Welcome to the 130th installment of the Mystery Jam here at Phish.net. As usual we will be playing for an MP3 download, courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. The rules haven't changed: you need to correctly identify the song and the date to win. Post your guess in the comments. One guess per person per day (with the second “day” starting after I post the hint). A hint will be posted on Tuesday (if necessary) and the answer will be posted on Wednesday. Good luck...

Wednesday Answer: Congrats to docgonzo for being the "first" to get the 12/28/12 "Tweezer" with his first guess. It may be winning on a technicality, but it's winning just the same. The Blog will be back on Monday with another (most difficult) Mystery Jam...

The Lawn Boys, a New York City based Phish tribute band, will be playing Sulivan Hall at 214 Sullivan St., NYC tomorrow, January 25. More information on their Facebook page here. The Lawn Boys generously staged a benefit performance last November for the Mockingbird Foundation, raising almost $1,200 through door receipts and a table staffed by volunteers Katherine Weatherly and Kelly Lawson.

Above: The Lawn Boys at the Canal Room benefit for the Mockingbird Foundation. Pictured in their lineup for this benefit are musicians Darren Rodney (Guitar and Vocals), Brad Weiger (Bass and Vocals), Shoheen Owhady (Keyboards and Vocals), Andrew Mega (Drums and Vocals) and Indofunk Satish (Special Guest - Trumpet).

Photo courtesy The Lawn Boys and Mantner Photography.

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Welcome to the MLK MJ here at Phish.net, another prime time edition. As usual we will be playing for an MP3 download, courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. The rules haven't changed: you need to correctly identify the song and the date to win. Post your guess in the comments. One guess per person per day (with the second “day” starting after I post the hint). A hint will be posted on Tuesday (if necessary) and the answer will be posted on Wednesday. Good luck...

Tuesday Night Answer: Congrats to slaphappy for being the first to call the 9/18/00 "Halley's." See you all next week with MJ130.

Phish has released another gem from the archives, 5/3/93 New Brunswick, NJ as a benefit for victims of Hurricane Sandy. Download the mp3, FLAC, or ALAC version of the show here. Recorded by Paul Languedoc and remastered by Fred Kevorkian, this show is from the last days of a very strong spring tour by Phish, and includes a stellar 2nd set.

Phish has released high definition videos of all four band member's rig tours, as seen on recent webcasts. You can check them out on their official Vimeo site or as a playlist on their Youtube channel.

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Welcome to the 128th running of the Mystery Jam here at Phish.net. As usual we will be playing for an MP3 download, courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. The rules haven't changed: you need to correctly identify the song and the date to win. Post your guess in the comments. One guess per person per day (with the second “day” starting after I post the hint). A hint will be posted on Tuesday (if necessary) and the answer will be posted on Wednesday. Good luck...

Friday Answer: Friday already? Things kind of got away from the Blog this week. In any event, congrats to McGrupp81 for being the first to ID the 8/26/93 "Melt." The Blog will be back on Monday with a new Mystery Jam...

On January 7th, a friend of the entire Phish community was taken from this world much too early. Robert Eckhart (known by many as Barefoot Bob) found a small spot on his tongue. Sadly, it turned out to be cancer. He went through painful surgeries to have part of his tongue and the lymph nodes in his neck removed. This was followed by numerous, difficult radiation treatments. On Monday, January 7th, he lost his courageous battle and leaves a wife and two children. He was only 37.

Trey was on WXPN this afternoon, on the same day as Bob's services, extolling the virtues of Phish fans and proclaiming them the best fans anywhere.

Let's really prove this point as we have many times in the past and band together as a community and help Bob's family. It makes no difference if you knew him from Phish.net, from Twitter, from tour experiences together, a fleeting hello at one show, just knew his name or never heard of him at all. He is one of us. A fan. A husband, father, brother, son, and friend.

Many artists, Phish and gracious fans and friends have donated a few dozen fantastic items including posters and artwork. Please visit http://barefootbobmemorial.com/ for details on how you can participate. And remember- the most important thing is helping the family so make those donations and dig deep.

Share your thoughts and rememberances of Barefoot Bob in THIS thread.

We are lucky to be part of such a great community. Thank you for reading and contributing.

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For those of you not familiar with the Type II Cast, it is a Phish fan podcast that discusses current Phish shows with occasional special episodes dedicated to various Phishy topics. For this week's episode discussing Phish's New Year's run at Madison Square Garden, they invited me to be their guest alongside usual panel members Steve Olker, Josh Korin, and .Net's Chris Glushko. We gathered together virtually on Monday, January 7th, armed with a pile of great audio clips from the run, to share our thoughts on both individual songs and the shows as individual entities and as part of a run of shows. Two hours of quality Phish nerdery ensued. Chris was kind enough to put together rankings of these shows compared to the other multi-night NYE runs starting in 1995, which we discussed as well.

We dedicated this show to the memory of Robert Ekchart, aka Barefoot Bob, a beloved Phish fan who lost his battle with cancer earlier that day.

Click on over to the Type II Cast site to listen, or you can download the mp3 here (right click save as).

You can also subscribe to the podcast on iTunes by clicking here.

Enjoy!

Brian

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Happy New Year from Mystery Jam HQ here at Phish.net. For the 127th installment of the MJ, we've selected a jam that will delight and confound... or just be solved by 12:45. It really could go either way. As usual we will be playing for an MP3 download, courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. The rules haven't changed: you need to correctly identify the song and the date to win. Post your guess in the comments. One guess per person per day (with the second “day” starting after I post the hint). A hint will be posted on Tuesday (if necessary) and the answer will be posted on Wednesday. Good luck...

Wednesday Answer: Congrats to conradjohansen for being the first to identify the 12/28/03 "Frankie Says." The Blog will return on Monday with MJMCXXVIII.

See the title up there? That’s the last thing I’m going to say about “Show of Life.”

And now the rest is easy, because now I get to review a really great Phish show. Better yet, I get to review a really great Phish show that doesn’t quite start out that way.

The band takes the stage at 8:18 p.m. MSG time. Page and Trey are wearing the same outfits they wore the prior two nights. Mike is dressed in his 5th outfit of the run, give or take an artisanal pashmina. And you know what Fish is wearing.

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The date December 29 has historical significance to Phish fans. Back in 1994, the New Year's Run followed a magnificent fall tour that had seen the band deepen and extend its improvisations, learning to move quickly and sometimes abruptly from one idea to another, from one riff to a variation to chaos to deep space and then back. The month between 11/12/94 at Kent State and the end of the tour in particular featured consistently sophisticated and exploratory second sets the likes of which Phish had never been able to deliver before. After taking a couple of weeks off for the holidays and a warmup the night before, Phish showed up on December 29, 1994 and emotionally demolished the ancient Providence Civic Center with possibly the most storied single jam in its history. As readers of this site know, the 35-minute, multi-part Providence "David Bowie" recently placed first in the Phish.net working group's (admittedly off-the-cuff and informal) poll of Phish's greatest jams. Even those (like me) who wouldn't rank it number-one have to acknowledge its immense significance and wondrous beauty.

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Glad tidings from Phish.net to all of you.

Much has come to pass since this summer, including recent human tragedies that have underscored how reliant we are on each other as human beings, and how blessed this community is by the generosity and passion of its members. In no official capacity whatsoever, I would like to thank you for being here and taking part, whatever that looks like for you.

Now let’s pick up where we left off three months ago and change, with a short and sweet look at night one.

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