Baker's Dozen Half Marathon - Montclair, NJ - Aug. 8, 2020

The pandemic has not, and will not deter me from my usual training cycles, and if that means all of my races are going to be my myself, then so be it.  It was never supposed to be about competing against other people or winning age group medals anyway.  Admittedly, it had been getting like that in recent years, with my ego running away with itself sometimes.  But in the end, it has always about me and the clock - setting personal records and training to perform at my best on race day.

Now, with my days of PRs behind me and speedwork becoming more difficult as I navigate the back half of my 40s, racing for the hell of it has never been more important.  I cannot say I get much joy out of short races anymore, but the challenge of marathons is as alluring as ever. 

So I continue with my marathon training schedule, and doing so (using Hal Higdon's Intermediate Marathon training program this time) requires running a half-marathon halfway through the 18-week program. 

Rather than try to find another new course, I decided to take another stab at the Baker's Dozen in Montclair, NJ.  I had specifically trained for that race a couple of months earlier and had a tough time with it - partially because it was a warm day, but mostly because I have been burning out in the speed department as I get older. 

This time, I would have more fun with it.  It was, after all, just a stepping stone in my marathon training program rather than the endgame of weeks of training.  Plus, I knew the course a lot better, so that helped me gauge when to push and when to conserve.

My first two miles, along Forest, Claremont, and North and South Mountain avenues, were almost exactly the same as six weeks before, with a 7:11 and a 6:50 (as compared to 7:10 and 6:49).  I strategically took the loop around Eagle Rock Way and Stonebridge Road a little more slowly (7:09, as opposed to 6:49 in June), and thought I was doing the same for the fourth mile up South Mountain Avenue (7:10, though I did a 7:09 last time).

The strategy was to conserve for the steep uphill on Claremont Avenue in the fifth mile.  I did that mile also on par with last time (7:53 vs. 7:54), but this time I did not expend as much energy and that made a big difference in the rest of the race.  So instead of already feeling fatigued in the sixth and seventh miles on the rolling hills of Highland Avenue, I felt strong as I hit a 7:12 and 7:05 (where I did 7:23 and 7:08 last time).  In the next few miles along Upper and North Mountain avenues, I tried to keep status quo (7:17, 7:35, 7:26 and 7:23) averaging one second faster in these miles as I did in June; but once again, I did not feel like I needed to push nearly as hard to get there.

Even on the seven-turn twister of mile 12, I kept it relatively steady with a 7:32 (7:34 last time) but did not have (or feel the need for) quite the closing kick as I did six weeks prior, tackling the last mile at 7:24 (7:14 in June).  Still, with a finish time of 1:35:52, I somehow managed to best my previous Baker's Dozen time by 17 seconds, making it my third slowest half-marathon ever, but somehow a little more satisfying now that I have accepted that my speed game is a thing of the past.  

This attitude took me through my triumphant double sub-four-hour marathon weekend earlier this year, which now seems like a lifetime ago on a different planet.  As long as this weird new world continues to change everything we do and the way we do it, my races will continue to be less formal and more personal; and I am heading into my first marathon of the COVID era with that approach.

Baker's Dozen Half Marathon - Montclair, NJ - June 28, 2020

When this race was introduced in 2017, I could not help but wonder if a bunch of Phish fans were behind its nomenclature.  After all, Phish's guaranteed-to-be-epic 13-night run of the same name had been announced in January of that year.  Then along comes this race in the spring in Montclair - a town sure to have its fair share of phans, as evidenced when the Trey Anastasio Band played at the Wellmont Theater in 2011 and 2013.  Coincidence?

Since I never got around to running the actual race (usually in March), this year's circumstances seemed like a good opportunity to finally give the course a whirl.

Having lived in neighboring Little Falls for eight years, I know a lot of the roads in Montclair, so much of the course was on familiar ground.  The race starts and ends at the Montclair Bread Company on Forest Avenue, in the eastern side of town, but this race hits just about every area except the northeast and southeast corners. 

(Race map: https://certifiedroadraces.com/certificate/?type=l&id=NJ17550JHP)

I had written out turn-by-turn directions to take with me, which was especially helpful in the early miles.  After turning off of Forest Avenue to head west on Claremont, there was already a bit of an incline.  I took it in stride, not letting out too much effort, and hit a 7:10 for the first mile after turning left on North Mountain Avenue and crossing Bloomfield Avenue (the main drag through downtown) to continue on South Mountain Avenue.  I can imagine that the locals, especially those in cars, are probably not too fond of this crossing on the actual race days.

Training had gotten pretty bad over the past couple of weeks, especially with speed work.  Tempo runs got slower and more painful; track intervals were more labored.  But as I hoofed it down South Mountain for the second mile (6:49) things started to feel like they were going to be OK.  With a loop around the southeastern section of town, along Eagle Rock Way and Stonebridge Road, my third mile stayed strong with a 6:46, but that would be the last sub-7 mile of this race.

Retracing the path back up South Mountain and crossing Bloomfield again, I could feel the slowdown  in the fourth mile (7:09), but the worst was to come when I turned left on Claremont Avenue and climbed a 115-foot incline.  I had to take the steep hill as gingerly as possible because I knew it would knock me out beyond recovery if I did not.  So after turning onto Highland Avenue, mile five ended up being 7:54, my slowest of any half-marathon ever.

The next two miles on the rolling hills going northbound on Highland Avenue (7:23 and 7:08) were followed by a right turn on Mt. Hebron and two miles southbound on Upper Mountain Avenue (7:16 and 7:29) and a left turn on Claremont to zig the zag northbound on North Mountain Avenue for another two miles (7:28 and 7:30).

During these miles, I could not help but think about how, a year and a half ago, these splits would have been slow for a marathon, let alone a half.  How had things gotten so slow, so quickly?

Worse, a nagging pain in what I assume was my piriformis muscle (deep in my right buttock) - something with which I had suffered a few years ago - started creeping in.  All I could hope to do was maintain the pace as best as I could through the twisty-turny next mile (7:34) along Parkside, Oakcroft, Brookfield, Edgemont, Parkway, Valley and Vera.  That was a lot of turns and the paper on which I wrote the street names was rapidly turning to soaked shreds in my hand due to my profuse sweating.  It was probably more than 80 degrees by this point.

I managed to push it to 7:14 for one last mile along Midland, Chestnut, N. Fullerton, and the home stretch from Rand to Forest, finishing the race near where it started with a final time of 1:36:09, my slowest half-marathon by more than five minutes (I ran a 1:30:40 at Seaside Heights in 2008).

The year 2020 is long going to be remembered as a dividing line in a lot of ways.  In addition to life in a pre-COVID and post-COVID world, for me personally, it is the year I ceased to be a "fast" runner for my age and bumped down to "average".  My goal is to learn to live with that, without beating myself up.  

Baker's Dozen, Night 13 (Glazed) - Phish at MSG, Aug. 6, 2017

Were the first-set songs connected through their lyrics about going or being crazy (some more outright than others)? Did that speak to the idea of "feeling glazed," as Page McConnell declared near the end of the set?

The theme was a stretch, but who the hell cared? This was the final night. Expectations were high, emotions were higher.

Despite that, the band gave us a first set of primo fun with songs like "Dogs Stole Things", "Rift", "Ha Ha Ha", "Camel Walk" and "Saw It Again", the latter rocking its way through the thunderous closing section. There were some surprises, too, like quieting down for the "Boom! Pow!" section of "Sanity" before triggering the "You thought there was going to be a HUGE explosion" sample from "The Very Long Fuse". 

Other unexpected delights included the Mike Gordon tune "Crazy Sometimes", played by Phish for the second time ever, and the Phish debut of the excellent "Most Events Aren't Planned" by Page McConnell's band, Vida Blue. Big kudos go to the guy next to me up on the Chase Bridge who called it from the opening synth pulse.

"Bouncing Around the Room" and "Bug" were their standard selves, though I know there were people that were holding out one last bit of hope that the former would get the "Lawn Boy" treatment from Night 4. Instead, the set closed with the first "I Been Around" in three years and, probably to the delight of the people who had been holding up the giant "Izabella" sign on the floor for much of the run, the first performance of the Hendrix tune since 1998 (fourth Jimi song of the run), and lordy, how it rocked! Trey completely shredded it, despite getting distracted by a wayward balloon that he had to kick out of the way.

There were three tunes that they simply HAD to play at this show and the first came out of the gate for Set II with a 25-minute "Simple" that was so good, with a jam so incredibly hooked up and tight, it managed to eclipse the much lauded version from just a few weeks prior. The new tune, "Rise/Come Together", with its beautifully ascending chords, provided continued peaks, but Bowie's "Starman" felt like the wrong song to be played with only a half of a set left to go.  

The second of the must-plays, "You Enjoy Myself", worked the crowd into such a frenzy (Firenze?) that glow sticks were flying everywhere from the upper sections on down. Just when Trey was ready to put down his guitar and start dancing to the groove before the vocal jam, he had a change of heart, picked it up again, and played a little more. So while we did not get the always entertaining Trey dance, we did get some bonus jamming. Wrapping up the set with the reliable climax of "Loving Cup" was no surprise and completely appropriate. 

On a previous night (Night 8? It is all a blur), a fan threw a T-shirt onstage that read "Is this still Lawn Boy?", so after giving a whole new emotional heft to Willie Nelson's "On the Road Again", Page came to the front during a funkified reprise of "Lawn Boy" and answered the question with perfect deadpan hilarity - "It is."

And if that was not enough, while Page took his place back behind the keyboards, Fish and Mike played the intro to "Weekapaug Groove" that had been left out on Night...uh...10?  But that was just a fake-out, like the "Harry Hood" intro at the end of the Big Cypress marathon set because the third completely necessary song, "Tweezer Reprise" ended the Baker's Dozen in the biggest, most rousing fashion possible.  Even the fans on the floor got into the visuals of the show, popping off explosions of confetti and glitter with each pounding downbeat. 

On the final crashing chord, I hugged Gloria and shed a few tears - of joy for what I had experienced over 13 nights and of sadness that it was ending.  Just before the encore, a banner was raised in Madison Square Garden, commemorating the already historic run, but nobody who witnessed any of it needs a banner as a reminder of what transpired. The details may get blurry over time - we may forget the flavors or some of the specific song choices - but we will always remember that our favorite band (and, honestly, should they not be yours, too, by now?) played more than 200 different songs in 13 nights at one venue and it made a lot of people extremely happy.

Good things can not last forever, but we learned that they can last a baker's dozen nights.

Baker's Dozen, Night 12 (Boston Creme) - Phish at MSG, Aug. 5, 2017

I was sitting at the table at my parents’ house, after having a delicious meal with them, my brother (Ben), my nieces, and Gloria, when Ben pulled up the Live Phish feed of the opener of Saturday’s Phish show.


It was the only Baker’s Dozen show I was not attending and hearing “Soul Shakedown Party” made me wonder why I decided I would rather not go than be stuck with the upper-level tickets on Night 12. Phish had only ever played the song 10 times before, and I was at the last one (SPAC 2016).  After watching that, we continued to go about celebrating my mother’s birthday, but I kept checking my Twitter feed (@Phish_FTR) for the setlist updates, and with each successive song, my heart sank a little more.  When I saw they were playing “Petrichor” as Gloria and I were going to bed, we were beyond bummed.  After all, that is the song that truly got Gloria on the Phish train last year and is her favorite Phish tune.  Not her favorite new tune, you jaded vet; her favorite of all.


Unlike previous shows, in which the sets offered distinct vibes, usually a more song oriented first set and a more jam oriented second set, this show was a mixed bag in each set. So while the first set seemed to be business as usual with "Uncle Pen" and "The Sloth", the oddly placed "Gotta Jibboo" let the band stretch OT legs early on, and with good results. By the time that led to the ultra rare "Fuck Your Face", it seemed anything could happen - and what did happen was the kind of thing that makes Phish so special.


The flavor of the night was Boston Creme. Some fans predicted Boston songs, some guessed Cream songs; and some even speculated both. No one could have predicted "Sunshine of Your Feeling", an expertly crafted mashup made up mostly of Cream's "Sunshine of Your Love" and Boston's "More Than a Feeling", but also included elements of Boston's "Long Time", and Cream's "Tales of Brave Ulysses" and "White Room." 


It was completely silly and absolutely brilliant, but it was in the middle of the set and impossible to top, so while the Trey Anastasio Band song "Frost" was great to hear, it was overshadowed by what had come before. Even the "Scent of a Mule" (with Mike forgetting a few lyrics) could not take the set anywhere new. "Fire" (the third Hendrix cover of the run) would have ended the set nicely, but the cute "Alaska" (which, like its cousin "Ocelot", can surprise you with a great big climax) reset the vibe of the set, making way for another excellent TAB tune, "Plasma", to close it out.

As with previous nights, the second set started with a bang.  Ben and I watched some of that huge opening “Ghost” on Sunday morning, and I finished the excellent trifecta with “Petrichor” and “Light” during my run.  Maybe it is just sour grapes, but that was not the best “Petrichor” of the handful they have played.  “Light” was buzzing with energy, though, so “The Lizards”, while executed well, seemed like a bit of a comedown.  Even more so was a thoroughly botched “The Horse” (I think I liked it better when they stopped playing it), though its accompanying “Silent in the Morning” is always a pleaser. After that, it sounded like MSG was partying to the end with a big ol’ “Quinn the Eskimo” and a sloppy but energetic “Rocky Top” to close it out.  

Phish has used a ballad for the encore many times in the past as a contrast to an especially rocking set, but they had not dared to do so yet during the Baker’s Dozen.  It is a bold move to make and they made it nicely with “Joy”, though would bet it was to the chagrin of some of the attendees.  It is a sad song, but in a way it is uplifting; and with only one more night to go in this epic run of shows, it is hard not to feel exactly that.

Baker's Dozen, Night 11 (Lemon) - Phish at MSG, Aug. 4, 2017

For the majority of the Baker's Dozen shows, my tickets were behind the stage.  I enjoy this area because (a) many other people do not, so tickets are usually plentiful; (b) you can be close to the band, despite being behind them; and (c) the music is loud and crystal clear.

Unfortunately, the vocals get lost in the echo of the arena.  This proved to be a detriment when Phish did a bit of dialogue in last week's "Harpua", and again on this night, when the references to the lemon flavor theme were ensconced in the lyrics to a relatively obscure cover tune. 

That happened in Set II at a point when things were already getting pretty deep and trippy.  But "deep and trippy" was not the mode for Set I, which was a thorough party set with "Punch You in the Eye", "Big Black Furry Creature From Mars", "Dinner and a Movie", "Poor Heart" (with an extremely rough, cringe-inducing start) and the set-closing, face-melting "First Tube". The only lemon reference was the opener, "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean", which is an old 1920s blues tune by a guy named Blind Lemon Jefferson.  I seriously doubt anyone got that one.  At best, they might have known Bob Dylan had done it (I had not).  But really, you know you looked it up.

Other pleasant surprises in the first set were "Ocelot" and "Winterqueen" which still seems to surprise people when they soar, despite the former's loping beat and the latter being a pretty ballad. But my memories of Bader Field and Randall's Island are good enough to know those two songs can knock you right over.

Then came Set II.  "Dem Bones" was funny and mostly on-point with its barbershop quartet harmonies, but the set really started with "No Men in No Man's Land", which rang in 2016 in that very venue. The jam moved and grooved, and eventually landed on a familiar chord progression on the organ.  So when Fish started singing Radiohead's "Everything in Its Right Place" (from the "Amnesiac" album, which I always found to be superior to its acclaimed predecessor, "Kid A"), I was so blown away by just the mere fact that they were playing it that I was frantically text messaging my friend while it was happening, completely missing the key line about sucking on a lemon (and the way Trey manipulated it with his effects box. 

When you get all ambient, where else do you go except to "What's the Use"?  (Not the best version, by the way.)  With "Scents and Subtle Sounds" following, one would think the previous tune would lend itself to a segue into the mellow intro, but instead, Trey went crashing (sloppily) into the main riff. But it was of no matter, for the jam (the longest of the night) was beautiful and explored many different musical spaces.  

The lid got completely blown off of "Prince Caspian" at Magnaball, and no one expects the song to reach those heights, but I will be damned if it was not the closest they have come since then.  It was good to the point that the "Fluffhead" that followed actually left less of a mark (but a mark nonetheless!).  Gloria told me that I kept making my "ecstasy face", and how could I not in a set that had musical peak after musical peak?  That is my definition of ecstasy!

And what is better than seeing Page play the Keytar?  Seeing Page play the Keytar twice - first during the epic "Lawn Boy" on Night 4, and now on Night 11 on the "Frankenstein" encore.  

How does a band keep this feeling going for eleven nights in one venue?  This has gone far beyond being 13 separate shows. This is one long party and one musical journey - a unique experience that has not happened before and will likely never happen again.  We are a part of something big; bigger than we can even comprehend right now.  This, friends, is history, and we are right in the thick of it.

Baker's Dozen, Night 10 (Holes) - Phish at MSG, Aug. 2, 2017

In 2014, I had attended nine shows in a row, swinging from Great Woods, to SPAC, to the Mann, and to Randall's Island. 

Thanks to the convenience of the Baker's Dozen run at Madison Square Garden, a mere 30 miles from home, this show represented my first double-digit consecutive show in my two-plus decades of seeing Phish.  

The only thing that could have made this show even more special would have been for Phish to play "In a Hole", a song they debuted and performed in throughout the fall of 1989, only to retire it by year's end, never to be heard from again, save for a tease 25 years later at Dick's. Despite the longshot odds of bringing it back, it seemed thoroughly feasible, considering the night's doughnut hole theme and the fact that the no-repeat policy means Phish has to reach back farther than their usual rotation of tunes.

Alas, it was not to be, but we did get the debut of "Way Down in the Hole", which I found out later was a Tom Waits song.  The preceding lyric to the title is "You gotta help me keep the devil...", and with "Buried Alive" and an excellent "Kill Devil Falls" following, an unexpected interpretation of the "holes" theme cropped up.  My friend, aLi, texted me, "Death set??"

"Could very well be!!!" I replied as "Guyute" ("...as I sleep the sleep of death...") and "I Didn't Know" ("...a picture of Otis Redding taken just before he died...") followed, the latter with a short, but very welcome vacuum cleaner solo by Fish. 

The theme started to loosen up and fall away in the second half of the set, but by then, it hardly mattered anymore.  Though there were some minor issues with "NICU" (shaky toward the end), "Meat" (the staccato part to had to be replayed because Fish messed up the timing, and the song did not have its usual final return to the theme), and "Heavy Things" (no "ooh ooh, wah ahh" vocals at the end, which made it seem abrupt), we were treated to a pleasant "Ginseng Sullivan" (though the better bluegrass choice would have been "Old Home Place", with its death reference), a "Maze" that hit all the right marks without straying too far out, a lovely "Waiting All Night" (haters are going to hate, but I love this song), and a boffo climax with "Run Like an Antelope".

Once again, the second set opening slot was the place for the 20-minute jam, this time with the most exploratory "Mike's Song" jam that I have witnessed since Big Cypress, and certainly the most impressive one since 2015's unexpected return to the "second jam". As things got thick and ambient (much like that Big Cypress version), a beautifully vocalized rendition of "O Holy Night" emerged. At first, it was as confounding as it was gorgeous (a Christmas song in August?), but then I got it - "O 'Hole'-y Night."  See what they did there?

There was still one more jam surprise in store, this time in the unlikely form of a "Taste" jam that, thanks to an amazing rhythmic shift by Jon Fishman, became a jazzy jam that offered a whole new realm of possibilities as it went on longer than probably any other version of this song.  Though it seemed clear to me that Fish eventually tried to bring it back to the original "Taste" rhythm, Trey did not seem to be on board with that, so it eventually disintegrated into the ether.

A decent, but unremarkable, "Wingsuit" followed, so "Sneaking Sally Through the Alley" was a welcome invitation to get our dancing shoes back on before the set-ending "Weekapaug Groove".

Bringing the doughnut hole theme back around one more time for the encore, "A Day in the Life", with its three mentions of holes in the final verse, ended the show in grand fashion and we left the arena satisfied after yet another incredible night of Phish to the sound of "There's a Hole in My Life" by the Police.

Baker's Dozen, Night 9 (Maple) - Phish at MSG, Aug. 1, 2017

Nine shows deep and we still get the excitement of playing the "what will Phish play tonight?" set list game, because it has been made abundantly clear that there will be a completely different set of songs each show.  

So with maple as the flavor of the day, my immediate thoughts were "I Didn't Know" and perhaps even the triumphant return of "Time Turns Elastic" (after seven long years), both of which mention maple. 

What about a Canada angle?  They have already played two Neil Young songs, so how about another? 

This band is nothing if not full of surprises, so when Trey opened the show, with a spotlight on him and a spotlight on the Canadian flag in the rafters, playing a gorgeous rendition of "O Canada" on guitar (take that, Jimi!), the stage was set for yet another anything-can-happen show in the Baker's Dozen.

"Crowd Control", still a fantastic song to set a rocking mood, was played to perfection. Sadly, "Sugar Shack" (about which I had forgotten when thinking of maple-related songs) was not (as usual). I have always loved "When the Circus Comes", but it might have been too early for it, so when Trey sang the "Whooooaaaaaaaa" intro of "Daniel Saw the Stone", I got extra pumped.  It was not the best version, but it was a song that repeatedly said my name and it is a sufficiently rare tune, so who can complain? 

Gloria commented, "I love when Page sings" during "Army of One" and, really, so do I; and so do you, I suspect. "The Wedge", "Guelah Papyrus", "McGrupp and the Watchful Hosemasters" (always VERY welcomed!), and "Limb by Limb" were pretty standard, but "Guelah" gets special recognition due to the brief insertion of Scott Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag" (get it?!) after a shaky ride through the "Asse Festival" section.  The set-ending "Walk Away" out-Joe-Walsh'ed the original James Gang version, with its "Tweezer Reprise"-like closing section - a perfectly huge climax.

Second-set openers have been shaping up to be the monster jams of the shows, and "Golden Age" kept that going with a 20-minute jam that dropped low before picking up in the last few minutes and becoming one of those jams that turns into something incredible and only possible from taking the time to get there. The new "Leaves" followed with some beautiful singing by Trey and Page, though it went on a touch too long. Trey can knock you over with a gorgeous solo over a pretty ballad progression, but at some point, it has got to give. So when it did give way to "Swept Away", more balladry seemed like an odd choice (though Gloria noted that it might have been a nod to the theme, being all "sappy" - not a bad theory!).

Still, the opportunity to hear the new-and-improved 3.0-era "Steep" was exciting, and this one took it to new levels.  For a song that used to be about a minute long, the jam that was 12 times that stayed interesting throughout, shocking me that Phish can do 20 minutes of slow jams and mostly pull it off.

After that, it was time to rock, so the ending trio of "46 Days" (with a percussion jam featuring all four guys crowded around Fish's drum set), "Piper" and "Possum", while not the best versions of any of them, brought the house down with raucous thunder, especially the last minute or so of the "Possum" jam.  For a silly ditty written by a guy that left the band more than 30 years ago, it still packs a punch when it wants to.  Jeff Holdsworth deserves the royalty check from this one.

At 11:12 p.m., the band came back on to encore with a short, unremarkable version of David Bowie's "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide", not played since Phish covered the 'Ziggy Stardust' album on Halloween, and at 11:15, the show was over.  This possibly shortest encore ever did not put a damper on the show as a whole, though.  It was much different from last Tuesday's show, for sure, but it was special in its own right and the kind of show that works in the context as one thirteenth of the greater arc and as a performance of its own.

Baker's Dozen, Night 8 (Rainbow Jimmies) - Phish at MSG, July 30, 2017

Where I am from (Long Island), we called them "sprinkles", but I will accept "jimmies" because there are a lot more Phish songs with Jimmy and a lot of Phish covers by Jimi than anything having to do with sprinkles.

Right away, the big question was "Will they do 'Harpua'???"

To which the answer was, still surprisingly, "Yes."

But not before a first set that featured a "Runaway Jim", to fit the theme and give us another of the classic heavy hitters they have been saving for the back half of the 13-show run. The opening "The Curtain With" was well executed by the band, though poorly executed by the drunk bro behind me that felt the need to sing the guitar parts. Not the words, the guitar parts.

"Waking Up Dead" falls somewhere in the middle of 3.0 Mike Gordon tunes for me. I would rather hear "Sugar Shack", "555" and "Let's Go", but I will take it over "Yarmouth Road" and, depending on the day, possibly "How Many People Are You?" Mike's signal to play it was funny as he turned to Trey and Page and put his head on his hand then closed and opened his eyes, and then put a finger to his head like a gun.

"Esther" was a joy to hear, and "Brian and Robert" and "Nellie Kane" were good, but the highlight of the set was not the first "Colonel Forbin's Ascent -> Fly Famous Mockingbird" in two years, and not even the amazing "David Bowie" with its frenzied climax.

No, it was Page's "Home" a standout on the 'Big Boat' album, and played with great improvement over the previous version from 11 days earlier. The vocals were excellent (even the harmonies in the break down) and the jam was intense. It is the kind of Phish jam that stirs the souls of even the old 1.0-ers (I am looking at you, aLi).

The second set came on super strong with a "Drowned" that stood up to classic versions (12/31/95 and Big Cypress), only to give way to a version of "A Song I Heard the Ocean Sing" that also kept pace with previous winners  (SPAC '04 and Super Ball IX - apparently, they do their best versions of this song in New York). 

Just when one would think the band would take the time to hang back a bit, they bring out the first "Harpua" since Dick's 2015, and only the seventh in this millennium. Being behind the stage, with the echo of the rest of the arena bouncing back at me, I could not make out all the details of the dialogue, but it had something to do with the three-torus cosmological model - that the universe is shaped like a doughnut. And after all that space talk, of course the space odyssey of "2001" followed. 

An unnecessary but fun "Golgi Apparatus" followed along with the barbershop quartet rendition of "In the Good Ole Summertime" which was previously debuted on the first night of summer tour in Chicago, which already seems like so long ago. The brief one-shot of Jimi Hendrix's "The Wind Cries Mary" put the show to bed with the knowledge that yet another show that combined amazing jamming, nerdy goofiness, and tight musical execution was in the books.  

Is Phish a jam band that rocks or a rock band that jams? Like jimmies and sprinkles, they are tasty either way, regardless of what you call them.

Bakers Dozen, Night 7 (Cinnamon Glazed) - Phish at MSG, July 29, 2017

 It still feels so weird to me when I type these post titles with "Phish" and "2017" in the same line.  Ten years ago, I would have never thought it possible. Yet here we are, and the fact that the band's playing is top notch - definitely as well as their lauded late '90s years - is practically a miracle.  

More than anything, the eighth show of this Baker's Dozen run felt like a lesson from Phish, similar to 12/31/13, the culmination of four shows with neither cover songs nor repeats; when the only gimmick was to play a set of their '80s material in the middle of the arena floor. The lesson is, was, and always will be that it is Phish what makes a Phish show great.  Gimmicks are fun, but in the end, what counts is that the band delivers the goods.

So after the pre-show Woodstock parody message on the PA ("Don't eat the brown doughnuts!") all that speculation about Phish covering Neil Young's "Cinnamon Girl" for the first time in 20 years, or how they may even surprise us and do Prince's different song of the same name, or even my sudden thought of the possibility of the Butthole Surfers' "Pepper" (a popular '90s song that mentions "cinnamon and sugar") had to be put on the back burner when the band came out swinging with the first fast-tempo "Llama" in three years. In much the same way, the set also featured a return to the uptempo "Water in the Sky" since they returned to the original '97-era slow country approach last year. 

Sure, the set featured standard versions of "Ya Mar", "Vultures", "Train Song"and "Horn", but with the exception of latter with some rough struggling from Trey, they were all executed in a way that let the fans simply enjoy the show.  It did not have to be anything more than that. Beyond those, the rest of the set's songs - old and new, rare and tried-but-true - found a renewed freshness in simple ways: the extended mouth-drum break in "Wilson", the solo-guitar opening of "Stealing Time From the Faulty Plan" (OK, so Trey flubbed a lyric), the more powerful than usual end of "The Line", and the thousand-times-more-powerful-than-that coda to "I Am the Walrus" that had Chris Kuroda destroying us with his incredible light show. 

Plus, we had the first "Tela" since last year's Hartford show and only the fourth performance of "The Birds" ever.  Fun fact - I have been to 136 Phish shows; since my first show they have played "Tela" 38 times and "The Birds" four times. Yet I have seen both twice.  Weird.

Set two was a real smoker that opened with an enormous "Blaze On" jam that was right up there with the version that rang in 2016 in that very venue and a "Harry Hood" that proved the oldies can still soar to the heavens.  In between, the only songs older than the three-decade-old "Hood", "Alumni Blues" and "Letter to Jimmy Page", were as much fun as ever. Even "Twenty Years Later" which has a history of not quite achieving liftoff in its 10/4 time signature coda found its sweet spot and hit it hard and heavily. 

And though "Meatstick" was fun(ky), the fact that nobody (except Gloria and me) actually does the dance anymore was almost as frustrating as the misplaced "Dirt" that followed.  Still, even "Dirt" had a lovely ending that, to my ears, teased the "Hood" to come (along with the very "Hood"-like jam in "Meatstick").  

So by the time the encore of "Cinnamon Girl" happened, it was almost unnecessary.  By that point, the facts that the song had not been played by Phish since 1997 and was the sole tie-in to the night's doughnut flavor was secondary to the fact that Phish played an excellent Phish show. Let that serve as a reminder to all. 

Oh, there was one more thing - thanks to the keen ears of my friends John and Meredith, "Pepper" was the first post-show song on the PA.

Baker's Dozen, Night 6 (Double Chocolate) - Phish at MSG, July 28, 2017

According to my friends, Meredith and John, who had been checking social media to see the song predictions for the night's flavor of double chocolate, we were not the only ones that had "You Sexy Thing" by Hot Chocolate on the brain. It was an obvious choice - right in Trey's wheelhouse of classic '70s soul.

But who could have predicted the ridiculous mid-'00s internet sensation "Chocolate Rain"? (No one.) As an a capella opener, complete with moving their mouths away from the microphone to take a breath?!

As the rest of the band took to their instruments, Fish stayed at the front mic for just a little while longer to sing his awesomely silly "Ass Handed" (my first time seeing him do it!). Once again, Phish proves that dads in their 50s can still be wacky and have fun. These guys are definitely not phoning it in.

As if to drive that point home, they proceeded to play a set that combined the tight execution of difficult composed material in "Weigh", "The Oh Kee Pa Ceremony" and "Divided Sky"; the simple, rock out jams of "Free" and "The Dogs"; and surprises such as "Undermind" (which is not a big surprise for most people, but for some reason I keep missing it - seriously, I have see them play "Ride Captain Ride" and "No Quarter" more often) and "Destiny Unbound". Ending the set with the cute "Things People Do" and the deep funk of "Sand" gave this set the feeling of a mid-'90s super-Phish show (when they would cram a little bit of every style and genre into their shows).

Busting out "Have Mercy" at the start of Set II is one of those moves in which the song selection, not the actual song, sets the tone - in this case indicating that even almost halfway into the Baker's Dozen, with zero repeated songs (about 100 played), anything can happen and any song is on the table.

That said, next up  was "Chalk Dust Torture", which is still my most frequently seen song - more than 50 of my 137 shows. The great thing about "Chalk Dust" is that it can still astound after all these years (7/13/14 comes to mind), and this one did so by keeping the middle solo section short before hitting the final chorus, and then taking off into a big jam.

As expected, "You Sexy Thing" appeared and its delicious chocolatey groove had us dancing with delight. To make things even better, the second  performance of "Mercury" in the Northeast (prior to the previous week's Pittsburgh show, the closest the song ever got was South Carolina) finally let me experience this fantastic piece if music in person. The segue back into "You Sexy Thing" put the exclamation point on the sequence.

Usually, when Phish brings out "Backwards Down the Number Line" to end a set, it comes after a set of songs that already killed and just serves its purpose with a decent climax. Not only did this "Number Line" stand tall on its own, but it did not even end the set as "Rock and Roll" (the third Velvet Underground song of the run) instead capped it off with more of the high energy this set had been cranking out.

I am not really a big fan of "Fee" anymore, so the encore seemed like it would not do anything to move the needle either way on my opinion of the show, but when they brought out the barbershop quartet arrangement of David Bowie's "Space Oddity", it proved once again that these dudes have been practicing. The harmonies, shaky throughout the 2016 performances of the song, were much better - as good as a rock band composed of middle-aged guys playing in Madison Square Garden can be, anyway.

Like that super-dedicated employee character in those old Dunkin Donuts commercials, Phish is obviously taking the extra time to put the work in when it is "time to make the doughnuts."

Baker's Dozen, Night 5 (Powdered Sugar) - Phish at MSG, July 26, 2017

The doughnut of the day was billed as "traditional powdered sugar".  Gloria speculated on the sugar angle ("Sugar Shack" perhaps, plus a zillion possible cover songs?).  My friend Jim took a darker approach to the "powder" aspect with allusions to Trey's past addictions - "Casey Jones" and, more on the nose (so to speak), "Cocaine"?

My good buddy aLi, who attended the show with me on Wednesday, was hoping for something that leaned more toward the "traditional" description - a show filled with old-school Phish - perfect for the Nineties Phish gal she is.  Maybe a classic "Mike's Groove" or an "Alumni Blues -> Letter to Jimmy Page", or any of those other old tunes Phish played in the '80s, early '90s, and on top of the truck in the middle of MSG on 12/31/13.

Instead, we got a lovely a capella of an opener that neither of us recognized, followed by a pretty standard show.  But at least it was a standard show to which we could dance, what with "Cars Trucks Buses", "My Soul", "The Very Long Fuse" (which has only been played once each year since its debut on 10/31/14), "Gumbo" and a long, funkified set-closing "Tube".

There were also the ascending chords of "Roses Are Free" to get us all fired up and the surprising (and well-played) return of "Pebbles and Marbles" after a three year absence, but not everything was fantastic.  "Farmhouse" was just OK (remember when I used to get totally jazzed about that song?) and this was my sixth time hearing "Yarmouth Road" which I still do not like.

Set 2, however, was a lot more like the previous night's show.  Sure, Tuesday was the jam-filled night, but you can not have a show like that and then close the door and walk away.  Instead, you start the set with the kind of "Carini" that we have come to know and love - a so-so song that leads to a sick, sick jam.  After 15 or so minutes, I could see and hear (from great seats on the side of the stage) Fish start playing the unmistakable beat to "Mr. Completely" and sure enough, the band launched into it. After being a staple of the Trey Anastasio Band for many years, but only attempted by Phish once (7/15/03) no one would have expected it to come back into the Phish fold again - let alone twice in as many weeks. But then, why not?  As a vehicle to allow the kind of jamming that Phish does best these days, it makes total sense. 

What made less sense was the return of Prince's "1999" for the first time since its debut on 12/31/98 (though I am definitely not complaining - the trade-off vocals and funky groove were wonderful to hear).  But what made even less sense than that was the way the song dipped down and turned around a bit and became another big 10-minute jam that peaked into the 3.0-standard bliss jam.

About that - aLi mentioned that they played three songs in a row with the "exact same jam" and there is truth in that.  But everyone (including the band, I would bet) knows that this is something Phish does particularly well these days (better than ever, in my opinion), so why not exploit it to its fullest.  Clearly, the crowd loves it because every time Trey peaks and Chris throws open the big white lights, everyone is ecstatic in the joy of the music.

"Steam" is always a delight to hear, but this version seemed a little to fast and not slinky and sexy like previous performances.  Though I still enjoyed it, I could see that steam was something aLi seemed to be losing (and I so wanted her to have a good time!), so I figured the segue into "No Quarter" would get her jazzed because she loves Led Zeppelin.  Instead, she said, "I would have preferred ANY other song from 'Houses of the Holy'."  D'oh!

No one, however, could be glum with the straight-up house-shaking rocker of "Character Zero" to close the set.  And the encore was another big rocker.  Though I did not recognize it (while many in the crowd did!), I pointed out that it sounded very Neil Young-ish.

So much for the flavor theme, then, huh?  What did all this have to do with powdered sugar doughnuts?

It turns out the opener was "White Winter Hymnal" by Fleet Foxes and the encore was, indeed, a Neil Young song called "Powderfinger".  So there you go.  There is your theme.

But that point was moot.  What mattered most was that it was another damn fine show, the fifth night with zero repeated songs and enormous happy jams from the greatest, and most creative and fan-friendly band that ever set foot in an arena. 

Baker's Dozen, Night 4 (Jam-filled) - Phish at MSG, July 25, 2017

Never miss a Sunday show?  Feh.  Try this monster of a Tuesday show on for size.

If you want proof that Phish can still get wacky, that they can still create jams that hold up to their classic era from the Nineties, and that they can surprise you at almost every turn, listen to this show.  Now.

While some of our speculations for the jam-filled flavor of the night were based on the "honey and raspberry" qualifier - leading us to expect songs like "Raspberry Beret" and "Honey Pie" - this show made good on the singular promise of a show that was, indeed, full of jams.

"But wait," you say, "does Phish not always jam?  Is not every night a jam-filled night?  How was this different?"

In the first two minutes, things did not seem different at all.  A "Sample in a Jar" opener sure seems like the start of a pretty normal show.  But then...left turn...after the bridge, instead of resolving to the tonic of "A" for the chorus, a jam appeared out of nowhere in the transitional "E," and it went on for several minutes before a remarkably tight return at the end.

Well!  That was unexpected.  After picking my jaw up off the floor, I watched as Page came out front to croon "Lawn Boy", and the same thing happened again - the bass solo section finished and, instead of returning to the chorus, Page started playing his keytar and a jam ensued.  And the jam went on...and on...until it did not resemble "Lawn Boy" at all.  

For more than a half-hour, the jam ebbed and flowed, with peaks and valleys. Gloria and I had the good fortune of obtaining floor tickets for this show. Every note was crystal clear, and every twinkle and flash of Chris Kuroda's lights looked amazing.  Plus, we could see the facial expressions of the guys in the band and we could not stop noticing what a happy camper Trey was.

Things normalized a little with a mostly standard "Stash", but still bigger than usual jams in "My Friend, My Friend" and "Bathtub Gin", the latter with a huge jam that had me grinning ear to ear so hard that my face started to hurt.  And with that, Phish ended its first five-song Set I in God-knows-how-long, and the best first set since 7/4/12.

Set II got off to a promising start with the first half of "Fuego", but got shaky with a jam that never really hit the mark or took off properly; and its segue into the second performance of new song "Thread" did not make things get much better.  "Thread" is an interesting tune in a weird meter; and while it seemed to work last week in Chicago, it seemed to stumble over itself at this show.

But the course was corrected when they launched into a "Crosseyed and Painless" that was so good (and long, at 33 minutes) it reminded me of the excellent and truly memorable version from 12/31/99. The segue into "Makisupa Policeman" was fun, but the real treat for dorques like me was the live debut (finally!) of "End of Session", from 1998's The Story of the Ghost album.  Closing the set with a wildly peaking "Tuesday" (which was also played last Tuesday in Dayton, Ohio, natch) and the always reliable "Cavern" left everyone in the place sufficiently sticky from the sweet jam filling.

But oh, that was not all.  Sure "Julius" still suffers from being slow and dragging and lacking any oomph whatsoever, but it is still a fun time when you are there in the house.  

And the gooey icing on the cake (frosting on the doughnut?) - the final chord of "Julius" crashed into the ending of "Lawn Boy", to bring to a conclusion the unfinished tune from almost three hours prior.  It was a satisfying, hilarious and awesome way to end the most creative and daring Phish show of the 3.0 era.  

You can have your Sunday shows.  Sign me up for another Tuesday.

Baker's Dozen, Night 3 (Red Velvet) - Phish at MSG, July 23, 2017

I have never understood the whole "Never miss a Sunday show" thing. The ratio of shows that have blown me away on Sundays to shows that have blown me away on any other day of the week is pretty even.  

This particular Sunday show was good.  Very good.  The weakest of the three so far, but very good, nonetheless. 

The "red velvet" flavor theme secured an appearance of "Wading in the Velvet Sea" and some Velvet Underground.  While I figured the choice VU song would be tried-and-true "Rock and Roll", we were treated to a debut of "Sunday Morning", complete with Fish playing frontman (with Trey on drums) dressed as a bishop and sprinkling holy water on the crowd and a kneeling-while-playing-a-bass-solo Mike Gordon.

After that opener, it was down to business, though it seemed like business as usual. I certainly will not complain about a well-played "Axilla" or "Glide" or even "Theme From the Bottom", and I do love to shake my tail to "Your Pet Cat"; but the Mike Gordon tune "How Many People Are You" (better than "Yarmouth Road" and "Waking Up Dead", but not as good as "555" and "Let's Go") went on a little too long without a good payoff and "It's Ice" went on much, much too long while meandering about and getting nowhere.

Still, the set had merits.  "Back on the Train" had a jam that flew off the tracks and into the air, peaking perfectly in its patient but elevating 10 minutes. And the set-closing "More" was a climax that shook the whole arena. Truly a highlight, even for my friend, Alan, who is not a Phish fan but attended his first show out of sheer curiosity and an appreciation for all types of music.

Unfortunately, the second set was much like the first.  There was greatness - check out the huge jams in "Wolfman's Brother" and "Twist" - but sometimes things fell a little flat (a lot flat, with the sluggish "AC/DC Bag"). While "Waves" showed potential, it did not deliver much of interest until things started getting weird and spacey.  As it wound through some wild soundscapes (much like the previous night's "Melt"), it would have been a perfect time to segue to "2001".  Instead we got a misplaced "Miss You" and a funky but standard "Boogie On Reggae Woman", that suffered from Mike's bass being way too low in the mix.

Still, the encore was "Sweet Jane", a VU song that Phish had not played in five years.  It rocked with such ease, and the crowd was so into it (I was behind the stage again, so I could see the incredibly happy reactions of the fans on the floor), that I could only wish that more of the rest of the show, instead of the handful of highlights, would have been this good.  

A bad show?  Not on your life.  But the bar has been set pretty high with the Baker's Dozen and this one came out just a bit undercooked.

Baker's Dozen, Night 2 (Strawberry) - Phish at MSG, July 22, 2017

As soon as the doughnut flavor of the day - strawberry - was posted, my friends (John and Meredith) and I started guessing the opener of Saturday night's show.  My pick was "Strawberry Fields Forever".

Though I was correct, I did not anticipate that Phish would do it a capella barbershop style.  Which they did.  And they nailed it.

At least I think so.  Like I said in my previous post, those acoustics in MSG are very forgiving.

"Halley's Comet" kicked the set off proper, with its line about "thick strawberry goo" getting a wave of cheers. The rest of the set contained some damn fine uptempo rocking and swinging with "Funky Bitch", "Mound" and "Foam", but the big jams came in "The Moma Dance" (natch) and "Breath and Burning" (surprise!). "Roggae" took it down with a low-key and pretty jam and "The Squirming Coil" ended the set on a beautiful (as usual) Page solo.

Not even the drunk guys next to me, constantly trying to talk to me throughout the show - one raved about his fishing trip to South Carolina and how hard it was to find drugs in New York City, the other about living in Doylestown, Pa., and his upcoming wedding - could ruin that set for me (though the latter guy trying to sing the harmonies, caused the person behind us to shush him).

The second set opened with "Down With Disease" which is a typical, natural, predictable thing to do...and it pretty much works every time.  The jam was joyous and peaking, and had me dancing up a storm for the entirety of its 19 minutes before the night's doughnut theme continued with the old Brothers Johnson R&B tune "Strawberry Letter 23".  "Birds of a Feather" was enjoyable, but it was the 10 minutes of nonstop groove in "I Always Wanted It This Way" (a 'Big Boat' favorite of mine) that had me shaking my booty like a dancing fool. And how about those lights from Chris Kuroda!

I have long been a big defender of the 'Round Room' ballads, and to see my first "All of These Dreams" since 2004 was a treat. Though I really, truly tried to get into "Split Open and Melt", it was another case of the dark, noisy, 3.0 "Melt" jam with impressive sonic soundscapes that would have thrilled me much more if it was in any other song.  The big redeemer, though, was the segue back into the coda of "Down With Disease".  If you know me, you know I love bookends, so the set could have ended there and I would have been a happy camper.  But a decent "Shine a Light" (not the best, but not the mess of the prior Chicago performance).  

Just as the previous night's "Mango Song" encore eliminated any future of a mango doughnut flavor, this show's encore of "Peaches en Regalia" gave us no hope for some peach in the coming weeks.  On the plus side, it was well played and was only the first in a rare three-song encore.  "Cities" and "My Sweet One" kept the energy high right up to the very end. 

Another remarkable show in what is already shaping up to be a memorable run.  Sorry, rest of the world, but Phish playing in New York City for 13 straight shows turned out to be a damn sweet idea.

Baker's Dozen, Night 1 (Coconut) - Phish at MSG, July 21, 2017

Sometimes you have to be there. 

The energy in the crowd was intense as the lights went down and Phish came to the stage for the first of 13 nights at Madison Square Garden, opening the show to thunderous applause with "Shake Your Coconuts," a song by Junior Senior. Even though I am pretty sure that almost nobody watching (at home or in the arena) had ever heard the song before, it got us sufficiently excited because it is a ridiculously silly and fun song in which Trey altered the lyrics to say "It's Baker's Dozen time!"

Plus, it solidified the doughnut theme of the series. Prior to the show, Phish tweeted that they were giving away free doughnuts to early comers at each show and the featured flavor on the first night was coconut. Would they play a flavor-themed song each night?  Who knew? 

There would be time for speculation later because after the insane fun of "Shake Your Coconuts", it was time to rock with "Martian Monster", a song they had played a few nights before.  That answered my previous question about the "no repeat summer" theory, and though it was slightly disappointing, it also did mean that I got to rock out to a heavy duty "Martian Monster" and that everything else was on the table, too.

Throughout the first set, the continued electrified energy between band and audience made songs like "Timber (Ho!)", "555" and "Pigtail" that much more of an exciting experience.  Were the coda to "Halfway to the Moon" (best version I've seen since Hartford 2013) and the jam in "Reba" (a song that mentions coconuts in the lyrics) really that huge, or did the enormity of MSG and its very forgiving acoustics just make it seem that way? 

Maybe, but with the second-ever performance of "Moonage Daydream", it would be hard to argue that it was one of those by-the-numbers nothing-really-happening first sets. And to close it with "Walls of the Cave", nailing that burst from F# to B before the final chorus (not to mention a jam that rocked so incredibly hard), this had to be the best first set of the tour, right?

My friends up in the far reaches of section 209 begged to differ, texting me that the set was "ho-hum". 

So not only do you have to be there, it matters where you sit, too.  That is why I am very picky with my ticket selection at a Phish show. (Pro tip - side/rear stage tickets are awesome - you are close to the stage and the sound is excellent)

Set two came on strong with back-to-back jam vehicles in "Tweezer" and "Seven Below", both of which showed off what these guys do best these days. "Billy Breathes" and "Sparkle" were nice to hear, but I would bet those did not come off so well on the recordings. No matter, because the set aimed, shot and hit the mark in the back half with the second Phish performance of Trey's new "Everything's Right", one of the happiest songs you will ever hear (and included an MVP jam), followed by a gorgeous "Slave to the Traffic Light" and a rocking "Suzy Greenberg". 

The set-ending a capella rendition of "Coconut" (as in, "You put the lime in the...") topped off the set with a bookend on the theme.  The only thing I love as much as musical themes are musical bookends, so yes, you could say I was pretty happy with this turn of events.

The encore of "The Mango Song" put to rest any speculation that there would be a mango flavored doughnut in our future (as well as any notion that they can actually play the song well - sheesh) and the old reliable "Good Times Bad Times" put the show to bed with a heavy dose of Zeppelin rawk.

Did you have to be there to feel it?  Maybe.  Or maybe just enough of that palpable energy in the room translated on the webcasts.  

Or maybe we were all just totally sugared up from doughnuts.