I left Geneseo at 9 am on Wednesday. This was my first Phish show of 2014 and I was excited to say the least. I strongly dislike driving through that stretch of I-80 south of Chicago. The scenery is very much akin to New Jersey. After a brief stretch of equally scenic Indiana I was up into Michigan. I had attended the game changing 6/3/11 show at this same venue. That was a show that changed the course of the contemporary era of Phish. Taking a different route this year I went through Kalamazoo and further north through Lansing and near Flint. This helped me to avoid metro Detroit and its traffic. Pine Knob is one of my favorite sheds. The trees by the shakedown area create a nice vibe. It was quite cold for summer tour with temps in the 50s by showtime. I saw Mike on a golf cart with his daughter before the show in the parking lot. They played The Cars on the PA system as a nod to the area's automotive history. More importantly I was on the road for summer tour and letting the good times roll.
The first set got off to a nice start with a decent Wolfman's. Devotion to a Dream might be my favorite on the new album. I really like its ethos. I had predicted Wilson as the opener with it not being played yet on the tour. This was a speedy version of Poor Heart to say the least. Moma and Stealing Time were pretty typical first set fare. I believe this was the tour's first Lawn Boy. I'm glad to see Yarmouth still in the rotation even with it was held back for Mike's solo album. Rift was another example of the speedjazz of the early 90s juxtaposed with the cheesepop of the current era of The Line. It's Ice perhaps was reference to the cold weather and it did include a jam that put me in the mind of what they'd done in the previous rendition of Wombat. 46 Days was a high energy rocker but this set was largely uneventful.
Set two got off to a promising start. I thought that perhaps Mike's would produce the elusive 2nd jam we've been waiting for since Big Cypress. Alas it wasn't to be as they quickly moved into Ghost. This jam was primed to take off and explore the outer realms of the universe but it wasn't to be. Very disappointing with Fishman seeming ready to go. An unfinished Caspian and #Line was an unneeded break in the set. Just when Weekapaug was taking on form Fish dropped into Cavern which was puzzling. A rocking Piper did feature the first ever segue into Waiting All Night. Just when Tweezer was taking off they went into Fuego. Freezer > Fire. It was quite cold by this point. It was frustrating to see the Tweezer given the ripcord treatment. Fuego had no jam whatsoever and it went into the set closing Tweeprise. The playing had a nice crunch to it but they (Trey) weren't patient enough to let any of the improvisation to develop and it turned into a jukebox affair which continued into the encore of 2001 and Possum. The Motown choice of "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" sent the masses into the night. I got back to Geneseo at 9 am on Thursday.
