Got down to NYC about 1 hour before doors open because of Friday/NYE traffic and was immediately in a rush and had to go drop my stuff off at a friends. I ran into the show not 5 minutes before they came on and seated myself down behind the SBD in 103.

Set I:

The STFTFP caught me (any probably most) completely off guard and not having any idea what to expect for the run. I have never been a huge fan of it, but it was a descent start. The Moma Dance and Funky Bitch that followed were as always funky and grooves to get into; nice song choice IMO. Army of one was nice as well and slowed the pace down for the upcoming Tube > Stash. The Tube had a short but sweet funky break and was above average for 3.0 IMO. The Stash that followed was fairly standard, and contained a very fluid, tight and typical dark jam segment.

I love me some Phish bluegrass and this Nellie Kane was well placed. The KDF really got the ball rolling for the boys and got the garden rocking! The boys really killed this jam with everyone feeding off one another. Free was standard, kept that ball rolling and was nicely placed as well and Mike shined out on this one for me.

This Wolfman's Brother... Easily the best one I have seen and not even for the Little Drummer Boy teasing (although that sealed the deal), but for the fact that this jam took off nice and slow and the build up from Trey/Page in the beginning of the jam was sweet. Enter Mike with his thunderous tones and this jam starts to really get exploratory, FUNKY, and lots of nice interplay betwixt them! Things then slow back down for a second and all of a sudden, LDB, pa rum pum pum pum!! What a treat that was! Nice funky end segue back to Wolfman's and first set come to a close! Wolfman's is easily the highlight of this set.

Set II:

Tweezer was a treat and another unexpected call (at least for me) this early in the run, but hey I was not complaining especially after the way they closed that first set. This tweezer took off quickly into a nice spacey jam that slowed down and that stayed pretty "out there" for most of the song. Very tight fluid jam to say the least, a slower spacier jam segment(s), but maybe one of the better Tweezers of 3.0 (though 12/29/09 holds my personal best). The end of the jam had an awesome build up and a nice > into the Maze that followed.

The Maze intro was pretty standard and really got the crowd into it. The jam segment came and Page started ripping it up on the keys. At this point I had already moved to Page side 100's and had a great view; Trey was facing Page for a while and absolutely shredding during this segment (as were Mike and Fish) and the jam builds so much at this point before going back to the standard Maze melody and slowing back a bit. This Maze was not done yet though, the boys were having a lot of fun and the rest of the Maze finished off with a lot of energy! There was a nice little ode to Fish (the Little Drummer Boy) after the Maze which was fun.

This twist was great with the LDB vocal tease in the beginning that got the crowd even more excited! Nice chemistry during the entire jam and fluidity among all of them, Trey teased more drummer boy near the end and has some great jamming in this too. The > to Theme was a pleasant surprise. The Theme was average and maintained the energy from the previous songs.

Fluffhead was standard, but always a pleasure and lots of fun and energy from the band and crowd. The end jamming segment was pretty energetic still and kept me raging all the way through into Fish tapping the cymbals. Wait... Bowie!? Yup, and Maze in the same show!! I was pumped!

This Bowie is dope too, pretty standard intro into the jam which started out soft and slow and extremely fluid (I remember Mike leading the way for some of this). They started to explore the jam more little by little and Trey gave a little high pitch "duh-duh" which carried them around the jam and got me entangled in this jam. The little noodle by Trey kept coming back and Page started feeding off of it, which then takes the jam into a nice darker place. This keeps building and then the Bowie ending starts surfacing, but with this little "duh-duh" being thrown around here and there. This gets to the point where the band just stops playing after one and then starts back up (happened at least twice and confused CK5 once if I recall correctly). This led the way into the intensely energetic Bowie ending with Trey ripping!

Encore:

Bouncing was standard and actually kind of nice to have placed here. OH and guess what... NO tweeprise, yet! Well I bet a beer they wouldn't just because and the net song is GTBT (looks like i got my self a free beer). The GTBT was nice and my first one in a long time. Nothing exceptional, but a great finish to a great show.

Highlights:

Wolfman's, Tweezer > Maze, Bowie