after the 2nd night of this run, phish had to do a whole shit load to top the night before, which came hot on the heels of a pretty nasty show at alpine valley. for 5 years, great phish shows just seemed to constantly happen. well this one started off that way....

my friend my friend: the was a great way to get the crowd back in the game. this was a nice sharp version and it got them warmed up for what was to come...

the curtain with: well this was not even on my radar. they ran through the curtain nicely, and everyone was wondering what was going to come out of it. then trey hits those "slow rift" notes... no shit! well this was a shocker. you could tell they had really rehearsed this one, and they nailed it. surely after all that they would slow it down a bit...

TUBE: what a bang bang bang shot to start the show. this was a decently lengthy tube with a nice funky middle section. fish, page, and gordon laid it down. on the flip side, trey got deep into what was my pet peave of this era... the mini keyboard. you have an amazing keyboard player in the band. you are one of the greatest guitar players ever. why the mini keyboard. i was so happy to see thing gone in '03 upon their return. on the flip side, this was one of the better, more irresistable "mini keyboard" jams i saw. very good tube.

heavy things: well, you gotta pump the new album. after not playing it since alpine, this was a given tonight. decent version, pretty sick of seeing it at this point. went to take a leak.

billy breathes: decent slow phish song. i was walking back in the pavillion. i was just happy i didn't miss anything too hot coming back from the john.

Beauty of my dreams: this is one of my favorite blue grass covers they do. very good version.

free: this banged nicely out of beauty. actually a pretty funny transition. this was more on the rocking side of the free spectrum as opposed to some of the funkier versions. gordon was strong on this version none the less.

axilla: axilla kept the rock and roll vibe rolling. the axilla 2 ending dropped into...

coil: nice way to end a very strong first set

set:

birds of a feather: this was a nice tight version. most people expected to hear it tonight since it hadn't been played on the midwest run yet. after seeing the monster at columbus and the boaf>walkaway at the creek the summer before, it was hard to get too amped on this version. there was some nice page/trey interaction though. solid version

piper: this paired nicely with boaf, and the jam had a similar vibe. it was not completely over the top, but phish took the opportunity to really cut loose, as they tend to do with this song. good stuff

cross eyed and painless: here we go! this was still a pretty rare treat at this point in time. the wailed this one; the whole band was in sync here. it was no 11/2/96, but hell, what is!?! still this one really got the crowd gassed and ready to really hammer down the 3rd night of deer creek...

caspain: well shit, here we go. phish occasionally just bones it, and this is probably the most glaring example of their ability to do that. the laid the foundation for a really hot show, and then they go caspian. do people like thi song? really, they do? well, maybe they'll pick it up from here...

meatstick: hmm....

enc:
velvet sea: ok, they boned the end of the 2nd set, let's end it strong. hmm... pretty weak

well, everything up to caspain was gravy, but they sent us to columbus wondering what if they had brought it to end that show. keeps me from saying its the best 3 night run they had done.

highlights: the curtain with and cross eyed and painless