"I attended both nights of the fall tour opener in Albany, NY. Just right off the bat they came out swinging. I was one of the many that went to the festival that never was and you would never expect for Phish to just come out and apolagize, although it would be nice, but seeing how Albany is as close to Watkins Glen as they will get , there was something in the air that this would be a damn good start to the tour. The crowd was high energy and everyone, especially the curveballers & locals, were optimistic and just happy to go see the boys after the mid August debacle. If you have never been to the Times Union Center (Pepsi Arena, Knickerbocker) it is a much smaller venue comparatively. There was a great vibe as well as a lot of anxiousness leading up to the show. I will not go through the set list and critique or comment on each song, you can read the setlists. However I will say that it was a great 2 shows and that CK5 is truly the other band member. His light rig for this tour (although it's been in use for some time) is bananas!! The light rig is almost like a transformer and can move in almost any way/shape/ or form. It can extend out over the pit crowd and can go left, right, up, down, in front/back of the stage and even be directly on top of the band or raised up above them. At times it can be a bit of a sensory overload and actually takes focus off of the band but it is still an incredible light show. Next the music! I may be crazy and have not heard many people talking about this but I felt as if they have been "layering". What I mean by that is they will start with a song and yet even the songs are plyed in a differnt tempo/time, the choruses and lyrics seemed to have a new take on them and I have not heard in a long time. Lots of free form inspirational jamming and it seems that they would start with a song and then get into some awesome funky jams, usually differet tempo or key, leaving lyrics out (on purpose I think,) and start teasing or layering in riffs or chords from other songs. This would lead to some pretty amazing and unique jams where you could hear dstinct parts of 2 -3 different songs. Not everything was flawless, but who wants that?! A few transitions were a little flubbed but everything was amazing and executed with what the boys felt that fit. Then just as you start to come out of a teased filled jam and think you are starting to segue into another favorite...BOOM right back into where they started. I believe that all the members really put some love into it and I saw some intense concentration steadily throughout the 2 night run. My only regret is that we will never know what the giant, speaker encased metal sphere was for ??!!!!?? Having only time to go to Albany this year, I must say these guys are firing on all cylinders. I ha"

"I agree 100%. Love when Trey throws a fist pump. And you are correct about about the sound that's its common these days. Thanks for the input. "

"My soul is free"

"Mona sounds interesting to kick off a classic Fall "

"Love the Wolfman"