I proclaim this show my favorite of the 24 I\'ve seen this year.
For starters, after the instrumental portion of Lit we have a nice fakeout leading to the album version of See The Light, which had a quality jam much as Psygn did.
Here\'s a somewhat funny story: about three hours before the show Tim asks me "to put on some kick-ass Phish." I obliged, putting on The Live One version of Stash. He then told me with a sly smile, "funny you should put this song on." Obviously, I knew then that Stash was being played and it turned out to be an excellent version as they built it nicely, took it way out there, and then brought it back flawlessly.
But as strong as the first set was, I felt the second set was definitely better. I\'m not a huge Grateful Dead fan, but I truly thought the Help on the Way jam was phenomenal, perhaps the highlight of the show. It started funky, though not generically funky, and then went so far out there that I was actually surprised it made it to Slipknot!, though that probably just shows my Dead ignorance, if anything.
Anyway, Hard Luck jam was absolutely outstanding. Didn\'t waste much time building; just took off and destroyed. And yet another stellar version of Metropolis was preceded by great crowd response upon hearing the opening bass line, which is more than deserved based on the reputation this song has gained.
And as if we needed anymore, Gladys also had a fantastic jam and then the cherry on top was finishing Lit, which solidified the show for me as an absolute classic. And as it turns out, finishing Lit was not planned as the band decided to it based on someone from the crowd yelling "finish Lit!". And that person was none other than Ren, who was standing right next to me.
So in retrospect, whether or not Jordan will ever officially be back, it certainly feels like he\'s back based on the quality of performance and the overall positive feel in the crowd at this show and in Fairfield a few weeks ago. The fact that he didn\'t rehearse and had never once ran Metropolis, which Adrian noted during the show, makes what transpired all the more amazing.
