Well this concludes my second venture to Ruoff/Deer Creek, and what a run this year was. I’m still buzzing from tonight’s show as well as Saturday, so clearly I’m biased here. But I’ll try to be as objective as possible.

The bad: Rift and Horn are bold choices because Trey was clearly out of practice for both (and definitely the latter). Mercury *could* have gone on longer, but not ever jam vehicle needs to jam extra hard. Sometimes the song is enough.

The rest: everything else from S1 is pretty well played, even Guyute (or at least I thought so, but I’m not one to usually have hang ups about flubs; AKA, they rarely make or break a show for me). We got funky and Trey got to play with his toys during Wombat, and Moma sent us to break happy!

Now onto the meat of the show: the second set opening Sand>Sigma Oasis>Sand. The Sand by itself is 34 minutes in length, making it the longest Sand played by Phish by a pretty wide margin and traverses so much terrain before settling into Sigma. I can’t really put the words to it; you really just need to listen to it for yourself because there’s so much going on in this jam. It’s bold and psychedelic as Phish can be. After Saturday, I was thinking tonight might be a laid back Sunday show like last year’s 8/8/21. But instead Phish put in overtime with that jam! The whole segment is around 45 minutes In length and wastes very little time or notes.

I got my first Mango Song! Been chasing that since I became an established fan over a decade ago.

R/CT is what it is. I’m not a fan of the song at all, but after that Sand, they could have played the theme from Barney and I would have been just as happy.

Now I need to talk about the Slave. That song is my all-time favorite Phish song. It ended my first show on 6/4/11, and it ended this show tonight. After such an incredible show it’s amazing to me that they can deliver such a momentous piece of music yet again, and to cap off tour! Earlier in the day, I purchased a Slave tee from Shakedown I’d been trying to get for years and remarked how they had to play Slave tonight. Someone in the bands entourage must have heard me (or statistically, it was just gonna happen anyway, which is way more likely haha).

This was an amazing show, amazing run, and amazing crowd. I totally get why Phish make the trip to the middle of the cornfield. Hell, they got me out here twice, and I’d come back a third time, no questions asked.

The music from this show is pretty consistently incredible. Sand is the greatest and most powerful version ever played to my ears.

But I want to mention something extracurricular:

We brought our Airbnb host Jimmy to his first show tonight. He is a veteran of Dave tour so he could understand what was going on, even if he wasn’t familiar with the Phish quite at all.

After getting my mind blown and repackaged and blown again, we were leaving the show and I asked Jimmy what he thought of his first show. His response was incredible:

“It felt like a windmill of color in music form. Much of the time, the four members and their instruments blended together in a beautiful kaleidoscope, and sometimes you could focus on any one individual member, and it was like blinking at the windmill where for a brief second, you can hear all 4 members in their own space, and see each color for its own individuality and power”

Needless to say, Jimmy gets it, and he can come with me to any show from now on. We love Jimmy, thank you Jimmy, and I’ll be using the windmill of color in music analogy for the rest of my very blessed Phish days.

What a band. I’d say give this whole show a spin but the whole second set and encore are worth revisiting for years to come. Truly masterful work from a band and kuroda that had their full arsenal of tools and an energy I haven’t felt at a show maybe ever.

Thank you fish and thank you Phish for some of the most incredible jams of 4.0. Never miss a Sunday spring tour closer at deeer creek in 2022!! Let me tell ya that!

Move along, move along… nothing to see here… just one of the sickest jams Phish has ever played. Absolutely incredible Sand, propulsive, keyed-in, churning psychedelia. Sometimes they play a handful of good jams, sometimes they play a couple of great jams, on this night they played one single jam that was as deep as anything they’ve done in this era. The Sigma Oasis and return to Sand is nice too. The rest of the set coasts, but that’s fine. Custy up, noobs.

S1: Thought the show started really strongly with a great cover, that a lot of people will have been chasing, into a high-energy My Soul. Seemed perhaps a little bit rushed thereafter from my perspective (not quite Charleston N3 (you know which run I'm talking about), but a little bit of 'play the hits'). Wombat and Evolve were fun and bouncy. Guyute was played well relative to some other recent renditions, which was a great treat. The ripchord Mercury into Moma sort of sums up my feelings on Set 1: a lot of great classics that are welcome in most 1st sets, but perhaps not quite as welcome in 1st sets that are absent any notable exploration of the material.

S2: SAND...this is one of those moments, for me, that justifies why we go to such lengths to see these guys. I'm not sure if the english language even contains the right words to describe the genius on display in these 35 minutes. Please listen to this if you haven't yet. There was evil, there was tension, there were builds to more tension, and there were tension releases so good that I got goosebumps. It was just one of those jams where, stone-cold sober, I felt like my face had melted off onto the cement under the pavilion seating and my brain had been catapulted back into the lawn somewhere....
...okay...I don't want to talk about the rest of S2 because it just feels harsh to say a bad thing after that sand, but it seemed like the band maybe ran out of steam by the time Sigma Oasis segued back into Sand. I love 20YL in that spot, but thought it deserved some cathartic, mellow, soaring meandering to give everyone some time to collect themselves instead of a choppy Mango. Rise/Come, Free were good energy tunes to end the set without them being noteworthy renditions.

Encore: Grind, Slave. Loved it. Beautiful Slave, as ever, to send everyone home with some nice tingles.

Sand made all 8 of these shows worth the price of entry, so always grateful and can't wait for late July!

Day 3 of my first Deer Creek run. Sunday, Fun Day!

Set one was a feel good set. Fairly safe, no super extended jams, and tasty song selections. While My Guitar Gently Weeps set the emotion bar high, followed by a joyous My Soul. They ripped through crowd pleasers like Rift and Horn, a fun Wombat as well as a great Guyute (where Trey could not stop giggling through the dark "Bouncing like a newborn elf..." part toward the end.) Always love a good Mercury, too.

Set 2 was a little bumpy. Sand felt kind of down tempo (maybe to better express the sadly topical lyrics, I don't know), but the jam - easily the highlight of the show - was spectacular, ever shifting and encompassed a Sigma Oasis. Twenty Years Later segued into a sloppy Mango Song (an oddly iconsistent song for the band these days). Rise followed and didn't help (not a fan). They ended strong on a solid Free.

The encore began with an a capella Grind and, I must say, kudos to the Deer Creek crowd - they were so quiet! Usually there's so much chit chat, but not here. The silence was almost eerie. The finale was a powerful Slave To The Traffic Light.

A decent show overall, but Saturday gets my vote for best night (which is usually the case for me) followed very closely by Friday.