I first have to say, driving to darien from boston is one long drive!!! whew, but boy was the drive worth it. the first stop on this 4 night east coast leg was excellent. we were lucky to find a camp site like 15 min away only to find out we could have camped in the lot, lol.
the lot was a great vibe, everyone was in a frenzy-ish pleasant mood with no security from what i saw. i think what made it was the buzzing of the sound check in the air. sugar sack was getting me excited for the night. from the moment we went inside darien pac the buz hit, they opened with sample in a jar. one of my favorite poppy songs that they were defiantly grooving on but right out of left field they through out an amazing dinner and a movie, the whole crowd jumped into rhythm singing along with the band. Wolfman's was what you expect, a nice groovy jam that makes you wanna dance. they then jumped right into knife, now this i did not expect them to play, the first set was at this point high in energy and would only explode with an excellent full on funky possum. the whole crowd was jumping up and down. The one negative of this set was the farmhouse, I like this song, but it.. in a sense was a buzz kill definitely slowing down the energy the crowd was growing on. By the time Bowie was started up, the high was back and an excellent bowie into one of the better bath tubs i've herd in a while, i think this is my fav bathtub by far this summer. Over All set 1 was AMAZING high flying energy, the band was having fun, I also have to sat that since i last saw them in the spring (fenway, mansfield, camden) they have improved dramatically. They have this new funkiness... You just gotta love a sober trey
Ok... on to set two... They opened up with drowned, some heady jamming started off the set beautifully, caspian was great, i love how they played that, since is ring a bell in my head about the darien show in 2000 when they played caspian to, (my fav caspian) Horse>Silent are always fun, I love it when page sings, But the gem of this show was will, and amazingly so is the run>suzy>fluff trifecta of goodness, The section I was in was on cloud 9, not to mention the fire works going off during run like an antelope to aid in the effect the band was creating for you. I've seen and herd a bunch of shows, but the second have of second set has to be one of the highlights of my all time phish experience. Taking it to a new level, to a new level to a new level.
Closing it with fast tube was pretty sweet to.
I do have to say that they left the door open for tomorrows show. All through out the drive to hartford we were thinking... what can they do to top that show....