The seventh show of this tour marked Phish’s seventh trip to the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. Though BGCA may not yet reside in the highest echelon of Phish lore, it has been home to both unbelievable displays of improvisation and some of the most touching band-fan interaction in the band’s history. Seeing one's favorite band play in one's hometown is a real treat, and this year had no shortage of personal touch for this recapitulator. There was a palpable excitement (and scores of extra tickets) in the air outside the venue while city employees worked to set up the viewing area for Game 6 of the World Series outside City Hall and the Civic Auditorium – that’s right, thousands of Giants fans will descend on “Shakedown” tonight (first pitch at 5:07 PM PDT).

The show marked one of my best friends’ 100th show, and .net All Star @Phlorian’s highly-anticipated first show. I was lucky (and early) enough to see both DB and Florian on the floor before the show began, and ended up spending the whole show with Florian. Also in attendance was .net’s other favorite German, Martin, who like Florian had flown across the globe for this tour. What would Florian’s first song be twenty years after first hearing the song “Rift” in 1994? Little did we know we were mere moments away from a touching homage to another fan...

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