The band and everyone in attendance at last night’s show in Columbia, MD were right where they were supposed to be. This band was never supposed to stay on hiatus after 2000. They were never meant to stay retired after 2004. There was simply too much left to be said. Thank God they came back to let us hear it.

Everything simply feels right these days with this band who have been blowing our minds now for three decades. Some shows in the current state of Phish feature multiple extended jams. Others, like the previous night’s show at Jones Beach, feature one “you have to hear this to believe it” segue after another. Still other nights, like last night, are far less exploratory and still have the ability to take the audience on a stunning musical journey. You never know what you are going to get in 2013 and that is an exciting place to find yourself as an audience member.

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"The rain had let up and leveled out to its usual winter-long pace ... not so much a rain as a dreamy smear of blue-gray that wipes over the land instead of falling on it, making patient spectral shades of the tree trunks and a pathic, placid, and cordial sighing sound all along the broad river. A friendly sound, even. It was nothing fearful after all. The same old rain, and, if not welcomed, at least accepted — an old gray aunt who came to visit every winter and stayed till spring. You learn to live with her. You learn to reconcile yourself to the little inconveniences and not get annoyed. You remember she is seldom angry or vicious and nothing to get in a stew about, and if she is a bore and stays overlong you can train yourself not to notice her, or at least not to stew about her." – Ken Kesey, Sometimes a Great Notion

A common debate in the comments section of these recaps centers around who is better suited to offer a review, someone who attended the show or someone who has listened to the “tapes.” Proponents of reviews by attendees only will generally claim that the show is an experience that can’t be completely distilled to ones and zeros via the modern miracle of livephish.com. To authentically offer a review of a show, they will say, you have to have lived the full sensory experience.

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I had a discussion last night about the summer tour so far (Bangor, SPAC and to some extent PNC) with Stephen Olker, the producer and host of TypeIIcast, and Dave "Miner" Calarco of PhishThoughts. There are clips of some of the tour's jams (e.g., Bangor Golden Age, SPAC SOAM, Carini, Light), interspersed within the discussion. You can listen to our two cents here.

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Last night marked Phish’s tenth performance – eighth if you’re only counting headlining gigs – at the PNC Garden Bank State Arts Center. If there’s been an ongoing trend to the preshow atmosphere on the current tour thus far, it could be the blazingly hot, 1999 Summer Tour-esque weather. So being mindful of that theme, please try to keep what’s important (water), and know who’s your friend (hydration).

Alas, sometimes an excess of water is the problem, as we saw Tuesday night with Phish’s return to Canada being postponed due to the after-effects of flooding. Whether an intentional nod to a previous Phish show that rain threatened to undermine or just a fortunate coincidence, “Llama” took the leadoff spot. Because the song has been relegated to a once-or-twice-a-year rarity in the 3.0 era, it’s easy to forget what an effective show opener it is.

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Welcome to part 151 of Phish.net's Mystery Jam Monday. Once again, be the first person to identify the song and date of the mystery jam clip and win one MP3 download courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. Each person gets one guess per day, with the second “day” starting after I post the hint. A hint will be posted on Tuesday if necessary, with the answer to follow on Wednesday.

Answer: By, er, discerning this week's Mystery Jam (the 7/8/03 Discern -- played ten years ago to the day it was posted), @mainegabe wins this week's MP3 download. Great job!

See you all next week for number 152.

The last time Phish ended a run at SPAC, it was the cherry on top of a sweet 2012 first leg. This time around, the band is still gearing up for the summer and their 30th anniversary, as well as adjusting to a new/old configuration with Fish in the middle. In short, tours rarely seem to hit the jackpot right off the bat. SPAC3 2013 cashes in on a few jams, breaks even on others, and occasionally loses out. The takeaway from the evening, though, is that this slightly-above-average-great show means that the big bucks are still on the way.

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You know the drill, so let’s cut right to the action from SPAC2.

“Crowd Control” starts off in its now-traditional show-opening slot (it has opened the show in each of its six appearances since Phish returned to the stage in 2009), giving way to a spirited if standard “Chalk Dust Torture,” the first repeat of the tour. “The Wedge” and “Funky Bitch” maintain an upbeat and solidly played opening stanza.

“Heavy Things” saw some minor vocal struggles from Trey but was otherwise well-played, and was followed by a one-two punch from Farmhouse with an unexpected “Bug,” the first performance of the song in the first set in over a dozen years (9/25/00, Bonner Springs, KS). The first set seems like a potentially better fit for “Bug” – a song that many fans (including this one) love, but that can often fall fairly flat when positioned in the more common prominent, late-second-set or encore slots. “Bouncing” offers a breather before “Tube” that teases at some delicious grooves that could have offered the first extended improv of the set, but is cut far too short (and even at 6:44 is comparatively long for 3.0). Then the best “Julius” EVER... hint: they are all the “best ever” – “Julius” rarely varies, and always rages.

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Phish is sort of like golf.

It’s hard to step onto the tee box after six months without swinging a club and blast a drive right down the middle. Hitting buckets in the off-season can help keep the swing in tune, but sometimes it’s hard to make time for that when you’re a parent, or you just debuted your first Broadway musical, or there are elite symphonies who want to play with you. That kind of stuff.

Phish didn’t slice one out of bounds in Bangor on Wednesday, but let’s just say they missed the fairway wide right and dropped an uneven tour opener that was destined to be largely forgotten by time Dick’s rolls around, save for a few sparkling moments. But if anybody deserves a mulligan now and then, it’s Phish, no?

Fore!

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PHISH began their 30th Anniversary year by opening their Summer Tour with a three hour show for over 16,000 people on a muddy field in Bangor, Maine. Fortunately for attendees, the thunderstorm never came, and the gorgeous weather, with its blue sky and cool, periodic breeze, accompanied the music quite well, as the mighty Penobscot River flowed adjacent to the venue, stage right. Most of the songs performed were debuted by the band before 1996, giving the show a profoundly retrospective (if not nostalgic) flavor, a flavor only enhanced by a “Golden Age” second set opener and an excellent performance of “Backwards Down The Number Line.”

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Happy "Tour Opener Week", and welcome to Phish.net's Mystery Jam Monday Part 150! As we did when MJM hit the century mark, the winner will be awarded with one MP3 download courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net, along with a "Famous Mockingbird" pin designed by AJ Masthay in the color of your choice (silver or gold).

Regarding the Mystery Jam itself, as with MJM #100 and the Hampton/Winston-Salem MJ, this clip has multiple songs on it that you'll need to identify. Therefore, we will not be using the comments to guess this week. Instead, send your SINGLE guess to [email protected]. If you have any questions, you can post those in the comments section. The first person to correctly identify the song and the date of each jam will be the winner. 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. In the event that no one guesses all of the Mystery Jams, the winner will be selected by the Blog at its sole discretion. To start you off with a little help, here's a spreadsheet with the all-time MJM results. Note the number of blank slots for this week's contest, and be assured that each of this week's jams has not been used previously. Good luck!

Tuesday Update: Since no one's submitted an email that includes a guess for all included jams, the hint will be posted at noon ET on Wednesday. You will have until then to submit your first batch of guesses.

Wednesday Hint (note the answer will be posted Friday morning): The years of the seven jams in the clip — in chronological order (these are not necessarily in the order they are played in the clip) — are 1993, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2003, 2009, and 2010. One jam is from a song that is almost never a jam vehicle. Two jams were played in venues owned by or located on college campuses. Three jams were in venues last played in "1.0". Four jams were played in the second half of the year. Five jams were played in the Eastern Time Zone. Six jams were played indoors. All seven jams were played at Phish shows.

Answer: Seven mystery jams was admittedly a tall order, but the Blog pulls out the victory! By IDing four of the seven (#1, 4, 6 & 7), @ucpete had the most accurate entry and is also a winner, as he'll receive the MP3 DL and Masthay pin -- great job! The results sheet now contains all seven answers. MJM returns on Monday.

Over the past 4 years CashorTrade.org has been completely free. Dusty and Brando have spent hours upon hours coding the site, working with members to solidify trades, building the mobile app, setting up the trading tent on tour, and so much more. As the community reaches 25,000 members, it has become difficult for them to progress it on their own and without funding.

Brando says, "We see so many ways in which we could advance the program and supply more tickets to more events, yet time and money is limited. In an effort to keep CashorTrade alive and to bring it to the next level we need your help. We are just now releasing our new Gold Membership to help fund the launch of our new trade tools."

Gold Membership will hopefully revolutionize the way fans communicate about tickets, while making it social. With the donations, COT will be able to finish the development of useful tools, such as mobile notifications, buyer/seller protections, and suggested trades. For example, you could be sitting on a beach, and receive a text message alerting you to the availability of a ticket to a sold-out show -- a ticket you'd been dying to score for weeks!

Along with the Gold Membership tools, COT is offering limited edition merchandise, too. They have a CashorTrade Pin, T-Shirt, and Hat only available to the backers of their project. You can back their project by clicking here: http://cashortrade.org/donate

If you are a fan who believes in face value tickets, please support this idea. Tell your friends by posting their donate page in your social networks. The more we help each other with the supply of face value tickets, the more we strengthen, and benefit, as a community. As they say at COT, #EmbracetheFace!

I previously wrote about how the summer of 1987 was a transformative period in Phish’s career - a point where the band would take the leap between playing occasionally at random bars, and becoming a full-time band. I think an equally important transition point for Phish was the summer of 1993. The 93 summer tour is definitively the most frequently mentioned date I hear when people talk or write about the band making the next leap, from a good touring band to a world-class act. So, as I became slightly overwhelmed by the monotony of reviewing shows from the late 80s, I decided that I may as well jump straight to this point in time. I figured it would give me a good foundation to start with, and also highlight a series of shows that will always have something of interest.

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Ode to Dick's

When Phish’s summer 2013 tour dates were announced, many fans expressed dismay at the lack of a 30th anniversary festival. Ever since they reinvented the modern rock festival with the Clifford Ball in 1996, Phish's festival shows have been among the most anticipated and cherished concert experiences of many fans. Before the 2004 breakup, these shows almost always occurred at the end of the summer in out of the way locales. Plattsburgh. Limestone. Big Cypress. Coventry. The festivals almost always took place in the "corners" of this fair country.

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