[Take the Bait is spirited deliberation centered around the hyperbole of Phish’s music and fandom, passionately exuded via the written words of phish.net contributors @FunkyCFunkyDo and @n00b100. Opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of phish.net, The Mockingbird Foundation, or any fan… but we're pretty sure we’re right. Probably.]

That's a heck of a title.

Funky: Some Americans can look at a map and point out Japan, all tucked away down there. A small fraction might be able to locate Tokyo. There is a very small population of Americans who are aware that a Japanese city called Fukuoka exists, and an even smaller portion of that population are aware it exists because of one reason, and only one reason: Phish. I would venture a guess that it is known, but perhaps not well-known amongst Phish fans, that Phish journeyed to the Land of the Rising Sun in 1999 and 2000. But, despite all the data and analysis and nitpicking of Phish fans, these three mini tours tend to not be talked about, really at all, save one show: 6.14.00, Drum Logos, Fukuoka, Japan.

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Beyond the Pond is a bi-weekly podcast in which Brian Brinkman (@sufferingjuke) and David Goldstein (@daveg924) use the music of Phish as a gateway to introduce the listener to many other bands, the vast majority of which are not jambands. An episode generally begins with a deep dive into a designated portion of Phish improvisation, and then can spin off to any variety of musical themes and other acts, the overarching purpose being introducing the listener to as many new and different bands as possible.

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Welcome to the 358th edition of Phish.Net's Mystery Jam Monday, the second of January. While our friend @wforwumbo continues to work towards his final form, I'll be at the helm once again bringing you puzzles with a little help from my fellow MJM Hall of Famers. This week, our clips were selected by the most recent MJMer to enter the Hall of Fame, @lostboy01, who witnessed these clips in person – thanks for the sweet puzzle! The winner will receive an MP3 download code courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. To win, be the first person to identify the songs and date of the mystery clips. These two clips are connected by a theme, but the theme needn't be part of the correct answer. Each person gets one guess to start – if no one answers correctly in the first 24 hours, I'll post a hint. After the hint, everyone gets one more guess before Wednesday at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET. Good luck!

Hint: Re-read the introduction.

Answer: Congrats to @Patwich on crossing the halfway mark to MJM Emeritus status, snagging his fourth win (with a little help from his friends?). As indicated by the hint, not only did our gracious guest host @lostboy01 attend the show from which this week's clips came, the introductory spiel subtly but clearly calls for identification of the songs and date of the mystery clips – two songs, one date: 12/31/09 "Piper" and 12/31/09 "Ghost." That "Ghost" outro jam really does sound like a callback to the first set's "Bathtub Gin," doesn't it? Keep listening and you'll catch Trey's wonderful octave-pedal driven "Auld Lang Syne" tease and a crazy segue into the world of nitrous oxide. This might hurt just a little bit, but come back Monday (MLK Day) for MJM359, where another MJM Emeritus will drop some clips that may or may not confuse, but are guaranteed to please your ear holes.

[Take the Bait is spirited deliberation centered around the hyperbole of Phish’s music and fandom, passionately exuded via the written words of phish.net contributors @FunkyCFunkyDo and @n00b100. Opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of phish.net, The Mockingbird Foundation, or any fan… but we're pretty sure we’re right. Probably.]

Funky: Hi, n00b. Happy New Year! Hope it was as clothing-free and fun-requiring as mine. And to you, too, loyal reader, for all the same reasons. It seems we haven’t got the hook yet, so let’s continue to innovate with our gratuitous use of multisyllabic words and with our “artistic freedom” around Phish discussion. I am going to make this TTB be a bit different than our previous three. Let’s break down this past (and excellent) New Year’s Eve run piece-by-piece (and in new, shorter, easier-to-read paragraphs… smaller bites, if you will), shall we? Let us see if the masses, or even each other, see eyeball-to-eyeball on the highlights of December 28th, 29th, 30th, and 31st at the World’s Most Famous Arena. Allow me demonstrate:

The Bait, bite I: What was your favorite jam of the run?

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Happy New Year and welcome to the 357th edition of Phish.Net's Mystery Jam Monday, the first* and easiest of January. While our friend @wforwumbo works on reaching his final form, @DrWumbo, I'll be at the helm again bringing you puzzles with a little help from my fellow MJM Hall of Famers. The winner will receive an MP3 download code courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. To win, be the first person to identify the song and date of the mystery clip. Each person gets one guess to start – if no one answers correctly in the first 24 hours, I'll post a hint. After the hint, everyone gets one more guess before Wednesday at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET. Good luck!

*Reminder: For the first MJM of each month, only folks who have never won an MJM are allowed to answer before the hint. If you have never won an MJM, please answer as a blog comment below. If you have previously won an MJM, but you'd like to submit a guess before the hint, you may do so by PMing me; once the hint has been posted, everyone should answer on the blog. If that's confusing to you, check out the handy decision tree I threw together to help guide you. If you're not sure if you've won before, check in the MJM Results spreadsheet linked below.

SoundCloud Link:

Hint: Only "Chalk Dust Torture," "Possum," "Harry Hood," and "Down with Disease" have been played more frequently in Phish 3.0 than the song from which this week's jam was clipped.

Answer: Congrats to @HarborSeal on his fifth win! He laid in the cuts during his 24 hour relegation period to let the MJM n00bs take a crack at it, and pounced as soon as the hint dropped by correctly identifying the 10/31/09 "Backwards Down the Number Line." Two more wins and he'll be the next MJM HoFer – will he make it before Summer Tour? MJM358 drops Monday with a double clipper from @lostboy01, our most recent MJM Emeritus.

[Phish.net and the Mockingbird Foundation would like to thank Matt Laurence (@mattynabib) for this blog post and his tireless work to resurrect the video he recorded at Amy's Farm in 1991, brought to you free of charge and in its highest quality. - @ucpete]

I know we are entering a period of Phish limbo until Riviera Maya and the Mike and Trey tours, so to kick 2019 off right, here (at long last) are all three sets of Amy's Farm in video form. Enjoy - limitations and all - and may 2019 be a significantly better year for all of us!

As with so many of you, I was hooked on Phish well before they threw the free party of the decade up in Auburn, ME, over half my life ago. For me it all started well before 1991, before I even properly woke to the joys of Phish.

I was SUPPOSED to see Phish several times in the 1980s. In the spring of 1987 I was to take a road trip to Vermont with some friends with a UVM connection to see the boys at Nectar's; it was called off due to something that - at the time - seemed more important. I was supposed to see them again at “The Big Gig,” their first big Boston show at The Paradise in January of 1989, but my friend’s car was frozen into the ice in his driveway. I planned to see them yet again in early 1990 at some Boston area show, but that time we went outside to find that my car had been STOLEN, a pile of glass and skid marks sitting where it had been. It wasn’t looking good for Phish.

My ship finally came in on September 20, 1990, when I successfully attended my first show at the Somerville Theater. From that point on it was full-steam ahead (as much as possible for someone working full time). I was back the next night with my lousy little taping rig, then continued to catch them as often as I could for the next several years, taping where possible, and eventually gaining access to a couple of camcorders.

Lugging those cameras and tripods around was a little more effort than I thought was worth it for most enclosed shows, however, so I only did it once or twice during the legendary Horn Tour of 1991. One of those times was the Arrowhead Ranch weekend.

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[phish.net welcomes and thanks guest writer, Alaina Stamatis, @farmhose & @fad_albert for the recap of 12/31/18 - ed]

Last year at the stroke of midnight, during the first few seconds of 2018, and the very earliest notes of “Free,” I immediately caught a whiff of an unmistakable scent, similar to mothballs on fire; that’s right, I’m talking about DMT. I looked over and discovered that a hippie goddess with sparkling dreads and a hemp cotton dress had laced her joint with the spirit molecule. She passed the deemster doobie to a guy with floor-length dreads, legendary in his own right, but eternalized in that moment: for as he hit the DMT joint at the very genesis of 2018, he attempted to stomp on one of the balloons that had just landed in front of him, but instead he slipped on it and fell on his ass.

This year I convinced my husband @twicebitten that we should enter the venue earlier and secure a closer spot on the floor, that somehow it would be less chaotic. Outside the rain really sucked (tonight) and it was sad to see the little hunched over wookies soaked, simultaneously attempting to get miracle’d and sell more doses. Inside the scene was all glitz and glamour: flappers, prom dresses, barefoot guy giving out gummy bears, silver balloons ready to drop, Phish jocks in their chic athletic wear, young bros in bathrobes, the faux monk in his hotel sheet tunic, and the kids whose shirts spell out ICCULUS.

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[phish.net welcomes and thanks guest writer, Jeremy Willinger, for the recap of 12/30/18 - ed]

At the intersection of two Phish-y tropes, the band delivered a show for the (golden) ages. The knowledge of never missing a Sunday show, with the many standout shows played on 12/30 in past years (2016, just to name one), was a recipe that made the stars align.

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[phish.net welcomes and thanks guest writer, Robert Ker, for the recap of 12/29/18 - ed]

By all accounts, this shouldn’t be happening. Bands that have retained the same lineup for 33 years, various hiatuses included, simply shouldn’t be continuing to push their boundaries. This is the age when most bands that keep their lineup generally intact coast into their golden years atop a current of breakups, reunions, tepid albums, nostalgia-focused tours, and diminishing returns of creative energy. If you compare them to other long-running bands, Phish is now at the point when U2 released the little-loved No Line on the Horizon and when the Rolling Stones were five years past “steel wheelchair” jokes; they’ve now lasted longer as a quartet than the entire careers of R.E.M. and Sonic Youth. You can make the case that Radiohead, which also solidified its lineup in 1985 and remains vibrant, is Phish’s only peer. Don’t laugh.

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[phish.net welcomes and thanks guest writer, Andrew Sinclair/@aisincl, for the recap of 12/28/18 - ed]

As the rain subsided and the nearby Queens power generator explosion (CK5 dress rehearsal?) was subdued, we all made our way to 33rd and 7th to kickstart the final run of 2018. Compared to the last few freezing years around MSG during the holidays, it was a welcome warmth and buzz that permeated the neighborhood. Tonight’s show felt like a montage for the entire year, combining stellar, patient tunes with hyper-speed jamming, delivered through thoughtful song selections and dedication to vocals. The Phish from Vermont are playing with vigor and continue to flex their muscles. Night 1. Thanks to Jon R and his family for the primo seating spot at center court, in between the two levels. Lots of room to get down on Rage-side, now we just need some audio.

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