[We would like to thank Ian Zigel (@ripenesswasall) aka @memehendge on Instagram for recapping last night's show. -Ed.]

Hockey Arena shows in the fall are a quintessential part of the Phish experience, particularly in the northeast where the band cut its teeth 4 decades ago and where the core of the fanbase resides. It’s no secret that Phish delivers the goods musically on fall tour; summer tours tend to be experimental and playful as the band searches for a new sound, slowly building up potential energy, which is actualized in the fall with shows that can be a bit more intense, ballsy, and spooky.

Everything about these autumnal happenings - huddling together on a chilly but sprawling shakedown street, sipping on hot chocolate or apple cider, visible traces of our spirit family’s presence in every imaginable corner of an unsuspecting little town, catching up with your tour friends from around the country, and gasp-inducing sets of music – make up the ineffable but unmistakable vibe of fall tour.

On October 27th 2024, we find ourselves returning to the storied “MVP Arena” in Albany, NY for the third and final night of a charity benefit run for The Divided Sky Foundation. Of course, this run also became a celebration of the life and legacy of Phil Lesh when the heavy news of his passing broke on Friday morning.

Night one’s poignant “Box of Rain” opener and bass-forward, dead-esque vibe was a cathartic and perfect eulogy. Saturday was very much a raging “Saturday special” for a full house that got delightfully evil and deranged throughout the second set.

For a new fan, a fall hockey arena run is a rite of passage, a phish-mitzvah if you will, and I felt that Friday and Saturday night’s shows would both be excellent first shows to introduce a newcomer to this expensive hobby. Dare I say I felt a bit nostalgic this weekend, reminiscing on my first run of fall shows in Providence, RI and Uniondale, NY 5 years ago, a weekend that changed my life for better or worse. My “Dick in a Blender” moment was the glorious, multi-pronged “Harry Hood” unleashed at the Dunkin Donuts Center on 11/30/19. Alas I am still waiting for the band to send me an autographed vitamix, but I’m sure it’s on their to do list *cough cough.*

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Once upon a time some late October shows in upstate New York might have meant Fall Tour, or, maybe if you were lucky going back thirty years, a Halloween Run. There was plenty of precedent leading up to this single three-night run to inform what to expect, though maybe the most relevant is the more recent duo of benefit shows at SPAC last summer following the devastating floods in the region. In this case the ‘hometown’ shows were in support of the Divided Sky Foundation, the residential recovery center in Vermont founded by Trey to help support others struggling with addiction. And before I go any further, let me first encourage anyone reading this recap to make a donation to the foundation if you haven’t already. Maybe more importantly, if you or anyone you love is struggling with addiction, please know that help is out there. “All you have to do,” Trey offers, “is walk in the door.”

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[We would like to thank Matthew Golia (@mgolia6) for recapping last night's show. Please support The Divided Sky Foundation. -Ed.]

(This recap is dedicated to my Dad and his best friend Mark)

Phish has graced Albany with its presence 18 times, starting in 1989 with a sketchily confirmed appearance at Pauly’s Hotel (setlist lost to the ether). After 3 jaunts at the Palace Theater between ‘92 and ‘93, the band finally arrived, Arena-style, in 1995 at The Knick.

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[This post is courtesy of Christy Articola, thank you Christy! -Ed.]

Here is Surrender to the Flow's Albany 2024 issue! We think you're really going to love this issue!

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Feeling grateful for Trey's sobriety and decades of generosity, including the Beacon Jams during a tremendously difficult time for the world four years ago?

Please consider celebrating Trey's life by donating in his honor in any amount that you can to the Divided Sky Foundation, the WaterWheel Foundation, or The Mockingbird Foundation, three charities that Trey cares greatly about and that he and Phish routinely support.

We love you, Trey!

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Thanks to Jnan Blau (@thephunkydrb) for this exciting update!]

Greetings, phans and phellow phreaks! Your attention, please... Phish Studies 101 is now officially ready to go. A lecture series by and for Phish nerds across the Phishiverse. A webinar series that will absolutely scratch your itch to love and appreciate Phish even more, experience and understand the band, the experience, and the culture ever more deeply.

Phish Studies 101, the three-part webinar series that will probably change your life, is upcoming in October, is super exciting and thought-provoking, and is ready for you to register. For more information on Phish Studies 101, see this recent blog post from the recent past, as seen right here on our beloved Phish Dot Net. There, you will find a full write-up of what this wonderful Phish Studies 101 affair is all about, the backstory, what you stand to learn, how your life will change, etcetera.

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[“From the Forum” is a running blog feature that highlights quality posts from the Phish.net forum to share more broadly. This edition was originally posted by @Flubhead on July 13, 2024. If you would like to listen along to the versions of songs mentioned in this blog post, open the accompanying playlist on phish.in. -Ed.]

The long and rollicking history of the Mike's Groove suite is full of ups, downs, peaks, valleys, and a whole lot of repetition. The first “Mike's Song” that we know of happened on 5/3/1985 at UVM. An auspicious thing, to be born around the same time as the band itself - 5/3/1985 is only the sixth show that we have a recording of. [While the official debut of “Mike’s Song” is listed as 3/16/85, and there is also a version listed in setlists before THAT from 2/1/85, which may be a misidentified tape of 2/3/86, 5/3/85 is indeed the first “Mike’s” that we have on tape.” -Ed.]

The first “I Am Hydrogen” that we have a recording of would appear on 10/15/86 at Hunt's in Burlington. The first performance that we know of was on 4/6/1985, but there's no extant recording of this show as of July 2024. Did its debut predate the actual debut of "Mike's Song"? Another mystery from the early days... It wasn't attached to "Mike's Song" at first. That would happen on 8/29/1987 at The Ranch in Burlington. The first “Hydrogens” seemed to be searching for an appropriate placement in their sets, but it most often preceded the nascent “Who Do? We Do?,” which itself was searching for its appropriate placement.

“Weekapaug Groove, the last piece of the M>I>W puzzle, debuted (we think!) on 7/23/88 at Pete’s Phabulous Phish Phest. “Weekapaug” was preceded by “Hydrogen” in its debut performance; no other song would precede it until 1992, when on 5/14/92 in Port Chester, they played the trifle “Wait” before “Weekapaug.” Clearly weird things were afoot in spring 1992, but dropping “Hydrogen” in favor of some other song preceding “Weekapaug” in the Mike’s Groove suite wouldn’t really begin in earnest until 1993.

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[We would like to thank @LizardwithaZ and @OrangeSox for contributing this to the blog. - Ed.]

It’s usually difficult to see the exact trajectory of a tour happening in real time. Some may make statements early-on about it being the “best tour since ______” or any other number of superlatives, often rooted in the bias of recency, especially when mixed with the potent fuel of attendance. On the other hand, one might claim it’s been subpar, with not enough bustouts, predictable setlists, or “the band is playing “Evolve” too much!”

Summer 2024 definitely falls into the previous category, with general acclaim and consistent superlatives. Building on an already exciting year–the band’s improbable 40th–following a Gamehendge spectacle for New Year’s, the most exciting Mexico run yet, the band’s first visit to Sphere in April, a new album before summer tour, and more media exposure than in years, it all challenges the view that in “even years” Phish is somehow less awesome than in odd numbered years.

Since the dust has settled, can we get a better sense of the tour as a whole? The hills and valleys become more clearly identifiable. We see the tight rotation of songs around solid setlist construction, a wide variety of jams that shone through but others that depended on what seemed like I-IV tropes, the individual band members’ influences and contributions, and a million little things in between.

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The 9th Annual Runaway Open (8/31 in Denver) featured a lyrics contest on the sponsor signs, continuing a pattern we started with the 8th. This year, that same bottom-right corner of the signs had the date of a previous Dick's show and either "first" or "last", referring to the first or last word that Phish sang at each of those shows. Those words, in hole order, made a sentence - and the first golfer to text me the sentence during the tournament, won $75 in pro shop credit. Only one participated - could you be the second to solve it?

And, yes, 15 sponsor signs on 18 holes. Hole #2 was challenges from a Backswing pro, Hole #10 was an optional hole-in-one contest ($10 entry, $10,000 prize), and Hole #17 was the closest-to-pin contest. A full wrap-up on those events, and all tournament results, is coming next week...

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Thanks to Jnan Blau (@thephunkydrb) for this exciting news!]

This, dear reader, is obviously a blog post on our beloved Dot Net. But it is also more than that. This here is also a heads-up, as well as a bit of an enjoinder. Maybe this is also a touch of a plea. It is certainly hoping to function as a woo-ing (not during-a-jam wooing, no no!) — you know, as in to woo (v.) someone. Most assuredly, this is an enthusiastic and genuine invitation to you, my fellow phans.

Indeed, I come bearing what is exciting news about something that maybe should be on your radar and that, it is hoped, will be of interest to many of you.

This writing comes to you on behalf of Phish Studies. Some of you have perhaps heard of us, and of the events we have been putting on the last several years. The first one was on the campgrounds of The Gorge in 2018; the last one happened this past spring. In a nutshell, gatherings of folks who are scholars/academics who turn their keen eyes and ears — and even keener minds and hearts — to unpacking and analyzing and theorizing and deeply appreciating this phenomenon we know as Phish and phandom. Maybe you caught wind of our most recent event, the second official, interdisciplinary Phish Studies Conference, held in May of this year at Oregon State University?

Before I get to the concrete news and invite, allow me to set the stage just a bit more...

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[We would like to thank David “Zzyzx” Steinberg (@zzyzx) for recapping last night's show. If you like this kind of writing you can find more on The Phish Stats Facebook Page, Twitter (mainly for Phish content), and Bluesky (much more present and engaged in conversation). -Ed.]

9/1/24 was Phish’s 42^nd time playing Dick’s Sporting Goods Park. Only three venues – Madison Square Garden, Nectar’s, and The Front – have reached that status. For fans of science fiction, that is a bit of a sacred number. In Douglas Adams’ humorous The Hitchhiker’s Gude to the Galaxy, a massive computer is built to discover the answer to the ultimate question: that of life, the universe, and everything. It was a tricky one that took millions of years and when the distant descendants of the programmers and philosophers who created Deep Thought finally got the information, it turned out that the answer to the question of life, the universe, and everything is – well – 42. You see, it’s that no one really quite knows what the question is. Oh, sorry, spoilers for a 45-year-old book. Oops!

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[We would like to thank Rob (@mikh2wg) for recapping last night's show. -Ed.]

So far, this has been a pretty good vacation. My friend and I got into Denver on Friday. We hadn’t planned it, but our flights landed within 30mins of each other. We pulled into the first taco place we spotted, and it was wonderful. The hotel had our room ready when we got there. We saw a pretty damn good Phish show Friday night. A great start to the trip. My friend recently adopted a four year old and I have had a lot of stress at work so far this year, so we were both ready to relax. We started off Saturday with a hike at Lair O’ the Bear.

It was an easy walk, with the biggest incline coming from the parking lot. There were beautiful views and a babbling creek. Lots of time to look out at nature and muse about all the people who have lived and worked in these hills before us. On the way home, we spotted a sign for something called Dinosaur Ridge so we checked that out too. They had a bunch of dino tracks and some cool rock formations. The brontosaurus bulges were our favorites. Then it was back to the hotel to enjoy a few hours of rest and relaxation before lot dinner and showtime. At this point, I may have blissed out too much on nature and hot tubs to bring an entirely objective eye to Dicks’ Night 3, but I will do my best. I take my responsibility to dot net very seriously.

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[We would like to thank Steve Plock (@howiep) aka @steve81573937, drummer for The Curls , and manager of the world famous iO Theater in Chicago, and Justin Mercer @piperpiperworm for recapping last night's show. -Ed.]

In a year of Phish already marked by so many monumental events and runs, it’s natural for anyone coming to Colorado this weekend to wonder how the band is going to treat these final four shows of summer tour.

2024 came off the heels of the band’s first full Gamehendge performance in 24 years, then came the Mexico run that showed the band stretching out to new lengths in their jams, a hint of things to come later in the year. In April, Phish took the Sphere for a four night run that makes the Dead and Co subsequent performances look like Cocomelon for hippies, and the last two months have seen some of the longest and most exploratory jamming from the band in their entire history, culminating in their first festival in 9 years.

There isn’t much to say about Mondegreen that hasn’t been said in other reviews here, so I’ll only add that as we drove home from Delaware back to Chicago for 13 hours, I couldn’t help but wonder how Dick’s was going to feel as the coda on a year filled with so many milestones and highly memorable moments.

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[We would like to thank Josh Cohron (@cohron1) aka @JoshCohron for recapping last night's show. -Ed.]

When a band has been around for as long as Phish has and has created the devoted following they have, expectations are naturally going to arise. The fanbase has little idea how much our expectations are felt by the band. When there is a collective disappointment or unrest among Phish fans, does Phish know?

This question was on my mind as I traveled out for the show. With the abrupt, confusing ending to Mondegreen eleven days prior, would the band want to come out firing in their first show since? Did they even need to, given what happened seemed out of their control?

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[“From the Forum” is a new blog feature series that highlights quality posts from the Phish.net forum to share more broadly. This inaugural edition was originally posted by @Profjibboo on August 18, 2024. -Ed.]

38 - The number of shows Phish has played at Dick's Sporting Goods Park. In 2022, Dick's passed The Front to become Phish's 2nd most played venue of all time. It trails only Madison Square Garden, which has had 83 shows. Dick's accounts for 2% of all Phish shows. Commerce City is also securely #3 on the most played cities list, behind New York City and Burlington. At the end of 2024, it will have a 10 show advantage over #4, Noblesville, IN.

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