[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!

It wasn’t quite the ultimate question that vexed Lunkwill and Fook on Magrathea, but I did go into this summer with a query. Between Mondegreen and the Dick’s run, I would be seeing eight shows in a two-week period. 1993 Zzyzx would have gone, “Yeah whatever. You got some more?” but he’s long since been replaced with a lazier version. Could Phish keep me captivated for that long?

Mondegreen partially kept me intrigued by the insanity of the Cerealist Bowl but there would be no Heliograph or giant moon sculpture to keep me distracted at Dick’s. The music would have to reign supreme. Fortunately, through three nights that was most definitely happening. Friday’s second set was powerful and filled with some great jams. While some people rate shows carefully to 3 to 4 decimal places so they can make sure they know precisely if the FUCK YOUR FACE show is better or worse than 8/20/93, I have a more simple tiering structure these days. Shows go into one of four categories:

1. Bleah. This pretty much is only used for 4/15/04 and Coventry
2. Fun enough
3. Wow! I want to listen to this again!
4. There’s me. There’s the music. And those are the only things that exist right now.

Friday managed to get that 4th tier ranking, the one that makes me want to drop everything and go on tour. Saturday might have been a notch below, but the weirdness that “What’s Going Through Your Mind” and “Split Open and Melt” created was amazing in its own way. The Dick’s run was already a win. The only question is how much Sunday would run up the score.

The thing about seeing the band in the same venue 42 times is that it enables us to have some traditions. We have our space that we found works for us, behind the repeater speaker tower Mike’s side. We discovered it at the set break at the first show and we’ve headed there every show since. That spot means you get to see the security people at work.

I had a conversation with the woman working there before the show. She works a lot of shows in general and was interested in what brings us here. Since she was in her 20s, I tried to explain it in terms of lore: the running jokes and bustouts that they use to keep us entertained. It seemed to work well and it passed the time before lights went out.

The bustout talk turned out to be a good idea since they opened the show with “Dog Log.” Played just one other time since 2003, and only the second time I’ve managed to see it in my many years of shows, it gave some extra excitement to the start. When that was followed with “Runaway Jim,” there was some hope that we might have a themed set. Would this be a dog set? Call it All Dogs Allowed?

The “Jim” was entering an interesting jam that extended it a bit, but I was happy when the ripcord was pulled and the runaway dog returned home, because I wanted the answer to my question. Alas it was followed by “The Moma Dance” with no references to dogs of any shape or size. We wouldn’t get a plethora of puppies, but at least we had the first part of the 42 trifecta. The show opened with life, specifically that of canines.

“My Friend My Friend” has entered a new interesting stage. While in the past it consistently had been a dark and intense–albeit in a Phish silly way–song about a man, his companion, and his beloved blade, it's now a springboard for improvisation.

This one had an extra silly approach to things. Trey screamed, “He’s got a knife!” “Knife!” at the start of the jam, but that would be nothing compared to the end. Over an upbeat riff, Trey started singing, “My friend, my friend, he’s got a knife!” It felt like it could become a “My Friend My Friend Reprise,” a fun song that would work akin “Chalk Dust Torture Reprise” to be performed once every 7 or 8 shows. Call it a song or not, but we were jumping into the goofy side of Phish.

“Tube” continued that trend. Playing off of the “rather give myself to science” lyric in “Tube,” Trey started chanting “SCIENCE” along the lines of Thomas Dolby’s “She Blinded Me With Science.” Page even chimed in with a “Poetry in motion,” which made me wonder if we were going to get a full fledged cover. We didn’t, but we got plenty of science!

The set closed with back to back extended songs. “Stash’s” jam was a bit on the dark side with Mike and Trey conspiring to create an almost mystical space whereas the “Life Saving Gun” was a high-energy affair, the release after all of the weirdness of the last two sets. Complete with more chants of, “Science,” it sent me to the break happy. If nothing else, science is indeed how we explore the universe: 2/3 to the Hitchhikers’ trifecta!

One thing that Phish like to do in their shows is have a cool-down song after some jams. It’s a space for people to catch their breath or go to the bathroom or just regain their bearings. Phish largely refused to do that on this run, having popular songs like “2001” or “What’s the Use?” in that spot and forcing people to continue paying attention. As though to make up for this, Phish decided to open the second set with the “Prince Caspian” breather. While few people’s favorite, it was fun in the moment for us at least because a penis shaped balloon had found its way to us. We had a blast putting it over our lower clothing to create literal fuckerpants.

The prediction that everyone had coming into the night was that the set would center around “Tweezer.” Instead though, they followed with “Set Your Soul Free.” While the theme of the song was the liberation of our souls, the jam was more the opposite. It was scary and more akin to the soundtrack of a haunted house than liberating souls. It was my highlight of the night and yet another amazing summer 2024 moment.

We did eventually get the expected “Tweezer” to follow. At least in the moment, it felt like the weakest of this three song stretch. While not bad, it was a jam with more searching than finding and after 13 minutes, they decided to regroup and move into “Light” to give inspiration a chance to find them.

It was a wise call, as we got another one of the blisteringly intense jams that were defining the run. It might not be the longest jam of the tour, but they let the light get darker now, and it worked.

As the jam resolved into “A Life Beyond the Dream,” some melancholy started to seep in. This had been a great summer and now it was in the homestretch. Phish seemed to feel the same way as we entered the “and everything” portion of the evening. After a really fun take on “The Howling," we started knocking off encore calls (and, no, I didn’t even try to explain the whole Kasvot Växt/Sci-Fi Soldier thing to the guard before the show, as there’s lore and then there’s a 20-minute lecture that would require a slide deck). There goes “More.” It’s not going to be “Character Zero!” And “Slave to the Traffic Light” is off the table. Phish only had a little more time to play and a few more songs they wanted to perform.

With the obvious encore calls gone, Phish gave us a surprise twist ending. The Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage,” encored at the first Dick’s show and only played once since. The summer is ending so take a moment to reflect upon all of the great Labor Day weekends we’ve had.

The show, the run, and the tour finished up with the expected “Tweezer Reprise,” but it wasn’t just us who didn’t quite want this tour to end. Instead of the usual, “Thank you! We’ll see you soon!” after the “Won’t you step into the freezer?” lyrics, they went into an extended take on the main riff before going back around and asking us once again if we wanted to step into the freezer. It’s a “Tweezer Reprise Reprise” if you will. [Editor's Note: This version is among the most improvisational in Phish history, besting 7/21/03 Deer Creek and Charlottesville UHALL 10/27/94, but (arguably) not Great Went 8/17/97 (which concluded with a minutes-long sustained chord/sound wall). -CD]

Something that I’ve been reflecting upon a lot lately is how unprecedented Phish’s career is. They’re in their 42nd–hey there it is again!–year of existence, 40th with Page in the band. They might be slowing down some, but somehow they’re still coming up with new sounds and ways of approaching songs. The new songs of “What’s Going Through Your Mind” and “Life Saving Gun” are quickly becoming fan favorites. This isn’t how it’s supposed to work.

At this stage of their career, they should be looking back, not finding new ways to create. I suspect that I might have chosen the wrong Hitchhikers characters to reference. Phish aren’t a Magrathean, not a Majikthise or a Vroomfondel. It’s feeling like they were modeled after Browerick Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged. Anyone know if they spent some time with rubber bands and a particle accelerator?

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