Night Two began with “ACDC Bag”, which confirmed the predictions of the audience who had been expecting it as the second night opener all day. Phish moved into “Camel Walk”, another eagerly awaited and predicted early set piece, but shocked the crowd by segueing into “Divided Sky”, an old, emotional, and incredibly precise composition followed by a intricately structured jam with a wailing, sustained solo.
More beloved pieces followed, including the simmering, Latin-influenced “Stash”, “Fee” (sung through a megaphone), and the new, multifaceted progressive rock composition, “Time Turns Elastic”, which took Phish fans a year to learn to embrace and enjoy. Next was “Cavern”, an anthemic celebration that convinced the audience that the set was closing, until the opening doodles of “Run Like An Antelope” let the crowd know there was still more to come in this set. Starting with a loosely arranged instrumental introduction, “Antelope” suddenly begins its jam with a jagged crescendo of distorted chords, and launches into a building minor jam, which peaked with pure energy and cacophony before ending on a dime and reverting the original chords. “Set the gear shift for the high gear of your soul! You gotta run like an antelope… Out of control!” was what Trey left the Mullins Center with before the set break.
Set Two began more modestly, with simpler, more standard rock songs. While the songs were less imaginative that the previous set’s, their following jams did not disappoint. It wasn’t until “The Lizards”, a long masterpiece which explored the history of the mythical land of “Gamehenge” that the set took off. More high energy tunes followed, and the show ended with the long-awaited “David Bowie”, which mixed tightly composed jazz with improvised heavy metal shredding climaxing in the biggest peak of the tour. The encore of “Chalkdust Torture”, a blistering intense song about the woes and stresses of education served to remind UMass that afterall, it is a school night, and it's time to get some sleep. The "Chalkdust" jam sealed the deal on this show's place in history, and left fans deeply satisfied, and ready to download their copy of the show, and cherish it for years to come.

The reviews in the last couple days have been pitiful. Unless anybody wants to give a solid review of the shows, please do not post anything. Sorry for being a hyprocrit for posting this, but unless you have anything to say about the quality of the show then don't post at all

FYI...Picture of Nectar is not a song, it's an album. Cavern is what you are thinking of

Last night of my little 3 night run up northeast before a long drive back down south.

I was pretty beat after the first two nights and seeing various friends in the northeast, so I took it pretty easy and took a mellow approach to the show.

AC/DC Bag opener was it's solid self. Let's get this show on the road.

Camel Walk! Boom, very nice! Love this song.

Divided Sky was solid, and I figured that would be the big compositional piece for the set.

Ride Captain Ride was a really nice bust-out. This was played really well and is one of those songs that sounds so familiar. Go Page!

Stash was solid and had some nice interplay. I didn't think they were totally connected on this one, but you can give me a Stash any day.

Fee was a fun singalong, and I have a soft spot for Ms. Millie Grace.

TTE and Divided Sky in one set... composition heavy. This was my first and only version, so for me, I didn't mind it. Trey compositions are pretty awesome.

Cavern brought the energy back up and Antelope sent everyone into a frenzy. Typic if unremarkable versions. I'll take it!

Overall Set I: Camel walk and Ride Captain Ride provided the rarities, stash and antelope the jamming and some good compositions. I guess you could complain about the D Sky/TTE clogging up a lot of the set's time.

Set II kicked in with Seven Below - so I was hoping for an Albany 09 all timer. This one didn't get to the 10 minute mark, but did deliver a pretty fiery type 1 solo. Not much exploration, but I enjoyed this version.

Wolfman's up next and we were listening to the Went version all day so high expectations. This one was straightforward. It's a good song, but would be tough to pick this one out of a police lineup of standard 3.0 Wolfmen.

#Line > Alaska gave us the Joy tunes. I don;t particularly mind either one, because of their danceability. Not what I was looking for in this section of set II though. So a definite low-light.

Free was ok. A song based set.

Lizards! Ok, if you're not going to bring the jams, play this. Awesome. There was a big sign for this so nice nod from the band.

*Sidenote - we were staying with our friend Liz who went to Amherst - awesome to get a handed it to Liz reference and a Lizards! ha!

Brother! Boom. Song based show better have Lizards and Brother! Another treat.

Roggae->Taste was the jamming highlight of the set...go figure. Roggae was nicely jammed and Taste also featured some fine work.

Waste was ok.

David Bowie was a shot at redemption and gave us a good taste of jamming. It helped. Nice closer and this was a pretty solid version.

Encore: Quinn > Chalkdust was a rocking send off. I thought it made for a really strong encore.

Overall Set II: Not a good set II. That said there were definitely a couple of songs I was pumped to hear in Lizards and Brother. Roggae->Taste was nice, 7 Below and Wolfman's were fun, but ordinary, and Bowie had some mustard. Nothing you need to hear.

Overall: It's a below average show, but did have some memorable song choices. Just a lack of jamming hurt this one, which is surprising given the abundance of decent opportunities.

2/5 Can't win em all!

I've since returned to the fold, but when I went to this show I was a card carrying jaded phish fan. I thought the band's best years were surely behind them and perhaps my attitude had something to do with not enjoying this show. I'd be interested in hearing it again to see what I think now that I've warmed up to the band after not listening to them for 5 years. What I remember of this show at UMass were a few moments that might have gone somewhere, but lots of stock trey licks and very unnatural setlist construction. I was really into some of the shows I heard from 2011, but the NYE run had the same problems that I felt this show had. Here's hoping to a more adventurous band in 2012!

Very high energy crowd, probably the best I've ever seen. The whole place was rocking, you could feel the venue shake during Lizards. The band was pumped, smiles ear to ear.

Ride Captain Ride was a great suprise/treat. Stash (usually not one of my favorites cause IMO it has a tendency to linger and not go anywhere), had a really good unique jam. Wolfman, brief but funky. Lizards was rocking - hard request to ignore there were at least 10 signs.

TTE sounds like it's coming into it's own - first time I didn't totally hate it. Could just be me but something sounded different about it (that or I just came to accept that they are going to play stuff people don't necessarily love.)

Encore was intense. Listening back to the SBD after the fact doesn't quite give it justice.

Special thanks to the Docent's for just not caring at Providence & Umass. I appreciate not being hassled.

seven below, lizards, brother, taste, and quinn all had signs in the front 10 rows...they saw the signs!

@ Jbschneider75- What are you talking about? A Picture of Nectar is Phish's 5th album. It is also a lyric in Cavern.

First show for me. I remember just missing Bread & Puppet at the Hampshire campus, checking out the Eric Carle mueum of picture book art, some good Korean food in Hadley...

a really intense lot scene. It just felt vicious. I'd never seen anything like it before. Seemed like everyone there was a lot younger than me. I remember wondering if Phish was like a 'tween thing now or something . Songs were shorter than I had expected too. The energy at the show was amazing, and the crowd was just nuts. Everyone was really out of control, which I loved.

I don't remember a damn thing about the music, except that I was psyched to hear Seven Below. It was nice and chilly out that night, and I hope it'll be the same when I see the band in Worcester '13. I love the cold weather. It makes everything more evil.

To be honest, had I not been given tickets to Manchester, I don't think I would have kept up with the band. Thanks, Trip, for the tickets, if you are reading this! Thanks for getting me into Phish, too man!

This was my first phish show. I can remember standing on the floor about 30 feet from stage, listening to the buzz going around the building, wondering what I was in store for, and then it started. I think I stood there for the first 3 songs just soaking it in, looking all around checking the lights and the people in the crowd. Then Ride captain Ride started and everyone went crazy and I was dancing my ass off the rest of the night. I didn't really know it back then, but this was a great show, with a very solid setlist ( still chasing lizards from this night ), and it will always be one of my favorite phish shows.

Part 2 of Cosmic Adventures in Synchronic Time by Steve Urban: Fall Tour 2009. Phish is back in Philadelphia for the first time in over 5 years. A group of friends and I decide it’s a perfect night to find the legendary “magical” Rhombus. Tony Smith, a pioneering figure of Minimalism in American visual art, created the black metal sculpture, titled “New Piece.” Its plaque tells us that in 1966 it was a “Gift of the artist in commemoration of Albert Einstein’s life and work. Presented on the occasion of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Institute for Advanced Studies.” Unfortunately, a thick blanket of fog prevented us from finding the Rhombus on that dark autumn night.

"Down on myself again, step into space. Wondering how I can, alter my place. 
In this hull of creation, someone else made. Who was probably wondering, why I have stayed, and never progress, into things I could be. If I found the right partner or if I could see, beyond all four walls, into fog that surrounds, my need for redemption and pins me to the ground. When out there beyond, just a half step away, its something I touched but it slithered away. And it’s something to strive for, and someday ill see if I’m somehow alive for someone other than me."

Determined we returned to the Institute that weekend and found the Rhombus. However, later that evening on a rooftop in Lower Manhattan, a triangular spacecraft flew above our heads. It smoothly glided completely silent and could barley be seen. But we all saw it make a right turn and change direction. The stealth craft is known as “the Wedge” or TR-3B flying Black Triangle developed in the top secret black military as Project Aurora. Somehow this spacecraft and the Institute for Advanced Studies were connected but how? Whistleblower on the Philadelphia Experiment and the Montauk Project, Al Bielek, claims to have been assigned to Project Invisibility at the Institute. Albert Einstein of course worked on these advanced projects during WWII. The encounter with the U.F.O. somehow got me back on my spiritual path. I remembered the vision of the unity consciousness grid, which I had outside MSG at Phish on New Years Eve 2002. For the first time I began to practice the merkaba meditation daily. Then one day at the Alley Pond Environmental Center in Queens, NY while sitting lotus position with Drunvalo Melchizedek’s Ancient Secret of the Flower of Life Vol. 2 on my lap I activated my merkaba. At exactly the same instant I heard the high-pitched cavitation of propellers from afar. Two black military Helicopters flew directly past me and quickly disappeared. The men in black were real and they knew how to time travel.

In Maureen St. Germain’s new book “Beyond the Flower of Life,” she writes, about the Merkaba Meditation, the Unity Consciousness Grid and even dedicates a full chapter to these Black Helicopters. She writes that, “The Christ Consciousness Grid is an etheric crystalline architectural structure of energy that envelopes Earth and holds the energy of… the perfected human. It could just as easily have been named the Buddha Consciousness or Mohammed Consciousness.” “The grid came from a version of the future where mankind achieved Christ Consciousness… and we, humanity, built it.” We recently spoke over the phone and she said that, “there are many versions of the future out there and the ascended masters tuned to the one where humanity made the ascension.”

Furthermore, Drunvalo Melchizedek writes in “Serpent of Light: Beyond 2012” that the Unity Consciousness Grid is a network of energetic connections between sacred temples and sites around the globe and special crystals which link them, creating a grid which supports an increasing, shared, "unity consciousness." This grid is a tool to assist humanity in the evolutionary process and the shift in consciousness that will occur sometime within "The End of Times" window lasting from 2007-10-24, when the Hopi prophecy of the Blue Star was fulfilled, to 2014-10-24 and not necessarily on the date when the wheels of the Maya calendar align on 2012-12-21.

You may be asking yourself, “How does all this relate to the band Phish?” and “Why would the ascended masters want me to share this information with the Phish community?” I had an incredible experience, almost a year after our visit to the Rhombus while in Amherst, MA during Phish’s Fall tour on 2010-10-24. I was meditating within my merkaba, as well as doing the unity breath meditation, and rainbow bridge meditation. There were 3 star tetrahedrons one stationary and 2 spinning in opposite directions, which merged with the Octahedron, a Rhombic Dodecahedron, a Stellated Dodecahedron and a Icosahedron combining to create great complex polyhedrons. I visualized the rainbow bridge around the earth, around myself and then placed the symbol inside of my heart chakra. I merged the sacred space of my heart’s toroidal field with my activated merkaba. At that moment of synchronization I felt the most beautiful feeling of spiritual bliss achieved by a love for all living things. A rhomboidal hexahedron or rhombohedron aka the Rhombus was there too with the Unity Consciousness Grid. Here was the “ ‘solution’ to help us avoid probable self-destruction!” Divided Sky, The Wind Blows High. Divided Sky, The Wind Blows High.
Part 1: 10/21/96 and 12/31/02 MSG New York, NY *Cosmic Adventures in Synchronic Time was originally published in Surrender To The Flow

Night Two began with “ACDC Bag”, which confirmed the predictions of the audience who had been expecting it as the second night opener all day. Phish moved into “Camel Walk”, another eagerly awaited and predicted early set piece, but shocked the crowd by segueing into “Divided Sky”, an old, emotional, and incredibly precise composition followed by a intricately structured jam with a wailing, sustained solo.
More beloved pieces followed, including the simmering, Latin-influenced “Stash”, “Fee” (sung through a megaphone), and the new, multifaceted progressive rock composition, “Time Turns Elastic”, which took Phish fans a year to learn to embrace and enjoy. Next was “Cavern”, an anthemic celebration that convinced the audience that the set was closing, until the opening doodles of “Run Like An Antelope” let the crowd know there was still more to come in this set. Starting with a loosely arranged instrumental introduction, “Antelope” suddenly begins its jam with a jagged crescendo of distorted chords, and launches into a building minor jam, which peaked with pure energy and cacophony before ending on a dime and reverting the original chords. “Set the gear shift for the high gear of your soul! You gotta run like an antelope… Out of control!” was what Trey left the Mullins Center with before the set break.
Set Two began more modestly, with simpler, more standard rock songs. While the songs were less imaginative that the previous set’s, their following jams did not disappoint. It wasn’t until “The Lizards”, a long masterpiece which explored the history of the mythical land of “Gamehenge” that the set took off. More high energy tunes followed, and the show ended with the long-awaited “David Bowie”, which mixed tightly composed jazz with improvised heavy metal shredding climaxing in the biggest peak of the tour. The encore of “Chalkdust Torture”, a blistering intense song about the woes and stresses of education served to remind UMass that afterall, it is a school night, and it's time to get some sleep. The "Chalkdust" jam sealed the deal on this show's place in history, and left fans deeply satisfied, and ready to download their copy of the show, and cherish it for years to come.

I'll have to listen back, but I think Trey botched TTE and dropped the last verse starting with "Touches these woods and these waters all paved with gold . . . " and onward. That's too bad.

did anyone notice that 8 songs played were played at the coral sky show back in '96? idk if thats a big deal, but the coral sky show was FILTHY and one of my favorites all time.. those song choices were great in the flow of that show, and i like them just as much in the flow of this show. im really digging the free/lizards couplet .... also love me some camel walk. STRUT YOUR STUFF!

After an amazing The Divided Sky, it appeared as if Trey and Page may have contemplated a sophomore appearance of Dr. Gabel, but as the conversation turned to Mike it appeared as if he possibly shot it down only for Page to rock Ride Captain Ride for the 1st time in nearly 11 years. Dr. Gabel may see its return this year at Mansfield, but many phans anxiously await the 2nd coming of what could be a future classic and will take it anywhere!