2025-07-27 Saratoga Springs, NY

 FINALLY finishing up summer tour with the immediately legendary SPAC3...

7 27 25 Saratoga

Set 1

Always a great sign to get a Buried Alive opener! Aside from the atrocious sound mix, it's the perfect high energy opener we love and expect.

Immediately subverting all possible expectations of the universe, they do that Phishy kind of thing not only Phish does, and they launch into Twee....prise?? And its 13 minutes?!?! What in the love of x Factor magic! Obviously you must hear jam, this will take you by surprise like someone smashed me across the face unexpectedly. Again, 13 minutes, the jam going "as expected" until about the 7-minute mark. There it shifts into the eventually expected major key Bliss Rock. Eventually at 10 minutes or so it shifts back into the first section of the jam slowly getting stranger and wackier winding itself up into a robotic type 2 meltdown.. dude.....

And straight into Reba! And that was a genuine segue as well. Very cool! And its an excellent one! Technically it's tight and FLAWLESS. Seriously, they effing NAIL it!! The insanity continues when, during the slow build to a peak during the solo, Trey begins heavily teasing the ascending Tweeprise riff! They catch on and shift back into a full blown Tweeprise jam once more!!

Tweeprise>Reba>Tweeprise - how 'bout them apples, eh?

Tweeprise gets nice and filthy again for several minutes before shifting on a dime once again, this time into a burning Funky B. Probably must hear, this is just pure fire, even by Funky B standards.

As if all that wasnt enough, up next is a 17 minute Roses are Free!!!!! What in the love of what the hell is happenning?!?! Longest since....Big Cypress??!! Up tempo and high energy, the jam immediately goes type 2 around 4:30. The band shift into this stomping kind of shuffle beat (not sure what else to call it) with Trey and Page playing melodically on top. Around 8 minutes it returns to a more standard groove, with the mood getting very laid back, but still truckin right along. Slowly becoming a more atmospheric and slightly darker groove, synths and loopers begin to subtly make their entrances. They are building this sloooowwwww and sssstteeeaaadddyyty. This is so dang sick. This feel like a late 90s 1.0 jam where they are just sunk into the music, letting floooooowwwww patiently and organically. By 11:30, the energy has ramped up significantly. Trey jumps on the wah and proceeds to solo it up nicely above the funky groove machine beneath.
Around 13 minutes, Trey is properly beginning so slowly set up the peak conclusion. After a good while everybody syncs up on this little rhythmic motif. The jam is slamming on like a steamroller and builds to the expected energetic finale, finishing with ANOTHER Tweeprise!!!!!! Holy moly what is this set?!? That was awesome! It wasnt jam of the year, but it was proper type 2, totally in the zone, flowing and connected as hell....killer....must hear!!!!

Without a single second to catch their breath, its straight into a disgustingly filthy 46 Days!!! Absolute chaos, its extremely heavy on the down and dirty. Out of nowhere around 4:30 they shift into a soaring round of powerfully majest bliss rocking, sounding straight out of Prince Caspian or something. Dang!!! After about a minute, like a sledgehammer to the face, it smoothly morphs straight back into the filth. Must hear, X Factor all over this sucker. This show just keeps getting better, holy cow!!! And then of course we get the most screaming from the skyz hose annihilation explosion to finish.....damn...

The third to final song of the set is an absolutely bonkers About to Run. Always a burner, this is a rare next-level face melter that will make you sit up and take notice. If there aren't so many other highlights of the I would say it's must hear for sure!

The set ends with a 13 min Melt intow, what else, Tweeprise. As with everything else this set, Melt is absolutely insane and one of the most wackily destructive readings since the universe bending 7/28/23 rendition. Holy moly for real though, that Melt!!! It's not the typical slow robo deconstruction meltdown that most modern versions feature. Instead, it's something entirely unique. Very slowly it morphs into this extremely hazy and dark psychedelic kind of cloud. Just this explosive dark haze. Was Page using a freaking chanting monk chorus vocal sample throughout?!??? Dude
...

Eventually it's slowly begins to reach its conclusion and instead of finishing the song they launched back into Tweepris once again to send us out....

I cannot say enough good things about this Melt. Definitely add this to the true all timer renditions list. Seriously

And of course we get Tweeprise to close


Man, throw every other set of the year out the window. That was the first set of the Year possibly the decade. What in the love of x Factor magic did they do. Honestly probably the best first set since Chula Vista 21. Literally pretty much the entire thing is must hear. Just one big round of endless Insanity after another.

The Reba sandwich, 46 Days, Melt and Roses are among the finest pieces of music laid down this year. Of course we know how set to plays out but if this were any other show I'd be going how in the hell can they possibly top this.   

 

Set 2

The second half of the show begins with a giant 17 minute Kill Devil Falls. Unfortunately, though others mileage may vary, I didn't think this was a particularly great version. The song itself sounding kind of ragged, and the jam was pretty unrewarding overall. Aside from a terrifically strong peak, the majority of it is spent in meandering bliss zone. Others will call it soundscaping but I will call it boring and uneventful. Eh.

Thankfully the sonic torture comes to an end with a move into a 14 minute Twist. Right away it's apparent that the x Factor is back. There's all kinds of extra and spirit in this version. Fishman is just going nuts with all kinds of different accents and fills. It briefly dives deep for a quick moment getting dark and bubbly before moving back into the light. Ultimately, well it turns out to be one of the most "typical type 1" readings in a while, I'd say it's still ends up being must hear. It's an a++ reading, with explosive energy, taken out of ferry up-tempo rock and roll clip just exploding with energy. This one is like a 20 ton bomb. Fantastic. Must hear!

The craziness from set one finally resumes with Golden Age>23 minute Tweeprise. ?!?!?! (Is it actually or is it really just a Golden Age jam...you be the judge).

Either way, Tweeprise begins with extreme, hard funking like it's 1997. As expected in oh so absolutely glorious. It rages the fiery power funk until around 7 minutes, (IIRC, typing this an hour later), rocking hard and powerful, moving out if the funk. After a splendid peak section around 10 or 11 minutes. The jam shifts into a really cool kind of ethereal bliss rock... something. Dont know what you would call it. Extremely cool. Slowly getting more and more powerful, they ride this to the 15 minute mark. In one of those magical "blink and youll miss it" moments, in 1 second, outta nowhere, the jam DROPS into heavy darkness! They spend the next 4 minutes in the black hole, exploring the same territory as the Mex25 20 Years Later and Mex24 Chalkdust. Pure, unadulterated, dark annihilation supreme. Trey absolutely melting faces like it's the 1997 Tweezerbella again. Holy moly Christ on a cracker. Get it!!! Suddenly, and completely organically, at the 19 minute mark, Trey starts to slowly slide in the Tweeprise riff AGAIN, as if hes slowly trolling us, lol. You KNOW he had to be greening like an idiot when he was doing that, haha. Classic Trey. From here until the jam's conclusion at the 23 minute mark, they ramp it up hotter and hotter and just explode this finale section in the way you expect. Absolutely glorious.

And then in another ridiculous moment nobody saw, they shift supremely smoothly into Boogie On outta nowhere! Actually you can hear them setting it up but it sounds more like they are going to return to Golden Age, so I was pretty shocked when they went to something else. And of course you have to include this as part of the prior jam because it flows straight into its seamlessly. An absolute scorching ripper as expected full of the extra x Factor that has invaded this glorious show.

My God man what the hell is going on tonight this is mind blowing!! Now that being said I do have one extreme nitpick with that jam - it felt like a 35 minute multibeast compressed into 23. You got a bit of a taste of pretty much every style of Phish, but it felt like as soon as you were settling into the new zone they had reached they were all of a sudden moving back out again into something else. But I mean hell if that's my complaint that's the dumbest most nitpicky complaint in history of the universe so just ignore me.

How better to follow all that then with YEM!! 17 minutes, so rather on the short side, but, as with Reba, its played flawlessly and oh so tight. Not must hear, but in the context of the show it definitely crushes big time!!!

Following the vocal jam, they shift back into a brief bluesy bit before ANOTHER 4 minute Tweeprise to close the set. talk about a perfect set conclusion holy hell.

And of course in a show where they didn't play Tweezer, but instead played the reprise the entire night, how is else can you end the show and tour but with an actual version of the song itself, lol.

Probably the shortest proper Tweezer since.....when? Good stuff and pretty funny. And then of course Hood is the magical capper on one of the strongest tours in the entirety of modern Phish.

Great Hood. Definitely above average but I wouldn't call it the best of the year. Definitely gets the emotions running high though, and that's all it needs to do!

All in all, this show absolutely lives up to the extreme hype!! Chula Vista 2021 is always my benchmark for show quality to beat. I definitely think this is at least on par if not stronger than that show. This show is absolutely ridiculous, obviously.

What is there to say that hasn't already been said? How can you accurately critique perfection? I mean you can try but it's kind of pointless, haha. I will say that I think set one was stronger overall, but the entire show was just.... What are you even say to this? What the hell did I just listen to?

Phish in 2025. Thats what. And may we put to rest the what is a genuine contender for the greatest tour of modern Phish, Fall 2021 being it's only true rival (in my opinion).

THIS is what peaking looks like.... 

 

 

2025-07-26 Saratoga Springs, NY

 7 26 25 Saratoga Springs

Set 1

Uber fresh start with a Martian Monster into 2001 opener! MM is super, super thick and groovy. Tray never solos that much or goes bananas in this one but the whole thing is just this grimy and gritty swamp murk. Not essential, but excellent.

The same can be said about the following version of 2001. Definitely some extra and groove to this one, it totally delivers but again it ends up being nothing particularly must hear.

The first true must your piece of the night is an amazing 13 minute Mikes Song. This might be the strongest type 1 reading in years, seriously. Where in the hell did this come from?! This thing positively snarls and spits and snaps and bites like a pitbull on crack. Ridiculously powerful this one just steam rolls you into oblivion. Holy freaking moly......MUST HEAR!

Unfortunately the good times come to a brief end and they, astonishingly and very awkwardly, move into and not particularly great and horrendously placed version of Velvet Sea. Instant skip. Wtf yo....

They rectify matters by jumping straight into a 9 minute Weekapagug. It's average strong and does the trick but nothing special.

Versions of Sand and Evolve follow. Again, both are average excellent but neither standout. Strong on their own but nothing you need to run to hear.

The set concludes with a decently inspired pairing of MyFe into No Men. MyFe is pretty cool tonight. It never goes full-blown dark meltdown type 2 like we expect, instead staying in this pretty cool kind of dark and melodic zone where Trey and Pagee patiently play back and forth with each other for a good while. It's actually really cool but unfortunately the jam feels like it's missing a conclusion point and awkwardly goes into No Men. No Men thankfully delivers the goods and ends the set on a very high. An absolute Barn burning rendition as usual, this one seems to go on forever and ever in the best way with terrific explosive peeking. Must hear.


All in all, this wasnt a particularly amazing set. Nothing wrong with it, the energy is there, the playing tight, etc But theres very little to get particularly excited about either. ,

It also felt like Trey was under delivering or something like that. When he did decide to show up he was absolutely ripping it up like crazy, but it really felt like he was laying back way too much for a lot of the set. Weird. And wtf was with that Velvet Sea

Basically its on the strong side of a average. Perfectly fine and im sure great in the moment, but nothing more. All that being said, the Mikes Song is absolutely essential - some x factor on that! And the MyFe>No Men is a big keeper as well.

I don't know I just didn't drive with the set for some reason it's actually kind of annoying, because it was definitely not anything approaching poor.  

 

Set 2

Oh sick, an 18 minute Oblivion! Please go dark, I beg. Bring the wormhole, please! Spending too long an upbeat Bliss Rock mode, finally around the 11 minute market starts to shift to a much darker and moody or sound. Kind of meandering around nicely, until around 15 minutes we finally take Oblivion into outer space!!! We spend an absolutely glorious minute or two in the frigging wormhole before working our way back out. Man what a tease! This was a killer jam and definitely must hear but man what could have been if they kept!!

And boy do they keep it going, onward with a freaking 25 minute Disease! And holy moly mother of sickness, they give up the ENTIRE enchilada with this!!!!

Whens theast time we had a full blown type 2 multisectional, outer space galaxy orbit Disease?!? Dick's 2017?? Now THIS is what every long ass version of the song needs to aspire to. The initial jam spends a decent amount of time flittering back and forth between dark and light type 1. Eventually it starts to go askew. Hell yes this is it!!! Let's go!!! Trey slowly starts layering loopers one by one by one as the minutes to by. The gym develops into this noisy and hazy kind of fireball wall of sound. Absolutely rocking and blazing but also this Sonic kind of force like the production on End of the Century by The Ramones. This lasts a long time it's absolutely incredible. Just layering loop after loop after loop!! Eventually the loop fest starts to die down and then all of a sudden they pull the rug out from under us and we DROP into full-blown outer space lunar orbit ambience. I'm talking Fukuoka 2000 ambience. For 5 gloriously interstellar minutes. Oh my sweet glorious Neil Armstrong!!! This is five of the most out there minutes of modern fish and not saying a lot considering we have such masterpieces as the Manchester Twist in recent memory to compare to. Eventually it dies its death into nothingness, and out of the ashes rises a 12 minute Light absolutely perfectly!!

Light out of darkness!!!!!

WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT DISEASE?!?!? OKAY NOW THERE'S ANOTHER GAME OF THE YEAR CONTENDER FOR SURE. HOLY MOLY WHAT IN THE LOVE OF GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY WAS THAT. PLEASE DO MORE OF THAT I BEG!!!!

Light is another must hear. 12 minutes of A+ type 1. This Light is exceptionally powerful and heavy with a ridiculous final minute of extreme "WOOOOAAAAHHHH" vocalization from Trey. Very funny. Think of this as the equivalent to the Mikes in set one. An absolutely killer must hear version!!!

Even stronger is the following 13 minute Life Saving Gun! You know the Piper I raved about from Forest hills? Apply that to this LSG. An absolute monstrosity, crushing everything, at warp speed and with more energy than a nuclear power plant. Holy moly. Even better it goes type 2 in the end for a couple glorious minutes. Absolutely must hear!!! Insane reading!!!

Finally we get a much needed respite with a very very nice Waste, before a nearly flawless version of Fluffhead brings the set to a close in the most majestic and celebratory manner. Another a+ reading for 2025. Maybe not must here but hot damn is it as fantastic as any other played this year!!!!

Hot encore of Golgi into a typically nuclear Rock and Roll. Heck yes.

All in all, this was ANOTHER very strong show! Honestly, my nitpicks would set one are probably just in my dumb head, and the second set is, again, ANOTHER 2025 monster!! Oblivion straight through LSG is just one SLAMMER after another!!!

Add that Disease to the all timer list. Thats gotta be "top 10 of 3.0/4.0" worthy. You better make sure you have your spacesuit handy before you listen to this one. And don't forget the Oblivion just prior - it's way better than I could describe. Never mind the heavy and crushing versions of Light and LSG...

I'd probably rate this show a solid 4.3 ish, maybe. Set one would get like a b+, set two would be close to an a+. So balances out.

ON TO THE TWEEZER FEST WE GO  

2025-07-25 Saratoga Springs, NY

 Finally a decent listening job today!

7 25 25 Saratoga

Set 1

Really fresh choice of First Tube to open the show. Why isn't this a show opener more often?? It works great!! Good stuff!

Then immediately we go into a nearly 21 minute Gin, setting the tone that tonight is going to be one of THOSE nights!!! Unfortunately, as expected, its one of those "10 minutes longer than it needs to be and does absolutely nothing with its time" versions. To be fair, playing energy and tightness wise, it is excellent. And the peak is about 2 minutes long and absolutely nuclear, the brownie points for that. But the majority of the jam is them just stuck in that upbeat melodic Bliss rock that gets boring after about 3 minutes. Others will call this must here and I can see the merit, but for me personally this is a complete snooze and a skip. What I'm saying is, I can acknowledge its excellence, but for my personal preference it's a piece of crap.

ALSO, Good golly this is the worst mix of the summer by far!!! What in the hell is going on?!?!? It's just a wall of noise making it very hard to distinguish separate instruments aside from the constantly rattling symbols and when Trey is ripping. I THINK Page does some cool synth work at one point, but I really absolutely can't tell (for real) because the mix is so horrendous that you LITERALLY cannot hear him. He is inaudible!!! There is no excuse for this crap! UGH!!

Thankfully The inspired setlist calls continue with the following Devotion to a Dream! A really excellent reading, super high energy and rocking. Great stuff. Aside from the mix!! Listen to the first half of this - Page is INAUDIBLE. Not low in the mix, but INAUDIBLE. Eventually he is heard, but then Trey takes over the mix slack and it becomes extremely hard to hear him!!! This mix is so bad it's absolutely distracting in the most negative way.....

Thankfully things KINDA get acceptable soundwise for The Well. Another a+ song choice, this is a typical type 1 reading, nothing more nothing less. Excellent regardless. For the love of God though jam it out again please!!!

And the hits keep comin with a 9 minute BOAF. And this sucker just EXPLODES!!! One of those versions that just slowly builds and builds abd builds until you reach a point where you are slowly beginning to think "holy freaking crap". Absolutely must hear - some definite x factor at play!!!

Following a strong, and very welcome, Strawberry Letter 23, The Old Home Place and Lawn Boy give us a very nice respite before the next must hear of the show.

Hey Stranger is OFF THE HOOK tonight!!! Very lengthy (about 13 minutes!), this one is a complete funk WORKOUT from start to finish. Page is going nuts with the Clav (right?), making a funky, soupy base. Trey then comes and patiently robo wahs his way to oblivion. One of those slow build readings that stays in one zone but does so with absolute aplomb. Again, definitely x factor in play on this one. MUST HEAR!!! THIS IS SICK!!!!

The set proceeds to close on a RIPPING Walls of the Cave. Nothing special but a great, high energy choice. Strong enough to call must hear! They friggin go for it!!!! Damnnnnnnnn. Antelope territory big time on this one!

All in all, this was a very strong set from start to finish!! Super high energy and rocking from start to finish. Definitely among the very best first sets of the whole summer, made even better with the inspired and colorful song selection and flow. Never mind the actual playing.

There isnt THAT much thats must hear, but everything was genuinely at a base level excellent level of quality. Not a single weak link and a raging time from start to finish!!! One of my favorite first sets of the summer!!!

I would say Birds, Stranger and Walls are must hear, but most would include Gin as well. First sets dont get that much better than this!!! 

 

Set 2

An 18 minute SYSF into a 30 minute Chalkdust. My god.... Set Your Soul Free is terrific. Easily the strongest reading since god knows when. Super powerful and high energy, there is a ton of OOMPH to this one. Like a perfect 3 act play, it begins with a great kind of dark and tense psychedlic zone. Synths and robi wah, etc. Then it shifts upwards into fantastic bliss rocking, leading to a very large peakish kind of section. From there it gets psychedelic again, staying light this time. Just morphing and flowing, effect in play, etc. Extremely cool! Finally winding down, they successfully (though very awkwardly) shift into Chalkdust.

Chalkdust is a beast, of course. The song itself rips, smashing the door in forcefully. Immediately going type 2, it spends the majority of its time exploring every shade of abstract but blissful jamming imaginable. Very psychedelic and hazy, but also incredibly tight and FLOWING! This is one of those jams where it feels like one instrument played by 4 people as one. Tons of rhythmic shifts, wacky sideways up and down, this that abd the other, while staying upbeat. This goes all the way to the 18 minute mark. True strangeness creeps in with a wacky skippy beat and obtuse sideways synths, loops, bass fx...It goes full "upbeat Melt" on our asses!! Love and light meltdown destruction!!! Thats pretty unique!! LOADED with x factor magic, add this to the all timer list. An absolutely ridiculous and strange kind of "screwed up jazz" reading of Chalkdust. For the next 4 minutes, we descend into the wormhole from heaven. ENTER THINE VORTEX ALL YE WHO HATH CHOSEN ADVENTURE!!!!!! Out of the wormhole we morph into a VERY hard rocking section like butter. This builds to the expected hose explosion of a thousand suns. Picture the 2022 Bangor Disease - times 10,000. My effing god. The final 4 minutes see them shift again into this cool lowkey kind of skippy jam for a while. It slowly winds down and they organically morph flawlessly into Sea of Stars. Beyond Alzheimer reading right here, this makes the Mexico 2024 Godzilla Stomp version sound like child's play.

There is none more epic than the 2022 SPAC Chalkdust.....

Sea of Stars is gorgeous and works so amazingly well, winding down and naturally segueing perfectly out into a 12 minute Piper.

And OH MY SWEET UNHOLY MOTHER OF SATAN'S OUTER SPACE BUTTHOLE.
GOAT. GOAT RIGHT HERE OF THE MODERN AGE. GOAT TIMES 1000. CASE CLOSED. 100,000 NUCLEAR BOMBS AND 5,000 NASA SPACE SHUTTLES ARE NOT EVEN IN THE SAME UNIVERSE AS FAR AS THE INTENSITY AND SPEED AND HOSE EXPLOSION INSANITY OF THIS JAM. EVEN WITH PHISH 1.0 I HAVE NOT HEARD ANOTHER JAM APPROACH THIS LEVEL OF BRAIN EXPLOSION.

Um.... What can you possibly say when no words in the English language (or any other for that matter) can accurately describe and depict the events unfolding in this Piper?? Piper, is heavy, and grimy and fast and beyond ripping. Beyond nuclear. Beyond Jesus. Beyond anything your mortal brain can't even fathom.

If you have not heard this, stop what you were doing right now. Stop playing with your child, stop whatever important business transaction you're currently conducting, take your hands off the wheel and crash your car... Whatever you need to do to hear this Piper do so immediately.

APPARENTLY ITS POSSIBLE TO TRAVERSE OUTER SPACE WITHOUT A SPACE SUIT!

You know how I go on constantly about how 2023 was the year of pedal to the metal full-blown floor it Phish? There isn't a single jam in 2023 that even approaches the mind-altering intensity of this one performance. With this Chalkdust>Sea of Stars>Piper Trifecta we have officially blasted through the ceiling that is Mexico 2024 in terms of what the benchmark is to reach for in terms of modern Phish.

This was a masterpiece. This trio was beyond a masterpiece. What is beyond a masterpiece?!

I give up with this band I swear, every time they top themselves, they somehow come along again and top themselves 10 times harder. ....

Bringing us back to terra firma, it's like a kick in the teeth getting slammed with a 15 minute Everythings Right. I just mean that they took us so far out into the land of.....whatever, that it's like "huh?! What?!", getting shaken awake, haha. A terrific reading, the song is extra powerful. Wonderful laid back jamming to start with great connection between everyone, eventually turning into the expected cheerful type 1, again slowly building serious heat and rocking to a close. Maybe not essential, but damn is it great regardless and a perfect set capper.

Smashing encore of killer readings of Loving Cup and Antelope. Nothing to say. Great as always. What CAN you say after what we just heard?!

Now THAT was set of the year. F me, that trio of Dust through Piper has to be worth of being among at least the 50 greatest sequences in their entire career. They did it. They officially destroyed the benchmark of Mexico 2024.....

SYSF is fantastic and essential, but is absolutely laughable in the wake of what follows. That is beyond insane. That Chalkdust makes Mex 24 look like Lawn Boy .......It doesnt matter what else gets played this year. Jam of the Year, and maybe the last 5, is right here....

The nearly 4.5 rating on .NET is actually perhaps underrating this.