It's been a week since Magnaball began, and I'm now finally starting to really process the whole thing and wanted to unload some thoughts. As Saturday was arguably their greatest overall performance of 3.0 I figured I'd post them here...

I've been seeing Phish for 17 years, since 2nd night of Nassau's Island Tour, 4/3/1998. As a future #realfan this show hit me like a ton of bricks and changed my life forever. I wound up seeing 6 shows that year, including Hampton and NYE at MSG. That would be about my average over the following 2 decades. As a mid-western kid who went to NYU in the late '90's, Phish was ubiquitous and it was always great to be able to hop on tour every few months for a few shows, then hop off and get back work/school.

That said, this was only my 2nd festival, the first being Festival 8 (in my backyard as an LA resident now). Back in the festival heyday I never really had a crew who loved them like I did, and traveling to somewhere like Limestone or even (my biggest Phish regret) Big Cypress was just out of the question unless I wanted to roll solo...so needless to say I was so thrilled to see this festival after the MONSTER 2015 Summer Tour and Fare Thee Well extravaganza that clearly led to inspirational playing from all four members of the band.

My buddy, Bergey, and I hit up our local shows (Shoreline and Forum) together in July and were ready to spend a blissful weekend in Watkins Glen. Despite a bit of a hiccup (perhaps karma for only having a 2 hour commute to Indio?) with my flights and rerouting to Syracuse, we arrived with plenty of time on Friday and enjoyed my favorite 1st set of 3.0 capped off by the best Gin I've personally ever witnessed. And they didn't stop...that was what was so inspirational about Friday's show. They just jammed and jammed and jammed. I definitely felt like the CDT > Ghost lacked the clarity of the Gin, but who cares, just jam jam jam! The Hood, NMINML and Slave were all standouts of a huge set. But for me Set 1 (Simple, Dogs, Gin, TMWSIY > Avenu, MOCK SONG) was the most special part of the evening...

On to Saturday. THE show. It did not disappoint. It exceeded. In all ways. Yes, they played a lot of songs in the 1st set. Expertly. Loved that Divided Sky. Best one I've seen since I got married (and played it as I walked down the aisle). Fun hearing Scabbard for the first time...Tasty little Tube and Halfway to the Moon a highlight. Mike takes over Page's tune and absolutely makes it his bitch. Floored. Also enjoyed HMPAY and the run into an above average Antelope. Yes. Trey, we are awake now!!!

Then came a wonderful few hours walking around seeing old friends and meeting new ones...riding the ferris wheel and taking in the scenery. August in NY and no humidity...how did we all get so lucky!? When the 2nd Set started we were ready...and so were they. I lvoed that Wolfman's. It could have gone further but accomplished what it needed to. Fun Halley's set up one of my favorite jams of the weekend, 46 Days. With no 2nd chorus this jam lasts 12+ minutes and is fucking nasty!!! Bergey and I were sure they were heading into Mule, but nope, # Line. Totally fine with it. Tweezpian lurked. Say what you want...did they go back into Tweezer, is it the best Caspian ever? Who cares. Just listed to it. Again and again and again. Some of Phish's finest work ever. Any era.

As the late Harris Wittels said - "Phish is my religion." Our temple this weekend was the best that mother nature could muster, and our idols truly inspired. I was speechless.

Set III and the Drive In Jam (who missed this, seriously?? How?) were gravy and I won't go into too much more detail. We had a fantastic spot for the Drive In Jam but sadly my bladder had other plans and eventually I had to weave through the crowd, with no hope of getting back to where I was...no matter.

As far as Set III - the Blaze On (please get out of my head,I enjoy you but please stop repeating) was a revelation, the Cities galvanized the crowd and the band, leading to a good Light. Velvet Sea served as a nice landing pad to Cave and like that the festival was 2/3rd's over.

It all goes by so fast. The older I get the more significant these weekends become. I wish I could go to Dick's again this year, but just as I had school and work to think about 15 years ago, I have a family to think about now...I will take my 5-7 shows per year and obsess on Twitter and Phish.net over all the other shows and months and months of waiting...

Magnaball was better than I ever hoped. I'm sure they will play "my" Harpua at Dick's and the gag will be better than last year and I'll be irritated, but such is Phish, and such is life. I appreciate every moment of it, and hope that with the way they are playing right now they are motivated to pull a Winter and/or Spring tour out...

Thanks again, Phish.