Thought this show had a heck of a lot of heart. The combination of the cancelled Curveball crowd, tour opener energy, super lit Northeastern indoor wookery and that sick looking old school banner ("highest ever") lead to a very energetic crowd for a Tuesday night. This size room is perfect for Phish as no one feels too far away from the action.

The return of first set jamming has been a major event in 2018 (and 2017 to a lesser extent). The first night of Fall Tour was no slouch in this department with lengthy type II versions of Tube and Everything's Right (not to mention the Mike and Trey duel in Free). The second set was all butter to me. The opening trio was concluded well with a surprise drop into Piper. Sometimes 20 Years Later puts a damper on setlist flow (to some fans at least), but this version is NOT TO BE MISSED. Far and away the most interesting performance of the song and the highlight of the night. This one had echoes of the Worcester 97 Wolfman's Pentagram Jam. Super heavy shit. Rest of show was delivered with conviction.

I thought this was the best tour opener since 6/7/12 Worcester.

It's gonna be a great tour folks!

Average-to-great show on paper, but the music here is incredible. Moma Dance was a high-energy opener and absolutely set the mood for the rest of the night. Tube had some fantastic type 1.5 jamming, Free has a fun Trey/Mike duel (I got flashbacks to MPP1 Martian Monster- WOW!), and the Everything's Right jam soared, continuing it's late-first-set-dominance it has established since Camden2 (speaking of Camden2, I couldn't have been the only one who noticed the strong parallels in tonight's set1 song selection with Camden2's, could I? In hindsight the two sets only share 5 songs in common, but it felt very similar during the show) with the -> to Cities being a huge highlight. Theme, Army of One, Halley's, Cities, and WotC were otherwise standard, albeit very well played.

Ghost > NMINML was just as good as you'd think (and maybe even better- they packed a lot into that ~25 minutes. Has NMINML ever been that spacey?). The absolute best jam of the night had to be 20YL; Apparently the band brushed up on their hypnosis skills, as hypnotic is the only way to describe it. If you pick anything to listen to from 10/16/18, make it 20YL. The rest of the show was high energy, very well played- and yes, this includes Show of Life, which actually had some kind of jam on the back end of it. The fact that I can sit here and tell you that relistening to this Show of Life wouldn't be a waste of time should tell you all you need to know about this show.

Great tour opener! Excited to see if momentum keeps up throughout tomorrow and into the weekend (and hopefully beyond)!

Grrrrrrrrreat show last night! I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect. I was hoping for a good show and a good time with friends, nothing more. Instead I got an incredibly memorable night with both...the first set had a ton of confidence from the get go. I always love Moma as an opener and the Tube that followed let us know we were in for a way above average tour opener. The vibe of the set was similar to the last show I saw - Camden Night 2 - although I thought much better played. Every song felt like a highlight with special mention for the Trey / Mike duel in Free, a super tight Halley’s full of little Trey guitar runs and the Everything’s Right>Cities. The ER Jam felt like a recap of many songs of the first set as at times I heard elements of Moma, Theme and Free in it. Killer...the second set was a nice continuation of the feel of the first set in its smooth, sneaky tone. The Ghost Jam got fun and spooky and NMINML is always welcome. It seemed like Trey was teasing Piper a few minutes before they actually started it. I dug the intro with Trey softly playing the riff underneath the jam and starting to sing the opening lines while still in the ether. The Piper got good and hot for a bit before a spacey, our there 20 Years Later. I can totally see how some people might dismiss this and the Show of Life that followed on paper, but they were full of goodness in that room. The Show of Life had this amazing floating outro jam. Just beautiful. Hear it. The Hood encore was icing on the cake...all in all a very impressive show. It definitely had that 2018 sound to it although a bit sharper and clearer to my ears. Nothing meandered and nothing was too grungy. All felt just exactly perfect. Thank you, Phish!!!

The crowd during pregame was unusually amped, I thought, and I mentioned to a friend that it all had a feeling like the Worcester 2012 tour opener - small Northeast city, classic indoor venue, big excitement. And so it came to pass.

Moma Dance opener gave everyone a chance to settle in but there was something extra on offer as it stretched out longer than a standard Moma opener. Ditto Tube - developed a nice jam and with two funk fest openers the crowd was into it. Good Theme and Free pairing followed. For me, the set then sagged a bit with a Army of One, Halley’s Comet, Everything’s Right triptych but recovered with a nice >Cities and WoTC closer with an extended jam out of the Silent Trees segment.

I though I heard a Ghost somewhere in Trey’s warmup strums as the band chatted out the second set opener, and there it was. A solid version but not nearly the 11/28/09 version that everyone was immediately hoping the boys would conjure up. Ditto the No Mans Land and Piper that followed - solid but the peaks kind of left me feeling unresolved. I’m always hoping for that rapturous moment when the inexplicable happens. So when they kicked into 20 Years Later, I figured that it would just be one of those shows that never quite got over the top. Bwahahaha.
The jam took an unexpected turn and just grew and grew, bigger, darker, scarier, a seething monster that would not be satisfied until it had eaten everyone in attendance. I turned to Kim and said, “ there’s really no way out of this, is there?” Jaws we’re dropping around me. And yet somehow they reined it back in and landed in...

Show of Life. Really? I’ll leave during a SoL encore, so much do I not like this trite, smarmy little song. And yet...it worked. We all needed to breath after the monster ride we had just survived, and the jam was actually a bit extended and pretty. Plus out of the outro jam came a raging 2001 and Character Zero closer that let everyone throw down and celebrate being alive. Then to top it of a Hood encore, more of the raging rather than introspective variety, but everyone left the building pumped and excited for rest of fall tour.

Couple of side notes. My first show was here, 12/1/03, and this was my 50th. Nice symmetry. Add in that it was Kelli’s birthday and we had a special evening. Second note. The lights. Whoa. We were on the floor and the rig actually extended out a bit over the rail. With Kuroda’s new (since Bakers Dozen) swooping up and down sets there were times we felt as though we were inside the lights. There were some moments when the projector bodies themselves were being lit giving the impression of weird alien spaceship technology swirling over our heads. Waaay much fun.

Really strong show for a tour opener. Tube gets the job done early on with fishman driving the jam via his cowbell and later page with his new synth. Perfect drop into the blues section. Awesome tube. Free had a great duel and was an early highlight as well. Everything's right continuing to dominate!

Don't really get the hype behind this 20 years later, it definitely had that evil sound everyone loves but over all didn't grab my attention like the Ghost and No Men before it. Ghost had Mike shining with bouncing grooves and was the set 2 highlight for my ears.

Take aways: TUBBEEEEE & GHOST highlighted the show. Phall will be great. Keep bringing the heat in the first set boys!

See my review above and here's my apology. I guess I'm a jaded old bastard and the Show of Life always was a call to the exits for me. Then I listened to Season One of the Long May They Run podcast in which Trey explains the song. And now I'm a humbled and adoring fan of the song. Sometimes its just shut the fuck up (interior monologue) and listen to the music. Look forward to seeing you all again when we can.

Still can't get enough of this Ghost
Mike dominated the soundscape with his heavy groove;
Easy to pass on this one but if you consider the interview where he said he is more than willing to push the jam if no one else is-- this Ghost is a great example of this philosophy
*
Gordo goes apeshit; Ghost goes dark

These were shows #62 and #63 for me, and interestingly enough, they were my first non-MSG indoor shows and my first shows that weren't a New Years run or summer tour. Fall tour, nice to meet you. Tom Marshall, nice to meet you as well before night 2!

The room itself was great, feeling a whole lot cozier than its 17,500 capacity would suggest. People were clearly fired up from the get-go—call it tour opener, call it upstaters trying to get over Curveball, call it the surprise banner, really call it whatever you'd like—but this was a rather solid show, tour opener qualifier or not. Moma gets things going with some very fiery Trey-led playing, before jumping into a very fun version of Tube. This one packs a lot into its 11 minutes: crazy alien sounds and synths from Page (more on that later) before kicking into an awesome Trey and Fish led climb that ends with a nice peak packed with a few Mike bombs.

Theme was standard, with the > into Free not so much a strange little segue as it was a biffed re-entrance (a lyrics flub in Cities would also show a little rust). Free gets flexible in the Mike funk section, leading to a minute-plus of deconstructed face-to-face riffing between Trey and Mike in the vein of the Camden or Baker's versions of Character Zero. Cool and unique little twist on an old favorite. Army of One and Halley's served as a bridge to the other notable segment of set one, the Everything's Right -> Cities combo, complete with stellar segue. Coming off a summer full of great versions, this Everything's Right delivers the goods, with a serene patient build capped by a nice Trey sustain into some more massive Gordo bombs. Great start.

Ghost-No Men-Piper is definitely a nice trio to start on paper and the crowd was definitely into it, but these versions are mostly standard fare with flashes of something great—the 9 to 11~ minute stretch in the Ghost is a good example. After this follows two curious highlights: Twenty Years Later and Show of Life (huh?). Clocking in at just over 14 minutes this 20YL goes to some very surreal sonic spaces in its final 4 or so minutes: weird sludge-y bass, angry and dissonant Trey riffing, Page trying to communicate with aliens via synths, and then a nice slide back into the song proper. Ya know, the dark evil Phish shit people have been begging for. Combined with Kuroda blasting deep reds into the crowd and the entire lighting rig hovering just a pinch above the band—this reminded me of the jaw-dropping Camden Split Open and Melt Kuroda work—the Albany 20YL will almost certainly end up on the jam charts.

While Show of Life elicits the standard groans (listen to the 12/31/13 soundboard and hear the guy scream "OH NOOOOO!" at the start of it), this version is really serene, with a spirited vibe and patient playing (very quiet out of the composed section) that serves as an effective counterpoint to the darkness of the 20YL. 2001, Zero and Hood were all high-energy crowd pleasers to send everyone home happy, with 2001 really making the people go loco as always.

Fun one, and a good omen for fall tour. Stuff worth checking out: Tube, Free, Everything's Right -> Cities, 20 Years Later.

First tour opener for me. Had a blast. The energy in the building was great.
If you read nothing else know this: if tonight is an indicator of the band's readiness to play and play solidly and with some energy, it's going to be a great tour. They came out ready to play!

Moma and Tube set the funk and pace right from the beginning...band seemed to be having fun.
The Everything's Right -> Cities was fantastic and seamless which is always a treat. Crowd was roaring along.
Walls of the Cave was fiery and tight.
The second set energy from the crowd was still high. The jams were "fine" but nothing mind blowing or crazy. All in all Page sounded great through all of these jams and helped make them special.
Show of Life, my first one live, sounded great and was well placed. The jam was excellent.
Highlight of the night was Also Sprach which got people really grooving! Obviously Zero is always a raucous singalong and it finished the set well.
Harry Hood as an encore was both unexpected and a real treat. Great way to close out the tour opener.

PS: CK5's light rig was moving around like a snake, up/down/wavy, all over the place. It was awesome and also a tad bit distracting from up in the 200 section because it would block view of the band at points. Not bad, just in the way.

Peace. Have fun out there.

On October 16th, 2018 three of us drove (well, I drove) to the United States of America for a pair of Phish concerts in Albany. Approaching the US border I noticed a large, conspicuous digital sign on the side of the road warning: “No cannabis at the border”. With Canada just a day away from legalizing marijuana nation-wide the Americans were obviously making a point of making their point. “It ain’t legal here buddy, and we’ve got our eyes on you.”

So it was with a little extra trepidation that I pulled up to the border crossing, half-expecting some extra questioning. What I got was this:

“Where do you live?” Ottawa.

“Where are you going?” Albany.

“What are you going to Albany for?” To see some concerts.

So far, so standard.

“You going to see Phish?” Um…yes.

“Why?” Um….because it’s fun…

“They’re terrible!”

Um…

“Why would anyone want to see Phish, they are horrible!”

Er…

“Aw, I’m just kidding,” the border dude said, smiling and handing back our passports. “Have a great time.”

And we did.

Checked in to our Holiday Inn Express right around the corner from the venue and went to a nearby New Orleans-style bar for dinner, just beating the massive pre-show crowd and scoring the best table in the house. An hour and a half later we walked up the street and joined the booming crowd in front of the Knickerbocker Arena.

Dave found his Boston crew and zigged to his seat beside the stage while m’lady and I zagged to our reserved perch in the back corner of the upper level, which ended up being an excellent spot for the show.

The band kicked off with Moma Dance, which was a bit of an odd beginning – but good – followed by a nicely jammed out Tube. It proved to be a good start to the show, and things just kept getting better: Theme From The Bottom (always a favourite of mine) and Free. Later in the set Cities surprised everyone in the room (band included) by miraculously appearing out of the end of Everything’s Right. before rounding out set one with Walls of the Cave.

But it was during the second set that I realized just how odd of a show we were witnessing. Halfway through the setlist it occurred to me that Trey was ducking away from every possible solo opportunity. Whenever a soft spot would come up, a pocket just waiting for one of Anastasio’s signature screaming bend solo intros, Trey would instead milk a low chord, soloing in pure timbre rather than notes. It was really curious, really different, and really fun.

Worthy of very, very special mention was CK5’s continuing mastery of his dangling light rig. During Twenty Years Later he took things to new heights, arranging his remote-controlled light trusses in a downward sloping angle that careened and pulsated in ways I’ve never seen before. The crowd screamed madly. I was literally weeping. Gosh, it was so great.

When Character Zero started up to close the set I convinced m’lady that her best chance at truly enjoying one of her least favourite Phish songs was to air-guitar along with it. She did and she did, and so did I (of course. I always do).

Then, during the Harry Hood encore I took a chance during the late jam and raced all the way down to the basement bathroom and back again, arriving just in time to join in breathlessly for the “You can feel good, good about Hood!” singalong that capped the concert.

Out on the street the lot was getting closed up just as it was starting so m’lady and I finished off the evening enjoying fridge-beers in front of our hotel and making new friends.

All in all it was a fantastic time.

“Why would anyone want to see Phish?” Honestly!

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