2022-12-31 - MSG, New York, NY - Post-Show Discussion and Review

[GBL]

OMG THAT VIDEO!!!

FUCKING ELLERY LOL

[mistercharlie]

So I was wake'n'bakein' this morning and rewatching this show and I realized how perfect of an end to set II that BDTNL was given the oncoming gag in set III where they went backwards down the number line! Can't believe I didn't connect the two for an entire week.

[Buffalo Budd]

NYE gag looks amazeballs. It would have blown my mind to have been there.

[Hicks]

Welp, two weeks later and I am finally finding the time and energy to write up a recap. It seems it takes me longer and longer to recover from these excursions as I get closer and closer to bona fide old man status. So, first MSG experience was pretty fucking sweet, 12/29 and 12/30 were both incredible shows and as always I had a great time hanging with the paug crew. So without further adieu, let's break it down.

I didn't want to take the red eye since I can't really sleep on planes, so I got in just as the show on 12/28 was ending. I hadn't been to NYC in over 20 years, so I was a little nervous about navigating from JFK to Manhattan. After talking with an Uber driver who told me that it would be at least $70 for a ride to Penn Station, I opted for the public transit route and I'm glad I did as it was only $18 and pretty much a breeze, although slower than a cab/Uber. Looking over the setlist from 12/28 on the train platform, I was somewhat relieved to see I hadn't missed anything earth shattering like the outrageous 10/28 numbers show in Vegas. Yeah it would've been nice to catch Tela, but I did get one at the Gorge 18. I hit Manhattan around 12:30 and made my way to the hotel which was only a couple blocks from the venue. I did feel a bit sketched out hauling all my shit down the street at that hour, but I made it to the hotel with no incidents. After surveying our room which was not what I would deem "spacious", I headed back out to meet up with Scotty and Michelle who graciously let me crash in their room since my roommate PG would not arrive until the next day. I found them at a bar down the street which was packed with post-show fans and with Phish and Phish adjacent music playing on the sound system. I grabbed a beer and caught up with them, and then before we left I decided to get a whiskey, which the bartender forgot to charge me for, sweet, NYC was welcoming me with open arms! We headed back to the room and had another beer and listened to some tunes, one of which was The Breeder's Cannonball which Scotty said he was not familiar with. I mentioned it had been part of the legendary Bomb Factory Tweezerfest and I think I may have even launched into a tale of seeing The Breeders at Lollapalooza 94 at the Gorge, which Scott and Michelle humored me by feigning my interest in my story of the olden days. We also watched some wholesome entertainment in the form of American Psycho, which seemed appropriate for our NYC surroundings. We got to bed at the reasonable hour of around 2 so at least I wouldn't be completely exhausted for my night one of shows. 

I woke up around 11-ish and the youngsters still being able to sleep more than 8 hours weren't moving yet, so I headed out on my own to check off my first NYC box in the form of a bagel with lox. I found a place a few blocks away called Brooklyn Bagel Co, which I presume is a chain since we were not really that close to Brooklyn. The bagel was indeed legit and I even found a spot at a table in the busy cafe so I didn't have to stand and eat. After that I headed to the famous Flatiron Building, but much to my chagrin I found that the face of it was covered in scaffolding, as was seemingly half the other buildings in the vicinity. After a quick FaceTime with the family, I had the good fortune to happen upon a Whole Foods and I loaded up on supplies. I also hit a beer shop near the hotel to grab some local beers for pre and post show festivities and then it was back to the hotel to move my stuff from Scott's room to PG's who had checked in. After briefly hanging with PG and meeting up with Gavin at some point, PG headed off to dinner with his family which left Gavin and I to figure out dinner and drinks. We headed to a fancy Italian place I had heard about, but alas it was not open for dinner yet as it was before 5. We ended up at a whiskey bar and had a couple whiskeys, while discussing the merits of bourbon versus Canadian whiskey. Some doucher tried to start shit with me, but whatever, dude was a total chadbro drinking alone. After that I noticed they had Blanton's and pointed out it was a notably smooth bourbon, but probably $30 a shot. We asked the bartender and I had nailed it, it was indeed $30 a pop, and GBL generously sprung for one for me.

Our alcohol intake had left me desperately in need of food, so we headed back to the fancy Italian place, L'Amico I think it was called. We, and by "we" I mean me, were pretty much trashed at this point and I was wearing wook gear of a hoodie and hat and they politely declined to seat us in the dining room, kicking us instead to an empty covered patio, but at least it was heated. We proceeded to get some $30 personal pizzas and a semi-fancy bottle of wine. The pizza while not really NY style was bomb and at some point a couple of Greek guys got seated next to us and we, and by "we" I mean me, bombarded them with intrusive questions. PG's cousin Tyler showed up and I think he helped us polish off the bottle of wine.

Then it was time to head into the show, on this night we had an abbreviated crew of myself, Tyler, GBL, PG, PG's sister and PJ of Bangor watermelon fame. Walking into the Garden was really something, to be in the building where so much history had happened, both in the Phish world and countless others, it was a pretty special feeling. After so many years of dreaming about being in that very spot it was finally happening! It also felt good to be wearing my Blazers gear on the very floor where the Knicks play. PG had gotten early entry and was holding it down on the floor for us about 7-8 rows back all the way on Mike side, a killer spot. I wisely decided to stick with water for the first set and I think about 30 minutes after we arrived the lights went down. Then for them to come out with a Fluffhead opener, it was like my own mini-3/6/09 moment, everything was right in the universe! The Fluffhead was well played and then when they went into the jam section at the end, I couldn't believe it. Not only was Fluffhead my first song at MSG but they were actually jamming it! I reached over to give Dave a high five and apparently this chick who had been crashing into his back the whole song took issue with me saying whatsup to my buddy, but whatever, wasn't gonna let some girl who felt entitled to taking up three people's worth of space kill my vibe. They went right into Your Pet Cat, which is one of my favorite Chilling Thrilling tracks and was actually one of my highlights of Vegas 21. Next up was Gin and even though it was in the number three spot of the first set, this one had a second set feel to it and got into type 2 territory pretty quickly. For me, I'd say it was the best Gin I had seen since deep space explorations of the Gorge 09 version. Gin wrapped up with a fiery peak and the show was already shaping up to be a banger. The debut of Hey Stranger had me and just about everyone else scratching their heads, but it featured a nice, slinky groove, not too shabby for a first timer. The band struck up Tube and while it wouldn't jam out like Fluffhead or Gin, it did feature Trey holding an extended note before sliding smoothly into the blues breakdown return to the song. That brought us to Slave, and they strangely skipped the harmonic section of the intro, instead going right into the vocals. I didn't notice it at first, but someone brought it up at setbreak and I realized they hadn't played it. Did they just forget or are they changing the arrangement? Perhaps a starlight version in Mexico holds the answer. I've also noticed that Slave has been somewhat maligned in recent years by folks, not that I understand why as it's in the pantheon of greats in my book. After that, the set wrapped with a fairly standard but rocking Blaze On.

After keeping it mellow for set one I was ready to resume my alcohol intake and grabbed a couple SN Foams from the concourse, which I always enjoy at a show when it's available, which is not often. Once again the band came roaring out of the gates with a well played Bowie, nothing insane but I felt like it was a legit version in comparison with many of the versions in 3.0 that have felt a little lacking. After an ER that featured some nice funk jamming with a little Leslie action from Trey, it was time for some more magic when they dropped into YEM. YES!!!! Finally!!! As I've mentioned more than a couple times, I had a massive dry spell for this one and hadn't seen it since 11/2/14 in Vegas, a 25 show gap. Getting it at my first MSG show pretty much had me in heaven, and for me this will always be THE Phish song, it really has it all. I was hoping that they would keep the post vocals jam section they'd been doing in 2022, but it was not included here. Not that I'm complaining, I will take any YEM I can get, especially after waiting so long, and getting Fluffhead, Gin, YEM and Bowie all in one show is an epic quadfecta of early masterpieces. They segued from the vocal jam into Ruby Waves which has been one of the more reliable jam vehicles of the last couple years, including the spectacular 30 minute version I saw in Eugene 21. This one didn't disappoint, with a multifaceted jam that reminded me of C&P around the nine minute mark, before moving into a Heartbreaker tease from Trey and then back into the song. It definitely gave the Gin a run for the money for jam of the night. Hard for me to pick a favorite between the two, as they both featured some notable improv. From here the show took a bit of a dip, Lonely Trip is fine, but having seen it three times in six shows in 21 I'm a bit wary of it. The rest of the show was decent, Guyute was predictably sloppy, but Trey closed the show out in hilarious fashion with antics at the end of Possum, telling us "thank you everyone, we love you, be safe and don't do anything we wouldn't do" and "unless you invite us with you" at least three times.

Night one was in the books, I stopped to get a gyro for something more substantial than a tiny pizza in my belly, which it turned out would not be necessary. GBL was nice enough to wait for me while I got it and by the time we got back to the hotel the decision had been made that we would be going out to a 24 hour Korean BBQ place. We ordered some drinks and a shit ton of BBQ beef and some pot stickers. It was the kind of place where they grill up the meat at your table and they gave us each an array of sauces, something like five different ones. Everything was super good, notably the bean paste sauce and the combination of a couple others. At some point we ordered more beef and when the dust had settled we somehow had eaten our way through $500 worth of Korean BBQ. Since there were five of us that was $100 of meat per person, although I'm pretty sure I got a Tsingtao out of the deal too. But yeah, it was a great way to wrap up the first night of the shows and I think we all unceremoniously fell into a meat coma after getting back to the hotel. And I could now tell my grandchildren I had once been a part of a $500 Korean feast, although by the time that rolls around it will probably be $100 for a Big Mac. That coupled with the fancy pizzas and wine, venue beers AND a trip to Whole Foods, it had been a spendy day, but when in NYC. . .

The next day we met up with Mrs. SF who had just gotten into town at a little restaurant/bar down the road, which was the same place that SF and Mrs. SF had ditched out on the gag for back in April. I guess it was breakfast since we had just woken up, but they were already serving lunch. After that, I got my tourist on and headed up to Times Square since I had never gone in my previous visits and I packed myself in with thousands of other gawkers to check out the hustle and bustle and they had already set up all the stages for NYE. I eventually made it up to 30 Rock which was also extremely crowded but I got to see the tree, statue and ice skating rink. My feet were already bugging me, so I haggled with a pedicab and got a ride back to the hotel for not too much money and on the way back we went by the NYC Library, which of course is the location of the first scene in Ghostbusters.

By the time I got back Birdman, Mrs Birdman and spawn of Birdman had assembled at the hotel, along with our very own "ticketmaster" Crazy Dave, not to be confused with rational Dave and we grabbed some pre-show drinks at the hotel bar. There was some confusion over tickets and it seemed that PG would have to grab an expensive last minute ticket as we were short one and of course we wanted to all be together on the floor. I bought PG a beer to drown his sorrows and we eventually made our way to the show, with another gentleman named Ellery that I knew from FB but had not met yet IRL. I also made the mistake of not actually grabbing dinner before we went in, which would catch up with me eventually.

We posted up on the floor Mike side once again, around 30-40 feet back from where we had been the first night. Still plenty of space for all of us though, another great spot. In fact we would all be really lucky in that department over the course of the run. 12/29 was going to be hard to top, but as always we were eager to see what the band had in store for us. And for the third time in a row the band wasted no time and immediately ripped into DWD. Obviously this one wasn't going to top the insanity of last summer's Bangor version, but it was no slouch for an opener and had some cool, laid back sections. In the second slot was Moma Dance, and oddly Trey took over the vocals from Fish. Did we discuss that? I can't remember, but it was strange. I like Moma, but I wasn't expecting much from it in this spot, however, it turned out to be slightly extended with Page moving over to the Wurli he's favored so much in recent years for a good chunk of it. And then the first special moment of the show arrived in the form of Pebbles and Marbles. I love, love, LOVE this song and had not seen it since Gorge 09. I think it may be my absolute favorite Tom Marshall lyrics, the perfect mix of poignancy and that trademark Marshall obliqueness that leaves things open to different interpretations. A lot of the 2.0 material has aged very well, and this one is a perfect example. Next up was Theme, another strong lyrical showing from Marshall and one that I feel they play the perfect amount, enough so that you get to see it fairly regularly, but not so much that you get sick of it. I'd say Trey played the ascending riff very well that he's struggled with at times, and then they went right into a jam, never going back to the song and the acapella section. They moved through a few different motifs, with a Manteca-ish section and then some funk with Page on the clav, a soaring jam and finally a brief effects freakout to end it. Really good stuff and a sick back to back highlight when paired with P&M. Looking over the jam chart on phish.net this may be the longest Theme since 2003? Not sure, but definitely an exceptional version. Then we got a Reba, which as far as I'm concerned they could play at every show and I wouldn't mind. Always welcome and this one was solid. Which led to The Howling, or as I like to call it, the "other" 2001, and was a fun dance party. I'm thinking that it was at this point that Ellery busted out his move of pulling his shirt up over his face, or as I later coined it, the "reverse cornholio". The penultimate song of the set came in the form of Foam, which it turns out I had also not seen since 11/2/14, but it being a rarity it's not one you expect to see very often. In fact, at three plays in 2022, Foam had its most showings last year since 2011. And of course I love Foam, especially Page's solo. They closed the set out with yet another early classic with Antelope and this one saw the crowd going absolutely bonkers once they dropped into the middle section of the song after the intro. PG declared that he "hates Antelope" just to fuck with us, at least that's what he said later, but I'm not sure. . . At setbreak GBL declared it the "best first set ever", I don't know if I would go that far, but it was very, very strong and really didn't have much in the way of filler unless you want to quibble with The Howling or maybe Moma, but I wouldn't.

But, as sick as the first set had been, there were still some major highlights to come in the second set. A letdown was not in the cards on this night. Opening with No Man's which has been a frequent spot for it lately, the band laid down some exploratory grooves, especially around the 11 minute mark where things get more introspective and Trey utilized the Leslie again, which he did quite a few times over the run. Closing it out with a pretty clean peak and a return to the song, this one was probably the second best No Man's I'd seen behind the monster version they unleashed at Dick's 17. The band followed that up with Golden Age, which is one of my favorite covers. This one took a while to break free of the structure of the song, until that Leslie showed up again around the 12 minute mark and the band settled into a very delicate and beautiful section. One of the more patient jams of the run, with all four members listening and letting things develop organically, which I appreciated. After two 15+ minute jams was it time for a breather? Nope, not quite as a ferocious Sand was the call. Right after the show I named Golden Age as my highlight in terms of jams, but in retrospect I think this takes the cake as things get weird around the 9 minute mark with Trey busting out what some call the "telephone" effect that he didn't use much in 2022, although it did pop up briefly in the 12/29 Ruby Waves. After that things get hot, hot, hot at the 11 minute mark with Trey laying down some filthy leads, before slathering on more effects for the latter part of the jam and then a scorching return to the song at the end. And then it was time for that breather, which came in the form of an absolutely perfectly placed If I Could, which I had not seen since my first show in 1995. Pretty amazing that you can see dozens of shows and not see the same song until almost 30 years later. As far as Phish ballads go it really doesn't get much better and this one definitely had me floating on a silver cloud. Just gorgeous. After that we got IWATW which was one of the better versions I've heard with a emphatically rocking ending and locked it in as an epic five song second set. A brief but rocking Chalkdust sent us out the doors and I'd say this one takes its place alongside the other classic 12/30 MSG shows over the years. At the time I was having trouble with saying which show I preferred out of 12/29 and 12/30 and I still go back and forth a bit, but I think I'm leaning toward 12/30 as it really is top to bottom an outstanding show while 12/29 did fizzle a little bit after Ruby Waves. 

After the show we hit up the hotel bar again for a couple more drinks before moving to our room. I had ground scored a collectible Phish cup at the show, which I promptly left at the bar, oh well. We hung out in our room and I remember we invited a couple random chicks up too, did anyone know them? In any event they didn't stay very long.  I had done my best to stock up with beers the day before and we plowed through them all, listening to tunes and carrying on until the wee hours. Well all of us except for PG, who called it a night at some point and curled up in a ball and slept through our shenanigans for at least an hour, maybe longer. But I have to say he slept through it like a champ with no complaints. I tried to sell Scotty on the merits of King Gizzard and played him some of their newer stuff. Eventually around four or so with all the beer gone, we called it an evening and crashed.

Unfortunately the lack of food and drinking all night led to a fairly raging hangover the next morning. I staggered out of bed around noonish to grab one of the Katz's pastrami sandwiches that Crazy Dave had ordered. The sandwich was amazing, and it did make me feel a little better to get some greasy food in my stomach. Katz's is a pretty big deal and I would say the reputation is warranted. The rest of the crew were already hitting it hard in Wendell's room with "screwmiosas" and I'd say they were fairly inebriated in short order. Personally I know they say hair of the dog, but I was not ready for anything beyond green tea, water and food. I headed back to the room to lay down for a bit and work my strength up to take a shower. Marmar, SF and RJ arrived at some point in the afternoon and then finally sunrise showed up and we met back at the old reliable hotel bar where I was finally ready to grab a beer courtesy of sunrise and chat a bit with him and RJ. It was good to finally meet sunrise after he hadn't been able to make it to the last couple of runs I did. Nobody seemed to have much in the way of beer for after the show, so I took it upon myself to make sure to restock at the beer shop and brought along sunrise as well. It was pretty good bottle shop with a bunch of NY and NE breweries, so what does sunrise get? A six pack of Yuengling, lol. Welp beer is beer I suppose. As it got toward early evening and knowing my time in NYC was getting short I needed to check one more thing off the list, some real deal NY pizza. I had heard of this place called Suprema that was supposed to be good and was just across from MSG, so PG and I made our way down there to grab a couple of slices. And the pizza was indeed excellent, crispy crust, great sauce, pretty just what I needed to get me feeling almost like a full fledged human again. NY Pizza = achieved! It was still early and we all had seats for NYE so we headed back to the room, where everyone was loading up on some Altoids Marmar had brought, the last thing you want to do is go to a Phish show with bad breath. I still wasn't feeling 100% and played it cool, deciding to remain "Phish sober" for the entirety of the run. In hindsight, I kinda wish I had gone for it on 12/30 and it would have helped to have curbed my after show drinking, but such is life, path not taken, yadda yadda.

Oh yeah, did I mention the weather yet? The weather had been amazing all weekend, with highs in the 50s and I was able to cruise around with just a hoodie and no jacket. Definitely not what I expected from NYC in December. On the way into the show we got hit with a little rain, pretty much the only not ideal weather that happened the whole time I was there, but even so, I'm from Portland, who cares about a little rain.

Now most of the paug crew had secured seats in sections 110 and 111 behind the stage, many of them courtesy of Crazy, but I had a seat in the riser section 3 at the back of the floor. It was actually a ticket my mom scored in the lottery and not having to scramble or shell out big time for a NYE ticket was what had gotten the wheels really turning and made this whole thing possible. It turned out that it was a super sweet spot, it was the last row of the section with a barrier for the bottom of the 100s right behind us and a bunch of people hadn't shown up, so as the lights went down it was me and two other dudes in a row of like eight seats. I could see the OTS and all of the mics at the front of the section and it was an excellent spot for the light show and sound, although the sound was not as good as the floor, especially since we had been Mike side, who as you probably know was low in the mix for this run.

Before the show Tweezer was the consensus call for the night and the band responded with yet another bigtime opener and the much anticipated Tweezer was delivered right off the bat. I can't say I've ever seen a run of three shows with openers as strong as Fluff, DWD and Tweezer, pretty hard to beat that. The Tweezer wasn't super notable, but with them needing to allot a bunch of time to a lengthy gag and the number of songs still on the table, it was clear early on that we were going to get a pretty song-y show with not a lot of jams. But, Tweezer opener still pretty dope, definitely preferable to a by-the-numbers Sample or whatever. The telephone effect popped up again at the end of Tweezer which was probably the most interesting section, but it only lasted about a minute before going into Halley's, which was a typical version but did feature a silky segue into SYSF. SYSF was ok, again it got interesting in the last minute or so before they bailed on it. At some point a couple more dudes showed up in my row, but we were still only five people in an eight seat row, so we were dialed. At one point the guy asked if I had any rolling papers, I told him I had a bowl and he said he had some DMT, and I was like, yeeeaahh probably don't want to blast off every time I hit my bowl from now on. But, I guess that means he was gonna roll a deemz joint?!!! Definitely not something I've ever heard of, anyway, party on dude. Anyway, next up was Rift and I have to say it was pretty damn good, probably the best played version I've heard in recent years. Much better than the awkward version I'd seen at Great Woods last summer. A somewhat oddly placed Cavern had me contemplating my first piss break, but I stuck it out and was rewarded with a yet another Tweezer. I quipped to the guys next to me that had shown up late, "Well it looks like you didn't miss Tweezer after all!" And I would say this Tweezer actually outdid the first one with some funky bass and nice work by Page. A much better opportunity to pee arrived after that with Shade. Not that I'm a Shade hater, but it's Shade, definitely not one to write home about. I made it back to my seat in time for the end of Mike's into Hydrogen. Weekapaug had Trey holding a long note again, which got a big reaction from the crowd.

I had been texting with Caravan who said he had a spot for me next to the stage over in section 106 I think. My spot was money, and offered the potential for a deemz blunt, but I hadn't linked up with T the whole time I'd been in NYC so I made my way over to his section. Once I got there I didn't see him and asked not one but two people if what section they were in and both of them just gave me blank stares, completely incapable of conversing with me in English. OK then. I finally figured out I was in the wrong section and made my way over to Caravan and a couple of his buddies who apparently had imbibed a heroic amount of mushroom tea. It was a couple and the girl was. . . aggressively friendly. No big deal, but at one point she was pressing her head super hard into mine and I had to say, "uh hey, you're kinda hurting my neck". She was apologetic and I told her I've been there, no worries. Anyway, I was off my game enough to wrongly identify the second set opening SANTOS as Ghost for the first couple bars, probably because Ghost was one of the other songs I knew was a lock for the evening. But I figured out that's what it was before the verses and off we went into the only KV song of the run, including the 12/28 show I missed. Caravan's spot was killer, straight on with the righthand stack, it was LOUD right there, which helped to hear Mike and other nuances of the mix. The 2001 was a little extended and another dope dance party. Of course 2001 is a big showcase for CK5 and he really got the chance to work the extra MSG lights for this one. Great 2001, loved it. Up next was KDF, which used to be a piss break song, but no longer as the last two I've seen have been over 12 minutes. This one had a nice contemplative/quieter jam in the middle with Page shining on the Wurli once again and Fishman driving much of the jam. Maybe it was the spot I was in, but I really appreciated Fishman's playing in particular on this night. I enjoyed the KDF live, but relistening to it, it's actually even better than I remember, great stuff in the second half. Then they played Mercury, which I was into as I think it's one of the better 3.0 songs with it's multiple segments/movements, but I was dismayed when it abruptly ended after the return to the chorus. I guess it was the "album version". Moving into Light the band hit upon some sweet space funk around the 7 minute mark that reminded me a little of Floyd's Any Colour You Like. Not a super long Light, but I thought they did find some cool themes during it. After a well played Waste, they struck up Drift While You're Sleeping, which I really just don't like, so another bathroom break it was. And then when they went into BDTNL I went ahead and grabbed a Fuku spicy chicken sandwich as I hadn't had one yet and ate that while listening from the concourse. Yeah, not the best end to a set, but I was content to kick it on the concourse and have some dinner, and the sandwich was pretty good for arena food.

I went back to Caravan's spot for setbreak, which consisted of several songs that had connections to Phish like Peter Gabriel's Steam and yeah, you guessed it, The Breeder's Cannonball, which I thought was a pretty cool coincidence. People were definitely getting down to Rhianna's Umbrella too. And then it was time for the third set, the big one, which went straight into the gag. Now you've all watched the YouTube so I'm not going to get into a blow by blow, but I will say that it was intricate, elaborate and just straight up Phishy. The production was very well done with the cube and the choreography matching the music. It was the ultimate inside joke, which is what Phish basically has been this whole time. A knowing joke to be shared among friends who get it. People who don't get it will never understand why this band means so much to us, but those of who do know that a Phish show is an experience like no other and that it's really a big, knotty narrative of an overarching story of which each show is a unique piece. It's not really something I or anyone else can even put into words, but you guys know what I mean, there's never been another band who really does Phish do, and we are all lucky to have been able to contribute to it in our way. Taking every NYE and rolling them into an "uber-gag" was the perfect way to kick off the 40th Anniversary year and I'm so glad I was there in that room to be a part of it. You can tell they really went all out and a ton of work went into it.

As for the rest of the show, it was all gravy at that point, Fuckerpants arrived but ended up in a sweet little jam like it almost always does. Trey totally forced Piper but that had probably the best jam of the night, with the band finding their third wind and getting into a propulsive lift off with Fishman once again in the driver's seat. Oh yeah and we got yet another Tweezer in there too, making it an "appropriate number" of Tweezers. I had left my coat back at my original seat and A Life Beyond the Dream gave me the perfect opportunity to say my goodbyes to Caravan and his buddies and make my way back to Section 3. The Show of Life encore followed by a Tweezer Reprise during which tech issues prevented Mike from dropping anything resembling a bomb was literally a dud, but at that point it really just didn't even matter. Phish had given so much over the course of the run, and really over the course of their whole career that honing in on an underwhelming 8 minute segment would just be foolish and ungrateful.

I made my way over to the paug section behind the stage, which was when I realized they had been in the front row of their section all night, an amazing spot! Pretty awesome to be able to see them getting down so clearly in many of the videos.

We went back to the hotel for one more night of revelry, stories and laughter. One thing that stood out was when I went to our room to change my shirt and I opened the window to get some air, it was so LOUD outside. It sounded like the entire city was one big party with so many people talking and having fun, as well as even a cop yelling at someone to get out of the street and "go home". I'll never forget that, I've never heard anything quite like that, you would have thought a giant crowd was right below the window with how it sounded. But yeah, we drank all the beer, Ellery regaled us with facts about Popeye's which it turned out he was quite the aficionado of and sunrise even left a warm Yuengling in the corner for Wendell to drink after all the real beer was gone. Turns out the Yuengling came through in the clutch, how could I ever doubt a vet like sunrise?

I had yet another great run, thanks to everyone that made it out and definitely a big thanks to PG for booking the rooms way ahead of time so they were at least somewhat reasonable. If I could do it all again exactly as it was I would in a second. Hopefully I will see some of you fuckers at the Greek in April!

[Buffalo Budd]

Just the best recap Hicks, thanks.

[PIE-GUY]

TLDR - Kidding. Read it all as usual. Great write up. I wish I could remember details like you do! 

[Hicks]

TLDR - Kidding. Read it all as usual. Great write up. I wish I could remember details like you do!

It is, uh, long. 

To be honest, I listen to the shows as I write. So it's sort of half recollection, half listening notes. 

[emay]

Sounds like an amazing time 

[sunrisevt]

Yuengling's cheap and delicious! Fight me. 

[pcr3]

Great recap, felt like I was there, wish I had been.

Paug crew is simply the best.

Also, I think you can take sunrise, but I'm torn on the Yuengling call.

[Hicks]

Yuengling's cheap and delicious! Fight me. 

Cheap? Sure.

Delicious? I dunno bout dat. 

[PIE-GUY]

Yuengling's cheap and delicious! Fight me. 

Cheap? Sure.

Delicious? I dunno bout dat. 

100% quaffable!! Also, it's the oldest brewery in America. 

[sunrisevt]

Yuengling's cheap and delicious! Fight me. 

Cheap? Sure.

Delicious? I dunno bout dat. 

100% quaffable!! Also, it's the oldest brewery in America.

My man gets it.

[Hicks]

I stay up until 3 in the morning writing and all you people can talk about is the merits of some shit beer from Pennsylvania?

You're focusing on the wrong part of the story.

[PIE-GUY]

I stay up until 3 in the morning writing and all you people can talk about is the merits of some shit beer from Pennsylvania?

You're focusing on the wrong part of the story.

Rather I talk about your beef with a really sweet hippie girl who didn't like how you shoved your way through to give me a high-five? ;-)