[We would like to thank Alaina Stamatis (Farmhose on dot net and Fad Albert on Twitter) for recapping last night's show. -Ed.]

Terry Gross: You’re listening to Fresh Air. My guest today is the seminal improvisational rock band Phish, who formed 41 years ago and continue to innovate and excite across every living generation. They are in some ways torch bearers for what the Grateful Dead ignited, but in many ways they are a “Fuego” unto themselves. Last night they performed their Saturday night set at their 11th festival called Mondegreen, which has an estimated attendance of upwards of 40,000 strong. Gentlemen, welcome to the show.

Phish: Thank you for having us.

Terry Gross: So, tell me about Mondegreen.

Trey: Mondegreen is a really wonderful immersive event that combines visual humor and our love of the surreal with gentle curiosity and community. The festival is meant to be welcoming on the highest possible level to every level of fan.

Fish: It’s basically the opposite of resort Phish.

Terry Gross: So, what did you set out to do with your Saturday night show?

Page: The Saturday night can sometimes be referred to as the “Saturday Night Special,”which is a playful jab from the fans referring to a concert that is fun and energetic but fails to meet the specific demands of some of the fanbase.

Terry Gross: In what way?

Fish: A lack of heady jams.

Trey: For this Saturday Night Special we aimed to make it really special!

Terry Gross: Let’s take a look at last night’s show then. It was pure logic to open with “Mike’s Groove,” because the audience was “sharing in the groove.” The chorus is also a Mondegreen because the lyrics are almost impossible to say correctly, let alone understand.

Mike: As the evening sky filled with balloons and beach balls, we took a moment to reflect that there were no Madison Square Garden-hired retired-police-officers-in-suits chasing them down with kitchen knives and stabbing them.

Fish: For many, Saturday evening’s beach ball is Saturday night’s pillow.

Terry Gross: The audience may have been too distracted to notice but Trey definitely shredded that “Mike’s.”

Trey: Thanks!

Terry Gross: One would suspect that “I Am Hydrogen” in its right place was intended to remind Phish fans to stay hydrated.

Page: Hydration is king.

Trey: There were some dark ominous clouds rolling over the festival grounds so I was trying to make contact with them. The tryptic was completed by “Weekapaug Groove” whose entire lyrical content is a Mondegreen of misheard lyrics from a crackling radio. “Theme from the Bottom” is generally directed to the folks in the high-up seats, which in this instance was the top of the Ferris wheel.

Mike: The song means a lot of different things to a handful of different people.

Terry Gross: Those were some tasty major key morsels you happened to drop. And I learned today that Page plays the high key with his pinky.

Fish: “TFTB” is all about that pinky.

Page: We believe in pinky superiority

Terry Gross: Last time you played a Saturday night at a festival, you also performed “Blaze On,” and it was a goopy sludgy soup. Last night it seemed you laid more of that energy into the following “Gotta Jibboo.” “Blaze on > Jibboo” --- that’s a pretty clear message to a Saturday night party audience.

Page: You got your night shades on.

Fish: I don’t even know the lyrics of “Gotta Jibboo.”

Terry Gross: This “Jibboo” became, as the kids would say, evil. And then Mike dropped the bomb.

Trey: As if the Dover gophers haven’t been through enough! The concepts we were exploring coalesced in “46 Days.”

Terry Gross: That “46 days” was sick. Next came “Evolve.”

Trey: Saturday Night Special.

Terry Gross: In “Meatstick,” you sing, “Unsure if you are still Corinne.” What did you mean by that?

Trey: Well, in a festival setting, you often return to your campsite in the dark and look over at Corinne’s camping chair, sometimes there’s an unidentifiable sleeping wook in it.

Terry Gross: The “David Bowie” had a nice little jam.

Trey: Yes, we started patiently. Page laid some delicate synthscapes. Mike added some Krauty elements, while Fish committed to a constantly changing pulse. I found my way to the major key with a little bit of delay to add to the psychedelia.

Terry Gross: Set One culminated in a small green light peak, as per the festival theme. There were no big outdoor lights on the audience during set break.

Trey: Out of respect for the audience’s various states.

Fish: Set break is weird.

Terry Gross: Set Two opened with Fishman cuing the funky Deodato arrangement of “Also sprach Zarathustra,” colloquially referred to as, “2001,” and a glow-stick war broke out.

Mike: They call it a “war” because when they strike you it’s scary.

Terry Gross: I noticed funky synth patches and guitar delay.

Page: This was a very ‘70’s porn “2001.”

Fish: A “2001” that would’ve made even Deodato horny.

Trey: A Synth Odyssey.

Terry Gross: Next you went into “Oblivion,” which has the refrain “Oblivion awaits.” Did you worry that that would scare the audience that were experiencing their “various states”?

Mike: I tried to sing the refrain softly so as to not spook anybody.

Trey: We can scare the audience a little bit. As a treat.

Page: Mike took the lead and Trey and I each found our little evil minor tones.

Trey: Once I felt we had sufficiently worried them I kept it minor but I switched over it to a cleaner tone.

Page: I remained scary.

Mike: We broke through to acceptance of the oblivion that awaits.

Terry Gross: From the stage could you see the 60-foot long glowstick worm?

Mike: We try not to look at shit like that.

Terry Gross: This was followed by “Down with Disease.” 40,000 barefoot children outside, dancing on your lawn! This one came out the gate in a major key shred but quickly turned darker.

Trey: This was an echo distortion “Disease.” Its symptoms included pulsating, driving, whirring, throbbing, undulating, sweating and salivating.

Terry Gross: The lights looked like dazzling Q-tips.

Trey: Mike suggested a little ditty and then I responded.

Terry Gross: And then you began to tease “Weekapaug?”

Trey: That was actually “Eleanor Rigby.”

Page: And suddenly everything is sunny and major key again.

Terry Gross: The lights mimic a cubist artwork as you guys painted your masterpiece.

Mike: I was cascading alongside Trey in every blissful pursuit, with Page adding piano layers. Fish was doing everything his body would allow without dropping the beat. We built it together to an excellent peak and after it passed, Trey was still trilling.

Terry Gross: “Down with Disease,” but he wouldn’t let that thing die.

Mike: It met its end. If you want to see what remains, step into the freezer.

Terry Gross: In “Tweezer,” you played a specific, blunted euphony and then took a several-beat rest.

Trey: I wanted them to woo.

Terry Gross: I enjoyed the breezy interplay between you and Page. I noticed Page was standing up, which is also a good sign. Mike came in heavy and then Page went full sci-fi with his sequencer. And then Trey started teasing “Blaze On?”

Trey: “Eleanor Rigby” again.

Terry Gross: That brought everything to a happy place.

Trey: We were feeling too good to stay evil. Mike dropped a posi-bomb.

Terry Gross: That brought a lot of cheers and farts from the audience.

Fish: A bomb a day keeps the colonoscopy away.

Terry Gross: Mike was dropping bomb after bomb. The peak was a bomb.

Fish: It’s an homage to the EDM dubstep festivals that have occurred on this hallowed ground.

Terry Gross: The Jumbotron was blurry because everything at the site was vibrating including our eyeballs and brains. And then there was an absolute seamless transition into the end of “Tweezer.” The band started chuffing to buy time while you figured out where you were going next, and then Mike took off his jacket.

Fish: More cheers, more farts.

Terry Gross: “Scents and Subtle Sounds” was an excellent choice here, perhaps for the aforementioned flatulence, but mostly because of the not-so-subtle lyrical content for appreciation of the moment we were sharing. I want to take it back to the concept of the “Saturday Night Special” for a moment because I would say that at this point, most of the songs were played with a special amount of gusto, patience, care, and energy. I didn’t count which renditions I thought were especially good, I just enjoyed them one by one.

Trey: That’s very nice, thank you, Terry.

Terry Gross: The wind did pick us up and lift us into the sky above. You totally called that. There were actually really strong thunder storms passing directly around the festival site at that time.

Mike: Yes, our the weather machine was securing the perimeter.

Trey: Our goal was to play really good versions of every song. Instead of just play one monstrous jam, we tried to make every song special. Then I was thinking of “Number Line”-ing them.

Mike: I said no.

Terry Gross: Mike, how did you know that Stevie Wonder’s “Boogie on Reggae Woman,” was the perfect song to drop into?

Mike: Sometimes you just know, ya know? How does Stevie Wonder know that the Reggae Woman boogies too fast for him? Maybe he can hear the air whooshing around her butt cheeks, but most likely, he just knows.

Terry Gross: Really wonderful pounding of the ivories from Page, as Stevie intended.

Terry Gross: When “Carini” began, Page accidentally came in on his vocals early and we were treated to his isolated sweet falsetto.

Trey: That was really cute.

Terry Gross: I loved all the green lights flashing. Was that “Carini” really incredible or was my attendance bias exploding at that point?

Mike: The world may never know.

Terry Gross: Would I have loved this "Carini" if there wasn’t a Ferris wheel in the background?

Page: The energy crescendo was real, I could feel it.

Trey: We left it all on the stage.

Terry Gross: That’s how I knew there wouldn’t be another secret set. You burned it down.

Trey: We came back from encore break and I finally got to (Backwards Down the) “Number Line” them.

Mike: Usually a “You Enjoy Myself” encore is an apology for a lack of jamming but in this case it was a triumph.

Terry Gross: And a Mondegreen! Trey, at one point you took off your guitar and were just dancing to Phish. Did it feel good to rage like one of us?

Trey: I enjoyed myself.

Fish: We vocal jammed with the Ferris wheel. That’s the nice thing about playing to a mostly-tripping audience. Such good listeners.

Terry Gross: So, you closed “the freezer,” bass bombs are dropping, confetti is flying, everyone on the rail is jumping into the air and Trey is jumping up and down right back at them. Does it get any better than that?

Mike: No.

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