What is there even to say about last night’s show? Is this still Phish we are seeing? Or some other band that benevolent aliens engineered for our enjoyment on some distant moon base? Prometheus Unbound, indeed. This band is playing with absolute fire and we still have two more shows to go. Whatever it is that the band unlocked or broke free on Saturday night, which is exactly what it felt like—rocky at times, schizophrenic, it felt like work—spilled out into the open last night, in abundance. Everything the band touched turned molten.

This band has never played better together. They’ve never played like this. And they are just getting going.

The first set was gorgeous. It had a solid song selection—a “Moma” opener, an early “Roggae,” and major league jams out of “Stash, 555,” “Gumbo” and “Walls.” It had flow, it had fire, Phish was toying with their music, especially “It’s Ice.” It felt like they were melting the song away just to watch it reconstitute a moment later, ripping icicles off the roof, letting them melt in the palm of their hands, admiring their conical nature, the ice alive with frozen bubbles, air arrested in time.

Oh yes, this is a very Wingsuit-y affair so far; 2 more in the first-set alone, “555" and “The Line.” And that’s kind of the point with all this.

The addition of the Wingsuit material has effectively shaken up Phish’s routine, at precisely the right moment as it was was threatening to become stale. It’s shaken up their setlists, especially the first frame. Additionally, get Wingsuit injected a new melodicism into Phish, a layer of musical ideas that they are, in front of our very eyes, laying atop their rhythmic framework. Stretching the canvas indeed. Ideas are everywhere. They are clearly working their asses off. These songs have been practiced. The vocals are strong.

But there is also something bigger at work with Wingsuit. And it has to do with how Phish is jamming right now. ‘Cause this is some next level shit. My first reaction to that “Carini” was to just pack up and go home once it was done. There was nothing else I needed at that moment. I would have been a happy lad had I just left then and there. The “Down with Disease” and “Carini” were monsters. A one-two combo that had us absolutely floored. Knockout. Boom.

Around the 12th minute of “Disease” things settled and Trey and Mike happened upon a little rhythmic heartbeat, Page managed the atmospherics like it was 1999, Fishman little more than a whisper. The band was never more comfortable in completely unstructured dream space. It was a lullaby-like, sweet, feather life, downy. It felt like the studio space, Phish just entertaining themselves, talking.

But this being the main stage, Trey turned on a dime, and began to sprint towards home. Much as he did in Los Angeles with the infamous “Harry Hood,” he began to re-insert structure and purpose. Before long the “Disease” theme emerged, that tell-tale riff, THE RIFF, and the Garden erupted. ERUPTED.

Rock star theatrics, harkening back to NYE’s 1993, the birth of the disease. “Down with Disease.” CURED.

And into “Carini.” To explore the underside of the architecture they had just manifested; First the light, then the dark. An expert pairing. Saturday saw “Sand > Piper,” Saturday, “DWD > Carini.” These are the fruits of the renovation Phish oversaw on Halloween. Clean lines, hardwood floors, a salvaged aesthetic in this gleaming new home. It’s TriBeCa meets Hudson Valley chic.

As “Carini” progressed Trey jumped to his Wah effect, stabbing the air, tapping the music stand, the wand moves up and the orchestra takes note. They know exactly where to go. Mike locates a thick, gloppy line. All at once this sounded new and fresh and yet had hints of that first Hampton “Carini,” the first great jam of Fall Tour. The 9th minute, its dead on.

And here is the other significant Wingsuit factor. This is “Cut/Copy” Phish. Developing the Wingsuit material in the manner they did, going through their best jams, identifying the truly pregnant moments and repurposing them for new material; It’s given Phish a giant new tool, a new edge in their own game of besting themselves, night after night. They now possess the ability to take from themselves, almost in real time, collaging ideas, enveloping them. Every few days they add a new limestone block, this edifice will stand the test of time. These jams, this art, these are pyramids, sphinxes, ancient temples, mounds of dirt and clay and water and mud. They rise out of the landscape, Babylonian in nature. Ur.

Last night’s “Carini” contained the best elements of Fall Tour’s “Carini’s,” but fused with something else. Trey was basically on all fours, a giant jungle cat, his hips loose, feral in his attack as the band polished off the jam with a jazzy Woo section. I heard elements of Worcester’s “Drowned” from last month, one of those jams that hasn’t left our playlist since Fall Tour. We’re on the same page.