Music is funny - you hear it and you either enjoy it or you don't, but writing about it never can capture the experience of listening to it. This especially applies to 3 hour long concerts by a trio who, although in full command of the groove (and consequently the audience's eardrums, minds and hearts), do not play music that lends itself to long sentences. Suffice it to say that their recent recording "Friday Afternoon in the Universe" can give the listener a good idea of what to expect - intense hammond organ jams, schizophrenic forays into beatless squeak space, and (if both of those are stylistically desirable to the listener) a guaranteed smile.
Fresh off his collaboration with Medeski on the "Surrender to the Air" project, Marc Ribot guested on guitar for the entirety of the set. Unfortunately, Ribot's true talents lie with his own intense guitar noise free form paranoia inducing style of music, and his band, which opened the show, delivered it too well. When it came down to using a wah wah, Ribot simply couldn't funk it up, and there's nothing worse than a guitarist guesting with a non-guitar band and not pulling it off. Accordingly, the best moments of the show were when he wasn't playing.
Furthermore, the band's increasing popularity amongst the Phish crowd was manifest at the show - there were over 20 microphones pointed at the stage, and lots of smelly people too! C'mon, take a shower, please! Please?