After years of listening to and collecting Phish shows I was finally able to push life responsibilities aside and attend a show for the first time in what is essentially my backyard. Blossom is an amazing venue.

To my ears the first set sounded a little bit off, while this might have been due to my expectations going into my first show, on re-listening it definitely sounds like something was amiss. If my memory serves me correctly Trey kept looking off-stage in what appeared to be annoyance with equipment, and there was a lot of discussion between songs in the first set. I'm all for collaboration and figuring things out on the fly, but the pause between Moma Dance and Ginseng Sullivan felt odd and unnatural, with Mike seeming to launch into Ginseng on his own. That being said there was some great playing here, Timber, Roses, and Gin being the highlights for me.

Everything needed to be said about the second set has already been said, any misgivings I had about the first set were wiped away immediately. My companion at the show was not a Phish fan, and after this show she still wasn't, but after the second set she said something along the lines of, "I don't like the music that much, but they sure can play their instruments well." I'll take it.

The scene was something else, I walked away from the merch stand with a not so positive feeling about humanity, people getting combative about who gets to buy their tshirt/poster first was pretty intense. The good vibes certainly outweighed the bad when all was said and done, but I was definitely reminded why I listened and enjoyed for so long at home with headphones.