"Time for the Meatstick, bury the Meatstick, dig out the Meatstick time," CLAP! "Whoa, oh, shocks my brain. Whoa, oh, shocks my brain. Time for the Meatstick..."

But with every chorus, the sound from those thousands of people bounced around and around in that huge, cavernous room, causing the singing, and especially the clap, to be more and more out of sync each time. The band, none of whom were playing by this point, were all listening intently, Trey's head cocked to one side. With every round, the "CLAP!" would sound more like "cla-cla-cla-clap, clap, cl-clap!" and all of them, especially Trey, would laugh. They just really dug it.

Then the opening notes to Antelope started trickling out over the crowd. My boy Sander immediately started to lose it, as Antelope is his very favorite Phish song. He was jumping up and down, yelling his head off, just in total (and also totally spun) jubilation. But Trey had other plans. He kept teasing Meatstick during the Antelope intro, over and over again. The crowd played along, even throwing the "CLAP!"s back in. 

Now, neither Sander nor i, nor the rest of our pals, had ever really liked Meatstick that much. The Japanese version they played that night was pretty funny, but you know, it's still Meatstick. And Sander, jumping out of his skin with the excitement of the forecoming Antelope, simply can't contain himself any longer. So he hauls off and yells, at the very tippy-top of his cute little lungs:

NO MORE MEATSTICK!!!!!!!!

At which Page looked right at him and busted out a huge smile and chuckle. i thought i saw Mike crack a grin, too, but it might have just been my imagination. Page totally heard him, though. They finally launched into Antelope, to much dancing and general glee. i have no idea how any of us got home.

What a night.

- Susie