[Recap of Wednesday night's MSG show courtesy of Ian Zigel, user @Ripenesswasall, on IG at @memehendge. -Ed.]

“Character Zero” ends, I blink, and “Possum” fires up… or at least it feels like we’re picking up right where we’d left off after the pure Phish magic that was Tuesday’s show. My seat neighbor for these two nights, Trey (yes, really, that was his name), astutely points out that Tuesday/Wednesday crowds at The Garden are made up of the most devoted (albeit insane) Phish fans, and the music played for these shows can generally be summed up as “Phish for Phish fans.” Tuesday night saw the band go deep on a handful of favorites with Zen focus for Jerry Garcia’s birthday, arguably delivering the finest show yet of 2023; tonight is a perfect foil to Tuesday, with no shortage of jamming between songs, deeper cut song selections, antics, and an extremely fun and Phishy overall vibe.

The crowd is noticeably comfortable and in no rush to get to their seats with 5 minutes left to spare before the band takes the stage, but everyone locks in immediately with the unmistakable “Possum” intro. Tonight is my 48th Phish show and my first “Possum” opener. “Guyute” takes the number 2 spot, evocative of the encore on 12/29/22, which served this same pairing in reverse order. However, “Guyute” sounds much tighter and more rehearsed tonight.

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