06/05/09 Phish @ Jones Beach Amphitheater, Wantagh, NY

Set 1: Wilson, Buried Alive, Kill Devil Falls, AC/DC Bag, I Didn't Know, My Friend My Friend, Ya Mar, Theme from the Bottom, Boogie On Reggae Woman, Split Open and Melt
Set 2: Down With Disease > Twist, Piper > Backwards Down The Number Line, Free, Twenty Years Later, Also Sprach Zarathustra, Slave to the Traffic Light
Encore: A Day in the Life

Great show, horrible weather. I remember thinking the rising waters were going to consume us all during the oceanic tunes Theme and Melt. Other highlights included Buried Alive, I Didn't Know, the debut of the appropriately dreary Twenty Years Later, and 2001.

06/04/09 Phish @ Jones Beach Amphitheater, Wantagh, NY

Set 1: Grind, The Divided Sky, Ocelot, The Squirming Coil, Punch You in the Eye, Dirt, NICU, Ghost, Run Like An Antelope
Set 2: Water in the Sky, Birds of a Feather, Drowned > Meatstick, Time Turns Elastic, Waste, You Enjoy Myself
Encore: Rock and Roll

The second night of the Jones Beach run featured one of my favorite songs in the opening slot, played much better than the last time I saw it at Coventry. Ghost, Drowned > Meatstick and the Rock & Roll encore were the highlights of the night.

06/02/09 Phish @ Jones Beach Amphitheater, Wantagh, NY

1: Runaway Jim, Foam, Stealing Time From The Faulty Plan1, Timber (Jerry the Mule), Cities, Driver, Reba, Possum, Farmhouse, If I Could2

2: Mike's Song > Simple > Wolfman's Brother > Weekapaug Groove, When the Circus Comes to Town, Kill Devil Falls1, Harry Hood, Loving Cup

Encore: Suzy Greenberg

1First Time Played

2Last Played 6/28/2000 (101 Shows)

It didn't take too long into Phish's return to catch a local run. As luck would have it, they booked three nights at the site of my first concert ever, with this first date being added to the initial summer tour dates on the same day that Fenway was announced. Like Fenway, the first night at Jones featured a pre-show rainbow. This was my dad's first show, and they encored with a song whose lyrics he likes to bring up when diminishing the band. He and his buddy, Deadheads from way back, enjoyed the show, despite both taking a brief nap midway through the second set.

05/31/09 Phish @ Fenway Park, Boston, MA

Set 1: The Star Spangled Banner1, Sample in a Jar, The Moma Dance, Chalkdust Torture, Ocelot2, Stash, Bouncing Around the Room, Poor Heart, Limb By Limb, Wading in the Velvet Sea, Down With Disease, Destiny Unbound3, Character Zero 

Set 2: Tweezer > Light2, Bathtub Gin, David Bowie, Time Turns Elastic2, Free, The Ballad of Curtis Loew4, You Enjoy Myself 

Encore: Cavern, Good Times Bad Times, Tweezer Reprise 

1Performed a cappella from the pitcher's mound 

2First Time Played 

3Last Played 2/28/2003 (52 Shows) 

4Last Played 8/2/1993 (620 shows)

After failing to catch the Phish from Vermont at their ballyhooed return gigs in Virginia earlier in the year, we embarked to Boston for the weekend to see their first ever performance at one of the oldest baseball stadiums in the country, Fenway Park. I was so excited for the show that I could barely sleep the night before. When we finally entered the stadium, we were awash in baseball lore. The scoreboard proudly proclaimed, "PHISH."

The start of the show was briefly delayed by rain, but soon a rainbow appeared over the stadium, and the foursome emerged from the dugout and convened at the pitcher's mound for an a cappella rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner." The remainder of the show was average at best, though bust outs of "Destiny Unbound" and "The Ballad of Curtis Loew" placated the song hunters. Plenty of favorites were played, and it was great to see the band once again, and take my girlfriend to her first show.

All too soon, the show ended and we began the arduous late night drive back to New York to catch some rest for the next couple weeks, which would be jam packed with music and travel.

03/08/09 Drive to Hampton, VA

On the final day of Phish's comeback shows at the intergalactic Hampton Coliseum, we decided on a whim to drive down without tickets to bask in the glow and it was glorious. The early March day was unseasonably warm and though we caught no music, a carefree day in the sun was a welcome respite, and set the tone for an extra Phishy year.

07/30/03 Phish @ Tweeter Center, Camden, NJ

Set I: My Friend My Friend, Lonesome Cowboy Bill1, Scents and Subtle Sounds, You Ain't Going Nowhere2, Spock's Brain, Chalkdust Torture, On Your Way Down, Fast Enough For You> Taste
Set II: Twist, Bug, You Enjoy Myself, Walls of the Cave
Encore: Secret Smile
1 First since 10/31/98 or 169 shows
2 First time played

This was my first Phish show. I wouldn't get to many more until 2009, since they called it quits in 2004.

My friend who had been doing the entire tour, as Phish fans are apt to do, called me up on the day of the show and offered to drive me down. I was basically broke at the time, but I decided to empty my bank account to see the band with whom I had been steadily becoming obsessed.

Somewhere in Israel, my tastes turned from pop punk and third wave ska to jam. Maybe it was Boombamela and maybe it was the mescaline-infused hike through the hills, but I would soon be sucked irrevocably down the proverbial rabbit hole of improvisational rock music.

That shift in the winds came to a crux at this concert, featuring the band at the pinnacle of the modern jam scene.

I wasn't too familiar with the band's extensive canon yet, but I recognized a few songs. In retrospect, knowing far more now than I did then, the set list was rife with rarities and interesting selections.

I recall hacky sacking in the grassy lot with a ballet dancer, drinking beers bought out of a random cooler, selling cigarettes to finance my friend's touring, and wondering what was up with all those balloons.

While standing on line for a burrito after the show, someone gave me two free tickets to the next night's show, also in Camden. Emotionally and financially drained, I passed the tickets on. I still regret that decision, but the return of the band in 2009 certainly softened the blow.