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

It’s day three of the four day run, so people are generally completely settled in, if not before, now very used to the rhythm of the resort Phish life. They are in high celebration mode. The pools are full and raucous. It has been noticeably cooler and cloudier this year than in the past few years, but today, Friday, is bright, sunny and the warmest day of the trip so far. I never get an actual headcount for these things, but 2026 seems like 2025 in that there are a lot of Phish fans here but less than in the early 2020’s, and concentrated in the Sunrise end of the Moon Palace complex. We’ve run into a few people here in the Sunrise pool that are not here for Phish but they like the crowd. And hopefully they like the music as it’s clearly audible across half the complex!

Night 3 also has the audience where it wants to be. The crowd is mostly in front of the soundboard and a little bit on either side of it. The palms, food & table area, and beach are not crowded. We like the waves so are typically on the beach right at the waters edge and far enough back so as not to be crowded. But the “Waves” theme was last night so on to today. Phish has settled in, so the highs are high. Winds at showtime are very mild so the seas lap at our feet.

“Blaze On” starts with a bit of a slower tempo than usual according to my ears. Music at 7:57pm, right on time. The back half has some nice jamming for a bit but today the job of the opener is to get peppy, and it’s not too open ended, nor all that extended. No complaints.

“Bouncing Around the Room” is tight and lovely. Standard version, executed well. I enjoyed the song and vocal rounds for what it is. “Evolve” is next, and also well played, like “Bouncing” by the numbers but in a good way. It’s apparently grown on me over the last few years, and now the lyrics do not make me cringe the way they did at first. (Although as I look over the setlist, all of the song choices were ones I generally like, so I had a good time.) As with most of the first set songs, airplanes are steadily landing over the Gulf into Cancun. You wonder what the passengers think as they go by and see the lights.

At 8:15 they drop into “Wolfman’s Brother”. Here’s a chance for things to open up a bit, and after the intro and vocals they do. I liked how Mike was playing as the jam segment starts 5-7 min into the song. Fish starts to move to the foreground next, and then Trey has a nice lead over everything to the end of the song. 12 or 13 minutes, so not very extended, but the first hints of more open ended music to come.

“Tube” follows. Did “Tube” jam? Yes, Tube Jam update is happy with this version! (see this blog post for context.) About 10 or 11 minutes overall, and contained a very nice improvised segment with everyone helping to build the song up. Trey led the build to the peak, but Fish absolutely nailed a drum fill to close up the jam segment and return to the song proper & closing vocals. Hopefully it will show up on the song’s Jam Chart.

There’s a short pause because Trey is changing to an acoustic. “Water In The Sky”! 33 show gap, not the longest, but this is only the 4th version in 4.0. Only a few are noted as on acoustic, none that I’ve seen before or remembered being discussed. It works very well and the band filled in nicely and quietly. Also a short pause at the end because we are on the beach and you do kind of need an electric guitar to play…

“Free.” Since it had been played in every previous Mexico run, you figure it had to come at some point and here it is. Much sea was splashed enthusiastically near us. Very anthemic guitar as befits the song but Mike also sounds particularly well here. I really love outdoor Phish, and the sound of the open field bass guitar is a big big big part of that.

“Bathtub Gin.” Gotta love it in all ways, shapes and forms. This one is very nice, runs for about 15 minutes, and the jam towards the end has a lot of drive and propulsion. Even if it is only an “average great” version (which it probably is), it’s divine to be able to stand in the Gulf of Mexico and feel warm(ish) water lapping over your feet and enjoy Phish soaring through it 36 years after it debuted. At least one person in my feed loved it as well, so it’s not just me fluffing it :-)

“Most Events Aren’t Planned.” “Gin” peaked in a pretty way, so it could possibly end the set after 1hr 10 min but wait there’s more, and I was very happy for this. Please play all the Page songs! I really enjoyed Vida Blue and think more of their material could transition to Phish, but I’m glad this one did. A fine rendition, Page is lovely as he should be on this.

Setbreak is 25 min. We found a bench to rest on and had a fine time chatting with some nice folks from Richmond, VA, about stickers, travel, getting out of the mid-atlantic after Winter Storm Fern and enjoying Phish. One nice thing about Mexico is that it’s pretty open and social as now everyone is staying on site, and the venue is very loose and open, at least in the back and on the sides and beach. Maybe not up front but I’ve never actually been on the field forward of the soundboard down here, so I don’t know how crowded vs chill it actually is up there.

“Carini” gets us back into music at 9:40pm. We head back to the beach. I think there’s a bad connection in someone’s pedal or effects. Some crackle or static is heard but then it clears up, and I vaguely recall something similar in the first set. By 12 minutes in, it’s dark and spacy and sounded to me like a Cylon jam, both from the music and blue/red lighting effects from Kuroda. Around 16 or 18 minutes in, the music transitions into something much brighter and happier but the lights still hint at the Cylon underneath. I guess CK5 was unwilling to discard the effect?

At 21 minutes it’s almost bright and bubbly, and the lights are finally also happy. However the darker themes and tensions do return interspersed with some random vocal samples or effects. “Carini” goes many places and around 27 min overall, finally it sort of drifts and melts into the “Light” intro, with a short segue. Possibly the highlight of the night.

“Light” is pretty straightforward and nice to hear. After about 10 minutes it starts breaking down and getting sort of angular, which goes on for 3 or 4 more minutes before getting quiet and very delicately segueing into “Frankie Says,” also only the 4th in 4.0. The mind is a wonderful and terrible thing; in the past I’ve had trouble recognizing “FS” but this time I got it right away. It’s short and quiet but also very nice and lovely to hear the bustout.

“Everything’s Right” is standard. Well played, lovely to hear, 12 or 13 minutes overall and not much else to say. Comes to a complete stop at the end. “Life Saving Gun” was probably due this run somewhere as Trey does love to play this one. The start of the song and vocals are fine. By 6-7 min in, it’s developing into a nice jam as it likes to do. By 11 minutes in it starts to break down in what sounded to me kind of a Floyd-ian way, with lots of Page synths sounding lovely. At 14 or 15 minutes in it’s very euphoric but with a lot of dark energy. The lights get very staccato and strobe-y with wild music underneath. At 18 min or thereabouts Fish brings it back to LSG and they finish the song. 6 seconds less than 20 min according to the Live Phish tracking followed by a short pause

“First Tube.” We now have full-on Trey guitar hero mode, as is the role of this song. A fine way to close night 3 set 2. As a jaded curmudgeon, I have to say that I did not like the introduction of 8 Foot Fluorescent Tubes material to Phish at the time, but 20+ years later, apparently it has grown on me.

Encore: No clue. Eventually setlist social media tells me it’s called “Simeon”. A pretty song, lots of lyrics, that could grow into a nice addition to the Phish oeuvre. Then “A Life Beyond The Dream” was well played and built to a nice close. This song works better for me in the encore slot than it does breaking up a set, as it doesn’t really flow in and out of much well.

I had a great time and thought it was a very well setlisted and played show overall. “Carini” is the big highlight (probably), but I’d recommend “Wolfman’s,” “Tube” and “LSG” as worthy of note, as is just listening to the whole show. I do, always, have a great time at Phish, so if you disagree feel free to leave your own review :-) Some personal blather follows.

This is my first recap for .net, I think. I would like to thank Charlie for encouraging me to do one. If you knew me from 1991 till 2001, I was Mikey Perrott (I changed my last name when I got married). I lived on the west coast in Berkeley & San Francisco and got very into phish.net, The Well, and tape trading in the mid 90’s. I ran the .net setlist email for a few years, something like 1992 or so until 1996 as the world transitioned from email, usenet, and gopher into the world wide web. We live in Wilmington, DE, now and I lurk/post on mastodon as @mgpreppy [shakedown.social] Say hi if you know me or see this!

It is phenomenal to see not only the band thriving and exploring new places after 40 years but also see many of the original online fans still having so much to say after all that. It’s also heartening to see all the new fans come in, so somehow people are finding out about the music. It’s not the radio or modern music sharing services!. One unique thing about the Mexico resort run is that you can run into 3 generations of Phish fans who come here as a family group. It’s very cool to see.

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