First set was on a comparable level to night 1. They Breezed through composed portions of Reba- not a given for probably 2 decades now. Everything was sharply played and worth at least another spin.

The second set was not as tumescent as night 1. I'd prefer a more exploratory journey but this was still a good show. The jams were white hot. the opposition party who wants to singalong and strut out of stride to a virile, intricately crafted, slickly packaged, faster paced and perfectly executed rock n roll concert on a Saturday night at Dicks got their show.

The show seemed longer than yesterday's. Everyone says they appreciate more stamina and staying power but I'm not sure that show length is a metric people care about in the post-Maxell XLII world and also because they don't pull out short with 60 minute sets anymore.

I liked the Wolfmans- it was a level above the typical version. Could have used a couple more minutes of the supremely sicko Sand but part of their psychology is to leave you wanting more.

Simple was cool. Limb by Limb was it's brilliant and hard hitting self.

As for song length- Clock watchers might not be impressed with this show but every song was a worthy rendition.

The second set was obviously a different beast than night one. The 10 minute songs were able to develop some upbeat and face melting jams- although that is par for the course at this point. They are that damn good.

It shows how spoiled we are as a fan base that so many of us want deep dives into even longer jams and free wheeling improv segments. Anyone of sound mind should be very satisfied with this experience with Dicks.

Good morning I must say I'm a little surprised last nights show is not rating higher than 3.9. Maybe after the jamathon Friday has something to do with all That. Personally I thought last nights show was Supremely well played. To me the Simple open was a sign of things to come. Absolutely killed the first set IMO esp. with the Sand/Limb by Limb/Wolfman...Totally outstanding performance. 2nd set wasn't the exploratory style of 9/1 but still had many high points that only this band can do. And oh jeeeez that Slave was sweet!! Thanks to you all...

One thing this show's got going for it is the songlist construction. It flows well, and both sets are bookended by longer-form compositions. The encore is also a nice surprise: about 20 minutes of music! The Reba stands out (first-ever at Dick's?) and Sand has a cool intro that I've never heard the likes of before. 9/1 was more of a jamathon, and 9/3 has the great, big Down with Disease. I'd hoped the Mike's Song 2nd jam was back to stay, but this version is really good, anyway. Winterqueen also has a nice placement inside the Mike's Groove.

I left this show saying that this was my best show I've ever seen. I know I've said it before, but man o man I think it'll be a long time before I forget that this is my favourite. I definitely danced harder and happier than ever before. I'm still sore almost a week later!! I don't give a sh** if the songs they played have been in heavy rotation. I don't need bust-outs to have a good time. They destroyed it from beginning to end. Everyone was raging hard. I can't understand the below average ratings on this one. So many highlights for me I don't even know where to begin. Everything was Right on this night. Nailed it!!!

Quite different from Night 1. There were some elements of the previous night present in Set 1, but Set 2 was the prototypical Saturday night run through. Now, we can't always get (or expect) Type II jamming all the time, but the IT factor was not there like it was Friday. Not to say that the show was bad (not by any means) but more Type 1 playing with some crowd/mood-deflating song choices (I'm looking at you "Please Play Never" Sometimes and Winterqueen).

Certainly glad I was there. And for those keeping score this is how I see the first two nights - 1) Friday 2; 2) Saturday 1; 3) Friday 1; 4) Saturday Encore; 5) Saturday 2; 6) Friday Encore. Just one person's opinion.

Two other notes - glad I finally got Reba (weird that I always seemed to miss it over the last 25 years); and a nice, compact and powerful CDT in Set II. Carry on and looking forward to tonight!

I missed Friday due to flight delay. Last night was superb. Just watching Phish go where No Man has gone before in room. Grab your behind with both hands and get it to Dick's right now.

First set off to Simply solid start, middle of Reba was sublime, Sand, Wolfman's a started a burner, Walls of the Cave burned it down. Everything's Right, indeed; new to my ears, neighbor at show said it's a TAB tune.

Did I say get your behind to Dick's post haste? No innuendo, just musica buena. See you at the show!

September 2nd, 2017 was the middle of my first time attending Phish’s annual three-night run at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park (affectionately and unfortunately known amongst phans simply as “Dicks”). M’lady and I were staying at the Embassy Suites with countless of her (now my) friends and associates who had flown in for the event from all over the United States.

M’lady spent much of the day in bed trying to recover from a debilitating case of bronchitis I popped out to the drugstore and bought her anything I could think of that might help and she took it all. We still managed to get in a fair share of socializing, as friend after friend dropped by to say hello and wish m’lady a speedy recovery. When she inevitably zonked out from all the medication I tiptoed out of the room and made my own rounds dropping in on countless friends in countless other hotel rooms.

Then happy hour came around and I hit up the hotel bar for a few rounds of free drinks and before you knew it, it was time to get to the show.

The day had treated m’lady well and she was in much better shape than the night before when we packed ourselves into the hotel shuttle to the concert (which was yet another great bonus that came with staying at The Embassy). If I’m not mistaken she was even feeling well enough for us to do some pre-show socializing on a little grassy knoll between the lot and an open soccer pitch beside the stadium.

(This grassy knoll would prove to become our standard preshow meet-up spot for all future concerts at Dick’s. I haven’t asked her, but I’m guessing it’s been m’lady’s spot for years.)

I don’t think the show was as good overall as the previous night, but at least we didn’t fall asleep this time (on night one we were both suffering from a jet-lag/altitude/liquor combo that overcame us like Maxwell Smart knockout gas. That said, we were standing on the floor this night as opposed to sitting in the stands the night before, so there’s that too I guess). The show started strong with Simple and ended well with a Lizards/Antelope encore, but in between was standard Phish fare.

Which is awesome – don’t get me wrong here. In comparison with any other band out there on any given night Phish hit it out of the park and played a remarkable show. In comparison to Phish, however, it was just okay. Not bad, not stellar, but pretty darn okay. Certainly worth the $70, no question there.

Not to mention the whole experience that wraps itself around a trio of Phish shows. All that fun I had all day is connected to this ticket too, so really, it was quite a bargain.

As usual.

http://www.toddmanout.com

We'll have decades to critique various VR and AR technologies to smithereens. My motivation these days is collecting memories of real experiences while the getting is good. The ancillary content is so rich and only collectible by anecdotes. Digaman, time for another book!

Note how touring scene has evolved from GD time to Phish tour. I lived in the Bay Area and was always arguably gainfully employed. I would fly to catch six shows in a week a couple times a year, and always had some homies on tour. It seemed a majority (over half) of the audience were local or drove reasonable distances.

Phish tour everyone is on. Everyone flies in, hotel or airbnb, secondary market tickets (I miss Grateful Dead Ticket Sales - never shut out once). It's not bad, just, well, different.

Dance to the Weekapaug. And your behind is at Dick's tonight - no excuses, and no quarter given.