After having to bail at the last minute on the Saturday night show, I was excited to get to Columbia for a night of Phish with my girl. Our friends were already in town, so we had a pretty good ideas of the vibe from last night. Little did we know, we picked a good night to come.

Venue: Merriweather has a nice outdoor vibe to it. Had lawns for this show, but my buddies scored a killer spot below the big projector. We were on a slight hill, put vowed that gravity would never stop our dance moves. The HEAT was bad! Lot's of humidity, def. could have rained on us but it held back. This actually created a sweaty, half naked crowd that was just waiting to get down. Had a decent view of the band, great light shots, and killer sound. A good energetic crowd as well. Glow stick wars during Piper/Ghost/YEM got pretty heavy at points. Security inside was chill, or at least I didn't see any problems. From what I saw going in and out though they were busting up the lot scene pretty heavy, flying the whirly birds over head post-show. However, I got to walk along this wooded path to and from my friends place, which made for an easy no hassle way home. Lot traffic looked like hell as we cruised by them on foot. On another note, Clydes is a great place to go for a bite before and after the show. Phan friendly for sure, heard several phans raged the World Cup there on Saturday as well. Anyways, onto the real review.

Music:
Set I: Walfredo to start things off was a treat. I had only seen it on the Phish in Vegas DVD before, so it was amazing to see the guys switch it all up. MVP was def. Fish on bass. Too funny. They brought it back to normal form, and launched into a Mellow Mood. Ut oh, back to back bustouts. The crowd ate this one up and everyone got their dancing shoes warm for what was to come. STFTFP and Divided Sky were good, not standouts on a night like this though. Tela was a treat for sure, lots of people chase that one. Personally though, I thought the My Soul made you forget all about it cause it was blues rock at it's finest. Talk about a get down. Showcasing their ability to still nail bluegrass, the boys rip on Ginseng Sullivan. Sample is sample. Gin was good, but I thought the nTelos version I saw a few weeks ago was much better. Antelope was stellar! Mike hitting a mini-solo after a "Micheal Esquandolas" lyric change was cool, because I had noticed they had been having fun with that all tour. Crowd is ready to rock as the sun goes down on a terribly hot night.

Set II: Wilson and we are off. Real dark lighting effects here, as CK5 might be starting to paint a mood early. Then we get another request via a phan sign (rumored, but more the likely true), the Meatstick makes it place known in 2010 with a great funky sound. Lots of grooving here. The Japanese lyrics have had me laughing since Sunday night. So funny. Side note: the Meatstick dance seemed to be dead, I never got to see it when it was alive (however youtube teaches many things), but I can assure you people had no idea what to do. Next came the theme for the night, Saw It Again (Side Note: I can confirm a Saw It Again sign, as I ran into the guy leaving the venue. Tour Note: SIGNS ARE WORKING). The boys jammed right into it as my girl and I were gonna run to the bathroom, but decided we had to stay for this! Little to we know it would be in till Contact that we would have a chance to go. I had been hoping to hear this song this summer, and I was super stocked when it started. Little did I know, I was gonna see IT again. Super dark, funky, and really got people moving into what would become a MAJOR Piper. This may be the best Piper of 3.0. I mean it was that good. Jamming without a net, Phish slipped into the Ghost everyone had wanted to hear. The Glow stick wars were a raging, CK5 has the lights in a new dimension of darkness, and the band was hitting on every note, playing a delicate game of give and take. You have to give this a spin to understand. They tease Saw It Again lyrics throughout, then move seamlessly into Jumping Jack Flash. It was so smooth I had no clue they even did it. In fact, none of my crew did. The crowd is now a full peak I would say, if you weren't moving you weren't breathing. Bringing up back to where we all got lost in the first place, they land back into Saw It Again. Contact (not for me sorry), finally gave me and my girl the break to find our faces and make it to the bathroom. We step out and YEM kicks off. Killer version, trampolines, glow stick wars, great sound and a nice vocal jam. Again we get Saw It Again teases. Quick exit, and back on stage for the encore. Fire. My girl loves her some Jimi so it's a very fitting ending to a wonderful night.

Next stop Raleigh.