Crosseyed thru Meatstick was straight fire.

Slow Llama was nice nice very nice.

The Line is straight cheese tho IMHO. There's always a heated debate on the Kush Bush chat when this comes on about whether Phish or Trey knows a lot of people dislike this song and then there's the folks that love this song. Nonetheless, it's not one of my fav jammys. It's actually kind of jam band cringe worthy for me personally. If others love it that's cool I'm not judging. Please don't hate me for not liking the song The Line. We're still pham.

One other thing, I like Mike's Grooves to be really ">" worthy, like with a Simple or Hydrogen involved, but that's just me. I think of Mike's like I think of GD's Help>Slip>Franklin's. I don't mind them mixing it up but when the Groove stops and they play two ballads and then go into Weekapaug like we've been Mike's Groovin' the whole time seems a little dishonest musically. Like going from the end of Farmhouse to the Weekapaug "blap" is kind of a stretch dance wise. I'm not being critical just expressing my personal Phish listening aesthetic.

The Hood encore was an awesome way to close out the night.

This is was an interesting show with a lot of highlights, but not the overall rocker that I expected after the fairly chill first night.

Llama was a pleasant surprise, but its speed/style shift was definitely a surprise unto itself that I both loved and found disappointing (I love a good special version, but I also love a crispy well-done Llama). The much slower tempo for for the first half of Reba was less welcome, but it did pick up during the composed sections--only to drop back to quiet and slow.

At which point, Trey reveals the gag and wonders aloud what else they can play slow (I was hoping for Ha Ha Ha), jumping into a stilted half-a-vamp of the intro for Mike's before the band finally decided to drop the joke and going into it full bore. Then back to the (extra-)slow with Horn and Farmhouse before closing the set out in style (and speed) with Weekapaug. I expected Mike's would be orphaned, so that sat fine with me.

Cross-eyed and the jam that eventually became Friends was fantastic and as always a hell of a second set opener. A great DwD was made even better by the transition to (a now-appropriately-slow) What's The Use? and then a solid (heh) Meatstick. The big surprise was closing a capella with Dem Bones, which seemed both an odd choice and the capstone for two very short sets.

With the stage now firmly set for a hugely disappointing encore, they went for the gusto with Dear Prudence (which was quite good on its own, and given the crowd reaction probably would have sufficed), but they really nailed the show home with Hood. Probably not the best Hood I've ever heard, but great, and I left with a huge smile.

I won't comment on the new material as I need to listen back to it, but Waking Up Dead reminded me of the debut of Spock's Brain--very much WTF Are They Doing?, but could be a welcome surprise if it reappears better rehearsed down the road.

All in all, a great night but a bit too much downtime to call a great show. Still definitely worth a listen.

Beautiful, calm venue. Nice folks at the meetup. Show highlights were Reba and the slow Llama in the first set. Second set highlights are kind of obvious---C&P, DWD, WTU, Meatstick. A great night, and I left feeling satiated and relaxed but now, this evening, after a nap, I'm missing the band already and wondering what's going to happen at SPAC.

Some .net hate going on vs. this show...people are nuts. You show up to watch this band evolve. Maybe you didn't like the new songs, but these things take time to grow on you, and the band has to grow into the songs as well.

Trey seemed to make a lot of errors during the composed portion of Reba, but then really totally turned things around when he started soloing. Let's face it---we're all getting older. The fans, the band. As you get older, life is not so much about perfection...it's about fixing all the messes you made. I got chills during that Reba and it was worth the price of admission.

This show began much in the way that the previous show had ended- with great flow and firmly rooted in the foundation that warm summer shed nights demand drippy muddy funk. I had almost no problems with the first set. The opening Wolfman's, Your Pet Cat, Blaze On, Waking Up Dead, and Llama had Mike's pulsating bass, Page's clavinet chops, and Trey & Fish holding everything else together. Devotion to a Dream gets a pass due to those first five songs. Reba brings us back with precision and then a really, really patient Trey doesn't dive in with his mid 90's esque soft Reba solo until at least eight measures into Mile's plodding bass. I agree with someone in the Mann1 live show feed posting that Trey is laying back during some of the solos for others to step up during jams, and this Reba jam allowed Mike and Page to start painting first before Trey stepped in with his brush. Now- in my opinion the highlight of the show is the Mike's Song jam. Trey again going low profile and Page stands up while we get down. Crunchy Mike's Songs are something rare to be found nowadays. This reminded me somewhat of the 2014 Mann Mike's on 7.9.14- due to the funk factor alone. Horm and Farmhouse chilled us out a bit, but then a nice Weekapaug to close the set left us with high hopes for the 2nd frame.

Now C&P set the place off with jumping madness, as we all lost our collective sh*t. Friends was weird, I thought it was more of a joke song and to me sounded almost atonal- but I wouldn't put it past the boys to write something like that on purpose. DWD brought us back and shape shifted into What's the Use, then finally into the last good song of the set- Meatstick. For the record, I have a weird relationship with Meatstick. I haven't heard it at a show since Big Cypress, so for me it was a moral victory to finally hear a song that brings back such memories.

The real sticking point with this show will be the 4th quarter. The Line, Tide Turns, BDTNL, and Dem Bones let the air out of the 2nd set and it ends in a whimper. I notice they roll off stage around 11:06 and come back on around 11:10 or so- so I tell my crew we might get a two song encore. Dear Prudence and Hood help to put the show back on a respectable pedestal, but far far FAR removed from those funky first set memories that all seemed so distant.

To sum it up- listen to the first set, all of it. For me the highlights are Waking Up Dead, the slow Llama, and that crunchy clavinet Page driven Mike's Song. The second set had a few moments, but just no great flow- as Mann1's second set was so BIG on the night before.

The slow set, haha! I like my Rebas in particular fast and fiery, so I am kind of amused by this set rather than enthralled with it, though the new song Waking Up Dead is great and I enjoyed the setlist construction. The latter part of that comment leads me to ponder the fact that song suites really help to shore up sets, as they did with the Grateful Dead in yesteryears. I think there's something to be said for a sequence where you can expect a certain lineup of songs, but sometimes be pleasantly surprised with Phish switching it up on us. I don't recall ever seeing a Mike's Groove with Horn or Farmhouse before, and that's cool.

The second set opening Crosseyed is a bit undermined for me, but Friends is really interesting... it kind of makes me think of Syd Barrett fronting The Who with maybe a dash of power pop thrown in? The Down with Disease jam is more my speed than the Crosseyed, but we get what? Yes! Another new song: Tide Turns. A truly soulful number that Page is the MVP of, to me. Good to see Dem Bones back, whether I think some of these very special occasional one-timers should remain one-timers or not. Dear Prudence makes its third-ever appearance, giving Trey a chance to go over the ending with 6 strings instead of 5 (see 6/22.) Nice, long, melodic and peaky Hood encore, and that's all she wrote for The Mann this tour. Maybe it's just the fact that SPAC boasts the first 20-min.-plus jam of Summer 2016, but I think 7/1's where this tour's seeing Phish hit their stride (like Vida Blue?) I have high hopes for an excellent next few weeks and then Lockn and Dick's.

Gorgeous night in Philly. Fading sunshine. Low humidity. Phanatics splayed over the slippery lawn. Skyscrapers gleaming in the distance. And then...Wolfman's kicks us off with a fierce initial jam. We're off!

I'm allergic to most felines but I will make an exception for Your Pet Cat as I dig screeching, oddly. Blaze On didn't burn as bright as MSG but it didn't disappoint. Too early to tell on Waking Up Dead (a Mike original?), but I can say that the half-tempo Llama was a revelation. Devotion to a Dream has a tent preacher vibe that isn't for everyone (I say “Amen”) but the subsequent Reba, while also at a slower tempo, delivered. A few band-sync issues marred the opening of a Mike-Horn(!)-Farmhouse-Weekapaug set closer and there were no MSG 12-31-95-style flourishes, but the spirited playing sent me happily up the hill for another round of $8 meatballs.

Hard to top the choice of Crosseyed to lead off the second half and the Type II jam was electric, sequeing into...a new song! Okay...If you like Fishman on lead vocals back-to-back, this was the transition for you. Another jerky opening threatened to derail Disease but it relaunched intact and also morphed into Type II territory. Then, in the most inspired transition of the night, DWD landed perfectly into a lugubrious What's The Use => Meatstick (more beef for me). A little touch of group Japanese singing can enliven any gathering of 10,000+ people! 4th Quarter was a bit of a downshift to The Line and Trey's new R&B pleaser Tide Turns, and an above-average Backwards with TAB-Betts overtones. Dem Bones Set 2 closer was a quirky, delightful denouement.

Beatles tunes are always welcome in the encore and Dear Prudence proved stirring, although not as a turbocharged an ending as a scorching Harry Hood to dispatch us into the dark Philly night. A few intro hiccups and clunky new song debuts aside, high energy interspersed with much shredding.

I get it, The Line is a vibe killer and it looks like the Horn Farmhouse combo after a good Mike's annoyed people too but I thought Reba and Hood were great, Hood being one of the better 3.0 versions with a peak reminiscent of 90's versions. C&P through Meatstick, Mike's and Weekapaugh with that nasty Birds quote were all solid so I guess this was a "highlights" show to many because of all the jerky vibe killers. Maybe I was just in a really good mood but I thought the jamming in these "highlights" was the best of tour thus far. I attended both Wrigley's but for some reason I really preferred aspects of this show here, regardless of full set cohesiveness or whatever. The band seems to have ridden themselves of the early tour cobwebs and now they're playing tighter as a result or something. Anyways, can't wait till the Cali run those are my next shows, keep up the good work boys!

Crosseyed thru Meatstick was straight fire.

Slow Llama was nice nice very nice.

The Line is straight cheese tho IMHO. There's always a heated debate on the Kush Bush chat when this comes on about whether Phish or Trey knows a lot of people dislike this song and then there's the folks that love this song. Nonetheless, it's not one of my fav jammys. It's actually kind of jam band cringe worthy for me personally. If others love it that's cool I'm not judging. Please don't hate me for not liking the song The Line. We're still pham.

One other thing, I like Mike's Grooves to be really ">" worthy, like with a Simple or Hydrogen involved, but that's just me. I think of Mike's like I think of GD's Help>Slip>Franklin's. I don't mind them mixing it up but when the Groove stops and they play two ballads and then go into Weekapaug like we've been Mike's Groovin' the whole time seems a little dishonest musically. Like going from the end of Farmhouse to the Weekapaug "blap" is kind of a stretch dance wise. I'm not being critical just expressing my personal Phish listening aesthetic.

The Hood encore was an awesome way to close out the night.

A big FOUR STAR from me I'll tell you what! Where was the song in which there is the lyric waiting all night you said I'm said I'm said I'm waiting all night you said I'm sorry waiting all night and I don't know why you waiting all night you left me this way???? I was... Waiting all night for it ha halook I try and add an elem element of humor to the review but the show had me asking when and where they will play it next in a way that had my brow furrowed in a way that was prohibitory to laughter