Spring 1994, 2004, and 2014

This year, I am determined to listen to every Phish show from the years ending in "4". Having completed all of the spring shows, I have found that the contrast between each of these three eras could not be greater.

1994 was a huge year for Phish and it started with a bang in the spring. First, they released a new album, 'Hoist', that featured big production and soundscapes inside compact songs. The tour kicked off accentuating those sounds by including a horn section in the first show. "Julius" became an instant classic as a result.

Throughout the tour, they hammered the new songs hard - "Sample in a Jar" was played at least once every two shows, "Down With Disease" only took days to become a scorcher, stretching out more through the weeks. Though "Wolfman's Brother" still had yet to find its footing (and its key change to "B"), the rest of the 'Hoist' songs easily slid into the repertoire as the band crossed the country, starting in their home state of Vermont, working its way through New York and New England, down the Atlantic Coast, swinging through the South, and barn-burning its way westward with a notable stop in Dallas on May 7 for what is widely considered to be one of the best sets ever.

This was a band on fire, tearing its way through the Southwest, then up the Pacific Coast, ending its massive run of 45 shows in 56 days with two nights at a multi-band festival in Monterey.

The benefits were incredible. The musicianship got sharper and more refined, the band members eventually seeming to be able to read each others' minds. Yet, as the playing got tighter, the players got looser, trying new things and challenging the audience to play along. What other band could play a major mid-sized concert hall and get the audience quiet enough to hear them play with zero amplification?

Speaking of the audience, we were really starting to get in tune with the program, too, becoming a bigger part of this thing that was itself becoming bigger than the four guys onstage. Want to hear the evolution of the clapping in "Stash" and the "Wilson" chant? They both started right there. (Little known fact - before the clapping took hold, some audiences tried to fill the spaces with a "woo!", almost two decades before the Tahoe "Tweezer"!)

If Spring 1994 showed a band breaking out, conquering the country while still continuing to discover its powers, Spring 2004 - which consisted of three shows - showed a band seemingly past its creative peak, drunk on itself, and showing up shitfaced to its own party. Though the improvisations were wilder and more adventurous than ever, the precision required to play the heavily composed parts had gone, especially in the case of Trey Anastasio. One month after those three fateful April shows in Las Vegas, Anastasio sent shockwaves through the community by announcing that at the end of the upcoming summer tour, Phish was done. Listen to those shows and try not to cringe.

A decade later, Phish played one single spring show. The 2009 reunion had run its course by the fall of 2013. After five years re-establishing its members as rock music's preeminent musicians, one thing was missing - new music. After the initial burst of songs from 2009's 'Joy', audiences were treated to myriad new cover songs (many of them only once each), but only a handful of new songs, and only a precious few of them had any staying power.

That all changed on Halloween, with its complete set of new songs. Good songs. The concept was pushed further for the four nights leading to New Year's - not one cover song was played. With that as the lead-in, the single spring show, at Jazz Fest in New Orleans, held a lot of weight. They played one cover that night, but more importantly, played with a renewed focus. And though nothing in particular stands out from that show, we now know they were merely winding up, getting ready to sock us hard. 20 years after taking the country by storm, they were getting ready to do it all over again as a more mature band that knows exactly what to do and how to do it.