In brief, a decent first set and an incredible second set. Trey lead the show all night, particularly in the second set. Old school rock n roll Trey. Page settled into a supporting role and had some standout vocals (really, Page's voice improves with age). Mike had more of a Phil Lesh night than a Mike bomb-- Seinfeld funk night. Fish had a standout night on the drum, constantly experimenting adding the necessary changes and textures to launch into type 2 jam.

Set one highlights:

Bathtub had a beautiful jam. Having not seen a show since 2011, I was really really pleased with the evolution of the jam. Very fluid. Trey is opening up some really interesting runs. The band supported his efforts amazingly on this Gin. A must listen.

Limb by Limb has always been a favorite of mine. The jam section on this one is exceptional. Trey really syncs up with Fish--- floating on top of the undulating rhythm--- crafting some beautiful type 2 licks. A really special Limb by Limb.

Possum woke up the lawn. Seriously, I think they were falling asleep during Free. Definitely not a Possum for the ages --- like last year---but very high-powered near the end. Classic Trey rock n roll riffs --- setting the stage for the second set.

Wedge almost pushed a decent set into great set territory-- but the delivery was average and the jam didn't really take root.

Corrina was a sweet beautiful moment. Sun just setting. Rain threatening but refusing to ruin the moment. Definitely a treat.

Meatstick--- what can I say? It was a spectacle. You had to be there. Haven't seen that many people on stage since Ken Kesey in 97. It is really good to see the boys being so spontaneous. The joy is definitely present. On a sidebar --- Mike and Trey were chatting it up extensively throughout the show ---plotting, or so it seemed to me. It really add to the fun and the suspense of the night.

Now for the second set.

Golden Age was a bit of disappointing opener choice but the jam went straight into type 2 and the boys never looked back. It goes to show --- never let your judgements and expectations ruin a solid night of Phish.
A must listen as is really the remainder of the second set.

The song selection of Ghost --- next -- completely blew me away. My buddy has been waiting to hear it again since the late 90s. Let's say he had a great night. The jam took its time growing sea-legs. At times Trey twisted into dark to bluesy to cheery intimations (leaving us all in suspense--- What kind of Ghost is visiting us tonight?)--- but finally settled by blended bluesy and cheery into pure rock for the rest of Ghost and the second set. Very experimental segue section. Not aimless or overly ambient. Trey was really intended to connect songs in a meaningful way and delivered time and time again in the second set.

Sweet Virginia --- a little bit of amp down --- but I was hoping for a Stones cover.

Rift --- beautifully executed. Trey deliver on 90% of the runs. It dawned on me while listening to this song and Silent that such songs were written as pure show off moments. The Rift solo sections are akin to dancing a jig in a field of landmines. How could one not flub at least a small portion of it? Imagine writing something like that knowing you will have to play it time and time again for the rest of your career... near perfectly. Needless to say, it takes balls.

Tweezer was an effective jam vehicle --- creating a few real old school chaotic moments --- followed by heavy rock/funk chord rotations. Under Pressure eventually emerged --- Trey calling Fish to rap or sing or something... But Fish did not know the lyrics and Trey bounced the jam effortlessly back into Meatstick with a moment's later bounce back into Tweezer. As I said, the key word is effortless.

Walk Away's solo was long and impressive. Relentless is more like it. Joe Walsh would have been proud. A must listen. Extreme highlight of the evening.

Horse --- Silent. What can I say? A bit of an amp down. Most of the post-show analysts agree on this point.

Piper redeemed. An actual Piper jam of sorts. After some attempts to start a jam within the original chord structure and tempo of Piper --- Trey bounces into another R n B jam fest. Excellent finger work. Check it out.

Waste wasn't a waste. Some nice melty guitar work in the outro.

Antelope ---- although not the song I expected to end such an explosive second set --- the jam was lucid and focused. The highs reached just before the vocal section were mind-melting. Dissonant screeching blazing Trey Anastasio. Definitely a must listen moment.

On my walk out to the gate--- I got my second Stones cover. And the reprise sounded like sweating, energetic religious rite.

You could have fooled me --- that this was a Sunday night show. The energy and fun is really back. If you have the chance --- take a vacation from your life and follow these guys for the rest of the summer. Who knows what we are in store for.

Peace.

This was my first of three shows this summer. Having had listened to the last couple nights shows on the drive, I was very gassed to see what the boys had in store for us.

Unfortunately, this was the weakest show of phish's summer 2012 Midwest gigs.

The first set had some high points but largely, it seemed uninspired and lacked in cohesiveness.

Sample- not my favorite opener, but the crowd did seem a little foggy/groggy from the last 2 nights. Solid version.

Tube- this was welcome in the 2 slot. As they do these days, they shot straight through the middle section. It was nice and tight, but nobody really sunk their teeth into this one.

Axilla- this version was fine but this selection didn't really fit well between tube and...

Bt gin- once again, there was nothing too atypical about this version. Trey and page did limber up, as brought this gin back around to a rousing climax.

Roses are free- it felt like this set might start to pick up. As this roses was winding down, Gordon and fish made a little move like they may want to tack on a jam, but it was collectively shut down. As it wound down, trey brought up...

Limb by limb: this placement seemed a little odd to me. Trey did push this limb more than anything else in the set, but it just never completely took off. Trey did start to take over, for good or ill, from about this point to the end if the set.

Free- hmm, this placement seemed really off. I feel free works best after a darker type 2 jam, and limb just didn't get out there enough to make me "need" a free. It just seemed forced...

Nicu- solid version, but the hodge podge feel of this set continues...

Possum- everyone knew the "awesome Blossum possum" was coming tonight. This was possibly the high point of the set. Trey did do a nice job power ripping this one apart!

The wedge- for a moment, it seemed they may finish this set well. The wedge seemed to provide a cool breeze after a hot possum. I felt something big was coming next.

Corrina- well, I'm the king of getting bust outs I don't care about. Not my favorite tune. I don't dislike it either, but it just didn't seem to fit at this juncture.

Meatstick- sweet Jesus... I hit the pisser once trey starting bringing a bunch hussies on stage to do the dance, which none of them knew. If you're a meat stick fan, I guess this was a good set closer. I'm not.

The boys seemed to come out w/ a bit more of a game plan in the 2nd set. It wasn't spectacular, but they tried...

Golden age: I got my first taste of phish's 2012 jamming on this one. While I don't think they struck on anything particularly wild here, they did really hone in on a focused/patient jaunt. Unfortunately, no one seemed to really bring any inspiration to the table. It did provide a good warm up, getting everyone in the 2nd set groove. Gordon layed a forceful foundation, and the rest of the band was responsive. This one moved smoothly and easily descended into...

Ghost: like the golden age jam, this ghost jam was focused and patient, but for the most part, really seemed to lack inspiration. Around the 8-9 min mark, this jam started to fizzle out. Trey stepped closer to the audience and looked like he was about to rip cord this one, but instead he shot off a brilliant flurry of notes. The last 2-2:30 min's of this jam really explores some pretty exotic and unique soundscapes. They finally down shift and make a pretty organic transition into...

Sweet Virginia: king of bustouts I don't care about...
Either way, this seemed to fit here much better than corrina in the 1st set. I liked it better when page sang it but watcha gonna do?

Rift: an obvious breather after a solid three song run to open the set.

Tweezer: I was happy to see them break away from their typical approach to this one, but at the end of the day, this tweezer kind of fell on its face. As the jam begins, they tear into a pretty ferocious tweezer reprise'esque jam. As they work out of that they find a nice little groove which ends up being very similar to "under pressure." Trey picks up on this and tries to get the guys moving on it, except no one really knows the words... or exactly how the song goes. They end up hamming it up quite a bit, complete w/ meat stick teases. As this one winds down, trey starts to move toward the horse, but after seeming to call the shots all night, he got a big veto as the rest of the band breaks for...

Walk away: this version is white hot 2nd set fire. The segue into it wasn't as slamming as some of the great tweezer->walk aways, but it did the job. Anyway, trey took the veto well as he absolutely brutalized this must hear version.

Horse/silent: now trey got what he wanted but it just didn't really fit. Solid version though.

Piper: I liked this placement, although it seemed to be a bit of an unusual spot. Fish held it down here as the boys went on one last cosmic journey. Gordon and trey played off each other well as they let this piper drive them. As it washed away, the boys fell into...

Waste: I was wondering if they would keep the interesting set list decisions coming and let waste close this down, but trey jumped right into...

Antelope: piper->waste->antelope really allowed a nice peak-valley-peak roller coaster to end the 2nd set. This antelope was its typical rowdy self, but it was overly littered w/ meat stick teases. Either way, an up and down show did end on a high note.

Enc:
Cup>tweeprise- blah.

So, a very hodge podgey 1st set was followed by a second set that really tried but never quite delivered the goods. That is the bad side of seeing phish. If you beg for them to take leaps, you have to know that sometimes it's just not going to work. That's the nature of the beast. I would rather see them take a risk and fail than phone it in and play a plain jane predictable set. Golden age->ghost set the stage, but there was still a lot of pressure on tweezer to deliver the goods. It didn't, but walk away, while light on type 2, was some good balls to the wall phish power rock.
Highlights:
Set 1: gin, possum, limb
Set 2: golden->ghost, walk away

we like the... bum bum bum... chicks in the front row
we don't like the dudes in the front row
we pretend to like the dudes in the front row
so they really dont feel bad
but we're really looking out for the
bum bum bum...
chicks in the front row!

not too much to see in the first set, the meatstick was fun but you would of had to be there to enjoy it

the 2nd set however brought the heat!!!! golden age was exploratory and although ghost didn't live up to some of the better 3.0 versions sweet virginia was a great rare treat. the highlight of the set comes in the tweezer into the walk away, easily the finest version of walk away i have ever heard and tweezer that got the entire place dancing off their asses. horse and silent were a bit of a downer but the antelope was different, and peaked about as hard as you could. Listen to this 2nd set, it's well worth it.

This was an Amazing show! the boys absolutely broke down the Audience/ stage barrier in meatstick but also in the relaxed demeanor they have had this tour they're having fun with the Pham like in the mid late 90's. I feel like the floyd brick tease was really important to the theme of breaking down separation between Artist and Phan. There was indeed a tweeprise theme in tweezer that led into the brick then in walk away also a tweeprise jam ended with the walk away riff. there were so many teases at this show I was thinking to myself @ the show how crazy the notes would look if every tease detail was noted out.

throughout the show tweeprise, under pressure, meatstick, and themes from the Wall were all teased numerous times.

Antelope esquandolas section (besides orlando frm NY) also featured Marco/ Polo type back and forth. when fish was saying Marco? n we would all yell Polo!! back. ended with meatstick lick.

was there not a tweezer reprise tease in tweezer?

man I had a blast at this show. was against the gate rage side for my 21st birthday last night and my god was it wild. the second set blew me away

Cruised down early in the morning from Grand Rapids to catch the show with some friends. Even a year later I remember this as one of, if not the best Phish experience I've had. Great show for the 5 of us. One buddy dropped his iPhone on the hike back to the gate to catch our shuttle. Turns out some phan picked it up and was only about a 10 minute drive from where we were staying. thanks again whoever you are!

Highlights - Roses - Corinna - Golden Age - Walk Away!!!! - Antelope and Lovin' Cup! the fireworks on the way back to Shakedown were also rad as was finding my buddy's phone the next day.

This show was okay. Nothing more, nothing less in my opinion.

Now that the summer tour has come to an end and all of our Tweezers have been played I like to think that this was easily my favorite Tweezer from the 2012 summer outings. I've listened to them all and I think this one is the most enjoyable. The out of nowhere Pink Floyd teases in the middle were such a lovely surprise, and the humor in Trey screwing up the "If you don't eat your meat, how can you have any pudding?" line. I believe it came out of Trey as "If you don't eat your pudding, how can you have any meat?" Simple mistake I suppose. The chuckle in Trey's voice as he repeats the nonsense line and obviously recognizing his blunder is awesome. I love seeing the guys enjoying some silliness and not taking it all so serious. Shortly later comes the Under Pressure teases that go nowhere when it's realized that no one knows the lyrics. A few Ice Ice Baby jokes and then Trey suggests, screw this, let's just have some girls come up here and dance to the Meatstick. Some Meatstick teases and then back into the freezer with us all.

First set opened a little slow, but once they went into "Bathtub" I think the rest of the set played quite nicely. The "Meatstick" closer was a real treat. The second set was a pretty nice mix or rocking and rolling. True, they could have played golden age a bit better(see Darien Lake 2011 for a good one in the same spot) but still was a pretty nice piece of toast for the jam that followed. A quick note, after hearing them do "Sweet Virginia" "Silent" and "waste" i can confidently say that Phish is SINGING better then they ever have. It seems they have really stepped up their vocal game since 3.0 started. The only real "complaint" I have for this show is the encore. Obviously the Tweeprise is a given, but I swear there was an audible sigh from the crowd as they broke into "Loving Cup". I think with the Fluffhead(first since 90') in Cinci and the Lizards(first solo since 94') in Pitt we were all expecting something a little more unique then your standard Loving Cup. Not that they played it bad, or its a bad song, but I think with that show being the last on their EC/MW tour until Deer Creek and Alpine, we all wanted something just a little more intesnse.(I know I had my fingers crossed for a Colonel Forbins!)

I came down with a rotten cold during the day and it worsened just as the show began, so this will be forever remembered by me as the "The Cold Show". I wasn't really feeling the first set but it had it's moments. Strangely, The Wedge, of all things, I thought was kinda inspired. Meatstick was a surprise, and very VERY fun.

Set 2 Rift > Tweezer with the Brick in the Wall, Under Pressure, and Ice Ice Baby medley > Walk Away with the TweePrise jam was just wild. Seriously, trying to properly label that would take several listens. Which I'm happy to do of course. Antelope was different, not just for the Marc O. Esquandolas, and totally awesome. Loving Cup I coulda done without but hey, you get what you get.

We left for the Ledges about an hour after the show ended. There were still hordes of people at that INCRRRRRREDIBLY AWESOME SHAKEDOWN. How long did people stay there, or should I say, how long were people allowed to stay there? Are there still wooks happily doing the meatstick? At Blossom, I mean. Cause there's always a wook doing the meatstick, somewhere.

this was the only time i was able to see phish play two consecutive nights.

also my first time in the PIT!

i was page side with my brother. i remember some girl had a bag of weed that must have been a half oz at least, she had no pipe, so i just packed her shit over and over non stop for all of set 1....she disappeared for set 2 tho.

The Tweezer, Walk Away + Pink Floyd jamming was stellar

This show was just a really fun time!! loved the crazy Meatstick tease fest!! Ice Ice Baby? really? you can't make this stuff up!! lol.. good times as usual!

Great Bathtub, loved Corrina and a special thanks to those up on stage representing!!! How great that must have been. Page has to be still glowing from the weekend. Loved Antelope...and it was finally nice to see Fishman's head after a three shows! This was a perfect end to the Tri-State (Yes I am gonna add WV) weekend! See ya in Deer Creek?
mmbyem

I didn't get to see this show (followed on Twitter)....thus, I cried myself to sleep. Need more #couchtour! Can't wait to listen.