The second set, particularly the Sand > etc. > Mist run, is on par with the second sets from the Greek. And that's saying something! There's no one jam to equal the stunning 8/7 Light, but the overall flow of this set is uncanny. The most interesting moment is the 'Mind Left Body' jam during the Caspian outro, which has all the barely-contained intensity and eerie psychedelic menace of the original Paul Kantner song (especially powerful after Trey's delicate quotation of the Caspian vocal melody at the onset of the jam). But there are otherworldly moments throughout the set: Page's improvised tenor harmony line on the final Number Line chorus, Trey and Fish's nasty unison rhythms during the Tweezer opening, the effortless modulation to signal the Boogie On segue, the blissful final minutes of Piper, the way Mountains in the Mist emerges from Trey's guitar wash like a certain distantly-remembered Lady with a Fan, the joyful encore...

The first set is studded with gems too: Stash, Light Up, the whole shebang. Even Summer of '89, which many fans openly despise, fits right in here - Trey's solo is emotionally open and lively. The jam still hasn't quite found its final shape, I think, nor its ideal length, but it's pretty and admirably forthright (not to mention a clever left turn away from the rhythmic tempo of the vocal section).

Don't let anyone tell you the early segue out of this (goopy, funky) Tweezer is a problem. (It might be a disappointment, but that's got more to do with the listener than the music...) It's all part of the bigger picture. After one listen I think this second set is stronger, end-to-end, than any closing set of 2009, and worthy of the already-epic Summer of '10.

I met my girlfriend/future wife off of e-harmony at the Denver international airport and we drove 6.5 hours to Telluride, stayed at Lawson campground and enjoyed both beautiful shows, and fell in love. I doubt she'll ever be the same dedicated Phish fan I am but the experience helped create our love. After 16 years of on and off touring I'm very appreciative this happened at a Phsih festival, especially at a place so amazingly beautiful as Telluride. My first trip to Colorado!

If you ever visit, go to Maggies for breakfast. Delicious.

confirming the above soundcheck as being complete. pretty sure *Cities* had lyrics of "Find myself a mountain town to live in"...

Awesome start to that magical weekend in Telluride.

oh yeah, i almost forgot, quinn was doubly appropriate as the long awaited "nod to jerry." while many pondered which jerry tune would be played on this evening, i don't think i heard any calls for quinn. good bring back and a good nod to 'ol jerry. from some conversations i had in the campgrounds, i don't think everyone caught that "reference." i heard many griping that they did not do anything for jerry. no, they just didn't do a gd/jgb tune. well done phish; way to keep us guessing!

musically, this was a good solid phish show. overall, scenery, venue, etc., this was remarkable. oh yeah, your sound check set list for this date is complete. it sounded great from my tent.

as for the show, disease started this one off nicely. it opened the last show i was at, bridgeview, so i kind of wanted something different. either way, you can't complain about disease. this one was played well but straight forward, like bridgeview's. camel walk got this one moving full steam ahead. good take of the classic. ocelot has really taken off. this version has a nice laid back feel, but they really pick it up. trey buries his solo on this one. then they drop a personal favorite of mine and scratch one off my wish list. page was right on on the vocals in light up, and once again, trey buried his solo. this was some what short, but it was very well executed. summer of '89 is a decent ballad, but it goes on a bit too long for my taste. they picked things up in stash, but i did not feel that this one ever really took off. it was a touch disjointed. of course, they pulled found a way to bring it all back home, but it felt a bit forced. i thought this nice rocking cavern would close the set, but trey twisted it into the wedge. this was a fairly unique take of the wedge. trey found a slightly different tone for this one. once again, i thought the wedge would close the set, but they slipped right into a rip roaring possum. this one really got the crowd jumping, and foregoing set break once again, they jumped into a jumping julius. this is not my favorite song, but this was a good fun version.

it got pretty damn cold over set break, so i think everyone was looking for phish to get them moving. they did just that with a nice grooving, funky sand. this one was a monster, and the boys found an awesome collective groove here. the jam does end a touch awkwardly, and the groove that they established seemed to be lost a bit in bdnl. this is not my favorite song; it seems a bit cheesey to me. decent version though. i really hate caspain, and i liked it even less on this cold colorado night. although, i must say that there was a very nice musical passage between caspain and tweezer. it had a very cool ambient feel. tweezer came out of the gates funky and rocking. as they enter the jam, page finds a very cool funk groove. i was hoping they would really take off into a wonderful funk tweezer, but gordo and page quickly shifted into boogie on reggae woman. this was a very nice segue, but i would have liked to have seen them explore tweezer a little bit further. they did make up for it with a nice jam in boogie on, and it touched upon some of the turf that sand explored earlier in the set. the piper that follows is just mind blowing. fishman and gordo lock down a rock solid groove, and trey and page come over the top and just rip this one. as the night got chillier, i was hoping they would keep buring, but they dipped into mountains in the mist. not a big fan of this one, and i like i said, it was cold and i was looking to stay upbeat. it did serve as a nice breather before a nice focused bowie. this bowie is not as complex and contemplative as some, but it served as a nice climax to the back end of the second set. aditl was a nice treat and like most songs in this show, it was well-executed. quinn served as an excellent encore, especially considering the aforementioned weather. this and tweeprise sent us back to our tents cold, cold, cold.

this show, in my opinion, pails in comparision to the second night, but with some good jams, sand and boogie on>piper, and some nice rarities, camel, light up, and quinn, this was a beautiful introduction to what was phish in telluride. while this show may not be, musically, the best show i've seen, the overall experience is one of my fondest phish memories.

highlights:
set 1:
camel, ocelot, light up, cavern>the wedge, possum

set 2:
sand, boogie on>piper, quinn

This is the first show in a while that I listened to for the first time and then immediately hit repeat to stroll through it again. Second set flow is fantastic and first set is solid. Well played boys.

Set two kicked ass. Sand through mountains was fantastic. Can't wait for night two.

Awesome show all around. Everything was great. I think my favorite new songs might be "Backwards Down the Number Line" and "Ocelot". The Cavern > The Wedge > Possum, Julius closed the first set strong. And the second set Sand opener was a cosmic exploration of the "2.0" sound that didn't get old. They played "Quinn the Eskimo" (an old Dylan tune) for the first time since 1999. As always I had to sing along for every word of "A Day in the Life".

Acclimation. That's what happened over the course of this show.

Disease was sick, my first Camle Walk was pretty funky and Ocelot continues to grow in sickness. Light or Leave Me Alone show cased everything awesome about this band: great covers, great vocals, great playing and synch.

Trey remarked how everything was so beautiful, pausing for a moment before tenderly starting Summer of '89, which was a first for me. This song has a lot of potential to rip your heart out and I think that Phish will find a way to do it. They did seem to struggle a bit with some of the transitions and the build never found it's feel, but it's there.

The last four songs were all solid versions, but I couldn't shake the feeling that Fishman was struggling the most with acclimating in the band. He seemed a bit off and jumped in early a couple of times or lost the beat. A long set break was welcomed.

Sand was down right dirty. It just kept getting better and better until for a moment I thought we were going into Scent of a Mule, but it was Backwards Down the Number Line (which I like, I just love me some Mule...that came out wrong). This was a solid version that brought us back from space and back to Colorado. It rolled solidly into Prince Caspian.

I haven't listened to the show yet again, but I'm-a-gonna look for that Mind Left Body jam out of Caspian. A short, solid and somehow still jammed out Tweezer took us into a Boogie On that shook the trees on the mountains. From there we danced and jived our way through a crashing Piper that featured the older build-lull-build intro and segued flawlessly into a song I think is great.

Mountains in the Mist was most likely on everyone's list of something we'd get in the craggy-peaked town we were inhabiting. But I'd be amazed if anyone would ever place it late in the second set and jammed into out of Piper. True to it's unique beginning, this Mountains is a little heavier than most, lilting versions.

What was left of our collective psyche was rendered delirious by a tight, sick, David Bowie. A David Bowie that left us dazed as the band payed homage to the Fab Four with a decent version of A Day in the Life.

Quinn brought us back to life (another first of many on this short tour I was one, 1 night in Berkley and Telluride) and was a real fun version with Mike mugging a bit (as he do, as he do).

Just so you know, both me and my buddy Matt were rocked so hard by this set, we had forgotten they had (quickly) played Tweezer and so were slightly surprised by the Tweezer Reprise. Always a blast, this one seemed to verberate of the rock itself.