HT Review: Phish Find Themselves a City (In the Central Part of Town) – MSG2

Since it’s Friday and everybody is probably a little sleepy, we’re gonna go with an easy to read quick-hitter format for our review of MSG Night 2, as opposed to the meandering narrative.

[All photos by Adam Kaufman for HT]

• To start at the beginning is to start at the end: When the band emerged for the first set, Trey tinkered around with a few discernible notes of Character Zero before launching into Punch You In The Eye. Hence, this served as a bit of foreshadowing as Character Zero bookended the show so-to-speak returning for an encore.

• Last night for the first time, it really felt like the setlist did not matter in the least. Granted, the show was packed with heavy hitters, but every single song felt like it had the potential to ascend to the outer reaches of the Red Planet.

• Furthermore, that early 3.0 feeling of standing on pins and needles during any technically challenging composed pieces for fear of a flub, is gone. At this point, the band once again feels like they are able to effortlessly cruise though the hardest of material and even start getting crafty therein. I felt like the band executed the first set near perfectly the second set came pretty close, save for one minor blip in Fluffhead.