i had a great time at this show, my 125th, but who's counting? first new venue & town for the band on the docket after another retro-feeling fall tour. whereas fall '10 felt like a return to 94-95, this year was more a 97-99 feel (minus glens falls). i appreciated the venue selection this tour & getting to visit some storied arenas for the first time.

i didn't make it to glens falls due to a personal commitment, but for every other show this tour my spot always wound up being behind the stage between page & trey, so i'm probably all over the youtubes if i care to look. i think kuroda's work looks better from that perspective & you have stacks right in your face. there's usually more room back there too, but don't tell too many people or it won't be our little secret. none of that rail sardine nonsense. the backs of the floors were getting pretty crowded at some of the shows too

i was pleasantly surprised at will-call when i saw that my seat was an aisle seat right above where the band enters the stage. funny how things like that work out without really planning them. this was the only ticket i bought ahead of time & i don't think i even looked at where the seat was when i purchased it, yet it ended up being in the same place i naturally gravitated towards.

had a scenic drive to town. this tour i've been avoiding highways & taking state routes & it has been very nice. in some cases it really doesn't take much longer & there is virtually no other traffic at all. it's a meditative part of this whole pilgrimage thing we have traveling around with the band. at this point i've already driven most of the major arteries & since road tripping is a hobby it's nice to be able to explore in addition to touring.

wandered reading a bit in the hours preceding the show. another town that seems to shut down around dusk. weeknight granted, but there's just this feel about these places after you've been to however many of them. watched the sunset from the roof of the parking garage overlooking shakedown before getting booted for loitering. went to the adjacent roof & watched the rest.

little quibble, i don't really like hearing phish being played on phish lot, or should i say, the same phish. this band has turned me on to such a variety of good music & i've discovered so much more exploring on my own from there. like pre-show & setbreak music, i see lot as a chance to expand some horizons. if you're going to play phish on lot, then at least play some deep cuts, type II jams or stuff that a casual phan might not have heard. anyway, i digress.

had some beers & an in burger at The Outside In. how could i not stop in with a name like that? silly serendipity. not the exact mike album/movie, but close enough for a good chuckle. the place felt like an 80s office building or high school but that outdated quality is an appeal of traveling to these places on fall tour. made me think of machester nh. of course the collective we finished all their good beer

easy entrance & no search via the side door which ended up being directly in front of my section. went to see the chandeliers too. tiny arena that made me think of utica because there was only the one bowl. bluehairs for staff here, but that worked to my advantage as she was pretty diligent in keeping my aisle space clear. not so much in the second set but whatever, there was still enough room. i'm all about having my dance space. it isn't that much, just the aisle or the seat next to me, but i absolutely can not stand being crammed in. totally defeats the purpose of coming to the show. i'd rather be in the concourse or up in the nosebleeds

always cool to make eye contact with the guys several times through the night & mike actually looked up this time! got 3 of 4, not bad for one night
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i haven't re-listened to anything from this tour yet. i'm sure i could go into more detail when i do, but i have lots of other non phish music to listen to as well.

-i always appreciate a CTB opener & they opened this one up a bit.
-stealing time did its thing, which i enjoy.
-ginseng was up next after having played some of the rarer bluegrass covers over the weekend.
-wolfman's was solid in it's standard first set placement. i'd like to see them open it up but not as much as some other songs, at least the type I jamming is consistently varied.
-sparkle is good for a shot of energy & is becoming more of a once or twice a tour song.
-i like walk away more since the band turned it into walkaprise. this one delivered its intensity but wasn't as prolonged as other versions.
-divided sky continued the lighter trend, hampton's display was the best.
-i was very pleased to hear melt, one of my favorite songs for its deep-dark jamming potential. i thought i might have missed the only version of tour at glens falls. this one went spacey & abstract but was somewhat directionless. i'm fine with that, but this version didn't resolve so it didn't deliver the return to the chords which is the big payoff of the song after going through all the preceding dissonance. i absolutely lost my stuff when the utica version did come around to resolve.
-the bail-out to julius was a head-scratcher. just a jarring choice. trey's allowed to do that though since it's nowhere near as frequent a tendency as in years past & he's actually surprised me a couple times this tour by being open to another section of jamming when i thought things might be winding down for a segue.
-pretty standard, solid first set. actually a little short based on what we're used to getting these days. good people all around. everyone that was there meant business.

there's the disease 2nd set opener. took until the 9th show of tour. they've been paying pretty good attention to setlist variey & song selections this tour. so this is where i would need to listen to this jam again to provide a helpful analysis, but i can say it was consistently great along with the other multi-tiered type II jaunts this tour.

trey's playing with the screeching, special effects sounding delay peals that originated in the storage unit & developed over the first summer 12 tour but dropped off a bit afterwards. glad he's back to really exploring the dynamics of what constitutes music and/or just sound in the confines of a jam or ambient space.

the new thing this tour is the really delayed & distorted chord that he just bounces around the arena (see mike's from woosta), technically he's really not doing much, but it works very well in the confines its being used in & you know, oftentimes less is more.

taste is seriously underplayed. i was very happy to get this. i understand the band has trouble with some of the changes & that probably led to it falling out of rotation. it's similar in structure to maze, page takes a solo, then trey & it's all about building the tension for the big release at the peak. taste also reminds me of limb in that the jams take on a middle eastern feel. just a guess, but those two songs might serve the same purpose which could be another reason we don't see as many tastes

i enjoy twenty years. back in 09 the potential in the outro jam reminded me of saw it again meets carini. finally this song burst forth. this jam is why i lead this kind of life. IT. so i can't help but notice that there hasn't been mention of the strong 'echoes' jam in the space that TYL went into. i'm pretty sure about this one. it's the same chords & vamping as the jam before the song goes into the space/gulls/whale mid-section. might want to check this out & amend the setlist notes

i had a feeling we'd be getting a piper & it hit the spot. piper's role has changed a bit from the 2.0 versions that made it another one of my favorites but it still delivers the goods. from what i recall this version was all about fish's somewhat abstract & tribal beat

in what is becoming a bit of trey pranksterism, a late set #line followed some dark & intense jamming. i get the yin-yang concept but i still don't really think it works. on top of it all, someone actually brought a numberline sign. i'm not trying to hate, but it honestly confused me. might as well bring a possum sign. i was spoiled by the spac 09 & blossom 10 versions. i can enjoy the standard solo for what it is, but this is another case of a song that we all know can jam being held back. what's more, those two versions that did go type II went *dark* so why not continue the theme started by twenty years and go all in?

my yem-sense was tingling. this version actually did some stuff that wasn't just standard for the song. that's pretty great! i'm also cool with them only playing yem twice a tour. speaking of having a 'sense' for a song, the 2nd set C&P is the other one that i never fail to just get a sense is about to drop. we're tapping into something bigger than all of our individual selves. if you've felt IT then you know.

as they were leaving, i told the guys next to me that bouncing wasn't going to be the only encore, but i guess they wanted to get a jump on traffic. i do that too, but i also know when an encore might be worth sticking around for. the shorter than normal first set led me to believe we'd get a treat.
and to conclude the synchronicity & make me think of another fantastic phish experience in augusta, we get another song that is becoming increasingly rare, though the whistling has come back. reba encore is just classy all around.

why not one more? gtbt fits the bill nicely

this is a show where the entire experience of the day, surroundings, etc elevated what others might judge as standard plus two big jams to a very special memory. and to think, all i read beforehand was how seedy reading was

happy halloween, get your glidesuits on, oh wait...