My second show of the 3.0 era - how did it hold up to Camden's springtime barnburner?

Pretty well.

This one felt like a bit of a hometown vibe for me. I was in school down 64 in colonial Williamsburg so a quick 2 hour jaunt had me and my crew in Cville. My brother had attended UVA so I was familiar with Charlottesville a bit, but mostly we just popped into the DoubleTree pounded some Budweisers and took a shuttle down to the venue since we got a little bit of a late start heading out.

I remember the lines for wristbands/beer being kind of annoying so we just cruised up to mikes side (pretty much directly to the side of the stage) and set up shop for the show.

AC/DC Bag kicked off the proceedings in capable style. Good start.

They kicked into Chalkdust, which kept the energy level high.

Stealing Time from the Faulty Plan was the Joy tune for the night and rocked pretty hard. Pretty darn high energy three song combo to kick things off on a cold Charlottesville night.

Divided Sky was a song I really wanted to hear at the time, and this version was great. It's such an awesome composition. Great stuff.

Ya Mar was a fun one, and watching the naked guy try to dodge security was amusing. Band took it in stride and gave him a shout out in the lyrics.

Sneaking Sally was awesome. Great choice and vocal breakdown was really cool. Gordo was tossing out some serious bombs.

Old Home Place was another one that I was happy to here, and of course the Charlottesville line elicited a nice cheer.

Cavern>Funky Bitch kept the relentless high energy vibe going. Both well played, both very fun.

I thought David Bowie would end the set in style. It had the style, but luckily for us we managed a couple more tunes. Good version, nothing out of the ordinary, but a standard Bowie is still an awesome showcase.

Wedge was played in set I at both the shows I saw in '09. One of my favorites. Lots of fun.

Bold As Love was absolutely awesome. They hammered this one home and finally gave everyone in the venue a chance to relax.

Overall Set I: So much fun. No groundbreaking exploration, but seriously great setlist construction without any lulls.
Highlights: Sneaking Sally (personal additional highlights - Divided Sky, Old Home Place, Bold As Love, Ya Mar)

Second set was primed to explode and they dropped into Tweezer to kick it off. This was the perfect opener and it was starting to get really neat towards to 10 minute mark. A good (although a bit truncated jam) found its way into Light.

The opening chords are a bit jarring, but soon the jam had me forgetting all about that. This one went deep and cosmic. Watching the lights across the crowd was really cool and this was really the first time I saw Phish go into the nether realms of outer-space. Lots of good effects work.

The found Piper and raced into this version. It was pretty rocking and a nice call. I really enjoyed it.

Free was next and was fun as always, good old rock and roll ending with Gordo applying some usual earth shattering playing throughout.

Sweet Virginia was a great cool down and another nod to the region. I am a big Stones fan, so this tune was a real treat to hear.

Harry Hood was another one I was really hoping to catch. It was awesome although it certainly won't touch any versions from further into the 3.0 era.

The Suzy>Golgi run was super fun high energy and for me felt like a good bookend between the set one energy and the first half of set II's jam heavy segment.

Antelope harkened back to the naked guy, which was a lot of fun and cranked the energy up. Nice version and great set closer.

Encore of Loving Cup was fun (more Stones for me). Tweezer Reprise brought the house down and concluded a really fine show.

Set II: Really fun set, a couple good bits of jamming, and more great song selection.
Highlights: Tweezer > Light, Sweet Virginia, Antelope (for the naked guy quotes)

Overall: This show was a ton of fun. I place it firmly in the above average category for 2009. This one (along with the rest of 09) will maybe be forgotten a bit by those who did not attend, but for me, plenty to take home. I'll always remember that jam in Light.
3/5 Good Stuff