Previous installments:

Part 1 (HM, #50-41)

Part 2 (#40-31)

Part 3 (#30-21)

Before we jump right in, might as well get this out of the way:

DISCLAIMER: All of this is just one man's very subjective opinion. Feel free to discuss, disagree (gently), and point out anything I may have missed or ignored in the comments. Vive la différence!

NUMBERS 20-11

20. 9/4/11 II, Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, Commerce City, CO

An absolutely grand old time, capped off with one of the era’s finest “Piper”s and that crazy “Guy Forget” bustout in “Ghost”. There’re a few seams showing (“Come Together” is about as rickety as the 9/6/15 “Once in a Lifetime” is), but you won’t notice when you’re hearing those glorious segues or that heart-stopping "Roggae". I’d guess that we’d still have the Dick’s Labor Day tradition even if they hadn't played this exceptional show, but it’s always nice to put your best foot forward, isn’t it?

19. 6/23/12 II, First Niagara Pavilion, Burgettstown, PA

If there’s one trait (among many) that you can see evolve as 3.0 progresses, it’s the number of songs Phish plays between the meat of Set II and the final song, as they’ve grown more and more comfortable with improv in the 4th quarter. They hadn’t quite gotten that comfortable yet in this show; one imagines we’d get a really great “Hood” in 2015 after the monster “Mike’s Groove” (along with the sneaky and charming -> out of "Weekapaug" into "Seven Below") they dropped here, rather than the “Bouncin’”/”Julius” “Set 2 encore” special. Doesn’t make the “Mike’s Groove” any less special, of course, but just a thought. More on that in a bit.*

* Thought I'd drop a note here to mention that while I like the “Mike's” and “Weekapaug” from 8/4/15 more than the versions here (as, probably, everyone else does), I think that the 6/23/12 “Mike's Groove”, as a whole, works together better as a piece, which is why I like this full set more (that, and I really do like “Bouncin'” just fine). This is probably my favorite "Dead in '76/'77" set of the era.

18. 8/15/15 II, Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, MD

If you’re as much of a voracious setlist-reader like I am, setlists like these are manna from heaven – you almost can’t wait to download this show (or hit phish.in these days, or wait for a tape in the old days) just to hear if the playing matches up to the setlist. And with that “46 Days”, “Piper”, and wicked cool “Tweezer” -> “NO2” -> “Tweezer” sandwich, I’d say the playing matches up with the setlist here.

17. 8/31/12 II, Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, Commerce City, CO

And here’s the second half of one of 3.0’s biggest deals. The “Chalk Dust Torture” is probably the finest jam of the set (possibly the show; shoot, maybe the year as well), but I keep finding myself drawn to that ambient jam that ghosts its way out of “Farmhouse”, so close is it to the ambiance of the late-90s. And then “Alaska” barges its way in…

16. 12/31/15 III, Madison Square Garden, New York, NY

Recency, schmecency. The staggering “No Men In No Man’s Land” is the closest the band’s gotten to the “Drive-In Jam” since the “Drive-In Jam”, and the run from “Blaze On” through “Bowie” nearly matches it in quality, as well. As with a set like 6/23/12 II, tack on, say, the 10/28/14 “Hood” at the end, and who knows where this sucker might land?

15. 10/28/14 II, Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, San Francisco, CA

Speaking of which! Fall 2014 suffered from feast or famine (much like Summer 2012), but when the band was giving us a feast, we got sets like this one and two more down the line, filled to the brim with truly great music. I said it before, and I’ll say it again: I’d like that “Twist” to be playing when I’m on my deathbed. This, I think, is the range where any of the upcoming sets is a perfectly fine candidate for "best of the era"; the gradations between sets are pretty fine to begin with (the difference between, say, 6/23/12 II and 8/4/15 II isn't that great), but around here they start becoming paper-thin and entirely personal.

14. 11/2/14 II, MGM Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas, NV

My choice for the finest “Piper” of the era (that riff from Trey!), my choice for the finest “You Enjoy Myself” of the era (that Drums segment!), and one of 2014’s better “CDT”s (no small feat) add up to a set of remarkable quality. Sorry about “The Line”, everyone.

13. 10/26/10 II, Verizon Wireless Arena, Manchester, NH

I wonder what it says about the fact that the oldest set that I like the most from 3.0 is the truest throwback to the mid-90s of this era (well, this or…), with a classic jam (the “Light”) linked up with crazy antics like a “Makisupa” sandwich, the wild tease-laden “Paug”, and “Llama” exploding out of “Paug”’s back end to close the set and call back Set I as well. Probably nothing.

12. 10/31/14 II, MGM Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas, NV

I’d say that, for many folks, the main reason for Summer 2015 turning out the way it did was the “Fare Thee Well” shows and Trey’s remarkable guitar boot camp getting his fingers into a shape they probably haven’t been in for a decade-plus. But, to me, another large reason Summer 2015 was so great is this set, what went into it, and the fact that it showed that the band was still more than ready to take risks and potentially alienate its fans (more than the “Wingsuit” set, I honestly think); Summer 2015 took a fair share of risks, and just about all of them paid off handsomely. Of course, all that means nothing for the purposes of something like this blog entry if the music isn’t great, and the music here is great.

11. 9/2/12 II, Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, Commerce City, CO

I wonder how many of these sets could be considered a candidate for “best set of 3.0 at the time it was played” on this list. This would definitely be one, 11/28/09 II, maybe 10/26/10 II, maybe 8/19/12 II and 9/4/11 II as well. A perfect finale to one of the finest runs of Phish's career.

Thank you for reading! Please leave a comment below, and look forward to Part 5 (the top 10!) on Sunday, March 20!

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