Leg one had the return of the textured treatment of songs (STFTFP comes to mind) and the attention to detail on the build jams (how many bowies were worth the listen compared to previous 3.0's?). Lots of complaining about not dropping the "big" jams. (At which point I now feel like I have to pre-empt the attack and say DISCLAIMER: this is the main reason I listen to phish, no one has hundreds of shows so they can listen to the progression of bouncing from 91-94.)

But it seemed like they were crafting in all the senses of the word: they developed -> 's instead of > 's, they dropped teases that actually made sense in where they were at that point in a song/jam, with the exception of the jedi show the antics were for spice and not the main attraction, they felt the flow of the setlists and said no to the jukebox, they could always count on one (alpine fee!) if not two or even three first set mini jams (stash goes somewhere again?!), the *quality* of the jamming was on par with '11, and last (and least to me) they dropped many many bustouts that added to the overall good feelings about first sets.

I'm sure I'm forgetting something here, but there is an absolute plethora of crafting involved in which the whole is greater than the parts. Just that feeling you might have remembered like every song and definitely every jam always had the potential to go somewhere; that elusive extraness that causes us all to listen to shows from start to finish (at least some of the time...) to simply bask in the wonder and glory that is phish going for it. Finally, just about everyone I've heard from agrees Leg One saw the band totally enjoying the shit out of playing music for us all. Like the ghosts of Coventry have finally been exorcised from the collective psyche and the swagger is back opening up play. Between phish and the crowd, between themselves musically, and as a general outlook to life as lived in the moment.

And yes, I was secretly jaded asshole-style cognitively dissonant just seeing how *loose* they were and enjoying things, BUT where is my disease supreme, where is my element set, where is my (fill in the '11 moment)?? I am greedy. Lots of us are. But at the time I was saying in posts that this is the bedrock of craft that allows moments of transcendence to become a regular thing instead of a hallowed anomaly. Sure '11 had those moments, but the overall night in and out quality of Leg One bar none hands down blows that shit away no contest. But, like a needy girlfriend, I was feeling panicky about the 20-MINUTER.

Well now we have it. And how awesome it is. I really feel like Leg One was a return to roots, let's get it really tightly together for the overall show, era that will allow the band to consistently feel comfortable playing better 20- minuter's and these lengthier jams more often. Like consummate musicians, they honed the shit out of their playing and shows last tour. And we will reap the benefits this tour. And I do mean reap.