[On December 31, 2022, on stage at Madison Square Garden, a certain rodent broke the Phish time machine, causing many participants in New Years' gags and other events from the past 40 years of the band’s history to temporarily make their way to the present. When the Time Machine broke, it also inadvertently sent a number of fans back in time, Quantum Leap style, to experience Phish shows from their younger days. Those fans include Jonah user @LizardwithaZ, whose recap of July 7, 1999, at the Blockbuster Pavilion in Charlotte, NC, appears below. If you are also one of the fans transported back in time and would like to recap your time-traveling show, please send an email to charlie at phish dot net.]

The feeling that prickles through my skin as the clock approaches midnight on December 31, 2022 causes me to sit straight up on the couch, goosebumps rippling across my skin. One moment I am here, awaiting the incoming New Year, the next, I have somehow been thrust back into 17-year-old me, riding in the back seat of a sedan.

That’s right: the Phish Time Machine has sent me back to July 7, 1999 to recap the 2nd show I ever attended.

Charlotte, North Carolina.

Blockbuster Pavillion.

(What’s a Blockbuster, you ask? Sorry, I’ll just be sitting in the corner crying about how old I’ve gotten.)

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[We would like to thank Eric, user @Doktahgonzo, for recapping NYE. -Ed.]

New Year’s Eve has been a time that has become synonymous with renewal, the process of moving forward, and the promise associated with setting a new marker to measure our lives by. It underlies what many of us recognized to be at the heart of the cultural understanding we have developed around New Year’s Eve. It is a time for reflection on both the good moments we have had, as well as the adversities faced, and an attempt to look forward to something better on the near horizon. In the community around Phish I have long felt that we may be more acutely aware of this phenomena. The sense of spectacle, humor, and tradition that the band has infused the date with makes for an optimistic yearning that has felt palpable to me for the entire run of these shows.

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[Great thanks to Megan Glionna (user @MeganGlionna, @themegandance1 on Twitter and @the_megan_dance on IG) for recapping last night's show! -Ed.]

December 30, 1997. 25 years ago. I was nineteen and up to no good. I sauntered into MSG for what would be the best Phish show I have ever seen.

I had seen a few incredible shows that summer, but college and a lack of funds kept me from seeing any Fall ‘97 shows. I had also been listening to a lot of house music and was getting into the rave scene, so my attention was slowly turning away from my favorite band. I was expecting that Phish would put on a great set of shows for their first multi-night New Year’s Eve run in New York City, but my interest in other music made me less concerned with what or how they would play. But, the opening 921-show bust out of “Sneakin’ Sally,” the Pentagram “Harpua,” the curfew breaking, the encore with the final “Black Eyed Katy”… it was the perfect capstone to an epic year of dance party, cowfunk Phish.

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2022 has been an interesting year of Phish. There have been moments of brilliance, but the music has rarely reached the improvisational peaks of Fall 2021. We discuss this at length on HF Pod. Of course, we don't really know how or why Phish’s playing is different tour to tour. But for me, one major factor is the band’s willingness to take risks, and I think last night’s show was a prime example of taking risks—and seeing it pay off.

A 22-minute opening “Fluffhead” set us off in a great direction. In the 7 minutes post-jam, it starts slowly and melodically, with Page on piano. The tempo wasn’t fast, but that allowed for more interplay between Page and Trey. That could have been the end, as it started to get quieter—but they kept on it and ended up in a really nice jam that, with a little bit of teasing before, ends in “Your Pet Cat.” But we don't really get the typical Your Pet Cat jam, we get a huge, booming climax, making people at MSG, and at home, wonder "what the hell is going on"? And that's exactly where we want to be.

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[We would like to thank Ryan Storm for recapping last night's show. -Ed.]

Last night was a much-needed reminder of why we Phish.

After an almost four-month break since Dick’s, the band returned to the Mecca, The Venue, the best place to see them – Madison Square Garden. Their second run at the World’s Most Famous Arena in 2022 (following up the whale of a good time in April) and the first proper New Year’s run since 2019 had excitement high.

With rumours flying wildly about the possibility of a “Baker’s Dozen II” next summer and tickets seemingly falling from the sky, expectations were high yet tampered. This year in Phish has been somewhat akin to 2016 or 2019 – lots of inconsistency with big jams scattered across the shows in a year that needs to follow up a landmark or peak (2015, 2018, 2021).

Regardless of any outside expectation or vibe, I was bursting at the seams with excitement upon walking into MSG last night. Having scored a four-day pass in lower section 208, I was set with a great view of the stage and was surrounded by a good number of people who were also settling into the spot for all four nights. I also took quick note of the stage setup – Page’s rig is NOT on a moving riser this year, which means the NYE gag will not involve a full-stage clear like the previous couple have.

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The new Surrender To The Flow (STTF #76: NYE Run 2022-2023) is out, please download it here at this handy link, and please consider donating to support it!

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The following is an interview of Jason Del Gandio (phish.net user @JasonDG) about his article, “Pulsating with Love and Light.” The interview is part of an AMA series celebrating the publication of the “Phish and Philosophy” special issue of the Public Philosophy Journal, edited by Stephanie Jenkins and Charlie Dirksen. Jason will also be answering your questions in the comments throughout the week. The next post will feature Kristine Warrenburg Rome, so please submit your questions now.

Tell us about yourself. Who are you? When was your first show? Why do you come back?

Hi, everyone! I am a college professor at Temple University in Philadelphia focusing on the theory and practice of social justice. My first show was back in 1993 (7/25, Waterloo Village). Not to sound cliché, but the collective vibe is what keeps me coming back. Besides live music, I also love traveling, stimulating conversation, the bustle of cities and the tranquility of nature, and I am passionate about changing the world for the better.

Why did you decide to write this essay? What do you want your readers to take away from it?

I saw this as an opportunity to connect my ideas about the vibe with the Phish experience, and hopefully share those ideas with a receptive audience. I am hoping that the essay gives people a language for articulating and understanding something we all talk about, but rarely define or explain.

You said the essay reflects your personal Phish experience. What’s your favorite encounter with the vibe?

I grew up in a household where the vibe was a common word. Then in my late teens I started going to concerts, clubs, raves, underground parties, etc. It’s there that the vibe stood out as real, tangible, experiential. One notable Phish vibe is 4/15/94, Beacon Theater. Without exaggeration, it was otherworldly. My 20-year-old mind asked: What is it, how might we explain it, and can it help change the world?

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[The following post is an interview with Isaac Slone (phish.net user @isaacslone) about his article, “How is Phish Therapeutic?.” The interview is part of an AMA series celebrating the publication of the “Phish and Philosophy” special issue of the Public Philosophy Journal, edited by Stephanie Jenkins and Charlie Dirksen. Isaac will also be answering your questions in the comments throughout the week. The next post will feature Jason Del Gandio, so please submit your questions now. -Stephanie]

Tell us about yourself. Who are you? When was your first show? Why do you come back?

Thanks for asking! I am a practicing psychotherapist in New York City - working on my license to practice psychoanalysis. My life intertwines with Phish in so many ways, it’s somewhat unbelievable. My first show was 6/2/09 - the summer before I started high school. It was so exciting that the band was reuniting - I remember it felt like something to live for. I come back because of the music. I think the band is phenomenal, and their live show is unparalleled.

Why did you decide to write this essay? What do you want your readers to take away from it?

I decided to write this essay because of how often I hear Phish fans talk about the joy they experience at shows. People within the Phish community commonly accepted the notion that Phish has a therapeutic value, but there was more for me to articulate about how exactly that works. There is a long tradition of psychology/psychotherapy extending out in conversation with other disciplines, and I wanted to begin building that bridge with Phish. I hope that it opens a deeper discussion or reflection for the reader because my experience is only one of many, and there’s only so much I can say about it in the short space of the essay. There are numerous ways to describe how what Phish does is therapeutic - I hope my piece sheds light on that and pushes the conversation further.

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Dr. Stephanie Jenkins, Ph.D. (Phish.net user @askesis) writes:

We’re excited to announce an upcoming series that The Mockingbird Foundation offers in collaboration with an academic journal.

This summer, the Public Philosophy Journal published a special issue on “Phish and Philosophy”—the first academic journal ever to be dedicated to the band—and Mockingbird’s participation in scholarly research was a first-of-its-kind partnership! Find buckets full of thoughts and read the articles via the PPJ’s online publishing platform at this link, and please click the "Read More" link below for more information.

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We hope everyone is doing well and that you had a great Thanksgiving. This year for The Mockingbird's Foundation's Giving Tuesday, we thought it would be fun to do it in conjunction with the 25th Anniversary of Phish's legendary 1997 Fall Tour.

If you are able, we ask that you consider donating $25 for the 25th. You can do so at the link here.

And if you happen to have attended shows that tour and are feeling able, you are welcome to donate $25 per show attended.

Thank you so much for your continued support of children's music education!

PS - everyone who donates $25+ will receive a Mockingbird magnet while supplies last!

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At some point last year, I was scrolling through Instagram and stumbled upon a unique account titled “Trey99rig.” I was immediately intrigued as I read the posts which had an incredible amount of detail and thought put into them. Was this guy really going to recreate Trey’s actual rig from over 20 years ago? If so, how would it be possible?

I began following the account and soon realized that Mr. Trey-99-Rig was actually my old friend Tyler! We‘ve known each other since the early 2000’s when we used to catch every RANA show we could at venues like The Wetlands, The Knitting Factory and CBGB’s. Fast forward a few decades later and here we are still in the game of live music meaning so much to us.

Tyler has always been very tech savvy so I knew that if someone could make this project happen it would be him. Safe to say he succeeded admirably! I was lucky enough to hear the rig in person and it really does capture the sounds of that era perfectly. Not only does it have the tone, it has the power!

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It may be odd to begin this final part with the epilogue of the essay, but it feels like the right way to approach an introduction to the final installment of this saga. First, I want to give my appreciation and a big thankful shout-out to @OrangeSox for his assistance and contributions to this essay. He’s been pushing me to keep plugging away for the past couple of years every time the topic has come up, and it’s unlikely it would have ever been completed without his help. The four parts of this essay will next be combined into one and move to a new permanent home within phish.net, just one part of a large push for new content for the site to celebrate the band’s coming Ruby Anniversary year.

There have been many endings to this essay as a result of the uncertainty accompanying the ongoing public health emergency. The first ending came with the postponement of the Summer 2020 tour, following the excitement of Sigma Oasis and the first few Dinner and a Movie episodes. The next ending followed the Beacon Jams when we could almost taste the eventual return to live concerts. Again, I attempted to end it just before the Summer tour of 2021, but the Delta variant, rising cases, and more uncertainty made me decide to wait and see. When I returned to the office, my computer still had the web page showing the news from March 2020, discussing what may happen “if it hit America.” I got chills going back in time. Then, after the end of the Fall Tour, Omicron emerged, and even though we had vaccines and the new variant seemed less dangerous, it was clear the essay would not end yet.

Here we are now, finally making a conclusion to the work, even while we are still getting ill, variants give way to subvariants, long COVID continues for people that got the virus in the months past, many countries still lack access to a vaccine, and it seems masks may be here to stay. The pandemic is over inasmuch as it seems to have become endemic, but it’s clear our world has finally been functioning “normally” again. So, following the second post-pandemic Summer Phish tour and the recent announcement for another run of shows for New Year’s at MSG, we feel like the April Earth Day run is the right place to mark the end of the era.

When me and my “best Phish friend” Aaron saw Phish again after the postponement, in Atlantic City 2021, I was amazed that we were all back together. It had been a few weeks before when Phish finally hit the road again. I personally always said COVID will be over when Phish hits the stage. Boy, man, god, shit was I wrong. I have come full circle in making this all evolve around Phish. Today, It doesn’t really feel “over” exactly. For me, the quarantine days will always be linked to the Black Lives Matter protest, the public health crisis posed by the novel virus, and a general new shift for America and the world, in what direction I can’t specifically say. Clearly, there is and will likely always be much more to be done on all these fronts.

Despite all that is wrong, we still have art, the beauty of music, and the hilarity of life. Idealistic lyrics and protest songs may not change anything, but the vibration of music, the heartbeat of the drum, and the community of a live show do. We write our own songs woven into our lives together with our friends and families. Despite all the tragedies and difficulties of the last two years we remain, together on a great big boat in this one big ocean...and the ocean is Love.

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Our four-part series continues with Part III. Indeed, we had hoped to publish the last piece as one, but it turns out to be too long for the blog. Please check out Part I here and Part II here and look for Part IV soon!

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As a band whose success and even identity have always been bound to their live performances, the pandemic challenged Phish to continue to reach their audience at a time when many would benefit the most from the distraction of chasing tour rumors, planning trips, and following setlists. Fortunately, Phish found engaging ways to keep us tuned. And when the time came, their commitment to return to the road as safely and quickly as possible likely reflects their passion to play together as much as their awareness of how much we would appreciate it.

The challenges and responses that would continue to arise through 2021 and even again this year display the persistence of the band and fans to find some way back to the shows. Since Phish’s first unaffected tour since 2019 recently concluded at the eleventh Labor Day run at Dick's Sporting Goods Park, it seems like an appropriate time to finally share a chronicle of all that has occurred with Phish during COVID-19.

Part II of this ongoing series follows last week's first installment. The final part will be published soon.

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“Its [sic] like the whole world getting Curveballed”
- @thequietone, Phantasy Tour/Phish Message Boards User

That thread title made me smile when I first saw it on March 11, 2020, as the pandemic first began to affect travel. I heard it as though from a character where you know it’s a joke, but the actor plays the part so well, the chance that he was serious is what makes it gold. How could one be so narrow-minded to compare the beginning of a global pandemic caused by a novel coronavirus to a single rock band festival cancellation? After all, following the Curveball announcement, we just had to find something else to do for the weekend, get our refunds, and blaze on to Dick's in a couple of weeks. This one-liner from PT is an appropriate place to begin because it's not lost on me that writing a history of these recent times, which have been so hard on so many, in the context of one band may seem indulgent.

That said, the pandemic affected live music perhaps as much as any other industry outside health care and education - essentially shutting down all concerts with an audience month after month beginning in March 2020. Musicians and production crews that worked on the road and in the venues would be severely impacted, and the future of the industry always felt uncertain. Even though it would be hard to find anyone who doesn’t appreciate the arts, for many fans of live music—and especially Phish—the experience offers more than just musicians on stage in the centerpiece of a big swirling production. It provides much-needed respite, camaraderie, and even catharsis when we’re lucky. Furthermore, the industry generates billions of dollars with wide-ranging effects on millions of lives.

The loss of livelihoods and outlets for joy for many was a small but significant part of the broader economic fallout from the response to the exponential spread of the virus known as SARS-CoV-2 in the last two years. In the broadest sense, the pandemic changed everything about the world we had come to take for granted. This piece has been rewritten for months and months, just getting longer as the story continued to unfold and the pandemic dragged on. After all, we are still in the midst of a constant threat of (fortunately milder) infection from ever more contagious variants (BA.5 at the time of publication). Thankfully though, much of life has readjusted to living with the virus thanks to easily available vaccines, including the concert industry.

As a band whose success and even identity have always been bound to their live performances, the pandemic challenged Phish to continue to reach their audience at a time when many would benefit the most from the distraction of chasing tour rumors, planning trips, and following setlists. Fortunately, Phish found engaging ways to keep us tuned. And when the time came, their commitment to return to the road as safely and quickly as possible likely reflects their passion to play together as much as their awareness of how much we would appreciate it.

The challenges and responses that would continue to arise through 2021 and even again this year display the persistence of the band and fans to find some way back to the shows. Since Phish’s first unaffected tour since 2019 just concluded at the eleventh Labor Day run at Dick's Sporting Goods Park, it seems like an appropriate time to finally share a chronicle of all that has occurred with Phish during COVID-19.

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