^^^my first show…couple hour drive from purdue and we were at the us bank arena in cinnci on 2-22…definitely a memorable night and quite the turning point in my musical direction…i got phish hooked that night and i will never look back
vegas 04 2nd day was the real deal. period. scratchy voice and all…
^ meh…it was alright, nothing special. and in the moment i definately enjoyed the 3rd night of vegas just as much. in fact, i thought that 3rd night had better playing.
but then again, i think it’s just cuz the end of the second set on 4/16 really pissed me off, i just don’t care for any of these tunes.
Waves > Lifeboy, The Horse > Silent in the Morning, Loving Cup
loving cup, yes, but not for a set closer after what preceded it. and waves can be good, i just didn’t like this version. i think that whole show was smoking right up til this point, and then instead of bringing it to the next level, they cooled it down for the last half hour of the set. (which is typical of post-hiatus, right when they could fuck your face, fizzle fizzle, nothing…i.e. let’s play Friday again.) hood encore was nice though. 
and ok, and that first set was decent. and the camel walk was a treat. ;D
wanna see me waffle?
I’ll take 4.16 over 4.17, but they are pretty close. I do really like shakedown, Halleys->tweez, but that TWIST from teh first night is just sooooooooooo good.
I totally agree PHG. 4.16.04 is by far and away the best night of the Vegas run. And Trey wasn’t too coked up to sing DWD. He was too doped up. The start of 4.16 definitely killed the nightmare that was 4.15 and the show continued on. Just because Trey’s voice sounded like shit doesn’t mean the show is bad.
I sort of contradicted myself there, first saying “there is no contest”, and then saying “they are pretty close”.
I do like 4.16 better, though
The Vegas setlists look amazing, but that’s a good lesson for how setlists and timings are meaningless.
In the 2 '04 shows that I saw, Trey didn’t move a muscle other than to sing the lyrics and play. Not a single word was spoken on stage. No gestures. Nothing. I thought it was very odd, considering it was at Deer Creek - a venue I’m sure Phish has affection for. I’m not saying DC '04 was among the worst post-hiatus shows, but they are certainly not among the best.
I remember when I saw them at Hampton in 04 as i was leaving I was struck by how little they spoke to the crowd, there was no communication whatsoever, except when Treys guitar busted somehow and his tech had to come out and fix it.the Miami shows sound like the only GREAT post hiatus shows. I didn’t see any shows, but these sound like the only shows in the “WAY ABOVE AVERAGE” category. Also…
2/26/03
2/28/03
6/17/04
6/19/04
You need to hear more post-hiatus. Specifically 6/20/04, if nothing else.
i will disagree with ya on this one. 2nd night of deer creek '04 (6/24/04) was an above average post-hiatus show. nice first set, good energy, a lot of well played songs to get it going. then the second set starts with tube & antelope, and are probably the two best versions of those songs PH. IMO. if you don’t think so, give it another listen. this show is hot.
11/29
I was at that one. What was with Trey’s voice for the entire second set? ???
7/21 has a decent 46 Days > Tweezer > 2001 and Good Times Bad Times.
a show with a great second set and horrible first is 6/26/04! A lot of early summer '03 shows are pretty bad, minus 7/9/03.
I’m not much a fan of the 20th anniversary run, either.
^Yeah the show @ Nassau was one of the worst Phish shows I have ever seen.
I mean its still a Phish show, but nothing seemed to click just right.