(Published in the second edition of The Phish Companion...)

The second night started out kind of slow (note sarcasm).The opening notes of "Mike's Song" are about the last thing you'd expect to begin a show -  but I guess we were blessed by our religious surroundings and the vibe of the amazing town that was hosting us. We knew for sure that we were in store for another night of who knows what!
Showing all the outward signs of a man possessed, Trey was ripping the laser sounds (serious chorus processing) and the "Mike's" jam followed suit in a very futuristic fashion -  while still staying relatively grounded in terms of the groove and the melody of the jam. Ten minutes in, they launched directly into "Simple", with the vocal harmonies bouncing around the old church in splendid fashion. The "Simple" jam wound down to Trey and Fishman jamming together subtly -  with emphatic eye contact between the two as Trey danced close to Fish's set, facing the newly buzzed drummer. Fish was again wearing his all-black Ringo suit (black shirt and tie included), but somehow he still managed to lay down the kind of hard-hitting beats we all know and love.
The fade-out of the "Simple" jam led nicely into the fade-in of "Maze". This "Maze" was particularly nice because it found Page switching frequently between all of his keyboards -  synths, Moogs, electric pianos included. It seems that the focus of "Maze" is usually just organ, then piano -  not that there's anything wrong with that. In this version, it was cool to hear the bendy notes that he pulls out of the Moog as well some of the other Casio synth noises he taps out of those little tiny synths he now has.
Perhaps as a nod to Page's contribution to a stellar and unique "Maze", they then broke into Page's singing song "Strange Design" -  of course nothing unusual here. I found it to be a good time to head up near the front of the stage -  an easy thing to do in such a small place. "Ginseng Sullivan" was next with some nice, liquid leads from Trey.
"Vultures" is truly a great new song, and it was a nice way to slide back into the experimental phase from earlier in the set. "Vultures" is absolutely unlike any other Phish song to date. It is very Zappa-esque in terms of the sonic feel and has a very open-ended jam segment that features some truly off-beat work from Mike and Fishman. On top of the awe-inspiring music, the lyrics are killer, and they come at you rapid-fire style -  like rounds from an AK47. In addition, the layered vocal effect of this song is also reminiscent of the approach taken by the Talking Heads -  the influence of Phish's Halloween `96 show is apparently emerging.
Fully expecting a segue into "Weekapaug" from the killer "Vultures" groove, they instead wound the jam down and next stepped up to play the country shuffle "Water in the Sky". It's kind of a catchy ditty that has a nice varying chorus with pleasing harmonies, a similar feel to the slow version of "Poor Heart" of Fall `95.
Finally, they ended the set with a standalone "Weekapaug", with full-on jamming from everyone. Page was stretching all over the place, hammering down different keys (synth and organ, piano, and electric piano, etc.) and Fishman was in a world of his own, bringing out nuances in the beat that I didn't think were possible. On top of it all, Trey and Mike seemed to be feeding off each other, both melodically and spiritually. Mike has rarely looked as intense as he did during the peaking moments of this jam. As "Weekapaug" ended, it was evident that it was a perfect conclusion to a cohesive set of both intense jams and nice-sounding songs.
Set II held much promise as we waited at the set break. They played the entire Crooked Rain album by Pavement at the break (the night before was Primus). It was a long set break indeed (not sure if that's why Set II was exactly fifty minutes long"...).
The second set was short, but it contained no fluff at all -  just pure experimentation and exploration. They commenced the set with three minutes of space noises -  it seemed that they were considering "2001" before finally dropping into "Stash". The "Stash" jam covered all of the bases. It was a little longer than thirty minutes, ranging from harsh grooves to delicate on-the-spot melodies to raging improvisation. "Stash" did not resolve and conclude; instead the band faded from an intense space segment directly into the opening blasts of "Llama". Page again seemed content experimenting with his Moogs -  while we normally can expect a heavy dose of organ from a "Llama" jam, this version found Page standing up, tickling the futuristic noises out of his synthesizers. "Llama", too, was not completed. As the jam really began to rage, they dropped into another sea of space noises. As the space sounds built up, Trey put both his palms down and signaled to "push it down." Page gently continued on piano the chord progression to "Llama", but eventually he gave way to the waves of sound that Mike and Trey were working on. Full-on space ensued.
As the hollowness of the space rung out, Page began playing a familiar little R&B line on the organ, almost sounding like the intro notes to "Cars Trucks and Buses" but to a different groove, in single notes. I did, in fact, think that they were doing an ultra-spacey segue into "CTB". Instead, Trey and Mike followed along on the single-notes that Page was playing, and the groove continued along in a somewhat tweaked manner. Trey then stepped up and sang, tweaked-sounding as well, "Come on and dance"...come on and dance"...make some romance"...because the night is coming and the music's humming and you've got to get down to"...WORM TOWN!" We realized it was a play on the Steve Miller tune "Swingtown" and apparently they were continuing the worm theme from the night before.
Trey promptly launched into a story about getting sucked into Amsterdam's canals and having to ride along with the giant worms there. With that, they sunk into a nice rollicking space-worm groove (I don't know any other way to describe it). Eventually they included the ubiquitous new catch phrase, "I think you know where you are"...you're on the back of the worm!" with call-and-response vocals between Fish ("I think you know where you are") and Trey ("You're on the back of the worm!"). From there, they again sunk into volume-swell space and Fishman repeated his line over and over ("I think you know where you are") in a variety of goofy-sounding voices, as we in the audience contemplated whether in fact we did.
The space rung out again and this time led into the slow, yearning piano intro to "Waiting in the Velvet Sea". Sure this song is a bit repetitive and slow, but it has some really nice counter-melody singing from Page. It was certainly, however, a disappointment that they ended the set on this song. As I said, the set clocked in at only fifty minutes. I was sure that the encore would be fat"...but why not at least make Set II over an hour?
So the encores were phat. In fact, the "Free" is one of the best I've heard in awhile, with some nice, slow funk emphasis from Mike complemented by unusual squelches and squawks from Trey. (Or was that Page?) A bit over ten minutes later they left the stage. The vibe in the air was that there just had to be another encore. Fortunately, we were obliged, and with "David Bowie" no less! The "Bowie" here was killer. Mike made an early reference to the Maze bass line (I know we've all been thrown a few times by the hi-hat intro similarity between "Maze" and "Bowie") and he got a burst of laughter from the crowd. Intimate venues are nice. The jam in "Bowie" was great, but hard to describe in the way that "Bowie" jams seem to be. Suffice it to say that it felt like an appropriately experimental way to end the two-night run.
Also appropriate was Chris Kuroda's lighting of the stained glass (lit from the outside in) during the concluding sequence of "Bowie". I'm sure the temptation was there to light up the stained glass all the time, but he did it sparingly over the two nights. Only "Reba" during the first night and "Free" and "Bowie" second night. The effect was that much greater. Less is more. Thank you Phish, for a wonderful time in a wonderful venue in a wonderful town.