Phish at Madison Square Garden - Dec. 30, 2018

Any multi-show run in one venue plays out like a single, giant show, so I listened to the Dec. 29 show on the morning of Dec. 30, the second set while doing my 14-mile run.  That way, I would not have missed anything by the time we went to the show that evening. 

"Corrina" was not only nice to hear, but well played and reminiscent of its bust-out on 12/30/99 (Big Cypress Seminole Reservation, Florida). "46 Days" had a swifter-than-usual tempo and a jam that was rocking in the first half, and pretty in the second half; but Trey pulled a 2011-style ripcord - within 30 seconds of Mike and Page establishing a nice vi-IV pattern that could have totally been explored, Trey forced a segue into a sloppy "Cities". The fun of the first set was a "Wolfman's Brother" into which Trey crowbarred elements of "Party Time", probably trying (but failing) to swerve the jam into that song proper.

Set II of 12/29/18 gave us the absolute best jam of the four-show run.  Shortly into the opening "Carini" jam, they shifted into a major key, and instead of the usual 10-plus minute jam, we got a surprising segue into the jam-of-the-night in "Tweezer". People will be talking about this one for a while. There was such great interplay, with Trey and Fish initiating stops and starts to goad the crowd into some "woo"s and, afterward, they did a pretty, uptempo jam, followed by a segue to "Death Don't Hurt Very Long". But instead of taking the solo himself, Trey threw solos to Fish and Mike before another segue back into "Tweezer", which had another pretty but, by now, perfunctory jam which was brought way down for a segue into "No Quarter".  

With "Death Don't Hurt" as well as "Turtle in the Clouds" played on Dec. 29, we had six remaining Kasvot Vaxt songs on the table as we arrived at Madison Square Garden for the Dec. 30 show. We had decent seats in section 202, across the arena, but with an almost head-on and unobstructed view of the stage.  The sound was not so bad, either.

Opening with "Alumni Blues -> Letter to Jimmy Page -> Alumni Blues" followed by "Mike's Song" gave the show a classic '88 feel, but a big surprise came in the place between "Mike's" and "Weekapaug Groove" usually occupied by "I Am Hydrogen".  Instead of that song, they busted out "Glide II", played exactly once before by Phish, on 5/16/95 (Lowell, MA) - though the real bustout was actually when Trey blew everyone's mind by dusting it off earlier in December during his solo tour.

Speaking of old dormant songs tested by Trey during his solo tour, the short acoustic number, "Bliss", from the 1996 album Billy Breathes that mostly serves as an introduction for the album's title song, also showed up for the first time ever at a Phish show on Dec. 30.  It came off of a "Crosseyed and Painless" that was seamlessly segued out of "Weekapaug" and led into "Billy" as on the album.

After that, there was about 18 minutes of dancing, with "No Men In No Man's Land" laying down some funk and "Weekapaug" showing up again in the middle of a "Tube" jam. "More" closed the set to great and powerful effect, as it often does. As first sets go, that one was pretty hard to beat.

If Set I kept things mostly classic, the first two-thirds of Set II stayed firmly rooted in 3.0 with a fifth Kasvot Vaxt song ("Cool Amber and Mercury"), a large "Everything's Right" that included a big major-key bliss jam, a "Plasma" that had Page tearing it up on the clavinet, and a 20-minute "Light" during which Chris Kuroda's lights were the definite MVP of the jam - not that the band was too shabby either, especially when they peaked, brought it way down, and peaked again.

To close out the set, "Wading in the Velvet Sea" was a pleasant choice, and it was followed by a very 3.0 "Split Open and Melt" (and you know how I feel about those).  That almost did not matter though, because the encore more than made up for it, with a rare four-song selection of classic-era tunes - "Funky Bitch", "Wilson", "Rocky Top" and a "Cavern" that included a nod to Kasvot Vaxt ("Your time is near, the mission's clear, you'll face plant into rock.").  

Despite the lack of any 2.0 era songs in the show, and the way the 3.0 and 1.0 songs were played in separated clumps, this show felt like it had a ton of variety and, most importantly, the playing was incredible - a band doing what it does best on the night before its year-end spectacular.  It was my 10th Dec. 30 Phish show and, once again, it did not disappoint.  I came away satisfied with it being my last show of the year.

The next night was everything New Year's Eve should be, with big, fat jams in "Down With Disease" and "Seven Below"; a fun song sandwich that put "Passing Through" (KV song #8 after "Play By Play" was the seventh in Set I)) in the middle of the "Harry Hood" jam; and, of course, an elaborate production to ring in the new year (this time based around one of my favorite newer songs, "Mercury" and a ninth KV tune "Say It to Me S.A.N.T.O.S.").  I watched it with friends at home on Jan. 1 and it felt like I got to ring in the new year all over again.  

Fans seem to be using "This is what space smells like" (from "S.A.N.T.O.S.") as a catchphrase, but when it comes to Phish's New Year's Run, I think the next line is much more appropriate - "You will always remember where you were."

Phish at Madison Square Garden - Dec. 28, 2018

Happy New Year's Run!  Now that all that Christmas crap is over with, we can get down to the real holiday season.  It is Phish's 17th Dec. 28th show ever (and my seventh!) and by Jan. 1, they will have played at the venue 65 times total, just a few shy of the 69 Elton John will have racked up by the spring.  We see you, Billy Joel, with your 106 MSG shows, and we are coming for you.

For this show, Gloria and I scored floor tickets through Phish mail order, so we got the full sound and lights, with an excellent view of the band and, occasionally, some decent dancing room, staying around the middle.

Being the first show since the Halloween run, it is no surprise that Phish wants to explore the new Kasvot Vaxt songs that they debuted in Las Vegas, so we got two of those songs - "We Are Come to Outlive Our Brains" to open the show and "The Final Hurrah" as a highlight of the second set - and I am sure there are more to come over the next three nights.

"Martian Monster" provided a 3.0 Halloween double shot at the top of the show, but until the "Walls of the Cave" closer (with its awfully bungled intro but high-energy redeeming jam), the first set looks on paper like it could have been from 1998, with a raging "Axilla I"; a rocking "Free" that kept things hot and heavy without pushing any boundaries; "The Wedge", which always feels both out of place and perfectly welcome wherever it is played in the set.

But do not let the set list fool you.  The quick swerve into a major-key in "Ghost"; the herky-jerky, noisy stabs in "Meat"; a "Sparkle" that was well-executed into its speedy coda, but without the frantic, frenetic pace of the old days; Trey's killer counterpoint during Page's organ solo in "Maze"; and an "If I Could" that retained all the beauty of the later versions, but at the more brisk tempo of the earlier versions, this was unmistakably the non-jam side of 3.0 Phish at its best.

Oh, you want to talk about the jam side of 3.0 Phish?  Check out the raging jam that saved "Walls of the Cave", and then follow me into the second set, where "Set Your Soul Free" got things going with a long jam that stayed mostly moored, but explored a lot of pretty textures before getting weird at the end and falling into "Swept Away".

The minute-long "Swept Away" always leads to "Steep".  Any old fan like me remembers the 1990s versions of "Steep" that were merely another brief, two-minute pit stop.  The 3.0-era "Steep" is a beautiful slow jam that builds on the theme of the backing vocal melody. While this version did not quite meet the majesty of the Baker's Dozen version (8/1/17 Maple) at this very venue, or even the 7/10/11 version from Camden, Trey and Page showed - as they did with "If I Could" in the first set and the lovely "Shade" (I am not crying, you are crying) later in the second set - that the tender moments can be some of the best. 

Holy moly, I just realized that Phish has only done this new "Steep" five times since the 2009 reunion, and I have seen four of them!

While it was super fun to have some extended play off of "The Final Hurrah", the bigger, better jam came in "Fuego" which is always reliable, often a highlight.  Count this version, which peaked twice, in that latter category, even if (at only 10 power-packed minutes) it did not stretch out into transcendence like the back-to-back monsters of 7/4/14 and 7/8/14.

Speaking of peaks and transcendence, have you heard this "Bathtub Gin" yet?  After Page gets down on the Rhodes for a while, Fish speeds up the beat and, suddenly, I am transported back to 6/28/00 in Holmdel, for a high-energy, funky/happy jam. The similarity in vibe was uncanny. 

So after all that, does ending with "Possum" leave me a little flat?  Yes, just a little - but watching everyone else, from newbie kids to old dudes, go bananaballs over it always makes me smile.  I am sure it gives Jeff Holdsworth a warm fuzzy, too.

"Slave to the Traffic Light"

And if I can not feel the same about a version of "Bouncing Around the Room" so lame that even I refuse to defend it, at least we ended the show on about as pretty a note as one can, with "Slave to the Traffic Light", perhaps to tie it in with the other such moments on this rainy, yet mild December night in New York City.

Phish at Madison Square Garden, Dec. 31, 2017

At some point, in the middle of the third set of last night's New Year's Eve Phish show in New York, I turned to my wife, Gloria, and declared, "No other band in the world does this. No. Other. Band."  Anyone who experienced the sea of twinkling lights in the audience and the pirate flag and sail on stage last night (or, really, any NYE Phish show) would say the same.

My 15th Phish show of 2017, my sixth New Year's Phish show and my 144th Phish show overall. After 24 years, this band continues to astound, amaze and, most of all, entertain.

New Year's Eve shows are also tough tickets to get, but thanks to John and Meredith, our good friends in both Phish and running, we obtained tickets.  Both the sound and the view from section 224 were excellent, though we did feel a bit crowded and cramped.  And hot.  Boy, did we sweat on this cold, single-digit temperature night.

How could we not? With the rock coming fast and hard, "Carini", "Suzy Greenberg", "My Friend, My Friend", "Fluffhead", a particularly raging "46 Days", a rip-roaring "Maze", and a huge climax in the set-ending "Character Zero", the party got off to a fantastic start.  A well-executed "Reba" and a less-well executed "Poor Heart" kept things fun, if not a bit retro - that set list could have easily been from 12/31/2002.

The second set started with a relatively-brief "Possum" which gave way to a mostly standard, but still rousing "Fuego" before "Gotta Jibboo" brought the first epic jam of the night. After several minutes of funk for our dancing pleasure, Trey modulated the key and sent the jam into a full-on 3.0 standard bliss jam before managing to bring it back to the original key and groove for the ending. "Golgi Apparatus" got off to a shaky start, but recovered; and "What's the Use" brought its usual beauty in those ascending notes while Chris Kuroda continued to outdo himself with the lights.  The set ended with a classic "You Enjoy Myself" - complete with trampolines, bass-and-drums segment, and vocal jam - which saw Phish doing everything Phish does at its best.

Kind of looks like a doughnut

Everyone in the arena was given wristbands at the beginning of the show.  We figured the wristbands would light up and make things look neat for the webcast, and the brief test during set break, during which everyone's wristbands flashed in multiple colors for mere seconds caused a roar from the crowd. Clues from the band's email and t-shirt and poster images seemed to point to some kind of spaceship theme.

The wristbands

But when the music started (Trey's song, "Soul Planet") and a giant sail was set up on the stage, complete with a jolly roger pirate flag (which, of course, included the Phish logo), we all realized we had the wrong kind of ship in mind.  The stage had been transformed into a giant pirate ship, complete with cannons blasting confetti, and we, the fans, were the sea, as Kuroda controlled the wristband lights in waves of blue and green.  And as crew hands on deck (some suspended from the sail's rigging) turned the giant sail, the waves of light followed.  It was a masterpiece of lighting and stage design, a thing of beauty.

Throughout the song, and the set, the entire audience became part of the light show, and after the countdown to the New Year, the band played "Auld Lang Syne" as the myriad blue and white balloons dropped from the ceiling, along with confetti and streamers. "Free" continued the set and, with its reference to how "the ship goes sliding by", it was clear this would be a nautically themed set.  Sure enough "A Song I Heard the Ocean Sing", "The Moma Dance", "Prince Caspian" and "Wading in the Velvet Sea" followed, and though the set list was predictable, it was by no means any less exciting.  "ASIHTOS" was especially powerful; dare I say, the third best version I have heard (next to 6/19/2004 and 7/30/2017).

Finishing the set with "First Tube", Trey threw everything he had into it - the energy was thick in the room as he crashed into those E-minor and A-minor breaks before bursting into the A-major jam as Chris let loose and went completely bananaballs with the lights on the stage, on the ceiling and on our wrists.  It not only looked and sounded phenomenal, but it felt amazing, too.  Only music, and the communal sharing of it, can bring that kind of elation.

The "Loving Cup" encore put a button on the night and we all left Madison Square Garden as happy campers, knowing that we rang in the new year in a way that no one else could have understood; and that we sailed our ship into 2018 with our souls filled with joy and wristbands that continued to flash right through to when we walked in the door of our apartment at around 2:30 a.m.

Phish at Madison Square Garden, Dec. 30, 2017

Ah, Dec. 30.  The date on which I have seen Phish more than any other.  

It was the date of their first Madison Square Garden show ever (12/30/94) and subsequently, returned for 10 more shows at that venue on that date. Of those, I was at eight.  Plus, there was the New Year's shows at Big Cypress Seminole Reservation in Florida on 12/30 and 12/31/99.

So, yes, Dec. 30 is special to me, and Phish once again lived up to my expectations by opening the show with a classic '90s "Mike's Song > I Am Hydrogen > Weekapaug Groove", complete with the super old-school ending in "Mike's".  I had not seen a "Mike's" opener since 6/16/2012 in Atlantic City. 

OK, so Trey bungled "Hydrogen" a little, but contrary to what '90s purists think, he bungled it a lot back then, too.  He also played it a lot more often back then, so if he blew one or two of them, there were several more that were good.  In 2017, it was the only one.  

Keeping it old-school for a while, not only did the band launch into "Tweezer", but after an incredible jam that had Chris Kuroda doing absolutely stunning visuals with the lights (which were everywhere - on the ceiling, around the sides, in the front, in the back), the song ended with the long-abandoned coda in which the main riff returns (sort of) and the song slows to a halt.  Only this time, the last note ended with Fishman singing his 2016 masterpiece "Ass Handed".  "Kill Devil Falls" reminded us again that 3.0 is just as good as 1.0, but the "Bathtub Gin" that followed was yet another stand-out (with more CK goodness on the lights).

The set could have ended there and I would have been happy, but instead we saw the return of "Brother" (a big early '90s song that only saw six plays in 3.0) - slow and weird; and oddly funky for its 3/4 meter, allowing Page to lay down some interesting grooves on the clavinet. This was followed by "More", the 2016 set-ender powerhouse that made jelly of us all with its positive vibe, happy chord progression and knockout solo at the end.

Damn, that was just set one!  Am I gushing too much?  

It is probably as common and cliche for a second set to open with "Down With Disease" as the first set to open with "AC/DC Bag", but the former is always much more welcome because "Disease" jams can be marvelous things.  This one had everything - over the course of almost a half-hour, it went from energetic to mellow to textured to dark and noisy, and finally culminated with a happy bliss jam (naturally). The fact that one of my favorite 3.0 songs, "Steam" followed was icing on this already tasty, tasty cake.  At the end, the jam got spacey in the best, most literal way possible - the sounds and lights made me feel like we were in a spaceship that was about to blast off.

The sound quality is bad, but you get the idea.

"Light" was probably good, but I was too distracted by the bros in front of me smoking an enormous blunt, with their stinky smoke being blown directly into my face for what seemed to be an eternity, and "Farmhouse" was so mellow that the set seemed to be in danger of falling apart.  Good thing "Run Like an Antelope" was there to save it and finish it off with an enormous climax. 

The "Sleeping Monkey > Tweezer Reprise" encore topped the show off perfectly and no one could have possibly gone home dissatisfied.  The only question now is, what could possibly be in store for New Year's Eve?  

Phish at Madison Square Garden - Dec. 29, 2017

I stayed home and couch toured this one, which offers some advantages (pristine sound, shorter bathroom lines and cheaper beers), but some drawbacks (loss of that electric vibe that comes from being at the show).

A rare "Cavern" opener got things going in an interesting way, especially with Trey cracking himself up while playing with his octave effect during the little solo sections.  He returned to that effect several times throughout the night, so it became kind of a theme of the show.

The rest of the first set was good stuff, with nothing getting too out there - "Blaze On," "555" and "Martian Monster" served their purpose of getting the evening off to a fun start with totally danceable grooves.  I even got off the couch a few times to shake my booty.

.

As with the previous night's "Bouncing", "Heavy Things" seemed very up and energetic, and while "I Always Wanted It This Way" also had a sprightly tempo, it did not seem to hang right until the extended jam (which was decent). Though Gloria declared a potty-break for "Ocelot", I stayed with it and intently listened to the interplay (and then complete lack thereof) during the jam.  It was amazing how, when jamming on one or two chords, Mike, Trey and Page can all solo, yet the whole thing can still gel.  Mike was especially doing some tasty licks.  Speaking of Mike, "Destiny Unbound" - once one of those holy grails of rare songs you never get to hear - is now in semi-regular rotation, and that's not a bad thing.  "Walls of the Cave" was the set-ender, and while the burst from the pregnant F# into the B was not as huge as I like it, the climactic jam was pretty darn impressive.

You never know when the big jams are going to come...and when they are not.  In set two, "Sand" was relatively compact (and well executed) and so was "Simple" (a little looser), but the latter made sense because, really, how can they attempt to match the two amazing summer versions that are still fresh in the phans' minds? 

It was "Chalk Dust Torture" that provided the top jam of the night, with a blissed out jam that very much recalled the classic 7/10/99 version in Camden (I was there for that one!). As with last night, the big jams were back-to-back, this time with a fantastic "Ghost", which had a brief I-vi jam that was quite enjoyable.

"Backwards Down the Number Line" can often be perfunctory, but it held up nicely in the presence of the set's heavies. And then there was "Split Open and Melt".  You can read about my bugaboos with this song in previous posts, but I think I have found out one of the main reasons why the dark jams that come out of "Melt" do not seem right, when the same kind of jam coming out of, say, "Carini" registers high on my awesome meter - the problem is that they retreat to it too quickly.  There is no time to dance in the jam section of "Melt" anymore.  They do a few choruses, spend a few measures hitting that characteristic 9/8 and then plunge the damn thing into oblivion.  It is one of the only two songs that really make me pine for the old days.

So, when that ends the set, the encore better be awesome.  Well, we got "Julius", which is the other song that makes me pine for the energy of the old days.  This one was more upbeat that previous clunkers I have seen in 3.0, though, with Page especially swinging it on the piano. 

This show was worth it on the strength of that "Chalk Dust > Ghost" alone, but Dec. 28 is still the winner so far.

Phish at Madison Square Garden, Dec. 28, 2017

If I was not so excited about the first new Phish show in more than three months, in the very same place as the last time I saw them, I would have cried, "Laaaaaaaaame," when the opening chords of "AC/DC Bag" rang out through Madison Square Garden.

Yes, yes, we get it, the song says, "Let's get this show on the road."

Once that was out of the way, the first set showed off some high energy, with faster-than-normal versions of "Wolfman's Brother" (with Page killing it on the Fender Rhodes and a big climax from Trey) and "Bouncing Around the Room" (for which the 20-something girls next to me shrieked with approval) and a super-hot jam in "Tube" (despite a shaky transition into the swinging bridge). The band also brought it pretty hard with "Back on the Train" and funky lil' "Your Pet Cat". 

There were some softer, slower moments, though, with "Roggae" showing up third, which seemed a little too soon for something so laid back, but the song never disappoints these days, so by the end of its 10 minutes (!), it was as enjoyable as any other jam.  Then there was "Waking Up Dead" which falls into the category of what my friend aLi and her husband call "DEMDOM" - an acronym for "Doesn't excite me, doesn't offend me" - despite its extended middle section.  And the set closed with "Theme From the Bottom", which has been growing on me again.  I would not have expected it to be the set closer, but that is why I still love Phish - we can still expect the unexpected after all these years.

Even more unexpected was the six-song second set that knocked out a couple of heavy duty jams, surprising for the first night of the run. 

After the big opening with "Wilson", "No Men in No Man's Land" became the MVP jam of the night - 20-plus minutes of funky, funky jamming and a fantastic key change turn.  You can be damn sure I danced the night away with that one so the back-to-back attack of another huge jam in "Twist" kept the improvisation coming while Chris Kuroda did some beautiful stuff with the lights. The last time we had a "NMINML > Twist" was 8/12/15 at the Mann.  Both that set and this one deserve repeated listens.

Why Trey ripcorded the "Twist" jam when it was still going places and exploring different textures is a mystery, but "Everything's Right" was a joy to hear, with its happy chorus and its I-VIIb-IV chord progression. The jam that followed was thoroughly enjoyable, but not as engaging as the previous two jams, so when an excellent "2001" brought yet even more funk, this set was shaping up to be a disco dance party for the ages. 

Clearly, it was time to end the set, so I figured, "Cavern" or "Character Zero".  Nope.  "Harry Hood" brought another glorious climax to a well-paced jam to close the set.

But the surprises did not end there.  The band came out for an encore with a tightly executed rendition of "The Wedge" and then shocked the hell out of everyone with a gorgeous "Slave to the Traffic Light", plastering the ecstasy face onto every fan in the room.

Picking up right where they did from summer tour, Phish brought the house down yet again at Madison Square Garden.  And it is only night one.

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.