HOLY FUCKING SHIT. Three months later as I write this review (on 3/6/2026, the 17th anniversary of Phish returning after they said they'd never perform again), I'm still trying to comprehend what I saw on 12/31/2025 at MSG. Maybe one of the most incredible shows, spectacles, and combination of performance, presentation, and talent I've ever seen. Simply magical.... Our Portland, OR IRL non-Phish crew explored more of the city, catching drinks, top-tier food, and more initially in Brooklyn (Brooklyn Bridge, Dumbo, and the Transit Museum) and then moved more towards Chinatown (again, couldn't stay away) and then right before showtime had a drink at a speakeasy bullshit thing that after tip and tax, was $33 for my espresso martini. Lmao. Got there early for 12/31, as who wouldn't. Soaked it in and took a bunch of photos of the venue. I particularly enjoyed the 1994 Stanley Cup Finals section where the Rangers finally got over the hump in dramatic fashion over Vancouver. I couldn't help but think that this is what Phish is doing in their own way, but year after year. What a fucking show. Each set.. incredible. Not to step on the punchline here, but this is the best 12/31 show this side of the millennium. Usually, things get put on the backburner because of the shorter sets or because of the gag, but they figured out the formula here, even more so than last year (which was also mind-blowing). This is an unbelievable show. This was still such an incredible rush thinking about it now... they're playing so well, and it's a dream to see NYE in MSG... Special times are to await. Free opener, always love it. I like when they do Free first because it's a nod to the fact that there is a Free opening song on the YouTube stream. BOAF next is standard, and I love Bouncing Around The Room, always welcome to me. It was the first Phish song I ever heard and what got me into the band. I feel like during this show they wanted to make sure they played all of the songs that they wanted to play (you can interpret that however you like). Stash came next, and it was pretty good, and then Waste is always a nice tune. I was thinking, slowdown this early? But then my questions were answered immediately because it was to prepare for this must-hear, incredible My Friend, My Friend. This is an otherworldly version. Nice A Life Beyond the Dream next, I like that song. KDF was cool and I love More, that is a great energy building tune with a good message, it was fun to sing along at full blast to that one. Always happy to get Monsters, one of my favorite Trey ballads and he ripped a great vocal performance and solo. Great Life Saving Gun to close. I really appreciated the way this set sort of went from old school to new school in an arc. There hadn't been any hints or even red herrings of the NYE gag during the run, at least from what I can remember, so I was beside myself with enthusiasm as what was to come. Sometimes it is part of Set 3, sometimes it is part of Set 2. We will see, I suppose. Set 2 was another example of great cohesive play with the Sand > Fuego, which brought the place down, I fucking love a nice indoor Fuego. Great stuff. NMINML was quickly replaced by WGTYM - which I love that song so much, definitely one of the songs of the year and it just had to make an appearance here. YEM next was a hell of a surprise - mid set, I was intrigued. This was an incredible experience. I do not remember the Stayin Alive tease live, but that is so cool that it happened. I do remember so much energy in the arena and an extended jam. Looking back, it seems to be that they kind of performed a "full set" in the first three quarters of set 2 (ending with YEM) and then saved room for what would come next. At this time, looking from Section 208 (so stage left, from the right hand view) there was a guy who started ringing a bell after YEM. Everyone was on edge because this was unusual and definitely signaled the start of something. The lighting was heavily blue and they began It's Ice. My mind initially went to panic mode as to why they would want to start the gag with It's Ice while the extended ICE situation with the fascist police is happening in the country outside of the venue. But we took a step back and embraced the moment and waited to see what would happen. It wasn't a huge surprise that It's Ice came after the milkman dude was walking around. Nice version, my second ever. I haven't watched the video of the set so my memory may be a bit foggy on the exact nature of the gag, but it was mind-blowing. Next up was some funk with the milkman hitting the bell and some recognizable licks from Trey. Cue me screaming my head off once I realized what song it was (Cream). One of my all time favorite Prince songs and something that has been ingrained in my head for at least a decade. This was simply unbelievable - I've always wanted Phish to play new songs, to play Prince songs, to play more new covers, and then.. I get to be there at the debut of Cream. Holy shit. This was a lot of fun and I hope they play this again! I was belting out the lyrics and it was just an amazing time. Someone pointed out the Ice > Cream bit and it finally made sense. Incredible set and there was still another one to go! Ice > Cream... is Cameron Winter going to show up? Once we figured out the setbreak music was ice cream themed, that was just another fun layer of the gag. It remained to be seen if they would continue it, or if there would be something else for Set 3... Wild times. The molly that I was taking finally started to kick in and I was simply Enjoying Life. Harry Hood to start the set confirmed that things would be Hood/Ice Cream Themed and that was a really great version. Fantastic peak. This whole set is a must-hear. While this incredible diverse array of dancers and freezers and rockets occur, they did a ferocious hour-plus of melt-your-face music, nobody else like the boys from Vermont. Happy 2026 everyone! TWEEZER > PIPER. TWEEZER > PIPER. 50+ minutes of audio pornography. This cements this set as one of the great Phish 12/31 sets and continues to raise the bar on what they can pull off. Unbelievable. I will never forget just dancing and yelling throughout. S.A.N.T.O.S a great cap. I remember sitting down going what the fuck just happened. That is why you go to shows, of course. I guessed they would continue the theme in the encore and they definitely did - loved the costumes. I did not recognize the acapella tune (who would?) but was nice to catch a debut with Sincere and the reference to Ice Cream there. The carton returned and I got my first Spock's Brain! Hell yeah! Of course Tweeprise to close and that was special. What a fucking show!! It took me a while to get out to the concourse because I was soaking it all in - maybe one of the best shows I've ever been to. Phish's statement during this NYE gag was showing a reality where diversity is to be celebrated. They brought us all into the freezer together and showed off multi-cultural talents - the Spanish version of Tweezer and other dances was perhaps the most deliberate, especially while the current Republican administration targets Hispanics and other immigrants, Phish displayed a communal atmosphere where we build off one another, combining our talents to create an incredible fusion as a result. There was even a not-so-oblique moment where an individual wearing a red baseball hat emerged from the "freezer" from below the stage and was shouted down/made to retreat back down. If that wasn't a statement, I don't know what is. Sure, Phish may not be explicit in their stances (looking at the Wasserman connection) but they do manage to at least say something. I really enjoyed the message they put out here, and I don't think it was a coincidence for it to come when it did. We can also talk about how impressive of a show this is. Three months on, with time to reflect, I feel like this is really unbelievable stuff. These guys are pushing 60+ and going balls to the wall, playing their longest MSG show ever, jamming for 50+ minutes in Set 3, and the production - they push themselves further every year. They had a message and they were on a mission. Gamehendge 12/31/2023 was an incredible show because they did Gamehendge. 12/31/2025 manages to hit similar highs with just pure jamming. I feel lucky to have been there and I feel lucky to live in the same world, timeline, and reality as Phish. They continue to thrill me so much - nothing else has for such a period of time. They are also playing so well right now. I have the luxury of writing this review after another Mexico blowout, a place that used to be a literal sandbox for material and the occasional bustout, now having turned into another place that they decide to burn down even on their so-called "off nights". Summer 2026 seems to bode well - I will be going to Dicks so I hope there are some amazing shows between now and then. But what a way to kick off 2026 - 4.0 Phish is another beast. 2021 was an amazing year, plus the catharsis of the return, but 2024 and 2025 may have even eclipsed those peaks, and certainly have reached a higher consistent plateau. It's an amazing time to be a Phish fan and I am going to attend as many shows as I can afford! The party didn't stop for me. I went home, had a great time with friends, and then we stood out in the 25 degree cold for a good 3-4 hours just to see Zohran's inauguration. What a moment that was, for completely different reasons. Some highlights of the next few days of the NYC trip while I cooled down the jets were the Poster House museum, the KGB bar, meeting my twin sister who lives in Manhattan, having a wonderful shared dinner with strangers in Chinatown, a Fashion and Psychoanalysis exhibit at the Museum of Fashion, and finally a flight back on 1/3. What a fucking trip and what a fucking run. These guys.. They made it all worth it. Anyways. A must hear show, at least the MF MF, LSG, Set 2, Set 3. This is what dreams are made of, seeing a 12/31 show like this. Worth flying across the country for. They're cooking inside the venues, but my hope is that 2026 and beyond bring a better world outside of the Phish realm. To many more!

Running high off the first two nights, I was full of nervous excitement for 12/30. Our Portland, OR non-Phish crew did a lot of fun sightseeing once we finally dragged one of our friends out of the house by noon. 12+30+25 equals 67, just wanted to mention that. The three of us made a pilgrimage (for me, it was the second year in a row) where we went to the Hilton where Luigi allegedly shot and killed the healthcare CEO. He was also apparently incarcerated in Brooklyn near where we were staying and we were hoping to see his trial but it was not active during the dates of our trip. Went to the MoMA next and spent like literally the next 5 hours in there, incredible stuff, maybe one of my favorite museums. Great Color Field exhibit with a few Helen Frankenthaler pieces, including one I've made an art piece with before called "Chairman of the Board" (1971). I posted this online and made a prediction with it: "Moma Dance and a Play It Leo are in route for tonight". Trey also made this funny MTA video where he talks about switching away from MetroCard. We love pro-transit Trey Anastasio! Got to the show early and fraternized with some section mates. Really, some super cool people. They gave me tips on how to put up and hide my "CDT REPRISE" sign that I was posting up during the sets each evening. No sooner were we discussing it when they break into Chalk Dust Torture to begin the show. Always incredible and this meant that CDT Reprise was on the table (or am I too optimistic?). Ol' reliable Moma in the two slot is always a dance party, but this one takes a left turn by segueing back into.. Chalk Dust Torture??? Fuck yeah! Was this a way for Phish to satisfy the CDT Reprise sign by "reprising" Chalk Dust Torture? Maybe! We will never know for certain, but I feel like it's gotta be a nod. Nice little jaunt into blues-ish territory with the BOTT, Axilla always great for the crowd, and I love Divided Sky. Was exactly one year since I saw my last one (12/30/2024). The Blaze On that was teased the night before emerges now, and then a solid Tube (both of these felt like they could be a bit longer but who really gives a shit, it's 2025 Phish it's all great). I was thinking at this moment, they gotta do something psychedelic next, maybe like A Day in the Life. Bam - Melt! Always goes so hard, and this was a really good version. I wanted to note that I feel like I heard a CDT tease for a second in here, Trey maybe thinking about going back into it but decided not to. Great end. To me, this set peaked at the start and finish with the CDT > Moma > CDT and the Melt. This next set is one of my favorites of the run and maybe of the year. Ghost through Twist is a must-hear. This is an hour-plus of Prime Phish. As others have said, the Crosseyed is where the energy hits its highest notes, this had the place rumbling and the peak in Crosseyed was simply unbelievable. It felt like Hampton Halley's level of techno-tronic demolition. One of my favorite moments of the run for sure. I thought the set was going to end after Cavern but we got the First Tube, always a rager. I jumped up and down for the entire song. What a set!!!! Nice encore too with the Drift While You're Sleeping. This is, bar-none, the best ever version to date of Drift While You're Sleeping. They get to a real nice peak here. I like Drift, it has a great message. I find folks that shit on stuff like Drift or any new stuff to be just such annoying downers that really need to examine why they became fans of the band in the first place. Congrats, bro, you don't like a new song that they played? And you went online to talk about it? You're so brave, king. Can I suck your cock? I actually have so much more respect for people that are not afraid of championing new material, those who keep an open mind, and who enjoy the evolution of their careers. Anyways, fun encore and I spilled out into the cold Manhattan night, but stopped at the Taco Bell Cantina first for a nice snack (couldn't resist that). Another great 12/30 show, especially the second set. Check that out! One more evening to go....

Wow, what a great show and experience this was. 12/29 at the Garden... always a blast. My Portland, OR crew had fun during the day hitting up restaurants, bodegas, and seeing the sites. We spent a lot of time in Chinatown where we got this amazing vegan dim sum, and then hit the Museums up by Central Park before I split and headed downtown to the big MSG. Last year's 12/29 set the bar rather high (was so lucky to be there for that), and I was so excited to see what was planned for us this evening. Before the show I met up with a bunch of folks from the Discord and we took a nice photo. Showtime! Carini -> Plasma -> Carini to start the show was a barnburner. Obviously, Carini being one of the hypest openers, a great natural exploration and segue, and then bringing it back brought the place down. Pure energy and I love when they do this to start a show (reminds me of Seattle N1 2023, to name one example). The next song I did not recognize and was like, what is this talk-box that they are using (was it a sample?). I fully admit, I had to look on Phish.net to see what it was, and when I saw that it was Quadrophonic Toppling, I burst out laughing. Having experienced fully the "QuadTopGate" saga where the Phish.net setlist deciders (temporarily) took away the experience for those who saw it live in Alabama 5/27/2022, to get this in a clear version without any controversy really amused me and made me happy. These fucking guys, man. That is one for the stat books. Another personal first came in the very next song - a great version of The Curtain (With), my first live version of either Curtain - it was well done and continued the energy. BATHTUB GIN comes next... This was an incredible version. I perfectly timed a bathroom break and came out right for the jam, and this was a superb peak. I was in full "holy shit" mode and so was the rest of my row. Maybe the highlight of the show for me, and that's saying something. A must-hear. NICU is always fun and I really love Evolve, it's my favorite song off of the eponymous album and I love catching this live. Was singing along to every word. I love the idea of Evolve and also naming the album after it because it exemplifies what Phish does: constantly evolving and finding new ways to perform. Mist was solid and then a perfectly placed Fluffhead, which was fucking awesome. Reminded me of 12/30/2024 same spot. Great first set. Starting Set 2 with Mike's was a power move. Energy = High. I caught the Blaze On opening and called that out but then instead a nice redirect into The Final Hurrah (always love any of Kasvot or Sci-Fi getting some play!) and this was my first one I've ever seen, which was super cool. Groove comes after as expected and I love Weekapaug Groove, it's probably my favorite Phish song. Was dancing my ass off! The next 40 minutes are absolutely incredible must-hear Phish. Wave of Hope (incredible vehicle) (20) - Twenty Years Later (11) - Golden Age (14) is an all-star stretch on one of the most hallowed Phish days of the year. Golden Age I would take at every show (controversial take but it's one of their best). Zero was perfectly timed and everyone was singing along. Sometimes a next-level show is separated from a simply great one because every time they could elevate the show to the next level (first, second, and encore) they do so. This happened here with the Lizards choice to begin the encore. My first one ever, I was on cloud nine. If you had asked me prior to the run which songs were I chasing, this would have been in the first three I mentioned. So I was jacked up. Fantastic work from Trey as usual. Possum felt like icing on the cake, and that was that. Another superb 12/29 show in the books, and two great shows to start the 2025-26 run. Bathtub Gin, Wave > 20 Years Later > Golden Age must hears. Can you believe there would be another two nights in store?

Seen about 200 shows now and I gotta say, this one was easily among the most, er, uncomfortable. Atlanta was pretty good, and I caught the Polaris tour closers (enjoyed those) but Walnut Creek was a certifiable dud. Band seemed to be struggling, in several respects. There have been other duds (OK City Zoo comes to mind) but this one felt rough in that late 1.0 kind of way. A lot of highs and lows in '99 & '00. Truly great shows, some of my favorites, and then shows that made you think things were unraveling. We're truly lucky to have the band and the level of play we're experiencing now.

5 years later (which is wild to think it’s been that long) this one still is the best show I’ve seen in my 15 plus years of seeing this band, or at least it was the most fun I don’t know if was because of people I saw it with, (lots of lifelong Indy friends) or what, but I keep coming back to this show and still say it’s the best one I’ve been to. I remember the show started late because the Rams/Lions were playing at Sofi just next door, went into the midnight hour and I loved being at the fabulous forum.

SET 1: Run Like an Antelope: awesome opener!!! Should be in this spot a lot more often - I understand why it rarely is because they go for easier tunes usually in the opener slot, but I’m loving the confidence of this call. Solid standard version. Crowd goes nuts at a few points. Backwards Down the Number Line: I’m happy with this here, another unconventional placement that I can get behind. Good energy and really pretty solo here! Nothing to complain about at all. > Tweezer: BOOOOOOM! That’s what I’m talking about! The elusive first set Tweezer tells you to buckle up because this is gonna be a night to remember. Composed section is passionately played. Jam starts off funky early on, all four members are totally locked in. Feel turns a little more plinko ish at 6:40 with Page leading the band in a more driving direction. Trey then pushes a move towards a conventional peaky direction, which he executes reasonably well, then returns to the head, then gives a brief indication of a true plinko at the end (Fish’s playing here, holy hell!) This sadly doesn’t last, but this version on the whole is a good time. Standard greatness. Gets ripcorded for > Fluffhead: wish that jam had continued but you can’t ask for a better ripcord than this song. Played okay, maybe a little bit flubby. > Roses Are Free: cool. Standard, maybe a bit better than usual - triumphant. > Funky Bitch: looooove this placement. No cool downs here, no sir! Page’s solo is absolute hellfire and Trey matches him all the way. > The Moma Dance: awesome. Any placement of this that isn’t opener or song #2 is very welcome with me. Standard. > When the Circus Comes: not my favourite slower tune but they’ve earned one. > Theme From the Bottom: sure. Standard. Golgi Apparatus: sure. Standard, passionate. Stealing Time From the Faulty Plan: ha! I like this more as both a song and as a closer than Golgi, cool stuff! Good set that admittedly tapers off a bit towards the end. — SET 2: Golden Age: definitely not my choice of a set 2 opener (or anywhere in any set really) but we’ll see where this goes. Composed section is played at a good pace, Fish’s drums sound incredible here. Damn this might be the best performance of the actual GA song they’ve ever done. This tempo almost makes me like the song. Standard soloing for a brief period then Trey signals for a hard pivot into funk around 6:30 (kinda leaving Page especially high and dry for a moment there.) We’re in the dark murky waters here for a while. Lots of funky strumming from Trey including some riffs that sound like Alumni and a great theme around 8:30 that Page picks up on. Band sounds really great actually. It’s LA at 1am. A more choppy sort of funk at 10:15 and this too sounds great. After a bit of uncertainty Trey pushes the band towards straight-ahead rock and he solos for a bit, compellingly too. The Trey-Page interplay in this jam is dialed in! Around 13:15 you can hear Trey push for a transition and from there the ripcord is inevitable. Jam is super cool while it lasts. > Prince Caspian: not big on that ‘transition’ but let’s see what this one does. Standard Caspian soloing for a while and then Trey just decides to go apeshit from 4:30 until around 6:30 with some wild fast playing. Mood darkens following that though only slightly. Trey must’ve had some caffeine at set break because here he is at 7:00 with fast chordal riffing, egging the band on. Finally this ends and we start up into a floaty ambience similar to last night’s Farmhouse. You think it’s going to transition, but nope, not yet - just like the days of old Trey strums some chords and they’re back into a rocking jam! Good stuff. This doesn’t last though, Trey goes > Light almost straight away. Good jam nonetheless. > Light: two kinda rough ripcords to start the second set. Oh well, is what it is. Anyway: the Dick’s Light. Let’s do this. Sounds like it’s going to move in the same direction as any other Light until Trey starts playing with some strange modes around 5:15, with the rest of the band struggling what to make of it. Effects on at 6:00 and they work towards a very strange funky groove - almost Beefheart esque? - at 7:00. Very interesting stuff. Mike powering up his meatball tone at 8:00 or so brings the whole package together and the jam for the next few minutes is total money. Suuuuuper strange for early 3.0. Looooove Trey playing around with the weird tremolo pedal around 10:00. Then!!!! Fish cuts out like in a 1.0 Tube!!!!! And we get a Trey-led breakdown!!!!!! Awesome! Fish back in at 11:00 ish with a more conventionally funky groove. Sick. They’ve found whatever they were looking for. It’s like plinko mixed with early Meters stuff. Moves into a more contemplative funk for a moment, all members locked in. Then I think Page? or Trey? pushes for a new syncopated progression with a bit of a lighter sound at 12:30 ish. The other members adapt perfectly. It’s clear we’re moving towards something joyful now. Sounds as if Fish is gonna attempt a move into transitory space at 14:00 but instead he just downshifts his drum part to something a little quieter and lets the blissful ambience take the front seat. Mike in the driver’s seat here with an awesome melody. Then - all the sudden - the darkness drifts back in in a single, coherent shift. The funk is angry now, and out for blood. Oh boy, once Trey settles on those chords at 17:30 ish we are WELL and truly on our way. Spaceship to the moon, friends. You’re just waiting for Trey to start soloing, and then he does at 18:50 with some soaring leads. Sounds like a moodier version of Tweeprise. Trey dials it up and up and up and brings this jam to an absolutely CRAZY peak with Page’s dutiful support in the background. Not as manic as a 1.0 peak but this is blues rock brilliance. Absolute guitar hero on display here folks. Peak ends at 22:40 and moves towards a denouement that uses the chords Page was playing during the peak - awesomeeeee. Perfect. Slow down and then a hard stop on a major chord. Yesssssss. AWESOME jam. This outclasses everything from 8/31/12 so hard it’s not even funny. Perfectly executed with a nearly perfect peak. In the absolute highest echelon of 3.0 jams, what more could you want? Boogie On Reggae Woman: YESSSS!!!! Don’t think Trey missed Mike’s meatball tone during that Light! Time for a little more of that action. Nothing better than a celebratory tune after crushing it in a terrifying jam. This is even a really fun Boogie On, with Trey clearly feeling on top of the world after nailing Light. Nothing crazy, just a four headed funk monster. Rhythmic and goofy. Recommended! > The Wedge: love it. Really digging this tune lately, more than ever before. > The Horse: nice, standard. > Silent in the Morning: standard. Pretty fast. > Mike’s Song: woahhhhhhh! Not a closer just yet, friends. Great raging Mike’s, worthy of a relisten IMO. Gotta be Hydrogen next, right? > No Quarter: NOPE! Siiiiick. Such a good call and one that they should make more often. Played great. > Weekapaug Groove: this is a REALLY good Paug for 3.0. Played fast and executed fantastically in the classic Paug manner, a spritely groove with some ripping soloing from Trey. Recommended big time! Wow! Great set closer! — ENCORE: Sleeping Monkey: Trey ribs Fish eating a banana during the intro of this song and says that Fish rocked so hard last set he needed some sustenance before the encore - lol. Absolutely a Sleeping Monkey type of show. > Tweezer Reprise: Trey flubs this a bit but who cares. — OVERALL: possible hot take incoming here: this show is better than N1. Yes, N1 has the gimmick and the overall momentousness, but pound for pound I find N2 to comfortably be the better show. All eyes naturally go to the Light, and they should - it’s an exceptional jam, one of the best of all of 3.0, with so many well executed passages and a goosebump-inducing peak. But don’t sleep on the rest of set 2! Golden Age, Caspian, Boogie On (funkiest version ever?), No Quarter and Paug are all well above the era’s average. There’s a celebratory looseness that looms large over that set, definitely one of my favourite sets of the period. Combine that with a competent, energetic set 1 and a hilarious encore and you have a winner. This show is bundles of fun. A 4.3 for me, very few complaints.

Wow, what an incredible 4-day run and what a week in NYC. This is what dreams are made of. I had never actually intended to go to a second straight MSG run to end the year. Well, at least maybe subconsciously I did. But I had already just flown crosscountry to Hampton and enjoyed that legendary run there. It was going to be tight to swing this again. But, given that my sister was still living in NYC, I could possibly find a way to do this on the "cheap" that only really included flights, tickets, and party supplies. So I put in for the lottery, and wouldn't you know it. A 4-day pass with a good view. Phish, Inc. wants me to go broke. I even convinced a few IRL friends to go with to NYC, they wouldn't be going to the shows with me, but we got to do so much cool stuff during the days. More on that later. We flew into Newark just after the snow had fallen (luckily no delays). After some initial chaos, we took a bus into the city, then the subway, all the way down to Brooklyn, where I would be residing during the run. NYC gorgeous as ever in the snow. We absorbed the wonderful Park Slope scenery with a few inches on the ground, grabbing some great falafel and dancing in the street. I split up with my non-Phish crew and headed to MSG around 6:00, arriving well early to really take in the vibe. I met up with several members of the Phishcord crew as I had in previous jaunts (Dicks 2024, MSG 2024, Seattle through SF, Hampton, and now this. What a generational run!). I lucked out and had great seats, 209 Row 1. I brought a sign that said CDT REPRISE on it each of the four nights, it's my favorite song and I never thought they would ever play it again, until the fateful 12/8/2019 Charleston tour ender and then sporadically since. They played Meat after a sign for it in Hampton, why not Chalk Dust Torture Reprise? 12/28/2025 was a great show. I have been on a crazy run of heaters since Dicks 2024, all of them except one show rated above 4.0 currently, and that was 12/28/2024. I didn't expect anything going in here, it was N1. Got to know my row-mates and had a great time dancing all four nights, the energy was high. As far as the first set went, they started off hot and set the tone for four really solid shows in a row. Buried Alive - a classic opener, always welcome. My second one after SF N1 2025, also an opener. The AC/DC Bag next has a nice little jam and was the first extended jam of the run - almost similar to the way it was the first surprise of last year's MSG run. Roggae was splendid afterward, that song always bats a thousand but it felt like they had something special prepared within and it was a really good version. Rift was a perfect choice to keep the energy up and it had everyone dancing. I feel like the setlist construction has just gotten better and better in 4.0 - it's a special time to be a fan for sure! Wolfman's Brother is a fantastic jam. The first "must-hear" of the run for me. Full band at full power. And then next into the extended Punch that they've been doing lately - I mean this is just pure audio pornography. The funk, the dancing, it was off the charts and I was having so much fun. Sigma next to cool off - I always enjoy that song. I don't recall much of this taste, but I do clearly recall Trey going acoustic afterward, perfect timing for that too, and I was able to guess Sleep after the first few lines (it was one of the songs that I had relistened to on the flight over trying to catch up on Phish rarities, LOL). My first one ever and the first in 4.0, what a treat. The Antelope to close was fucking incredible. Words cannot describe the peak there. They have really been playing Antelope well lately, we are in a Renaissance of this song. Really good first set and it had me jazzed for the rest of the run, and they did not disappoint that feeling! Second set was also quite good. Oblivion to start, one of my favorite newer tunes, it always goes so hard. DWD on Night 1 was a bit of a surprise for me, but it was very good. Despite "just" being 14 minutes long, the back half of this has some superb improv. Another "must-hear" in my opinion. The clean segue into Simple got the MSG crowd lit the FUCK up, that was a magical moment. Great stuff there and then another segue into Jibboo, which meant that after 20+ shows of no Jibboo I got it twice in the last three shows I've seen. Love it. The jamming centerpiece of the show is next - Theme, which along with others like MF MF have really gotten a second life here, goes for nearly 25 minutes smack dab in the middle of the 4th quarter. Wild stuff, and this is NIGHT ONE! The third must-hear jam of the 12/28 show. The return back into Simple was yet again magical, and then I love this choice to close the show - Everything's Right. While Everything was Not Right outside of this arena and in this country, it was a wonderful bliss moment for us, and we were "in the now". I sang along as loud as I could, this song has saved my life. A standard ST3L in the encore slot was a really good selection as it allowed for a typically nice peak and left us all clamoring for more. Fantastic opener to this run. Three must-hear jams in Wolfman's, DWD, and Theme - what more can you look for on the first night of four? Made it home safe to our apartment, where we were dog-sitting in order to stay for free. Enjoyed some bodega slop. Crashed. Let's get ready for Night Two.

I’ve started to revisit these one set openers for Santana. It’s a fine show with nice but standard “Reba,” “Split,” and “YEM.” A note on the recording: Determining quality proves challenging with this set as the available tape (via Relisten) is sped and pitched up. While the band did not play faster and up a step or two pitch-wise, the tape makes it sound as if they did. I haven’t checked other resources, but I imagine the sound issues are consistent across different sites.

I've been listening to the shows chronologically from the start and I do not recall hearing a real clav before this. This must be the debut of the clav? I could be wrong. I am too lazy to go back and telisten to the last few shows, but it jumped out at me hardcore on this show. I'm also at this point trying to fluff this up enough to meet the minimum requirements for characters. Why do I go through this trouble? Because I personally find little things like this interesting. And if I do, statistics would dictate that others do as well. You may find this superfluous now, but one day in the future I'll think you'll be happy for a robust and nuanced Phishstory.

When the surviving members of the Grateful Dead announced a weekend of concerts in Chicago to mark their 50th anniversary m’lady and I knew that the celebration/reunion was going to be a pretty big deal. And considering that Trey Anastasio would be playing with them for the run (along with Bruce Hornsby and Jeff Chimenti) we knew that we would be going, and we did. With a nod to their olde-schoole pre-internet ticketing mayhem, the band decided to reintroduce their chaotic and archaic mail order system, a hoop-jumping hippie-sieve that involved hard-copy postal money orders, #10 envelopes, secret mantras, and the touching together of magical healing crystals. If I’m not mistaken, they even re-hired their former ticket manager who promptly started stuffing hundreds of thousands of envelopes into Rubbermaid containers, stacks of which quickly filling the spare bedroom of her bungalow. Classic Dead, and still months before a note was played. Not to be outdone, m’lady olde-schooled right back at ‘em, hand-decorating both of our ticket request envelopes with super-awesome art. On one she drew the ocelot from Trey’s guitar tussling with the tiger from Jerry’s guitar and on the other she traced the Chicago skyline, with Soldier Field (the venue for the concerts) featuring prominently. We both pulled GA floors for all three shows. I’d like to say that our level of excitement well-exceeded m’lady’s crushing disappointment but I don’t think that would be true. What disappointment, you ask? Well, the Dead eventually announced that they would be preceding the Chicago weekend with a two-nighter in Santa Clara, and I told m’lady that there was no way I was going to California for them. It’s something we still don’t talk about around the house. I spent the week between runs steadfastly avoiding everything to do with those Santa Barbara shows. I didn’t check the setlists, I didn’t listen to a single note or watch any youtube videos…heck, I would leave the room if anyone started talking about them. I knew that Trey had been working for months to integrate himself into these old songs and I wanted to experience it in its entirety for the first time live, in person. It made for a difficult week, but I made it. So, following a wonderful Ottawa Canaday (evidenced by the fact that the fête escapes my memory entirely) m’lady, myself, and our good friend Kyla drove a dozen or so hours from Ottawa to almost-Chicago where we hunkered down for a Duty Free nightcap, a budget sleep, and a cellophane-wrapped breakfast. And so it was that on July 3rd, 2015 we pulled into Chicago nice and early, absolutely champing at the bit for the weekend to get started. I think we drove downtown first. Kyla was in the coffee biz back then and there was a certain coffeeshop she was hankering to visit so we went. I distinctly recall an eye-opening dearth of available parking, such that independent entrepreneurs operating free-roaming valet services ultimately became our only option. I crossed my fingers and handed some dude my keys. Was this the time that I visited the Bean? I recall the huge amorphous mirror-sculpture being basically across the street from our destination. Whether it was this trip or one to see Phish a couple of years earlier, I loved it. Who doesn’t? Rare is it that a piece of art is so undeniably and universally engaging that it can’t not be a hit, but the Bean (the piece is actually called “Cloud Gate”) is exactly that, easily fitting in alongside such achievements as Jeff Koons’ “Rabbit”, Michelangelo’s work in the Sistine Chapel, and the Hollywood-esque sign that Jimmy Kimmel erected on the hill that looms above the town of Dildo, Newfoundland. There were cool fountains too, and lots of fun things for kids to do. I noted lots of tie-dyes and smiles. We had a double room booked at the Hyatt basically next door to Soldier Field. We pulled up and found the entire hotel staff decked out in Grateful Dead t-shirts. The lobby was piping live shows through a beefed-up speaker system and they had booked Dead-themed bands to play at a number of free pool parties over the course of the weekend. The staff was very, very happy to see their hotel overrun by hard-partying hippies and they were showing it. Amazing how much had changed. It used to be you brought street clothes to wear specifically for checking in to hotels. After settling in we headed out, discovering that it was a walk through the park to get from the hotel to the venue. A long walk, sure, but through nothing but park the whole way. I bee-lined to the poster booth and was excited to see about a half-dozen excellent prints for sale. I hummed and hawed between a realistic skeleton on a ghost ship by Justin Helton and a cartoonish Uncle Sam riding his chopper into the horizon drawn by Mike DuBois. I went with the ship and I still can’t believe I didn’t just grab both of them. Although investment-wise it seems I chose correctly; as of this writing the Helton is selling for around $650US while the DuBois last sold for precisely $76. My Helton is on the wall, enveloped in a rather pricey frame-up job. I can see it from where I’m sitting. I don’t remember if I ran the poster back to the hotel or not but regardless, after a bare minimum of merry-making in and around the lot outside the show it was soon time for us to make our way in. Somehow, some way, we weren’t where we were supposed to be when the music began. I had spent a week running out of rooms with my hands held over my ears specifically so I would be on the floor a few dozen feet from the stage when I heard Trey playing with the Grateful Dead for the very first time. As it was, the band kicked things off with [i]Box of Rain[/i] and there I was stuck halfway up the stands in a wristband fiasco staffed by shoulder-shrugging teenagers who were so overwhelmed in every regard that their only efficiency seemed to be bottlenecking every possible entry to the floor. Did I mention that there were over 70,000 people there? Matter-of-fact, according to wikipedia, with 70,764 people through the gate this concert set attendance records for the venue that still stand today. But back to me standing in a useless line well out of sight of the stage during the first few minutes of the concert: I was freaking out, like jumping up-and-down with nerves. I still hyperventilate when I think about it. Give me a second…I just have to breathe…breathe… I made it to a solid patch of floor just in time for the second song – [i]Jack Straw[/i] – shaking my astounded head free in exasperation. By the end of the song I was fine. Trey sang the next one (Bertha) and another later in the set, both of which got an enthusiastic roar from the crowd and were really great. I always find it funny when they end a set with [i]The Music Never Stopped[/i] and they did here. The ascent off the floor during setbreak rivalled the human dam that got us down there in the first place, as tens of thousands of us made for the stairs at the same time. M’lady and I got squeezed into a friend of a friend from back in Canada. “Hey Darren…it’s Todd…you know, friend of Dave’s back in Ottawa…yeah, that’s right! Cool man, have a great show.” Small world.* Eventually we spilled up the stairs, filled up on concessions and spilled back down again. The rest of the show was super-fantastic – my gosh the music was just so freakin’ great – and they sent us out of there with an acoustic-tinged [i]Ripple[/i] that saw the vocals getting thrown around the stage between Phil, Bobby, Trey, and even Bruce Hornsby (who calmly understated his role as probably the best musician on stage for the entire weekend). Back at the hotel it was all yes-sir, no-sir, how-was-the-show-sir as post-concert revelry poured out of every available nook and cranny. Hours later from our room I was amazed to see that the city en masse had dedicated its skyline to our cause. Every skyscraper was lit in the Dead’s colours: Red, white and blue. The fact that we were several hours in to Independence Day by the time I lay myself down to rest for the night had completely escaped me. *There’s not a single solitary way that I agree with the sentiment “small world” and I don’t here either, but it scans well in this instance so I used it. To my mind this is not a small world by any perceivable metric. Even (especially?) from space the place looks huge. Not that I’ve been to space, but I’ve seen the pictures. In fact, when people say “small world” what they really mean to say is “what a coincidence!” but sometimes the coinciding elements just aren’t worthy of exclamation, you know? So you get “small world.” To which I invariably respond: “You might not have been expecting to see me here, but that doesn’t make this Lilliput. Buddy.” https://toddmanout.com/

Fare Thee Well [i]In the attics of my life Full of cloudy dreams; unreal Full of tastes no tongue can know And lights no eye can see[/i] On July 5th, 2015 I was in Chicago. I had spent the late morning and early afternoon in the grandly ornate ballroom of the downtown Hilton enjoying brunch and a set of music played by David Grisman and his fantastic bluegrass band along with 1,500 like-minded souls. M’lady and I and our friend Kyla were in town for Fare Thee Well, a three-night Celebration of the Grateful Dead at Soldier Field. We had two fantastic nights under our belts at this point and were thrilled to be anticipating a third consecutive night of astoundingly great music at the hands of Phil Lesh, Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann, Mickey Hart, Trey Anastasio, Bruce Hornsby and Jeff Chimenti. [i]When there was no ear to hear You sang to me[/i] Soldier Field was the venue where the Grateful Dead played their final concert, back in 1995. That proved to be Jerry Garcia’s last show. Sigh. I saw them there two years before that; it had been my third Dead show (of just six). It’s a massive stadium, and on this final night as we stood on the floor saying goodbye to one of the most important musical entities in modern history – a band that had gone a long way towards shaping all of our lives – we were surrounded by more than 70,000 fellow celebrants, all of our journeys, all of our dreams and histories once again coming together under the magical umbrella of beautiful music. [i]I have spent my life Seeking all that's still unsung Bent my ear to hear the tune And closed my eyes to see When there were no strings to play You played to me[/i] The first set opened with [i]China Cat Sunflower[/i] into an [i]I Know You Rider [/i]that seemed to purge our collective soul. 70,000 hearts opened wide, singing “…Gonna miss me when I’m gone…” in ecstatic celebration. Glorious. And that was only two songs in. Then came [i]Estimated Prophet[/i], [i]Built to Last[/i], and Bobby singing a killer [i]Samson and Delilah[/i] before they slowed us all down with the poignant ballad [i]Mountains of the Moon[/i]. The set ended with what I used to call my favourite Grateful Dead song: [i]Throwing Stones[/i], a Bobby-led straight-up rocker that ushered in an upbeat setbreak full of melancholic smiles and heartfelt hippie handshakes. After opening with a surprising cascade of eye-popping fireworks the second set kept the rock rolling with [i]Truckin’[/i] , one of only two songs the band repeated over their two-city six-night run. They had opened with it on night one back in Santa Clara but of course they had to play it again here on the final night. For now that we were in the final set of what the remaining members claimed would be their last time playing together we could now all exclaim with rapturous accuracy: “What a long strange trip it’s BEEN…” Past tense. Oh, the feels. After a brilliant [i]Cassidy[/i] and Trey singing [i]Althea[/i] we were treated to the Dead’s epic meandering mini-opera [i]Terrapin Station[/i]. “…Counting stars by candlelight all are dim but one is bright The spiral light of Venus rising first and shining best On, from the northwest corner of a brand new crescent moon While crickets and cicadas sing a rare and different tune…” Man, those guys (and Robert Hunter) could sure write a tune. Inspiration, indeed. After [i]Drums[/i]>[i]Space[/i] (which I always really, really dig) came [i]Unbroken Chain[/i] and a [i]Days Between[/i] that went into a mass singalong set-closing [i]Not Fade Away[/i] that brought all of us together once more, a huge singing collection of love, a multi-legged amoeba of patchouli and tie-dyes that refuses to fade away as long as there is a song to sing, a place to dance, and a capacity to cherish this precious life that we share. If there is a God overseeing the world then they have surely blessed the Grateful Dead and all who follow them. When the band left the stage 140,000 hands kept clapping the Bo Diddley beat, creating a sound that must have travelled for miles. It was a wonderful thing to be a part of. And so was the encore, which was nothing short of perfect. Personally, [i]Touch of Grey [/i]was the first Grateful Dead song I’d ever heard, back when it was a staple on MTV. I remember watching it and thinking “this is the Grateful Dead?!?” The whisper of mythos I had heard about them combined with their ominous-sounding name had led me to believe their music would’ve landed somewhere between Black Sabbath and odd atonal druggie music. But there they were standing on stage in street clothes playing a synth-heavy radio-friendly pop song about growing old. And now here I was at the end of my road with the Grateful Dead – twenty-eight years of mind-expanding life, love, and travel later – and the band was bringing me right back to the Junction Club, where I was taking a surreptitious break from my dishwashing job and sticking my head out of the kitchen to watch [i]Touch of Grey[/i] on the TV screen in the nightclub’s empty dining lounge. After nearly three decades “I will get by, I will survive” meant something different. I’m sure many of the people around me felt similar. [i]In the book of love's own dreams Where all the print is blood Where all the pages are my days And all my lights grow old[/i] But of course the band couldn’t close there. No, they needed to end with a hymn, and they did. [i]Attics of My Life[/i], an angelic canticle somehow written by the earthbound Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter. We were all one. [i]When I had no wings to fly You flew to me You flew to me In the secret space of dreams Where I dreaming lay amazed When the secrets all are told And the petals all unfold When there was no dream of mine You dreamed of me[/i] Fare thee well. https://toddmanout.com/

It’s always fun to be pretty much anywhere in America on Independence Day, but of all the awesome cities and towns south of the border the only place for me to have been on July 4th, 2015 was Chicago. Though the whole city was decked out in red, white and blue for the holiday weekend it looked to me like Chicago was flying the colours of The Grateful Dead, and they would have had considerable reason to. Being selected as the city (ultimately one of two cities) to host the Fare Thee Well Grateful Dead 50th Anniversary shows was an honour that brought tens of thousands of tie-dyed revellers to town for the weekend, and I was pretty happy to count myself among them. The city was rolling out the red carpet for us, with pre-parties and aftershows everywhere and countless of bars and restaurants flying their freak flag for the weekend in an effort to draw in all those old hippy dollars. My hotel was going above-and-beyond, even hiring a Dead-based bluegrass band to play free concerts in the courtyard. I went down for the afternoon set and made a bunch of new friends, all of us bopping away to the familiar bouncy tunes and getting primed for the evening courtesy of the cash bar and barbecue the hotel had set up. To their credit the hotel was cool with people bringing drinks down from their rooms and a good time was had by all. It was a pretty quick stroll from the hotel to the lot, and after the prerequisite walkabout I headed into the venue. I was happy to see that the bracelet fiascos of opening night had been ironed out and I made it onto the floor with no trouble at all. It very exciting to stand in the middle of so much anticipation. As the minutes went on upwards of 70,000 waited and waited for the magical first notes of what was predetermined to be an unforgettable evening. When the band walks onstage the sound of the crowd is nothing short of empowering, almost overshadowing the opening notes of [i]Shakedown Street[/i]. And theeey’re off! I spent much of the first set circling around and scanning the enormous crowd. From my vantage point near the stage it looked like 360 degrees of blurry, pulsating energy, a wash of humanity on their feet dancing and swaying in uncommon time. Word was that these were the biggest crowds every to squeeze into this Herculean stadium, and no doubt one of the happiest. I had GA floors for all three nights so at the setbreak I opted for a change of scenery. I was concerned that being close to the stage might not be the best view of the inevitable Fourth Of July fireworks so I headed up into the seats. I found a couple of empty seats in the front row of a random section in the 100 level and spent the setbreak chatting away with m’lady. At shows like this it’s common to just grab any seat that’s available. Lots of people never see their actual seat at a Dead show, and if they do come back for their seat they’ll usually just find somewhere else or at least be pretty cool about the whole situation. So I was surprised when behind me I heard a gruff voice coming towards me “Hey, what are you two doing in our seats! You lousy seat-stealers!” I turn around and coming towards us with mock anger is Dan and Mark, two friends from Ottawa. Remarkably, the seats we had selected were theirs. I didn’t even know they would be in Chicago for these shows, and here in a crowd of 70,000 people we were sitting in their seats. What an amazing coincidence. Better still they told us that the two seats next to them had been empty for the entire first set so we moved over two places and the four of us enjoyed the second set together. The fireworks were indeed quite spectacular, and though our view would have been better if we had found different random seats my appreciation for serendipity made me pretty happy to be sitting where I was for the second half of the evening. I shunned the many aftershows opting to celebrate with friends in and around the hotel (mine or theirs, I don’t recall). https://toddmanout.com/

It's been a long time but what I absolutely remember from this show is that we were not allowed outside at intermission. We had seen Phish at Keene a few times, and they always let us outside at intermission. As I remember it, EVERYONE was heading for the doors at intermission to go out for a smoke, and we a huge crowd of tripping balls people were stuck jammed together with no idea why we there and it was un-nerving until we finally figured out that we were not going to be allowed out. We had come down from Peterborough NH for this one, and I'm pretty sure we drove back after. This show doesn't seem to get the best reviews but I remember having a pretty good time.

On September 13th, 2023 I woke up in a surprisingly clean but otherwise overtly dingy Days Inn where I thoroughly did not enjoy the worst tin-tray scrambled eggs and always-weird sausage I’ve thus far discovered in my long history of hot-breakfast-included budget hotel stays. I tossed the uneaten slop in the garbage can and instead overflowed myself with much of a loaf of twice-toasted bread, each slice lathered with its own tiny square of Kraft peanut butter. The location was Fredericton; the occasion was the Harvest Music Festival. In a feat of convenience I had managed to couple a couple of festival concerts with a family visit to Moncton, a happenstance that also allowed me the further convenience of free access to my mom’s car, which I had driven to the aforementioned Inn the day before in time for a sublime opening-night concert starring Daniel Lanois. This second day would be significantly more packed. With my belly full of bread and nutty bears I spent the bulk of the morning wandering through Fredericton’s very fantastic Beaverbrook Art Gallery with my jaw fully agape before heading to the Fredericton airport to meet my friend Dave, who was flying in from Ottawa. His flight was about a half-hour late and I wanted to be extra sure to be on time so I swallowed my pride and let the car’s GPS guide me to the airport. I had only used the GPS once before and it had gotten me lost trying to find the hotel when I’d arrived in Fredericton just twenty hours earlier. Well, the thing remained consistent, leading me to a total of three consecutive dead-ends* (one road turned into a paved walking path before vanishing altogether in a field of tall grass) before delivering me to YFC a full half-hour late for Dave’s half-hour late flight. He had his arms crossed and was shaking his head in semi-mock disgust as I pulled up. “Dammit Snelgrove, get a damn cellphone already!” By the time we got back to the hotel all was forgiven. Dave even bought me lunch (supper? Sunch) at a restaurant across the street and after a few beers back at the room we accidentally split an uber down to the fest with a couple from Moncton and their two teenagers. (They were a family of massive Phish heads; they had even named their youngest son Trey and while he was the biggest fan of them all, he wasn’t there. The Harvest Festival tent is strictly 19+ and young Trey was strictly only sixteen years old.) Our friend Chris was slated to arrive from PEI at some point during the evening, after detouring through Halifax where he was picking up his brand-spanking new Tesla Model S. He had sprung for Dave’s festival pass and he had sent Dave a message explaining that he had an extra Ultimate Pass for me too if I wanted it. I figured a pass with such a fancypants name would come with some perks so I took it. Dave and I walked to a nearby mall where we found Will Call inside the festival’s popup office. We picked up all of Chris’ tickets and headed to the big tent where the show was slated to take place. Turns out the Ultimate Pass is just what they call the regular full-festival pass, but regardless I stood out front for a half-hour trying to sell my original ticket for any amount of beer money I could get. But I couldn’t; it was too early in a long night for anyone to be showing up without a ticket. However, while I was waiting I ran into a handful of old jamband acquaintances who, like me, had crawled out of the geographical woodwork for the show. I watched a tide of good people walk through the turnstiles and as soon as the first act started up I ate my extra ticket and went inside, bee-lining it straight to the beer ticket kiosk. Tickets in hand, I then found a contingent of old and new PEI friends bellied up to the beer-laden tables. I delivered a mile of high-fives, filled my mitts with beerses and went to find Dave pressed up against the stage, grooving to the opening act. We had listened to a bit of Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country over those hotel beers earlier and every time I shrugged my shoulders in indifference Dave stuck both his thumbs up and cast a look of shamed astonishment at me. I mean, sure, Donato was a pretty solid player who led a band that kinda sorta lived up to its lame-ish name, but it all seemed so [i]pedestrian[/i]. Here, let me look that up. [i]pə-‘de-strē-ən[/i] (adj) commonplace; unimaginative. Thank-you, Merriam. The band helped the festy beers go down pretty good, so in addition to not being very exciting they were costing me a bunch of money, so I stepped back outside to see if I could even give away my extra ticket. I found an old member of the Ottawa jamband crew and his just-turned thirteen-year-old sitting in lawnchairs listening to the show. I offered up my ticket but the kid was much too young-looking to even think about getting past the steadily vigilant 19+ security crew, though when Dave poked his head out to see what I was up to he insisted that we try. The kid was smart enough to chicken out. I was back inside when the second act of the evening, Neal Francis, started up. If I had to guess, I suppose I would have to join the cliché-clinching crowd and assume that the flailing keyboard player/lead vocalist was Neal but really, it could have been the astoundingly solid drummer (who turned out being the best drummer of the evening) and should have been the gum-chewing guitar player who stood tall and stoic on stage left with his head permanently cocked and his eyes rolled sideways towards some invisible television screen flickering in the corner. After a few songs of close scrutiny from a nearby vantage point it was clear that this guy was the band-leader. He was cueing changes with quick glances, directing jams with a turn of his head, and setting tempos with short nods at the top of every song. And always with the gum chewing. Damn good guitar player too. I never thought that the bass player was Neal Francis. Sure he was good, but he was the bass player in a three-chord high-energy rock band. Unless he was stepping up to the mic there was no way it was his name on the poster. Great band. They even did an encore. Like, how often does an opening band get away with playing an encore? I would definitely go see Neal Francis again, whoever he is. I certainly know who Trey Anastasio is though, and I suspect that you do too. I’ve been to a heck of a lot of Phish concerts and I had pretty good-slash-great seats at plenty of them, but when he emerged onto the small stage in the Coors Light Blues Tent (I kid you not) I had to marvel…It had been a [i]loooong[/i] time since I had been [i]this[/i] close to Trey at a show, if ever. By this point I had backed a couple of bodies off of the rail but I was still no more than a dozen feet from one of my favourite living rock guitar players. And my hands full of beerses no less! The band opened with a one-two of standard Phish tunes in [i]Blaze On[/i] and [i]Back on the Train[/i]. It was awesome. Blissful even. Aside from three or four Trey songs the whole show was Phish Phish Phish. [i]Wolfman’s Brother[/i], [i]Shade[/i], [i]46 Days[/i], [i]Gotta Jibboo[/i]…my gawd, it was all so great. I didn’t recognize the drummer and with the 2021 passing of longtime TAB bassist Tony Markellis Trey had a new, young bass player whom I had never seen before. With the even more recent death of sax player James Casey there were no horns in the band at all (Casey died at the age of forty after an extended battle with cancer just two weeks before this show). I did, however, recognize the keyboard player from Trey’s weekly run of online covid concerts from the Beacon Theatre. His name is Ray Paczkowski and he’s fan-freakin’-tastic. Late in the show I noticed something rather cool that I had never noticed before. I think it might have been during [i]Sand[/i] that I noticed Trey soloing along with [i]himself[/i]. I believe it was after an extended bass solo, during which time Trey had been silently soloing along into his looper pedal. When it was his time to solo he brought the volume up on his hitherto unheard riffing and spent the whole solo trading riffs with himself. To be honest, if I had been farther back in the crowd I probably wouldn’t have caught what he was doing, which makes me wonder how many times I’ve probably heard Trey do this before. After a killer set top-to-bottom the band encored with recent Phish fan-favourite [i]Everything’s Right[/i]. It was long and tasty and a nice sentiment to end what had been a great night of music, vibes, and old friends. But wait! There’s more! Yes, after the shortest of waits an aftershow featuring Texas quartet White Denim started up right there on the same stage. And though they were really good and totally rockin’ and worthy of much attention and many good words, by the time they got their set rolling I was as drunk as this post is long. Which is: much. So while I stuck with White Denim to the bitter end from my spot near the front with my fists still full of bottomless beerses I can really only say with much accuracy or good conscience: Good band, and good night. *When I returned to Moncton I went straight to the hospital to visit my mother, where she was slowly recovering from a brain injury. I mentioned to her that the GPS in her car kept getting me lost when I was in Fredericton. “It was like it didn’t recognize that there was a highway right behind my hotel,” I said. “Maybe the software is old and it’s a new highway or something?” “No…no…” she started, shaking her finger and staring at me in an effort to remember. “Oh right…I have it set to ’No Highways’!” “B-b-but…why would you do that?!?!?” I cried. “Well, as you know we were supposed to be going to Europe next week and in Europe I never drive on the highways, “ she said, as if that explained it. “But you were flying to Europe!” https://toddmanout.com/

On February 11th, 2014 I had the great pleasure of seeing the Trey Anastasio Band (“TAB” to all the neo-hippies out there) at the House of Blues in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. Though this wasn’t my first time seeing TAB (nor my first visit to one of Dan Aykroyd’s House of Blues franchises) it was definitely my first time at this specific venue.  If Lake Buena Vista sounds a bit unfamiliar to you, well, it sounds wholly unfamiliar to me as well.  As far as I was concerned this concert was at something called Downtown Disney, Walt Inc.’s offsite opportunity for people to spend gads of money without having to pay an admission fee.  Don’t look for it, it’s not there anymore.  When it was there, Downtown Disney was a pedestrian complex rife with large franchise-esque restaurants and shops designed to suck you in and eat as much of your expendable cash as possible.  Obviously they weren’t overly efficient in this regard, otherwise the place would still be open.  For our part I believe m’lady and I stopped into a restaurant designed to mimic a large paddle steamer for a slice of key lime pie (her Scooby-snack equivalent) and a beer (mine) and spent the rest of our time shunning Disney’s constant warm and fuzzy sales pitches. Getting to the show, this was probably the first time (and only time, as I have yet to see them since) that I really, really enjoyed the band on their own terms.  Don’t get me wrong, I’ve appreciated every other TAB show I’ve seen and then some, but for the most part I would be waiting for the ubiquitous snippets of Phish that Trey would include in his concerts.  But even then - despite the massive amount of talent Trey would always have with him on stage - these musical nuggets would usually pale in comparison to the mightier Phish versions (in my mind, at least). So it’s fair to say that I generally enjoy TAB as a Phish-light sort of experience, and given the option I would rather be at an actual Phish concert every time. And while I won’t say that isn’t true in this case, I will say that it didn’t take very long for me to become completely mesmerized by the band on this night.  Gosh, he had such a great band with him, most notably the horn players.  Sure, Trey actually played a considerable chunk of Phish tunes, but the songs I remember the most vividly and the ones that really knocked me out were ones I hadn’t heard before, and tunes that featured his side-players quite heavily. The smash-hit jaw-dropper of the night was when Trey’s trombone player (Natalie “Chainsaw” Cressman) sang a cover song I had never heard before called [i]1977[/i].  She sang it in Spanish (as the original goes, apparently) and it was just chest-explodingly great.   It was quite interesting for me to notice how differently Trey conducts himself guitar-wise when he plays with TAB versus his regular gig with Phish, something that hadn’t consciously clicked in my brain before.  I wouldn’t say that he was more restrained, though that would probably be accurate, but he seemed to completely defer to others when it was their time to shine.  Like, when Page takes a solo with Phish Trey still tends to keeps his guitar pretty busy, while with TAB it seemed like when he threw the attention over to someone else he really threw it over.   Maybe that’s why I wasn’t as crazy about TAB before, but this time I really dug it.  Maybe I had finally seen enough Phish shows to fully appreciate non-Phish Trey?  If so: what a costly trajectory. An added fun bonus to this show was randomly discovering our Miami-based friend Steve at the concert, flapping his magically dancing hands around from his favourite spot at any show, just a little left of centre and about a quarter of the way back on the floor.  It’s a good feeling when shows become reunions without even trying.   This is something that started happening to me more and more with every jamband-related tour and I tell you, it’s fun.  And another reason to just keep on truckin’. https://toddmanout.com/

I was very lucky to attend this show in person; I hadn't any version of the group before, so JMP's empathetic genre-crossing jazz fusion was a joyful surprise! I can't offer comparisons between JMP shows, so here's my general impression/intro: Masefield's singular jacked-in mandolin provides a startling variety of thick upper-atmosphere electro-textures, new guy 'Mad Dog' Mavridoglou alternately surrounds the rhythm churn with tasty keyboard effects and rips off trumpet solos and dialogues with Masefield, and Fishman is, well, the best rock drummer of his generation totally in his freewheeling element, that familiar smile beaming out every time he returns from the outer regions. In THE PHISH BOOK(?) he commented that he doesn't enjoy playing rock drum solos, but will throw down in a jazz context; with JMP he proves it, breaking up the time and pushing the other players left and right. His reputation as a wild man is a fascinating contrast with his precisely controlled drumming in Phish, so I loved seeing him cut loose with JMP. The biggest surprise of the night for me (as I didn't know his résumé) was Danton Boller on upright bass, who grounded the heady stuff with a huge bottom end then got into upper-register knifework whenever space opened up, 100% locked in with Fishman; the bass/drums hookup was the highlight of the show for me. I walked out of the Paradise floating on air. If the phrase 'gorp jazz' weren't intolerable, I'd use it here, and would say JMP is [i]exactly[/i] what I want from the groovy-weirdo region of the new-music spectrum -- it took some restraint on my part to not track down Brooklyn Bowl tickets on the cab ride home. Let's hope we don't have to wait as long for the next reunion. They're a really good band, YA DAMN RIGHT.

Attended this amazing show.. During ASIHTOS from ~13 min in for the next ~9 min I heard Michael Jackson’s “The Way You Make Me Feel” being jammed, listening back, I still hear it.. epic version .. the Beneth a Sea of stars that followed was also beautiful and and amidst listen,. great show, amazing weekend I’ve now attended 5 Phish Mexico’s.. The vibes were incredible from year one, but the music has caught up with the experience the last few years. I’ve seen phish in all peak settings - MSG, new years, festivals, sphere, etc, this is amongst the very best .. arguably the best , no joke. See you in Vegas .. weekend 2 for me

[url=https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vT9bzdgLEfV3TWstklT139KBew0B7ZInuE5PiA2qJnfeKqHZigPJtE62NuUilsnH8_I8rolNb-klriI/pubhtml?gid=1894490282&single=true][b]Moon Palace 1/31/26 SANTOS Scorecard[/b][/url] This show has a SANTOS score of 100 (epic!). The 3 longest versions of songs puts this one over the top.

[url=https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vT9bzdgLEfV3TWstklT139KBew0B7ZInuE5PiA2qJnfeKqHZigPJtE62NuUilsnH8_I8rolNb-klriI/pubhtml?gid=2092521661&single=true][b]Moon Palace 1/30/26 SANTOS Scorecard[/b][/url] This show has a SANTOS score of 54 (below average). The debut of Simeon during the encore keeps it from being very bad.

[url=https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vT9bzdgLEfV3TWstklT139KBew0B7ZInuE5PiA2qJnfeKqHZigPJtE62NuUilsnH8_I8rolNb-klriI/pubhtml?gid=2092521661&single=true][b]Moon Palace 1/30/26 SANTOS Scorecard[/b][/url] This show has a SANTOS score of 54 (below average). The debut of Simeon in the encore keeps it from being very bad.

[url=https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vT9bzdgLEfV3TWstklT139KBew0B7ZInuE5PiA2qJnfeKqHZigPJtE62NuUilsnH8_I8rolNb-klriI/pubhtml?gid=1036664554&single=true][b]Moon Palace 1/29/26 Scorecard[/b][/url] This show has a SANTOS score of 83 (very good!). Both sets and encore were above average. Both sets had high Jam scores and the Dancing in Midair debut during the encore result in a high overall score.

This show has a SANTOS score of 63. The first set was above average with the bustout of Breath and Burning and debut of Fling Your Head. [url=https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vT9bzdgLEfV3TWstklT139KBew0B7ZInuE5PiA2qJnfeKqHZigPJtE62NuUilsnH8_I8rolNb-klriI/pubhtml?gid=201151448&single=true]Moon Palace - 1/28/26 SANTOS Scorecard[/url]

Laid back opening show, I’m always ok with that. Set 1 starts out funky with Hey Stranger and Moma. Pretty nice Roggae. We get a new Mike song! Set 2 is ok. It’s really all about the Mercury jam. Very laid back but a nice groove and the ending chaos to Boogie On is super tasty. Nothing much else in the 2nd set. Encore leaves you satisfied with a Dog Faced Ghost 1-2 punch. I can’t complain! So to tally up folks: we get two bust-outs and a debut. I’m sure the peeps in attendance had a wonderful time. I was listening from polar vortex Crapchester NY so there ya have it. Darien Lake 93 this show is not but in Phish we trust. I deem thee to be a 3.0 and a breezy wheezy good time.

If this show happened at MSG, you can bet your sweet ass it would be rated at least a 4.4-something. It was awesome, Moon Palace is awesome, the band is locked in and playing as tight as ever and can do more with their instruments than ever. It was disappointing to see so many of these rich trustfundafarians being served by all these hard workers at the Moon Palace and not even give a tip. They don’t tip cuz they’re dirtbags. And they act like everybody is there to watch their drunk ass perform. No, Karen, we don’t even want to look at your stupid ass.

Phish capped off the Mexico Run with an unforgettable show. Rating bias is still present, which is a shame. The first set starts with a focused version of Mikes. Halleys and Paug were pretty standard. MFMF is the first mega jam on the night (more would come) - as Phish reached deep to give us a spectacular 25 min version. Must hear stuff. Rest of the first set goes by smoothly. Drift as a first set closer does not bother me at all. 2nd set , oh baby. How about one of the longest Phish jams ever? The longest song the ocean ever sang. a 40 min powerhouse that makes me wish I was on a beach in Cancun and financially stable. This even topped the Ruby Waves from earlier in the run, although bot are their own special type of beast. We weren't done. Sea of Stars was delicate and kept us occupied for 19 more minutes. Another mind melting, thought provoking type jam. Phish kept their momentum going.... what a set I was starting to tell myself. Meatstick comes in, and who could complain about that? Its one of the most fun songs ever. It got a good, non abberviated version of 9 mins. No meatstick should be under 7.Golden age also rocked hard. At this point I knew this was one hell of a set of phish Double encore of fan favorites. Hood = Bliss. Hell of a show, I am already re-listening. If you didnt give it 5 stars, we get it, you wish you were in Mexico. If this show happened in MSG it would rank amongst their best there. Signed someone who has seen more MSG shows than anywhere else by far. Set One: B+ Set Two: A+ 4.5

I'm not one prone to hyperbole, but Trey kept walking us down pathways all show... Beautiful interactions between crowd energy and band energy... Both matched perfectly under a sea of stars... I thought the entire run wasa workout, two new decided and a personal fave an extended Ruby Waves had me licked in on receive for everything the boys were transmitting!! Extended esoteric jams were some legendary face-melting material. The Mike's song opener on night four set up a fun bounce through the setlist, Julius was off the chart funk... The guys brought an intense energy this year with virtuoso skills and an undeniable connection to the crowd

I was recently scouring the web to find the 12/22/97 Zambiland Orchestra show because it was one of the coolest and most unique live concert experiences I’ve had. I couldn’t even find a complete set list. I recorded that night off another guy’s mics and have the full 3 sets. My DAT players are no longer functional and I don’t recall the sound quality. Any chance any of you could point me to someone who can circulate this masterful event? Possibly even remaster?

Fun start. Gin really start to get things moving with a nice Most Events which honestly is becoming one of my favorite "new" tunes. Carini was amazing, was sooo close to getting insanely down right dirty and they moved into light. At the time I was bummed they didn't stretch out Carini more but the Light was super solid. I am always 100% game for a Frankie Says I love that tune. This one didn't disappoint. Miami Frankie in '03 was insane in person, so I was pleased to see it taken for a ride. Life Saving Gun has been delivering and this was no exception. First Tube is easily one of my favorite set closers and they gave this one a little extra grease. My tinnitus even this morning is a testament to the version, true Trey rock god exposition. Encore debut of Simeon was fun. I'm down for whatever they play but getting a new tune to consume is always great in my opinion. ALBTD always brings the feels in this position and if felt like they really played it for the crowd and meant it. Tonight is going to be bittersweet as we head back to our normal lives, but I'll never trade anything for time in the sun with my favorite band. Onward and upward or whatever keeps you going.

Couch toured this one from cold and snowy Michigan, wishing I was on a warm beach down in Mexico. Thank goodness for these live streams! I’ve been catching one night of Phish in Mexico at home for years and it’s always a nice little mid-winter treat. A bit surprised at the ratings as I thought there was great playing all around. I particularly enjoyed Wolfman’s, Tube, Gin from the first set and honestly all of the second set. Light after Carini was a nice pairing. LSG jammed hard. Wowza! I felt thoroughly rinsed by percussion. Encore was on the tamer side but I have a huge soft spot for A Life Beyond The Dream as anyone who has read my comments knows, so I went to bed happy. Hope everyone there is having a great time!

Another solid show down in Mexico. First set had a nice tube, and also a cool version of gin. All in all decent songs picked. Set two goes deep once again. Carini was a marathon of music, while there has been some sick versions over the years, this jam had a unique taste. It got picked up by Light which I thought was a good choice. It blended into Frankie Says which was a welcome sight. Ide have preferred if that got stretched. Jam of the night though goes to Life Saving Gun. Its a raucous affair of balls to the walls action. I think most Phish fans have got to have grown to like that song. Encore here gives us 2 slower tunes to send us off. Not how ide do it. I actually a fan that loved LBTD when it first appeared but the over-playment has made it lose a bit of luster for me. Just my 2 cents. Simeon isn't terrible but belongs in like a first set. All in all I think anyone who was worried about Phish starting to "stink" is being laughed at. Set One: C+ Set Two: A- Rating: 3.9