Admittedly the morning after I’m still reeling from this show and need to rewatch and relisten. Relisten specifically without the aid of visuals. Because in the moment some of the jams seemed absolutely stellar.

Sound
I was ten feet from the rail in front of Mike. The sound was crystal clear and almost too loud, but as close to perfect as I’ve heard in any venue.

The 360 swirling effect was fun. A cool gimmick that I noticed most in SOAM and the YEM vocal jam.

Visuals
Gorgeous, fun, overwhelming at time. The What’s the Use particles with 200 foot band members was breathtaking.

Loved the underwater effects, but I preferred the more abstract visuals.

Being so close to the stage and screen, my neck hurts this morning. Worth it.

Music
I was shocked by some of the playing. Axilla II, Gin, Theme, SOAM all had me looking around at my friends with a “did that just happen” expression.

The band played so well, listening to each other, being patient, and still experimenting even with a predetermined setlist. I feel so lucky. I think they do as well.

For some reason I didn’t expect the music to be stellar. I don’t know, I thought if ever they could take it easy and not push themselves, it would be these shows. Well, they didn’t take it easy. Amazing music.

Conclusion
This might have been the weirdest Phish show I’ve seen. Good weird. Very good weird. Big Cypress, Moby Dick, MSGamehendge were all monumental (for me) but not this crazy strange.

I’m so glad I made this happen.

Now, I’m still not sure the Sphere is the right place for Phish. LED screens just don’t fit my idea of the band and specifically the visuals weren’t very responsive to the music, not in the way we’ve come to expect from CK lights. Add to that the Vegas vibe and the ticket prices, I’m not sure this run should happen again.

But if it does, you can bet I’ll be there again. Because, you know, it f**king ripped. So I got that going for me, which is nice.