As usual for Phish in summer, the second set under the stars easily overtakes the sing-songy sunset opener. And what a set! The XXL Piper opener dissolves into a beautiful ambient interlude before a filthy improvised segue into Mike's Song (which is appropriately raunchy). Weekapaug zips along per usual until the closing lyrics, but the band skips the final vocal line and keeps the rhythm going for a few minutes. Fishman drops some half-time nastiness on the assembly and we get yet another muted-scratching segue into Free. (Why doesn't Trey segue into the song's opening riff anymore? These rhythmic segues get boring when you're, y'know, an obsessive live recording collector...)

Free > Friday, blah blah blah, but the stretched-out Hood takes this show over the top. This version starts to head out into rock-riffing territory like the infamous 7/25 performance, but around 14:00 in (and far from the home key if I remember correctly), Trey tilts from straight-up rock to some eerie iii-I changes, and things get quietly spooky. Mike starts in with some sympathetic upper-register ostinato action, Page throws in some space-age keyboard textures, and we're in an intense musical zone halfway between Hood's standard major-chord lilt and the zonked-out uptempo haze of so many other summer 2003 jams. If (like me) you came to Phish fandom via the Hood from 'A Live One,' the ensuing build and lighthearted return to the standard Hood progression will seem like the logical extension of what you've long known and loved. Good as the other second-set tunes are, the Hood is the thing to write home about.