Photo via jjtoothman
The show has officially begun at Fenway Park in Boston as Phish returns to the stage to begin the first leg of their Summer Tour. We’re going to try and live-blog the show as it comes, as we’re expecting some big stuff tonight. Also, we’ll be following the action closely at the nice JamBase page mashing up all the Twitter and TwitPic posts with the #phish hashtag. Sweetness!
Setlist:
Set One: Star Spangled Banner, Sample in a Jar, Moma Dance, Chalkdust Torture, Ocelot, Stash, Bouncin’ Around the Room, Poor Heart, Limb by Limb, Wading in the Velvet Sea, Down with Disease, Destiny Unbound, Character Zero
Set Two: Tweezer, Light > Bathtub Gin, David Bowie, Time Turns Elastic, Free, The Ballad of Curtis Lowe, You Enjoy Myself
Encore: Cavern, Good Times Bad Times, Tweezer Reprise
(all times in EST)
6:48pm – Phish on the pitcher’s mound in Red Sox jerseys for the “Star Spangled Banner.” Text from my buddy Jimmy says “Star spangled banner. Place went nuts!”
Anthem #phish on TwitPic (via tenacioustij)
6:53pm – “Sample in a Jar”
6:59pm – “Moma dance” is the next text I get. Note that all times I’m listing here are when I choose to update, not necessarily exactly when the song begins. West Coast isn’t an ideal place to actually live blog and East Coast event…
7:01pm – The PhishTube live stream just crackled back to life, and it’s choppy as hell. But I’m watching Phish live on my HDTV streaming through my Mac Mini. Technology FTW!
7:05pm – Text says “Chalkdust” – looks like they’re still proving they’re back to the basics.
7:11pm – “Trey is on fire”
7:14pm – New tune. Ocelot?
7:21pm – Stash
7:24pm – “Trey teases ‘Take me out to the ball game’ before they went into Stash #phish #fenway #phenway”
7:29pm – “Awesome stash jam.”
7:32pm – “Bouncin”
7:36pm – “Poor heart”
7:39pm – “Limb x limb”
(via 3rr0r)
7:47pm – “Wading in the Velvet Sea” just came on the live stream. I have some emotional memories of hearing Page’s breakdown during this song at Coventry.
7:52pm – “Dwd” IS MORE LIKE IT. I wouldn’t want them to end the energy of the set with a “Wading…” slow jam.
Next text was “Trey jumpin around looking happy” – and Phish is a trending topic on Twitter (not surprisingly).
7:59pm – “Hell yeah!”
8:02pm – The stream crackles alive with the famous “Down with Disease” solo and I hear the band sing “Waiting for the time that I can finally say…” – stream cuts out again. LULZ.
8:03pm – NO. WAY. Stream shows signs of “Destiny Unbound.” CONFIRMED.
8:03pm – “Destiny unbound!!!!”
8:05pm – “Phish is back!” is the next text, and even though I’m only hearing little snippets here and there from this live stream, I’m a happy man just sitting here taking the whole internet frenzy in.
8:10pm – “Character 0″
i just had to clean up the mess in my pants after hearing that destiny….#phish
8:18pm – “End set one”
There you have it, folks. Set one is complete, and it looks like an absolute barn-burner. “Destiny Unbound” will probably be the next trending topic on Twitter if we have any say in the matter. I’m going to get some grub and be back to live-blog set two and then hopefully go hit moe. at the Fillmore in San Francisco. Any local heads want to meet up?
8:39pm – Here’s the set one summary I got from our buddy Jimmy.
“Great first set. Band sounds good. Trey looks happy on stage. Solid playing. Chalkdust was great. I thought Ocelot had an interesting jam. Stash was sick. Limb x limb had a very cool jam. Disease was great. Destiny was very cool and character 0 was a nice way to end the set. Not much funk but great playing. This summer is going to be great!”
I love it. Can’t wait for Red Rocks.
8:46pm – Just got some beer and ordered a pizza, and sure enough set two is off and running. “Tweezer” opens it up.
8:49pm – Text says “Mini glow stick war;” looks like Earth’s houselights are off.
10:34am the next day – My server crapped out in the middle of the concert, causing me to miss most of the fun of sharing the second set with the rest of the world. It was posted plenty of other places, but still. I’m really sorry for the downtime on this one; please believe me there was nothing I could do and I’m looking into a new hosting solution immediately to make sure stuff like this doesn’t happen in the future. Amateur hour stuff…
and saw the movie 
and understood at least 40% of it, so I consider myself well-versed on the subject. You would have to be a rock to not be moved by at least one verse in his impressive repertoire. In the span of his set, I fell in love, went through a broke-up, traveled the world, experienced great pain, and finally, experienced pure joy. The energy of the room told me that I wasn’t the only one on this journey with him. From the couple cuddling in the corner, to the dude with the dreads rocking his head to the beat, everyone was moved in some way.
Hey, I’ll admit that it’s usually not my style to laugh at people that may be going through a hard time. Life is hard, people. I mean, come on, especially if you’re touring Europe and asked to play a premier festival at 2am to a sea of adoring fans. It must have just been too much for indie band 
.
