You decide what it contains. For me, returning to see the band live at these Mann shows for the first time since 2019, it was like coming home. I suspect with no tentpole jam and no eye-popping setlist that Night 2 in Philly may be dismissed by many in the fan base but i am here to tell you that this reaction would be a mistake - we had a complete show tonight, consistently excellent playing throughout both sets, and inventive Type 1 and Type 2 jamming in multiple spots.

Let me pause to say that I find it unspeakably satisfying to see this band, at this stage in their career, playing songs like Funky Bitch and Theme from the Bottom, songs that are war horses with hundreds of appearances under their belts, and playing them *excellently*, with swagger. It is truly a pleasure and a privilege.

Steam was appropriate to the sticky swampiness of yet another oppressively hot and humid day in Philly. The Steam jam brought some opening dirty funk, and the crowd eats it up and gets down through the stanky haze. Jim then provides the first highlight with a searching jam that emerges through to the familiar peak. Tela as the sun is going down with a light breeze picking up ok the lawn - divine. KDF picks up where Jim left off, with a brief but powerful and varied jamming segment. Theme exerted its power, and then a brief tightly played Birds goes into IDK, and Trey gives us some A+ shit eating grins as he takes a turn on the drums and spends a full minute hitting the “YEAH” button. Trey then follows this up by ripping into Funky Bitch, some great straight-ahead shredding. Melt, another heatwave appropriate call, reaches dissonant heights, melting into metal and drill screeching, a magnificent controlled chaos. Great S1.

S2 was a study in well-distributed full-band improvisation. AC/DC Bag was a sing along opportunity and then set the tone for the inventive jamming that would be present throughout the set. Im sure there were people bothered by the boppy Soul Planet in the S2 2nd slot, but i did not see any of them in my section of the lawn, instead i saw and experienced nothing but celebratory dancing and rejoicing. Simple’s improv was beautiful and varied, a multi-movement piece that featured both spacey abstraction and funky grooves. Let me put in a word here about Mike Gordon and Jon Fishman - our bands rythym section can *get it*. These men were on their game tonight, their vibrations pushing and pulling the jamming with concussive funk engines. Simple gives way to Light, which showcases yet more improv until Trey maneuvers us into Party Time, sending the crowd into a frenzy. Finally we have a cool down with the pretty Lonely Trip, and then the band offers an excellently played Bowie closer with a ripping peak, exclamation point achieved.

Waste is its normal beautiful self, and Loving Cup is yet another opportunity for the band to slay a song theyve played seemingly a million times - the Philly crowd eats it up, as theyve done all night.

I expect we are in for much more magic this summer. See you in AC.

The first set was perfectly good/great phish. Exploratory but concise jams in Jim and KDF, my first ever Tela, and my first Theme since 2017. A well above average Melt got me into the “WTF is happening” territory that I always crave at a Phish show. I left the first set feeling great and ready for a jammy second set!

The second set left me a little disappointed. Notably, they played the longest AC/DC Bag since 2004. Trey sounded great at the end of Bag but he ripcorded into Soul Planet. In the moment I thought: “Okay, this is fine, Soul Planet has proven itself to be a potent jam vehicle. Bring on the 20+ minute Soul Planet!” Once again, after some impressive jamming, Trey ripcords into Simple. This was a disappointing moment for me, as I felt the Soul Planet started off very well only to be cut short after 9 or 10 minutes. Simple ended up going somewhere great. The 15 minute jam had Trey taking a rhythmic role, and a funky and nebulous jam emerged. This is terrific stuff and reminded me of the dark Melt jam the set prior. The set ends with a nice Bowie that was a bit longer than normal, which I love to see in a 3.0/4.0 Bowie.

After the solid first set, I had a lot of hope for the rest of the show, but I was honestly a bit disappointed. The Simple and Bowie were excellent, but for the rest of the set it seemed like Trey was off. The rest of the guys seemed ready to blast off into space, but Trey frequently pulled the plug on promising jams.

As many have said, Phish on an off night is better than almost any other band on their best night. I still had a wonderful experience that could never be replicated. Spending 9 hours in the car will always be worth it to see the best band on earth.

This is all going to sound more negative than I mean it to, and I'm not feeling negative overall about the show. But here goes:

I just kind of feel like everyone was a little tired, maybe. For band and audience alike, I just didn't feel like the energy was there overall (despite Trey really shredding in spots and Fish laying down some really energetic grooves at times).

Night one was such an exceptional (and maybe mutually exhausting) show to try to follow. They weren't likely to match or exceed its quality, and I didn't expect them to.

But outside of like... "Kill Devil Falls", "Party Time", and a much-needed "David Bowie" (to literally get me and my neighbors up out of our seats again)... it just felt like a night where everyone was having a nice time but nobody was having a sustained great time. (Night one was very different: I feel like everyone was pretty thrilled and impressed all evening.)

Night one's jamming felt remarkably melodic, whereas night two didn't feel as inspired to me. "Split Open and Melt" got wild and dissonant but only felt interesting to me in a sort of academic way. This feels blasphemous to say, but... truthfully, too many songs just felt too long to me. To my ears, they would often run out of musical ideas before they ran into the next tune. Nobody wants a return of Ripcord Trey but the other extreme isn't particularly satisfying either.

But like I said: it was a nice night! And there were strong highlights! But even just judging from the crowd reaction from night to night (and then there's my own reaction too), I can't call it an especially strong show.