A Life Saving Bag

Well I’ve had 48 hours to digest the three day Bethel Woods run and feel compelled to add a review for the closer on 8/11, after providing the recap for the excellent Friday night show on 8/9. I’ll start by offering that with two runs now over the last three years, I really hope the band makes this more of a standard annual three-night stop ala Deer Creek or Alpine. The venue is a great showcase for the beauty of the region, the sound is immaculate (at least where I was in the Pavilion), it has a fun shakedown, and I’ve encountered mostly lovely people. It’s a little further afield for this Canadian than SPAC, but I’ll gladly trek the extra hour or two.

I didn’t have huge expectations going into this show. Not because the band wasn’t playing well—they have been—but because at this point in the game Phish is a lot more fun when you leave expectations at the door. Besides, they had already delivered the goods on Friday, as I remarked in my review, with great first set jams in No Man’s and MFMF, and very fluid jammy second set bookended by “Tweezerjets” and big versions of Piper and Chalk Dust. Saturday night’s affair was a little less even, predictably, but was still satisfying, with a fiery Sand, Waves rarity, big Kill Devil Falls, and hot Runaway Jim in an unexpected encore slot. I don’t know if this Sunday show is as strong start-to-finish as 8/9, but it’s highlights were tops for me on the weekend, and as of now, of the tour.

“I Never Needed You Like This Before” didn’t exactly bring the house down to open—I thought we might get a slow burner like “Soul Shakedown Party”—but it felt apt after the crowd love seemed to be escalating with each set over the weekend. “46 Days” continued with a similar rocking sound, but as Trey struggled with an issue with one of his distortion pedals he was forced to take things in gentler territory than you’d expect for a while, leaving Mike and Page room to get in on the action. “Bathtub Gin” offered the most jam-meat in the first set, and there’s a lot in this 18+ minutes to unpack, with multiple shifts in tone and direction, every band member throwing ideas out at a quick pace. Some of it works better than the rest. Fans of the Summer 97-style “Groove is in the Heart”-esque funk breakdowns will dig the last stretch. Nice smooth transition back to Gin to close.

A brief pause and then the Fish started up familiar percussion lead in with Mike following suit with a distinctly 98 Shafty-like sound. My friend and I both looked at each other quickly scanning our brains. It wasn’t Shafty though. “Fikus???” we both said in unison, increasingly confident it was indeed the Mike offering from Story of the Ghost that hadn’t been seen since 1998 and 801 shows. It didn’t take long for the opening lyric from Mike to confirm, as we woohoo’d and screamed along with a handful of others dispersed throughout the crowd, suddenly allied in our geekery. Say what you will about bustouts, but they sure are fun to experience in person, this one recalling a similar experience I had 20 years prior with the Destiny Unbound bustout on 2/28/03. And put me in the camp that thinks Fikus is a cool sounding song that lends itself well to the band’s sound right now, and deserves to stay in the rotation and launch a jam or two.

“Theme from the Bottom” takes us back to much more familiar territory, though Mike seems to still be in Fikus dream as the intro is clumsier than usual. It sounds for a minute like Trey wants to take this one for a walk as they have been doing occasionally the last couple years, but Page says no. “Timber” stays in the box too but is a set highlight for its thundering energy. I’d love to see them have this open a second set ala 95/97 one day again, it sets such a menacing tone and tempo. The back half of the first set is all well played, but nothing stands out as particularly interesting. Only of note for me, is that despite the fact that they seem to be happily hopping back and forth between “Axilla” and “Axilla II” over the last few years, I seem to only ever catch the former. Over 30 years and 10 performances between the two I’ve only seen Axilla II once, on my first show on 7/6/94. Go figure.

“Buried Alive” opens the second frame after yet another short setbreak, keeping with the theme of short warmups as on the night’s previous with “Wilson” and “The Wedge,” giving everyone a chance to get back to their seats for the launchpad to come. On Friday night I had worn my “AC/DC Bag” shirt I had scored on the lot sometime in 1999, if memory serves, thinking it might open the run, or better yet, get the jam treatment following the standout version in the Gamehendge set on New Years. There was also the matter of the 20 year anniversary of a couple notable versions in the otherwise sad month of August 2004. I had forgotten about my early prediction when they dropped into it following “Buried Alive” in a classic pairing that goes back to 1995, but it suddenly felt fittingly full circle and full of promise. My friend—with whom I caught the 12/30/97 Bag, among others—looked over at me with anticipation of Bag showing up in the two-slot here, not wanting to jinx things too much. We shared a knowing nod that something special could indeed transpire, and started to get down in silence. I’m happy to report, dear reader, that they did indeed deliver the goods with this 20+ minute version—the longest and imo best since the legendary Boise Bag of 99, whose 25th anniversary approaches. Unlike some of the other “big” jams on this tour, this one doesn’t meandre for 15 or 20 minutes before getting somewhere interesting. They’re out of the gates with it, some familiar friendly phrasing around 7 minutes that risks going into generic territory, but by 9 minutes, everyone is hooking up and the ideas are coalescing seamlessly. There’s a sense with this jam that the sounds they’ve been playing with since Mexico and then slowly getting reacquainted with this summer, have finally come together for the slaughter. The fierce energy that songs like “Pillow Jets” and “Life Saving Gun” (more on that later), combined with what I’m going to call the Mazagalatec sounds they stumbled on in February in Mexico, descend on all of us, and by 11 minutes we’re under celestial assault. Mike and Fish are in full propellor mode once Trey lays the machine gun ground. Then he and Page find some other lanes of melody and texture and they ride it through the mid-section. I was arms blazing, bouncing and screaming at this point. “This is fucking SICK,” my friend remarked. We laughed, shared a hug. (Did I mention we both did this run entirely sober? I’m not sure how else we’re supposed to be able to keep up with these guys otherwise..). It doesn’t stop there. Trey has been destroying the peak of jams with some of the most precise and dexterous machine gun riffs I’ve heard him do in decades, and we get a gorgeous taste of that here before they bring the tempo down for a juicy denouement, much like the “Wave of Hope” from Mexico, which sounds increasingly like a precursor to this jam for me. The jam winds down with glory and honour, Mike approving with a subtle Fikus tease, before Page leads us into “Fuego.”

The “Fuego” revisits some of the complicated interplay of the frontend of the Bathtub Gin. While it may not work for everyone, there’s a ton going on to break down and keep your attention—if you even have the bandwidth coming out of that Bag. “Golden Age” reappears surprisingly for the third time this tour here, and while it’s on the shorter side without a huge exploratory jam, it’s one of my show highlights. Why? Trey’s soloing in the song proper is as soulful as I’ve heard him in years. I could care less about a key shift into a “Type II” jam I’ve heard a dozen times before—give me Earnest Ernest executing a beautifully phrased in-the-box solo instead every day of the week and twice on Sundays. It’s easy to forget in 2024 just how much of Phish’s appeal in the early days had to do with playing like this from Trey, and I’m here for it now as I was then. Have a listen and judge for yourself. We do get a bit of a diverging all the same after the solo, Page really stepping up and shining here while Fish breaks it down in a out of Golden Age beat and Trey segues into “Simple.”

Is this the shortest Simple ever? Probably not, but my only beef with this set is that the Simple jam just stops on a dime, as if the whole band just turns down. I wonder if there’s a bit of cheekiness here, alluding to the 40 minute version played earlier on tour. “Here, sometimes this song is 40 minutes, and sometimes it’s 5.” I suppose it’s hard to complain when Simple is your ‘breather’ in the set, but given the aforementioned soulful playing from Trey, and the way Mike was jumping in, I thought there was promise here for a more ethereal jam. No matter, we have “Life Saving Gun” to the rescue. As I mentioned earlier, this song itself and the runaway energy of it in the back half seems to be influencing some of the jamming style we’re seeing. This is another terrific version that revisits some of the ACDC Bag territory and really feels like a bookend to it, in some ways. Also noteworthy for a very long note sustain from Trey that works fabulously. Don’t skip it.

Don’t skip the “Hood” either. I think I remarked in my review of the 2022 Bethel shows how I kind of lament Hood being such a staple when it feels at times like it’s not getting the type of treatment or playing it deserves. No one expects it to suddenly sound like its 93 or 94 self again but something was starting to feel a little stale. The composed section of this version is playful and strong, a good start. Right as the jam was about the launch, someone a row in front of us—who no doubt had good intentions, and may have been a recent convert to Phish, or ingested some meaning-enhancing and inhibition-reducing substance, or both, who knows—leaned over to my friend and loudly said “have your ever been to Catholic mass?” and was about to launch into some dissertation no doubt comparing this moment in the jam. Before he was able to say more, my friend put his finger to his lips in the universal symbol for STFU, and said “I AM at Catholic mass.” I’m happy for this guy, and he was far from the worst offender here—that would have been the folks in the row in front chatting on Facetime, or the tall elderly chomper behind us—but seriously folks, enough with the yapping, especially during the Hood jam, ok? Anyway where was I … right, remember what I said about the Golden Age playing? We’re graced with more of that playing here, and a Harry Hood that feels Good like Harry Hood should. A beautiful, soulful finale from the heart, and fine finish to another fantastic set.

I could moan about the predictability of the S.A.N.T.O.S. signoff, or the Life Beyond a Dream that echoed the 22 Night 1 encore here, but I won’t. I actually loved the Life Beyond a Dream in 22, and the peak here again is so heartfelt and strong, you’d have to be a real cynic to do so. Especially if you were lucky enough to be there and see how honestly and earnestly Trey looked as he peered out into the crowd singing, scanning maybe for anyone struggling like he once did, encouraging them to not give up hope, promising that there’s a life beyond, grateful he still gets to share these moments with us, till they melt away.

Keep dreaming, and have fun on the Green, folks.