Well, it was only the second time I have seen Phish, but boy it was great!

The other time I saw them was around 2000 for "Story of the Ghost" at Hartford CT. I had enjoyed the 90s albums I had - Rift, Nectar, and especially Lawn Boy - but the show I saw back then was heavier on their trance vibe of the time. It was certainly good.

Tonight was better. A pal had lucked into some very nice corporate luxury suite tickets, and that is certainly the way to go. We were sideways looking at the stage but at a very good angle, there was no glass between us and the band, and we had access to our own buffet, bar, and bathroom - not too shabby.

They opened with "Wilson" and got the crowd rocking ASAP. I will confess that while I know a lot of their 90s stuff, I knew very few songs tonight. About 4 songs into the first set, they played Skynyrd's "Curtis Loew," which was wonderful. They played the first set fairly tight and punchy, for Phish, as far as I was concerned. More rocking than spacy, more song-oriented than noodly. That being said, obviously they played some sweet jams.

One thing I thought about was that more than once, after the singing but before a solo, they would really let the vibe ride. With most bands, the second the singing stops and the time for the solo starts, the lead player jumps right in, but Phish really let the rhythm ride, whether that was for everyone to enjoy the rhythm or for Trey to really carefully listen and then play the very right thing, I don't know, but it worked. I think live Traffic is the only other band I can think of where that kind of gradual transition occurs like that.

Second set started with an EPIC "Tweezer." While that song has the dumbest lyrics out there, they did serve up a really awesome jam on it. (Actually, contestant for dumbest lyric was another tune from tonight but I think it was first set - "The tires are the part of the car that make contact with the ground" over and over. Lol) It really stretched in meaningful and energetic ways. The last song of the set was "Slave to the Traffic Light," and the encore was Velvet Underground's "Rock and Roll."

So I only recognized 5 songs, but I had a blast. I thought they sounded focused and sharp, each guy on top of his game, and a very receptive crowd. I'd see them again in a heartbeat. Crisp rhythm section, gorgeous piano from the realm of Chuck L, and Trey has great tone and a big vocabulary. 2 Thumbs up.