@AlbanyYEM said:

This review is about as spot-on as you could possibly get. If anything, he's more charitable on the first set than I would be. I don't care how long they play or even that much what songs they play as long as there is something unique there to come back to. The little harmonics jam in Jim was about the only noteworthy thing about the set. As a gauge for how comfortable they're feeling, it was a bit tighter than I expected so in the context of the tour opener it was solidly un-noteworthy. Meaning no frequent or glaring mistakes, like a first set tour opener just doing its job. But doing its job does not mean coming back to it with glorious and multiple re-listens. I also heard the wormhole about to open in Stash with some slightly off key long sustained notes that unfortunately wove back into a straightforward reading.

Now I enjoyed the shit out of the Carini jam, don't get me wrong, but it wasn't strikingly original, just a great rock jam. Sounded like a jam on Walk Away most of the time to me, which is a hell of a lot more awesome than the song Walk Away. What was really interesting was that they refused to actually segue into it. That and a solidly impressive commitment to the jam are really good signs for a tour opener. Light years better than Bangor, to my ears.

So, dark as dark can be Twist, beautiful crystalline spiraling Roggae, flat out unrelenting rock jam--all in the opener. So this was a win for Phish. But it's not the best show (or even opener) of 3.0 nor are those jams the best jams of those songs in 3.0. There's enough there to come back to but otherwise things are pretty average the rest of the way. And there's nothing wrong with that, and there's nothing wrong with saying that in a review. Seriously, it says more about you when you bash the reviewer (cough cough phish insecurities cough) for not giving you an 80's Yugoslavian newspaper op-ed piece on how great things are NO QUESTIONS EVERY SHOW HAS NO LOW POINTS NO DISSENT!!

I give up. You have defeated me soundly, all of you. Yes this show was better than Bangor. I admit it. I still love Bangor and Icculus does not, and I took issue with him. I lose. I agree with everything you said in this post. I'm going to go inflict pain upon myself.