[We would like to thank Landon Schoenefeld (@nomidwestlove) aka Instagram @_colonel_mustard for recapping last night's show. -Ed.]

Hello fellow nerds! And thanks for joining me as I attempt to recap BGCA N2 in beautiful San Francisco. I moved to the city in the fall of 2018, mere months after their last stop at the famous Civic Center venue. For the year that my domicile was just three blocks from the Bill Graham, I prayed to the Phish gods for them to make a stop, so I could both walk to the show and sleep in my own bed afterwards, but alas it was not to be. However, I did sleep in my own bed last night (a relative rarity for me) after enduring about an hour-long drive back up to wine country post show.

There’s a lot of history contained within those walls. The building itself built in 1915. In 1992, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted to rename the auditorium after the rock concert impresario, who had died the previous year in a helicopter crash. Until the first night, I hadn’t set foot inside that building since 2002, on my first ever trip to San Francisco.

And what is it about slightly worn-down and grimy old venues that seem to bring the best out of our favorite band from Vermont? I find BGCA to be a cousin of UIC Pavillion in Chicago. Both have similar set-ups and have placed a generous number of bangers underneath their belts throughout the years. The staff was chill and didn’t really see anyone being hassled about anything.

I joined the line early around 2pm and ended up on the sidewalk on the venue side of the building. One of the trials and tribulations of a general admission venue, of which us Bay Area residents are becoming all too familiar with. The time moved fast as I visited with friends both old and new. People shivered and applied layers (a SF must) as we speculated about what we might be in for on this particular evening. I had spent the past few weeks revisiting all the BGCA shows from 2012-2018. I had convinced myself that in keeping with tradition, we could be in for a bust-out show, compiling a dreamers list of songs I hoped they would in a bold move to crush my friends in our setlist game.

Even entering the line about an hour and half earlier than the previous day, our crew landed in the exact same spot as the evening before, section 319, row H (Page side). I have no complaints really. The sightlines and sound from up there were excellent and my old ass can take a seat during the set break. Five shows in six days and my dogs were barking.

A brief mention about the attendees. Especially compared to the audience at the previous shows in Seattle and Portland. The Bay Area crowd had the most freaks and wooks by a country mile. I can assure you that is not a pejorative, and we should pin that distinction on our tie-die hoodies like a badge of honor. It just might be the most dreadlocks I’ve seen at a show since the late 90s. I salute you San Francisco.

The lights dimmed at approximately 8:05. The band opened with what seemed like an obvious call of “Simple." What is a band without skyscrapers anyway? A bunch of country bumpkins probably. Everyone in my general vicinity seemed extra jubilant, myself included. The jam started off classically before morphing into something reminiscent of trudging through the cosmos. Floating into slightly blissful territory with Trey building to shred as Mike answered with some assertive playing.

Excellent segue into “Punch You in the Eye.” They added some extra improv to the song’s intro which I really loved, and if you like that sort of thing, I recommend you listen to the 11.30.19 "PYITE" from Providence. They take a more electronic excursion in that version, but last night’s "Punch" intro may be the longest extension of that part I’ve heard them do. The “Landlady” section was played precisely. To my critical ears they flubbed the outro missing the 3-part piano>guitar>piano solos at the end.

All was forgiven when they quickly dropped into “Gumbo.” I rarely meet a Gumbo I don’t like, and they delivered an above average rendition here. They found a low-key pocket early in the jam with some good Hammond fills from Page. I saw scattered individuals throughout the floor grooving in shafts of purple light. They eventually made a turn into a brooding jam and from there lifted off into the stratosphere. I heard some "Tweezer" teases in there somewhere before landing back into the chorus of the song, something I feel like they’ve been straining to do all tour with various degrees of success. I did appreciate the ragtime-esque Page breakdown at the very end which recalled Gumbos of yesteryear.

I am never upset when I hear the drop into “Reba," admittedly one of my very favorite tunes in the catalogue. The composed section with relatively flawless. I could wax poetically all day about how I could live the rest of my life suspended within a Reba jam. It is one of my happy places in life. Trey fired off some quick triplets which some excellent bouncy playing from Mike. Page adding atmosphere with his Rhodes fills. Trey triumphantly built into an “Inca Roads” like peak, before upping the ante with a blissfully out of control apex. Had Frank Zappa been alive and in attendance, he may have been taking notes.

I was a little confused by the opening notes to “The Well.” At first, I thought it was “We Are Come to Out Live Our Brains” (A song I find to be criminally under-played) At any rate, The Well was a new one for me. I know it’s a newer song, but it seems to be somewhat of a rarity despite only being a couple years old. I enjoy this goofy tune with its jokingly sinister ending. I think it fits well in that category of songs alongside, “Carini”, “Saw It Again”, and “BBFCFM.” It would be funny if they did a whole set with these selections someday.

The “Bowie” started with 4.0 bop boom beep, cannot compute sounds from Trey laid over Fishman’s symbols. Again, the composed section was well executed. The jam started out cool, like Miles Davis, before a slight detour into the light. Fishman took control of the boat at this point as they drove the jam forward in major scale. Electric snakes of lights slithered above the band turning from purple to pink to orange before spinning into an ouroboros. My mind went deep, pondering the theory of intelligent design, marred by its clunky theism, and how it doesn’t describe the subtlety of the genius of a self-emergent universe. I snapped out of that by the time they took the song back into its natural conclusion.

“Character Zero” appeared in my favorite slot as a Set 1 closer. The seething biomass seemed to be jumping in unison with this barn burning conclusion. A large group on the Page-side floor seemed to be struggling in a tangle of tinsel or silly string, I couldn’t quite tell from my perspective. It looked fun anyhow.

Set break was a departure from my normal routine of staying terrifyingly glued to my seats, watching all the freaky people under the influence of entheogens. It was actually kind of refreshing to be relatively sober and engage with my neighbors and compare notes on set one. Great first set seemed to be the consensus.

Set two started off with “Sample in a Jar.” I immediately wondered if they would use Sample as the launching pad for a giant jam out of the gate. Trey’s tone sounded amazing to my ears, but there was essentially no jam.

And then bam! They hit us with the opening notes of “Tweezer.” And the crowd goes wild! I was under the impression they might have saved the Tweezer for Hollywood Bowl, especially after the monster “Greezer” from the Greek a couple of years ago (another show I had the pleasure of recapping), but I can assure you I wasn’t mad it. I’ve found it kind of difficult describing some of these monster jams in the past. I don’t want to be overly pedantic, but at the same time under-describing the jam of night could do some readers a disservice. I’ll try to do my best with the notes I have taken. Here it goes. The song started loose with some syncopated drumming from Fish. The jam itself started off with a digging theme with some thick bass lines from Mike. Eventually they settled into a groove where I pictured myself cruising across sand dunes in the desert at sunset in a dune buggy. Riding along without a care in the world about reaching a destination. It was all about the ride. Then I thought I heard a subtle “Manteca” tease from Trey. My suspicions were confirmed when Page joined in with some "Manteca" teases of his own on the organ. Then the whole band gratuitously played around with the "Manteca" theme for a few minutes. Kuroda flashed some honeycombed like structures as the band hit their first peak. They then brought the jam into a quieter place shortly thereafter, where Trey took the lead with some heavy mu-tron effects, eventually resolving into a lullaby-like jam. I invite any mothers-to-be who may be reading this to queue up this section and gently place some headphones on your tummies. This is the kind of music that babies should be listening to in the womb. Trey finally found an ascendent theme, his guitar notes rising like bubbles from the bottom of a pond. For a minute I thought I heard them trying to segue into “Golden Age”, but they weren’t quite done with us yet. Before you knew it, we were back into a pounding jam, with Trey playing a pattern of chord triplets. Fishman at this point decided to push fast forward on the tempo with some long sustains from Trey and into a nasty jam. There was a minute or so in here where I could hear each member of the band distinctly, reminding me that the sum is always greater than their parts. Next, they found their way back to a playful major scale jam. Now I was out at sea, sailing the Bay on a sunny vernal day. Finally, it devolved into a warm and fuzzy kind of jam with some squelchy licks from Trey before what seemed like an early cool down into “Lonely Trip.” A fantastic Tweezer to be sure, and although shorter than the Greezer a couple years earlier, this one did more for me, being more interesting and less meandering.

I like Phish ballads, both new and old. I thought about my special lady during this "Lonely Trip" (unfortunately she couldn’t hit the mid-week shows because of work), as she really loves Lonely Trip. It’s fun for me as an old head to see someone you love get into Phish for the first time. It gives me the opportunity to view the band through a new set of eyes. And in that respect, everything seems new and fresh to me. I ate a piece of candy. It tasted extra sweet.

What followed seemed like an obligatory BG “Crosseyed & Painless.” How many times have they played it here? I’m not sure, but collectively we all felt it coming. The crowd, who’d been dancing hard all night, seemed to shift up a gear as we got our first clavinet action of the night from Page. Kuroda’s rig reached a psychedelic AF peak somewhere in here. My consciousness became the instrument and my life the melody with the clear light of absolute reality. Cluster bombed rainbows followed. And then finally diamond luminosity. Trey did some callback riffing from the Tweezer jam before launching back into the stratosphere. Then landing in a whimsical little jam, I found myself hypnotized. Lost in the sauce.

“Pillow Jets” followed. In a year since its debut at Sphere, I’ve gone from “What the fuck is this shit?” to “Hell fucking yeah, Pillow Jets!”. Something Phish seems to be particularly good at doing to me. I loved the crunky jam with some bending effects coming out of Mar Mar. As an aside, could some nerd out there come up with a formula to calculate how many shows a person has seen on which of Trey’s guitars? Inquiring minds like myself would love to know. Please and thanks.

And finally, we hear the opening notes to “You Enjoy Myself”, again appearing in my favorite slot as the 2nd set closer. I think the call solidified the show as bonafide banger. I’m always happy to hear our cult’s national anthem. The band was ready to rock before the trampoline fetchers made it off stage. At this point I was kind of tired of taking notes and had to dance that shit off. In short: it rocked. Some “Boogie On” teases from Mike in his bass breakdown and an above average vocal jam. As Larry David might say, pretty, pretty, pretty good.

A perfect encore of “Wading in the Velvet Sea” followed by a surprise “First Tube”, eschewing the “Tweeprise“ we all thought was coming. Saving it for The Bowl perhaps?

Did I get my bust-out show? No. Am I mad about it? Hell no! Rarely am I right about these sorts of things. I’m just your average overly speculative phan. The band always seems to take my expectations and turn them on their ear. I think it’s not hyperbole to say that after a great tour so far, these were the best shows yet. I’ll see you at the Hollywood Bowl!

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