“Gotta Review” Phish MSG 12/30/2025 originally posted on Phish.net
***spoiler alert this writing came about as a brain dump last night and is mostly a personal journey through memory lane. was reflecting on my personal life big time so it’s largely not even about 12/30. sharing this simply because it exists. have to imagine reading about people you don’t know can be boring, but maybe if you did read it it would make you think about your own life and friends and family***
It felt really good to be back, especially after the personally intense and challenging year I had. (short story divorce after 17 years and I have a 14 year old son) coupled with the insanity and scariness of 2025 for the world at large in general.
It was the perfect storm. Initially was only going to do NYE, but thanks to a kind .netter that gave the heads up of a rerelease was able to take score one ticket for me and one ticket for my friend since elementary school that is not a phan although I did get him to go 4/21/2022 from section 111 behind the stage what the band sees view. Actually for that run I was working everyday and going to the shows and there was a minor debacle, but meant to be I suppose where I got out of work super late and missed the first set and met him there so his first live Phish set he had to handle by himself. He is a musician that plays guitar and keys and sings. favorite band is radiohead and he is really into LCD Soundsystem. he is also a big Talking Heads fan which will come in to play later. In November we both went with our Moms to see David Byrne at Radio City Music Hall. In middle school he used to dress like Kurt Cobain. bleached his hair, wore a black cardigan, denim jeans with holes in the knees and black cons. also in middle school we were in a cover band together that played exactly one show together at a Presbyterian Church. He played guitar and I played bass. Our other friend played guitar and the drummer went on to play in punk and hardcore bands and even got to tour Europe. Sadly later in life he succumbed to heroin addiction. Anyway that night back in the day I remember we covered Nirvana’s “Pennyroyal Tea” and Bush’s “Machinehead”. He sang both. I don’t remember what else we played, but it had to have been more than two
songs. Maybe so, maybe not (clap clap clap)
For my friend’s birthday this year and last we went to see LCD Soundsytem in Queens at The Knockdown Center. For that situation I was the noob. Great venue if you haven’t been. Last year really enjoyed and this year really really enjoyed because now I knew the songs and became a fan. “Dance Yrself Clean” helped me on my path when I was trying to get sober from my daily habit of cigarettes and marijuana. Knockdown Center is basically an old warehouse. Going through memory lane here, but also saw the Gorilla Biscuits in 2018 there which was a childhood dream come true. Tickets were FREE too which just blows my mind. Gorilla Biscuits are a legendary hardcore band. Small catalog with just one EP and one proper album, but every song is a banger. There is also a bootleg called “Walter Sings” where the lyricist and second guitarist of the band sings the songs instead of Anthony “Civ” Civarelli. After Gorilla Biscuits disbanded Walter helped Civ write his first solo album “Set Your Goals”. That album is perfect too. Civ’s second album doesn’t have Walter’s help and it’s just not as good. Got to see Civ at The Warped Tour in 1998 as a teenager. I was born in October 1982 so was 15 at the time. There was a half pipe at the Knockdown Center and people were skating while the bands were playing. Basically what was great about Warped Tour in 1998 was still happening 20 years later in 2018. What’s wild is this reunion would be one of the original guitarists Alex Brown’s last. He would die unexpectedly from natural causes, an aneurysm and ultimately something called a basal ganglia stroke, not long after that in 2019. While trying to get my facts straight I just came across a beautiful article about him by his friend Rachel that also talks about his life as a fine art painter. Here is a link to that article that shows some of his work and gives personal anecdotes about the man he was:
My friend and I also played in a band again from 2013-2015. Again I played bass, but this time sang and wrote lyrics and he played guitar, sang, and also did some keys. Although for the EP we eventually released we didn’t record the two songs that were ballads where he played keys. One song was about meeting my wife and falling in love and the other about the birth of our son. We only played one show at The Brighton Bar in Long Branch, NJ which is now defunct, but it was early on in the process and was acoustic. We didn’t have a band name at the time, so he suggested for that show we be called “Grandpa’s Guitars” which is a reference to the animated Adult Swim cartoon show Metalocalypse. Sadly we never really made it out of the basement before our bandmate drummer also succumbed to a heroin overdose. Come to think of it both of the drummers were using together. Worried I’m being a bummer, but just stating the facts. Major Input’s drummer was really talented, he just suffered from extreme anxiety and abused substances to cope. The EP we made is on bandcamp at majorinput.bandcamp.com. My friend also came up with the band name we eventually settled on, “Major Input”. It’s a reference to the 1986 movie “Short Circuit” and is what the robot Johnny 5 says after reading an entire book in like five seconds. AI vibes come to mind in 2025.
When that rerelease thread popped up I made a deal with my friend to give him the Phish ticket for December 30th 2025 for the LCD Soundsystem ticket and also the “One Battle After Another” 70mm viewing we went to on December 12th 2025 at the AMC by Lincoln Center. It’s funny because for that April 22nd 2022 show his favorite moment was “2001” because his words “it was the only song I actually knew”. Also his words after the show, “I’ve never seen so many white people dance simultaneously with absolutely no rhythm.” when I got there I asked him how he liked the set and he said he dug “Wolfman’s Brother”. Myself being a diehard Phish fan I couldn’t believe I had missed “TMWSIY>Avenu Malkenu>TMWSIY” and “Esther”. Come to think of it my friend is 1/4 Jewish so I’m surprised he didn’t mention “Avenu Malkenu” although I don’t think he was raised super religious. Funny to think about how lucky he was to get those songs that some phans may never see. When I met him at the show he had his Fear and Loathing Hunter S. Thompson look going in full force! Perfect for a Phish show.
He agreed to go to a second Phish show after having an incredible time at LCD Soundsystem on December 7th 2025 dancing there on his birthday with our mutual childhood and hometown friend and his wife. My first Phish show was with my friend’s bestie when I was sixteen on July 15th 1999 at The Arts Center in Holmdel, NJ. He owns the LA based clothing company Pleasures. I got instantly hooked and him not so much.
My second Phish show the following summer was June 28th 2000 the following summer also at The Arts Center in Holmdel, NJ. That time was with my friend blonde haired friend. The following summer in 2001my nowadays Thor looking friend summer, another friend of ours that I went to the inaugural Bonnaroo with in 2002 that told me to stop taking pictures when I was there because I was being a tourist hahaha, the previously mentioned other guitarist in the middle school band and Major Input, and I all saw Phil Lesh & Friends at The Arts Center. Les Claypool’s Flying Frog Brigade opened. We all ate mushrooms for one of the first times. Safe to say since we were all so young it was very early on in our mind and soul expanding drugs experimentation.
At LCD this year Kurt, Thor, Lady Sif and I were dancing like we would at a Dead or Phish show and we were like magnets. People at that show gravitated towards us and the energy funneled through us and the transcendent communal experience of the soul shakedown party spread like wildfire.
When that kind .netter posted about the re-release for December 30th I gave Thor and Lady Sif a heads up too and because of that all four of us now had tickets together on the bridge section 309. Mentioning the section because I was excited that this time Kurt could experience CK5 more properly from a head on experience.
Or so I thought. Had never been in section 309 and the seats they got were barstools. I actually got a single in the row right before the barstools which is still great for the lightshow, but it turns out for Phish shows those barstool seats are horrendous if you actually want to see the light show. If you are in the barstools you end up staring at the backs of the people in the row just in front of you. Also, the sound is muffled. On the plus side it’s a curtained off lounge behind the barstools so it’s perfect for a dance party. It actually turned out to be the perfect space despite the not so optimal sound or view.
What made 12/30 also a spiritual experience for me was one of my closest friends, we’ll call him “My Attorney” was home for the holidays with his girl who is also the mother of his mini-me clone daughter. Not just in looks either, she is clearly super intelligent as well at the young age of 7. His girl is a compassionate person and thinker too so it tracks. She helps kids in need for the education system in Seattle where they live. My attorney helps new American citizens, immigrants, assimilate into society. He is of Cuban genetics, descent, and his parents are off the boat so that also tracks. They both got tickets to 12/30 on the bridge too so it was all coming together perfectly. Manny is a spinner, a whirling dhervish Sufi energy conduit at shows so dancing space is a priority for him at shows. My Attorney and I went to high school together. He was in all the smart classes so we didn’t have classes together. I wasn’t a school guy. My experience felt more like the 1995 movie with Michelle Pfeiffer “Dangerous Minds”. “Gangsta’s Paradise” indeed. Was a stoner that skipped as much as possible and the books I read and loved weren’t mandated, but recommended by word of mouth. “Jitterbug Perfume” by Tom Robbins, “Dharma Bums” by Jack Kerouac, “Ishmael” by Daniel Quinn, “Siddhartha” by Herman Hesse, “The Peaceful Warrior” by Dan Millman, “The Celestial Prophecy” by James Redfield all were formative. My attorneyand I both had “dreads” in high school spurned on by our love of Robert Nesta Marley and for me the Phish scene.
My Mom was born in 1953 and saw Bob Marley in Central Park. At MSG she saw Jim Morrison and The Doors as a teenager. My ex-wife also loves The Doors. Aldous Huxley’s book “The Doors of Perception” is an early LSD exploration book that takes it’s title from the Christian Mystic Romantic era poet William Blake’s poem that states, “If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is: infinite”. In the book alcoholics are given LSD and they are given roses to contemplate and classical music is put on. Their experiences helped them quit leaning on alcohol as a crutch for their day to day lives. She now says her favorite artist is David Byrne and Talking Heads, but she instilled in me her love of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones (my name is Keith and I have a twin brother named Brian and we were named after Keith Richards and Brian Jones the original Rolling Stones guitarists), Dr. John, Otis Redding, Etta James, James Brown, B.B. King, Stevie Wonder, her wedding song to my biological father was Stevie’s “You Are The Sunshine of My Life”:
You are the sunshine of my life
That’s why I’ll always be around
You are the apple of my eye
Forever you’ll stay in my heart
I feel like this is the beginning
Though I’ve loved you for a million years
And if I thought our love was ending
I’d find myself drowning in my own tears, whoa, oh, oh
You are the sunshine of my life, yeah
That’s why I’ll always stay around, mmm, mmm, yeah, yeah
You are the apple of my eye
Forever you’ll stay in my heart
You must have known that I was lonely
Because you came to my rescue
And I know that this must be heaven
How could so much love be inside of you?
Whoa, whoa
You are the sunshine of my life, yeah
That’s why I’ll always stay around, mmm (baby)
You are the apple of my eye
Forever you’ll stay in my heart, yeah
You are the sunshine of my life, baby
That’s why I’ll always stay around
Although her marriage didn’t last either. Five children total. They married in 1971 and divorced in 1986. I think that’s right. That’s fifteen years. Long story short they were Brooklyn hippie types in the 70’s and by the 80’s Dad, a carpenter, had a side hustle as a criminal specializing in stealing, cocaine dealing, and violence. He may have been bipolar though, who knows? Now that I’m an adult and can barely handle one absolute gift from Heaven, just one kid, I just can’t imagine being a father of five all before the age of 30. My twin brother and I were the last born for my Mom. Just having ONE set of twins is crazy and challenging, although there are the positives too. We kept eachother company. Kids are expensive though and you got to do what you got to do. Probably don’t break laws though because it ends in disaster. He went on to have a second marriage and two more kids. Married the stripper he was cheating on my Mom with. My half brother Nicholas ended up hanging himself in jail. Oddly proud to report though he left behind (well that part sucks) “mixed race” children. Oreos. Half black, half white. Seriously though it makes me smile knowing my family tree is the true American dream, well not the prosperous part, but the melting pot culture and genetics of it all. My half sister also has mixed Spanish children so another win!!! Tried to meet her after my Dad died from lung cancer at the age of 64, but only made it to a couple of phone calls before she balked. On the phone while talking about family history she told me her Mom died of a heroin overdose on the day her first was born. I feel like all I’m writing is horrible dark things, but I swear it’s not all doom and gloom over here. This is a sign to get back to Phish and 12/30 talk.
So being a child of divorce (“Child of Divorce” is the name of one of my previously mentioned friend Major Input’s drummer, album for his progressive metal band “So Is The Tongue”. He got kicked out of that band because of his drug abuse issues. He lived in the same neighborhood as me. Around the block from me. I knew of his drug use because he was also friends with two of my childhood best friends and used to use together. Bustin died on December 30th 2015. He told his parents he was going to see the new Star Wars film “The Force Awakens” that night. I hope he did because it was pretty good, but he also copped at some point. Major Input used to practice in his basement in a room his parents built for his drumming called “The Vault”. Not sure the facts here, but at one point someone told me he died on Kurt’s Fender Rhodes that was in The Vault. Now I’m thinking that may have been a gallows humor joke. Maybe Kurt said there was puke on the keys for some reason? I don’t know because now I’m remembering someone told me Bustin’s Mom found him in his bedroom upstairs when she couldn’t wake him and realized the rigor mortis had set in. Why am I dwelling on all this darkness?…just realizing looking at the start of this paragraph that I wanted to simply say My Attorney and I both bonded because we are children of divorce.
Coming from a broken home was always such an issue for me and now here I am with the same fate. My worst nightmare come true. I’ve been separated for over two years now. My son’s mother came from divorce too. Her parents were Staten Island hippies. Well her Mom was born in 1950. They are The Beatles Generation for sure. Her Mom is incredible though, although nowadays she is battling Alzheimer’s. Her Mom gave me her record collection which included a bunch of Grateful Dead records. She was part of the original fan club. She was a big Jefferson Airplane fan too. Oddly she had a lot of Barbara Streisand records too. Elton John too. She worked at Chemical Bank in NYC. She worked her way up from being a secretary to a loan officer. They eventually offered her an early retirement package. She told me back in, as she says it, “the day” with a sparkle in her green Irish eyes, she would drop acid at work. Yes, at work. At a bank. They called her “Buttercup”. She said she would take lunch breaks and play frisbee in the park. Their marriage broke up because of drugs too. Her father got into heroin and she left him. She said she was always an upper girl. She loved cocaine in the 1980’s. Looking to me like that is a common progression for people of their generation. Maybe that’s where all the gateway drug talk starts about marijuana? Hard to blame pot though, a soft drug for the hard drug use. That’s a choice an individual makes. Could be argued because when pot is illegal and demonized people tried it, realized they were being lied to, then said, well maybe those other drugs aren’t so bad either. What’s crazy to me is just how much heroin surrounds me and impacts my life and I’ve never done it. I’ve tried opiate pills medicinally in the form of percocets and was on them for like two weeks after a hernia surgery so I kind of get it, but I don’t. Those are 5mg and my friends got hooked on oxycontins which were 80mg. So that’s 16 percocets in one pill. I had one once, got all itchy and queasy and hated it thank The Lord. Boy am I off track.
12/30/2025 Phish MSG Holiday Run Night 3
What’s blowing my mind right now is all 20,000 people at Phish on 12/30 including the employees have these similar back stories. Dirty Laundry we aren’t supposed to talk about in public. As dieheard fans we know Trey’s dirty laundry as far as drugs with whispers of Page dabbling in the hard stuff too. All gossip so who knows, but have heard it said Mike was a coke guy at some point. Personally never really hear Fishman hard drug stories, just stories about him taking LSD for like a year straight in college. I guess because I’m traumatized I’m always looking for what trauma made this person like that to try and explain certain behaviors. My Mom was adopted so from the get go she felt like she was unwanted. As relates to Phish Fishman was adopted. Both Trey and Mike’s parents got divorced. I’ve never heard about Page’s trauma. Just hear nice things like his Dad helped invent Tylenol. He is definitely the shy one of the group. He brings the elegance to the band.
Phish to me are a bridge between me and my parents including my Stepfather. He was born in 1958. Zeppelin guy that loves Clapton, Allman Brothers, Yes, and Emerson, Lake, & Palmer. As a fan Phish offered a musical history education. They still do! I didn’t know that “Cream” song by Prince. My soon to be ex-wife did though when I asked her about it today. She used to be my show going partner. We were both kids raised by Rock N Roll loving parents. Having thoughts that people might want to blame Rock N Roll and it’s emphasis on drugs for these broken families and I don’t think that’s the case. Sure The Beatles started their journey on amphetamines, booze, and cigarettes, then found grass, then LSD, then cocaine and heroin crept in. So that’s a model, but the feeling of Rock N Roll is freedom and frenzy. The uncaging of spirit. Sure, it’s not socially conservative and Elvis’s pelvis made waves and pearls were clutched, but Rock N Roll is also a confirmation that there is a soul. These musicians are sharing their spirits with us. There are a lot of love songs in Rock too. Sure there are lust songs too. Now thinking about Phish and how Trey present day post sobriety is accused of writing love and light songs and phans constantly complain about the positivity, but I contend that fans who have been through the wringer of life can relate and appreciate the positivity and love in the songs after such dark times.
While we were on the train ride up My Attorney said he wanted to hear a “Drift While You Are Sleeping”. There is too much hate for this love song on internet message boards. First off, it’s kind of proggy. Has echoes of reggae and 70’s Clapton. When I look at the 12/30/2025 Phish setlist this is the only slow song or ballad and it’s the encore, not even in either of the main two sets. I said I wanted to hear a “Soul Planet”. I have never heard one live. It is considered a cheeseball “Soul Cycle” love and light song by Trey, but it has a solid history of bringing the jams.
Let’s just get to the point and and go song by song of 12/30’s setlist instead of going through some random phan’s friendsand family history:
Set One:
1. Chalkdust Torture: opened the show with arguably Phish’s best and most Rock N Roll song from the early 90’s
2. Moma Dance: Phish 97 funk era song. If you see a lot of shows this song can be played out, but in this show it’s an interesting placement being in a sandwich because they segue in and out of back to….
3. Chalkdust Torture: end of song
4. Back on the Train: More rock and roll chugging along. Bonus points for it deepening the NYE Gag theories and at very least brought associations of Trey and Mike and their PSA for the NYC Metro system
5. Axilla Part II: More high energy rock and roll. On a personal note cathartic for me, well at least had me trying to work out my marital issues in my head with the lines “And I wish it could be back the other way/What’s dissolved ain’t coming back today”-it’s push to have me keep on keeping on. This is dark but in 2023 when my marriage was first falling apart I checked myself into the a brief like six hour stay in the emergency room for thoughts of suicide-the permanent solution to a temporary problem. The easy way out. The selfish act that just passes your sadness along to anyone who has ever loved you. On a non-personal level I just love both Axillas. The first one is post apocalyptic Gamehendge dropping the buzzard, (is that a dead famous mockingbird?) with truly psychedelic lyrics that I wished I asked Trey about for insight when he did the Ask Trey for Sirius XM. Also wanted to know if it is true that when Phish was making Hoist which is seen by the band’s attempt for mainstream popularity that Axilla II was born out of a record executive note and push for them to be less weird than they are and have accessible lyrics. If that is true, well then I have to say that they succeeded. The imagery of sitting by the pool in the summer is a nice setting for this song. Maybe because of the selling out of the original psychedelic Gamehendge adjacent original version is why Axilla II was shelved after being played regularly im 1994 and 1995 until 2021. So like there was a 26 year gap for this. Nowadays it’s the regular version and Axilla I is the rarity. On Hoist though despite this possibility entirely made up selling out theory, Phish still made sure the song was psychedelic by adding the coda not originally associated with Axilla I. This spacey dark matter coda set is the first overtly trippy moment of 12/30/2025
6. Divided Sky: Arguably Trey’s compositional masterpiece when all is said and done. His prettiest. Also Gamehendge adjacent, but lyrically rooted in Trey and Tom tripping on mushrooms (?) (think I heard that ask Trey or Tom) at the Rhombus and the sky opening up. Deeply philosophical phrase, Divided Sky when thinking about “The Man in the Sky”, meaning God, and the Tower of Babel like religions of the world
7. Blaze On: The only 3.0 song of the first set. 2015’s message of hope song is an another modern day rocker. Was really frustrating with the sound in section 309 so decided to do a full lap around the bridge during this song.
8. Tube: lyrics ripped from Fishman’s 1980’s notebook. Funk and dance party song that ends rocking. Convinced my friend Ryan to do a lap with me during this song so he could get different perspectives of the show.
9. Reba: another stone cold Phish classic. Lyrically it is playful, surreal, childlike, funny. The Reba jam, many phans feel like the Reba jam is Phishiest prettiest music. The jam is heavily influenced by Frank Zappa’s “Inca Roads”. When I came back from the lap with Ryan my friend Mike asked me to go for a lap. We were dancing the whole time and what blows my mind is our lap ended perfectly just as we got back to our section just as the Reba Jam ended.
10. Split Open and Melt: another stone cold Phish classic. Lyrically already trippy, complex compositionally, and the jam nowadays is basically Phish’s version of the Grateful Dead’s “Dark Star” adjacent “Space” that in modern times showcases just how psychedelic their lighting director can get. Often feels like Phish is trying or actually is making contact with aliens
Set Two:
1. Ghost: unusual placement, nice!!! from the getgo the band is jamming full on interplay listener to eachother locked in. Not the funk funk funk, but patient jamming, laid back but thoughtful. Cerebral. Same feeling as the next two songs really. Which isn’t a band thing. The flow is on.
2. Ruby Waves: personally I saw the debut of this song in 2008 at a TAB show at The Higher Ground in VT. Honestly without the jam I wasn’t a fan at first. Just seemed cheesey in regards to the thoughts on what happens to you when you die, Now I can appreciate it as one of the first songs that encourages stepping away from active addiction “escaping from the prison of lies” and becoming more in tune and connected to God
3. Light: read this was inspired by Eckhart Tolle and the book “The Power of Now”. So New Age spirituality influenced. “Light” was among the first batch of songs Trey debuted after August 7th 2008 at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn , NY venue capacity of 650. This is one of the few shows i’ve been shut out of. Same day he debuted “Gone” which was played by Phish once in 12-31-2010. It’s a sad song, minor key, about recovery. “When hope is nearly lost, you’ll finally do what’s right, stop bleeding from your head anymore. The devil has you down so turn around and rise into the light.” Can be seen as preach or overly religious for a Phish show. I’ll tell you what though, was lucky enough to see Trey play this solo on piano in 2010 in Princeton as part of an acoustic show that featured The Scorchio String Quintet. It was right after Phish Halloween 2010. In December Trey released an EP of songs from this show for free that is on LivePhish. Another one off song he debuted that night that I love from a singer songwriter standpoint and human being that struggles with addiction is a song called “Julie” that he wrote with I think her name is Amanda Green, the woman he collaborated with for “Hands on a Hardbody” Trey’s Broadway play. There is a video on youtube of it. It’s about getting sober. Back to Williamsburg, he also debuted “Greyhound Rising”. Another serious about getting back in the saddle. “Valentine” with the chorus is “release the ropes around your neck”. I cannot believe Phish has not played this one. I think I read somewhere this was the first song Trey wrote during the early stages of recovery. The images though are very trippy and could be wrong but Trey seems to be writing about what it feels like to be the conduit for thousands of phans collective consciousness and their energy systems all coming together as energy that he processes through this physical body while jamming.
4. Crosseyed and Painless: The first three songs of this set were all building to this peak of explosive energy. Talking Heads were basically coke fueled in the 80’s but still lyrically LSD inspired. This song is about tripping. When this started on 12/30 it worked as a transcendent dance party. Just about everybody I was with was throwing down as hard as they could. Sure seemed like all members of Phish were too. Aggressive. I’m convinced they because my friend Kurt came. This is the moment he actually threw down out a Phish show and enjoyed himself.
5. Twist: A cool down of sorts because let’s be honest that Crosseyed energy is just unsustainable, but still they kept exploring good musically and the whoos were a nice release after the tension of Crosseyed
6. Cavern: Before this started Trey made it sound like this was the closer which Cavern is known for. Cavern, another Phish staple. Rocking with weird trippy lyrics. Surreal. Fantasy. A little funky too of courtesy of Mike’s bass playing
7. First Tube: This is one of the few Phish songs my friend Ryan knows by name. It’s because he learned it on guitar at some point from another one of his phishy friends. He expressed to me before the show he hoped they played this. To fakeout encore and get this bonus just felt like a gift. And it’s atypically exploratory musically like the first three songs of this set.
Encore:
After “First Tube” ended I screamed something like “Feeeeeee, please! I haven’t seen it in like 20 yeeaars! last one I saw was Camden 09 and only one before that was Starlake 03. You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes you get what you need.
Drift While Your Sleeping: Any song that is a dance number gets bitched about being piayed at Phish shows. Phish shows are known for their dance parties. This show as a whole is more cerebral than dance party. It’s one of those shows that has relisten value for when you are by yourself driving, walking, sitting and listening, whatever. Drift is indeed an epic song and the message is about the power of love. it’s not all peaches and cream, but our days are fleeting anyway. “we move through stormy weather, we know that our days are few, and we dream and struggle together and love will carry us though”. I don’t man, i was struggling hard all year and I really needed that song on 12/30 so for me it just showcases how Phish is always one step ahead of its phans. in the words of Robert Hunter:
“What do you want me to do
To do for you to see you through?
A box of rain will ease the pain
And love will see you through
Just a box of rain, wind and water
Believe it if you need it
If you don’t, just pass it on”
To hear phans bashing this show or song is crazy talk to me, and if you have read this you must know i’m well versed in crazy.
Also I was completely sober for this show. I just think when you have tripped in the past you get that spider sense of the x factor. This show is x factor Phish to me. I should concede maybe I’m so high on this show and had such a spiritual experience is because I hadn’t seen them in a while and this was my first show of the run. That being said shows like this are why I go to Phish shows.
Thank you Trey and thank you Phish. I walked out of that show spiritually tuned up and refreshed. God bless and long live The Phish. Post show glow fo sure.
p.s. Thought exercise. If this was the only show you ever saw and could only listen to what does Phish do at other shows that is missing from this one?
Comedy? 20+ minute jams? More ballads? More genre bending? Bustouts?
Patience Belongings 
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