I lost count of the number of times I smiled on the couch for this one.

This was an actual dream come true. I remember years ago, bored in a meeting, doodling out a numbers-based setlist.
They beat me at my own game. Breakouts, deep jams out of time and space, and a slow wink the whole show. Phish at their best and most genuine selves. Give it a top-to-bottom listen.

absolutely incredible show. the energy at MGM was through the roof from the opening ambience of 2001. the first set is just bananas. back to back rager jams in 2001 and 1999 (!!! i thought they'd never play this again--what a thrill to see it). going type two basically every opportunity including two major explorations during 46 days and 20YL. pretty much a perfect phish set if you ask me.

second set was incredible as well, but perhaps not quite to the heights of the first (which is very fine after a first set like that). it seemed they never quiiite found their footing during -7, but there was still a lot of interesting stuff in there, a lot of it a bit more "Evil Phish"-y which is always a good thing. If 6 Was 9 was a fantastic surprise cover, and they jammed the heck of out it. Five Years another awesome call that i kinda figured i would never see phish play live after missing halloween 16. happy to be proven wrong once again.

the next section of the set, to me, felt like an exclamation point on the previous songs. the Two Versions of Me was nice to hear and very cool how it went into N02. Army of One is a nice song, and My Sweet One is very fun. and then first tube, which i figured would rage as usual--but instead it seemed like they accidentally found themselves in a deep type 2 situation. just when they had me thinking the set was going to be jukebox til the end... once again i was proven wrong. extremely wild First Tube which did not include the classic trey guitar-lift, presumably because Zero followed it.

numberline for the encore--we all knew it was coming and you know what, they earned it. great performance of the tune as well. and of course the adjusted grind was the cherry on top of an incredibly well executed gag show.

i wonder what this means for the upcoming shows, especially halloween show itself. will do four shows with different themes? was this a random idea they had and the next two shows will be normal and then a halloween gag? phish is wild man. just happy to be along for the ride.

This show will make your fur rise. It'll give you chills.

The French have a name for this effect (of course they do). They call it frisson, and this show will engender it like nothing else.

One of the causes science (science!) offers for this feeling is the unexpected: the unexpected note, the unexpected phrase, the unexpected song. And man, if that doesn't begin to get a handle on what happened last night, nothing does. Hell, it might shed some light on this whole tour.

It doesn't matter much if you've seen the setlist before listening or not. If you're any kind of Phish fan at all, when the band drops out of the thick blues sludge at the end of 7 Below and lands on the telltale opening of If 6 Was 9, you're going to have an electric epiphany. An aesthetic skingasm. Because you won't be ready for it, and that's the type of show this is.

That's the type of tour this is.

By the end of the show, maybe, you've figured things out, and you expect the Zero, expect the Number Line. But that's another type of frisson: the type that stems from seeing a difficult piece completed with aplomb. Closure in a profound way. This show gets you coming and going, again like nothing else.

The band is art-ing at a higher level than at any other time this century. There is no "gimmick" to this show or any other show this tour (see the Forum). Only self-imposed limitations and unexpected choices.

And therein, sometimes, lies the art.

Just a quick comment. This is fall tour ‘21 so you should just listen to the entire show. But if you’re trying to cherry-pick, If 6 Was 9 and First Tube are the standout above all moments. I6W9 feels appropriate after all this time and the band does it justice with a type 2 journey. First Tube settles into a jam with some Seven Below teases before finding its way to Zero to end the number counting portion of the show.

A gag show to start Vegas? What are the next three nights going to bring then?

Phish just keeps finding ways to top themselves.

Set 1 was a monster.

2001>1999 was 30+ minutes of complete dance party.
First 555 to get the treatment.
I think only the 3rd Twenty Years Later that went Type II. Had a wicked jam in it to close the set.

But the highlight to me was the Seven Below>If 6 Was 9
Wow.
Always dreamed of Phish playing this Hendrix classic. Guess we’re not getting Jimi’s Axis for Halloween.

Hard to fathom the band being able to keep this up the remainder of the run, but 2021 is some special Phish

This is my first review I've written on here, but when I tell this story I often preface it that it's like those timeless .net stories you read on some random show from 1991. I decided I need to write it here, lest it be forgotten to time!

I am a product of the 3.0 era, having started seeing Phish during the Baker's Dozen (at the age of 18, sue me!). There's always been a certain magic surrounding Phish tour that seems slightly bygone but I've still sought to capture - a sort of 'make it happen' attitude that makes for unforgettable moments. I think that was in play here, too!

Unable to take Thursday off of work, I decided I would fly form NY to Vegas that afternoon, sacrificing the 10/28 show, but keeping my job, and allowing me to still see three Phish Halloween shows. Once the plane took off and were in the air for a while, the show began and I started streaming to my laptop using the plane wifi. Spacey jam->2001>1999 to start, and I'm thinking this is going to be a great run, texting my buddy how unfortunate it is we couldn't make it to this show. My groupchat agreed that if they play 555 next, the show will be a countdown show - a great catch, but I didn't believe it.

Once they played 555 (not my favorite) > 46 Days (great jam) you could tell this was going to be a special show. Better yet, our flight was making great time. And so the countdown began! ---Can we make it to the show before Phish plays Character Zero?--- This would be the first show I show up to late, not knowing if I would make it at all, and Phish is providing us with a real-time countdown. How's that for a cosmic joke! My buddy already had a ticket for the show - I had nothing, so I decided to peruse Cash or Trade.. Strawberry Letter 23... I *really* started to look on Cash or Trade. Over the course of a stellar Twenty Years Later to close the set, I had finally found my miracle.

Setbreak ends as the plane lands. We can make it. We call a taxi, and the taxi goes to the wrong pickup point just as Phish drops into an If 6 Was 9 debut... my buddy, a huge Hendrix fan, was heartbroken. The taxi picks us up and we cruise down the road directly towards the MGM with our bags in tow. Our driver is making banter about casinos strip clubs, *Vegas*, and we nod along with Phish on our minds. We get dropped off during Two Versions of Me, go directly to the front desk and drop our bags off, probably looking like crazed men on a mission (which we were, I guess). We run to the venue during Army of One. Bursting from the hallway I can still recall seeing CK5's white lights come into view during My Sweet One, like a child walking through a stadium tunnel and seeing a sunlit baseball field for the first time. We made it. And before Zero!

Oddly enough, I didn't really review many of the performances through this... review... but, hey, to me, everything after we got to the show was fantastic! First Tube raged, Zero ripped. The encore started with BDTNL - even on the plane I knew if I made it to the show it would be the most rewarding one I would ever hear.

They closed with Grind, and to be honest I felt a little fake because I wasn't there for most of the show (I don't have this show added for stats purposes, etc.), and this was like a cherry on top. But as they went through the setlist to recount the musical journey the whole arena had just went on, I recounted my own journey. One that started in a New York office building, and ended at a Phish show in Las Vegas.

WHAT A SHOW
My first show since 12/28/19. My 10th overall show. Best show hands down I have ever seen. The dude I went with - his 29th - best he's ever seen. A guy standing behind me - his 100th show! - the best he's ever seen.
So yeah, this show will go down as an all time great show and I can't believe I was there to witness it.

What a fun show! Phish playing with the numbers gag and it led to a fine setlist with bustouts and fun all over- first set had deep jams - I6W9 was so awesome, a show highlight - this show has that phish charm. 2021 is really shaping out to be an incredible year. Inventive Phish here tonight! Cant wait for the next 3 days!!

Was so awesome even shut up the chompers next to me during the first set. First set was quite nice! Great flow. One to remember. Never forget.

Had tendies at set break which were the firemost. Better than most west coast tendies I’ve tried.

Found a new crew second set and totally dug it. Worth listening to front to back. Can’t see what happens the next 3 nights.

I hated this show!!! I can't believe it's rated the highest of the weekend. I've seen about 90 shows and it's in my bottom 3-5. I see Phish for the jams / funny grooves. This show was a gimmick and had almost none of that. 2001, 555, 46 days are good songs, that fit the mold but they were all early and none are version I need to go listen to again. First song is way too early for 2001, which ruined that song.

Best song of the weekend was the 26 min ghost on Sunday. That 1 song was better than the entire show. Seriously I can't believe people like this show I left the show more angry than disappointed. Probably my least favorite Phish show! 10/31 was incredible