I locked myself out of my hotel room, so, instead of getting help, I’m gonna write this review. Overall, great show and a super fun time.

Cathy’s Crown is the reason I don’t try to guess openers anymore. It’s futile. You are doomed to fail. I will bet my life savings (all $11.46) that not a single soul in the audience had this tune on their radar to be in any Phish setlist. However, the unpredictably of this band is why we all love them, and this was a real nice opener. The retirement home of Deadheads next to me loved it & gave me some history, so I quickly loved it too.

With that, we were quickly reminded that the boys had some unfinished business to attend to, and we dove straight into Tweezer Reprise. Carini (which I was somewhat surprised to hear) kept the heads banging, and the jam had a great peak with uncharacteristic Set 2 energy. Phish didn’t come to play. Well, they did, but they didn’t. I’m hungover.

AC/DC Bag was fun, and Moma Dance was groovin’ & more comical than usual (if you like Fish banter, you’ll love this one). Great Theme, dirty Meat, rippin’ Home (I like that song more now after hearing it live), really well-built jam in Gin, and a solid WoTC to close an energetic and jammin’ first set.

CA&M got everyone in a good mood for the rest of the 2nd set. The boys took their time with the DwD jam and explored a lot of space, which included 2 modulations for you theory nerds & lots of introductions of new sounds to the jam to keep things interesting. It never really peaked, but not all jams have to peak (emphasis). If you’re looking for one song to kinda head-bop to for a good amount of time, definitely put this one on.

Thought the S&SS w/ intro was really well placed, the song kinda brought things down but another solid jam followed. Starting with Wilson, the set took a pretty different turn, moving away from long jammers and into the same sort of energetic heavyweights that we heard in S1. They were all well-performed, with Hood being the glow stick moment a lot of us were waiting for. By the way, I was pretty hype we got a FYF.

My buddy was dying to hear Fee, and I thought his eyes were gonna pop right out of his sockets when he heard the drum beat. Great encore tune. Yeah, Trey fucked up the lyrics and his megaphone wasn’t cooperating, but 1) it was awesome that they played the song in the first place, 2) it’s Trey, what else is new, and 3) this is a LIVE BAND & shit happens. You have an issue with it, go phuck yourself (and your face).

Trey: “I think we have time for a couple more.”
Audience: “OH FUCK YEA”

I really like the stuff on Ghosts of the Forest, so it was cool to hear A Life Beyond the Dream. Wouldn’t have held up as an encore on its own, but being sandwiched between two great tunes made it a pretty cool moment. Standard final song with First Tube, non-standard Trey running around the stage like a maniac and terrifying everyone by holding his koa guitar above his head like that. High entertainment value tho.

No one thinks it’s weird that I’ve been sitting outside my hotel room for over a half hour. I’ll see you in the lobby, or if you miss me I’ll be at N2. L8r sk8rz.

This was a solid show and bodes well for the rest of the tour! Without a doubt, Phish has kept the energy up from the awesome Camden run.

Tweezer Reprise > Carini is an ideal way to get folks raging, and is followed by standard versions of AC/DC Bag and The Moma Dance. I thought they were going to go deep on the Moma Dance to follow up the monstrous SPAC 2016 version, but it wasn't the case. Meat is tasty, and Home has a funky jam at the end. I thought the set would end with Bathtub Gin, but we get a ripping Walls of the Cave!

Down with Disease wins jam of the night. I thought I was getting abducted by aliens just listening to it thru Mixlr! Next we get a Scents and Subtle Sounds with the intro. This is a song I'm still chasing after 21 shows. Twist > Wilson > Scent of a Mule > Fuck Your Face > Halley's Comet was a nice run of 1.0 songs in the fourth quarter, but none of them went deep. Harry Hood is what we were all waiting for. Let the glowsticks soar!

Fee is a great choice for an encore, but I was hoping they'd save it for Boston. Trey, like normal, screws up the lyrics! A Life Beyond The Dream is a pleasant new ballad, and First Tube sends the crowd home pumping their fists. I really liked this show! There was plenty of 1.0 classics, one great type II jam in Disease, and a longer than average encore. I would give it 4 stars.

Alright! SPAC N1! I had no idea what Cathy's Clown was, but the fine elderly woman next to me was living her best life, so to each his/her own. A little funny banter about Mike's pants which had clownfish on them being the inspiration and then we get our Tweeprise to get the crows going. Oh, and then you know what? How about Carini in the 3 spot? Jam goes into some alternating minor and major jamming but overall is mellow and beautiful. Bag is bag, the show is already on the road at this point and then MOMA brings some more really funny banter from everyone as Fish forgot when to start singing so they just kept playing sans lyrics for a few minutes and peppering the jamming with more banter, honestly a really great must listen version. Gin is short and sweet and WoTC is rocking as usual.

Set 2. Disease goes into some deep, deep space exploration and is the jam of the night IMO. A real taste of space. Scents with intro! FINALLY! And the rest of the set flowed together so nicely. You could tell they were having a great time on stage and huge shoutout to the balcony people for our Fee with non functioning megaphone to boot.

See ya for N2!

Great Banter here after Cathy's Clown, in Moma and swear from Trey during the stumble in Fee.

First set had stunning energy. Carini came in hot with great momentum. AC/DC Bag also at a great pace ( I feel like this song can be a little slower sometimes ). Trey absolutely shredding the solo section, this bag sounds straight out of the early 90s. Moma Dance was almost a Black Eyed Katy, I love that they can laugh at themselves and have fun through the stumbles. You dont get to where they are without embracing stuff like that. Theme was well played, nice soaring jam. Meat was nasty and gritty. Love this tune. Home JAMMED! happy to see that song get well played AND jammed. Gin & WOTC are always staples, nothing to out of the ordinary to my ear.

Cool Amber & Mercury needs to jam eventually. My favorite KV tune I think. Disease almost wins for jam of the night until SASS comes in hot with the intro. Scents and subtle jams, light and breezy before it picks up its a nice rocking pace. Twist great jam. Rest of the show was pretty standard but well received fan favorites.

Enjoy Night 2, See you folks at Alpine !

Night 1 gave us all a surprise from the get go. The show started with a Everly Brothers Cover - my two friends had to run to the bathroom and missed it. I was on the lawn with a head full of

July 2nd, 2019 marked the beginning of a two-week romp through the northeast United States (and eastern Canada) chasing Phish around and catching up with likeminded friends, with the ultimate destination being a visit with my family in Moncton.

The first stop was Saratoga Springs, New York, which was a pretty darn fine start to the journey if you ask me.  Saratoga Springs is just such a pretty little town rife with history, attractions, and beautiful brick buildings around every corner (and behind every tree); it’s the site of the first equine racing track in America (it’s still there), home to what was once the largest hotel in the world in the Grand Union (it’s now a supermarket, also called Grand Union which apparently is just a coincidence*), birthplace of the unfortunate author of the harrowing true tale Twelve Years a Slave, and not only where the potato chip was invented (a fact that is oft reported in these missives) but also reputed to be where the club sandwich was first devised**.

My goodness, who could ask for anything more?

For those that do, Saratoga Springs also has a really cool amphitheatre that is plunked in the middle of a forested state park and surrounded by natural springs that spout forth healing groundwater, and this is where Phish began to play, beginning at about 8pm.

They opened with Cathy’s Clown by The Everly Brothers…a first-timer and a song I’m pretty confident will never be played by them again (not that it wasn’t good).  It made me wonder…who picked this particular song, and why?  And moreover, at what point did they run the idea by the rest of the band, and finally, when did they learn it?  As a semi-amateur performer myself I can suggest two musical truths: 1) it generally takes little-to-no time at all to learn an old three-chord rock & roll song, and 2) however simple a song may be a band should probably go over it a few times before stepping in front of a festival crowd (and a forest of microphone stands).  

So, was it just an hour before going onstage or was the song suggested a week earlier?  Or maybe the night before?  Either way, kudos to the band for making the effort in a climate where most bands don’t bother learning more than twenty-five of their own songs for an entire tour.

Anyway, once they wrapped up Cathy’s Clown they stuck to more familiar material for the rest of the night and delivered an exceptional show which by this time crosses my memory as a bit of a blur.  I recall a couple of people jumped onstage during the second set (in separate incidents), a set that the band closed with one of my faves in Harry Hood.

At the end of the night m’lady and I walked through the darkened park to our Inn at Saratoga where we started with social drinks on the welcoming front porch and ended in our friend’s room in the freestanding cottage that sat next to (but was part of) the inn.  The night eventually got a little late - through no fault of our own - but m’lady and I pulled the plug well before daylight, which was a pretty great idea but again, not really our call. 

*As if.

**Why every menu in town doesn’t offer a club sandwich with a side of Saratoga chips (as they call them) as the local special is both beyond my comprehension and why I’ve never ordered it.

toddmanout.com

Not sure why this one got such a great review Not the 4.0 rating of god were they in my opinion more like a 3.5 show-but I didn’t really do it justice I only talked about the first four songs and then I went to sleep the beginning did not rivet my mind that’s for sure or keep my attention so I drifted off but today I listened to the rest of it and that Trey 2 note tease two different guitar notes from Camden n3 teased it during Meat and again during Twist and that was fun because that harkened back to the best show of the tour last nights tour at Camden. I did love the opener and I like doing a billboard top number one song from the 60s that nobody knows NOW but everyone knew then that’s a really cool idea and it was a quirky song so it fit phish repertoire very well and I’m sure the lyrics were meant for somebody in the audience they doesn’t like or something I don’t particularly like the lyrics myself because I can’t relate to them I always want to kiss my wife and I will never stop loving her and to stop loving doesn’t make sense to me so I don’t like what the song is about but I love that they are still doing covers they can do covers all night as far as I’m concerned because I’m tired Of certain songs specifically Julius character zero bouncing around the room poor heart friends not singular the plural from big boat lifeboy bug death don’t hurt very long basically Any song that is anti-God or atheist stick or agnostic in theme the only anti-God song that I love and I actually do love is Olivia’s pool that is a great funk song and I just tolerate the lyrics because it rocks so cool-and a few others I just would rather never hear again time turns elastic that can go to nowhere land like Friday they need to take the Friday jam the guitar solo at the end from 12 2803 in Florida and just do that by itself without the beginning four minutes then the song has potential but otherwise shelf the fuck out of it not even Texas deserves that crap OK so back to the show specifics the AC/DC bag had a very nice opening very mellow it reminded me of the Nutter Center 97 version the only song that got me really start being interested was meat meat was a great version so for me to start the show started with meat that’s where the energy actually got good there was a really big flag during both mama dance and Phoebe and because feed and have a jam at the end like it did 69 2009 in Camden you never made up for the lyrical flubs Trey just said fuck really loud and it was they were just off tonight I don’t know why people think this was a good show they were not in their element they were nervous and fucking up all over the place the bathtub gin was the highlight of the first set the walls walls always rocks but this Walls wasn’t anything special neither was the bathtub but it was the best thing in the first set well actually home was the best thing in the first set it had a I think the first time they’ve ever jammed it and you can jam anything they did it with lawn boy which really surprised us and now they did it with birds of a feather finally home wasn’t by no means 20 minutes long but it was really fun so I will only remember home from the show the down with disease was really really good but it almost always is fuck your face is obviously going to appeal to the crowd but it wasn’t a great placement and it wasn’t anything special because it was in a bad show and the Harry hood was great but short and sweet not expansive opener or ended parts I like they played the whole SASS I have a softspot for that song I thought it was gonna be the last set song I ever heard when they broke up 2004 And the first time I ever heard it at Camden the 30 minute version blew my freaking mind. So a recap home and meet and bathtub that three song chunk is worth listening to the downward disease is worth listening too and first tube is always amazing but the encore sucked and I know I love fee but it was a bad fee all in all I do not get the fish fans this time do not understand where they’re coming from Just because it’s a SPAC show doesn’t make it great automatically if they are off their game. Ummm they pissed in our ears tonight bittersweetly lol. Still waiting for a Dont you want to go >let’s go opener

I CAN SEE that the original version was better I SAW IT AGAIN at blossom not knowing or caring About ghost of the forest or his solo project nonsense the 18 steps to bar 17 two I don’t care anymore you need to find yourself the first time out to Blossom they had inspiration I Believed in I can see the life beyond the dream is caring only about your family and not giving a shit about the fans I get it just like Joy was only good at Camden in 2009 the 1st our and has not been “joy”ous since sometimes their songs are only good the first time out and they need to go away or they can come back as amazing ballads but they have to be rare Don’t even call it a ghost of the forest song it’s Wading in the velvet sea or sleeping monkey it has that sample in a jar or Enter whatever song that has a big guitar solo unlike typical jamming style but it leads as TREY all about electric guitar u and ur wanna be Dylan and Lennon and Clapton rolled into Boston There are elements of Boston that I love but that’s where I am I’m a child of the mall story sorry the New Jersey kid from the 80s is a part of American history were coming tough shit Golgi apparatus is already here He may be a narcissist he may be an alcoholic he may be a OPium thc and lsd addict. Idc anymore he makes the best Music I’ve ever heard and I’ve listen to Stevie Wonder the Beatles Bach Jimi Hendrix Clapton even Clapton doesn’t reach the Everest Peaks I’ve heard fish and even just trey with Dave Matthews and a couple other bands reach. This band does have staying power keep having that since humor keep forgetting what us the fans tell you and keep having fun keep living in the moment and you might just out live Jerry Garcia’s legacy and Lifespan. Now onto a play-by-play they love the song play by play part of their gag Scandinavian album so here we go Cathy’s clown great soul song By the Everly Brothers a want to be a black band during the 1960s I get it you’re mad at your fans then fuck you we are remember that we forgot to play tweezer. So we get a sloppy reprise Then into a really good Carini he’s going to get you and he has it on his head oh yes walrus All over that head of his then we get the AC/DC bag which starts out really weird and I like it really jazzy really early phish but they lose themselves somewhere through it and don’t even remember that they’re playing mama dance well John Fishman doesn’t remember what song is playing either spaced out or just didn’t care yes it is the mama dance not what it may otherwise sound like because they love to do Sounds like tricks like in character zero is it I see the man malke or is it hard to see the man malke. Who knows who cares It makes us the fans dance and it makes them the band laugh at our ignorance and confusion this first that was so bad I can’t even get through it I’ll give you the recap of the rest of the show tomorrow spoiler alert it was not a good show