This is my .02, which mean nothing.

I felt like 2015 was a mountain that we climbed together and descended together. Like many of you, I had extremely high expectations about this tour coming on the heels of FTW. It was clear Trey had been practicing for god knows how many hours and really from the first night of Bend it was clear this tour would be decent. I really felt like Trey was considerably better from note one onward then he had at any time in 3.0. Bend is still really good on re-listen, and the tour just went upward from there. By the time ATL1 hit it was clear this was THE tour I had been waiting for since the band got together. They were playing cohesive, full-band jams without whale-calling or abrupt song changes in deep jams or any of these type of things we have begrudgingly come to expect in 3.0. Like the site article says, I would generally expect one meaningful set of music every 3-set show. This tour was different. 08/12 was the first show where I think the full potential was realized. That is, IMO, the best full set they have played in 3.0. All killer, no filler, from start to finish with deep cohesive jamming in each song. Phish has played all killer, no filler sets before (Elements Set - UIC 2011, as an example), but this was the first set where it felt like they were really going deep on every song. I was truly amazed after listening to 08/12 and I could have rest easily knowing that would be the high point of tour. I was wrong, multiple times over.

08/15/2015 is one hell of a show. It is easily in my top-3 of 2015. When I listen to Phish, what I listen for is deep Type-II improvisation. I know we all look for different things in Phish but that's what I look for. 08/15 has very cool, deep jamming, and the band seemed particularly loose this show. The AWESOME antelope to end set one was a great harbinger of things to come in Set 2 and honestly 46 Days - Bug - Steam - Piper - Tweezer - WOTC is a very powerful set of music. I can't think of any other way to put it. This was creative jamming. Phish has jammed a lot in 3.0 but I think the second half of summer 2015 brought out creative jamming of the kind I haven't seen in 3.0. This set is full of it.

And then there's Magnaball. Words can't describe my thoughts on these shows, and especially 08/22. When describing his thoughts on 2015, Trey cited 08/12 and Magnaball as a whole as his favorite moments. It's easy to understand why he said Magnaball as a whole. Not just jamming, but wildly cohesive, creative jamming. 01/02/2016's Tweezer is in my opinion the perfect contrast to Magnaball. It's long. It's rocking. It has an awesome peak, but at the end of the day it's still an extended, standard-form rocking tweezer with some cool Trey soloing. Phish has played lots of long, rocking, epic peak Tweezers in their time. MSG 2012 actually had an epic Tweezer that followed the same script as MSG 2015. I wait for the point where you have to stop and ask yourself what song this is again. I had that moment countless times during Magnaball. Caspian, Blaze On, and Light being prime examples of that during 08/22. But really, all of Magnaball was amazing. The band was just playing so fluidly and out there. They weren't afraid to take risks, which in many ways is the calling card of 3.0. Trey used to use the phrase "playing without a net" back in 1.0 and I feel that is what is missing most in 3.0 (certainly in 2009-2012).

Unfortunately, to me, it didn't feel like Phish was diving into type-2 jams without a net much after Magnaball. Yes, there was lots of jamming but Dicks, MSG, and Mexico just didn't flow as well as the uptick from Bend-Magnaball did, and IMO the creative jamming decreased pretty quickly from Dicks-MSG-Mexico. That's not to say that there weren't cool things to mention. I thought 12/30 Set II was awesome and easily the best set played during Dicks/MSG/Mexico but that set didn't have a jaw-dropping Tweezercaspian or MPP1 Steam/Piper/Tweezer moment. The jamming just didn't feel like the band was trying to stray too far from the norm. Again, Phish jammed a lot during that stretch (12/31 especially) but it just didn't feel like the deep, whole band improvisation going off the map like we saw in the later half of Summer 2015. I know a lot of people loved MSG though.

Although I don't think this is the "best" jam of 2015 by any means, I think the Magna Blaze On is sort of the definitive 2015 jam for me. Here is a new song, that I didn't really care for that much song wise, that had a crazy deep and out-there jam segment that just blew me away. I had to stop and go "wow, I did not see that coming AT ALL." It wasn't nostalgic at all. I wasn't sitting back here thinking about how it reminded me of themes covered in jams past. It was all new, coming out of an all new jam vehicle. It was what I long to see in Phish. 2015 was it for me. I was at 03/06/09 and this year is what I waited for for years. Phish is awesome.