First show. Had never listened to any live Phish and had only heard a few songs from Farmhouse. But Jones Beach was 20 mins from my house and I was offered a free ticket, so I figured why not. Had too much of just about everything before the show and as a result dont really remember much. But I do remember leaving thinking I had to see this band again.

One of those days that I will never forget, and at the same time never fully remember.

Mixed bag here: most of the second set is sloppy and awkward, and every segue in Mike's Groove is an abomination. But this sprightly (and rhythmically unusual) If I Could is my favourite version, and the climactic Hood is 90% perfection (complete with breathtaking ambient passage) and 10% clattering weirdness (with Trey spraying these seemingly unmotivated flatted ninths all over the place and the band just not syncing up, the whole affair just sputtering to a depressing finish). So much potential, so much energy, so much cold water all over everything. Oy. Still, June '09 was a strong step forward from the safe play at Hampton, and the best parts of this show are unquestionably worth hearing and keeping.

This was my 2nd Phish show ever (1st being Hershey Park '96) but, in reality, my first one as it apparently took 13 years to allow myself the open-mindedness that this band required. I also think that it took 13 years for them to refine their presentation, what I mean is that maybe the 13 additional years of musical maturity under their collective belts also had something to do with their finally able to reach me. All I know is that by the end of the 1st set, one that I had totally approached with a shit and giggles attitude mainly to appease my best bud (thanks, dude) for his insistence that I attend the show with him, it was a musical revelation of the highest sorts. And the second set only confirmed it, what I had witnessed was nothing short of balls-on, my favorite show out of 79 seen/heard in total in '09. But after 4 Phish shows in '09 and 13 shows in '10, this show still remains one of the great ones just "cause it's never as good as the first time".

And because it had some really legitimate moments. But what really blew me away 'bout this show was the four songs that ended the 2nd set: A poignant When The Circus Comes, Kill Devil Falls (all debuts should be this good), an explosive Harry Hood and one of my fave Stones songs, Loving Cup. And now my cup runneth over this band. Bring on Summer '11!

Peace,
Alex

My initial reaction for this show was surprise at how fast Phish stepped into their element. I expected this type of quality show around the end of June. Certainly not the second show into the tour. Among the highlights were If I Could, Harry Hood, and Suzy Greenberg. Another notable, and possibly the highlight, was the requested "Kill Devil Falls." I wouldn't be surprised if this turned out to be the first debut to ever be requested. I assume someone heard the wonderful soundcheck version of this in Boston and requested. I admit, the first time I heard it, I was sure it would become one of my favorites. This show for me tied for fourth for the summer tour. Here are the individual song scores:

Set I:
Runaway Jim:****
Foam:**
Stealing Time From the Faulty Plan:**
Timber:***
Cities:***
Driver:****
Reba:****
Possum:***
Farmhouse:****
If I Could:*****

Set II:
Mike's Song >:****
Simple:****
Wolfman's Brother >:****
Weekapaug Groove:****
When The Circus Comes To Town:****
Kill Devil Falls:****
Harry Hood >:*****
Loving Cup:****

Encore:
Suzy Greenberg:*****

GHI: 3.7/5.0
Batting Average: .757 (72 Stars/95 Stars)

The two ratings are Batting Average and GHI. Both are defined below.
BA: The total number of stars achieved divided by the total possible stars a concert can achieve. Each song can achieve a total possible 5 stars, 5 being the best, 0 being the worst. Therefore, each show receives anywhere from a 1.0 to a .001.

GHI: This rating is used in The Phish Companion 2nd Ed. Each show is given a score from 0 to 5, five being the best and 0 being the worst.

The two scores are synonymous. I like the BA form better because each show receives a score closer to its worth depending on how you rated it.

This was my first show...

Being a complete "Noob" at the time, what I can say looking back now is that this show did have a good song selection 1st set in Foam, Timber, Cities, Reba, and If I could.

In terms of the 2nd set, although not jam heavy (seldom such shows were back in '09) I do nonetheless enjoy a Mike's to open a set (something they do not do as often I feel anymore).

Maybe worth noting is having a show with both Reba and Hood played.

Just one last thing, I seem to notice some kind of pattern in Phish setlists that often there will be a short sequence of songs starting with the same letter... The sequence here I noticed is Wolfman's -> Weekapaug, When the Circus Comes.

This is an interesting "snapshot" show, in that it captures the band at the beginning of what we might be able to call, years later, the worst summer of their career. Even in the midst of that, there were fine shows of course, but this ain't one of them.

Set I is the better of the two, with the 3.0 debut of Cities, a nice Reba, and surprisingly excellent If I Could closer. Possum is a solid offering, and hints at why the band decided to play it so relentlessly for the next few years: it was one of the songs they could reliably bring down the house with. It gets the job done here, and I particularly like Trey's country pluckin' during the intro.

Set II is probably the worst set I've been in attendance for. The entire Mike's Groove is kind of a sloppy snoozer, with little that begs additional listening. The segue to Weekapaug in particular is ugly, ugly stuff. But hey--it's all about trajectory, right? Think about all those butter smooth segues of 2012-2013. Those don't happen unless the boys had first built themselves back up from depths like this.

The bright spot is the Hood, which is unusual and spacey. Very interesting version, and caught me totally off guard. The transition back into normal Hood territory doesn't go according to plan, but that doesn't keep this from easily being the #1 highlight of the night.

All in all, I see June 2009 as a sort of Pilgrimage for devoted Phish fans. These shows are worth hearing, and are so crucial to the current (phenomenal) state of the band, but if you are making the trek through these 15 shows, be prepared for some bumps and stalls.

I'm finding my adventures through June 2009 to be much more enjoyable than I expected. The rust was definitely there and they were obviously not completely comfortable with each other like they were in their peak years, but it's far from all bad. They went out and played their songs very straight-forward, comparable to Spring '93 without the youthful exuberance, and would every so often strike gold.

Such is the case with this show. Aside from the debut of Stealing Time and the weird ending, the first set is completely forgettable. @waxbanks has it when it comes to the Mike's Groove: every segue is butchered. Though don't let that get you down. After all, this was only the fifth show in almost as many years and what comes afterword is the aforementioned gold.

The second sets closing quartet is unquestionably the highlight of the show. When The Circus Comes is well played and placed perfectly. The debut is KDF is really nice. Trey rips it up. And now, the first Truly memorable jam since the return emerges out of Harry Hood. Slight mistakes in the composed section aside, this is one of the best Hoods of the year. The ambient passage is quite beautiful and the build to the peak afterword is flawless. At this point we weren't all sick of Loving Cup yet, and this is a good version. Suzy ends closes the show is style.

I won't be listening to any of this show besides the Hood again, but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it when I did.

Not an above average show by any means. But it was my first and I was geekin on shrooms. Mike Simple Wolfman's Groove had me giddy.

My least favorite 3.0 show mainly due to setlist and quality of performance

This was the first Phish show I attended and also the worst of them. It wasn't that the performances were particularly terrible, but they were still feeling their way into a lot of the songs and because of this, they didn't really lock in all that much. That said, this show does have a couple performances worth listening to in the debuts of Stealing Time and Kill Devil Falls, as well as a decent Cities.