Great review noob...

I come here mostly to read reviews, check setlists and try to keep tabs on this amazing band, that I think is truly at a new peak in their career...

Through most of 3.0 I have maintained how there has been good shows, but nothing like 97...ha! of course not, nothing will be like that year for me...

But holy crap, what happened this year has been stunning, thrilling, and rejuvenating...

I sit here in Saratoga thinking, how could I NOT have even tried to go to last night's show? I figured, if I could only see one, I might as well not bother and just do couch tour...

Last night illustrates just how strong Phish is playing right now. Good, not great first set, but a "one for the ages" 2nd set. Reminds me how surprisingly great 12/30/97 was or 10/30/98, when anticipating the following night to be "the big one"...

Last night had everything I want out of a Phish show...

I want some dancin' grooves, some anthemic sing along, some phishy silliness, some rockin' guitar pyrotechnics, but mostly I want the JAMS...and these (plural!!!) went to favorite places as well as far away, unexplored galaxies and deep, inner microverses...brought down quiet and breath-holdingly exquisite to raunchy and raucously raging!

Gin was so absolutely unique as a moment of phish history, you have to listen for that...and WTU was probably as good of a pure musical experience as we can hope for, so you gotta listen for that...the peaks, the valleys, the transitions, the true exploration...it is all there!

I love when a song like Waves (which is just a "meh" on the song-writing spectrum) can be so well played and jammed that I think it is a peak (at the time)...consistently great set!

I have been scouring my 97 collection lately, trying to remember why I think the band can never be as great as they were then...but this summer, and continuing on, I know they are as good as 97, not "like 97" but as good or at times better, if you include sound quality, which is incredible!

This all from my kitchen table on the laptop with headphones and a bottle of wine, while my kids watched the Last Airbender cartoons for the 40th time...ha! Phish is certainly bending the elements for us these new and magical days.