Really fun show!

I want to give credit to this show’s opening segment, because it was the type of opening sequence that means so much more in context than it does in a vacuum.

Julius reappears after not being seen since late 2019 and it’s opening notes set the crowd in Phoenix ablaze. Though Julius made its name as a set-closer and encore tune, it makes a ton of sense as an opener. Serving as a high energy, bluesy jam to get the band and crowd feeling good out of the gate? Yes please. Hell, any time Julius is played is a good time, but to open a Friday night show after a significant hiatus? Danger? Yea, we’ve been told to expect it.

Before we could even catch our breath, the first Martian Monster of fall tour (and only second since 2019) comes crawling out of the lurch. The “composed” sections of this particular Monster signaled good things to come, and the band seemed to be doing that thing where they take an innocuous musical segment and layer it so richly with new ideas that it almost sounds like a new piece of music.

Don’t sleep on the length of this one either, because the jam in this Martian Monster might’ve been the best group improv of the whole show. Almost immediately, Mike starts dropping singularity bombs, perhaps signaling the beginning of a funky Mike-driven jam a la Sneakin’ Sally from 11/2/18…but the band modulates to major key…and what they find themselves in afterwards is a space of pure cohesion. Trey and Page start pushing and pulling each other through conversational melodies, almost rowing the big boat spaceship back and forth…drifting off into orbit around the Soul Planet.

And then….liftoff

What a sequence to ring in Phish’s first show in Arizona!

One final note, this may have been the best straightforward Hood peak I’ve been able to catch live. Featured a big minor key jam with its own peak before absolutely crushing the standard major coda.

Thank you Phish!