first time since streaming the first Dick's run all those years ago. Was that the first stream? I don't remember. My wife also asked for an explanation about what was happening, and I explained that we're commemorating a French tennis player. Nothing is out of left field with Phish. Perfect landing into What's The Use and a nice cool down. Scents was straightforward for me, and well-placed. They had to go back into Tweezer as no one seems to get enough of that jam. The entrance into Everything's Right is energetic, the message is once again resonant, and the crab in our shoemouths makes its first appearance for me since my first new year's show, on the fateful year of the meatstick, 12/31/10. Dizzy Gillespie would be proud to hear this. Speaking of transitions, my seat neighbor pal from N4 remarked that Tweezer into Number Line is a transition they'd like to not hear, and while technically the setlist indicates it went from Everything's Right, the entire set felt to me like a giant yet, is subtle the right word? Tweezer with some songs in between. Alas, BDTNL was deputed as the second set opener at my first show, and always accompanies nice hugs and kisses with the crew and wife respectively, along with a scorching solo from Trey and yet more resonant messages for the audience to revel in. In this moment, they can go into Harry Hood and save the Reprise for the encore, but they do the exact opposite, just to give us the variety we expect when we attend so many of these shows. Reprise always hits the spot.

I feel very good about Hood. At any point at any show. But to close us out after 7 nights, after the connections with the band and friends, was nice. The jam was superb, again with spacey funky stuff happening and yet more experimental soundscapes coming out of the band's updated rig. We go into the night getting a good rest and ready to take on the real world after the voyage that we have just blasted off on.

My wife wakes me up this morning with a positive pregnancy test. Context is everything with this band, and I'm hoping all works out well to give my N6 buddy's upcoming kid a friend. Let's do this!!!

Was expecting something a bit more in line with 8-6-17. Always a fun time on Phish’s home court, but not a ton of memorable moments in this show outside of Tweezer (including Guy Forget!) > WTU. Got pretty excited for Scents, but that was aborted quickly for Everything’s Right/BDTNL, which were weird choices in what should have been a triumphant back half of the second set. I’m fine with Everything’s Right in the Set 2 opening slot, but having both Everything’s Right and SYSF in the set felt redundant, and I’m never going to get excited for a second set BDTNL.

Tweeprise felt like it came too soon, and was hoping for something a bit more special in the encore slot than a mediocre Hood. My wife turned to me at some point and said, “They seem tired,” which may have been the culprit. But not seeking this one out for relisten any time soon.

What a complete and utter joy; a celebration of this band and this city and these seven shows. This was a culmination of the entire run, and will always be one of my favorite memories of this summer.

Thank you Phish, thank you Madison Square Garden, thank you New York, and thank you fans: these nine days will be ones we will tell stories about. We will ask, were you there and do you remember when?

Maze. Caspian. Divided Sky. Tweezer. Everything’s Right. Harry Hood.

As good as it gets and better than should be expected for a band 40 years in.

I don't normally write reviews, but I felt like I needed to after that incredible summer tour. What an opening sequence with Loving Cup, Maze, Martian Monster, and a really good MM at that. Strayed from the normal. Then came Divided Sky and I thought about the faces and friends that I recall, the memories from Syracuse and 4 stunning MSG shows and how much joy this band brings every year, and started to get a little teary. To me, the band couldn't play a wrong note tonight.

After that great first quarter, Prince Caspian comes out swinging and absolutely ready to jam. You can really tell the band tries to push themselves at every seam. I do not care at all if they miss some notes and lyrics as long as they keep pushing the boundaries. Cool segue into NICU, followed by a great Steam (with little stage Steam), and I'm a sucker for Drift While You're Sleeping. Trey loves this band and community and the lyrics and jamming in this song have been great.

Set 2 starts with a cool SYSF, which *sigh of relief*, goes into Tweezer. An absolutely fun and messy 30+ minutes of Guyeezer / Tweeforget, some really cool jamming too ala Grateful Dead's Space segments and early 70's psychedelia. A great movement into WTU? caps off that awesome 40 minute jam. Scents doesn't really go anywhere, except into a cool Tweezer / Everything's Right / Manteca quoted fun jam. In the same vein as DWYS, Number Line is a great celebratory song. On 8/4 I saw a big group all wearing matching 60'th birthday shirts, so hopefully they got to bring the celebration into 8/5!

Electric Tweezer Reprise to close the set, and a super patient, spacey, beautiful Hood sends us home.

Great show and great tour, and I really want to say thank you to the band for the meaningful show they put on every night and how hard they try to keep evolving. Summer Tour 2023 was really one for the ages and a tour I'm going to have to spend a lot of time digesting. Thank you Phish!!!!!

Bliss and subliminal balance were the Themes of the night at yet another Barn Burner MSG show. The Boys were on a revenge tour and were taking no prisoners this time.

I couched toured tonight from my gf's parents house. My gf's dad was watching hunt for red October on the main tv (lol noob) so I had to stream it from my ipad which was actually clutch. Loving Cup opener? How Lucky Are We? S1 was an unapologetic dance party. Mike must have some stuff going on behind the scenes because he was getting Evil on bass. Trey was doing Trey Things again. Prince Caspian is worth a relisten IMHO.

S2 continued to rage against the machine with a rockin SYSF and then we knew we were in for a special experience after: Tweezer into Guy Forget which I think is an old 1.0 song. Man, Bliss. Scents and Subtle wasnt my favorite placement, you know that means. Piss Break. I used that time to crack open another Mad Elf (ifkyk) and continued on for the rest of the epic bloodbath. We continued on with a Tweezer reprise S2 closer (you kidding me??) and got an epic Hood encore to bring the house down. The Boys are aging like fine wine. See y'all at Dicks. 4.1/5

As always, these are all my own personal opinions. Never take reviews as fact!

The first set of this show, the final of a 7 night MSG run, was up and down. The LC opener was unexpected to say the least (and it was a great way to start us off), the Maze was quick but satisfactory, and Martian was pretty decent - a good jam from a song you hate to see not played more often. Moving on, it's hard for the boys to miss with Divided and this was no exception... super awesome stuff there. Caspian was fucking superb but was aborted waaaaay too soon. NICU was mediocre at best, but I can't hold that against them. Steam was proper, and acted as a good getaway vehicle to whatever the hell that NICU was. Drift was really, really, fun and pretty, it was a nice touch to end the set, as I felt it was fitting due to the recent loss of Chris McGregor - and I think Trey was feeling those emotions as well.

The second set is where things really get picked up. SYSF was a pretty good opener and was a nice jam, but Tweezer is where things really got started. This Tweezer, no matter what the "official" set list says, was not interrupted by Guy Forget. Sorry to break the 425-show-draught-ending-dream, but that just wasn't song enough to count as a song... it was basically just a Tweezer with Guy Forget quotes / tease(s). Straight from the Tweezer, we go into WTU?, a personal favourite of mine, and this performance may be one of my favourites as well. So, so, pretty, it glued the jam together going into SaSS, which was also pretty good. The Tweeze sandwich, all in all, was fucking fantastic and I would give a lot to listen to it live one more time. Everything's Right was also a great performance and was so fun to listen to. I love BDTNL, another one of my favs, but the beginning of this one was a little awkward even if it was just for a second. But with most faults in this show, I cannot hold that against them, though I must clarify it was pretty good regardless. The obligatory Tweeprise was also fun as hell. Overall, you can tell the guys had a lot of fun with the second set and really stepped up their game for it. Also, the Hood encore was classy as hell and - again - very fun to listen to.

Favs: LC, Maze, Divided, Caspian; Tweezer -> WTU? -> SaSS -> Tweezer, Tweeprise.

The second set of this show was one of the very best I've even seen in 31 years and 67 shows at MSG. Numberline was a bit of a buzzkill but if they play it, I dance! I saw 5 of the 7 shows in 9 days and a Medeski show in between near home. What an amazing week for live music! I saw the last Guy Forget at Dick's and picked it up right away. SaSS is a personal favorite and good set placement. I'm not always a huge WTU fan but this one was perfect. This was possibly the best MSG show I've seen since 12/30/97. Five stars!

This was my 67th Phish show at MSG. The second set might have been my favorite set there ever, with the exception of the over-celebrated 'Number Line'. The Tweezer Reprise set closer and Hood encore were just about perfect. I saw 5 of the 7 shows and this was my favorite, although 8/2 was metal AF and I liked that one too. I hope Phish gets to play MSG for years to come and the renovations to Penn Station to not involve further renovations to The Garden, my Home for Phish.

I usually rattle off my initial impressions on reviews, but this time I gave it a day and another listen and this is what I got.

Set One:
Loving Cup opens up a beautiful night of music, a near flawless cover with ferocious energy played rarely in the opening slot welcomes everyone back to the final night of the longest MSG run since the Baker's dozen. The crowd responded with as much excitement as the band did, anticipation for the rest of the night dripping from the furthest corner of the massive arena. Fishman almost immediatley kicks off maze and trey jumps right into the atari style effects before kicking into full gear. This version is one of the tightest and most energetic, tease laden, glorious, first set Maze excursions you'll find this side of post breakup phish let alone post pandemic phish. Trey listening intently to the fire Page brings to his solo and responds in very creative and subtle fashion, until unleashing into a barrage of notes mushing a contract of melody and dissonance together as only Trey page Anastasio is capable of. a rather subdued yet beautiful Maze is followed by a very welcomed Martian Monster with enough cool Page effects to make your head spin. The beautiful early 2000's page sounds make way for brilliant passing of the baton to Trey who runs with the rest of the jam like his entire life depends on it. Mike speaks up and follows this with matching synth melodies, and the three band members interlock into this intense synthesized peak all driven by Fishman's steady groove. Winding down quickly to greet the oldest Phish standard thus far, Divided Sky. An absolutely sublime rendition of a timeless tune & the best I've seen of it used and played in quite some time. The band closes things off and Trey signals the opening lines of Caspian, earlier in the show than I and many others have seen in a long time. Now I could gush about how much Magnaball means to me and how brilliant this jam was but Id rather encourage you to just listen to the full band interplay on this one. Some of the most incredible live music i'll ever hear and it will not be forgotten anytime soon. They soar through the song at colossal speed and go straight for the gas on this jam, starting off in type 1 prog perfection and as soon as try touches those Atari effects the entire band flies into Type 2 mode experimenting and landing every single giant swing. Kuroda created such a gorgeous tapestry with this jam that those red and blue flashing stobes will not only live in my memory rent free forever but may actually cause seizures for anyone with epilepsy. Out of the psychedelic ooze comes an enjoyably danceable NCIU complete with time changes and some sloppy but fun playing. Steam follows in a rather standard role in the set but features a hell of a kick between verses that keeps the energy up and moving through the room. Drift while your sleeping provides a fitting sing a long set closer that by the end you couldn't help but feel something. Trey passionately carries us all through to the following set, sure to melt faces and leave us exhausted but wanting more.

Set Two:

Set your soul free kicks things off in pretty tight fashion, a relatively basic though throughly well played version gets us all ready for the inevitable Tweezer; and holy hell what a Tweezer that was. There's something incredible and unique about this jam, between the absolutely perfect composed sections & inspired playing of the free sections there's something for anyone in this Tweezerfest of a set. Roughly 30 minutes of multi-sectional and experimental yet incredibly melodic progressive rock. Fishman really steals the set for me, taking control of the full band and pushing the jam into weird and beautiful places all while putting his definitive mark on how far he can push his fellow bandmates to bring their absolute A game to a brilliant night of music. Someone in the front row hung a sign through the entire set reading 200th show which was acknowledged by Trey at the end of the end of set one, but Fishman and Trey acknowledge the other side of that sign reading (Manteca->) after a surprising and welcomed Guy Forget callout. Giving the fans everything they could want and more is what this band excels at and there's no better example of that than this second set. That being said... very sloppy scents intro and numberline sore thumbs, but even then... let's be honest, I'm always happy to hear scents intro even tho it's never really been played all that well. And that numberline jam is beautiful, sue me. There isnt a better song to end a set than Tweezer Reprise for my money and I'll put anything on the table in defense of that. The band leave, come back out and cap off the night with one hell of a mission statement in Harry Hood. Phish is here for good & they are always gonna push the envelope of what a live performance can be as far as it can good. I know I didn't go into full detail on this Twezzerfest set but I assure you It'll do you a better service to listen back and analyze for yourself than anything you could read on this site. Phish is 2023 is as good as ever and thats all you need to know. Just listen to this show and prove me wrong.

This is actually a Manteca Fest in conjunction with a Tweezer Fest. Surprised nobody noticed.

I am a big jazz fan and a large part of what I love about Phish is the improv. Like the jazz guys do. It takes higher level musicianship.

So I have always loved Manteca jams. BUT my disappointment is huge with phans and phish.net because Manteca is not the silly little "crab in my shoe mouth lyric" (that Phish seems to have made up as part of their Manteca tributes). It is a hugely important jazz standard. It is instrumental. There are 2 distinct parts to the song and Trey keeps coming back to it over and over in this Manteca Fest of a show! Top drawer stuff if you pay attention. Here listen to Dizzy play the actual song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDNmqyNYj04 /> The first pattern before the big horn lines (call it the Manteca theme), Trey played all night. That's why the Caspian Jam is so good. It's actually a Manteca jam that influenced Caspian. Just after 6 minute mark he clearly starts it. Everyone knew that tonight would be the Tweezer Night. That was obvious, since they had not played it yet at MSG. So maybe they or Trey decided to also make it a Manteca night....just to spice it up. Anyway, setlist should actually go: Caspian>Manteca Jam>NICU.
Since nobody explained the "play it slowly for us Leo" I will. NICU is WWWAAAAAYYYYYY too fast. It's so fast Trey can barely sing it and he certainly cannot play his guitar parts....hence the play it slowly line....what a joker. You can hear at the ending that he actually forces a slow down so he can play the ending parts!
2nd set is all about the Tweezer> Guy Forget>Manteca jam. The whole thing is a good 30 minutes! Epic stuff!! again you can clearly hear the Manteca licks somewhere around 8 minutes after the Guy part starts (I was listening to an audience tape so timings different). Absolutely another Manteca infused jam for a while b4 they take off again into jam space and back to Tweezer later. I agree with the other reviewer and there was no point in cutting off Scents to drop a few Tweezer licks, but it was the theme for this night. Finally Fish decides to throw his Manteca hat into the ring by singing Crab in my shoe Mouth....BUT that is not Manteca. They are not really even quoting Manteca at this point. What a joke that those made up lyrics have become a Manteca quote....especially when they actually quote Manteca for real earlier in the show and it gets no mention. Need to clean that up people. But WOW!! what a show! What a run!! The only dud of the 7 was the 1st Saturday. Night 2. Unforgivable butchering of Rosie. But easily made up for with the Opening Friday 2nd set psychedelic Masterpiece!!! Yay Phish!

Loving Cup: Awesome! What a choice for an opener. Been a while since this happened, 6.24.04 to be exact at Deer Creek. This smokes. >

Maze: Good version and maintains the momentum set up by LC.

Martian Monster: Not a fan but it doesn’t derail the momentum and it’s over pretty quick. >

Divided Sky: Nice! Love it in this spot. Middle of the first set, perfect placement. With the no repeat thing it was bound to pop up. >

Prince Caspian: They absolutely crushed this. Not your typical Caspian but was so good! Nicely segued ->

NICU: Play it slowly Leo, lol >

Steam: Oof, needed a little more in this slot.

Drift While You're Sleeping: Nosedive complete. That is unfortunate as the first 2/3 of this was great fun.

SET 2: Set Your Soul Free: Solid jam! No fluff or filler.

Tweezer: Had to see this coming from a long way off – let’s goooo! ->

Guy Forget: Nice! ->

Tweezer: 8:36 - 10:00 in Tweezer is so, so good. Old school. This segment seriously gave me goosebumps. From here it eventually makes the seemingly inevitable move for major mode. Wish they could have kept the spirit of that aforementioned segment alive for a longer stretch. >

What's the Use? – No complaints here. >

Scents and Subtle Sounds: Aborting that Scents for the Tweezerfest stuff is an egregious error. So bad. ->

Tweezer: Gimmick. ->

Everything's Right: Nice jam, much like the set II opener… No fluff or filler. Manteca stuff was fun. >

Backwards Down the Number Line: Oof. >

Tweezer Reprise: Inevitable. We will not go quietly into the night!

ENCORE:

Harry Hood: That Hood is exceptional. Gave me goosebumps listening to it the first time yesterday. They took a risk with that Hood, and it paid off in spades. What an encore and capper to the run. Very impressive! All time version for this era. Love this Hood.

Summary: Pretty good show with a solid first set overall. Second set seems gimmicky and like they were running out of steam perhaps? I would rate this as a 3.9/5.

Replay value: Prince Caspian, Tweezer, Harry Hood.