So I've been putting this review off for a very long time, but I suppose it's time in honor of the 10th anniversary.

This show was life changing for me. Words can't describe how influential it was on my musical journey. It's not exactly comparable to the pyrotechnic display of 8/22/15, or the eternal 7/13/14 Randall's Island Chalkdust, one of the greatest pieces of improvised music by any band, but it was the perfect show for me, and really carried on a 99/00 era vibe.
I had been a fan since the summer of 2006 and had several of the albums, and a very small sliver of live music (I mostly liked 2.0). Although I came from a fairly musical family, and my dad and brother had experience with live music, it was not a way of life. A concert was only a few times a year kind of thing if you were lucky. And the idea of seeing the same band more than once in a year, let alone on consecutive nights, was an unthinkable premise. The last show I caught was Walnut Creek 6/18/11, my first rock concert ever, which will also hold a special place in my heart. The setlist was more similar to the early 90s, showcasing all the songs you could possibly want, and pretty clean execution.

The spring before this summer tour was the first time I really gotten back into the band since Walnut Creek, and I listened to Round Room a lot, as well as tried to get caught up on what had been going on in 3.0 up to that point, trying to find all the songs that they only play live as opposed to those that appear on albums. I wasn't able to listen to any of the tour up until the show, so I had no idea what to expect, and I didn't care and it was great. It was a beautiful sunny day in Portsmouth, VA that day, right next to the water and all the docks, and we were all waiting right outside the gates for a few hours. I remember this big guy losing his shit when my dad told him he saw Jimi Hendrix live when he was a little kid, and the guy shouted out to his friends to come over.
We got inside to the concession area, and at some point, presumably, one of the band members walked by everyone in line to get under the pavilion, not sure if it was Page or not. It was a beautiful venue on the smaller side making for a more intimate outdoor show experience. We got in and picked out front center GA seats right behind the pit. Now, not to go into detail, but a horrible situation with "seat tarpers" (there were 3 of them trying to save approx. 50 seats), pushed us away to the 2nd row of seats on Mike side. The lady who was the most animated about it all ended up feeling bad and sought me out to give me a summer 2014 shirt, which I still wear regularly to this day!

The show kicked off with Gin, which I had just discovered only a couple months prior, and I was already very hyped. Decent slow build to a fairly raging finish. Next comes the tongue in cheek *new songs* for a chill 1st quarter you'd find in any other summer show. Then Guelah! I wasn't familiar with Nectar at this point so this was a fresh experience, and set the tone for the rest of the night. As rare as this song is these days, I have caught 3 of them. Alaska was very fitting, as the previous fall and winter I became obsessed with the place, and wanted to even move there. Granted, this 1st quarter is very slow and is even a slight bit of a slog whenever its time for my annual relisten.
It's Ice!!! I finally get to see the masterpiece track from the first studio album of theirs I ever heard. Well executed enough, with a dank funky detour from Page. Poor Heart got the crowd up in quite a frenzy, and still to this day is my favorite bluegrass number.
Then we get the first instance of life changing moments, with the 4 year bust out of Mountain in the Mist, a song I didn't know existed. Ever since, it has been my favorite ballad by any band, with its sentimental Grateful Dead quality, describing the struggle we experience as individuals of trying to move beyond the things that anchor us from past life experiences, by simply wandering off and running away from them, and learning how to face them and transform that into truly being ourselves and reach self actualization. It became my anthem for whenever I go camping, in those mist veiled mountains, and specifically always recalls one life changing hike I did in Glacier National Park the following summer after this.
Meat, Faulty Plan, and Bowie continue on with the clunky broken up theme of this set, but are all enjoyable in their own right.

Now time for the 3rd quarter that showed me what experiencing live Phish is all about. I had listened to Live in Brooklyn a hundred times before this show, which has some of the gnarliest jams ever played, but I had yet to experience that in person, and didn't know they were still capable of that kind of thing. Fuego through Billy Breathes was a thing to behold. Fuego is played for the 10th time this summer, yes, but only the 3rd jammed out version at this point. This one I prefer over 7/4 and 7/8. Much slower than any other version, though it seems to hint that it's going to jam, then goes into a dark serious late night groove reminiscent of a chill Melt jam. Then Fish and Trey hook up and the band proceeds to deliver a purely percussive space funk jam that gets the crowd going quite a bit, then it pivots into a bouncy upbeat groove similar to Randall's Chalkdust. Next is a > into Jibboo which I always loved for its type 1 (especially 7/4/00), THEN the phenomenal funked out Meatstick. An iconic performance of the song (albeit Mike was 100% relying on echoing Trey to remember the lyrics), one that has gained over 400k views on Youtube, and dives absolutely straight into one of the best short and sweet funk jams they've played since 1.0. Mike means business with his creative basslines, not to mention a perfect Fuego tease. It intensifies with Fish slamming into the cymbals to give it a Hendrix-y type of feel, then Piper - Solid, not outstanding, but it's the best option to "keep it rollin', (rollin') rollin' (rollin') rollin' (rollin') DUN-DUN.." sorry. It ends with Mike bass bombs and some more upbeat chords calling back to the Fuego jam, then a two year Billy Breathes bustout. The 4th quarter is definitely questionable but they already won the night, so we get a nice -7, another ballad with Waste which is weird placement, then Numberline and First Tube which are just outright happy songs to end the set.
The last thing I was expecting was for the stars to align and get what was played for the encore. From the day I got back into them that year leading up to the show, my favorite song was The Lizards, and I spun the 10/21/95 version countless times. I think if I remember correctly, I almost set it as my alarm for the day of the show, but decided not to in fear of jinxing it. Low and behold, they come out and Trey starts strumming those notes in the key of C, and my jaw hits the floor.

This wasn't a perfect show/THE MOSTEST ULTIMATE SUPER AMAZING INTENSELY SHOW OAT in the context of my whole live-music-attending-career, but what makes it so unforgettable and why I haven't shut up about the date ever since then, is that it was the perfect show for that point in my life. A good handful of songs I hadn't heard before became special to me, and I finally *got* the magic of multi-song jam movements like Fuego through Piper, and that some Phish shows, you just know this is a special point in time that will never happen again and can't be recreated. It was totally a laid back show in the best way. They didn't opt for formula or anything, but played what songs they wanted, jammed without structure and/or trying to lead up to something, and it just, worked. And ended up being one of the better shows of the summer. And The Lizards encore was the biggest cherry on top I could've hoped for.