Here I am, sitting at LaGuardia basking in the afterglow of the final 3 nights of the Baker's Dozen. The atmosphere in the terminal is generally dull, blank faces waiting for airplanes. Everyone wrapped up in their own personal world. Worries about flight delays, or the rain, planning their coming days and weeks, remembering past events with fondness, despair, or indifference; it can be so hard to tell from a blank face.

But sprinkled throughout the terminal, there are a few faces that at first glance may look no different than anyone else. Perhaps they seem a little tired, dare I say haggard, but there is something else there; a little sparkle in the eye, a thin smile still lingering, that something that says, "I was there! I climbed the mountain! I felt the cool breeze against my skin, and all my worries and cares washed away. I'm in the club, I know the secret, and I am accepted!"

The final 3 nights of the Baker's Dozen were my first shows of the summer, my 33rd, 34th, and 35th shows in total, and this is my first review. Perhaps it's taken 35 shows to be able to come up with the words I want to put down. I won't comment too much on the music, as I'm sure this has and will be discussed much more elegantly than I could do right now. The shows were a whirlwind with countless unimaginable peaks, surprises, beautiful jams with seamless interplay, and all four members channeling their soul, spirit, and entire being into their instruments simply for our enjoyment. 20,000 people from all walks of life, different jobs, different cities, different priorities, different views; creating a collective conscienceness with four members of a band we so luckily stumbled across. Creating an atmosphere of love and kindness, being neighborly and helpful, doing random favors for new friends you just met, and them doing random favors for you. No insults, no judgment, no animosity, a temporary utopia and the cost of admission is just a single piece of colorful cardboard, and a willingness to leap into the unknown and surrender to the flow.

I am eternally grateful for this band, and how much they do for us. They pour everything they have into their music. They push the boundaries and define what live music can be. Phish is Dali, Phish is MC Escher, Phish is Bach, Phish is Stephen King, Phish is Tom Robbins, Phish is Albert Einstein. Extraordinary visionaries channeling something vast and wonderful that can hardly be put into words. Creating beauty and childlike astonishment because that's what they're here to do. They do it for us, and our screams of elation and joy can only scratch the surface of the true appreciation we feel for them. THANK YOU Trey, Mike, Page, and Fish! THANK YOU PHISH!!!

To all the beautiful smiling faces, all the friends new and old, all the random phans you high five and hug, your show neighbors, the guy next to you in the bar line, the people you give unsolicited genuine compliments to, and the ones who give them to you... Thank you!!! You are part of the collective that makes Phish such a beautiful experience! The light is growing brighter now, and this is your song too! See you at Dicks or wherever our paths cross again!

~Gary K from Denver