IT thrills you, IT inspires you, IT enthralls you, IT fulfills you! IT flowns your balls! When a Phish show does IT for you, you experience a joy so profound that most if not all of your life's most significant events seem small by comparison. You may even consider changing your life to prioritize music, or at least your love of it.

Phish's music had this power for many fans in Portsmouth, and it continues to have this power right now, even after several decades and over 1600 performances—particularly as those of you fortunate enough to be at MPP four days ago know! For those whose love of Phish includes an appreciation of Phish’s most widely-acclaimed shows, and an interest in why one seemingly-amazing show gets more praise (or less praise) from some fans than another seemingly-amazing show, this post’s $0.02 are for you. Because in light of your 100+ wonderful comments to Jeremy Goodwin’s excellent MPP2 post, it’s apparent that many of you aren’t too upset when “recaps” are about more than just last night’s show.

Photo © Parker Harrington

It is precisely because every Phish show is GREAT, on multiple levels for many reasons (e.g., your usually kind fellow fans; band<->fan interaction; number of songs played over multiple sets; the lights, sound and "vibe;" the volume of drug smoke), that the "average" show is necessarily GREAT. Indeed, all or nearly all of the Phish shows you have attended have had good if not excellent sound, stupendous lights (Kuroda’s light-designing is genius), as well as an energizing "vibe" preshow, if not also throughout the set break, second set, and encore. And over the course of their history, Phish has performed well together routinely from the start through the (e).

Differentiating one show's characteristics and highlights from another, and positing one show over another for whatever reason(s), is thus an easily-criticizable, intensely-subjective, often silly hair-splitting exercise. Every Phish show is GREAT in often many ways, and even in COUNTLESS ways if you incorporate the depths of the souls of those forever inspired by the music. Think about that for a second.

Every show. Every show moves SOMEONE in a transcendent manner, at least in part if not for several hours. But, at the same time, the music of any given song, when compared with versions previously performed, is not always as “great” as it has been. It may even be flawed in ways that are objective, and not subjective (such as missed lyrics, notes, chords, changes, etc.).

What constitutes an above—or below—“average Phish show” in your view?

Photo © Andrea Nusinov

Some fans prioritize tightly-played, mostly-if-not-wholly composed songs over songs that improvise and the improvisation that they contain—improvisation that can either "click" and "gel" like melodious, composed music (see, e.g., the jam in the 7/26 MPP “Ghost”), or aimlessly meander, as if in a fetid pool, teeming with faeces of unusual size. In fact, some fans couldn't care less if a song that doesn't jam is played well or not, because they claim not to care for such songs, and it's only Phish's improvisational risk-taking that matters to them, even when the jams do NOT "click," because the band still deserves immense respect for taking the risk. Indeed, some fans don't even "count" Phish's first sets at all, unless something noteworthy occurs, because they view only second sets as typically containing any music worth hearing again in them.

Is the fan who prefers tight songs to improv wrong? Is the fan who largely disregards first sets wrong? Is the fan who only cares about jams wrong? Is the fan who loves everything unconditionally in the moment at the show—who couldn't care less about ever hearing the show again—wrong? Of course not! We love what we love, be it Phish-related or not, and all that matters is what music means the most to you. And as for me, I'm somewhere in the middle, or under, or above, all of those viewpoints, more or less. Why?

Because an "average-great" Phish show to me is one that is generally well-played start-to-finish by all four band members. They are brilliant, extremely experienced musicians, and near-perfection is "shooting par" for them if you examine their history performing together (even their performances together in any given tour). Differentiating the “below-average” from the “above-average” GREAT Phish shows, for me, really comes down to answering the questions:

(1) is any song's jam truly "must hear" or at least highly recommended, when that jam is compared both with that particular song's improvisational history, and with Phish's glorious improv historically;

(2) are there any songs that have jams that compare favorably with the so-called “top versions” of those songs historically (say, top 20%, unless the song has a short history, in which case, maybe that percentage is higher or lower, as you deem fit);

(3) how are the segues, since they're the most obvious characteristics of Phish sets that demonstrate potentially excellent "flow";

(4) what is the show’s “average song gap,” an objective measure signifying the average number of days between when every song performed had since been performed (the higher the number, the more likely there were significant “bust outs,” regardless of whether you like the songs that were busted out, or not); and,

(5) are there are any other unique characteristics of the show, such as guest musicians, three sets, stage banter, nudity, or Gamehendge?

Analyzing shows in this manner is subjective and imperfect, of course. We can't conjure up every minute of Phish's improvisation over 30 years. But everyone taking the time to read this has at least some sense of the terrain, having explored it before. You may be the “Phish expert” among your friends, or one of them. And all one need do to find an excellent example of why the foregoing guidelines are imperfect is to check out 7/27/2014 MPP: an exceptional, well-above “average-great” Phish show with a strong first set and a spectacular second set, with tight playing and flow (number 3 above) and a few bust-outs (number 4 above) that is also extraordinarily entertaining, but arguably has no “top” or “must-hear” versions of songs (numbers 1 and 2 above), except perhaps the third “Tweezer” jam and the jam out of “NICU.” Yet the entire second set is nevertheless “must hear"!

In any event, this depth of experience with Phish’s music doesn't make you or me "better" at exploring this terrain than anyone else, but it does give us a perspective on it that isn't necessarily "average," or even "great"—except perhaps in terms of years. The “average” Phish fan has seen the band multiple times and is generally knowledgeable about the music, and is at least somewhat opinionated about it, too, in that they probably have certain musical preferences. It is remarkable and to our credit as a fan base that while, on the whole, the band’s most mind-blowing performances over several decades tend to be widely lauded, it is nevertheless true that fans with very similar Phish experience can disagree strongly when it comes to which shows, or which versions of songs (often among the “best” or “top”), they prioritize over others.

Photo © Phish

Last night’s Portsmouth show featured no covers at all, and six tour debuts (“Guelah Papyrus,” “Mountains In The Mist,” and “Meat” in the first set, “Billy Breathes” and “Seven Below” in the second set, and “Lizards” (e)), as well as a fair amount of improvisation, perhaps a bit more than the “average” show when you consider them all over the course of 30 years.

“Gin” opened the show quite well, with Trey leading the way through the jam segment (as he typically does), and with Mike employing a tone with some extra-Lesh in it. Other first set highlights included the jam segment of “It’s Ice,” a Page-driven clavinet-heavy groove; a soulful “Mountains in the Mist,” which had not been performed in nearly four years; the tour debut of “Meat” (requested by a number of fans Page-side who held a variety of creative meat-signs); and a fairly tight “Bowie” set-closer. I say “fairly tight” because, for those who care about such things, Trey was not nailing every note all night. He was batting about .947, which is to say, still pretty good.

Summer '14, like fall '13, has been very strong on the whole, with many recommended jams (see, e.g., the 7/1 Great Woods “Hood,” 7/8 Phili “Fuego,” 7/13 Randall’s “CDT>Light>Tweezer,” and both 7/26’s and 7/27’s second sets). Nearly every show this tour has had something worth hearing from it. Last night’s second set only improved on this remarkable record, with inarguably the third most improvised “Fuego” in history. It is yet another “must-hear” version, and it opened Set Two masterfully, thanks in no small part to Fish and Page.

Following a timid “Jibboo,” a John-Holmes-sized “Meatstick”—easily the funkiest version since the Gorge in 2011, and NYE 2010 for that matter as well—bedazzled the crowd. It is a “top five” version (up there with Cypress and 12/5/99 Rochester, for example), that you should download and listen to as soon as you can, even if you’re not a fan of the song, to hear it for yourself. “Piper” was similarly quite good, before it was abandoned somewhat abruptly into the first “Billy Breathes” since Bader Field in 2012, ninety-five shows ago.

Photo © Andrea Nusinov

The second set concluded with a “solid” 4th Quarter: “Seven Below” (tour debut), “Waste,” a pleasant “BDTNL” (definitely check this version out if you’re a fan of this song!), and a typically good “First Tube” closer. The “Lizards” encore was an old school (and Gamehendgian) treat, much as the “Timber Ho” opener in Portsmouth had been on Tuesday night. Only a sociopath would be disappointed by a “Lizards” encore.

In short, both Portsmouth shows had plenty to love and enjoy, and for those of you who quickly skimmed to the bottom of this piece: check out the “It’s Ice,” “Fuego,” and “Meatstick” from last night's above "average-great" show. $0.02.

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PORTSMOUTH, VA – On Tuesday night Phish’s summer tour juggernaut found its exhale point at nTelos Pavilion on the shores of Virginia’s Hampton Roads. Following a pair of powerhouse performances and packed house, frenzied big summer weekend vibes at Merriweather Post Pavilion – with the intensity, innovation and fearlessness of Sunday’s “Tweezerfest” that landed from outer space, instantly slotting that gig as the 23rd highest rated show among fans in all of Phish’s illustrious 30-year history – it was clear that we were due for a return to earth. Given the context of the band playing at a sustained career peak, even a decompression show was bound to produce gems.

Photo © Phish, Phish From the Road

Phish again delivered the goods by exhibiting their skills through expert thematic setlist construction, mood settling, and most of all awareness of and response to the ball as it lay. Merriweather witnessed the band and crowd at its most ferocious balls-to-the-wall intensity. But one of the many tentacles of Phish brilliance and what makes them so “sticky” is that even when they downshift into a “weekday vibe” they hum and resonate at a frequency best suited for the moment. Tuesday’s crowd was everything Merriweather’s was not: calm, relaxed, settled, happy, comfortable and content. Phish played the right show for that crowd – little smoking, less talking, few drunks, no flying plastic debris, no nitrous hordes, no bullshit – it was time for Phish’s “adult swim.”

Photo © Parker Harrington

While it found a home opening second sets in the mid 90s (often in spectacular fashion, see 12/28/95, 7/26/97 and 11/16/97) “Timber (Jerry)” opened a show for the very first time in its 27-year run with Phish. Then the set settled in to a more predictable routine with compact versions of “Undermind” in its concise rendering, only the second “AC/DC Bag” of the tour, and Mike’s slinky “555.”

Photo © Parker Harrington

A long and flowing “Divided Sky” took place as the sun set Page side on a gloriously comfortable evening that offered easy breezes and imminently civil trappings. Trey’s “Ocelot” and Page’s “Halfway to the Moon” kept the first set ship gliding softly and effortlessly before upshifting into “Kill Devil Falls.” The first set improvisational anchor role fell to “Split Open and Melt,” and it delivered by getting weird with a dissonant minor key quickly, and then staying weird. CK5 took to exhibit his mastery with a brilliant LED display including a spectacular sequence featuring first his reverse-stage fractal projections, followed by a spotlight sequencing on the band members, culminating with unloading the kitchen sink of his seemingly never-ending arsenal of visual tricks. “Good Times Bad Times” harnessed the crowd’s latent dance energy for a final throw-down before the break.

Photo © Andrea Z. Nusinov

“Chalk Dust Torture” has become the toast of the tour as a jam vehicle, an open door to the airy, spacious, floating comfort of the jamming style that took root during last fall’s historic tour. At this point late in the summer tour – when they’ve dropped career-defining versions seemingly one after another – it becomes easy to get into the “sure, but not as good as x, y, or z” game. That game can be fun, but it can also lead one to lose sight of the majesty offered and windows opened by outstanding versions such as the one offered tonight. This “CDT” may well get lost in the shuffle of current sustained greatness for this Phish classic… but if you would have dropped this set-opening jam into almost any show from 2009-2011, it would have been a clear (even “top-10”) highlight of that year. The same can be said about this show as a whole.

The first “If I Could” in almost two years (8/29/12 Oklahoma City, 68 shows) set the water theme that would permeate the set in motion – “run with me across the oceans...” and was tenderly and confidently delivered. While “If I Could” was respectfully received, “The Line” represented perhaps the only awkward mis-step of the evening where Trey’s setlist direction didn’t quite hit the mark. “The Line” fell somewhat flat on a crowd that despite their decidedly relaxed temperament was all too ready to dance.

Photo © Phish, Phish From the Road

Solid if controlled versions of “Birds of a Feather” and “A Song I Heard the Ocean Sing” brought the band vibe <-> crowd vibe back into equilibrium, a wave that crested in a crunchy “Mike's Song.” I was taking a rare respite from the front stage area and enjoying the show with a bunch of my JadedVet™ colleagues from The Mockingbird Foundation back by the soundboard, several of whom are the strongest proponents of the “return of the ‘Mike’s’ second jam.” (As an aside, sure, we think the return of the second jam would in fact be wicked cool, but mostly it’s just a joke, a brotherly poke offered in love to our musical heroes… they can play “Mike’s Song” however they darn well please, and we’ll be cheerfully cutting rug in response. Every time!) So when that moment of truth came, the last held chord of the end of “Mike’s” first jam, we all held our breath and…

“Prince Caspian.”

“Waves” paid homage to our seaside locale before the band launched into a throwback ending… back to 2010, with a parade of set closers. “Weekapaug Groove” was a dance throw-down but lacked some of the spark that it had been feeding from the “Ghost-a-paug” sequence favored of late. “Cavern” > “Golgi Apparatus” > “Run Like an Antelope” took us to the finish line in solid, entertaining fashion, but the jamming guns were packed away for the night. A “Wingsuit” encore – what a perfect spot for a song that is digging deep roots early in the fan psyche, this song is loved, deeply, already – and “The Squirming Coil“ brought closure to this mellow but totally satisfying affair. I’d be remiss not to note that part of Page’s outro solo was marred by an embarrassing case of crowd clapping; but after that display of doing-it-wrong, the crowd seemed to compensate and became whisper quiet for the end of Page’s solo.

Photo © Phish, Phish From the Road

Phish is often about reactions to that which came before, sometimes writ large (albums, tours, jamming style) while other pendulum swings take place in microclimates, show-to-show. I’m thrilled beyond belief that the band plays very different types of shows: sometimes of their own accord, following the flow of their individual and collective moods and inspirations, and seeking to understand and play to the audience and mood and venue presented in the moment. Looking at the best shows of the tour, they have so many different vibes – do you like MPP2 or Randall’s3 more? Ginger or Mary Ann? On this night, in this place, for this crowd, Phish performed... perfectly.

We’ll be back tomorrow as we begin to round the tour’s home stretch.

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This is one of several items we're hosting at Phish.net today to engage with students in Stephanie Jenkins' Philosophy class. Here, I attempt to answer questions submitted by her students – about the band, its management, its fans, changes in them, and how that relates to community (this week's topic in the course)...

• I was fortunate enough to have attended this past Sunday's Merriweather show. Clearly this show was "different" from everything else done this summer (to date). Do you think the band makes conscious decisions to attempt a performance like this or -- as my friend put it on the ride home - "does it just happen?". How much does the bands relationship with its community effect this kind of unique performance.

Every factor – decision, intention, community, happenstance, flatulence, etc. – matters at least a little bit for every show. How much any one mattered for any particular show (that is, how much of the variance in show quality or improv or excitement, is explained by any one of those factors), perhaps not even the band members know for certain. (Mike didn't even know that he teased "The Cave"!) But there have certainly been lackluster crowds, mediocre locations, and darker times (It's not all good, brah); and Sunday was a hot crowd in a storied venue when the band is (by most accounts) trending up.

• Do you think Phish -- and bands in general -- choose fan friendly venues that foster community? Is music + community a "magic formula" for band success?

I suspect that all bands, from Phish to the ones that’ll start this weekend in some basement or garage, always want a venue that maximizes the experience, whatever that means. And Phish clearly has been attentive to fan experience, from the start, in innovative ways and to degrees that others don’t typically match or approach.

But I don’t think there’s a strong direct link from venue to community. There are lots of factors about venues – including whether they’re conducive to good sound, security, crowd control, and a good experience for the band – that indirectly facilitate community, partly by there being good shows which focus and ignite the crowd. (David Byrne even makes an interesting argument that the architecture of music venues has affected the kinds of music made, which helps understand a shift from Anarchy to Fuego, if not YEM to Wombat.) I suspect that the band evaluates such factors in terms of their own experience moreso than ours (they’ve played some great shows in some shitholes), and that the benefits to community are essentially just laudable side effects, at least insofar as venue choice goes.

• I think the recent addition of a Phish "pit" is a horrible thing for the phish community because it presents a division in the crowd between what I consider a core group of "greedy" individuals (for lack of a better term; you know who they are) and those who are really just excited to experience the rail or be close to the band. Do you think the "pit" is bad for the Phish community?

There’s always going to be a rail, and certain folks are always going to make their way there. There are advantages to rows and chairs, but weeding out “those (and esp. He) whom shan’t be named” probably doesn’t overcome the advantages of mobility and camaraderie that come from a bit of open space.

• Do you think outdoor shows foster community more than indoor shows?

Per person? No, because there are more people distributed in more ways, and their interaction may be more with the environment than focused on the band - dispersed, distributed, distracted. Put 1/10 the people in a room staring at a stage, and each person is probably more engaged, connected, etc. – however you conceptualize and operationalize community. Outdoor shows tend to have more people, who might have or express or indicate more community in the aggregate, but they are unequally communalized.

Phish, of course, creates exceptions, including nearly a dozen festivals that far exceed the norm for "outdoor shows" -- scores of thousands camping on site, expansive art installations, not to mention innovations in re-entry, water and bathrooms, and, at Coventry, mud. Okay, not all of their unique moments have been desirable, but you might be surprised how much community that mud generated: the stranded walkers, the market for boots, the inescapable suck into which we were all pulled and enveloped. It was a special sort of hell that no one wanted to leave, and that folks walked miles of highway to enter - and was an historic illustration of community that was epically outdoors.

• For me, I feel as though 2009's Festival 8 in Indio was perhaps the most positive Phish -- and perhaps any -- community experience I’ve ever had. What show(s) shows bring to mind community for you?

So many, but I’m old. :) I saw community at my first show, with vendor spillover from Dead tour (I bought a burrito and a phan sticker), and fans trading tapes in the lot. I sincerely felt it at least as early as 2/20/93, with perhaps a dozen Phish.net friends on the rail, mezmerized and hysterical. I saw it grow over the years, and even build across tours (for which summer ’93 is memorable). There were many instances where the birth, growth, and evolution of community among fans was apparent – and perhaps none where it was absent. But Clifford Ball was probably the peak, surpassing even Big Cypress. From start to finish, it felt like everyone was smiling at each other with a, “Yep… wow… can you believe it?” look.

• At Phish shows and festivals in general, I find the lot/camping scene to be an "important space of hope". It's a break, for a day or a week. There's not much that I'd rather do than hit a few shows on a local run or a 3 day festival like Clifford Ball or Dick’s. This is precisely because of the friendliness and generosity that defines the lot scene. It's a vacation for your persona(s); you can just be yourself.

​Agreed. Phish forged serious territory with multi-day, massively-attended, one-band festivals. They do it right, and they do it well. ... Except for Coventry, which sucked -- but we can't glorify festivals without remembering the one that reached the lowest depths. (Have I mentioned the mud?)

• I suspect that most healthy people have some sort of "occasional community" that achieves the same end; getting dressed up and going to church, washing and waxing their Mustangs and going to the car show, bingo, and so on. These too are more substantive than the sense of community with folks you run into every couple days at dunkin donuts and you each half smile at each other. I hope that even if someone doesn't like Phish or the Dead that they have something in life that fulfills the need for community wonderfully as Phish does for me. (Although I think we have more fun than the church going bingo players: more intense, at least as genuine, consistent, pleasant and joyous fun.)

​Right. Every body needs a hobby, a passion, something in which they have faith - Jesus, football, the White Sox, Gravity Falls (new season starts Friday!). But something different happens among music fans. I wouldn't argue that it's deeper, more embracing, or whatever for individuals - but as a collective, there's clearly something further going on. Going further.

• Do you think that the sense of community and belonging and joyous interaction is felt as strongly in other communities as I feel when I'm going to shows? I wonder if music creates and amplifies the Dionysian, the emotional interaction, reaching out. Does an impending NASCAR race create an equivalent satisfaction on race day for those fans? I hope so.

It doesn't seem possible. What's the most collective behavior in which NASCAR fans engage at an event - the wave? or some fraction of them cheering for a particular winner? What at NASCAR, or baseball, or even a Justin Bieber concert (and I've attended two; long live Kuroda!) even approaches the collective mindmeld of audience reactions to and engagement with Phish performances - or, for that matter, with 1000s of other acts? You can sing along (but please don't), air guitar (but no windmills, please), or bounce en masse. Whatever anyone wants to say, philosophically or psychologically, about what's inside the heads of fans in other communities, music fans - and arguably Phish fans chiefly among them - have achieved a level of groupact (never mind groupthink; I'm a sociologist) that's startling.

• It has been stated that some music may cause listeners to enter trance states. However, Bicknell states that "performing musicians do not usually fall into trance states." Do you think this holds true for Phish band members? Being new to Phish, I have observed that there is an intimate connection between the audience and performers. The Dionysian aspect of Phish music causes the audience to "fade into complete forgetfulness of self," as Friedrich Nietzsche puts it. Do you think this same phenomena happens to the band members as well? Just from observation, Trey seems to lose himself in the music. Does this happened with every band member. How do they describe their experiences on stage after each concert?

The members of Phish aspire to a trance state of some sort, as perhaps many improvisational artists do, from their early Oh Kee Pa Ceremony practice/jam sessions, to Mike's frequently writing and speaking about the space between awake and asleep, to... well, just look at Trey's face, when he's doing that back-and-forth rocking with his mouth agape staring into the lights. Certainly some of it is focus, to get through complex improv - but some of it seems more tranced out than Bicknell suggests is common. Trey indeed loses himself in the music. And, on the best nights, so does everyone in the room.

• For you, which Phish song brings the crowd together more than any other?

YEM and Divided Sky do it all: Well-known starts (and audience reactions) as a catalyst, epic composition that illustrates their chops, calm (before the storm) retreats for refocus (and a few clouds of bowl smoke here and there), loose and flowing elements to breed serious improv, and explosive endings. It’s not (just) that I’m a JadedVet: Newer material sometimes gets epic, but doesn’t have all five of those elements, in particular the historied starting signals. Harry Hood also works, and Stash is fine but was better when everyone knew the right number of claps. ;)

• What do you think about "Silent in the Morning" being played without "The Horse"?

Travesty. (And not because the song itself is a travesty, which I mention because some would have taken a one-word answer as a joke. I'd love to hear Horse > Silent > Wading -> Wading Jam -> Waiting -> Waiting Jam.)

• Do you think fan-based commerce at shows (vending of all kinds) helps or hurts the Phish community?

That’s dense with vagueness and normativity: An answer depends on what helps, hurts, and community mean. :) To the extent that community is indicated in exchange relationships, fan-based commerce by definition is, and so helps (or, at least, expands) community. But some products and services, and some vendors and distributors, are probably more conducive than others to various aspects of community such as identity, membership, integration, ritual, connections, etc. (I hesitate to float examples or venture some typology, but there's something empirical to be said about such patterns.)

• Do you think Phish -- the band -- should be doing more to eliminate rampant scalping and secondary market ticket sales that appear to directly impact real fans and the Phish community as a whole?

Phish has done more than most in combating the troublesome elements of scalping, and deserves props for it. There’s always room for discussion about doing more, but I wouldn't put an imperative on the band to do more - partly because I'm an empiricist and partly because I appreciate supply and demand. I’m not opposed to a free market for tickets, as long as the playing field’s equal. Clearly it isn’t always (ever?), and I share opposition to the hacking madness that some folks have used to spin online sales to their advantage. But I support a secondary market for folks who change their minds or lose interest or whatever -- shit happens.

(Note that Phish.net collectively takes an admirable position that you should neither buy nor sell for above face value, and encourages fans to use CashOrTrade.org with a highly rationed menu item.)

• Do you feel as though Phish's relationship with Red Light Management has influenced their creativity and if so is it fair that this can ultimately effect Phish fans as a community?

I know approximately nothing about the band’s relationship with RLM, not even enough to make a sketchy supposition about its impact. But I suspect that any changes in the creativity of the band and its members, particularly to whatever extent those changes affect fans, are far more a function of their age and personal histories than of anything RLM is or does. (The relationship with RLM is itself partly a function of those factors.) I predicted it would slide once I heard they had a backstage cook and masseuse - though it of course slid much further due to drugs and other issues. Maybe RLM, unlike a posh backstage scene, is faciliating more creativity, letting them outsource the hassle and focus on the magic.

As to what's "fair"... No fan has any right to any level of creativity from the objects of their devotion. You don't vest some ownership in Phish continuing to be new, or even good - and no amount of commercialization diminishes anything you have or had. We all hope that wonderful beautiful things will continue forever, but they won't.

• Pearl Jam's Ten Club is a fan program that rewards fans (who pay a nominal annual fee) with special offers such as pre-sale ticket opportunities, special CD releases, exclusive merchandise, etc. Phish offers a ticket pre-sale lottery but do you think a program like the Ten Club brings the community closer together or further apart?

RLM’s sister/subsidiary Music Today runs a number of fan programs, including those for Pearl Jam and (their first) Dave Matthews Band. I’m sure Phish was pitched the idea, perhaps many times, but my sense is that they opted out for a variety of reasons, including perhaps some opposition to exclusivity. So far, their unconventional decisions in other areas have borne out as wise; perhaps this one will as well, someday somehow. But it wouldn't be a fully obsessive fan community if we didn't collectively question things like the relationship with RLM, the relationship with Nugs.net, and the state of the LivePhish app.

• If you had a chance to make a Phish app to bring fans together -- what would you build?

If folks want to glance at their phone in the show, let it bring them back into it, and both draw from and add to the richness of presence at the show. I want a list of designated phriends integrated with a map of the venue: Best Friend Bob is in this seat with the green checkmark, which you can get to if you turn right at the upcoming portal; Ex-Wife Suzy is here at the red X, but you can avoid her by using bathroom A instead of B; forum regulars The Zee Team are meeting here at the purple rhombus at setbreak to plan their chess move. Maybe there's a gaming system, using song predictions or personal gap records or whatever to increment scores on the user icons shown on the venue map. (Hey, ZZYZX's icon just flashed 300 - but Lemuria finally got his mystery ship, which puts him over the top!)

• With social media everywhere, what channel do you think supports the phish community the best (Facebook, twitter, Instagram, PT, other)? Are there channels you would eliminate?

Depends on what kind of support you mean, what you mean by community, what you mean by best. I think they all satisfy different needs -- apparently they do, at least to the extent they continue to be used. (Anyone miss MySpace? OnLive? Google+?)

• From your perspective, what is the role of Phish.net in the phan community?

Phish.net has unparalleled data and related resources, and a community of users that’s notably (even measurably) more positive and engaging than you may find at some alternatives. We hope it continues to evolve to meet the data needs and community desires of evermore fans, while supporting music education grants on the backend. But some folks may prefer something less critical, or more abrasive, and certainly there have been fans who’ve moved on from Phish.net, even of their own accord. I hope every fan finds whatever works best for them, whether that’s Facebook, GroupMe, Whisper, PT, or something else.

• Do you consider Phantasy Tour (aka "PT") a positive community?

PT has entertained many people for many years. Long live PT.

• My college roommate, Jim Raras, used to tell me that the original Phish Companion was almost called "The Turquoise Mountain Messenger" Is this true? :-)

It was almost called 100s of things, but I’m not going to contradict Jim Raras. :)

• Does the presence of online communities like phish.net make the "occasional community" more or less of a “miracle”?

​The Phish fan community has been extended, strengthened, even emboldened by two decades of online interactions in dozens of services and locales - Phish.net throughout that time, and many others than have come and (for the most part) gone. I've met some of my closest friends through it, and become close friends with dozens of people I would never otherwise have known. We've shared birthdays, weddings, deaths. We've held scores of events, and generated hundresd of grants. Every part of it has seemed like a bit of a miracle to me, and I'm about as unreligious as they come. But every day, I'm thankful for Phish as well as for Phish.net. ... Okay, somedays less than others. ;)

• How do you think the technological advances during Phish’s three decades have affected the community? Are we “closer” and more cohesive because of social media, smartphones, and the internet?

There are so many ways to answer that, but... oh, I have some email, texts, and PMs to address...

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Ah, yet another Monday. Yet another workweek to plow ourselves through. Yet another stellar Sunday Phish show's afterglow in which to bask. And yet another Mystery Jam to solve!

Yet another winner will receive an MP3 download courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. To win, be the first person to identify the song and date of the mystery jam clip. Each person gets one guess per day, with the second “day” starting after I post the hint. A hint will be posted on Tuesday if necessary, with the answer to follow on Wednesday. Yet another chance for me to wish you all good luck!

Answer: This week's clip was taken from the 12/5/99 Meatstick, which @PersnicketyJim identified to win the MP3 DL and pick up his fourth MJM victory, all impressively occurring in the last thirteen contests. Additional kudos to @ucpete for his reverse-engineering efforts, noting that the 12/5/99 Rochester show featured the debut of Sunday's noteworthy bustout, Jennifer Dances. For his efforts, he wins unlimited access to the LivePhish.com MP3 preview clip of his choice. Check in next Monday for MJM #182.

Preamble

When, in the course of human events, your favorite band plays a show that is just stupid-good—and historically important, in the context of an already rich and well-documented history—and, by chance, you have volunteered in advance to write a recap of that show for Phish.net…well, sometimes the best thing you can do is just shut up about it.

But, let's face it, that's not really my thing.

We deliberately call these items “recaps” rather than “reviews” because they are envisioned as timely, just-the-facts accounts of the show, with some amount of on-the-fly analysis mixed in. By design, they violate the “72 hour rule,” invoked by some fans (once upon a time) as a necessary buffer period to digest a show and let its immediate afterglow wear off before issuing any declarations about its greatness.

Yet, how does a just-the-facts summary of Sunday night’s show at Merriweather Post Pavilion, skipping chronologically through the setlist with nods for a tight “The Curtain With” here and a sarcastic comment about “I Saw It Again” there, capture the spirit of what happened? The absurdity of such an approach can be glimpsed in our (reasonable and accurate) setlist: “The third Tweezer included Page teasing Manteca.”

The third Tweezer, mind you.

Would invocations of the Tweezerfests from 1994 add historical context that enriches our appreciation of 7/27/14? Well, yeah, sure. But in the immediate aftermath, all I want to do it listen to it again. Or re-read the live-scroll of my group of JadedVet friends and .net colleagues, some at the show but most (like me) listening or watching from home, reacting in real time to the insanity and flipping out.

Yet I know part of the experience of savoring and enjoying a show, for people like us that come online to read and talk about this band, is indeed to read and talk about it.

But first, let’s take another moment to let it settle in—a show that goes beyond the level of "great" and gets short-listed when people talk about why they like Phish in the first place. And consider this prelude a sort of Havdalah service at the end of Shabbat, formally separating the sacred (if you will) music from the profane discussion of it. (Not to get all William-Blake-of-recaps on you.)

Take a breath. Let the afterglow solidify into a patina of glazed satisfaction.

I’ve been waiting ten years to say this: Phish is back.

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The End of Phish History

In his 1992 book The End Of History and the Last Man, political theorist Francis Fukuyama argued that after the Cold War, Western-style capitalism and democracy had finally emerged as the final stage of political-cultural evolution, signaling the end of the churning series of cultural systems and political ideologies that had been conflicting and clanging against each other since the dawn of human civilization. (I’m no expert, but that’s more or less the gist.)

Since they returned from the Breakup, I had come to feel a similar way about Phish. The initial excitement that accompanied the Return turned, sometime in 2009, into a smile frozen on my face as I nervously looked around the room and waited for things to really get going. That summer of 2009, recall, there was lots of talk about waiting for “3.1” to emerge—the idea was that Phish was still finding its way back, and on some night soon there’d be a moment where they would finally break through again, and return grandly to the improvisational interplay and all-around chutzpah they enjoyed before exiting Coventry in four separate tour busses.

(For all that was troubled in the 2.0 era, Phish returned from the 2000-2002 hiatus at the very top of its improvisational game, and even through the emotionally turbulent August 2004 shows was churning out peak jams, from the SPAC “Piper” of 6/19/04 to the less-remembered but similarly incredibly “Birds of A Feather” from 8/10/04. That’s what made the hastily-announced breakup seem so cruel and bizarre, before it emerged that personal problems—and not the non-existent creative problems cited in Trey’s infamous “we’re done” letter—were the actual cause of the split. And once Trey was frank about that, how could any of us complain that he did what he needed to do to get healthy? But it took years for that to become clear.)

For me and lots of like-minded fans, the sense of linear progress that had marked Phish’s evolution forever (at least through Big Cypress—a feeling Fishman later summed up as “rolling a boulder up a hill”—and then again from the end of the Hiatus through to the ashes of Vegas ’04) was over. In 3.0, it was all a sort of equivalent mush—occasionally there’d be a “Seven BeGhost” or a Pine Knob “Disease,” but shows would always level off again into a place of improvisational hesitancy and ripcords. Phish didn’t seem to be building toward anything anymore. There was not the sense that IT was happening, or that IT could happen at any moment. We were Glad They Were Back™ and went for the experience, to see our friends converge within the show-going ritual, and perhaps to get lucky and catch an “Icculus” or a highlight jam. But the sense that each tour was building upon the previous one to sketch out an ever-dynamic history was sadly missing, for many of us.

Meanwhile, there’s been a weird bifurcation in Phish-appreciation out in the fan community. While the above description is more or less a mainstream summary of what many long-time fans consider to be the “true” story of 3.0, there are many readers who right now are wondering what the fuck I’m talking about.

It’s completely natural that, after a 4-plus years break, a whole new generation of fans has been in its first flush of newbie star-gazing, where everything sounds great and the band can do no wrong. But, although Phish’s biggest fans have been gathering online to parse the band’s musical development and apply the very high standards Phish had earned for itself—all from a place of great dedication to and love for the music—since the early 1990’s, a culture emerged during 3.0 where this was suddenly sacrilegious.

Even though these are the very fans who traded tapes by mail and created the internet network that facilitated Phish’s remarkable, grassroots growth, newcomers had burst into the room and boorishly insisted that “real” fans would never presume to analyze a Phish show objectively, comparing and contrasting what happened last night with what they’d done before.

No, the new orthodoxy was to enforce this End of Phish History at the point of a rhetorical sword: We should all just be glad they’re back, dude. Stop going to shows if you’re going to complain. It’s all good. If you insist on seeing lows that color and give heft to the highs, rather than a flat landscape of identical brilliance, then you just don’t get it. Mini-cults emerged online around newly vocal fans who suddenly emerged and delivered what plenty of new fans wanted to hear: validation that they were present for the glory days of Phish. All evidence to the contrary notwithstanding.

What this rigid line of thought failed to understand was that we were never trying to deny that anyone had had a good time at the show, or that their experience was meaningful and special and worthwhile and Phishy. Or that Phish remained a special band in the musical universe and that we felt lucky to, yes, Still Be Seeing Them At All. All those things remained true. We were just hearing the music in context. Like we’d always done.

And surely, we missed some things that newer, fresher fans could pick up and rightfully enjoy. And in a way, that was our own fault. But JadedVet bitching is really, at bottom, a form of gallows humor. There was never a moment when any of us wouldn’t have rather declared that All Is Well, again. So in the end, who is to say which is the privileged position? Many would surely trade their enhanced appreciation of an atypical "Tweezer" for the jump-up-and-down-joy at your first "Golgi."

While I've been using the royal-jaded "we," this is a good place to note that this recap is expressing my own personal views. It hasn't been approved by any Politburo. Your mileage may vary, or overlap.

---

(Digression: Me and Richard Nixon

So who am I, by the way? After seeing my peers get into Phish for several years, I finally discovered the band in 1995 and became instantly obsessed. I spent many hours on the old rec.music.phish. I read every single one of Charlie Dirksen's Tweezerfiles and reviews of Mike's Groove. I contributed lots of content to The Phish Companion and have been on the board of The Mockingbird Foundation since 2000. I've made my evolving relationship with Phish a public thing.

I got jaded, became born again, had a peak life experience at Big Cypress, rode out the Hiatus, was there for the first Return, witnessed the band at a high point in its history at IT, mourned the Breakup, and more or less moved on.

During 3.0 I've been revaluating my relationship to the music and the scene, prompted most, I argue, by what was happening onstage. And though I was very enthusiastic about fall 2013, I was profoundly disillusioned by the "Wingsuit" set at Halloween, and entered probably my lowest point as a Phish fan. I made some very bitter dismissals of that set. I skipped the New Year's Run. I just needed distance. My rage stick seemed broken.

Richard Nixon earned his political stripes and public credibility as an anti-Communist crusader. So it was against type when he ventured to China and started the process of normalizing relations between the U.S. and that country. Thus the expression: only Nixon could go to China.

Although I've come over the years to r.m.p, or the Phish.net blog, or another print or online venue, to declare renewed excitement about what Phish was doing at the time, each time I've found my own way there. Each time it's been an organic process and a pleasant surprise for me. Now I rarely take to the "airwaves" to spout off about Phish. I leave that to people who are more into it, and more qualified to talk about the latest developments. And frankly, I find my long digital trail of pronouncements more than mildly embarassing, as I'm not sure if my current aesthetic (and professional skills/instincts) can really stand behind all of those passionate prouncements from years gone by.

So when I declare my excitement today about what Phish is doing now, it's no knee-jerk thing. It's no play to the masses. But if 3.0 has become a Chinese buffet of renewed artistic relevance, I am shoving my face right into the General Gao's chicken.)

---

Umm, yeah, no.

Something funny happened on the way toward Phish’s sad post-history as a nostalgia act. It took more than three years, but Phish got its swagger back. After experimenting with bust-outs and mash-ups to gin up fan enthusiasm in the absence of boundary-breaking improvisational fireworks (or new material) in the previous years, summer 2012 offered more than a tease that things were changing. Then, the Dick’s 2012 shows happened—particularly the first night. In its mold-breaking series of surprising improvisations, spread through an entire show (including the first set), including songs like “Runaway Jim” that seemed like they may never jam again—it felt, in many ways, like the first Phish show since 2004.

Then summer 2013 gave its richest gift, the Tahoe “Tweezer,” a jam that for once could be described with all sorts of superlatives without the caveat “for 3.0.” It reached peaks that were higher than a kitty riding a giraffe. And fall tour was a nightly march toward renewed relevance. The great jams were no longer red herrings. They built upon each other, creating a new level of achievement and creating the sense that there was still a future left to invent.

So, then, summer 2014. The present tour. The one-step-up, two-steps-back phenomenon that characterized 2009-2011 could finally be seen to be over. It’s not just that the jams are better and more frequent, which they are. But that 3.0 tentativeness is gone. There are certainly some inner formulas the band continues to work with, but for the first time in a long time there’s the sense that something like “The Wedge” might suddenly emerge as a major jam, that a piece of improvisation will grow and change direction (even after the first little lull where a few years ago Trey would abruptly jump into “Julius”), that a second set will keep fighting and gain momentum even after the first “cooldown” song or two suggests that things might be winding down for the night. There’s the sense that each night onstage is another chapter in an evolving history. That the music will boldly venture to bed, bath and beyond.

By this point, it’s already been two years of the good stuff—this transcends the level of “exciting promise” and amounts to its own successful mini-era in and of itself. There’s no fear of the rug being pulled out, because the foundation is already there, at a higher level. The sense of the term “3.0” as not only a chronological marker but a rough stylistic grouping is over. This is not your older sister’s 3.0. It’s a new time.

Photo © Phish – Phish From the Road

---

Get Back On The Tweezerfest

One emerging trend of the summer tour has been the band’s newfound proclivity for the lost art of segues. Some shows have been held up by obvious, standout jams—the SPAC “Fuego,” the Randall’s “Chalkdust,” etc—others have dipped in and out of exciting jams while nimbly transitioning from song to song. This seemed to have reached its peak with Saturday night’s show, with fare like an out-of-nowhere, Page-led artisanal segue from “Light” into “2001” that provided its own thrill in place of an extended “Light” jam. It’s not a ripcord when it’s an inspired, full-band transition.

So, then comes Sunday night’s show. It’s always good when the boys take the stage looking to disprove the theories of Francis Fukuyama.

Several people have already shouted in my ear that Sunday’s first set is the best first set of the tour. Personally I’m a Big Jam Hunter, so I’d rather get one Randall’s “Gin,” or even the SPAC “Reba” + “SOAM”. But many insist that the first set of 7/27/14 was deep and consistently pleasing in a way that first sets rarely are these days. Though there are no jams of note, as is customary these days, I agree there’s little better summer entertainment than a nice, pre-dusk “The Curtain With.” And a first-set “Sand” is not just a “Sand.” (Is anything?) The set also saw the best two tracks from “Fuego”—the title track, stashed considerately in the first set so as not to arouse false hopes of another Type II breakthrough version, and Mike’s lovely “555.” (Given that Mike introduced Americana to the Phish sound, it’s interesting that his latest output sounds almost like he’s never even heard the work of Mumford and Sons.)

All-around, the first set left people feeling very upbeat about the show. But we know that shows are won and lost in the second set. And after a snappy “Wilson” opener, it was only the third quarter but Phish sensed that it was already winning time.

Some interesting Fishman rhythms in the very infancy of the “Tweezer” jam gave way to what appeared to be a tease of “Get Back On The Train.” But Trey jumped on board right away, guiding a full transition into the song. Fess up, some were grumbling at how the “Tweezer” jam was aborted so quickly. But no, they rode the train for only a verse before zooming back into “Tweezer.” Yes!

The jam that leaves one song, goes to another, and returns to the original song is a particularly prized thing among Phish fandom. It’s special—though fairly frequent in some periods (like Summer 1993), it isn’t even an annual occurrence now. But not only seguing into and out of, but lacing an entire set with Tweezer is the sort of thing that’s referred to in tones of hushed reverence among Phish fans. That’s what they used to do, in 1994, when the magnificence of Phish’s capacity for deep improvisation and inspired, thematic jamming was emerging in full flower. It’s the basis of legendary shows like the Bomb Factory and Big Birch. It’s hardcore, old school, highly accomplished Phish straight to the dome. It’s what happened last night at Merrimeather.

There’s no need for me to narrate the twists and turns of last night’s second set here. And you’re not here to have that briskly outlined, are you? You’re here to share in the sense that something really special happened. And engage in some verbal high-fiving and patriotic fist-bumping. Me too. (In fact, that's have a quick round of 'em. OK.)

Yes, there was some good jamming in the actual “Tweezer,” particularly before the segue into “Waiting All Night” seemed (falsely) to indicate the end of it. But to me, the most important thing about last night is that even in the midst of “Free,” a song that many fans have long dismissed as a source of anything new and interesting, I for one was still perfectly upbeat as I waited to hear what would happen next in this engaging set. Did I think they’d go back into “Tweezer”? No. But when they did, briefly, and then segued right into “Simple,” it felt perfectly natural. It was mold-busting and original and thrilling and simultaneously not at all out of character. It was what Phish does now. Again.

And when “NICU”—a song that to my knowledge had only jammed out once before, in the legendary 12/14/95 show that also featured a multi-headed “Tweezer”—exploded out of nowhere into the highlight jam of the night, it was surely cause to jump up and down and “woo!” at the moon. But it wasn’t a shock. It was Phish, circa summer 2014. Think about it.

So when Fishman took center stage for a “Henrietta” song for the first time since 7/6/12, and launched (apparently spontaneously) into a hilariously mocking rendition of perhaps Phish’s most-mocked (and rarely seen) original, “Jennifer Dances,” it was organically generated humor that sprung from the band/audience relationship. It wasn’t forced. It was loose and optimistic and confident and swinging.

Photo © Phish – Phish From the Road

We’ll spend plenty of time figuring out where to rank 7/27/14, and how to measure its spontaneity and incredible flow versus the more heavy-duty jams found in some other recent places. There’s time for that. We’ll also talk about how a show like last night ranks as great by any Phish standard, including the days of 1994 when Tweezerfests were the hot new item.

But for now, I think it’s enough to exult in the fact that such great stuff is happening on a near-nightly basis. To realize that Fall 2013 and now Summer 2014 are great full-tours, not only “for 3.0” but for Phish. It’s enough just to feel like anything might happen on a given night. Most of all, it’s enough to know that Phish is making its own history. Again.

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This week, Phish.net will host several events in conjunction with, and as part of, PHL360: Philosophy and the Arts at Oregon State University. The course is taught by Assistant Professor of Philosophy and "huge Phish fan" Dr. Stephanie Jenkins, who has nicknamed the course "Philosophy School of Phish." (See promo video and syllabus.)

Through midnight tonight, enrolled students will be submitting questions to be answered in a Wednesday morning blog post by Ellis Godard (aka "Ellis of Lemuria") - an Associate Professor of Sociology and Executive Director of the Mockingbird Foundation, who has been involved with Phish.net since 1991 (and who earned a minor in Philosophy, though perhaps too long ago to be helpful.)

Throughout the day on Wednesday, Drs. Godard and Jenkins will lead discussions about these and other questions in a forum thread (possibly two; they'll be sticky'd at the top). We welcome the involvement of enrolled students in what we hope they will find to be a vibrant and inviting community. And we hope our forum regulars are ready to step up their rhetorical game and hone their linguistic chops for some serious scholarship about the band, their music, and we fans.

Finally, on Wednesday evening, Dr. Godard will host a Google Hangout session for student, to wrap-up discussion, answer additional questions, and reflect on Phish.net and students' experiences here.

The class' topic for the week is "Community". Readings include two chapters of Jeanette Bicknell's Why Music Moves Us, as well as "The Everyday Miracle of the Occasional Community" by John Drabinski, part of Steve Gimbel's The Grateful Dead and Philosophy: Getting High Minded about Love and Haight. Bicknell's book ships from the UK and will take weeks, but Drabinki's chapter is online.

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Merriweather Post Pavillion may not be a shed that is much loved by most fans – particularly those relegated to the lawn – but it has been the site of some fantastic Phish shows. Their first headlining show here on 8/8/98 contained two beloved cover debuts, "Sweet Jane" and “Sabotage,” along with a fantastic “Piper.” An epic spacey dark “Mango” on 9/17/00. A great "Rock and Roll” and "In The Aeroplane Over The Sea” bustout on 6/26/10 and the “Saw It Again” fest the next night. 7/14/13 featured one of the best first set jams of 3.0 in “Stash.” This great venue history with the growing legend of the summer 2014 tour made anticipation for the MPP run high. Let’s get this show on the road!

The show started at a very early 7:35p with “Sample," which in my mind is a much better first set opener than a second set closer. When I find myself getting jaded with this song I try to remember how I felt hearing it after I had skipped school to buy Hoist, and I get excited all over again. Maybe Phish's finest pop song?

Couch tour setbreak jokey-joke from LivePhish.

Unfortunately it is hard for me to give latter-day “Momas" the same benefit of the doubt, because as we all know they could be so much more. This "Moma" did have a slightly different and cool breakdown from Trey and Mike during the frothy cap/steady slap portion, with Fishman playing around a bit with his vocal rhythm as well.

A short discussion and a bit of help from Trey's guitar tech Brian Brown followed, then in keeping with its crepuscular nature, “Wombat" crawled out of its burrow. I can't have been alone in hoping this would be at least half as good as the 7/18/14 Chicago version. The short but funky jam was not on that level, but featured some fantastic clav playing by Page, sweet pornofunk licks from Trey and awesome Claypool-style bass slapping by Mike.

Photo © Phish – Phish From the Road

"Number Line" was up next, surely in honor of Chris Kuroda's birthday which was on Friday. I'll never get tired of hearing "Roggae," the way the whole band gets a line of the lyrics in the first verse will always put a smile on my face. The plaintive guitar solo at the beginning of the jam is some of the most emotional stuff Trey does on his guitar. I'm not a huge Dead fan, but it gives me a vibe of Jerry at his best. This particular jam was no exception, one of those where my heart was just reaching out to the band hoping it would continue forever. Beautiful stuff, and well worth a listen.

"The Wedge" was another song in the "we played it better in a second set in Chicago" slot. Always hard hearing the next version after the best version ever, wondering what could have been, but this stands as a good first set version, with a smidgen of extra mustard.

One thing I love about couch tour is the up close views you get of the band members playing their instruments. It's just fascinating to watch Page and Fishman in particular at work – and their work in both the composed section and jam of “Wolfman's" was great to see and to hear. Some great syncopated jamming in this tune, with all the band members taking turns on and behind the beat, which then slid into a ripping solo by Trey to bring it back home. "Wolfman's" has been a 3.0 first set all star and nothing here would make anyone say otherwise.

I don't know what changed their mind, but the band decided to play the first "Nellie Kane" of 2014 next. Seemed a bit rusty, but played with love. Maybe for some people seeing page do his "Lawn Boy" schtick gets old, but not for me. I laugh every time. I'm not sick of "The Line" yet but this summer is testing me for sure. I kid - I kid because I love. I want them to write more topical songs about years-old athletic failure, don't you? Scott Norwood is still out there, waiting for a jam band tribute. Don't let Umphrey's beat you to the punch, Trey.

I can't be the only JadedVet™ who want all you wooks to stop clapping during “Stash" so Fishman's woodblocks can come back, can I? I am? I'm a horrible misanthrope who hates a genuine and cool interaction between the band and the fans? Come on, I was cool with the "woos" in the Tahoe “Tweezer," I'm not all bad, ok? The “Stash" jam was a bit noodly for my taste, but Kuroda's work on the lights was spot on – I do love the backdrops. Trey also leaned hard on the whale whammy during the final riffs - he should probably "stash" that effect back on the tour bus.

Photo © Phish – Phish From the Road

Thankfully they came back to close the set with a rocking “Suzy," with some fun work by Page on the talk box, and cool riffs that some people (not me!) will call "Can't You Hear Me Knocking" and "Living After Midnight" teases. A group bow and a Trey balloon punt segued into a hilarious set break slide show concerning the name of the venue (the source for the title of this post). The highlights of the first set for me were “Wombat," “Roggae" and “Wolfman's," with “Roggae" being the belle of the ball. But I should point out here that one awesome thing about Phish is that you can like something I didn't and hate something I liked!

Little vocal mixup at the beginning of “Carini" to start set II, but more than made up for by a bloodcurdling scream from Fishman after the "people all were screaming" line. Following the composed portion of the tune, the band immediately launched into a driving jam dominated by some trilling by Trey and then modulated into a more melodic portion. Very cool finish that seemed to threaten to segue into “Twist" before changing key and dropping into “Ghost." The increased segues this summer have to be a conscious decision, right? I'm not saying they all seem forced but it definitely seems like the band is looking for opportunities to segue where in the past they may have let a jam peter out. The “Ghost" jam had a brief chill interlude before coming back with a riff driven classic rock style groove, with Trey using a watery effect and CK5 matching it on the backdrops. The jam then built back up triumphantly on the back of some fantastic playing by Trey and great Hammond work by Page before breaking down again with some great guitar delay loop work over a bed of a steady but ever evolving beat from Fishman.

A slightly herky-jerky end of the fantastic “Ghost" jam lead into my favorite tribute to House Stark, “Steam." Do you all wish “Steam" had been on Fuego as much as I do? I would have loved to hear what Bob Ezrin could have come up with on the production end. They amount of fog Kuroda pumps out in this song is so fun to watch, especially in some of the close ups – Trey and Mike must hit pedals based on muscle memory. "Steam" featured a great Mike solo utilizing the envelope filter in this one that sent the crowd into a frenzy – I could have listened to him solo forever, but Trey had other ideas, kinda forcing the opening riff of “Mango," the tune that spawned a million high school yearbook quotes in the 1990s (well, that and “Cavern"). A ripe “Mango," it finished with some haunting sustain from Trey as the band discussed their next move: "Sing Monica." I am an absolute sucker for puns, so I love the lyrics in this tune, and Trey clearly has an absolute blast playing it. Surely if they had written this in the 90s when Friends was still on it would have been their biggest hit, right?

It's at this point in a show where I start to worry that they are just going to play out the string with a bunch of non-jamming tunes and encore with “Julius," but thankfully we were shown the “Light”. "Light" starts way better from a dead stop – often when coming out of another song the opening chords are really jarring and almost dissonant. The part where Kuroda makes the lights grow brighter as "the light is growing brighter now" is so on the nose it should be cheesy and annoy me, but damn if I don't love it every single time. And not just that part – Kuroda really used this song and jam as a showcase. Some nearly “Manteca"-like playing by Page during the jam while Trey played with some echo effects that were reminiscent of some fall '13 jams. Page was phenomenal in this jam, with Trey providing fills and texture, almost Animals-era Floyd-like, and a smooth as silk (and rare!) Page-led segue into “2001." But it was to be a very short “2001" that ended with some layered loops from Trey and jumped into "Harry Hood."

Photo © Phish – Phish From the Road

Can we all agree to stop yelling "Hood"? Thanks. Fun pre-lyric section, with Trey laying down some funk before stomping on a bunch of his pedals. Mike starts off the jam unconventionally, repeating notes and building the tension before dropping into the typical bass progression. Trey played an inspired solo, hitting upon a theme and evolving it note by note as the song climbed toward its peak, and then breaking it down a bit, and finding a different theme. While not as exploratory as the Great Woods “Hood" that opened the tour, this was an excellent version that brought the fire and closed the set to an ecstatic crowd.

You know what would be awesome? If we all could all love “Julius" encores and that they make us dance like crazy and send us to our cars in a bouncy fun mood and all we would talk about driving home was how awesome the “Julius" encore was. Oh “Julius," we could have had such a good time together. Isn't it pretty to think so?

Highlights of the second set for me were “Ghost," “Light” -> ”2001" and “Hood," but it certainly had a fun flow that should be listened to straight through at least once (and maybe many times if you roll that way). Overall, a great show (definitely no Saturday Night Special here) that slots in nicely with what is becoming a theme this summer: segue-filled sets with riff-based jams that have a very classic rock feel. I for one am loving the return to sets as a meaningful unit of measure and a fully enjoyable group of songs to listen to, and I hope the trend continues. Can't wait to see what the rest of tour (and 2014) brings!

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Hey kids, hope you enjoyed the time off since Sunday in Chicago. Last night led us back to the “Queen City” of the south. Phish has played in Charlotte fifteen times, with the recently renamed PNC Music Pavilion host to five previous Phish gigs. This shed boasts a solid track record, yielding surprise bust-outs such as “Colonel Forbin's” > “Mockingbird" and “Icculus” from 6/7/11, the glorious “Harry Hood” from 7/25/03, and the nearly 30-minute “2001” on 7/7/99. The last time Phish played here Trey made a comment that “there’s just something about playing this venue." So although as a fan I try to keep expectations in check, there are certain venues where you expect great things, and Charlotte is one of them.

Photo by Mike Gordon – © Phish

Late in July in the south, the heat and humidity yield swamp-ass just by stepping outside. Today proved different as the temperature was in the mid 80’s with tolerable relative humidity, and cloud cover to keep the sun from frying you.

As in 2011 when Phish played Charlotte, the band again opened with “Mike’s Song." The energy in the room was high as all four band members looked and sounded like they were ready to take care of business. “Mike’s Song” still did not contain the second jam, but was well executed and led into a solid “Back on the Train." The sandwich ended there as a super solid version of “Weekapaug” followed.

Setlist pictograms by Joseeen (available at Etsy)

One of my favorite songs from Fuego followed, “Wingsuit." The lyrics to this song ring true to my soul, “it’s only you, be you cause you’re the only one." Although tonight’s wasn’t as powerful as some of the previous versions in it’s short history it was certainly played with soul. A standard great version of “Possum” spurred the crowd to begin dancing in rhythm. As the opening notes of “Tube” began I involuntarily looked at the time to see how long this version would go. The funk was deep as all four members were locked in and everyone in the audience was shaking their asses. Although this “Tube” only clocks in at 5:17, it’s quite stupendous, and if you are a “Tube” fan that has been wanting for a little more, I recommend a listen.

As the beginning notes of “My Friend, My Friend” started, I looked around the venue and smiled as this first set was feeling more like a second set. When the hysterical cackles of “My Friend, My Friend” came, I wondered what would follow. Another Fuego tune was next, “Winterqueen,” a song that has evolved rapidly and produces a melodic interplay between all four members. I will admit I was not a fan of this song when it debuted in Atlantic City but it was really a highlight of the set.

Photo © Phish – Phish From the Road

Making it’s 2014 debut after a 42-show absence, Page’s beautiful ballad “Beauty of a Broken Heart” followed. As Fishman began to play the opening notes of “David Bowie," my heart raced with excitement. What a great first set to see. “Bowie” has been particularly strong in the 3.0 era, and this version included a “Beauty of a Broken Heart” tease by Trey. While this version may not stand out in a ranking exercise, it was still a great “Bowie." Everyone in the venue was enjoying watching Chris Kuroda’s favorite song to light up as the band raged the song that most of the audience thought was the strong set closer. Happy birthday, Chris! Phish was not done with us yet, as the first “Golgi Apparatus” of 2014 started. Unfortunately, it was evident that it was the first one in 2014, but still was a lot of fun and you could feel synergy with the band the audience.

Setbreak, whew. That set definitely had major flow, energy and engaged playing by all four members. Being a girl at a Phish show is sometimes the best thing ever, like when you go at setbreak to use the restroom and get a drink all within eight minutes. Efficiency, it rules, giving more time to see friends scattered about the venue.

Image by Mike Hamad of Setlist Schematics

The second set began with “555." Would my dream of seeing this go type II happen? Not tonight, but it is still such an enjoyable song to see live, it just needs more room to fulfill its potential. The opening notes of my most seen song (60 times, 31%), “Chalk Dust Torture” followed. There have been some exquisite versions of “CDT” recently – Mann2 and the Randall’s monster – and this version shines with Page leading the jam, complete with a spice of “woo” and was left unfinished as they kept it rolling.

True to their word – and in my opinion quite the gift – every city gets their own “Fuego!” This “Fuego” didn’t have the punch that other versions have seen this tour. “Fuego” has incredible potential to become a piece you listen to and completely forget what song you’re hearing. “Fuego” -> ”Twist” was a beautiful segue and I heard the “Twist” coming a mile away. “Twist” was jammed short but honey sweet and certainly one could hope it would have lasted longer.

The “Twist”-> “Circus” may not have been what you were looking for but the segue is seamless. I personally love this song and associate the lyrics with the whole Phish experience. When the notes of “Piper” began, there was quite a bit of excitement in the crowd. This “Piper” was over way too quickly – bring back the slow build, please! – with Trey initiating another segue into “Rift" despite Fish’s best efforts to roll with the “Piper” jam.

Photo © Phish – Phish From the Road

Another new album number followed, “Waiting All Night,” which is catchy as hell, “just Sail On, Sail On." When the opening notes of “Reba” began, I had chills. Although a little rough in some of the composed parts, it was a beautiful “Reba." After the “Reba” I hoped we would get a “Hood” or “Slave," instead, we got “Character Zero’d." While not a favorite, you have to give it its due as a raging song. The encore was another 2014 debut, the cover “Loving Cup” which is well, always a beautiful buzz.

In summary, a good show with great segues and succinct improvisation, an excellent first set and a good second set which had high crowd energy despite interesting song choices in the flow.

Have a great time in Merriweather, guys! Remember always dance if you can, be kind to each other, and help someone if you can. And smile, dammit, you’re at a Phish show!

Setlist pictograms by Joseeen (available at Etsy)

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Center your soul and align your breathing with Surrender to the Flow Phish Yoga this Sunday, July 27th, before the second MPP show that evening. Sign up at www.surrendertotheflowyoga.org/register, then join Michael Levin and Kerry Contini at the Columbia Yoga Center from 2-3:30. Registration is only $20, and all proceeds benefit the Mockingbird Foundation and Street Yoga.

And in case you can't catch this one, check Surrender to the Flow's schedule for other upcoming events, including 8/31 with Tracy Stonaker and Brooke.

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There’s a reason Phish’s Summer trek only takes the band as far west as Commerce City, CO (where Phish will wrap things up with a trio of Labor Day weekend shows). The band will kick off a 12-date Fall tour that will take them to seven cities in the west beginning October 17 with its first-ever show at Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene, OR. Phish will play two consecutive nights at Santa Barbara Bowl (October 21 & 22), a venue Phish first played as openers for Santana in 1992, and its first show at Los Angeles’ Forum since Valentine’s Day 2003. The tour will conclude with Phish’s first shows at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. The three-night stand begins on Halloween night.

An online ticket request period for the Fall Tour is currently underway at http://tickets.phish.com/ and will end Sunday, August 3 at midnight ET. Tickets will go on sale to the general public beginning August 7. For complete ticketing details, please visit phish.com/tours.

PHISH 2014 FALL TOUR

10/17 Matthew Knight Arena, Eugene, OR
10/18 Key Arena, Seattle, WA
10/21 Santa Barbara Bowl, Santa Barbara, CA
10/22 Santa Barbara Bowl, Santa Barbara, CA
10/24 The Forum, Los Angeles, CA
10/25 Sleep Train Amphitheatre, San Diego, CA
10/27 Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, San Francisco, CA
10/28 Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, San Francisco, CA
10/29 Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, San Francisco, CA
10/31 MGM Grand, Las Vegas, NV
11/01 MGM Grand, Las Vegas, NV
11/02 MGM Grand, Las Vegas, NV

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Welcome to Phish.Net's Mystery Jam Monday, episode 180. The winner will receive an MP3 download courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. To win, be the first person to identify the song and date of the mystery jam clip. Each person gets one guess per day, with the second “day” starting after I post the hint. A hint will be posted on Tuesday if necessary, with the answer to follow on Wednesday. Now, bust out those Q-tips, open those ears wide, and get to work...

Hint (Posted 2014-07-22 11:06 am): To date, this is one of only two times that Phish has ever played this song.

Answer: This week's clip is taken from the 9/25/00 Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me & My Monkey, which was Phish's first -- and as of today, only -- post-White Album performance of the tune. Within less than 20 minutes of the hint being posted, @mcgrupp81 is now one win shy of becoming the fourth person to achieve emeritus status. After how quickly the past two hint-aided MJMs have been solved, could a move back to the hugely popular, absolutely indecipherable clues be in the cards? You'll have to check back here on Monday for MJM #181 to find out!

[This recap was a collaborative effort by some of the Mockingbird Foundation / phish.net staff, a.k.a. The Lawyers in Soccer Jerseys: @drewphish, @chrisbertolet, @cglush, @beverage_cart, @bestedog, @lumpblockclod and @pzerbo]

Phish is like a box of chocolates – you never know what you’re gonna get. The first two days of the weekend run at Chicago’s Northerly Island contained the usual assortment of hits and misses, peaks and valleys. Sometimes you could tell from the shape of the chocolates what you were likely to get, and that they would melt in your mouth – Friday’s “Reba,” “Golden Age” and “Piper,” or Saturday’s “Light” and “Hood.” Then there were the totally unexpected surprises – that funky pink chocolate that nobody knows what it is supposed to be, but turns out amazing, i.e. Friday’s out-of-nowhere type-II “Wombat.” We’re told to “never miss a Sunday show,” so let’s get to the action from the field.

Photo © Phish – Phish From the Road

“Gumbo” kicked off the festivities, the first “Gumbo” show opener since the only other instance on 11/28/98 Worcester. Trey took to the echoplex during Page’s solo, offering a more interesting "Gumbo" than usual. “Runaway Jim” was next, a solid version; you have to love in “Jim” pre-jam when Fishman is so good at laying off the cymbals to create space.

The first “Tela” since 7/31/13 Tahoe (39 shows) was next, though it seems like much longer for those who attended that Tahoe gig, as during that performance we were all re-assembling our brains after they had been pulverized by the Tahoe “Tweezer” that preceded it. Apparently the Randall's Island crew gets their wish a week later, as the chants that sounded like “Reba” were actually for “Tela.” Phish, a band that plays requests… as long as it is a song they want to play, when they want to play it.

Photo © Phish

A short soap box; skip a few paragraphs to return to the music. For those trying to enjoy the show at home, “Tela” also suffered the first of many drop-outs where the LivePhish stream crapped out. Let’s face it: LivePhish and their partner, nugs.net, are out of their element; they do not possess the core competencies in the tasks to which they’ve been assigned. Drop-outs during Phish webcasts are now routine, it’s part of the package… for Phish. Yet, other bands have figured this out, other service providers offer state-of-the-art quality.

Why is this? When it comes to technology of providing live and recorded music to fans online, Phish used to lead; now, they follow, and from way behind. At some point it becomes impossible to understand how such incompetence goes unaddressed. On Saturday the big dropout came at the high point of the show, the fantastic “Hood” jam. Sure, we can replay it later, but the core value add is the immediacy of the moment. Nugs was great at the internet... in the late 90s. It’s 2014. Further, the communication about the issues has been poor, at best, and cluelessly aloof and dismissive at worst. Let’s not even get started about the LivePhish app, last updated in 2010. 2010! It is like the bad boyfriend / crazy girlfriend that you know is going to go bad in the end, but you just can’t quit them. They know we love The Phish, they know we’re going to keep coming back and buying their products; our demand is de facto inelastic.

We have a great thing going here: the fans love Phish, and Phish loves their fans. So why not address this lingering point of friction so we can get back to the love-making? The offering isn’t cheap – it wasn’t that long ago when $20 was the price of a ticket to the actual show. So, what do we need to do to make this a priority in the Phish org? It sure would be nice to put these issues behind us. We humbly request more attention to these matters by those in charge.

Photo by Robert Henriksen

Back to the action, we were happy to have the stream back… even for “The Line.” “The Line” is our favorite Lumineers cover (j/k!) that they do, Phish’s “One Shining Moment” of IT. Fishman keeps finding extra gears in this version, the rest of the band seemingly wanted to be done, but he took them on a couple bonus laps. “Scent of a Mule” started with Trey having trouble finding, whaddaya call them, “notes.” Fishman just doesn't want to lay out, he's kicking so much ass and knows it. This is like '93 Fishman, when Trey finally gave him permission to change the tempo. This turned into a very spirited and deliberately weird “Mule” duel. Page walked over to Fish’s Marimba Lumina and held candles over Fish. But as we all know, you can't hold a candle to Fishman. Trey joined in on drums, Mike added cowbell and cymbals, the whole affair had a ceremonial feel. A drum circle, Phish-style! This “Mule” was a real treat, showcasing a band that can still get weird and have fun.

“Bathtub Gin” brought us back down to earth a bit, following the soaring performances at SPAC and Randall’s Island. Other than Fishman, Page has grabbed our attention the most this tour. He is playing better than we've ever heard him play, as evidenced in this “Gin.” At least on this night, the hope of “Gin” opening up to its brilliant flowering plumage would have to wait, but a solid version nonetheless. “Silent in the Morning” was next in its now-ensconced "Horse"-less incarnation.

“Maze” is one of the few hard/fast songs that seems to be played better in 3.0. This “Maze” featured “Mission: Impossible” teasing and was well-played overall with exceptional rhythm playing by both Trey and Page, and Fish is, again, killing it. This “Maze” broke no new ground whatsoever, but how much does that matter? Not much.

“Ocelot” is so obviously “Tennessee Jed,” how can you not love it? It's probably the best or at least second-best jam in many of the sets in which it is played. The only “problem” with “Ocelot” is that they haven't done more with it, it has so much potential – keeping with the Dead analogy, “Ocelot” has a huge upside, like a ‘73 “Playin’ in the Band,” or even a poor-man’s/first set “Dark Star.” There was a stretch in 2012 where “Ocelot” got better and more intense with every version to the point where a breakthrough type II version seemed like an inevitability. Then that stopped happening. A spirited “Walls of the Cave” closed out this solid and entertaining set.

Setlist pictograms by Joseeen (available at Etsy)

“Down with Disease” stepped back into the role it knows best, launching the second set festivities. The opening of the jam contained some very “Gin”-like phrase from Trey. The Echoplex is definitely the new Whammy, in that it can sometimes offer a crutch when Trey is struggling for direction, as he did during the early phases of this jam. Finally there was something to build on with Page taking rhythmic control. While not reaching the peaks of earlier offerings during this tour, this fourteen-minute “Disease” offered high hopes for the rest of the set.

“Winterqueen” followed – a tune that has already demonstrated a much higher ceiling than many gave it credit for upon it’s arrival on the Phish scene. This version however serves more of a breather and bridge role. It also included an odd missed pedal by Trey that resulted in an abrupt and jarring modem screech. “Hello! You’ve got mail!” “Theme from the Bottom” extended this mellow interlude with a similarly placid yet flowing vibe, gradually building and blooming while staying true to the song’s foundation.

“Mike’s Song” stuck to it’s type-I power guns (odds of the much sought-after “Mike’s” ‘second jam’ were taking action at 85-1 against). This is said as a compliment: this offering was more or less by the books, but infused some much needed energy into the proceedings.

When they opted for “The Wedge” there was an audible deflation in the crowd. Were we in for a rare Sunday edition of the Saturday Night Special? Sure, we love “The Wedge.” It’s a great tune, but one that hardly ever strays from the confines of structure – it’s a classic first set song – and this set was frankly primed for some explosive release. But, Phish is like a box of chocolates.

The dreaded “box” was smashed into a million pieces, propelling the band to hitherto unexplored space from it’s familiar “Wedge” retreat. This was so unexpected and great that it left many of us speechless. There were several almost-teases and jams including “Roll with the Changes” (REO Speedwagon) – "keep on rollin'" = "we keep it rollin'?" Think about it – and “Paradise City” (Guns N' Roses). Page absolutely made the “Wedge” jam, always offering an idea. He listens so well, it's astonishing. At 11:00 Fish drops back into the “Wedge” beat. But Trey won't let it go, and starts with the ascending butter riff. All four guys are contributing strongly to this jam that is indisputably the most creative take on the song to date. Much like the 7/18/14 “Wombat” or 11/2/13’s “Theme” it was the element of surprise that sent this killer jam over the top. You never know what you’re gonna get.

@ Scott Harris Photography

The now comfortable position of “Ghost” in the middle of Mike’s Groove fed off the vibrant energy of “The Wedge.” What a turnaround! It was amazing how this band can go from sounding tired to sounding revitalized in just one song; they seemingly have “the switch” at their disposal. The intensity of this “Ghost” is like playoff hockey or the best World Cup match, the latter parts of the jam were frenetic in build and excitement, total hose. “Ghost-a-paug” is a real thing, and it isn’t taking prisoners. “Weekapaug” keeps it rolling with what is on first blush one of the best versions of 3.0.

Before the conclusion of “Weekapaug” – that included “Stash” and, sigh, “San Ho Zay” teases – the band returned to the “Ghost” theme for a full band… something. Is it a “tease?” A “jam?” A “reprise?” Is it “Ghost” > ”Weekapaug” -> “Ghost” -> “Weekapaug?” Reasonable cases can be made for any of these, resulting in a bunch of overeducated and hyper-obsessive Phish dorks throwing their hands up. What was it? Hell if we know for sure – our crack team will figure that out at their earliest opportunity – but it was sure awesome! We’re going with “Ghost jam” for now, hope that’s cool with you.

The gig rounded out with a fiery “First Tube” and an added-time “Character Zero” for good measure. What a stretch they just played! Fan-fucking-tastic. After the inaugural visit to this venue last year that was marred by force majeure, the weather mercifully cooperated and the venue seemed by all accounts to work well for Phish fans. The band had set the bar incredibly high – perhaps unreasonably high for this early in the tour – at Randall's Island, a set of shows that arguably represent the Crown Jewels of Phish runs since their 2009 return to the stage. They didn’t always reach those highs in Chicago, but these shows were each excellent in their own right, showcasing Phish at the peak of their game where even the “average” shows are rather great.

Finally, we’d like to drop a once-in-a-blue-moon reminder that the all-volunteer efforts of the staff here at phish.net are offered in support of our charity, The Mockingbird Foundation, that raises funds for music education for kids. If what we do is valuable to you, we’d like to encourage you to consider a small donation to support our work, which seeks to “pay it forward” to the next generation of music performers and appreciators. We’d also like to thank everyone who organized and participated in the events that benefited the foundation this past weekend in Chicago, including Surrender to the Flow Yoga, Screens ’n’ Suds, The Mothership Art Collective, PhanArt, as well as our friends at Rock Bottom Brewery. It is a humble privilege and distinct honor to join with Phish and their fans in charitable endeavors, on top of all the fun we have enjoying the band.

We’ll see you back here after the break, reporting from Charlotte.

Photo © Phish – Phish From the Road

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[For this recap we'd like to welcome guest blogger Craig Hillwig) -PZ]

FADE IN

EXT: WAREHOUSE, CHICAGO MEATPACKING DISTRICT

AL “CORAN” CAPONE: “Red, I got a job for you.”

ERNEST “RED” ANASTASIO: “Yeah Boss, you name it.”

CAPONE: “We’re takin’ out Wilson tonight and I need you to handle it.”

ANASTASIO: “Sure thing Boss, same deal as Tessio?” Anastasio pulls out a Tommy Gun.

CAPONE: “No, no, no you goombah.” Capone hands Anastasio a small pistol.

ANASTASIO (incredulous): With dis?

CAPONE: It’s called a Saturday Night Special. It’s a compact, inexpensive, small-caliber handgun with perceived low quality, according to Wikipedia. Just get in, pop him cleanly, and get out. When you’ve finished him off, dump it in Lake Michigan up on the North Side.

Photo © Phish – Phish From the Road

ANASTASIO: Wouldn’t you prefer something more creative? I’ve brought my Echoplex and Ross Compressor.

CAPONE: I just want you to get the job done. I am just a businessman, giving the people what they want. All I do is satisfy a public demand. These are some quotes attributed to me by Wikipedia.

ANASTASIO: O.K., boss. Can I still use my effects?

CAPONE: Sure kid, whatever.

ANASTASIO: Anything else, boss?

CAPONE: Yeah, I want this to go down in the history books as the Christmas Massacre.

ANASTASIO: But Boss, it’s the middle of July!

CAPONE: I said Christmas!! And one more thing.

ANASTASIO: Yeah, Boss?

CAPONE: I’m changing your nickname to “Ripcord.”

END SCENE

Photo © Phish – Phish From the Road

Phish dumped a classic Saturday Night Special into Lake Michigan for its second of three shows at Chicago’s First Merit Pavilion at Northerly Island. True to form, Saturday night’s offering featured compact, inexpensive, small caliber offerings of perceived low quality, while giving (some plurality of) the people what they want – a largely upbeat, danceable rock and funk show with little down time.

Set the First featured songs heavy in the rotation. Each of the first five: “Moma Dance,” “Wolfman’s Brother,” “Devotion to a Dream,” “46 Days” and “Yarmouth Road” were played two shows earlier at the-shed-formerly-known-as-Pine-Knob, and none of them strayed from its standard first set formulation.

“Devotion to a Dream” showcased Phish’s reinvigorated ensemble vocals, perhaps attributable in part to the direction and encouragement of Fuego producer Bob Ezrin. Trey wins the most-improved award for his seemingly expanded range and more mature stylings. As a song, “Devotion” is continuing to develop, particularly the highly danceable outro jam which draws from the same boogie woogie back beat and Trey guitar phrasings that we have come to love in favorites like “Back on the Train.”

Setlist pictograms by Joseeen (available at Etsy)

Stepping back, the performance quality up to this point has been terrific – crisp and assertive, but not rushed or perfunctory. This is a night where the perceived low quality of the Saturday Night Special is misleading, because when deployed correctly, the Special is efficient but effective.

“Brian and Robert” brought the first “bust out” of the night, after a 38-show gap since Tahoe ‘13. While well-received, this version seemed to suffer from a lack of practice, demonstrating how even Phish’s seemingly more simple numbers have complexities that need to be mastered.

Photo © Phish – Phish From the Road

Rote first-set versions of “Wingsuit,” “Tube” and “Free” came next with a gap chart average of four. The six versions of “Wingsuit” this tour have been distributed evenly between the first and second set. It’s too early to tell whether “Wingsuit” is still trying to pick a team, or is merely comfortable going both ways.

“Roggae” followed as the second gap-buster (11) of the set. We love “Roggae” and so should you, but this version was a tad flubby and did not have much to distinguish itself. A solid “Heavy Things” set up another strong “Run Like an Antelope” to close the set. Antelope featured a tease that started off sounding like a botched “Smoke on the Water” by Deep Purple until the intended victim – They Might Be Giants’ “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)” – was confirmed with some vocal accompaniment from Fishman.

As a setbreak aside, I want to offer plaudits, kudos, and Clif Bars to LivePhish director Eli Tishberg for the outstanding video production this tour (I was not present at the show and am reporting via couch tour). The choices of camera angles and tasteful special effects like double exposures and artistic transitions have given the webcasts a more polished feel that enhances the at-home experience.

Set two continued the theme with a great-on-paper-totally-so-fun-to-be-there setlist of songs that – with one exception – failed to realize the improvisational potential that fans have come to associate with them. “Carini” and “Waves” reprised their combination from SPAC3 with fairly standard versions. “Waves” came to a stop before the band kept Oprah’s promise alive with the seventh “Fuego” of the tour. This version featured several inexplicable “Little Drummer Boy” quotes from Trey. Because Christmas in July.

Setlist pictograms by Joseeen (available at Etsy)

“Fuego” continued to dominate the set for another 40 or so minutes. Along the way, the band teased complete versions of “Twist,” “Light” (extended, with some of the only type II jamming of the night), “Twenty Years Later,” “Harry Hood,” and “Cavern.” “Harry Hood” featured a fun hard rock jam that strayed from form just enough to qualify for a type II asterisk before getting marred by excessive video buffering.

Phish continued the theme through the encore, packing three tunes into fifteen minutes with time running out. First-of-tour versions of “Grind” and “Bug” set up “Suzy Greenberg” for a raucous, “Fuego”-inflected send-off.

Big hopes for Sunday night, amirite?

© Scott Harris Photography

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