1. They didn't play a ton of improv on 7/21/15, either. I seem to recall that tour turning out all right.

2. Did ANY of those Summer 2012 shows have a bustout as thrilling as the Halloween covers busted out tonight?

3. Speaking of which, Dear Prudence brought a tear to my eye (shout out to Page), and the -> into I Found A Reason is stunning.

4. Every single last Type I jam, the bluegrass songs - everything was just ripped to shreds. And Trey didn't even have the benefit of his Fare Thee Well boot camp!

5. Listening in the moment, I enjoyed the show immensely. Will I reach for it as much as 7/31/15 in the future? Probably not. Will I reach for it in the future? Almost certainly. Works for me.

A classic Phish show, in the sense that the part of the community who judges based on big jams will be underwhelmed, and the part of the community that judges based on tightness of playing and setlist variety will be happy.

I personally find this to be a darn fine show. I was grinning like a fool at almost every song choice and thought Trey's tone, in particular, is right where I want it -- even if I would have preferred a little more breathing room on at least one of the second set tunes (I'm not a slave to 20 minute epics, but pushing the boundaries a bit on Ghost or NMINML would have been nice).

At the end of the day, you can talk about what the band played and what you wished they played. What they played last night was excellent, with little to be disappointed about. What you may wish they'd played is, of course, nonexistent, and therefore not an entirely fair complaint to hold against this show.

Regardless, a very strong opening to what should be an interesting and forward-looking year.

The world is a better place when Phish is on tour. From start to finish this was a top notch Phish performance. Pigtail was an interesting choice that sucked some of the energy from the crowd that was hungry for a high energy opener. That energy was soon restored with a howling Wolfman's Brother and set the tone for the rest of the show. Classic Phish doing what they do best! What a great way to start summer tour.

Bust out Fest! Great to see the boys coming off some studio work giving us phans "expect the unexpected"

Set 1:
- Pigtail was an interesting choice, although it sounded very well done. An old-school TAB song...
- Gut-busting Wolfman's Brother got everyone going
- Daniel Saw the Stone - love seeing everyone do-si-do to this number. Very clean and fun.
- Couple' more bustouts with Dear Prudence, Round Room, Uncle Pen, ending out the set with a high-energy, whopping WOTC

Set 2:
- Mike's Song>IAH>Weekapaug. WOW! Great energy, Mike's jam was on point, solid flow with heavy hits. Weekapaug jam had crazy energy, hitting solid peaks with each lick.
- Ghost jam - heavy, chest pounding jam. mellowed out into the line, which is a song I actually like. A bit more upbeat than normal, but sounded well done

E:
Water in the sky done old school style. Loved it! Finishing off with a peaking, scream-your-head-off character zero.

All in all a well done start. Despite our aging friends, they definitely still got it, and should be swinging for the bleachers (pun intended) this weekend as the band moves to CHI for a 2 night run. Like a fine wine, it tastes a little better when you let it sit for a bit. I bet we will see some big things from these guys come mid-late tour.

My friend I drove up from Madison, listening to the latest Live Bait and recounting old tour stories (he had a lot - he did the 93 summer tour minus a show). The scene was mellow, the weather beautiful, the beer cold, the wooks hott...

As for the tour opener, it was thoroughly enjoyable.
Haters gonna hate re: lack of jams and, to be fair, the 2nd set had a strange flow to it, but the band's execution was mostly great, the song selection was insane, and CK5 made good use (yet didn't overuse) the new LED weapons in his arsenal.

The oblique Prince references near the end were a nice touch - Trey spoke about the last time they played in MN (1999) and the last time he used that particular guitar (again, 1999). Purple lights + Water In The Sky = Purple Rain, I guess?

As Mike recently said: "Expect the unexpected" - Looking forward to Wrigley!

For me this is a phenomenal *tour opening* show. Between the bust outs, rock solid playing, an incredible energy that circled the Xcel Energy Center, it was really a special night.

What pushed things over the edge for me was taking my best friend since first grade to his first show. He is true lover of music who respects what the band is doing on stage. He is a piano player, so seeing the look on his face when Page (who was on absolute fire and has been the whole 2016 summer tour) would take a solo or began leading in a type 1 jam was really enjoyable to watch.

Hearing Pigtail to open was a nice surprise. That nice little bouncy tune got things off to a really nice start. Wolfman's is always a pleasure to hear even if this was a fairly standard, but great version. I love bluegrass and Daniel Saw the Stone is one of my favorites. Keep playing more Thrilling, Chilling songs! The Dogs is a nifty, driving song, but probably one of the weaker from the 2014 Halloween set (IMO). Well played Undermind led into Dear Prudence. We had heard them soundcheck this one earlier in the week so it wasn't a surprise to hear it, but it's such a gorgeous song and it really set the mood for the rest of the evening.

Things got stepped up a notch during Stash, which like Undermind, was well played which was great to hear this early in the tour. I love Round Room. Mike's tunes are so distinct. Horn rocks. Always. Again, I always welcome bluegrass with open arms. Halfway to the Moon showcased some really phenomenal work from Page and the Duluth line in the song garnered some nice cheers from the crowd. Walls of the Cave is a great set closer, but I'd love to hear it to open a second set sometime soon!

The second set got going right away with a full, traditional Mike's Groove. The creativity they've shown with the sandwich in recent years has been neat to hear, but Hydrogen is such a pretty song and hearing it has almost become a novelty. Nothing wrong with Bouncing here at all. I always get a kick out of how thick Ghost sounds in person…even if this one didn't go "out there" just hearing that riff puts a smile on my face. The Line is The Line. I don't love it, I don't hate it. It holds a special place for Trey clearly, so he can play it whenever he damn pleases.

Simple brought back the energy in the crowd and that segued nicely into I Found a Reason. I'll admit that it took me a few bars to recognize it, but once I did it sunk in how cool it was to hear it. No Man's is one of their strongest newer songs and I thought it was very well placed in this show. Billy Breathes is possibly my favorite Phish ballad and getting my first one in a sort of "hometown" show with my best friend there nearly put me to tears. Wasn't expecting a Gin this late in the game, but it was more than welcome. It peaked very well which has been a characteristic of Summer 2016.

Slow Water in the Sky is my favorite Water in the Sky and Zero was my friend's song that hooked him on the band a couple years ago so he was head banging like his life depended on it.

It was high fives all-around after this one. A show that ultimately will probably be forgotten once the tour is wrapped up, but one that I personally will never forget. I really hope the band comes back to the Xcel Center soon. A multiple night run on a Midwest fall tour would really be a treat.

Aside from all my firsts--Pigtail, Daniel, Dear Prudence, Round Room, I Found a Reason, Billy--this was the first time I saw the band perform Hydrogen since 1990. Wow. That in and of itself of is amazing to me, making for a special night. Add to that some zesty polish with near flawless performance full of power, my first visit to MN, my bud's b'day and his daughter's first show, and I have another layer of appreciation. I like what I'm hearing in 2016!

After Wolfman's Trey's comment, "This feels so good!" summed up how it felt for many to see Phish back in the Twin Cities, opening the Summer Tour. Thank you, Phish!

The first set song selection was stronger than the second as many have said. Even though there were no big jams, some 1st set highlights for me include: Wolfman's, Daniel Saw the Stone, Dear Prudence, Uncle Pen, and Stash.

The classic Mike's > Hydrogen > Weekapaug to open the second set gave me (false) hopes for something special. Still, the Ghost, Simple ->, NMINML and Gin were all fun to hear live in their short, type-1 way.

3.5 stars. For bustouts, Trey's comments about the Ocedoc from the late nineties feeling like an old friend, and the jam peaks for what they were worth.

Definitely optimistic for the rest of the tour!

I had a lot of fun listening to this show from the couch and my thoughts mirror a lot of those expressed above.
I wasn't familiar with some of the bustouts (I swear I missed Daniel Saw the Stone. Was I cooking? Pooping? No idea), but everything was played well and tightly.
The second set lacked flow, but I truly did enjoy the entire mike's groove (particularly the groove) and the Gin jam.
Takeaway: I'll probably never listen to this show again, but for the first show of a tour of a bunch of 50-somethings, I thought it sounded awesome. THe story of 3.0 phish, particularly after 2012, is "how do we make interesting music without relying on massive jams alone?" When the jams are on, there's *still* no stopping this band. What's more interesting is when they're not feeling the creative juices or on the first night of a tour. How do you rise to that? By playing good songs tightly. by staying within themselves and just letting the music come to them instead of forcing it. They did these things very well in a workman-like show that was a lot of fun to listen to. I'm really excited for summer and it seems obvious that everyone, including those four dudes, are glad for Phish to be back.

What a wonderful time to see them after 19 years!

I know there have already been reviews about this show with mixed feelings. I personally find that less is often times more and from what I have read and heard from many artists over the years it is more about what you don’t play vs what you do play and I feel that this show was exemplary in that respect.
I read a couple of interviews from Trey and Mike and they seemed to really be excited to tour this summer.
Not as much of the long jamming that people hold the boys to as a litmus test but the playing was noticeably cohesive and what was played was very meaty. It wasn’t totally void of jams though as they always throw caution to the wind. They were conversing! It was palpable, super tight except for the little slip up on the Character Zero intro that Trey laughed at himself. Hey we are all human. They were tight, real tight!

I wondered if there was going to be a Reba as in the other 3 shows I have attended but it wasn't to be.
Pigtail was a good song to start after being away from the Cities for 16 years we were all “Conscious Again”.
The Wolfman’s Brother, his uncle, best friend and aunt came down on me!
Dear Prudence was resurrected for the first time since their musical costume on Halloween in 94 and featured a rare broken string on Trey’s Languedoc, Ocelot I believe that made him switch to one he played from 96 that he later said was like holding on to an old phriend.
Stash was special for me because it was the song that I heard blind that made me fall in love with the band and had yet to hear it live. It also had a very tasteful slow down on the jam segment that also got real quiet snd eerie before a nice build and crescendo.
I wished my brother was with me for Horn as it is probably one of his favorite Phish songs.
Halfway To The Moon got us at least there and got me all the way there and then some with the Duluth lyric reference which means something to anyone that has been there. Duluth is where I first heard Stash as I said earlier and the north shore is one of my favorite places on earth!
Mike’s>Hydrogen>Weekapaug was solid.
Ghost had a real phunky growl to it!
I Found A Reason was great because I was there with my beautiful bride! (thank you Jess!)
No Men In No Man's Land had a real nice flow and as I sit here drinking a nice Gin and Tonic
Bathtub was off the hook for the second set closer. Killer transcendent jam at the end.

Thanks guys!

Really no jamming to speak of. Even Gin only went 10 minutes. However, there was outstanding song selection and super tight playing. I bet this show was a blast if you were there, but doesn't have a whole ton of replay value.

Cohesive playing and risky song choices bode well for the rest of summer tour. A strong start to build on.

Highlights:
Wolfman's
Mike's Goove
Simple -> I Found a Reason
Country Water in the Sky

3/5

What a night! Got to the lot and got free tickets in 10 minutes. My girlfriend got a nice lower (where we ended up). LOVED the venue, great sound. Indoor phish is the best, there's no place for the energy to escape.
Thought pigtail was an odd choice of opener, but then wolfman's kicked things up as we were treated to our first (but certainly not last) helping of funky slap bass provided by Gordo Corleone.
Ive been itching for another Daniel saw the Stone since the IT festival! I frequently call it for opener just because I think it is one of THE BEST tools in their arsenal for whipping up a high energy dance party. I was cheesing hard and foot stomping and finger waging. Great song choice!
The dogs was sweet to hear as well, we were in attendance for the debut, and had only witnessed one of the chilling thrilling tunes since 10/31/14 (fuse at alpine), so we were stoked to relive that Vegas magic in st paul.
After seeing the band 50 times (the gf has seen A LOT more) its tough to see a song live, thatcha haven't seen performed yet. Dear Prudence had me genuinely surprised. my girlfriend, who recognized it in 1.5 seconds, was overjoyed even more than myself, she was OBSESSED with the Beatles growing up. song gave me goosebumps. In fact upon first relisten (as I type this) the song made the hair from the back of my neck to the bottom of my leg stand on end.
this is the reason I see phish, when the emotional response to a song manifests in physical ways like "show chills" or shedding a tear at a beautiful moment, its encouraging that you are, indeed, in the right place.
Stash was sweet, people in our section shut up during the quite part, we danced the calypso while the band dug in. nice trey/page interplay, and a solid peak to end.
round room was the second song of the night that was another first for me, and more calypso dancing ensues
Horn! wow this set is packed with goodies! I delighted in watching trey's right hand attack the strings at the end
Uncle Pen was at the top of my "most common songs not seen live" list.
I got down so hard to this, at timestamp 2:30, the band transformed me into a chicken and I was struttin and peckin all over the row.
HTtM- page shame on you! if it's tour opener, and you're singing HTtM, you got one job to do, don't mess up the "ALL ABOARD FOR THE TOUR" line!!! ::looks down and shakes head:: (I kid)
This first set really blew me away! bluegrass and bustouts for tour opener?! in an undersold indoor arena, where the lowers are miracled out and there is six people (including us) in row 8?! yes please!!!
I could have left at set break, and it would have been still worth the drive!
the opening lick of mikes song woke us all up and the place is alive and grooving in an instant.
I didn't even care about them playing a 2nd jam (crazy I know) I just wanted a > into simple. I hadn't seen them play simple since Coventry and was starting to think i'd never see it played again! But the classic Trimurti was beautiful and the slapping from mike during paug shook my soul.
of course they blew it up with that bouncing
Ghost has always been my favorite song and I knew they would play it this night, it's a tour opener tradition these days, is it not?
LOVE LOVE LOVE trey's effect at 3:48, so dirty!
theme shifts from darker tones to major around 6:30 they build to a somewhat flat peak and turn on synth effects to return to the head. then they played the line, that's ok cause next I finally got my SIMPLE, YAY!!! my drought has ended and all is right with the world!!
the ending jam was wonderful and the > into I Found a Reason blew our minds once again
we were just listening to loaded on the way to MN, and felt like the band was playing it just for us! It was truly a magical moment, like phish was in our heads playing a show just for us.
we celebrated by dancing our asses off to Noman's, one of our favorite new tunes. Great placement!
7/23/03 was the last time I saw billy breathes (and the last of 2.0)so I am glad to share this one with my mate. that was only the 5th BB of the modern era, they should really play it more. this is the show that keeps giving!
Gin- jam starts out playful and bright. I love that sound page gets out of that little orange keyboard! that warm Rhodes tone is s enveloping.
I thought I heard a tease at 6:55, but can't place it (I was sure it was our prince tease at the time) we get our best peaks of the night and I am happy with treys playing before the coda.
encore was fun, we walked into a bar across the street, got a table, had a drink, jumped in a cab, what a night!

This was the first show I've listened to live (streamed), of course I was pumped beyond belief.
Two very different pulls, the breakouts were spectacular and I don't think I heard one flub, but the lack of Type II jams was slightly odd, sort of puts a damper on Set 2. Don't get the hate for The Line. Encore was bland, Trey's monologue was probably the most interesting part of it. It's an tour opening show!

Highlights: Daniel, Dear Prudence, Uncle Pen, Walls, Mike's Groove, Simple > I Found a Reason (???!??!?!?)
Lows: Encore

Anytime we get an Uncle Pen the show is a win. The bust outs were fun! I'll take set 1 as my winner. Set 2 had some minor highlights but the songs didn't flow. On the plus side all four dudes played tight and seemed happy to be back on tour. Solid 3.5 show.

This show is amazing on paper and I'm sure was a blast off into space to be at. It was a bunch of little things instead of a couple big things, which is cool. Love Daniel Saw the Stone and Uncle Pen, Love the Halloween cover bust-outs. Love the old school Water in the Sky. LOVE THE MIKE'S GROOVE. I complained so hard Summer 2014 about the disjointed sets sandwiched as fake five or six song Mike Grooves. I mean they can't stop and talk once they start Mike's Song, but I digress. In my eyes there are a few types of great shows, ones where they go in and out and back into songs throughout a set getting mad silly and jammy, second sets that have a 20+ min jammy that takes you somewhere none of us have ever been before with a unique complex jammy, and lastly the sets where they play two 10+ song sets with bust-outs. Looking forward to hearing Chicago this weekend and what other tricks they have lined up. The soundcheck seemed to have some new jammys we've never heard. That would be ill. Really hoping Trey drops a 60 minute version of Wingsuit that has a 45 minute guitar solo. My wingsuit is freshly back from the cleaners. I tried it on last night and it fit so perfect. This wingsuit of mine is something I like to put on. It's a really nice wingsuit. I'm going to go put it on now.

The set started out of with a song I did not know but that’s ok because it was actually a fun song to start with. Pigtail is Trey original, and it has that hallmark Trey sound with gave the energy of “upbeat bouncing” feel for the crowd. I was particularly impressed with vocal harmony, which made it no surprise that the boys would want to play it. Wolfman’s Borther was lovely play off the energy from Pigtail and again it continue to give upbeat vide for everyone. Surprisingly, DSTS brought the crowd to a “bluegrassy/folky” mood, which was secretly what I wanted. In my heart of hearts I would have loved for a acoustic bust out from the boys but the first set brought two bluegrass songs which gave the feel that the boys wanted to great a folk/country feel for their time in St. Paul.

Now when The Dogs came in, this the energy and mood entered into a more ominous, darker realm. The song is kinda scary and Lele even told me during the show that she did not like the song because of the barking. And I don’t blame her, the song definitely created a different tone from the first several songs that started the set, but it created this unique energy which I feel like the boys were trying to create in this Minnesota show. There was going to be this vibe of an “upbeat folk song mixed” with a “shadowy/spacy” sound (a type energy that came from the albums of Round Room and Undermind). Undermind kept this vibe but then came the cover of Dear Prudence which was an awesome cover. I was hoping for a unique cover for this show and I got two! Interesting Minnesota hippie fact, but Dead & Company also cover Dear Prudence when the came to the Target Center in the fall. Which band covered it the best? Well to be honest Bobby does have a better voice than Page. However, you felt a great connection between Dead and Phish through The Beatles.

Stash, Round Room and Horn again all met that same vibe as before. Now there were some complaints that this show was chopping and not as fluid as other shows. Which I understand, but I would say that first of this show was the first of the tour so I think boys were playing it easy to warm up. But also feel that the lack of fluidity was done on purpose. I feel like the boys were making a statement with the stops, almost giving the show a stoic, weird orderly feel to it. But again who knows.

After Horn came Uncle Pen which brought up the bluegrass energy for the crowd and who doesn’t love Mike singing! Then came HTTM was a nice call out to Minnesota since Page talks about going to Duluth in the song and the crowd gave good hearty roar when Duluth was sung about.

Finally, the first set ended with WOTC, which was my favorite song of the show and I felt that the song signified the whole show to me. Again the boys for me were trying to create this “upbeat/bluegrassy/dark-spacey/jammy” feel and why there was not a lot of bluegrass in the song there was this beautiful mixture of upbeat energy mixed with the solemn spacey intensity, which I find unique to Phish. There was level of a bitter sweetness to the song as if the boys were mourning for something or someone. FYI WOTC is a tribute to those who died on 9/11. But again this unique energy was the perfect and awesome gift to Minnesota and I was really rocking when they played this song.
Second Set started with a strong but rather standard Mike’s Grove. Nothing really crazy happened during it but I would have say Mike was just tearing it up on the bass! So that was treat. BATR was nice but I was not super impressed with Ghost. While it still matched the theme of the night nothing really crazy happened with that song. This could also be due to the fact that were no fluid connection between these two songs. The Line actually got me really in the mood, I think because I have really loved the Fuego Album and The Line is from there. Then came Simple ->IFAR, which I felt was the beast song/jam of the night. Again that same energy/vibe from before came out in these two songs and IFAR was an excellent Velvet Underground song to cover.

Now I have never really gotten into NMINML. I first heard some shows back and it really has not catch on to me. But with this performance of the song, was when I really started to see Trey shredding. With that shredding I am starting to appreciate this song more. Then came a lovely BB with the ending of the second set with Bathtub Gin. Now here is another confession, Bathtub Gin gets old for me. It just does not tickle in the way it gets other phans. But again, there was some great Trey shredding in this song’s jam and with gave me a new appreciation for the song. It was great ending.

Ok, saddest part of the show was the encore. I mean, common the boys, you couldn’t play a PRINCE SONG!?! I know that Mike said in his Star Tribune interview that covering Prince would be cliché but really? I mean Phish was really the first big summer concert for Minnesota so no other band had covered Prince yet. And the Boys have a relationship with Prince and his music. So it was a bummer, and the crowd definitely felt the same way. Trey’s speech about using one of his old guitar was nice but neither WITSK or CZ were special enough to make the encore anything really amazing.

There is a lot to like in this tour opener. As the Notes state, there were bustouts a-plenty. Speculation was rife, and may still be, that a Halloween is coming this year (hopefully surrounded by a Fall Tour!) or at least that more of the "neglected" covers from the musical costumes would return to semi-regular or regular rotation. So far, only Dear Prudence has made a repeat appearance, which may only have been because Trey broke a string at the end of the Saint Paul one, but for my money, I could handle Saint John, Saint George, and Saint Ringo versions! I may not always get my druthers the following way, but I think I'm happiest when the band plays what they want to play rather than caving in to Demand. Or, at least, there's a happy medium. Enough preamble.

Pigtail is nice to hear brought back. I think it's kind of "of a piece" with some of the newest songs that have been debuted following Riviera Maya. I love Daniel Saw the Stone; I'm glad to see that pop up. Kind of takes an even more ardent meaning with Trey's sobriety and work with the drug court program ("Meet me, Jesus, meet me.") Round Room boasts the intro from the studio version (I think the outro as well?) and is one of my favorite Mike compositions. Horn and Uncle Pen make always-welcome appearances, and the set closes with two showcases for Page. Fishman is really on in a way that he's still able to pace himself or push himself as the song requires. It's kind of astounding his stamina and virtuosity, both of which he makes seem easy.

Classic Mike's > H2 > Weekapaug sandwich to open the second frame. I long for the second jam as much as anyone, I suppose. Last year's exciting return of it wasn't quite in line with the classic form, so I hope Phish decides to reintegrate it into Mike's just like it was in the good old days (for weekly time's sake?) I really dug the experimentation with Weekapaug last year with the Crosseyed jam late in the summer (but before Magnaball.) I'm reminded via that reminiscence of the 11/27/98 Weekapaug, which is on one of the original 20 Live Phish shows. That was a truly out-there version, while remaining intensely Weeky. I'm a Line lover, MRFMTD. Standalone Simple is welcome, of course! I Found a Reason is the second of the costume covers to return after a long absence. Mike's delivery of the spoken portion tickles my funny bone. When you've been a phan for many years just about anything the phab phour do is met with screams of glee. Gin makes another strong showing, perhaps indicating a trend that it may resurge as a jam vehicle in the vein of the Watkin's Gin?

I'd say this is a slightly above average-great show, bolstered primarily by the pure joy of tour beginning as well as the many bustouts. I'd give it more like a 3.5 than the 3 I'm giving it if I could, but I'm enormously thankful that we have our favorite band healthy and getting this show on the road.