Free probably wasn't anyones guess as the opener but always welcomed. Possum gets you moving and then bam.... We enter into our first two headed monster of the tour with The Moma Dance into Ghost. 30 minutes of set 1 bliss. Funky Bitch is pretty standard, Mike's purple hair is not. What a guy. Stash gets a little extra juice and Character Zero adds a nice explamation point to a first set that was above anyones expectations for a tour opener. Did I mention that every song played so far has been from1998 or prior.

No Men in No Man's Land kicked off set two with a bang and they jammed this one out for 15min using some intersting synths, a nice grove, ending in a bright white light blissful peak that we all have been yearning for. Next up is Carini which plays the second song after a big jam well. Nothing to brag home about but keeps the set flowing. I am always blown away by a mid set Slave. Slave to me has a feeling of closure and self reflection that usally is saved for an exclamtion point on a great set. This slave is wonderful, as they all are. Gordon, who really shined last night, showed patience with his solo while communicating with Trey. No where do we go? Why not bounce around the room for a little while and well Bouncing is Bouncing. Soul Planet kicks off the second half and is the second time Phish played the song following the NYE gag. I am a fan of this song but i know it gets mixed reviews. The jam is worth a listen as it has some interesting improv. Soul Planet crawls into Steam which is short and sweet. Still time left for one more jam and the boys break out Hood. This Hood is patient, dynamic, and even had a few bass bombs. Perfect way to end a very good tour opener.

Contact, which somehow dodged 17 shows at MSG last year, is a fitting encore for the 1st show of a tour with a lot of driving left to do. Julius always packs a punch and leaves the crowd satisfyed. This show is beyong my expectations. I expected them to stay the course in set 1 and hopefully get a a sweet jam or two for set 2. Instead we have the concert MVP being a 30min Moma>Ghost that happens 20min into the concert. So pumped to see what 2018 has in store so lets get this show on the road!!

Overall, this show was good throughout. As other reviewers mentioned you could hear the rust on some songs as the band tried to get some of the composed sections down and come out of deeper jams. First set was definitely stronger than the second set, but I enjoyed the flow of both sets. Some may disagree about the second set. I thought the mid set cool down worked well especially with the nice, dark jam coming out of Soul Planet. Dad rock, for sure, but they take Soul Planet to a nice place.

First set: What a start to the tour, although as mentioned a bit rusty. The Moma Ghost was my highlight for this show. I read a review on LivePhish app that mentioned the Ghost didn't really go anywhere or have a conclusion besides the weird key shifting ending. I would disagree with this. I thought the Ghost really explored some nice ambient hose. Felt like 98 at points to my ear. Funky Bitch and Zero were both solid, and I'm not a huge Stash fan so i'll leave that one alone.

Second set: This no man's is solid enough for a second set opener although not as strong as the Ghost. This is no stand out version for this song, but none the less enjoyable. Carini really hits a cool jam for only being 9 minutes long. The cool down with Slave and Bouncing happened. Soul Planet through Harry Hood was sweet though. You remember 2016 when 4th quarter jams were nonexistant, and shows fell so flat at the end and just drained the energy out of the crowd? Not this show.

Encore: Love both Contact and Julius. Especially to close out an average great show.

I feel like this show will be one that people look back on as kind of a hidden jem. Nothing was year defining good, but everything was solid.

With the late norm of having longer, warmup first sets, this one sets up promisingly with the “Moma” > “Ghost” combo that takes up a little less than half the entire set time. They were going ham from the start and getting their edge back as soon as possible. The “No Men” looked like it could evolve into something great, but Trey looked to be having some possible rig troubles, and faded out to rip into “Carini”, which slithered into an odd “Slave” without the “blinking” intro. “Bouncing” would follow, and “Soul Planet” would make its second appearance to date. We then quickly “Steam” off the remaining rust from returning to tour and wrap up the show with “Hood”. The tiny venue would be graced with a “Contact” > “Julius” encore before leaving into the night to return the following evening for another show at Harvey’s.

The "rust" on this show has been a bit overstated (and re-stated ad nauseam). This show is cleaner than the following night in Tahoe, and even that show doesn't suffer so much from "rust" as it does from a Trey that just has one of those nights where he can't quite lock in with fluidity and ease (as likely to happen mid-tour or at the end of of tour as it is at the beginning).

What hasn't been stated enough is that this is one of the best tour openers in recent memory. Definitely the most ambitious. Great sequence to start the show with a strong Free and an ebullient Possum before going full-on Type 2 in Moma and Ghost. If there's any rust to speak of, it would be in the latter part of Ghost, where Trey struggles to connect back to the jam, but, after all the places that jam had been, it's of little consequence. The first set then stays hyped til set break.

Second Set keeps it coming with a NMINML that stays pretty Type 1, but is able to find a kind of infinite groove within the parameters. They pack it all in, from a funk throwdown to a bliss peak to a spirited outro. The opening sequence continues with a Carini that, though staying under 10 minutes, still finds plenty of pockets to dip into and segues seamlessly into a beautiful Slave to close the triptych.

They hit the reset button with Bouncing Around the Room. Then another killer three song sequence.

Soul Planet has some trouble connecting for a bit, but listen for Fishman tying everything together like an eight-limbed metronome. Steam is compact, but thrilling, and then a patient, textured Harry Hood closes out the show.

Fucking Contact!