[We would like to thank @thewatchfulhosemaker for recapping last night’s show. Thewatchfulhosemaker plays in local Chicago bands, Lunar Ticks & Beat The Meatles, and started a festival in Irving Park called Indie Park Fest. -Ed.]

There are a couple great teams playing in Chicago this weekend. Besides the Chicago Cubs over at Wrigley Field, who are playing some pretty great baseball this year, there’s the Rock band, Phish from Vermont, who by all accounts are making some fine music in the 2025 season.

To start, if you’re not a baseball fan, I apologize, but growing up playing the game, I always felt that there were a ton of similarities to baseball and the Phish experience. If you are a baseball fan, then I apologize for any wrong stats, clunky or trite metaphors, or if you root for the White Sox.

There’s more than a few famous quotes where replacing “Baseball” with “Phish” doesn’t really feel too out of place.

"Every day is a new opportunity. You can build on yesterday's success or put its failures behind and start over again. That's the way life is, with a new game every day, and that's the way baseball is." - Bullet Bob Feller
Or
“I believe in the Church of Baseball. I've tried all the major religions and most of the minor ones. And the only church that truly feeds the soul, day-in day-out, is the Church of Baseball."
-- Annie Savoy, in Bull Durham

It’s said that baseball is a numbers game, and I’ll attribute the quote to Cy Young Winner and Great Mustache Haver - Rollie Fingers: “That's all baseball is, is numbers; it's run by numbers, averages, percentage and odds."

In this way, baseball and Phish are very similar. Fans obsess over statistics and oddities and irregularities and how no game or show is ever exactly the same. The anomalies and what stands out from a standard event are both what makes baseball and Phish so fun, and addictive. You may see a no-hitter, you may see the greatest jam of all-time, and whatever team you’re rooting for, might not show up to play well on that particular day.

Fortunately for us in attendance at United Center last night, the band made their presence felt right in the first inning with “Harry Hood” batting in the lead off spot. Just the 7th time ever starting a show, it honestly caught me pretty off-guard. With its usual placement as an end-of-night fireworks display, it felt like quite a gutsy call to swing away so early in the series, but the band definitely put a few runs on the board to kick off the evening.

The jam percolated with a playful dynamic between Page and Trey to start, before Mike inserted himself into the conversation with a slightly more aggressive octave pedal tone that still worked within this pretty serene space. At this point, the crowd was on their feet to see if this ball would clear the outfield fence. Piano and guitar worked through some lovely call and response and trading before Trey found a simple repetitive figure that inspired Fish and the rest of the band to play-out more. Simple thematic melodies from Trey really helped inspire this one to hit to build towards the white light peak. Now, the ball was back at the warning track, with some whammy bends from Trey before everyone locked in on a choppy but powerful rhythmic motif. Harray Caray chimed in with “Holy Cow, this one’s outta here!," and all of us out in the bleachers cheered and high fived. According to a google - “approximately 28-30% of MLB games are decided by a single run," so Phish, not unlike the Northsiders, set themselves up for success on Friday by scoring early.

“Oblivion," a relative newcomer to The Show, in just 21 total plate appearances has managed to make the Jam Charts 7 times. A .333 batting average is All-Star material, and if it keeps that up over a career, those are Hall of Fame numbers. The jam starts out dark and funky as expected, but a quick major modulation occurs, as Phish is wont to do these days, and they explore a space that recalls a groovier “Hood” jam. Then they move back to a darker “Oblivion” like feel, albeit in a new key. A brighter intensity increases, as another key change occurs before finally settling back into the song proper’s outro. It’s always appreciated when they land the plane well so to speak, rather than a forced or awkward return to the song - this felt fluid.

B Minor [ Minor I ] -> D Major [ III ] -> F# Minor [ iii ] -> B major [ iv ] -> B Minor [ I ]

In recent years it feels like the Major->Minor->Repeat has become a way for the band to test their ears and listening abilities, an enjoyable “Game within a Game," like the way a pitcher strategizes against certain batters in the lineup. Maybe they’ll toy with a batter by throwing a purposeful ball, or stick to a certain location that the hitter has historically struggled in. Baseball has the same, nerdy, under-the-surface analytic approach that Phish’s music often does.

“Bathtub Gin” is easily one of the most consistent players on the Phish roster. Everyone loves it, and it pretty much always performs very well, even if it doesn’t always have flashy numbers, it always gets the job done. After a short stopover in “Tequila” with the approval of Austin Powers, “Gin” starts out in its usual sparse and open groove, courtesy of Fish. Page takes over for a minute providing the rest of the band a descending riff that carries them for a while, until Trey finds a Tequilla-ish lick that is nicely complimented by Mike’s cool and confident walking bassline, a jazz turnaround that many fans of that genre might recognize. To me it stood out and started to push the jam into a new direction. Shortly after, everyone jumped on Trey’s pitch-shifted idea to move down a whole step. Cool full band riffage occurred, but not even a minute later the band quickly picked up the pace towards a darker rock tone. Altogether, they maneuvered back to “Gin” quite well.

So what I’m saying, “Gin” is basically Tony Gwynn. A member of the 3,000 hit club who rarely ever struck out, Gwynn was pretty consistently good/great even into his veteran years, just like this 36 year old tune.

“On The Way Down” followed, and Page put a little extra mustard on the vocals (no Ketchup in Chicago, people). You could tell the band had fun playing this one, and Trey brought out his Blues chops, playing the changes very well.

Following up the gigantic Little Feat (Editors’ note: this song was written and originally performed by New Orleans great, Allen Touissant) bustout (521 show Gap!), “Limb by Limb” showed off its majestic jamming, thanks especially to Trey for creating nice space for Page to fill in with the grand piano. While not monumental in length or diversity, the interplay is splendid and to quote Crash Davis, “Relax. Alright, don't try to strike everybody out. Strike outs are boring, besides that, they're facist. Throw some ground balls - it's more democratic. So relax, let's have fun OK? It's fun goddamnit!”

The set closing “Character Zero” is a tried and true cleanup hitter. All muscle and testosterone, we all just want him to sock a few dingers. Closing a set in nearly 80% of its appearances, Trey spends an extended period digging into his murky, dirty tones before the usual rousing finish. You need your power in this part of the lineup, and while not quite a grand slam, “CZ” delivers a solid at bat here.

“No Man in No Man’s Land” opens set two with its James Brown-like breakbeat–another reliable workhorse in the Phish Song Bullpen. The playing here is very locked in from the start, with Trey leading the team through a familiar sounding I>ii>IV>iii progression that the band swiftly, and deftly plays around with, while never fully committing. A smooth transition occurs to a different major space before Mike decides to shift the terrain to minor. This brings out some of the most sonically ambitious music of the night with Page’s swelling, swirling synth pad, Mike’s badass fuzz bass working in tandem with Trey’s distorted low tones and loops, and of course Fish driving the trance. To my ear, the last couple minutes of this jam stand out upon re-listen.

Up next is “What’s Going Through Your Mind," called up from the minors (AKA Trey Band, JK!) last summer, this tune is becoming a regular in the rotation, and another reliable vehicle for improv.

Maybe the longest lyrical song in the catalog, this the band’s most Sci-Fi fantasy novel-esque story, I was surprised to learn it wasn’t part of the track listing on“Get More Down.” Bizarre characters like Saffy, Tick, and Pylon, do odd things like Chester, for instance, who dresses like someone else called, The Salamander Prince. Colorful and strange characters make up the fabric of Phish lore in such a fun way. Baseball similarly–and I think more so than other sports–involves eccentrics characters in its history, like I don’t think it would be far off to imagine someone like Mark “The Bird” Fydrich who talked to the baseball, or Dock Ellis who threw a no-hitter on LSD, or Rube Waddell who no joke has the most insane lore you can imagine, ending up in a Phish song.

The longest improvisation of the night, clocking in at nearly 30 minutes, with multiple sections and unique feels, finds a tranquil landing point at around 14:30 that shifts the band from driving rock, into a more peaceful territory thanks to Fish’s ghost note grooving, Page’s watery tones, Mike’s bubbly fills, and treys delicate lines. Things open up a bit more into full band conversational mode, that sparks Mike and Trey using a major scale riff moving up in thirds that briefly flirts with double time for a moment at 18:30, instead opting for more emotional, fist-pumping half time, while Trey moves into uplifting solo mode, while Page takes over building on the implied chord changes.

A bit of scuttling around results in Trey latching onto a frankly sick pentatonic hard rock riff around 21:30, leading to some very Hendrix inspired playing from him. The whole band loves this and quickly decides to add their two cents in, but especially Trey. Luckily for him, the rest of the guys are able to keep it interesting for him to explore for a few minutes without it getting too stale.

At this point it started to feel like the jam was going on pretty long, and you can’t help but wonder if you’ll be witnessing something for the record books. Only 69 times in the history of Phish has a jam has gone over 30 minutes, which put into baseball terms is slightly less rare than a Perfect Game (24 times) and more rare than an Immaculate Inning (114 times), but it wasn’t to be, as some brief stop-start jamming abruptly turns into “Crosseyed and Painless."

Fish had fun messing with the lyrics on this one, and Trey did his best Adrian Belew impression. Mike and Trey play around with the “Crosseyed” melody well into the jam section, and at this point, I want to give a shoutout to Fishman here for essentially rocking out at 150bpm for an hour straight. Impressive stamina for any player at such a physically demanding position. The band develops a low volume intensity around nine minutes that feels like it could either boil over or disintegrate at any moment, which is a pretty fun place to be at. They opt for darker psychedelia, including some creepy whispering of “still waiting” and lots of low, noisy textures. It’s here that Mike makes use of the vacuum for some extraterrestrial vocal looping, much to the delight of attendees. A great segment for fans of deep space.

Following a “Light” that saw Trey definitely pushing the band’s limits with some risky, good-weird noodling, was “Backwards Down The Numberline." “BDTNL,” a song that everyone on the internet hates but everyone in the arena loves, captured a feel good energy in the outro solo, with all members contributing to the slow and patient build. A jam doesn’t have to go full on raging type II to keep me interested. Sometimes “small ball," or manufacturing runs is the most fun part for the people excited by the granular aspect of the game. Take a walk to first, steal second, drop a bunt down, hit a sac fly, and you got yourself a run. It’s micro successes that add up, and that great teamwork and egolessness is part of what makes Phish and Baseball so much damn fun.

“46 Days” days gets the nod to close things out in encore, I mean, the bottom of the 9th, and with a solid lead already, and the triumph in reach, Trey once again dug into his fat mudsoaked, low tones, but with a bit more gusto than before, knowing to secure the game, he had to leave it all out on the field. Trey really milked the slow walk up the neck, which allowed the other three to really push this finale over the top. As the band left the stage, the faithful bleacher bums waved the W Flag and belted out their victory anthem of “Go Cubs Go,” metaphorically speaking of course.

While they’re more than a few years past being a young gun slinging triple digits, what Phish has lost in pure speed and power, they have made up for in finesse and control. Like an older pitcher who re-invented his game to be more crafty, Phish focuses on painting the corners of the strike zone and using their knowledge and experience of the game to their advantage. As they say, you gotta play to your strengths, play 'em one day at a time, and to quote former Cubs manager, Joe Maddon “Try not to suck."

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