For some reason I talked myself into believing that because the night before was the 15 year anniversary of Jerrys death, they'd do some dead. I unrealistically fantasized about hearing Terrapin Station again. But they tossed out a famous dead cover Quinn the Eskimo for the first time in over a decade!! And then night 2 was fantastic. Both were above average shows, and the location and older fan base...older loyal fans were in the majority...made Phish in Telluride 2010 a forever precious gem.

Additional show stats:

Squirming Coil opener. First time since Gorge '98 and only the 5th time ever (as a show opener), I believe.

8th ever Let Me Lie and first of 2010

4th Walk Away since 2000 (at the time it was played)

3rd Roses are Free of Phish 3.0, 4th since 2000 and 16th ever

6th ever Party Time

14th ever Crosseyed and Painless and 4th of 3.0

5th Destiny Unbound since 1991 (at the time it was played)

6th ever Shine a Light

The band was motivated to step up to the expectations on the 2nd night in Telluride and they delivered. This show is solid in all aspects and will go down as one of the best of 2010. Crosseyed is played particularly well and the duo of Destiny Unbound and Carini in the middle of the set is art onto its own. This show is SICK! Gordon is a beast all throughout the show and Trey's new guitar sounds amazing crisp.

An Echoes tease that didn't pay off? That's not even funny. That's not even nice. That's not even humane.

I liked the first night of this run in the this beautiful city, but the second night is right up my alley. there are some weird parts, rocking parts, and of course, some lovely rarities. did i mention some good jams taboot. also, they had a good mix of infrequently played tunes, and more common tunes in some unusual spots.

they started right off the bat with the coil opener. this is only the second time i'd seen coil in a "non closing" slot, and it was the first time i'd seen it as an opener. i was hoping they would use page's solo as an opportunity to take off into some sort of interesting jam, but they jumped into faulty plan instead. this song has a nice dreary feel that seemed to fit interestingly between coil and yamar. yamar was played well. it is one of my summer time favorites, and i was happy to see it pop up here. i was really hoping to catch timber ho!, and the boys really nailed this one. while it is not the longest most exploratory version, trey did lay on a nice focused solo here. let me lie provided a nice breather before the boys laid down a beautiful, thoughtful divided sky that rang through the mountains at sun down. this was one of the more inspired versions i've heard. the boys picked it up another peg with an ultra rowdy walk away. this song seems to follow me around a bit. this is a good problem to have. they cooled things off with a solid roses>limb combo. roses was appropriate to the situation and i was happy to see limb land in the first set. batr was ok...not my favorite. then they dropped a killer antelope down. this might be my favorite that i've seen in the 3.0 era. trey, like in timber, was very focused, and he controlled this jam brillaintly. nice climax before dropping it down here.

i was not a big fan of party time until i finally caught one. this was a nice lively opener. of course, it was not actually party time until they cranked into this firey mike's song. mike steered the ship on this one as they slowly dipped into a more ambient jam. they slowly veered away from hydrogen and they drove into a nice cross eyed that seemed to pick up steam as it went along. finally, hydrogen was found in the depths of this whirl wind cross eyed jam. gordon cranked up weekapaugh, and this was a real send up version. unlike the night before, phish opted to keep rocking straight through the set. kudos to their decision; i got my first destiny unbound!! this was a great version and page and trey lit up the middle section. carini pushed the rocking vibe even further and they tacked up some fairly dark jamming on the back end of this one. eventually, they twisted into a gordon heavy free. he took a nice solo in the middle section, but they quickly brought this one back home. heavy things was somewhat of a surprise here. this is not my favorite tune, but it worked well here. then they destroyed everyone with what is, in my opinion, the best 3.0 yem, at least up to this point. they nailed the composed section, and then gordo and trey steered the jam to glorious peaks. this one just rang through the mountains. this is must hear. personally, i'm not a big stones/exile fan, so this encore doesn't really tickle my fancy. either way, it was well-executed and well-received by the masses. after a show like that, who can complain about a shine a light encore. great second set.

highlights:
set 1:
yamar, timber, divided sky!, roses, antelope

set 2:
mike's>cross eyed>hydrogen>paugh, destiny, carini, yem (must hear)

oh yeah, the sound check information is incorrect here. first, they played an absolutely beautiful jam. it started off some what ambient, but it very slow built up into what is probably one of the better improvised jams of the tour. they then played nellie cane. after that, they played too much of everything. they paused for a second because trey forgot part of the song, but they jumped right back on it. pretty decent version.

Simply amazing! Squirming Coil opener. A Divided Sky as the sun set. Lots of rockin' covers: Walk Away, Roses are Free, Shine a Light, Crosseyed and Painless (a great version). Including Ya Mar & Timber (Jerry), two forgotten songs that they have made their own thru the years. I noticed they didn't do any Bluegrass stuff, and they didn't play anything for Jerry's RIP day (8/9). Which is fine. I think at this point, Phish as a band doesn't let any expectations of who or what they are or should be hover over their heads. The Mothers of Reinvention so to speak.