My first phish show. After seeing people wearing phish hats at dead shows I asked a friend to play some for me. He played me only sanity ( of all songs from junta ) and I remembered liking it. So when phish came to a church in my town I couldn't pass up seeing them.
I got there early and everyone was buzzing about the Sacramento gamehenge show. Immediately I noticed it was a younger crowd than the normal Grateful Dead crowd I was used to and being 18 it definitely made an impression on me. The venue only held 1600 people with awesome sound and not a bad seat in the house. A far cry from some of the stadiums I grew accustomed to seeing the Grateful Dead in. After only hearing sanity I couldn't believe how hard phish rocked. It was truly a mind blower.
During the set break Trey came up to my group of friends and lite up a joint while asking us what we wanted to hear. He laughed and said he never smoked pot in a church before then left the joint before going a lighting up another joint with another group. Another mind blower. At this point I knew I had seen Jerry start to not be the same as he once when I first started to him in the mid 80's. So phish was fresh start and we're just killing it. I am so thankful I went to this show. I am also so thankful for the community and the band members.

After a day off from the Gamehenge show, we have the only show at the Luther Burbank Center, and 36th of the tour. This show was a little hit and miss at times, but another solid night for Fishman and weak night for Mike. The recording isn't as crispy either, but still good.

Llama was absolutely blistering, almost too much. Right into a nice Foam with a few off spots, but very dynamic. Fee had some weak Mike spots. Poor Heart had a bad top, but turned out ok. Maze was just average for me tonight, as was IDK with Fish on trombone. Sample was pretty good and is definitely growing on the crowd. ATR had some rough spots from Trey again and seemed a little uptight. Jim was good and they are finally warmed up! And for some reason they stop to do a first set Grace? Cavern was a good solid closer for this set.

Kind of an uninspired Landlady to open up second set. Trey blows the intro part to an average Melt, the bridge was also rough. Sparkle had really good control, and Tweezer was solid. It was nice to hear Mound and then the balls come out. FEFY seemed a little rushed, but was good overall. YEM was terrible as Trey rushed in and no one followed. The funky jam later was good and the vocal jam almost had an Under Pressure tease and creepy Malachi growls from Mike and then SHUT UP! Trey whips out the acoustic for a weak Horse, but there was a lot of joking around going on. Silent was also weak in the timing and Trey needed to tune. HYHU brings Fishman out for a classic Prison Joke segment. Wow, is all I can say. Terrapin was standard. Almost sounds like Fish teases Moby Dick before they do GTBT to close up an awkward second set.

The barbershop does double duty tonight as we have a decent Carolina encore. Then some funny stage banter about Page loosening up before an average Coil. Page beautifully takes us home.

Definitely not as good as the last show, but not too bad. This one seems to have the right score at three and a half stars. I'm giving four to keep the average up, but only because Fishman had a really good night again.