Twenty-two years ago tonight at Great Woods, Phish played a legendary show that contained the final live performance of the complete Gamehendge saga. While the 2016 summer tour so far has not come close to living up to that level, the memory of that night and many other amazing nights in Mansfield had fans hopeful that this would be the show to turn it all around.

And it was. Phish played two sets replete with compelling jams that easily made this the show of the tour so far.

A relatively standard “Party Time” opened, letting the crowd know that it was indeed party time. “46 Days” followed, played at a slightly slower tempo than usual, but with an inspired, bluesy solo from Trey. The band then took a quick jaunt through “Poor Heart” and a surprisingly fierce “The Dogs” to tie a bow on the warm-up portion of the show.

“Bathtub Gin” is where things got serious. The band slowly eased into the jam, but driven by a relentless attack on the drums by Fishman, quickly reached an anthemic peak. Trey then switched to a lower more growling tone on his guitar to back off a bit, letting Page poke his head up, but then reasserted himself, grabbing the reins and driving to another peak to wrap up the jam. After the energy expended dancing to “Gin,” “Fast Enough for You” was a beautiful cooldown.

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