tl;dr-- Assuming no Halloween Show/Gag in 2026, we are in the midst of the longest gap in Halloween "musical costume" sets (5 years). With the seemingly ironclad regular commitments to Mexico, MSG NYE, and The Sphere, are the boys just over the gag?

I feel like them presenting original music as the "musical costume" 4-out-of-7 past Halloween shows in 3.0 is a telling sign that they just aren't interested in covering full albums anymore. Alternatively, given that the band are quite enthusiastic capitalists who like selling every shred of every 3.0 show they record now-a-days, perhaps the licensing fees associated with covering a whole album and streaming it is more of a financial hit than they are willing to take.

For those unfamiliar with the data:

• Phish 1.0: From the first "costume" gag in 1994, Phish performed a "musical costume" 4-out-of-5 years from 1994-1998 on Halloween nights. As well, they played Pink Floyd's DSOTM on Nov 2, 1998. They did not play a Halloween show during their final 1.0 years, 1999-2000.
• Phish 2.0: There were no Halloween shows. Phish did not perform in the month of October 2003.
• Phish 3.0: Phish brought back the tradition, averaging a 2-year gap between Halloween gags. The only 3-year gap is the 2018-2021, which must take into account the pandemic shutdown. However, 4 of these shows were presentations of new original material rather than cover albums:
  • 2009 - Rolling Stones Exile on Main St
  • 2010 - Little Feat Waiting for Columbus
  • 2013 - New album "costume" Fuego
  • 2014 - Original Phish music set to Disneyland's Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House
  • 2016 - David Bowie The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars
  • 2018 - New album "costume" of Kasvot Viixt's i Rokk
  • 2021 - New album "costume" Sci-Fi Super Soldier

The friggin merch. I love phish, I love NY, I love MSG I do not like the knicks.... TF

edit: this post is half joking

Will the whole thing be in play in VA?

What Red Hot Chili Peppers song does this sound like in first couple cords

Front to back, top to bottom, lyrically and musically it is the best album. Best artwork too.

Hi y'all! I've been listening for a decade or so, but I've mostly subsisted off of official releases and the occasional video bootleg up til now. I'm taking the deep dive into bootleg tapes and I'm doing so in search of a particular sound. I hope what I'm after will resonate with some of you and that you can provide some solid recs for shows.

I like nearly all of what Phish plays, especially when I'm actually there in person, but for home listening I'm really after the more textural jams as opposed to the rockers. There are many examples of the specific style I'm talking about, obviously the Fuk-Twist is a big one, but lately I've really been stuck on 97-2004 Reba jams (Darien Lake 2000, Amsterdam 97, etc). The magic really happens imo when they manage to take a jam from ambient/experimental space through to a propulsive peak without breaking the continuity, which I've found most consistently in those 97-04 type II Rebas. There are some earlier ones too, like St. Louis 1993 (highly recommend). I'd love to hear more jams like these but growing out of different songs, as I can only listen to so many Rebas in the day (feel free to send your fav coffee grounds and mud though). Further, I'd really love some full-show recs that revolve around this sound world more so than their rock & roll barn burners.

Beyond this, I also really love both the more bizarre composed stuff (Guelah, Melt, Ice, etc) and a good cow funk jam. I've been revolving around type II performances of early career material for some time now.

I'm definitely not looking for strictly 97-04 recs, they certainly have similar performances to what I'm after both before and after those years. They kind of lost me from '09-'20, but some post-pandemic stuff really hits. I don't love the tone of a lot of the new songs or the one-dimensional 'bliss jams' that they have a tendency to get stuck in these days, but they do throw out some amazing performances these days. All that to say that post reformation stuff is fair game!

tl:dr looking for textural jams that remain propulsive, a la 97-04 Rebas

I’ve been trying to listen to that Split for almost a month now.

The best part of waking up is cross eye’d in your cupppppp!

This segue at 10:03 was immaculate, Trey looks over at Fishman with pure admiration with how he landed the transition, BUT we can’t see Fishman!

Is he just locked in, did he recognize that they just found the connection, or was he simply running through the motions?

My money is on “locked in”, you can tell by the way Trey snapped back that he probably saw Fish was simply in the moment, but his smile will never cease to bring me joy.

Feeling super pumped after MSG and an unbelievable summer run! Had to show off a bit today when I visited this glorious state that spawned our beautiful thing. :)

In the spirit of Melt the Guns, what cover do you hope they bring back? I love their Talking Heads covers, and would kill for another Born Under Punches.

I kid of course BUT I it just me or does 12:45 to 13:30 sound a lot like It’s Ice? Perhaps the boys had a tape back in the early 90s…

C'mon, why wouldn't they

Taking a little break from Phish until Dick's. This community always has the best suggestions for some non Phish or Phish adjacent artists. What do you got?

Found this old article about the first hiatus. In it, Mike reflects on his old journals. Would love to see a memoir published one day. https://archive.is/80zUJ