TL;DR — everything is gonna be alright + a very very good 2nd and 3rd set and don’t even think about missing tomorrow’s show/stream.

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We woke up today still face-fucked by Friday night’s show. What was on the table? It’s Phish 2025. Who fucking knows. And I guess, who cares, right?

Except for the dude I saw at set break celebrating his 100th show hoping for a Frankie Says he’s never gotten. Sorry bud. Here’s hoping for it on Sunday. It’s the last show of the summer proper tour. 11 years since the MPP Tweezerfest and the greatest show I’ll ever see (they played Lawn Boy on Friday 7/25. They for sure keep track of these things.). Especially at the beloved Saratoga Performing Arts Center. You know they’ll make this count.

Ok but back to Saturday.

The show starts off in outer space with Martian Monster and 2001 before coming back to Earth for a bit (we’ll get back to outer space and you know that obvi). I thought Mike’s Groove was fine but something felt off (Also why are yall groaning so loud during a mid-first set Velvet Sea?). Someone correct me if I’m wrong but it sounded clear to me that Fishman was playing a bit flat and that was apparent during Sand. I wanted some drum-focused song for the next call and we get… Evolve! I sent the below text to my friends last year and I agree with it even more so now seeing it as a mid-set call from Trey to get Fishman to lock in and play with more swing:

“Something cool I noticed about Evolve on about the 50th listen today that made the whole thing fall into place for me… the quarter note rest/gap on the downbeat by Fishman to start a bar is like, the whole thing. That’s the most fishman thing ever I’ve come to realize. Some small shit like that and everything is centered around it but you’d never catch it unless if you were listening for it.”

That call pays off right away with My Friend, My Friend and the show takes off from there. We get a happy birthday to CK5 in No Men’s, the crowd roars and we stomp our way into the setbreak. Our spaceships are preparing to take right back off with a second set Oblivion opener and they are fully looking back at Earth in the last 5 mins of the 25 min Disease. 2025 is Phish getting to that place like they’re riding a bike.

Light walks up to the plate next. In the past Light was a heavyweight exploratory jam vehicle. I’m sure it will get back there at some point, but right now it is a chance for Phish to make us feel our hearts full, which is exactly what happens in the last minute after they return home and Trey wants to hang and continue singing the ending. Listen to this once so you can hear it because it’s wonderfully, slightly different.

Life Saving Gun? It may not be as good as the whatever versions of the past couple of years but who cares? That’s a high bar and it still hits that.

Waste and Fluffhead crowd please us into the end of the set with Golgi to start the encore and Rock and Roll to send us home and man… I know everyone’s got a lot going on right now. I don’t know about yall but my thought at the start of Fluff was that everything is gonna be ok and at the end of the show it’s that everything is gonna be alright alright alright alright alright alright alright. Also lololol at Fishman doing the child temper tantrum smash in the buildup to the Fluff outro. Take a bow, big guy. You completely killed it tonight.

They’re having so much fun right now and I am too. See yall tomorrow!