After a 2 week break, Phish is back and they’ve wasted no time delivering the goods. They start things off with Cities, a fan favorite that gets the funk rolling early and evolves into an anthemic rock out. Down with Disease is next, the band really clicks about halfway through when they settle on an ambient, introspective groove. The band brings the energy back up before abruptly landing on the DWD riff and ending the song. Ether Edge gave some folks the opportunity to hit the bathrooms, those that stuck around got a nice but pretty standard Trey-led jam and a > Llama. The rest of set I is business as usual. Theme stays in the lines, Sugar Shack is Sugar Shack. Ocelot gets a groovy little jam that’s worth checking out. Golgi would’ve been a great set closer but Blaze On brought the heat.
The second set starts off with a solid Ghost jam, the band is loose but they haven’t found IT yet. Trey hits a delay during Wave of Hope that kinda knocks the band out of sync but it makes for an inadvertently trippy jam before they abort it. The next 45 minutes are why we Phish, maybe the most unique and exploratory jamming I’ve heard all year! Sigma Oasis immediately gets to business when Mike throws on a cool filter effect and prompts the whole band to start grooving. Trey creates some tasteful loops and all of a sudden we’re balls deep in a filthy early 3.0 style staccato/plinko groove with a modern twist. They find a clever way to end the jam and now it’s time for Pillow Jets. After the usual 5-10 minutes of glorious, swampy, angry rocking, the jam could’ve fizzled out and been great. Instead, Mike launches the band out of silence into uncharted territory. A beautiful jam develops, the band explores a delicate passage as if nobody is there. There’s something very unique about the way they feed off of each-other during this jam. It’s so serene and patient it sounds like it could’ve been a Sunday afternoon soundcheck jam. The vibe during 2001 was pure bliss as the band and crowd celebrated the last 45 minutes of mind bending exploration. The show closed with an exceptional Harry Hood and a short but powerful SANTOS encore.

Dicks night 1 had its ups and downs but the incredible jamming in the second set turned a decent Phish show into another Dicks instant classic. Personally, I’d rate this show around a 4.2/5.