oh yeah, back at the creek for 3 nights! as opposed to the last couple of rounds at the creek, this was a remarkably easy ticket. i grabbed pavillion seats for all 3 nights for the grand total of $55. then a buddy of mine kicked my, for face value of course, a front row ticket for this night. it was a great night to be less than 5 ft from trey.

cities: really nice, slick opener. it was a treat to hear this one, but they did not take this one very far at all before dipping into...

run away jim: this got the crowd rolling again. the boys sounded sharp on this one. they took this one a little further out than cities, but not too far still. good sharp version. after they wrapped up jim, the lower pavillion started a very nice "fluff head" chant. the boys mingled amongst themselves, and from our close position, we heard trey say....

meat: i like this tune, but almost anything but fluff head would have been a bummer. this was a nice little version of meat though.

water in the sky: nice up pace version. pretty sharp.

stash: here's the first jam of the night. they really took this one deep before trey and page came storming back up. this is probably my favorite stash from the '03-'04 era.

the old home place: being an indiana guy, i really like this tune at the creek. mike sounded good.

vultures: i have liked this tune from the get go, and this is one song i thought they were playing better than ever. they sounded really good on this took

boaf: this worked well following vultures. they had a nice 7-10 min jam that was very well textured, and it really got the crowd jumping. after bringing it back into the birds theme they dip down and find...

mike's groove: here's the 1st set surprise we were waiting for. the sun had just started to dip, and phish came out ripped a nice first set mike's. trey was in full rock star mode, and page was playing very well behind him. they dipped hydrogen in the middle before storming into weekapaugh. mike sounded really good and they tacked on a cool little start/stop jam on the end before calling it a set.

set 2:
suzy greenberg: this got the kids back to their seats. page sounded particularly sharp on this above average suzy.

taste: this might be my favorite taste that i've seen. trey and page were particularly nimble before trey took this one to the grandest of peaks.

46 days> i was stoked to be seeing this one for the first time. gordon was holding down the bottom so well while trey was shredding over top. after taking this one up to a quick peak, page and trey lead the way on a more "rocking ambient jam." this played its way into...

tweezer> yeah, the first deer creek tweezer... so many shows here, yet no tweezer! this one was pretty solid. they built a nice groove and road it out for a good 8-10 minutes. as this one simmered out it found its way into...

2001> page was all over this one. fishman and gordon were also particularly strong on this good, intense 2001. also of note, a guy wearing a full astronaut suit made his way to the front row. he was going nuts.

limb by limb: this was a nice fiery limb by limb. trey was very strong on this one. limb did its things before it slammed into...

good times bad times: this set was flowing remarkably. page nailed the plant vocals and trey laid down a fairly unique solo for this tune. good set

enc:
loving cup: i seem to constantly catch this song in the encore slot, and i have grown kind of sick of it. on the other hand, it worked really nice here, on this night. trey had been throwing out hot rock licks all night, so hell, why not play some stones.

tweezer reprise: end it rowdy!

overall:

this show does not have any "best ever" versions of songs, but both sets have remarkably good flow with good solid playing. even if you are not a fan of '03-'04 era phish, you will like this one. in fact, if you hate that era, i would say, at the least, you should own the deer creek '03 run. i found it to be the exception to the rule.

highlights:

1st set: stash, vultures, mike's>hydrogen>weekapaugh

2nd set: the whole damnd set!