Phish in 2010

[Gordo]

HA! thats fucking classic

[SkyePrizm]

You all got a beautiful day for a show.   Enjoy!!!

[inthewhitelodge]

Hartford tomorrow night, ticket in hand already...:-) My only show of the tour......Have some PHUN

[bdfreetuna]

Underwhelmed by last night\'s (Thursday Hartford) concert. Or perhaps the realization that lawn seats are no longer worth the worn-off novelty of seeing my sometimes-favorite band.

Also I feel that while Divided Sky is a beautiful song and appropriate given the weather that afternoon, I would have preferred something a little more upbeat so I could dance and keep warm.

I know a lot of people go nuts for Esther but I\'ve found it\'s circus-y nature annoying since my first listen to Junta.

Contact was fun.. but damn I could have saved a lot of money by listening to Junta.. Dinner and a Movie... yes, fun music... but then, Alaska? At this point I was freezing up on the lawn and found this to be somewhat of a cruel joke.

High points of the show included the last 2 minutes or so of Stash (the only inspired part of Set 1 imo) and Sand, Farmhouse, Mike\'s Groove.

Shine Your Everlovin\' Light on Me or whatever that encore was = some weak shit. If most of the show put me half to sleep, here\'s a nice Ambien for an encore?

Anyway good to see lots of people, including some of you all. Appreciate the comments that I\'m looking much better than "the last time we saw you"  ... uh-huh I am back, ready, willing, and able to mostly-soberly attend shows and give my favorite bands bi-polar reviews afterwards!

Not going tonight. Will be @ Mansfield with Pavilion seats, hopefully I can hear the concert then.

[Yoda]

See, I don\'t get the Phish snobbery... Most fans would give their left arm for a show that includes Dinner and a Movie, Divided Sky, Esther and Sand...  Enjoy the show for what it\'s worth and realize that two years ago these guys weren\'t around...

[bdfreetuna]

"Most [Phish] fans" are also fucking retards. So?

I did enjoy the Sand, as stated

Also, the word "snob" and its various phonetical metabolites simply don\'t apply to me. Sociopath, schizo, walking-disaster = getting closer.

[SkyePrizm]

Crickets for last night?  Come on, someone.   Give me a review.

The people I  know who went said it completely trumped first night.   I am basically kicking myself that I didn\'t bother with either Hartford.  Especially after seeing that they played Esther the first night, a song I\'ve wanted to hear for a decade now.   Only show I am going to is Mansfield on Tuesday.  And with the setlists I\'ve seen, I have high hopes.

[wildcoyote]

Crickets for last night?  Come on, someone.   Give me a review.

Set 1: Fee > Rift, Wolfman\'s Brother, Summer of \'89, Foam, Possum > The Moma Dance > Julius, Reba, Cavern
The first 3 songs we ok, nothing spectacular. I\'ve found in recent years that Phish has used the first half of the first set as crowd warm up. Play familiar songs pretty straight foward. Let those not on tour get into the right frame of mind.

Summer of \'89 debut.  I like seeing debuts in general, and I liked this song.  Reminds me( in theme) of In My Life.  Nothing like Bryan Adams Summer of \'69. Which is good imo. Great retrospective lyrics.  Made think fondly of some past summers and some really great people.

Foam, Possum>Moma Dance was the highlight of my 1st set.  Very solid Moma Dance, if not a unique one.

Last three songs seemed uninspired. Reba especially. Maybe I\'m just tired of it.

Set 2: Halley\'s Comet > Light -> Billy Breathes, Tweezer > Theme From the Bottom > Harry Hood > Wading in the Velvet Sea, Stealing Time From the Faulty Plan

Outstanding from start to finish. I like Halley\'s as a 2nd set opener.  The alternating soft/hard from Billy to Faulty was perfect.  Trey really shined in the ballady stuff, especially Velvet Sea. Maybe my favorite Velvet Sea I\'ve seen. Faulty plan rocked hard. Very Hard.

Encore: Sleeping Monkey > Tweezer Reprise, Tweezer Reprise[2]

During the 2nd Tweezer Reprise it occured to me that if Phish decided to do so, they could be the greatest metal band in the world. Outstanding.

On a personal note, as of Wednesday I had no ticket and didn\'t plan on going.  Thanks to Zuke, NickNels, and AshNels I would up with a lawn for less than face, a ride, and sitting in the Pavillion Sec 500 the entire show.  Win. Thanks guys!

16 hours of work> Pre-game>Phish> 3 hours sleep>8 more hours work (on time I might add)

Now I rest.

[Gfunk]

last night was a great fucking show!  ser biz Fee, Rift opener, funky ass wolfmans w/ page really shining. not familiar w/ summer of \'89 (my n00b is showing) but it got pretty grimey towards the end with Trey bringing some nice work. wicked pumped to get a foam although i was in the bathroom for the beginning Then more phunk was brought during moma dance. EPIC Reba!! The entire second set was hot and Theme was my personal highlight. cool goofy encore sleeping monkey singalong

[Gordo]

Friday nights setlist is def my fav from the tour thus far. Looking forward to hearing it.

[Igziabeher]

Thursday was better overall imo.

Friday had a great first set, but outside of Hood, A good Tweezer and an abbreviated Halley\'s set 2 was a buzzkill.

I wasn\'t on the lawn, so i don\'t know what bdfree is talking about.  esther was well played, better than i had hoped for, never really excited about wanting to see it.  walk away ruled.  dwd> sand was great, as was the mike\'s groove.  and guyute, although they slipped up a couple parts, i\'ll take guyute always.  and they definitely didn\'t play contact.

[weekapaug19]

ok 3 night run of phish for me. I\'d say the DWD and walk away, and the spac fluff, bathtub were the highlights of the shows. hoping great woods steps it up alittle.

I don\'t think I\'m ever going to spac again, unless I get killer seats and a close hotel. the cops just ruined the fun atmosphere of that venue

[zuke583]

I don\'t think I\'m ever going to spac again, unless I get killer seats and a close hotel. the cops just ruined the fun atmosphere of that venue

that sucks. what time did you get to the lot? where did you park? we showed up around 6 and didn\'t get searched at all and didn\'t even have to end up paying for parking. barely even got a pat down on the way in. super light security as far as i could tell

[Mamalakabubadaya]

I don\'t think I\'m ever going to spac again, unless I get killer seats and a close hotel. the cops just ruined the fun atmosphere of that venue

crikey... we had no issue at all walking around with beers in the lot at spac regardless of all of the hype about the police presence.

i only went friday and saturday. spac was hands down the better show in comparison to friday night in hartford for me. i was kind of disappointed with friday, but had a blast at the show and bdfree, i actually didn\'t mind the lawn at hartford at all. we were in a great spot and the sound was good. i was way more comfortable on the lawn in hartford than i was packed in the balcony at spac.

very glad i ran into some of you peeps and sad i missed out on seeing some of you...i was kind of a mess though, so it was probably for the best :yoshi:

[NickNels]

I also only did Hartford II and SPAC I.  

First off, I thoroughly enjoyed both shows.  I was fortunate to have a great crew with me for Friday and Saturday which really contributed to my enjoyment of the weekend.  

Friday I was in the Pavillion.  Section 500 row JJ (Middle pav, right center). The Fee > Rift first set Friday really kicked up the energy.  2 songs you don\'t really hear too often in the 3.0 era.  It was my first Fee personally so I was lovining it.  Wolfman\'s came next which has been one of the most consistent songs in the last 2 years.  Not the most jammed out song, but usually about 10 minutes with some nice tight jamming without getting too far out there.  Great song to have in the first set...this version was no different!  I was really happy to get a Foam and Moma too!  I thought Julius was going to end the set, but they kept it going with Reba (which is one of my favorite phish songs) and capped it off with a nice cavern.

I really liked the second set too.  I won\'t break everything down, but I was happy to hear every song in that second set.  I remember the Tweezer being particularly great.  I love when they did that ambient finish to the song stretching it into Theme!  Encore was really cool too.  Really showed how much fun the guys were having on stage and the connection they have with the fans and the venue.  Trey banter is usually a good sign that you got or are getting a great show!  Oh yeah...I was very happy to get Sleeping Monkey!  Love that song!  Great crowd sing a long moment too

Saturday SPAC we didn\'t seem to encounter any of the problems many people had.  We stayed in a hotel about 10 miles north of SPAC.  We came down about 6:00pm and came in the back way on Route 50.  Very little to no traffic to speak of...got right in.  We parked at the VIP lot, but at this point they were letting people in for free and NO car search.  We were able to hang around comfortably in the lots for almost 2 hrs before easily getting in.

I was on the lawn for SPAC.  We were in the middle section 3/4 of the way up the lawn about 50 feet left of one of the walkways leading up to the balcony.  First set\'s setlist had some of my ideal set I Phish songs (save Sample).  Only complaint I really have is with Bathtub Gin.  They were really smokin\' at this point and when Gin started I was ready for a 20 minute rager, unfortunately that didn\'t happen.  After a slow start to the song, they really got it going in the last 3 or 4 minutes before settling into a nice groove.  Then just as they were launching into Type II territory Trey decided to pull it back and abruptly end it for a Suzy set closer.  It seemed really awkward.  Suzy was a fun way to close the set, especially on the lawn.  Easily the craziest glowstick war i\'ve seen since the band has come back.  Always fun to see!  

Second set was alright, but might have been my least favorite of the four I saw that weekend.  Rock and Roll jam started off great, but again seemed abruptly ended to go into Free.  BDTNL was just a straight forward run through.  Halfway the moon was a great new song...and the jam out of it was really getting good.  Got really dark with heavy bass and synth and could have easily carried on for another 5-10 minutes which would have completely made the set, but again Trey chose to cut off another sweet jam for Prince Caspian...PRINCE FUCKING CASPIAN!!!  This was such a silly placement that I was laughing.  Here you are in arguably the best jam of the night and you force the rest of the band to kill it.  It sounded like Trey had to play the beginning chords 2 or 3 times before the rest of the band finally stopped that jam.  Ugh!  David Bowie was some nice redemption for me and I was very satisfied with the encore.

Overall I was very happy with both shows and they left me satisfied.  I am a little jealous after looking at the setlist from Sunday, but ultimately PHish left me feeling even better than when I last left them after MSG in December.  Even though Trey cut short a few well developing jams over both nights its clear that the band still has the potential to melt faces on a nightly basis.  Maybe it is just Trey\'s reluctance to get into that really dark territory with the music so soon, but once he is ready Phish is going to become that band again that will make you want to travel 6 hrs to a show!

So overall i would give the sets:

Hrtfrd 2 set I: B+
Hrtfrd 2 set II + E: A
SPAC 1 set I: B+/A-
SPAC 1 set II: B/B-

And FWIW...I don\'t think I will be able to see another show on the lawn in Hartford again.  I\'ve been spoiled the last 2 years by my pavillion seats!