Poor Heart: Interesting in the opening slot, especially for this tour. Been a good while since it had opened a show, 11.24.96.

Sample in a Jar: Standard.

SOAMelt: Yes! Big loops to kick off the jam at 4:15. Huge, screaming loop at 4:35. Time to get down! This Melt is quite standard but in retrospect is better than anything they played at 9.19.99 including Stash. Show is definitely off to a good start and about to get even better…

Drowned: This one rocks hard up until 12:08 when it shifts into a redundant theme. They quickly ditch this in favor of more Trey shredding like crazy at 12:44. Just Hendrix type stuff, going off. At 13:48, things take a conscious approach towards something slower. Page sounds great in here on the baby grand with very nice fills as Trey strums away and Mike and Page are thumping. Very danceable, outstanding groove. This melts away slowly until Trey ends it at 17:09. A fantastic version of Drowned! Completely laughable that this version is not on jamcharts, how is this possible?

I Didn’t Know: Standard

Back on the Train: A little slower than usual? Pretty boring version that fades away into the end. Meh.

Birds of a Feather: Standard.

Theme From the Bottom: Standard.

First set summary: Good energy, one good jam and one great jam. Have to be pleased with this set. Above average in my eyes.

Carini: Pretty standard Carini, I mean the song really is over at 8 minutes but that is followed by a bunch of loops and sinister, swirling effect for another 2:04 then >

Bug: Super shreddy. Rock star type stuff on display here.

Strange Design: Not sure a breather is needed in the three hole. First two tunes were heavy but not that heavy? Long pause at the end of this I assume to discuss what to play next…

Vultures: Starting to question the makeup of this setlist at this point. That said, this does have a very good jam as Trey lays back. Solid jam especially if you are into the less is more type jams. Nice ->

Limb by Limb: Very well played and Trey really sounds great here.

Will it Go Round in Circles: Raucous.

Run Like an Antelope: This is how you Antelope. Seriously. They take their time more than most/any and build tension. School was in session here on tension building. But when they get to the shredding aspect of this jam, look out below because this is absolutely smoked. A must hear and for this not to be on jamcharts is just criminal. What a way to close out an underwhelming set. Might just have saved it as a matter of fact.

Encore:

Reba: Wow! Not played as an encore since 3.31.91, 780 shows, what an honor to place it here! This is such a solid Reba here and like Antelope, so patient! This one likely deserves more praise across the pantheon of Reba’s historically. Only reason I can think why it is not more well known is because it doesn’t have that one signature moment that you can point to? This one is like that very reliable .295 hitter in baseball that you can always count on for singles, doubles, and a fair number of RBI’s. Still, for them to play this in the encore slot and play it this well is very meaningful.

Bold as Love: Wow!! At this point is it safe to say they felt obligated to make up for a lackluster second set with these last three tunes? My answer is yes. This Bold as Love is ripped wide open multiple times, impressive and an awesome end to an interesting show.

Second set summary: The source on phish.in / relisten app is very heavy on the bass, very heavy. What a strange show, after all these years and many, many listens it’s still hard for me to formulate an opinion that I can stick with. Sometimes I feel like it’s a great dark horse selection. Other times I feel it is actually overrated. But I just hit it at 4.5 stars and here’s why: You have a rock solid SOAMelt, a killer Drowned, a rocking one-two punch coming out of set break, an interesting jam in Vultures, an all time Antelope, super solid Reba and Bold as Love is the band telling the fans they love them. What a high note they ended on. I suppose I will continue pointing to this show when I think of dark horse type of shows. Out of the way, sparsely attended or talked about.