I feel weird thinking about this show. First time traveling more than a couple hours for a show, first Phish show for my then-new girlfriend (now wife), first post-hiatus show for me...in my mind at least, there was a lot riding on this night. Can't say the opening two tunes were exactly what I was hoping for. But "Piper" sure as shit was. I listened incredulously as it smoothly turned into "Weekapaug", but the rest of my crew had seats elsewhere and there was no point in remarking to my ladyfriend, "Well, THAT'S never happened before" because she couldn't possibly know what the fuck I'm talking about. Nevertheless, that was pretty amazing. The rest of the set I can't imagine listening to now but at the time I hadn't yet learned to hate "WOTC" so I kind of dug it, but...still this was clearly a very different band than the one I remembered. They weren't even painfully sloppy yet, just somehow hazy and dispassionate compared to what I recalled. I wrote it off as still shaking off cobwebs. I listen to set two's "Tube" and "Gin" nowadays and recognize the goodness and uniqueness of what is going on, and I can appreciate them, even enjoy them. But at the time...I guess I still haven't come up with what exactly I felt was wrong. I think there was just a fire missing. The playing was fine, the music was worthy, but it wasn't firing me up the way Phish used to do. Except "Suzy"; I felt like Page at least came roaring back to life for "Suzy", a tune people kept telling me he hated. I was happy Phish was back, and I had fun without a doubt, but my overriding impression was "hey, they're just getting warmed up still". Yet in hindsight this was one of the best 2.0 shows I saw.