Phish, US Bank Arena, Cincinnati, OH - 11/20/2009

I am truly a late comer to Phish, having more or less ignored or actively disliked them back in the day. As I've grown up/gotten older/what have you, I've gained some appreciation for what they do. So we headed over to Cincinnati to see them play with low expectations aside from figuring it would be a good time.

Dinner at Jean Ro pre-show was excellent. Trout amandine for me, a killer pork chop for Noelle. I would argue that the excellent list of local and Belgian beers really made the meal, too. And a killer mousse. And a killer scallop appetizer. It was just righteous.

We walked over to the US Bank Arena, and the scene was typical Phish, I reckon. I'm definitely a bit old for this scene now, best exemplified by walking by a group of people doing nitrous right outside the venue. We wade through a true mass of people, get into our seats (which were pretty good, about 20 rows up off the floor, stage left) and await the rock.

The surprise ... they sounded great, very tight and with a nice, varied set. I was particularly stoked to finally, after all these years, get to hear "The Divided Sky," probably my favorite song of theirs. But they hit all the points that I like about them ... the funky stuff ("Moma Dance," "Gotta Jibboo") and the long/proggy stuff ("Divided Sky," "Time Turns Elastic").

For the sake of full disclosure, we left just before "You Enjoy Myself" as I had to get up to catch a flight out of Columbus. That means that we missed both "YEM" and "Golgi Apparatus," but I was satisfied. FYI, I think Noelle's favorite was "Possum."

SET ONE
Chalk Dust Torture
The Moma Dance
The Divided Sky
Alaska
Water in the Sky
Fast Enough for You
Time Turns Elastic
Gotta Jibboo
Fluffhead

SET TWO
Punch You in the Eye
Tweezer
Light
Back on the Train
Possum
Slave to the Traffic Light
You Enjoy Myself

ENCORE
Joy
Golgi Apparatus
Tweezer Reprise