Settled into my seat during Ooh-Child. The power of the compositions all night were spectacular, but I feel that Trey really might benefit from updating, polishing, sharpening his approach to guitar soloing. He used to give all his composed and orchestrated music to Phish, but TAB gets the best of it, and they do it really well.

The theater is beautiful, but the sound is muddy. Goodbye Head worked well early in the second set. Too deep a musical dive for so late in the show as been done before. The lyrics are kinda shallow, more a greeting than an intimate trust, and the orchestral passage is extremely deep. After a song like that, the only way to go is up. So I appreciate that Trey played it earlier in the set. Improves the song remarkably.

I'm a long time fan of Gone, and I'm so glad it's becoming at TAB staple. Sounds good, too.

The Cressman duel on Mozambique was great. Jeff's soloing is sharp, poigniant, snaps with energy and punch. Best soloist to take the stage last night, in my opinion. Dark and Down..... Trey tore that shit apart!

During Traveler, during the lyrics, it felt to me like the music kissed the life of the universe for just a moment and the art and the true aspect met for just a moment. Very sweet.

Tuesday was a great encore to go out dancing on.

Maybe not the best show I've ever seen, but it was beautiful. I'm so overly critical of Trey after following him for years. And I was tired and sat chilling and listening for much of the night. Not all the lyrics connect with me, I suppose, but songs like Scabbard are really amazing live, and definitely take you places.

Those short solos Trey plays on his way into the improvs are the best, and his later solos sometimes sound like endlessly peaking wankery that rises above and alienates itself from the rhythm section a bit. Reminds me of the statement: "better for a thousand people to take one step forward together than for one person to take a thousand steps forward alone." I suspect that the entire band hitting a small crescendo together will sound and feel superior to Trey hitting a skyscraping crescendo above a stationary rhythm section. That's my theory.

Nonetheless, I can't wait for tonight.

I guess ticketmaster sold out to stub hub, and then put the tickets back on sale through the official channel last night. A friend got in through will call at the box office after calling in his order while driving down from Santa Cruz.