First of all, thanks for using the actual dates (e.g. 7/20) instead of saying "Gorge 1" or "MPP 2." That shit is maddening. I don't know why it pisses me off. It just does. Funky wins this one- Tweezer is the jam of the run, although i really did love the strange turn on Hood. It really did sound like EVERYONE, including the band, completely forgot about the end of Hood for a second. Like, everyone was like, "wait. Did we finish Hood or what?" before closing the door in magnificent fashion.

ALSO, I was lucky enough to see four melts this year (7/22 gorge, 10/19 hampton, 11/3 vegas, and 12/30 msg) and I can say without a doubt the nastiest one was the Hampton. That shit was eerie skull crusher math. Like you can hear them keeping track of the 33/8 time signature and then morphing into 4/4 but still keeping that other signature in the back of their collective conscience. It's such a hard song to get right. When they get it wrong it just sounds like noise (e.g. 10/29/14 which is complete dogshit). When they get it right it's very obvious and powerful. The MSG version sounded like they just decided to forego the angry psycho math and just take a shot at interstellar space. Loved it.

A final thought on the run: it, and especially 12/31, seemed WAAAYYYYY spacier than summer and fall tours, but there were hints of that coming, particularly the Hampton run's SOAM and Golden Age. Page was really riding the synth hard, Trey the echoes, mike the dominating bombs. Very Pink Floyd-esque. A big part of 3.0 has been coming to grips with the fact that they're not the prog rock weirdo geniuses they were in the 90's, and how do they keep it interesting? Part of that solution has been to work the dance track angle (sneakin sally, wolfmans, sand, tube, cities, etc), part has been to write a lot of new material (three Halloween albums), and I think the most recent answer to that is to let the music drift to that weird deep space. It doesn't require the tremendous technical proficiency of your latter day Fluffheads, Foams, or Bowies, nor does it call for the take no prisoners shredding of the best Antelopes. And let's just say it fits into our collective state of mind when we're attending these shows live. I love it. I loved Phish 2018. It was probably my favorite year of Phish ever. Gold stars, everybody. Keep up the good work.