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!

This review will be short - but I have to add my 2 cents.

Phish slayed SPAC... this first set is flawless.... the 2nd set gets the full works .... Disease almost touches that behemoth chalkdust from the night prior - and thats a tall freaking order.

No song for song review here, this is just elite Phish. Listen to it

Set One: A+
Set Two A

Rating: 4.55

(Reposted from official recap for posterity)

SAVED by the Prince of Darkness

“Awake, arise or be for ever fall’n.” - Milton, Paradise Lost

Saturday night in Saratoga Springs! If you’re just tuning in, Phish kicked off their tour-closing run in the state capital area and hometown region on Friday night, and in the second set unlocked a portal that’s been coalescing all year—or maybe since Mexico ’24—dropping a set so flawless and filled with space-hose that the they chose to release it in its entirety on Youtube rather than the customary single highlight. After that performance, speculation abounded about what was in store for the bigger Saturday night crowd. Having left everything on the table the previous night, surely expectations were to be tempered. A jukebox Saturday night special, or maybe just something a little loose to conserve the energy for the tour closer on Sunday? They couldn’t possibly keep that up, and keep digging deeper down.. could they?

Well follow me now and you will not regret / A tale of the trip to Hell and back that our wandering minstrels did beget.

It didn’t take very long to determine what we were dealing with, as a particularly juicy “Martian Monster” seemed like both a nod to the rocket that had taken off the previous night, and a way to keep the inter-dimensional space juices flowing. And as if to cast out any doubt of those intentions, they followed it up on theme with “Also Sprach Zarathustra,” appearing uncharacteristically early in the first set (for this era). A callback to the song’s first role in the repertoire as a launchpad, it perfectly set up a "Mike’s Song" with a pairing not seen since 2014, and harkening back even further to 93 and 94, when it showed up frequently to this effect. I was already feeling a touch of nostalgia going in, celebrating show #75 on this night, 31 years in, and I was taken right back to the first show and tape I truly fell in love with and wore down to the ribbon: 12/30/93 II. (A brief PSA for any relative newcomers here unfamiliar with this show who might also be interested in flawlessly flowing sets and 2001>Mike’s pairings—this is required listening.) And speaking of “Mike’s Songs” from the 90s—it’s early days yet but I’d wager this one is going to stack up with the classics: a blistering, gnarly, balls to the walls version that somehow blended the Mazagalactec fusion from the night previous, and the precision, punch and economy from versions of the song from its early heydays. I’m also told it contains Mike-led teases to Black Sabbath’s “N.I.B.,” a tale about Lucifer's tempting invitation to an unnamed lover, whose love for him “has just got to be real,” don’t ya know. I’d throw an R.I.P. Ozzy in here but I think the more appropriate sentiment from all angles might be: “May He rise again from the depths of Hell!” Must hear, as we say, and maybe even the show’s highlight.

A slow dissolve into the elemental soup of “I Am Hydrogen” would have fit the set’s tone perfectly here but instead the band elected to bring out “Wading in the Velvet Sea” in the middle of the ‘Groove. A minor quibble, but after a “Mike’s” like that they can play whatever in Satan’s kingdom they like. “Wading” was soulfully played and set up “Weekapaug Groove” nicely, getting the crowd dancing again. Speaking of the crowd, it was big tonight, unsurprisingly more crowded on the lawn than the previous night, and in the pavilion which I was fortunate enough to get into with a little help from my friends. (Pavilion tickets were notoriously harder to come by this year, a marked difference from even a year ago—the likely confluence of a number of factors: Phish more popular than they have maybe even been, drawing huge crowds across the country, maybe suddenly not so “weird” in a world that—as Terence McKenna prophesized 20 years ago before he died—has just gotten weirder and weirder. That, and the no-doubt AI-enabled bots that have now made it impossible to even use Cash or Trade, milking every lost dollar and inch out of every fan, whether fortunate enough to be wealthy, or unfortunate enough to be willing to pay whatever is necessary for a fix. The future’s here, we are it, and we are terrifyingly not alone. Whether we’ve opened the gates of Heaven or Hell, I can’t say for sure, but I’d put good money on both.

Speaking of "racing all your siblings for the tunnel," and "brothers crushing you to the wall," the band wasted no time in getting dirty again after “Weekapaug" with “Sand,” revisiting similar energy as the Mike’s, staying mostly in the song's structure but nevertheless providing another of the set’s highlights. “Evolve” followed, the first lighter offering of the evening contrasting well musically, and also the first thematic glimpse at the divinity behind the darkness, the paused moment in time before the Sun began to shine. A song about creation, surely, but also about a “mistake” woven right into it, the fault line of reality, the crack in everything where the light—and sound—gets in. And maybe also about the angel who was such good friends with God that a falling out, and long fall into a frozen lake, was inevitable.

So “My Friend, My Friend” with his knife and his wife show up next, a song which by this point I shouldn’t have to tell you is in the finest form of its long career, a jam-vehicle MVP going on a couple years now, including a recent tour highlight with a beautiful version on 7/15 in Philadelphia at the Mann. This one didn’t quite live up to that reputation, but it did settle in nicely into a spooky territory that had “Kung” written all over it, but which instead was eventually swept up into the set closing liminal space “No Men in No Men’s Land” and its suggestion that "darkness is the one thing we all understand,” before sending us off to the Purgatory of set break wondering just “how far we have fallen,” and which way was up.

And before we try and get our bearings and explore the second set, maybe I can be permitted a brief intermission of my own here, as a close Canadian friend navigating a different kind of fall from grace. These are indeed strange times of barons, borders and bodies of water. The weekend before this one I made a trip down to Vermont from Montreal for a weekend getaway with my girlfriend, passing quickly though what would normally be busy season for border crossing. We visited Cold Hollow Sculpture Park and went to Burlington for the first time in many years, hitting the farmers market and then record and vintage shopping, heading to Stowe and plunging in Bingham Falls, and then to Bread & Puppet for Sunday service before heading back up to my family’s cottage in Quebec’s Eastern townships less than an hour away. Passing by Nectar’s on the way to get a breakfast sandwich, and coming across an old Coventry t-shirt at vintage popup, (the one with the vacuum with a $5 ‘used’ tag), I felt both nostalgic but also somehow 'out of time.’ I felt like both a foreigner in another land, and also right at home despite the border’s burden. Following it up this weekend with the even more familiar path down the other side of Lake Champlain and hiking and baptising myself in Kaaterskill Falls on Saturday with my friend who lives in Hudson only reinforced the poignant paradox. Gratitude for the immense beauty of this land that is also in many ways my home, and for the falls and streams that spawned Phish—and also grief for some of the darkness and disease that lingers in the air, like the haze from wildfire smoke that obscured of the Hudson valley at Inspiration point rock and which as I write hangs over Montreal keeping folks indoors. But there’s no light without darkness. No salvation without suffering. In case that’s not already apparent, Phish seemed intent to make that point on this night, both musically and lyrically, and it became even more explicit in Set 2.

So when last we left our guides to the underworld they had dropped us in Purgatory, but little doubt was left about where the second half of our journey would begin. Where else but in the oily depths of “Oblivion”? This version stretches and pulsates, at times nimble and ethereal, others dark and groovy. I’ve said little so far about the band’s individual performances and upon reflection I think that says more about the strength of full band interplay of late. Trey still stands out in front noticeably, but the wall of sound that Fish, Mike and Page have increasingly been building under and around him is such a powerful pulsating orb I’m not quite sure where to begin deconstructing it or if I should even try. Suffice it to say there’s an embarrassment of riches to explore in each of the details they’ve been bringing to the table during this run so far. So they take us to “Oblivion” and back then crash up through the shale and oil into the ooze of “Down with Disease.”

This “Disease” feels cohesive and strong, picks up with Fish holding it down half way in before Trey takes a rhythmic lead under which Page starts to swell. There’s patience to Trey’s playing on display these last couple nights that at times has been harder to come by, and it ends up creating space for good leads to be layered on top of the rest of the band. Then Mike can get in and complement, challenge. In short, they’re hooking up and it's yielded some beautiful results. Speaking of patience, don’t sleep on the full-on space in the final minutes of the “Disease” jam. Instead of just slipping into “What’s the Use?” which seemed plausible, they took their time and really indulged the atmosphere and effects (and strange vocal haunts.. did Page “meow”??). I’ll take as much of this as they want to beam out every night of the week.

Then, out of the eerie emptiness and swells of space, “Light”. I was reminded here of a set from Toronto in 2022 I attended that had a similar feel and narrative arc including both a “Down with Disease” and a “Light," and which was apparently a tribute to Mike Houser on the 20th anniversary of his passing from cancer. The “Light” jam was, like the “Oblivion,” both airy and nimble, and then aggressive. It got “Timber”-like, building to a confident peak with Page starting to shine and meeting Trey’s machine gun on the piano with gusto as Fish thundered. They pulled it back seamlessly to “Light” to close and stretched out the closing segment emotionally, with the whole band holding the “guide us to our goals” line in harmony overtop the finale. Trey kept a little distortion going before dropping into the salvatory hands of a “Life Saving Gun.”

And what a “‘Gun!” Somewhere between the power of the “Mike’s Song” from the first set, and the absolute blistering hose of both the “Chalk Dust” and “Piper” from Friday night, this is another show highlight, and maybe Mike’s finest moment on a night full of them. There isn’t a minute or note wasted here, and I can tell you, dear reader, I was feeling pretty saved in this moment from the back of the pavilion, hands in the air bouncing up and down, as the entire room swelled to ecstasis. Between this and the previous night, I haven’t felt that kind of full-house-hose thrill at SPAC to these levels since June 2004. Go get her! To the depths of the underworld if you have to—and don’t look back on your way out.

“Waste” flowed beautifully as a much-needed reprieve here, emerging seamlessly out of the scorched earth, a kind of call back to the moment outside of time and creation that “Evolve” held in the first set, and which "Beneath of Sea of Stars” captured so well the night before. Trey and Page both crushed it. Tear jerking stuff here, folks, which led immediately and cleanly into “Fluffhead.” It was the perfect way to close this redemptive arc, a song that has come to take on new meaning in the modern era, about disease, darkness, redemption, and joy. (Speaking of joy, check out Fish’s unbridled enthusiasm during this particular Bundle of Joy segment. He was feeling it.) Fluff was executed almost flawlessly, and of course brought the house down.

“Golgi Apparatus" felt like a companion piece to the “Fluffhead," also very tight and crowd pleasing, and made me grateful for the digital ticket stub I was able to get my hands on and into the pavilion for my 75th show—and for an encore I got to enjoy next to @Icculus for the first time (after who knows how many ungodly combined years and hours of asynchronous listening).

But that wasn’t it, was it? What does it all mean? Where are we headed? What comes after the Fall and Purgatory and seeing the Light? After all the problems and hopes? There are chapters yet to be written. And on the 8th day, God and Satan started a band and made Rock n’ Roll. And it was alright.

See you tonight for the finale folks!

SPAC2 : The night we rode into sonic battle

As crowds were still streaming into SPAC, humans were immediately under attack, and eaten on Mars. 'Martian Monster' opener started the conflict theme which 'Also Sprach Zarathustra' carried, inviting us to relive the crescendos and tumult of Kubrick's primates versus alien monolith. A were on a war path, and nothing made it more clear than what came next, and unusually early: the bomb drop in 'Mike's Song'. Set 1 was taking no prisoners (foreshadowing...).

The energy released in that depth charge was something to behold, only matched by the phans war cries back. Sustained and ripping through SPAC (just was well the Broadview Stage has an open design otherwise venue structural integrity would need re-assessed!). The calm before the storm came as we waded in the velvet sea, and then we dove into the depths of the groove in Weekapaug. The sonic battle kept raging and we worked our way through the Phish weaponry. We nursed gunshot wounds with gauze and faced a friend with a knife. Planets scurry round. General Fish led the charge through the time signatures changes of My Friend, My Friend, and the battalions of Trey, Mike & Page followed through. Military precision and execution and we ended the set right were they took us: No Man's Land. Trey led a Happy Birthday tease for CK5, which on the slopes of the lawn and orchestra left the attending army turning trying to spot the birthday boy. Sniper skills were not on display here!

After war do we get peace? Tolstoy must have skipped Set 2 as we were in a floaty Oblivion with Page teasing 'No Quarter'. The war continued. We were in the trenches, down with disease complete with crawling myceloid light patterns overhead. Some reprieve in Light before we grab more munitions, this time to load a life saving gun. The percussion rinse (see baseball cap from the Dry Goods stall) pierces past the miso lacerations and sukabami warfare. Like all good army command, the band leads us and keeps us at their side with an invitation to waste time with them. We happily oblige and cheerily march into New York (alternate lyric check) with Fluffhead, ending the battle, the war, the set in a glorious expansive communal explosion of cacophony and bright lights.

If the sets were the battles, and war, the encore was here to ground us and remind us what we're fighting for. Ticket stubs for Rock & Roll. By the end of the night, in SPAC alone this reporting Private had marched 13,500 steps alongside an army of 25,000 phellow foot soldiers. Time to rest: AT EASE. There's a Sunday show to prepare for next!

Coming off an incredible night 1, we went to deep space on night 2. Mike throwing nasty bombs in Mikes Song, def the highlight of set 1 for me… going to be listening to that second set many times over. Oblivion brought back some of those Page synth monk chants of night 1, and started us going out there.. the Disease through LSG is more top shelf Phish. Intergalactic deep space, experimental, searching Phish at its finest. Page really throwing extra juice into his synth swells, and the whole band totally locked in. Rock n Roll went hard as well to cap off a second incredible night in a row. Swimming in IT. We’re blessed.

"The trick is to surrender to the flow." That is certainly what we did last night, as this show flowed beautifully from start to finish. 2001 was a pleasant surprise to hear early in the first set. Mike dropped some bass bombs that make his eponymous song a must-listen, and Wading turned out to be an unexpectedly strong choice for the sandwich song. The rest of the set was solid and flawless, and No Men also benefited from an unusual placement as the set closer.

The 6 song second set was exquisitely seamless, and should be enjoyed straight through in its entirety, with Fluffhead serving as the perfect set capper, and the Golgi / R&R encore sending us on our way with huge smiles. My son summed it up perfectly as we headed back to our car - "They didn't take a single wrong step." Listen and enjoy.

They still got it!
Friday night was so much fun and had some huge jams that I was a little concerned about what Saturday would bring. Now, besides the absolute mess security was and how hundreds, maybe thousands of us missed the first couple songs because they were doing deep dives into every bag, pocket and hat they encountered , the first set put any concerns about letting off the gas at ease. Kicking it off w Martian Monster and 2001 is right up my alley, but, can't say how good/not good they were. When I finally got in it was in the middle of a ripping Mike's, definitely a very good Mike's! Velvet Sea was the first cool down but they went right back into top gear w a great Weekapaug! I'm a sucker for a good Sand so I was pumped for that, the My Friend My Friend was great and they finished up w a solid NMINML.
Set two was just a continuation of a great set one! Oblivion was somewhat predictable but jammed well, the DwD was top shelf with a fitting Black Sabbath tease, Life Saving Gun has def grown into a crowd favorite, myself included! Waste was beautiful and the Fluffhead was a great closer! Fluffy Fluffy Head baby!
During my hour long wait to get in I told a buddy they'll prob play Golgi as a joke since they def sold out the show, and sure enough, they did. Ending the show with Rock and Roll was fitting, they gave us an amazing show and were straight up the epitome of rock and roll all night.. don't know how Sunday is going to play out, but Saturday was a banger, just an overall great show!