PHISH will perform four shows to close-out 2017 at Madison Square Garden, on Dec. 28-31, 2017. You may request tickets through Phish Tickets. The request period ends Monday, Oct. 2, 2017, at 10:00 a.m. e.t.

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Welcome to the 292nd edition of Phish.Net's Mystery Jam Monday, the third and second-hardest of September. The winner will receive an MP3 download code courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. To win, be the first person to identify the song and date of all three mystery clips – these clips are connected by a theme, but the theme needn't be part of the correct answer. Each person gets one guess to start – if no one guesses correctly, I will post a hint on Tuesday around 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET, after which each person gets one more guess before I reveal the correct answer on Wednesday. Good luck and boogie on!

Hint:

Answer: Congrats to our favorite Canadian teacher, @ChalkDustTeacher, on his third win. This week, after recognizing the Minneapolis Bowie, he used the hint to find two other "alternate universe" A Live One selections, Phish's classic first live album to be released on vinyl next month. That's right, the 11/26/94 "David Bowie," the 12/2/94 "It's Ice" outro, and the 11/2/94 "Possum" all come from shows featuring A Live One selections ("Slave," "Gumbo," and "Tweezer" respectively). If you thought this week's puzzle was hard, wait till you see MJM293! *scrambles to put together puzzle*

[Post is from Phish.net user @swittersdc – ed.]

This week, the Helping Friendly Podcast is back with a very special interview with Katy Tur. As most of you know, she's known for her Phish banter on air, and probably better known as the host of MSNBC Live, which airs every weekday afternoon at 2 PM ET. She also sits in on MTP Daily and other NBC news programs.

We had a great conversation with Katy, that ranged from her favorite Phish tunes to a history of her fandom, and to her book, which comes out today, September 12, Unbelievable: My Front-Row Seat to the Craziest Campaign in American History. Order it now!

You can subscribe to the Helping Friendly Podcast on iTunes, or listen through the player below the jump. The HF Pod team is me, @mdphunk, @rowjimmy and @brad10s. Thanks for your support!

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Welcome to the 291st edition of Phish.Net's Mystery Jam Monday, the second and second-easiest of September, and our first double-double (animal style) since the 18 year anniversary of the Camden CDT. The winner will receive an MP3 download code courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. To win, be the first person to identify the song and date of both mystery clips. Each person gets one guess to start – if no one guesses correctly, I will post a hint on Tuesday around 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET, after which each person gets one more guess before I reveal the correct answer on Wednesday. Good luck!

Hint:

Photo © Stan Shebs, used under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Answer: Congrats to first-time winner @prab_mode on winning this week's MJM – he realized that the picture of koi, Japanese fish, likely indicated that this week's theme was... Japanese Phish. With that in mind, he quickly identified the 6/15/00 "Down With Disease" and the 7/30/99 "Stash," both fantastic jams in their own right. I love the commentary on the blog this week – good stuff. And I'm glad folks realize that the primary objective of the MJM is to introduce you or remind you of awesome Phish jams – the game and the code are just the icing on the cake. In the spirit of sharing awesome jams with each other, I've put my FLAC copy of the 6/15/00 DSBD + AUD matrix – from the band's mix, straight to DAT – right here (the FOB from that night sounds fantastic too). See you Monday for MJM292?

[Post is courtesy of dot net user @swittersdc.]

There’s a new episode of the Helping Friendly Podcast up this week, where we recapped the Phish run at Dick’s. We also did Quick Hits for the first 2 nights, which you can check out in the player below. We have two fan recaps and play some tunes through the audience recordings, which sounded really good.

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[Please welcome new user @JerrysMissingFinger, Ean Ward, who sent us the following.]

Hey Phish.net, thought you might enjoy this. I am what tends to be a younger fan these days at age twenty. On Sunday night at Dick's, I was only able to attend the show alone, and was pretty stoked for what would be show #6 for me. While sitting down to relax before the show, I started chatting with the guy next to me about the run of shows.

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Another summer has passed, the ninth since the opening notes of "Fluffhead" kickstarted what has come to be called Phish 3.0. Phish has evolved significantly since then. They are more apt to play extended jams than in those early 3.0 days. They've also built up a significant catalog of original 3.0 material - about a third of the songs played in any given show can be expected to have made their debut since Barack Obama's inauguration (god, weren't those the days?). They've also created a new traditional run of shows: The Labor Day run in Colorado or, as Phish fans more simply call it: Dick's.

Last night concluded the seventh annual Dick's run. Most years it seems like the excitement and anticipation of Phish tour reaches a frothy peak at Dick's. This year was different. The Baker's Dozen was such an exciting event for so many obvious reasons that it seemed like it sucked a little air out of the Dick's balloon. (The same thing happened in 2015 after Magnaball.) There was no way Phish could top (or even equal) what they accomplished in 13 shows at MSG in a single three night run. Of course that made it all the more remarkable that on Friday night they threw down probably the best set of the year (at least in this recapper's opinion). Conventional wisdom was that Saturday was a significant step back from Friday. What would Sunday bring?

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Welcome to the 290th edition of Phish.Net's Mystery Jam Monday, the first* and easiest of September. The winner will receive an MP3 download code courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. To win, be the first person to identify the song and date of the mystery clip. Each person gets one guess to start – if no one guesses correctly, I will post a hint on Tuesday, after which each person gets one more guess before I reveal the correct answer on Wednesday around 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET. Good luck!

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

Answer: Come stumble MJM beatin' worker, our winner is @JezmundBezerker [sic], who made short labor of this holiday mystery jam for his first W: 9/2/12 "Sand" from Dick's 2012, five years ago this week (already?). Watch this classic rendition in HD here, now, if you don't remember its glory – and drop by on Monday if you're up for a challenge: we'll get two clips for the first time in a while.

[Thank you to Dr. Stephanie Jenkins for this recap, and to her friend Yaron Marcus for the fabulous photography.]

This year’s Philosophy School of Phish concluded in late August. For the fourth summer in a row, I’ve had the privilege of teaching this course, offered through Oregon State University’s Ecampus program. During this session, I introduced fifteen non- (or not yet-) phans to our favorite band through an eight-week survey of the philosophy of art and music. Witnessing student’s reactions to their first Phish shows and answering their questions about what Dr. Jnan Blau has termed the “Phish phenomenon” helps me to remember what it’s like to be a Phish neophyte and gain some reflective distance on what it means to be a phan of Phish.

In preparation for writing this recap, I’ve been reflecting on the significance of Phish’s annual Labor Day tradition. Without question, Dick’s is my favorite spot for seeing Phish; it’s the only venue for which I’ve had the honor of attending every show. Each year, the stadium has been blessed with numerous unanticipated song placements, contenders for “best of” versions (such as the 9/1/2012 “Light”, 8/31/2012 “Undermind,” 8/29/14 “Simple,” 9/2/2011 “Slave,” and many more), top-notch jamming, and creative setlist pranks. Over the course of seven years, Dick’s has acquired a mysterious, otherworldly atmosphere that evades linguistic description. It’s certainly not the only sacred site for Phish phans; Madison Square Garden, Watkins Glen, and, of course, Big Cypress, for example, carry their own mystical charm and historic weight. What is so special about Dick’s? Why does my annual journey to Commerce City feel like a pilgrimage?

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[Recap courtesy of Pete Hoherd, user @FunkyCFunkyDo.]

If you haven’t already peeked at the setlist from last night’s show, good. If you have, who can blame you. If you have, but haven’t listened to the show, having only been able to restrain your jaw from gravity’s (read: Phish’s) best efforts to detach it from your body, please read on, as this may well serve as a review and medical advice.

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[The following is written by user @Ertle_Turtle.]

One early summer morning, I awoke to a man I did not know standing over me while I slept. As a single mother to two small children, the trauma I experienced from having an intruder in my home while all three of us were sleeping soundly is one I do not wish on my worst enemy. Thankfully, we are all safe.

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[We'd like to thank Paul Jakus (@paulj) for this guest installment on "Reba"'s absence at Dick's – ed.]

In 2011, Dick’s Sporting Goods Park became a venue of lore almost instantaneously, a place where Phish’s Greatest Hits appear in unconventional set placements with spectacular jamming. Except, curiously, "Reba." The lack of a Dick’s "Reba" was a topic of discussion going into last year’s run, and it seemed quite unusual when, once again, it was not played. Maybe so, but then again, maybe not.

Since 2011, "Reba" has been played 33 times in 254 shows, or about once every 7.7 shows. "Reba" has taken long vacations before—a couple of double-digit gaps in 1997, and again in 1999 when she had a 25 show gap—and she’s just come off the longest gap to date: 31 shows between July 23, 2016 and July 21, 2017. Given these long gaps, is "Reba"’s absence from Dick’s really all that odd?

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Welcome to the 289th edition of Phish.Net's Mystery Jam Monday, the hardest and most difficult of August, which I randomly decided would be the easiest MJM month this year. The winner will receive an MP3 download code courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. To win, be the first person to identify the song and date of the mystery clip. Each person gets one guess to start – if no one guesses correctly, I will post a hint on Tuesday around 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET, after which each person gets one more guess before I reveal the correct answer on Wednesday. Good luck!

Hint:

Photo © telafree, used under Creative Commons license

Answer: Congrats to @stillwaitin, who no longer has to wait for another LivePhish code after winnig his or her second MJM (and first in more than two years). After seeing Trey wearing the ice hockey uniform of the Philadelphia Flyers, who played at The Spectrum for many years, @stillwaitin correctly identified the 12/15/95 "It's Ice" (played at The Spectrum). Come back Monday when we keep it easy for MJM290.

From now until August 27th at 11:59PM PT, enter our #ILOVEPHISHDICKS Giveaway for a chance to win Two (2) 3-Day Round Trip Shuttle Passes to Dick’s Sporting Goods Park from CID Colorado.

How to Enter

1. Upload a photo/video or provide your text response to: Why I Love Phish Dick’s? To a public Twitter or Instagram post using #ILOVEPHISHDICKS; or

2. Use this entry form

A Winner will be drawn at random and notified on August 28th by 11:59PM PT. One entry per person. The winner will receive Two (2) 3-Day Round Trip CID Shuttle Passes good from either of the Denver pick-up locations (Thirsty Lion at Union Station and Illegal Pete’s Colfax) to Dick’s Sporting Goods Park on September 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. Can’t wait? CID Shuttle passes are on sale now!

We ALL love Dick’s. Check out all giveaway entries here.

Questions? Contact Phish.net user @IAMASTONE or email Ali at AliStone@mbird.org.

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Welcome to the 288th edition of Phish.Net's Mystery Jam Monday, the second-hardest of the easiest MJM month of this year – where that leaves it overall is an exercise best left to the reader. The winner will receive an MP3 download code courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. To win, be the first person to identify the song and date of the mystery clip. Each person gets one guess to start – if no one guesses correctly, I will post a hint on Tuesday around 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET, after which each person gets one more guess before I reveal the correct answer on Wednesday. Good luck!

Hint: The word that comes to mind: portmanteau.

Answer: Congrats to first-time winner @wforwumbo who knew what a portmanteau was and correctly identified the 11/27/96 "Down with Disease" (-> JJLC > SOAMule, Tweezer -> Sweet Emotion -> DWD), known by many as the "Diseezer." While it isn't the most popular year from a fan or MJM clip selection perspective, there are certainly some great jams / sets / shows across 1996, the year before Phish became a weapon of mass destruction. Come back Monday for MJM289, the hardest of the month.