IT has been thirty years since summer 1995, when Phish performed highly and mind-blowingly improvisational versions of “Tweezer” at Salt Lake (18m), Mud Island (50m), NissanPav (20m, with “Johnny B. Goode”), Finger Lakes (45m), and Jones Beach (30m, with DEG), not to mention the Red Rocks “Mike’s Groove” (35m), Walnut Creek “Runaway Jim” (31m), Blossom “Mike’s” (20m), the Jones Beach “Bowie” (27m), the SPAC DWD (24m), the Great Woods Mike’s>Contact>Groove (35m) and “Stash” (18m), and the Sugarbush “Bowie” (31m, also with “Johnny B. Goode”).

Yet, as demonstrated last night at SPAC, and at times earlier this summer (including recently in the must-hear “Ether Edge” and the "Ruby Waves" from Forest Hills and the WGTYM in Chicago), Phish continues to improvise with breathtaking skill, ingenious creativity, and high-spirited soul.

Despite its notoriously steep and disturbed lawn, bespoiled by millennia of wanton mischief and bacchanalia as the spirits who reign o’er it fiendishly attest, the Saratoga Performing Arts Center is surrounded by luscious forest with resplendent greenery. The grounds are largely lovely and worth your time to visit, even if Phish isn’t performing there. The lawn is not.

Last night’s first set opened and closed well, with cromulent versions of “First Tube” and “Walls of the Cave” sandwiching equally cromulent versions of “The Well” and BOAF among other songs beloved by fans (e.g., “Lawn Boy,” courtesy of Page “the Chairman of the Mound” McConnell), but the clear winners of the set for those of you keeping score are,

(1) an excellent “Bathtub Gin”—despite Trey coming in too soon vocally in the opening composed section to the great amusement of vets, and despite the fact that I wasn’t and am still not keen on Trey’s tone for some of the jam—that was magically EXACTLY twenty minutes and that features “Manteca” teasing for several measures as well as a Trey-led ajamakinto “Mountain Jam,” as Trey never musically quotes the “There is a Mountain” full melodic phrase but nevertheless literally teases and toys-around playfully with it, especially in the measures around 15:30; AND

(2) the sickest Phish-performed version of “Hey Stranger” to date (will someone out there please write its song history?), a song that I am lobbying the jam charts team to create a jam chart for, because when Trey turns on the envelope filter, he starts funking-it up a la “Dancin” or FOTM or “Shakedown Street” or some versions of NMINL and I want MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE OF THIS GOD DAMN IT, including in “Mull” and “The Howling” as well, I want it deployed more than that damn pitch shifter that can and often does create slightly off-pitch daggers to my PRECIOUS SENSITIVE WEE MAN-EARS.

ANYWAY, after a hilariously short setbreak (was it even 32 minutes?) that obviously caught most of my near-empty row in section 9 off guard, the second set opened with a magnificent version of “Set Your Soul Free,” complete with Trey’s abrupt ripcord I mean segue out of its jam into “Chalk Dust Torture.” Page, I think, deployed this throat-singing (?) effect during the jam that was SICK. This version, like the CDT that followed is, as it is written, “must hear” Phish.

CDT needs to be heard to be believed. It frankly could have ended 5:30 or so into it, but instead jettisoned from the stage through the heavens and stars to intergalactically explore the universe (including the 12 Galaxies of course) for twenty-five minutes. To my ears, the improv’s character hearkened-back mightily to the “hey hole” improv of the mid-90’s, as it took dramatic risks with blissful full-band payoffs. But, ehrm, well. At more than a few points in the first ten minutes of the jam segment, Trey hit some unfortunate notes and jesus fucking christ did the jam eventually take a most bewilderingly dissonant and dreadfully messy-to-my-ears turn. I thought for sure about 19 mins in they would segue into “BBFCFM” as that has not infrequently occurred in the past when a band member screws up (whether the audience heard it or not), but thankfully not only did they not kill the jam and drop into another song, they steadily improvised their way back to full-band transcendence, anno domini two-thousand and twenty-five. Holy. Fucking. Shit.

All that said, what really made last night’s show truly special and among the sickest shows I have attended since I first began seeing Phish almost 36 years ago (wtf grow up), was what followed all of the above.

BASOS1 segued for realz -> into “Piper,” which began in an “average GREAT” way for sure and that I expected to simply be yet another fine version, but then there was a key modulation and then WTF, THE PHISH!? The jam morphed into a “Llama” on meth and Page (I think?) deployed that wild throat-singing-like effect for several measures taboot taboot. Chris also created some red red worms with lights that wriggled around. (!) So while this version is a mere 12 minutes or so, it was SPECTACULAR.

AGAIN, WTF THE PHISH!??

“Everything’s Right” followed to close the set, and while it’s my understanding that some people think it’s inappropriate for a privileged white male band to sing a song like this to their predominantly privileged straight white male fanbase, because Everything [WAVES HANDS WILDLY] Is Most Assuredly Not Alright, Phish has “songs” like “Kung,” “Icculus,” and “Buffalo Bill” ffs. Take them seriously at your peril. Besides, of course everything is not alright! JFC, it’s insulting to Phish to think that that’s what they believe. The song is HILARIOUS to me, a privileged straight white male who is confident he has benefitted from racism, misogyny, and homophobia, especially when I hear and interpret and even singalong with the song’s lyrics ironically, sung by four inane misanthropes. In any event, it was a stellar set-closing version that I thought might segue into “Never Go Back To Georgia” at one point, and I am almost positive it will jamchart because that would be the meet and right thing to do.

And yeah, the encore was “Loving Cup” > “Antelope,” and while they won’t chart, who cares?

If there is any vet out there who listens to last night’s second set and still doubts that Phish can attain the heights of musical genius they attained decades ago, YOU SUCK AT PHISH!

And that is OK.

If you’ve read this all the way to this point, THANK YOU! This site is run entirely by volunteers and is a project of The Mockingbird Foundation, a 501c3 non-profit founded by Phish fans in October 1996 (incorporated in New York in March 1997) that has granted more than $2.1 million to music education programs nationwide over the last twenty years.

We almost never have a table at a show because we can’t properly staff it (too many of us see too few shows and want to see the show, not staff a table), but thanks to Phish and the band’s charity The WaterWheel Foundation, and especially to Pete “PhanArt” Mason and his friend Chris DeCotis, possibly the kindest person you’ll ever meet, and Bill Bowman (yes, of Bowman Tape Offer fame!), and whomever else will help staff the table,

MOCKINGBIRD WILL HAVE A TABLE AT TONIGHT’S SHOW!

PLEASE donate to the Foundation, and drop by the table tonight if you can. And if you are seeing the show tonight, be sure to wish CHRIS KURODA aka CK5 a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY. And fwiw, I’ll be easy to spot if you’d like to say hello or punch me in the face or ignore me with the most extreme prejudice, as I’m in a readicculus 2023 Mockingbird Special Edition jersey/phootykit with ICCULUS on the back and number 10 (my dot net user number), and I likely will be holding this freshly stickered WaterWheel Foundation 1/1/2016 nalgene bottle, my first stickered nalgene bottle, despite being almost 55 years old, because a friend who shall remain nameless sent me an apropos sticker that inspired me to do what countless of you have probably been doing since long before countless others of you were even born—evidence that Phish’s music continues to fill and lift the souls of young and old alike.

If you liked this blog post, one way you could "like" it is to make a donation to The Mockingbird Foundation, the sponsor of Phish.net. Support music education for children, and you just might change the world.