I have so so so many things to say about Sunday night. I will try to make it sound composed. The short of it is that I think I have a new contender for the best concert I’ve ever attended in my life.

There’s about four tiers of perspectives here IMO.
1. That’s your first show? I hope you had an incredible time. They’re not all like that and it will take you some time to understand why you peaked at your first show lol.
2. If you’re still chasing songs, you may not have gotten the bustouts or once-a-years here. I swear they were teasing Plasma a bunch but that never came.
3. Then we have our homies who say they’ve seen the best show of their lives and maybe they have but they’re like 5 shows in so everyone gently writes them off.
4. And then there’s us fools like myself who (look back at my post history) that never wavered from saying that [insert all-timer] (for me it’s 7/27/14) is the greatest show I’ve ever seen in my life.
• Oh right 4b is someone who has been to 50+ shows and saw tonight and says, “Meh.” Keep chasing brah you’ll never be satisfied ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Well… tonight made me waver and then some. I’m a hardheaded fool and I questioned quite a lot. Some of those questions:

1. Was this show played intentionally backwards? (It must have been with the first Tweezer encore of all time, played specifically for that “Do you get it?” sample).
2. They probably opened the tour with a Tweezerfest and closed with a Reprise fest and literally no one saw it coming right? (That’s a long time to hide a joke in plain sight, boys. Well done lmao).
3. For the guys that surely think about their legacy, they had to have been like, “11 years since 7/27/14 and we didn’t jam much that night but ok fine we’ve done like 5 Tweezerfests ever but you know what would be original?” And yes, Trey. You were right.

What you’ll get from me is perspective 4 about how this is my GOAT (Big Cypress is its own island on the Mount Rushmore and always will be).

The big thing about Phish is if you see the greatest show you’ll ever see, it’s just highly improbable you’ll experience the same feeling ever again. Getting to feel that way again and recognizing it’s happening in real time is a euphoria that you just can’t explain. You can categorize those greats into one or more of the following types of shows.

1. One massive jam. Could be a known jam vehicle or maybe it’s one that never goes for a jam like the Lawn Boy show.
2. A running gag. See: 7/11/00 for the Moby Dick show.
3. A show where the roller coaster kept escalating and going and going and never coming down until you literally had to go home wondering where your face is afterwards.
4. A top to bottom dance party.

I’ve been seeing Phish for 13 years now and I think what makes a great show is where you dissociate, can’t stop dancing and the crowd is whipped into a frenzy from the first note all the way to the last. Hands on heads numerous times. You know you’re feeling great when the sober person and the super fucked up person are feeling and experiencing the same thing. You don’t need any of the extracurriculars because the music and band is already taking you there.

And what better high is there in the world to experience, am I right? It’s why we keep coming back.

For thoughts on the show itself…

What makes this a great one for me is the quality of the music is top notch from beginning to end. I don’t recall many flubs from the boys. Those 4 types of all-timer shows I listed above, sometimes you’re lucky to get one or two in the same show. It is rare to get all of them in one.

By the second song they play Tweezer Reprise, your mind starts thinking multiple ways, they start jamming it and a few mins later someone posts on the internet that this is already the longest Tweezer Reprise ever.

And because this is Phish, that first Tweeprise ending at 13:04 is only the second longest Tweeprise of the night. In the second set we get a behemoth at 23:04. You can argue a couple things here:

1. Was that still Golden Age? I say no. Tweezer Reprise was played and not teased. I promise I’m not just saying that lol
2. “Just because it was 23 minutes, doesn’t mean it was a good jam!!!”

And for #2 you’re very wrong lmao. To my ears at least.

The first set is not only filled with the gag, we FINALLY get the Roses Are Free jam we’ve been waiting awhile for, and then man I do not understand how Phish can destroy us and then understand how to close BOTH Split Open and Melt and Tweezer Reprise to end the first set. The SPAC concourse was a total madhouse after this because I’m sure no one left their seats up to that point.

The bathroom lines were insanely long and I think Kill Devil Falls gets the nod to start the second set to give everyone a chance to get back to their seat and buckle up. While in the bathroom line, I’m thinking to myself a couple things:
1. I really hope security comes and gets guy down from this tree because I am right in its trajectory. (They did).
2. I hoped that we didn’t get an overdone gag. Maybe one more Tweezer Reprise to end the show but leave it be and let’s get some jams from other places.

We get two more. One to close the set after YEM and that’s the last one. The one out of Golden Age… I mean good lord.

I preciously mentioned the encore Tweezer and the boys probably could’ve just played Hood in the encore to send us home but Tweezer stops on a dime and of course we needed one more gag from a Fishman sample we’ve never heard before. Which, I’m unsure how he refrained from that one for so long lmao.

When we look back at the jams of the show, yeah maybe we won’t say any of those versions are the greatest but who cares? You get that deep jamming all show long with a Tweeprise current flowing underneath and what more escapism could you want from a concert?

To everyone who was there too or followed along at home with the stream or listened on Monday morning, we are a fortunate bunch (I believe they say lucky sumsabitches). We were blessed with an epic tour closer at a beautiful and legendary venue. Don’t take this for granted.

And if you’re just listening for the first time or getting into Phish, press play and start at Buried Alive. You may just like what you hear!