Is it time, yet? Has it spent long enough fermenting in the ground that we can take it out and do something with it, again? For a bunch of humans who pride themselves on their ability to appreciate the present moment and all the ephemeral beauty it has to offer when the course is uncharted, we sure do enjoy swimming around in nostalgia, don’t we? As I get older this once indulgent tendency of mine has waned and I see the irony of hoping to relive the moments that were only so beautiful in the first place because of how fleeting they were. That perfectly placed note on the crest of a crescendo that just as quickly comes crashing down on the other side. How long can you stay surfing when you’re busy talking about the wave you caught last week? But you know, as I get older time starts to feel a bit more like an illusion, and sometimes we do find ourselves at these milestones and it feels appropriate to check in on what history has to tell us if we put our ear to the dirty, sticky ground. So if I can be permitted the indulgence, let me take you back to the Summer of ’99, and a string of shows I caught twenty years ago, from July 12th to July 21st, and see how a window into that moment in time might help us appreciate this one that much more.

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[Recap/review of last night's Bonnaroo show is courtesy of Michael Ayers, user @yhgtbfkm. Note that there was no recap/review posted to the blog about Roo1's show, because no one attending the show volunteered to recap it, and there wasn't a webcast of it either, and we decided not to recap it based simply on the LivePhish recording. -Ed.]

Ahh, Bonnaroo. The perennial jam band festival that’s not really a jam band festival anymore.

I’ve had the pleasure of only attending Bonnaroo once, back in 2005. I saw a slew of amazing sets that weekend, including Benevento Russo Duo with Mike Gordon (a show you should definitely check out if you haven’t), Keller Williams, Jurassic 5 and Dave Matthews Band (laugh all you want, it was my first time seeing them and I really enjoyed it). That’s the nice part about festivals like this, it gives you the opportunity to see acts in the same place that you normally wouldn’t.

After the St Louis shows, I texted a good friend of mine who was on the fence about driving up to Camden to see them. I said, “Dude, I might be biased, but they are already playing lights out. You can’t miss seeing them in Camden.” I thought both nights in St Louis were spectacular. I will admit, the second night in particular will always be near and dear to my heart because of what transpired during the setbreak and how set two started out. I felt like there was little rust in the St. Louis shows (which you sometimes can’t say for tour openers), which made me both excited for the two nights at Bonnaroo and disappointed that I was not attending them.

So what will the boys have in store for us for Sunday down in Manchester? Will they bust out something they haven’t played in years (looking at you, "Free Bird")? Will Bo Bice and Trey share the stage again? (Spoiler alert: they did not, thank god.) Everyone is familiar with the old adage “Never Miss A Sunday Show,” would that apply to tonight as well? Let’s find out.

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Welcome to the 380th edition of Phish.Net's Mystery Jam Monday, the third of June. The winner will receive an MP3 download codes courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. To win, be the first person to identify the songs and dates of the three mystery clips. The clips are connected by a theme, but the theme needn't be part of the correct answer. Each person gets one guess to start – if no one answers correctly in the first 24 hours, I'll post a hint. After the hint, everyone gets one more guess before Wednesday at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET. Good luck!

Answer: In winning his seventh contest this week, @HarborSeal is (fittingly?) Emeritus #23 to enter the MJM Hall of Fame. After reading his awesome comment below explaining how he cracked this nut, it should be no surprise to anyone that he'd be able to solve so many of these, including this week's triple clipper without even needing the hint. That's right, it took less than four hours from the time these clips dropped to figure out that all these jams were played in Utah: 6/9/94 "Mike's Song," 7/15/03 "Spread It Round," and 6/8/95 "Tweezer." For his efforts, not only does he win a free MP3 download code from our friends at LivePhish.com, he also receives a pair of Propet Tour Walkers, free unlimited lifetime access to the Jam Charts he created for this site, a signed photo of Fishman (NSFW), and of course, the requisite copy of the keys to the vault and addition to the MJM+Phish iOS group text. Did I mention that no one took longer than @HarborSeal between their first and seventh wins? True story: when he won his first, it was the first MJM after the "Tahoe Tweezer" was played! Congrats to the man of the hour, and we'll see how long it takes @MikeThong to join him at the pier. Come back next week for more Phishy goodness at MJM381.

[Would like to thank user @KipMat Matt Schrag for recapping St. Louis for the blog. Be advised that the opinions offered in a "recap" of a show (or in any post) on Phish.net's blog are not necessarily shared by any of the other many volunteers who work on the site. We would appreciate it if you correct anyone out there ignorant enough to suggest that the "recap" of a show on this site is in any way, shape, or form an "official" view of the show by Phish.net. There is no such thing, and no such thing has ever existed at any time at all whatsoever. Thank you. -Ed.]

I had initially volunteered to write just one show recap for the Blog, but was asked by Phish.net to provide recaps for both nights of the tour-opening St. Louis run. Several well-meaning folks read my recap of last night’s show, and felt that it was lacking, or simply not what they were expecting.

This site is one of several sources on the internet for day-after recaps of Phish shows. These recaps are traditionally linear in form, in that they provide a rundown of the setlist, start to finish, with commentary on each song. I do not prefer this style for two reasons: fluff, and formula. A recap doesn’t have to include an opinion on every single song. Even though sentiments like “I love 'Roggae' it’s one of my 50 favorite Phish songs!” or “I wish I could hear 'Bouncing Around The Room' at every show!” are pleasing and help spread good vibes, they don’t pique my interest. And because recaps are essentially newspaper-style journalism, the writing tends to fall back on tired conventions to fill space. "Song A featured X, then segued into song B which featured Y," or "Phish often does ______ during a show, and tonight was no exception." I acknowledge that there’s an audience for this kind of journalism; I just find it bland.

So let’s talk about last night’s show! @EvenCarlSagan disagrees with me, but I thought the first set was weak sauce up through “We Have Come To Outlive Our Brains.” Everything up until that point struck me as safe, by-the-numbers Phish, while a noticeable portion of the audience was out on the concourse watching Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals on the mounted flat-screen tv’s. Nothing from the stage seemed “off," but the music just wasn’t happening for me. The ice was broken by Trey’s acknowledgement of blowing the repeat of the chorus of “WACTOOB” by hamming it up and asking the audience to sing along. The band’s performance seemed to refocus after the flub, and the rest of the set was a distinct improvement to my ears. Of course, the news that the St. Louis Blues had won the Stanley Cup for the first time in franchise history had spread during “Run Like An Antelope," and New Jersey Devils fan Chris Kuroda (pictured here in 1989) was gracious enough to shine bright blue and gold lights on the audience, using the Blues’ team colors to acknowledge the occasion.

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[Would like to thank user @KipMat Matt Schrag for recapping St. Louis for the blog. Be advised that the opinions offered in a "recap" of a show (or in any post) on Phish.net's blog are not necessarily shared by any of the other many volunteers who work on the site. We would appreciate it if you correct anyone out there ignorant enough to suggest that the "recap" of a show on this site is in any way, shape, or form an "official" view of the show by Phish.net. There is no such thing, and no such thing has ever existed at any time at all whatsoever. Thank you. -Ed.]

“Phish, with a P-H?”

The hotel Valet Attendant both looked and talked like famous twin brother Seth Galifianakis [url: https://youtu.be/sMFwNrAAsDs] - it was uncanny.

“That’s right, they’re the band playing at Chaifetz Arena tonight and tomorrow night.” I braced myself mentally for the inevitable follow-up question.

“What do they sound like?”

“Well, they’re an improvisational rock band…”

“OK, so not Country, then.”

I nodded in affirmation. This is usually the point when the conversation topic is switched, so I was caught slightly off guard by the Attendant’s next question.

“Who’s the opening act?”

“Actually, there’s no opening act, Phish plays the whole show, usually about three hours.”

“Three hours? And no opening act? Who even does that anymore?”

I used to be poorly skilled at recognizing rhetorical questions, and in the past I would have tried to name other jam bands the Attendant likely wouldn’t recognize. Instead, I smiled broadly and said, “I know, right?” and wished him well.

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Do not miss every minute of this "Anatomy of a Jam" by Amar Sastry, it's brilliant. And Jon Fishman also loved it; check out an image of his Facebook post about it here on twitter.

Welcome to the 379th edition of Phish.Net's Mystery Jam Monday, the second of June. The winner will receive an MP3 download codes courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. To win, be the first person to identify the songs and dates of the two mystery clips. The clips are connected by a theme, but the theme needn't be part of the correct answer. Each person gets one guess to start – if no one answers correctly in the first 24 hours, I'll post a hint. After the hint, everyone gets one more guess before Wednesday at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET. Good luck!

Hint: These jams were so much better than the local football team, they decided to up and move to Maryland.

Answer: Congratulations to first-time winner @perpg! Making quick work of the hint, they correctly identified these two jams from The Agora Theatre in Cleveland as the 5/7/92 Possum (this clip courtesy of fellow MJM emeritus @schvice) and the drum and bass section of the 4/22/93 YEM. A tougher-than-usual win for a first timer, @perpg is well-situated to tackle their seven wins and join the MJM HOF. Stick around next week, where we ratchet up the intensity of our puzzles yet another notch!

[Courtesy of Josh Martin, user @jmart. -Ed.]

How to approach the Trey Anastasio Band's second (and tour closing) show at the Tabernacle in Atlanta?

1. Consider this exchange with a fellow serious phish head a few weeks before the occasion: Me: "So I scored some tickets to go see Trey band at the Tabernacle down in Atlanta in a few weeks." Friend: "Well, there's nothing in that sentence I like."

Really? Seems kind of harsh. I mean, Atlanta isn't my favorite city either [note: I have revised that opinion based on this trip], but the Tabernacle is VERY cool, and Trey band has some good stuff going for it, right? Most importantly a guitarist named Trey, whom you've probably dreamed of meeting several dozen times and have probably seen in concert many more times than that. BUT ALSO, nice vocal harmonies, dense percussion, and propulsive rhythm and horn sections that power new songs and substantively change the sound of familiar songs. Is this a good thing? I'm not sure. I guess the listener gets to decide that, but I would prefer to think that change is a good thing, especially with something as familiar to all of us as large swaths of the Phish catalog.

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Listen: Nikon At Jones Beach Theater, Wantagh, NY - 06/02/2009

[Welcome To Weekly Catch With Osiris! A weekly series brought to you from the team at Osiris. Each Wednesday we're going to bring you a historic Phish show from that week with some commentary. Our goal is to go beyond official releases and well-known shows to bring you some of the overlooked gems throughout Phish history. If you like what you find, we'd encourage you to check out the assortment of podcasts at the Osiris! This week's catch comes from Brian Brinkman of Beyond The Pond.]

Ten years ago this week Phish kicked off their first full tour of 3.0. It's an odd moment of reflection. Back in June 2009 there were lingering questions about Phish's ability to recapture the magic of their peak era. You could still see 1.0 in the rearview mirror, as well as the darkest days of Phish from 2003-2004. Following the Hampton shows in March there were questions about the long-term viability of the band as a creative force. The three reunion shows were more or less recitles, lacking the surprises and on-the-spot creativity that had long defined the band at their best. Fenway's tour opener felt similar in many ways, a vanilla welcome-back that, aside from the "Tweezer -> Light" and the debut of "Time Turns Elastic," felt like hitting shuffle on many of Phish's 1990's studio releases. It would thus be night one in Jones Beach - a venue the band hadn't played since 1995 - where the familiarity and newness of Phish 3.0 would come into focus.

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[Alex Grosby, user @grozphan, was responsible for the wonderful "Below The Moss Forgotten" exhibit at the first Phish academic conference at Oregon State University in Corvallis, OR, in May 2019. -Ed.]

Phish fans love to gather. We come together in familiar and unfamiliar spaces and create our own world summer after summer, the occasional fall, and of course over New Year’s. A number of years ago, as I was working on my Business degree, I came up with an idea. Why don’t we have a place to gather outside of touring schedules? Sure, we could gather at Nectar’s and reminisce over gravy fries or hang in the parking lot at Hampton without a show, but it’s not a space to call our own. This was the first spark when the concept of a Phish museum entered my brain, and I went to work on throwing ideas together. That was the genesis of my organizational name, “The Phishsonian Institute.” I worked on a logo and wrestled with what to do now?. I started reviewing shows, and then realized that wasn’t right. I’m now working on comprehensive venue histories a little bit. But a goal has always been to tell Phish’s story. What happened next solidified the need to take charge of our own public history.

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Welcome to the 378th edition of Phish.Net's Mystery Jam Monday, the first* and easiest of June! The winner will receive THREE MP3 download codes courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. To win, be the first person to identify the song and date of the mystery clip. Each person gets one guess to start – if no one answers correctly in the first 24 hours, I'll post a hint. After the hint, everyone gets one more guess before Wednesday at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET. Good luck!

*Reminder: For the first MJM of each month, only folks who have never won an MJM are allowed to answer before the hint. If you have never won an MJM, please answer as a blog comment below. If you have previously won an MJM, but you'd like to submit a guess before the hint, you may do so by PMing me; once the hint has been posted, everyone should answer on the blog. If that's confusing to you, check out the handy decision tree that I threw together for you. If you're not sure if you've won before, check in the MJM Results spreadsheet linked below.

Answer: Congratulations to two-time MJM winner @serpent_deflector, who needed only twelve minutes to solve this week's MJM before waiting nervously for the next 23 hours and 48 minutes while others danced around the solution: the 7/16/17 "Carini." For his efforts he'll take home three LivePhish codes. Stay tuned next week for MJM379.

A very creatively written take on the "Phish Studies" conference that took place in May 2019 in Corvallis, Oregon, has been published by the Corvallis local paper, the Gazette-Times: "Floating with the flock: Three days among the faithful at the first Phish Studies Conference." We hope you find it worth your time to read, even though you must pause your ad-blocker.

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[Take the Bait is spirited deliberation centered around the hyperbole of Phish’s music and fandom, passionately exuded via the written words of phish.net contributors @FunkyCFunkyDo and @n00b100. Opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of phish.net, The Mockingbird Foundation, or any fan… but we're pretty sure we’re right. Probably.]

Funky: Wouldn’t you know it, public internet forums can be a place of knowledge and enlightenment. ...instead of, you know, the usual slander, libel, and childish name-calling. Esteemed phish.net user, and frequent reader/chimer-in-er, @JMart, concocted this thread a couple weeks ago, which led to some great, Phishy discussion about which songs were better, or worse, during the 3.0 years.The forum delivered some fine discussion and debate, which got me thinking - we’ve coyly danced around any actual controversial opinions our last few episodes, casually diving into some forgotten about corners of the Phish world, which few people seemed to care much about, but important pieces of Phish nonetheless. Nerdism aside ::pushes up glasses to nose:: we didn’t really deliver anything too contorversial, neglecting to give the fans what they really want: a reason to use slander, libel, and childish name calling... directed at us! No doubt picking a jam’s best years will result in a slew of digital disgust, so let’s get on with it.

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[Welcome To Weekly Catch With Osiris! A weekly series brought to you from the team at Osiris. Each Wednesday we're going to bring you a historic Phish show from that week with some commentary. Our goal is to go beyond official releases and well-known shows to bring you some of the overlooked gems throughout Phish history. If you like what you find, we'd encourage you to check out the assortment of podcasts at the Osiris! This week's catch comes from Michael Shields of Across The Margin.]

Listen: Bethel Woods Center For The Arts, Bethel, NY - 05/28/2011

From day one of this project, one that teamed Phish.net and the Osiris Media Group, the goal of the Weekly Catch has been to bring Phish fans a historic Phish show from the week the article is published and provide some context into the show in question. The hope is for the show chosen is that it is one not well know, not an official band release, and generally an overlooked gem. And thus, one could surmise, the Weekly Catch will usually be focussing on shows from back in the day, well before Coventry and a hiatus.

But at this point in the modern era glorious shows can easily get overlooked or left unsung as the grandeur and legend of 3.0 persistently grows. And so, I am happy to be the first writer in the series to whisk the Weekly Catch into the 3.0 era and celebrate easily one of the best shows of Summer 2011.

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[This is the second essay that Phish.Net user @thephunkydrb has published on Phish.net. He previously published a meditation on time and experience tied to the Baker’s Dozen “Tube,” which you can read here. -Ed.]

By Jnan A. Blau

I’ve just come back from one of the coolest, most stimulating and invigorating, and definitely one of the most “far out” (to quote Mr. Bill Kreutzman, via Mr. Benjy Eisen) experiences of my life. Late last Monday night, I got back home to San Luis Obispo, California from Corvallis, Oregon. I had to rise and shine the next day, no time at all to transition from Phishiness to so-called real life—a direct, rather abrupt segue (a rip cord if there ever was one!) into a full day of teaching in university classrooms. I was, and still am, kind of exhausted. But, I’ve had a secret smile the size of Mt. Icculus plastered across my face and tattooed on my heart ever since. This because I am back from Phish Studies, the first-ever academic conference dedicated to our favorite topic/subject/phenomenon.

This, unlikely as it may seem, is my conference review for all you dot-netters, you denizens of the Phishverse, you members of one of the most lovely and inspiring communities going.

(Could this be the world’s first conference review?!)

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