3rd night... after banging Night 2 not sure what to expect.. but was not expecting that Fuego to come out and just punch ya... First off, not a big Sigma Oasis fan, but that jam is making me rethink my previous opinions. Lizards had everyone up and dancing, Day in Life was a great 45k people sign along.. and then... that Fuego. Yeah, some may say, "Its Fugeo" but this one just continues to tickle that spot in my brain.. and to follow that up with the rest of that second set (with Fuego up into Everythings right) .. dang. ... was it the best of the 3 nights.. nah, night 2 was the best of the 3 but this one holds its own... thats for damn sure... and Hood def made me feel good. ( hopefully back to dicks next year though.... )

How on God's green earth does this Piper - this majestic, beautiful, syrupy, balls-to-the-wall Piper - not qualify for the jam charts? It's got legs, momentum. It goes! Seriously, how is it not on the jam chart? Especially with that picture perfect segue into A Day In the Life? It's a criminal oversight! A travesty!

Decent SBD source until Stash. From there, the quality drops and stays that way for the rest of the show. Things kick off with a well-played Wilson, followed by a hypnotic Jim. Foam is beautiful. Trey takes the audience on a journey through time and space for the first time before landing in Gamehendge—solid Forbin>Mockingbird! Stash fades out at the end and cuts, with the sound degrading during the jam and continuing after the tape flip until the end of the set. A solid Antelope closes out set one. Trey teases the Christmas Song before and during this inspired Buried Alive opener, which slams right into a beautiful Reba. Chalk Dust rips per usual. Brother is raucous, Terrapin is fun, and Harpua starts and fades out, then restarts cleanly with no cuts—a nice way to close the last set of the tour. During the encore, Trey jokes that aside from New Years, this will be the last show for the next three months. Since it’s the last show, they decide to give away the tramps, and he even jokes that they’re giving away Fish as well. Unfortunately, the encore cuts before any music is played.

This show is, IMO, wildly underrated. One of the best SOAMelts I've encountered provides the big jam in Set I, but the whole dang set is played well - there's a 12-minute Maze here that's electric, the opening Possum kicks much ass, and I'm grateful for any version of Meat that exists (I love this tune) But that Set II is just incredible. Maybe this show isn't as well-regarded as others from 1998 because of the relatively short length of these sets, but it's hard to deny how gorgeous the Simple ends up becoming. I could rave for hours about this Simple jam. I feel like it's the purest expression of what Phish seemed to be getting after in the best jams from this career-pinnacle year of 1998. The patience and delicacy the band plays with here would have been unimaginable just a few years before this. 1998 is often characterized as the year they introduced "ambient" jamming, but not every show from this year features a jam that can be called "ambient:" this one does, but I'd also argue that the jam is so compelling that it doesn't recede into the background like textbook-definition Eno-derived "ambient" music is meant to. Instead it commands the listener to follow closely to hear the intricacy of the interplay The Caspian jam is also stellar, if of a completely different character as the Simple jam. It starts with Fishman on vacuum. and the jam explores a calm and almost eerie zone before launching into a perfectly played and placed Fluffhead. This three-song combo at the heart of the show stands head and shoulders over many centerpiece jams this year, but I rarely hear much chatter about it. The HYHU>Bike>HYHU is a nice change of pace after so much serious jamming, and the Hood is its usual beautiful self It's downright lame IMO that there are only a couple of fan reviews of this show; I feel like it should be rated higher and people should really dig into that Simple>Caspian>Fluffhead sequence next time they're under any form of "enhancement." It will not let you down!

Decent SBD source available for this show. Page is prominent in the mix. Fun soundcheck at this show. The bands banter surrounding Memories is hilarious. They play Dog Log for Paul but Trey makes it clear throughout the song that they’re playing it for Marley. The end turns into “where’s Holdsworth gone?” “Jesus!” lol Nice blues jam. Trey takes a nice solo during Makisupa. Memories is missing from the tape. The recording starts off with a nice Foam/Reba pairing to open. Guelah cuts at the start of the Asse Festival section. Apparently, Trey’s guitar was messed up so they aborted Guelah. I Didn’t Know ends the first set due to technical issues. Set 1 clocks in around 40 minutes. Set two opens with It’s Ice in its first-ever slot as a set opener. YEM includes a couple of cheeky Alligator nods in the composed section (likely from Mike) and settles into a relaxed, enjoyable version. Sky is blazing hot. There’s a tape flip following Sky. Tela is clipped at the start and the recording quality dips. Llama rips as hard as ever. Before launching into Whipping Post, Fish quips “this is a crowd that deserves to be punished,” and he absolutely howls his way through the tune like he’s strapped to the post himself. At one point he even tells Trey he thinks he broke something on his guitar. The energy carries straight into a very playful Possum, punctuated by shouts of “Wait!”—the Middlebury crowd showing a lot more patience than Boulder ever did. Sadly, the recording cuts about four and a half minutes in. The sound bounces back for the encore, starting with a gorgeous Lawn Boy that features Trey teasing The Christmas Song in a nod to the season. A fiery Rocky Top closes the night on a high. This would make an excellent archival release, especially since the band has the master tapes in the vault. An uncut Possum alone would be worth the price of admission.

Responding to @educatefright and @Mrpalmers1000DollarQ's initial comments, I'm certain this show was selected for an archival release because there wasn't (and still isn't) a circluating AUD recording, similar to the justification for the archival release of 3/8/93 Santa Fe. I agree that there are other shows more worthy of archival release, even from this tour, but it's still nice for the band to fill in this gap in their recorded history. Weekapaug Groove sounds like it was another one of those "you had to be there" moments that doesn't translate well on the recording, particularly when Trey's guitar signal keeps cutting out, apparently due to a faulty connection with his wireless rig while he was rollerblading on the gym floor. For me, the clear highlight is the David Bowie w/ Baby Elephant Walk in the intro. This Bowie was featured on the IT From The Archives show from 8/2/03, which implies Kevin Shapiro already had this show in mind for an Archival release back then :)

Decent SBD source for this show with a healthy amount of bass in the mix. :) The tape kicks off with the soundcheck. Shaggy Dog is playful, complete with some alligator/crocodile silliness, before cutting about a minute in. It picks back up with what sounds like a Shaggy Dog jam. Page asks Fish to drop into the Cavern drumbeat, which launches the band into a fun little blues jam. Golgi, which had closed out four of the last shows, flips the script tonight by opening the set. Melt gets a nice jam, Fluffhead is spot on, and after a tape flip Llama comes in blazing. Gin holds strong, Ice has a cool middle section, and Possum closes the first frame in fairly straightforward but spirited fashion. Set two kicks off with a standard but always infectious Tweezer. Foam is a highlight with an inspired ending, followed by a sharp Mike’s that finds Cactus teasing Rapper’s Delight. Groove absolutely rips! “Make!!” There’s a tape flip after Fee. The opening of Sloth is clipped and the sound quality dips for a bit, with another splice after Coil, but luckily no music is lost. I Didn’t Know is especially fun, and the playfulness carries into MSO with a little Barracuda tease. About a minute into MSO the sound clears back up. Tweezer Reprise caps a lively set. Before the encore, Mike says something during Glide that sounds like “ten,” though it’s hard to tell. Cavern follows and closes the night on a high note. Side note: this second set was one of my very first cassette boots back in the day. Always a trip revisiting sets I haven’t spun in 30+ years. lol

Not the best audience source for this show—pretty muddy overall. Llama kicks things off, and a solid Reba follows. Smokin’ Jim. Cavern has had some inspired intros the last couple of shows, and this one keeps that streak alive. Brother is strong, and the end of Coil fades for a tape flip. The start of DaaM is cropped. Bouncin’ melts seamlessly into Bowie. Really nice version to close out set one. Set two opens with MSO. Like in Port Chester, the band stretches the pause at the end again. Trey’s solo in Stash is en fuego, and Groove absolutely rips. Tape flip after Groove. The start of Sparkle is clipped. Trey fires off another nice solo in Chalk Dust. “Put your hands together and keep them together for Henrietta!” lol. An inspired Love You follows, with Trey and Page getting introductions from Henrietta. Golgi closes the second set for the third time in a row. Suzy in the encore slot is sharp and well played.

August 18th, 2024 was the ultimate day of Phish’s ultimate festival (as of this writing), which they had called Mondegreen. For those that require it, Merriam-Webster gives us the following definition: mon·de·green: a word or phrase that results from a mishearing* especially of something recited or sung. And for those that assume that I’m implying that this was the bestest set of Phish most awesomest festival, well, perhaps Merriam-Webster could help out once again: ul·ti·mate: last in a progression or series: final In the end there wasn’t anything very “mondegreen” about Mondegreen and I doubt there will actually be anything “final” about Mondegreen either, except maybe/hopefully the use of the NASCAR track in Dover, Delaware for a Phish festival. Not that there was really anything wrong with the Woodlands (as the site is called). but there wasn’t a whole lot right about the Woodlands either. It was neither picturesque nor conveniently located nor overly user-friendly, plus did I mention it was in Delaware? I mean, c’mon now. Oh wait, I just thought of something wrong about holding your festival in Dover, Delaware: Pardon me for casting such a large foreshadow, but the area has a high propensity for major lightning storms. More on that soon. So anyway, when m’lady and I crawled out of our tent on that Sunday morn we joined our crew (which included our ride) in making a plan for the evening. Unfortunately our Plan A – which included raging out to two crazy sets of festival Phish before post-partying it up one last time with countless lifelong friends and brand-new companions – had succumbed to an ominous weather report that predicted a dire electrical storm would reign down upon our precise locale beginning at 8pm. Plan B had been twitted out by the band the night before. Well, their Plan B anyways: the band would now be going on at the unToddly hour of 1pm and everyone was being encouraged to bug out of the campgrounds immediately after the show. That last part wasn’t a full-on directive though – campers were free to throw their own particular cautions to the gusting, electrical winds and stay for the night if they wanted to – hence our crew’s morning discussion. We ultimately (see?) decided to cling to as much of Plan A as we could and stay the night, though we spent most of our truncated pre-show day packing up the loosest ends of our camp and battening down the first few hatches. Then it was off to the festival site, which was muggy and disgruntled. The band did indeed go on at 1pm, where they delivered a set clearly lacking in energy or any meaningful light show. Party Time my butt. And nary a nod to the whole mondegreen thing either. By the time [i]Bathtub Gin [/i]came around it was starting to hit home that not only had the band dragged our sorry butts away from our campsite decompression sessions for an early-afternoon matinee show, but that it was going to be an unannounced one-setter too. And not in a good way. Get this: They closed the set with [i]Golden Age[/i] and encored – that is, closed the whole festival – with [i]Fuego[/i]. Need I say more? Okay, I will: After the music was done it did indeed do some raining, but during what would have been show time (ie 8pm-midnight) we sat at our camp and watched a brilliant and constant display of lightning flashes all around us, several miles away. Truthfully, it was like we were in some sort of lightning no-go zone, and had the concert gone ahead as planned tens of thousands of us would have revelled in the miraculous bubble of good vibes that surrounded us and protected us as we got down to one of the coolest bands in the world. Instead, we sat in the remains of a mostly-packed camp aside a lethargic stream of fully-loaded and steadily-idling cars that snaked along every makeshift road in the ever-vacated campground and tried to give away our excess beer. The next morning we dismantled our bone-dry tents and bugged out of the campsite early enough to catch the breakfast menu at a diner forty-five minutes down the road. After that we tucked in and floored it back to Jersey where our friend Christina drove m’lady and I straight to EWR. We dashed into the terminal and found out in short order that our flight had been cancelled. What we didn’t know is that when the argumentative agent rebooked us (and insisted on charging us $80 for our luggage when our ticket clearly stated that luggage was free) she only booked us as far as Halifax. She forgot – or just didn’t bother – to book us on a connection from Halifax to our penultimate** destination of St. John’s, so when we landed in Halifax as far as the airline was concerned we had arrived where we were going. We hadn’t, of course. We finally convinced the agent to book us on a flight to Newfoundland, but we couldn’t convince her to get us on a flight that evening, as there were none. This fact also helped the agent convince herself that the airline shouldn’t book us a hotel, so they didn’t. By this time it was pretty late, maybe ten or eleven o’clock, so we found some airport bench space, pulled out our sleeping bags and inflatable pillows and got as much sleep as we could, which wasn’t a whole lot. Ultimately, was it worth it? Ask me on my deathbed. (Actually, you’d probably be better off asking for the password to my air miles account. You can’t take ’em with you.) *Is there a word for mishread words? **Look it up. https://toddmanout.com/

Nice crispy dSBD available for this show. Big Phil caught a portion of set 2 on video from the pit. The show opens with Glide, setting the tone right away. Llama rips per usual. Foam is a little shaky during some composed parts but has a nice solo from Trey. After Sky Fish wishes everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. Always a great time to catch a Phish show in the NorthEast. Solid Brother. The YEM set closer is great! Not as inspired as the last version in Hanover but top notch nonetheless. A rippin’ little Chalk Dust starts set 2. Uncle Pen starts off a little shaky. Beautiful Hood. Nice It’s Ice jam. Leon Russell takes a nice solo in MSO. The band extends the pause at the end of MSO for the first time. Saleem Javed pulls out his bone for I Didn’t Know. Solid Antelope, even though the drop into the Marco section is a bit off. Inspired version of Golgi to close the set. They encore with playful renditions of Contact and Rocky Top.

Two months later I still have Egg In A Hole stuck in my head. Outside the venue after the show my friend that got me into Phish turned to me and said "thoughts?", and I responded with "that was a perfect show". After listening to the entire show again I can say I stand by that assessment. Consistently amazing throughout. I was happy to catch Fast Enough For You, even though it had me borderline crying. Pebbles>My Friend>Egg In A Hole was the highlight of the show in my opinion, evil Phish is just the best. The set 2 Tweezfest was as good as it gets. They really bring it when they play New England and this show is no exception. I feel blessed that I had an amazing seat all 3 nights, and the venue was less than an hour from my house. It may not have the most memorable jam of the summer, but I think overall it was the best show of summer tour. If Phish has a New England show toward the beginning of summer tour, GO TO THAT SHOW. It'll be the best show of the tour and then get overlooked because there's still so much summer tour left. The first night of Bangor 2019 was incredible, Bangor 2022 was nuts and had the best DWD of all time imo, and then this 3 night run.

August 17th, 2024 was day three of Mondegreen, Phish's eleventh-ish* self-curated music festival and the first one to occur in Dover, Delaware. It had rained hard during the early morning hours but I had remained comfortable, balanced sleepily upon my new fancy-pants air mattress inside my equally new, equally fancy-pants big-and-domey blackout tent. The huge cardboard city hall that was being constructed over the course of the weekend did not, however, fare the downpour nearly as well. My crew and I quit our campsite early so we could spend the day exploring the concert site, and the omission of the impressive corrugated paper and masking tape creation was the first thing we saw (or didn't see, I suppose). I'm glad I'd had a small hand in building it back on night one. There were, however, several other objects of curiosity scattered throughout the site, and we checked 'em all out. We surveyed the site from the raised platform of the Helio, a two-story structure that served as the centrepiece of the concert pitch, we bought lunch in the farmers market, we checked out a very cool 20' replica of the moon that hung in a forest clearing, we tapped on the glass as Ari Fink broadcast live from inside the siriusxm trailer, and similarly lackadaised ourselves around until showtime. By the time the show started my entire extended crew had congealed just ahead of and to the right of the the Helio, nearly the same vantage point as I'd had the night before and a great-sounding place to watch the show from. And it was a really good show too, if maybe a little standard. But really, I'm probably a poor judge of the last half of the show, for it was sometime during the second set that m'lady went on a bathroom run and never returned. After a song or two I started keeping my eye out for her and after another song or two I raised both of my arms in the air and kept them there, waving them slowly and hoping that if m'lady was lost that she'd soon find us. Well, she was and she didn't. I knew she was okay but I was still worried. I tried to convince myself that she had run into friends - which was extremely plausible - but I told everyone to watch out for her and I kept my damn arms raised high in the air, ever-waving. I wanted to go looking for her and did do a couple of quick circles around the immediate area, but I figured staying put and waving my arms in order to make our large crew even more visible was the best gambit. Oh yes...all the while my friend Linda was having a bit of an episode, one which left her mostly uncommunicative and balled up in the fetal position, laying at our feet. Lots and lots of people came over to ask about her - Phish fans have tons of empathy - but she was mostly fine, just being weird. So we tightened up our group so that people couldn't see her and kept on grooving. If I recall correctly Mike took her back to their glamping tent at some point midshow. But back to me with my arms in the air, trying my best to simultaneously dance away to [i]Tweezer [/i]and [i]Boogie On Reggae Woman[/i]. By the time the band tore into [i]You Enjoy Myself[/i] during the encore I had abandoned any hope that she had simply found other friends. She was almost certainly lost and I was too distracted to pay attention to one of my favourite Phish songs. After the [i]Tweezer Reprise[/i] set closer we all posed for a group shot. You can see me in the back with my arms dutifully raised, a concerned look stuck on my face. "What do you guys want to do?" "Let's go grab a drink somewhere!" "We were thinking of heading back to the campsite..." "I'm not going anywhere until m'lady gets back," I announced, my arms still up. Several people agreed to stay with me, and a few moments later m'lady appeared. She had indeed been lost and had spent the entire time circling the crowd about twenty metres away from us with mounting frustration. She'd not had a great set. Nor had I but I tried not to let her know that. I know what you're thinking, but I still think life is better without a cellphone. *It's not that I don't know how many festivals Phish has hosted, it's more that some people count some things as festivals that weren't, and vice-versa. Let's just say that the true number of Phish festivals is a matter of opinion. https://toddmanout.com/

Decent audience recording for this show. The beginning of Sloth is clipped. Stash is well played. There’s a tape flip after Sparkle, and the start of It’s Ice is cut. Sulu pulls out his bone for I Didn’t Know. During Bowie’s hi-hat hijinks, Trey notes that the crew will finally get to sleep in their own beds for the first time in nine weeks. He then presents Paul, Chris, Pete, and Andrew with monogrammed bathrobes in appreciation of their hard work on tour. The rest of the Bowie intro features secret language and bathrobe banter before settling into a nice version to close out set one. Overall, a fairly standard first set for this tour. Set two opens with another Tube, but instead of heading into MSO, the band launches into a beautifully inspired Divided Sky. Afterward, they pause while Fish pulls a splinter from his finger (“at least it shows he was working hard during that last tune!”). Cavern gets a fun intro, Chalk Dust rips, and A-Train is especially strong. YEM is pure bliss, gorgeous from top to bottom, and a playful Golgi caps off a rock-solid set. The encore is missing from the tape.

On Elvis Day*, 2024 I woke up in a field of tents in Dover, Delaware. All things considered I’d had an excellent rest, due in no small part to my brand-spanking new blackout tent and even newer ultra-comfy air mattress sleeping pad thingy, not to mention the general fatigue that is part-and-parcel to any Phish festival. Even when you’re camped in the “upscale” Glen Close VIP camping section which, as I’ve mentioned elsewhere, was not very VIP at all**. I mean sure, there were nice non-porto-potty bathrooms and trailers full of relatively clean shower stalls, but these amenities were surprisingly far from our campsite. So much so that when I finally did emerge from my slumber all I could think about was how happy I was that I’d made it through the night without having to get up and skip to the loo. Of course as soon as I stepped out of my tent I bee-lined there, but I had the foresight to bring my shower kit with me so I could get ‘er all done in one trip. Purged and cleansed, I hunkered down with my crew (both old and new) in our sprawling campsite for what proved to be a very hot day and tried to move as little as possible. It was good. And y’know what else was good? Phish. Phish was also good. I spent the show beside the Helio, which was a two-storey building/installation replete with Vegas-style lighting that offered an elevated view of the concert pitch. It was pretty cool and surprisingly roomy up there, but given the option I’ll usually stick to the dirt in a concert situation. Beside and slightly in front of the Helio was a pretty sweet spot because it was basically dead-centre to the stage and I couldn’t see the rather distracting flashing lights of the Helio behind me. And like I mentioned, when the band came out they were on fire. The first set opened with [i]Bouncing Around the Room[/i] and included [i]Peaches en Regalia[/i], [i]Divided Sky[/i], and [i]Reba[/i]. I can’t remember the last time I saw them play [i]Peaches[/i] and it’s been a lot of shows since I’ve heard them close a first set with one of their standard show-closers, [i]Character Zero[/i]. (And my goodness the sound was so great where I was standing. So much better than the spot I’d had on the previous night, where two delayed speaker towers battled for my aural attention all night. It’s truly amazing how good outdoor concerts can sound nowadays.) Things just kept getting better after the setbreak. The band went full-on psychedelic starting with the set-opening [i]My Friend, My Friend[/i] – which is one I always, always love to hear – and things just kept getting trippier and trippier right through to the [i]Harry Hood[/i]>[i]First Tube[/i] encore (again, two songs that I never tire of hearing). Ah, it was such great music, and with a huge special mention to Mike Gordon; to my ears his bass playing ruled the day, no question. Just behind the Helio stood a line of tall trees, and suspended high up in these trees were a bunch of large inflatable eyeballs. This was one of a handful of added touches that helped to elevate the festival experience. I thought those eyeballs were a kick and giggling about them helped me kill time waiting for the super-not-secret secret set. Y’see, Phish festivals always include a “secret” late night improv set at some point throughout the weekend but everyone is aware of this so it’s hardly secret at all. The only questions are generally: which night and where on the site? But this one was extra not secret because during the show Trey told the crowd to stick around because they would be playing a late night extra improv set on the stage afterwards. Talk about blowing the surprise. Also no surprise: the secret-not-secret set was awesome. I suspect that I like ambient improvised music as much – if not significantly more – as the next guy, and this is exactly what we got for a solid late-night hour, as a very warmed-up Phish eschewed song and form and simply bled sound from behind a curtain/screen that sheltered the band from the view of the audience and added a punchline to the end, when the date and the word “PLAY” appeared as if we had all been watching a videocassette play out on the huge screen. It was amazing. It was all amazing. Then we all walked to a thousand campsites and partied until we couldn’t anymore. *August 16th. **That said, over the entire weekend I never once stepped foot in the regular campground which, if the VIP campground could be used as a measuring stick, must have been a crater-ridden stinking wasteland susceptible to roaming groups of rabid racoons and any number of other loathsome thieves and/or vicious marauders. https://toddmanout.com/

Nice audience recording for this show, though the levels run a bit hot in set two, giving it a slightly over-saturated sound. The night kicks off with fiery takes on Llama, Reba, Foam, and Jim. There’s a tape flip after Sparkle, and a bit of banter is missing before Chalk Dust. The recording picks back up as Trey is acknowledging the crew of four—Paul, Chris, Pete, and Andrew. Brother absolutely rips, and a standard Golgi wraps up the first set. Set two opens with Curtain into Mike’s Groove. It’s a solid Groove, but more straightforward compared to the adventurous one from Somerville. Tweezer follows suit—tight but in the pocket for this tour. After Eliza, Trey shares that he wrote it for his girlfriend in attendance, Susan Eliza Statesir. There’s another tape flip here, but no music is lost. Fish introduces the band members during Love You. For the encore, Grippo joins in, adding his touch to Jesus Left and an energetic BBFCFM. As the crowd files out, Paul spins Captain Beefheart’s Tropical Hotdog Night as the walkout music.

On August 15th, 2024 I woke up on a pullout couch in a basement in New Jersey. It was early, like 5am, and already there was plenty of bustle coming from the other side of the fuzzy ceiling, where a half-dozen longtime tour veterans were putting the finishing touches on yesterday’s packing job. I brushed my teeth, filled a proffered travel mug with coffee, and helped with the last of the beer coolers. By 6am we had cleared out the ice fridge at the local 7-11 (eleven bags at $3.49 per) and were aimed at the highway. M’lady and I rode with Christina at the wheel, and together we led our three-car caravan on a steady and nonstop 80mph straight shot to a Wawa petrol mart just short of the venue, where we arrived precisely on time for our 8:30am meetup with Tina and Jeff. From there we were four cars continuing on for another half-hour to the Dover Motor Speedway in Delaware. We were all headed to the VIP camping section so Tina took the lead, claiming that she knew of a secret backdoor entrance that would get us there without the lines. She led us several exits beyond the large and obvious turnoff for the VIP section, taking us on a wholly unnecessary diversion that proved to be nothing but folly. We finally turned around and backtracked to the regular entrance, after which we all made it in in no time. Tina had a friend who was part of a crew of fifteen or so, and they had been saving us a spot. We found it, made introductions all around and got to work setting up our home base for a weekend of Phish. Actually, while everyone else was starting to unpack, the first thing I did was walk back to pick up a coffee cup that I had tried (and failed) to basket into a garbage can from the car just before we’d parked. By the time I got there I was happy to see that the cup had already been picked up – you gotta love these Phishy hippie folks – so I turned on my sandalled heels to rush back to camp. As I was rushing along I damn near stepped on a large black snake that was coiled up in front of a neighbouring campsite. “Jesus!” I yelped, jumping sideways. A bunch of guys sitting in a line of camp chairs started laughing and guffawing; it was a rubber snake. “Geez guys, you’re gonna give someone a heart attack,” I said as I stumbled along my way. My comment only solicited more laughter. I passed by the site a while later and they were still at it. By this time they had tied a string around the snake so they could make the it move and really scare people. There were six of them sitting in chairs set up in a row, an actual peanut gallery created specifically to frighten people and laugh at them. I got pretty miffed, and every minute I stood and watched only made me miffier. I went back to have a beer with my friends. A while later m’lady returned to camp from a run to the showers. “Those guys with the snake made it jump at me and they were laughing their heads off.” “That’s it,” I said, leaping to my feet. “I’m going to talk to those guys.” I was seething. “You’re not really?” someone in our crew asked. I turned with a start. “Those dudes are sitting there purposely trying to scare people just so they can laugh in their faces. It’s nothing but a bad vibe, and somebody’s got to talk to them.” I stormed away from camp before anyone could try to stop me. I was stomping my feet as I walked over there. I’m sure Fred Flintstone’s angry trombone was following me every step of the way. When I got to their campsite one of the dudes was talking to a passerby. I interrupted. “I’m asking you to put away the snake,” I said, though I don’t suspect that I sounded like I was asking. “What?” the guy said, cocking his head at me. “I said I’m asking you to put away the snake,” I repeated firmly. “Where do you want me to put it?” the guy replied with a goading smile creeping onto his face. “Put it somewhere where people can’t see it,” I replied, resisting the bait. “Somewhere where it won’t keep scaring people.” “Oh, f*** off!” dude said, dismissing me and turning away. Over the next few days I imagined going at the guy while he was stuck squatting in that chair a thousand times or more. I wanted to so badly. Instead, I tried one more stab at reason. “Listen guys,” I pleaded to the lot of of them, “People around here are about to start doing some crazy weird drugs and this could really freak some people out…” Dude’s buddy started to interrupt me but I interrupted him back. “Come on now, you’re sitting there purposely scaring people and then openly laughing at them. If you look in the dictionary under “a**hole” that’s exactly what it describes.” First dude stood up and started towards me. “Get the f*** off my campsite you **********!” I did. I really should have punched him hard in the throat. It obviously wouldn’t have gone well for me against the six of them; probably would’ve stopped my weekend dead in its tracks and m’lady’s too, so I’m glad I didn’t. But I wish I did. Dreamed I did, a hundred times over. But I just walked back to my campsite and tried hard and unsuccessfully to shrug it off. I will say that I never saw the snake again and I’ll add that I was rather ashamed at how much I let the whole scenario bother me over the next few days. It was close to the front of my mind for pretty much the entirety of the evening’s show and it lingered for much of the weekend, to diminishing degrees. After all this hubbub I took a shower. I found the bathrooms pretty nice for festy bathrooms, but overall Glen Close (as Phish has long called their festival VIP section) didn’t feel very VIP-y. The “concierge” was just a local teenaged volunteer sitting next to a self-serve basket full of mini soaps and other toiletries. There was no welcome gift, all the sites were packed in super-tight, and I was quite shocked that there was no wifi anywhere in the VIP campground. Especially given that the sitemap was an app. Eventually showtime loomed and our little crew from New Jersey walked to the gate, got our bracelets scanned and went in. The site was pretty great. It was certainly nice and big and it was completely level, with nothing but clear sightlines from every imaginable vantage point. The most prominent feature on the concert pitch was a massive, multi-storeyed cardboard “City Hall” that was being hand-constructed by the onsite artists utilizing the muscle-power of we Phish fans. As we were admiring the structure the crew put out a call for help to add another level to the structure, so about a hundred of us straddled the corrugated paper building and after a guy with a megaphone called out “1…2…3…LIFT!” we all lifted. I was surprised how heavy it was, but after all it was a three-storey building! We collectively lifted it about three feet and held City Hall aloft while a level of cardboard pillars were quickly taped into place underneath. That was pretty cool. I was hoping it would get lifted again later on so I could see it happen from afar, but no…this proved to be the final tier. The heavy rains that would fall on Saturday morning destroyed the whole thing. Our crew shifted, split, rejoined, grew, dwindled, and reformed until a bunch of us finally parked ourselves a ways back on Page side, halfway between the 2nd and 3rd speaker poles. I was a pretty good spot, close enough to the stage without being close enough to be crowded. In short order the band came out and started with [i]Moma Dance[/i], one of their obvious mondegreeners. “Wait…what? Mondegreeners?!?” you ask. Yes, mondegreeners. Y’see, the festival itself (Phish’s eleventh*) was entitled “Mondegreen”, which (apparently) is a term for misheard lyrics. Like m’lady thinking for years that the line was [i]“Gimme the Beach Boys to free my soul, I wanna get lost in your rock and roll, and drift away…”[/i] So yeah, mondegreen. Like hearing [i]The Moma Dance[/i] as “the moment ends” or hearing [i]Halley’s Comet[/i] as “Hell is coming”. Or hearing “wash an Uffizi and drive me to Firenze” as, well, almost anything but that. Phish writes mondegreens into their lyrics all the time. (Astoundingly, that [i]Moma Dance[/i] opener would prove to be the only tip of the hat to the world of misheard lyrics over the span of the entire festival. After a soundcheck riddled with snippets of cover songs like [i]Day Tripper[/i], [i]Midnight Rider[/i], and even [i]Stairway to Heaven[/i] I was thinking the band was bound to give us a medley of covers with comical near-lyrics or some such musical treat but alas, ’twas not to be.) We were positioned so evenly between the two speaker towers that by the third song I found the slapback effect between our speaker and the delayed speaker column behind me impossible to ignore. The sonic disappointment was exacerbated by my snake-distracted mind and a quickly increasing weariness that made this not the greatest Phish set ever for me. Good songs were played well by a good band, but from where I was standing there was nothing earth-shaking and little to write home about (despite what you may have read). When I replied thusly to my campmate Bones the next morning upon his inquiry on my opinion of the show he responded by pointing out that I’m generally rather critical in the first place. I had no idea he knew me so well. By the time the show ended I couldn’t get back to my tent and into my sleeping bag quick enough, but I sure did try. The combination of time change/jet lag exhaustion plus a new blackout tent and high-class super-comfy air mattress pads helped me sleep pretty great, though when consciousness finally started seeping back to my psyche it was immediately tainted with thoughts of those freakin’ dudes and that damn snake of theirs. Clearly I was going to have to get over it if I was going to enjoy the rest of the festival. Spoiler alert: I mostly did. *Turns out this is a bit of a controversy. Was Amy’s Farm – where Phish played for a camping crowd of a few hundred folks back in the band’s early, early days – a Phish festival? Probably not. Was Oswego – which wasn’t billed as a festival and came uncharacteristically in the middle of summer tour – a festival? Probably (it had a name after all, even if the name was just “Camp Oswego”). Was Coventry a festival? No name, not much to celebrate…but yes, Coventry was definitely a festival, though one that many would prefer to forget. How about Curveball? Definitely a festival, but it was cancelled before a note had been played. Here’s a list; you decide: Amy’s Farm (1991), The Clifford Ball (1996), The Great Went (1997), Lemonwheel (1998), Camp Oswego (1999), Big Cypress (1999/2000), It (2003), Coventry (2004), Festival 8 (2009), Superball (2011), Magnaball (2015), Curveball (2018; cancelled), Mondegreen (2024) https://toddmanout.com/

I am finally reviewing this show on the ol' .NET after listening to it again today while it is fresh. First of all, great show! I remember it was a really high energy way to start the weekend, and I was very happy with their song selections (I have been chasing a MFMF and a Stash forever), and I really liked the MFMF jam into Brian & Robert. Was a very sweet way to cool down. Probably my favorite Cities I have seen yet as well. Second set was interesting and had some unique jams, especially the Ghost to Limb by Limb. Trey's blues solo during GTBT was awesome as well. But it was really the encore that sold it for me. I LOVE Contact and have been wanting to see it my entire Phish career, and I was so happy that they played it. The Antelope was really phenomenal and they had great timing during the build-up and then into the reggae portion of the song. But my favorite thing about that encore that I just noticed, and I say this as someone who is a HUGE Blues Brothers fan, is that either Page or Fish played an audio clip of John Candy's line "Three orange whips!" from the Blues Brothers movie at the beginning of Contact. Not sure how I never caught it before, but it really made me giggle this morning and I had to share that with y'all.

Decent audience recording, with the expected boomy acoustics of a gymnasium. Big thanks to Dan Chapman for providing his tapes! A rippin’ Possum kicks things off, followed by a well-played Cavern. Brother is solid, though fairly straightforward for this tour. Another nice take on Foam, after which Mike swaps out a bass string while debuting a new dance step with Trey — giving everyone more for their entertainment dollar! An absolutely gorgeous Sky breaks the silence, leading into a nice Stash where a few people in the crowd start the Stash clap. Rocky Top makes for a fitting set closer. Set two launches with another Tube/MSO opener, followed by an inspired Landlady. Gin is solid and Antelope is pure tenacity from start to finish. Showboat Gertrude gives the crowd a taste of the vacuum in I Didn’t Know. Llama shreds as usual, and YEM delivers as a set closer. The VJ is especially fun tonight, and before the encore Trey jokes that now everyone can go home and describe that last thing to their friends. Glide and Suzy wrap up a thoroughly enjoyable show.

Ok, below 4 stars? That score is whack. Yes, it was definitely not Alpine night 3 by any means, but come on guys. Bag was great opener, awesome Funky Bitch, Blaze On into Ya Mar was super fun, and then the sequence of Sloth, FYF, and MFMF was awesome. Set two Runaway Jim -> Undermind is the hero of the show for me, and it also had my favorite Hood I've seen. Wish there had been at least a double-encore, but can't get that every night I get it. In summation, they played tight, had some great transitions, and had a few really beautiful jams. Show should definitely be at least four stars.

Decent SBD source for Set 1 with a good overall mix. Set 2 is a nice audience source, though there’s at least one cassette generation in the lineage. There’s a great pre-show interview with Trey by Mike Litwin available on YouTube that’s worth checking out. The evening kicks off with a run of songs Trey mentioned in his chat with Litwin. Solid Reba, a decent Melt, and an inspired Esther. The Groove set closer is absolutely fantastic! Right up there with the Tuscaloosa ‘paug as my favorite Groove up to this point. The Wilson > Hood pairing set the tone immediately. You can feel very good about this Hood. Well played versions of Ice and Mango (both also referenced in the interview) follow. Unfortunately, there’s a tape flip during the Tweezer jam, so it’s unclear how much music was lost—but what’s here is incredible. The segue into TMWSIY makes for the perfect landing pad, and a killer Jim wraps up a very strong second set. Before the encore, there’s a charity raffle (Turtle wins) Trey notes they’re glad to be back home after nine weeks on the road and that they’ll be heading home the following night. Despite calls for Sanity and Harpua, the band closes out the night with two a cappella numbers and Golgi.

Not the best audience source for this show. Things open with a rock-solid Buried Alive, followed by a straightforward but fun Possum. Stash is decent, and Bathtub Gin is well played. Page shines with a sweet solo in Coil, and Llama rips as expected. After Llama, Trey lets the crowd know they’ll play one more before set break, and mentions that there will be a special guest on guitar for the second set. A lively YEM closes the first set with an inspired jam, strong B&D, and an entertaining VJ. Straightforward start to the second half. Standard version of Antelope, and the mystery guest is revealed: Henrietta on guitar. lol They dust off Bike for the first time in a while, and Henrietta’s guitar solo is nothing short of… inspirational. Carl Gerhard jumps in for the Cavern set closer and sticks around for the encore. Magilla and Brother both get nice, well-executed readings to wrap up the night.

This is a five star show. Top 10 from 97 in my book with a foot in the top 5. Both sets are pure heat. The Drowned is perhaps the purest example of cow funk, though the second set Philly Jam after Possum has a word to say about that. The Bowie is a truly spectacular must-hear version that brings the type I fury only to release into a lovely major key jam. I give this show the nod over the powerhouse that came the night before.

This is a decent show but when you consider some of the gems of this year and era... it's underwhelming overall. Far from a bad time, but if I was only going to one show in 03 and it was this one i think ide feel a bit gipped Check out the Boogie -> Cities -> Maze and also a solid water in the sky + disease in the first frame

Excellent MCass audience source available for this show. Things kick off with an upbeat Uncle Pen hoedown, followed by a smooth and well-played Foam. A solid Jim comes next, after which Trey remarks how happy they are to be back on the East Coast. Chalk Dust gets a spunky workout before Trey calls on Henrietta while Mike changes a bass string. Fish jokes, “let’s get this vac shit out of the way!” — and I have to say, his vacuum solos have been pretty entertaining the past couple of shows. Before Wilson, Trey invites Wesley onstage to wish him a happy birthday. Over the Wilson intro, Trey also shares how glad he is to have two of his closest friends, Molly and Shawn, in attendance. Wilson leads seamlessly into a gorgeous Divided Sky to close the set. Set two opens, for the second night in a row, with Tube into MSO. A strong Mike’s Groove follows, featuring a fun Bewitched Bothered and Bewildered tease from Trey during Groove. Reba delivers a beautiful jam, and DaaM includes Slice of Pizza, Mrs. Pizza Shit, and counting. Bowie closes the set in ripping fashion, complete with a playful hi-hat hijinks section. Just like the opener, the encore is a repeat from the previous show. As the crowd exits, Paul cues up Miles Davis’ Freddie Freeloader for the walkout music.

Excellent MCass audience source for this show — big thanks to Steve Logan for making it available. Landlady kicks things off with plenty of energy. Trey drops a Mrs. Pizza Shit quote in Wilson before the blap boom section. Fluffhead is well played, and Foam feels like it has a little extra spring in its step. There are a few shaky spots, but overall it’s a strong version. Stash features the first audience clap response that I’ve noticed, with a decent jam section to boot. Mike shows off an interesting tone in Ya Mar that I haven’t heard before, and Cavern makes for an inspired closer to set one. Tube opens set two and rolls into MSO, with Trey again quoting Mrs. Pizza Shit. A lively Gin follows, after which Fish informs the crowd that Phish is no more and that the last song was performed by Mrs. Pizza Shit. Trey cracks jokes at Fish’s expense while he talks. Brother keeps the momentum going, also featuring a Mrs. Pizza Shit reference. Sadly, the banter between Brother and YEM is completely missing from Relisten’s source. YEM itself is an absolute groove-fest, highlighted by a fun Brady Bunch tease from Mike. The VJ contains more Mrs. Pizza Shit quotes and a William Tell Overture tease, though the ending is cut on the Relisten version — unsure if the original source is complete. Horn brings things down nicely, before a ripping Chalk Dust reignites the room. The HYHU intro is inspired, with Trey teasing Sanity but noting Fish doesn’t know the words. Terrapin and its vac solo are great fun. In Llama, Trey announces “The Master of Restraint” for Page’s solo, and Mike’s bass finally punches in, prompting the band to stop for a little Cactus solo. A solid closer for the second set. Paul plays some Bela Fleck & the Flecktones as walkout music after a Glide/Rocky Top encore. Strong show from start to finish.

Nice digital audience recording. The sound levels adjust for the better during Cavern, though there’s another shift during Poor Heart in set two. Big thanks to Eric McRoberts for getting this source into circulation! Fishman kicks off the evening by announcing that they’re no longer called Phish, they’re now going by Mrs. Pizza Shit, which sets a goofy tone for the night. A pretty straightforward Chalk Dust opens the show, with Trey slipping in a Mrs. Pizza Shit quote before the jam. Melt is well played, and another Rhombus narrative leads smoothly into a soaring Sky. At the end of the set-closing Golgi, Trey lets the crowd know that Mrs. Pizza Shit is going to take a break. Fish reintroduces Mrs. Pizza Shit to open the second set, and Trey keeps the theme going with more quotes in Llama. Poor Heart gets another shout-out from Fish, staying in character. This set is fairly straightforward for the tour, but a solid Hood stands out as the highlight. Trey drops a few more Mrs. Pizza Shit references during the extended intro. Henrietta, a founding member of Mrs. Pizza Shit, delivers an inspired vacuum solo in Love You. Before the tune, Fish explains why he’s not wearing his Zero Man costume—apparently, the last time they played Trax, a girl in the front row pointed out that his balls were visible. Now he refuses to wear the outfit without a jock strap. Classic Fish. A decent Possum wraps up the set.

Fantastic digital audience source for this show. The energy kicks off strong with Wilson. Trey rips a great solo in Llama, and Reba is played with precision. During Brother, Trey references Kristy and then dedicates the song to his sister, who was in the audience: “We were thinking of you the whole time we played that song,” he says, classic Trey. The set closes with a shred-heavy, high-octane Jim. Set two opens with an inspired DaaM. Roll Like a Cantaloupe is solid throughout, with Trey dropping a Smells Like Teen Spirit quote during the Rye Rye Rocco section. It’s Ice features a slick jam, and Glide makes a rare mid-second-set appearance. Tweezer absolutely smokes, with more Teen Spirit nods from Trey. A smooth A-Train follows, complete with Frosty the Snowman and We Wish You a Merry Christmas teases. During HYHU, Trey contributes the guitar part on both the intro and outro, adding a unique touch. The set wraps with Lizards into a spirited Tweezer Rep. A spectacular YEM anchors the encore, complete with Chicken Sandwich and Hamburger/Cheeseburger raps. A+ sound, A+ show.

This is the 2nd time I’ve traveled from my home in Alaska and got an Alaska! Haha, always fun, always get shout outs from my friends, like, yeah, Alaska, they played it for just me!!! 😂 Shout out to anybody else from AK in Chicago for our Alaska! Cheers! N3 on the floor, halfway between sound board and stage, sometimes having the close spot really is the icing on the cake. I love United Center. Easy access, great city, and brilliant sound. Might be my favorite indoor venue I’ve attended. So much to unpack but I will only highlight one: Twist. After a short standard start, they went right into bliss, and this is the kind of bliss I love. A jam that stays in your head long after the show has ended. A jam that becomes a part of the soundtrack to my life. A jam that becomes an instant classic in the moment, bliss, joy, happiness, all the feels. Because life is not bliss, joy, and happiness all the time. I’ve had to live in the opposite of that for some time now, but being able to hold the hard things in life, and at the same time being able to hold on to the good vibe and energy of this beautiful Twist jam, well, for me, that’s what life is all about. It’s the kind of moment that attaches to the soul at that time and travels on as a part of the fabric of who you are. I love it. I needed it. It’s mine now. Thank you Phish. I was able to go to the 3 Chicago shows and the following 2 Forest Hills, there were many magnificent moments, but for me, this brief time of Twist was the bliss I needed more then you will ever know.

Trey continues to shine bright. I watched the stream last night hoping he'd get a chance to light things up with his current awesomeness, and he did not disappoint. The Mission in the Rain was a heady song choice to cover with TAB. It's played so tastefully. He could have crushed it, but chose the high road and kept it tight. The band sounded fantastic. An emotional and beautiful performance. The real highlight for me was when he came out to start set 2. I was in Chicago for GD50, and the peak moment of the whole run was Scarlet - esp Trey's leadership during the bridge jam to FOTM. Sadly, Hornsby came in early with the vocals (which he went on to crush, mind you, just gorgeous), and Trey was forced to skip that beautiful last wah wah part of the intro to Fire because of it. There was a sigh from the crowd. Opportunity missed! Fear not, tho - Trey got another shot at it last night and closed the loop. And by the look on his face and gentleness with which he played those sweet notes, he knew it. You might also recall that at GD50, Bobby abruptly cut off the last jam spot in FOTM at the end of the song. They cleaned that up last night as well. Trey to the rescue! Each jam in Fire got the full treatment. It was a joy to behold. The interplay between Trey and Mayer is dreamy. Who is better at talking musically to another guitar god in these pairings than Trey? Johnny boy was blown away. I did not watch much else of GD60 as I have a hard time with the slow pace. I'd bet my money tho that along with Sturgill Simpson's breathtaking rendition of Morning Dew, Trey's energy, playing and mastery of the patient exploration and ability to "ring those lofty bells" is the shining highlight of the 3 day celebration. Soak it up phriends!

This show ABSOLUTELY needs to be released as a LivePhish archival release. So many tasty nuggets of mid-90s Phish. The Theme From the Bottom alone was of course in the Bonnaroo '09 From the Archives, but there needs to be a crisp(ier) SBD release for us all to feast upon. Kevin Shapiro: please make it so!