Trey is unusually chatty this show, and that should have been my first hint that we were in for a treat later on in the evening. Look, I won’t lie to, the first set is perfectly fine, but if you’ve heard these songs before in any other show or capacity, you’re totally fine skipping it. In fact, I’ll say Taste was a bit rough. Eh, actually, Llama was fire. Trey informs us that he didn’t feel like dancing for Turtle, but he clearly got his pent up energy out for Llama because this one is a throwback to 1992 Llamas. But, I’ve always likened first sets to being “the warmup” anyway, so even if the first set is largely unremarkable, it’s no love lost to me.

I want to say a lot about this second set, but honestly I only need to tell you this; I’ve been to now 22 Phish shows since 2011 (yeah yeah “you gotta pump those numbers up”), but I’ve never once been to a show where those who couldn’t get into the show were shooting off fireworks during the show. There’s always someone or multiple people shooting them off after the show, but tonight, midway through ER, they were clearly feeling IT and firing them off almost in synchronicity with the jam. It was one of the most organic and surreal experiences I’ve had at a show! They didn’t stop until (I believe) Twist was done.

By the time the show was done and we were all stumbling to our cars, the lot was a smoky haze. No one is in a rush after the show, there was nonstop chatter about what we’d all just experienced, and the good times continued through the night.

By all accounts, this is one of my favorite Phish experiences ever. Trey called it the best day of his life (I’m a bit hazy on the quote, but you get the idea) after Grind. Who am I to disagree?