my .02 on the weekend:
i had only seen phish play a few times before these three hampton shows. since 04 i have been listening to phish regularly and have always have a pretty serious obsession with all things related to the music. experience wise i had the time of my life with my close friends there just enjoying the music we hadn\'t heard live in years.
that being said, as a self-proclaimed phish analyst, after re-listening to the shows..musically the weekend didn\'t live up to my expectations. sure they nailed a lot of parts of their compositions. but - they should be able to do that, it\'s their music. at the shows i told myself that they nailed the \'important\' parts. upon a closer listen, there are far too many mistakes, flubs, and there is too much of a general disconnect between band members for the shows this weekend to be considered \'great\' musically in my opinion. however, among the many rough patches of hood, reba, pyite, mike\'s etc., there were a handful of really high points from the weekend.
tweezer, gin, foam, guelah, bag, tube, bowie, dwd and more made the weekend\'s top picks for me. the first two shows in terms of the music didn\'t live up to the exploration or tightness that sunday had..but even though sunday was a really good phish show, it wasn\'t near their full potential. don\'t get me wrong, i was incredibly grateful to see these guys play this weekend, i just felt that something was off.
that being said, i like to believe the theory that they got better each night of hampton and with three months of practice, summer tour will be that much better. i\'m set to see a lot of shows this summer that i\'ll be going to no matter what, I just hope I can fully enjoy my phish experience with them playing at their absolute best (much like other bands i see often do).