Set 1: The first sets from this run have been pretty darn good, and this set continued that vein, peaking with a muscular and sharp Type I 46 Days and a Blaze On that Mike yanks into a minor key jam that nearly dives into Mind Left Body before swinging into a bouncy calypso-adjacent groove and giving us some really killer Trey/Page interplay near the end. Love the 25 year callback to the fabled A Live One Wilson as well. Don’t really love About To Run where it is (one more example of the band working out where the new songs fit in the context of a full show, a thing that plagued many a 2019 setlist), but that’s basically the one and only thing I didn’t love about this show.

Set 2: The second sets from this run have been pretty darn good, and this set.........well, no, this set is something else entirely. Let’s get to it:

1. Tweezer, Phish’s Dark Star (tm @waxbanks), apparently had spent too long outside the spotlight, and with this unbelievable version imperiously returns to its Jam Vehicle King throne. Trey finds a new key pretty quick and a jam of surprising tension develops, Fish urging the fellas on as Trey slathers on the effects to give things a nice murky feel. The band moves into a brand new gear (this will be a theme, you’d think it was 2014 again with the smooth multi-part jams) and Mike gets a chance to shine, then Fish switches up the beat from “skittering” to “let’s fuckin’ go” like the rhythmic monster he is, and a lovely anthemic jam emerges with Trey playing soulful notes and Page really going at it on the keys. Things could’ve easily ended here and everyone would be satisfied, but Mike goes to the envelope filter and another driving and powerful jam emerges, almost akin to the regular Tweezer jam in how dirt nasty it is, and another key change moves us to gentle near-silence and appreciative applause. Great jam, am I right?

Oh, hold on, I said “near-silence”. Fish keeps the beat and Page leads the band into a warm and gentle ambient jam like it’s 1999 all over again, Trey busting out one of his favorite chord patterns, the synths entering to devastating effect. The music builds and swells with power - this is truly inspiring jamming, one of the best segments of the year - and then with some stabbing chords we head into snappy and almost funky territory, Fish finding yet another disgusting beat to get your hips moving and Page moving to 70s-style electric piano. Trey initiates one more key change and both his soloing and the tempo pick up the pace as the 30 minute mark is breached for the second time this year, and the audience roars its approval as one final dark jam emerges, Trey starts playing something Heartbreaker-ish (it turns out to be closer to college theme “Let’s Go Band”, which I know as “Let’s Go Blue” from my Michigan days), and the jam comes to a close. 35 minutes and not a note wasted, pretty good!

2. The already-infamous Pan Story (which Trey obviously did not “just remember”) is a charming and fun bit of business; Jesse Jarnow on Twitter called it “absurdist musique concrète”, and it’s hard to argue with that description. Pretty good year for on-stage banter, huh?

3. Ruby Waves continues its all-timer year as a debut jam vehicle (right up there with 46 Days in 2003), pivoting from minor-key darkness to a delicate staccato piece of business that Mike runs wild through in what feels like a continuation of what they were getting up to in Tweezer. Fish once more pushes the band along - he’s the MVP of the night for me, carrying every jam on his squat and compact shoulders - and Trey fires off some nasty riffs before the jam winds down and ably slides into Steam.

4. They have played some monster Steams during NYE runs - 2011’s, 2013’s and 2017’s, to be exact - but this time Steam serves more as a vehicle for the musical fun portion of the evening, as right out of the final verse Trey slips perfectly into the Tweezer riff and they jam on that for a few measures, and then (a bit less smoothly, but hey) the band rolls back into Ruby Waves and they jam on THAT for a few measures so that you could consider it a Ruby Waves sandwich, another shot of improv for the road. A heavy-duty Slave, one of the best in a hot minute, closes out the set, and also my number of points for Set II, to match the number of songs they played. Oh, and the encore is a good deal of fun as well.

Final thoughts: Heck of a way to (almost) close out the decade, I think. The 12/30 tradition lives on.