Thanks to everyone who read the review.

Replies to a couple of comments:

@RobesPierre

"are you reviewing your horrible balcony seat or the music?"

The music, as heard through my (fine) balcony seat, that was unfortunately and unexcusably located outside the soundscape of the main speakers. When we have a review from the couch we tend to get eaten alive because, "hey, you had to be there, maaan!" Turns out the venue sound system is part of that equation. I wrote about what I heard - which was so muddled that I couldn't even tell that the Birds was the Birds, and was slow to recognize songs that I've heard hundreds of time. There were phasing or delay issues on top of the entire absence of any midrange signal at all. It sounded like they weren't even in rhythm with each other. Felt committed to spend the first set there because that was my actual concert experience, but so glad so stub myself down to the lawn. Sound, space, and yes, even the view, were fantastic for the subsequent 5 sets.

@Tanner22

"Bathtub?"

I didn't forget to mention the Gin/Coil. I left them out because I couldn't think of anything interesting or descriptive to say about them. You can look at the setlist and see that they are there. The Gin is substantially similar to other late first set placements (Magna excepted of course). So, yes - as @KingMob replied, "Nothing to see here," relatively speaking. Gin was Gin.

Now that the run is in the books, my overall take is way less hot than many people who think the sky is falling. We had an incredible weekend, and enjoyed every moment - including that first set - where I was taking notes for this review and my wife and I were absolutely cracking each other up with jokes and comments on the epic sound fail.

Quick version from the forum:

Overall I think the shows were better than some of the harshest reviews. I don't think we're anywhere near the sky-is-falling scenario that is being painted in some spots. There were some really nice highlights throughout; isolated flubs barely make my radar; and I've always been one to say "the band should play whatever the f*** they want." So I will gladly accept the Joy/Show of Life dick kick and am slowly getting over the blueballs from that show ending. I was so ready to keep on going. Our spot and all our show neighbor's were A+. We were calling for a Piper Ghost Tweezer Slave second encore, then a first tube third encore to wrap things up. Ended up around a campfire through dawn, after a flat out silly stop through a hotel en route back to our spot.

Moral of the story is that even a weekend of "average" Phish is pretty stellar. And their "average" is not exactly a low bar. Can't wait for Hartford and 'Cuse!

For 2.0/3.0, SPAC pav/balcony is now batting an extremely weak 1/4 in terms of concert experience (sound, crowd, atmosphere), having squeaked out a broken bat single on 7/7/2012.
Lawn is batting over .900 for the remaining dozen or so shows I've seen there.