Every song from Chalkdust through Antelope (save Ocelot) is an ideal first-set closer. It's just that kind of show: every song seems like the climax to something. Excellent CTB, fun first set, but the second frame is where it's at, of course. Backwards > Twenty unites two best-version-yet performances - lovely segue too - and Harpua is a rapturous thing, even with one of the Worst Ever Fishman Songs. Closing with YEM: classy. We can accept that the pre-hiatus 'anything goes' vibe is long gone and enjoy a show like for what it is: a working band of middle-aged men at their empathetic best but no longer as hungry as they were even five years ago. Similar show to Hartford in some ways, and both are stronger than the MPP show they bracket, but neither offers a jam with the end-to-end excellence of Maryland's 46 Days. But this show is what it is: a three-hour celebration of second chances, fellowship, and the healing power of The Rock and Roll. Amen.

I dig Phish in just about all their musical styles and feel like we got a great mix of things at Saratoga... Llama was a crazy opener (my funguys were still on and the was they just came out and tore into that blew me away), from there we got some funk, some great story telling and whistling! Old school torture , a good beer break with David Bowie which kept me in my seat through the set break...I was at this show with a friend of 20+ years and Backwards Down The Number Line had us hi-fivin and really just savoring the moments...what a cool song it is. I saw some intense rockin from the crowd (fittingly)during Rock & Roll, I lit up a smoke for the latest edition of Jimi's saga and loved the good old goofiness they gave us. One of my favorite tidbits was Trey telling us how much fun he was having there in Saratoga Springs and it really is a great , great venue and town.

Pretty solid unordinary Number Line jam. Worth a spin for sure.

This show rates a solid 4-out-of-5 stars on the 3-is-average-great scale, according to me! The setlist is totally stacked, especially in contrast to the previous night's Alaska, Let Me Lie segment three and four songs into the second set (here that space is occupied by Halley's Comet > Rock and Roll!) All the playing is on point compositionally, as it was throughout this first year of Phish 3.0 (or, the "common era.") Anything But Me is encouraging to hear rendered so lovingly at this point in Phishtory, debuted at a time when the band and the scene were going through growing pains. Cars Trucks Buses, incidentally, has always struck me since I got one at my first show as a quintessential summer song. Maybe yours is Ya Mar but I like the intensity of CTB a lot better. Backwards Down the Number Line gets its first 20-min. jam to open Set II with a segue into Twenty Years Later... admirable showing for those two then-new tunes, and the BDTNL jam is actually pretty exploratory considering the frame it comes from, with a modulation and everything (which Trey is on record as loving when we notice!) Harpua, what can I say? It's funny to me that you don't hear the crowd really "get" I Kissed a Girl until the refrain... I had heard it ad nauseam because at the time I was listening to popular radio. It was kind of ubiquitous in 2009. You Enjoy Myself set-closer, as I say: stacked! I Been Around debuts in the encore surrounded by the lovable Grind and the enthusiastic Highway to Hell, I'd just have to say this is an outstanding tour-closer of a show!

Once one starts going to see the same (generally jammy) band enough times one inevitably begins to notice certain songs that they have yet to see the band in question play live. As in, “I’ve seen X play Y times without ever hearing a Z.”

In my case, before August 16th, 2009 (can we have a quick moment of silence in honour of Elvis Day? – – Thank-you) I could have said, “I’ve seen Phish play thirty-one times without hearing a Llama,” and I probably did. Llama is the lead-off track from my favourite Phish studio album; it’s a mile-a-minute guitar-rifiesta with a beautiful outro melody and glancing at the plethora of Phish statistics on the interwebs it was clear that the band played the song often enough that I should have heard them play it plenty of times after seeing so many shows.

But I hadn’t, and I wanted to. In lotspeak it’s called ‘chasing’, so it could be said that I arrived at SPAC that day ‘chasing a Llama.’

I was also chasing a reasonable place to watch the show from. There are two kinds of concert-goers in the northeast US: Those who love SPAC and those who have only been on the lawn at SPAC. The Saratoga Performing Arts Center is a somewhat unique venue in the middle of a beautiful state park. It’s classy and surrounded by trees – kind of like a woodsy Hollywood Bowl – but what makes it stand out from other pavilions is the vast, bouncing balcony that is great if you’re in it and lousy if your behind it; say, on the lawn.

To be fair, there is a strip of grass on the lawn about eight feet deep that affords a fair view of the band but if you’re anywhere else back there forget it. You’re left dancing on the steep incline and wondering how cool the lights must look from inside the pavilion.

So there I was searching in vain for a patch of good grass big enough to comfortably sit me and m’lady for the evening when we both decided it would be prudent to find a porta-potty before the show began.

Climbing the steep hill we discovered several hundred like-minded people lined up a dozen hippies deep at the row of portable toilets. Slowly, slowly, slowly we got halfway through the line – no emergency yet but I was starting to worry – plus the show was sure to start any minute…

I noticed that many people waiting in line were obviously couples. Sneaking a glance inside the plastic loos I could see there was a side-urinal in addition to the toilet seat. I started chanting “Two At Once! Two At Once!” M’lady joined in, “Two At Once! Two At Once!” Soon the whole lineup was chanting and sure enough people started entering the bathrooms in pairs, which got a big cheer every time. Couples went in together, guys that were friends went two at time, even strangers were crossing the streams, it was beautiful!

And just then the band started playing. And the opening song?

Llama.

And there I am way up on the hill well out of sight of the band, I’m dancing on the spot near the point of explosion and leading a chant in an effort to convince people to pee using the Buddy System.

M’lady and I made it in just in the nick of time (as far as I was concerned anyway) but by the time we made our way within sight of the band my Llama was long gone.

It would be four-and-a-half years and thirty-eight more shows before my chase finally ended on New Years Eve in 2013 when Phish performed Llama from the roof of a truck that had been driven to the middle of the floor of Madison Square Garden for their second set.

Anyway, we finally found a good enough spot on the lawn and enjoyed the rest of the show fully. The band was clearly feeling whimsical, playing a Katy Perry song and ending the encore with AC/DC’s Highway To Hell (the only time to date that I’ve heard them play either), and a good time was had by all.

And the moral of the story is: A Llama in the can is worth two on the lawn. Obviously.

https://toddmanout.com/

I LOVE BEING FROM SARATOGA! It was really cool that Trey lived here, just makes it seem all that more special.....this was one the only shows I actually couldn't get a ticket for, but SPAC is so beautiful that we had a group of like 20 of us hanging right on the back gate where you could hear it perfeectly, and we had the entire lawn for just us!