I’m still processing last weekend’s (June 27-28) rollicking two night Phish run in Austin at the Moody Center. The last time the nerdy foursome from Vermont played Austin was on a sweltering July day in 2018 outside and I was in the midst of an on-again/off-again thing that was off who also happened to be at the show. Thankfully he was Page-side and I was Mike-side so we didn’t run into each other on the floor (IYKYK). This time around, totally free of all kinds of bullshit, I was ready to get down in my home town!

Community 

Have you been to a Phish show before? It’s more than the music, it’s more than the sick-as-fuck light show, and it’s more than the silly lyrics. It’s a community. This band built a community starting with their friends and family in Vermont that expanded around the world thanks to the old days where tapers did the work of Bandcamp, Spotify, and Pandora. These audiophiles were allowed to bring their recording devices to shows and record the entire thing. Those cassettes were often traded to other tapers and eventually trickled down to regular people, thus exposing Phish to a wider audience. My first show was in 1997, but life and other musical interests got in the way of digging much deeper until I caught their Austin City Limits Festival set in 2010. I expected a boring, white-bread festival set, and instead was blown away by their musicianship how tight they played compared to my last show in 1999. 

Some Phish friends moved to Boulder in 2012 and invited me to see them play Dick’s Sporting Goods Park that year. Why the fuck not? Going to that 2012 Dick’s run was a solid musical decision, as it gave me much more than a band to dig, but also a community of like-minded weirdos that have impeccable taste in music, some of which I now call friends.

Night 1: Friday June 27, 2025

Set 1:

The lights went down and boom. Fuck me. My seat is damn near behind the stage. Zero view beyond some light shooting out from the side, and horrible sound that was tinny so I moved to a spot in section 213 with a great view of the band and Kuroda’s light wizardry. Say what you want about Phish, but there’s no way you wouldn’t be completely floored by the light show. 

A game Phish fans like to play is “Call the first song” and I’m about 1 million percent sure that not one person called “Crowd Control”. This song was new for me and while I’m not coming away a fan of the song, the message was clear that they needed us to get ready for party time.

Equipment and technology adaptations led the band to strike a new stage formation which seemed like a welcome change for fans and newbies alike. You can still be Page-side-rage-side, but now instead of being Mike-side, you’re Fishman-side, which is pretty neat.

Three songs into the first set, a married couple I’m friends with were already looking to buy tickets for the Boulder shows. This wouldn’t normally be an odd occurrence, but this was their first Phish show.

“It has already exceeded all of my expectations.” – Friend Sarah

“Mike’s Song” was a fun rebound from “Crowd Control” that headed straight into one of my favorite songs ever written, “Cities”, by the Talking Heads. At that moment, much like my newbie friends, my expectations were exceeded. The tasty jam they threw in was the cherry on top of an already top notch song.

The longer-than-usual space when the band goes silent in the middle of “Divided Sky” was filled with cheers from the enthusiastic crowd, begging the band to continue playing the pretty little ditty, before jumping into another unfamiliar song called, “The Well.” That tune also won’t go down as a new fave, but Page got out of his seat pretty early into it, which was like a secret warning to the crowd to brace themselves before the composition went from upbeat and kind of cheesy, straight to the bottom of the well, which is a dark-ass place to hang. 

Some guys next to me were stoked when they heard the first few notes of “Daniel Saw the Stone”, a cover that seemed new to me, even though Phish.net says I got it at one of the Grand Prairie shows in 2016. Get ready to roll your snobby phan-eyes, but I’m not into bluegrass, so my stoke was less than the dudes nearby. My cousin was overjoyed to get one of her favorite songs, “Taste” before the band chilled the vibe out with a sweet rendition of “Dirt”. Why has this song been played in Austin four times since 1997? The first set ended strong with “Weekapaug Groove” and left concertgoers thirsty for more.

“Now I get it.” – Friend I never expected to see at a Phish show during set break.

Set 2: 

The second set of night one was fire out of the gate with two favorite songs back to back, “No Men in No Man’s Land” and a steamy “Fuego”, right into another great cover, “Golden Age” by TV On The Radio, who’s heading out on tour at the end of the month. Never mind that this version of “Golden Age” was 27 glorious minutes long thanks to a jam that went absolutely berserk. At one point it sounded like all four band members had new effects pedals and wanted to use them at the same time. The cacophony of sound showed no signs of letting up and it’s truly one of the best versions of this song I’ve ever heard. If you listen with the right ears you’ll hear some guitar effects that sound like Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, and had me wondering what direction the jam would turn. 

“The Squirming Coil” slid in as a perfect Page-filled-piano-reprieve from the previous 40-plus minutes of guitar driven music.  The jam inside of “Sand” gave me goosebumps, and “Character Zero” had everyone in the venue dancing. 

Then there was the encore. What the actual fuck, Phish?! What were you thinking by playing, “A Life Beyond the Dream”? 

Were we having too much fun and needed punishing? I had a few different friends chat me up about this song at an afterparty and I have to agree it shouldn’t have been in the encore, and having to hear it at all was a travesty. I felt sorry for the newbs. They were ready to follow the band for the rest of summer tour and then they got hit with that song during the encore..

I get it, some people really love hearing from Trey’s soul. I am not one of those people. I think some of it sounds like nouveau, “hip” praise music and I just can’t with any of that shit. 

Thankfully Phish knows not to end a show on a bummer and drove straight into what started out as a sloppy “First Tube” with all the energy they saved up playing “ALBTD”. 

Night 2: Saturday June 28, 2025

Set 1: 

Night two was a 50th birthday present from friends that introduced me to the band back in ‘97 as well as my 49th show! I’m thankful my buddy has better luck getting good seats and we settled into our fancy spot before Phish came out of the gate with a rip-roaring “Punch You in the Eye”.

And we’re off! 

“Free” descended upon an eager crowd that sang along, feeling as “freeeeeeeee” as Mike’s funky bass riffs. The rest of the set was like floating in the blimp, with two more of my favorite covers that Phish plays, “My Soul” and David Bowie’s “Moonage Daydream” which never disappoints, because it’s one of the best songs ever written. In between “My Soul” and “Moonage Daydream” we heard “555”, “Reba”, “Hey Stranger”, “Plasma” and the rarely heard in recent years, “Guelah Papyrus” which I just fucking love. “555” gets a lot of hate, but I dig it. The jam in the middle was short and to the point, got a little dark, then rolled right into a swift and bouncy, crowd-pleasing “Reba”. Trey Band songs like “Hey Stranger” and “Plasma” are funky enough for Phish to play, but should remain Trey Band songs. I’m not a fan of the crossover. I know it happens with Mike and Page too, but until Fishman gets the band to play a Touch Pants song, I think it’s best to avoid.

Set 2: 

I’m often hopeful to get a trip to outer space at a Phish show and the second set delivered. The band launched us into orbit with “Chalk Dust Torture”, which always begs the question, “Can’t I live while I’m young?” Fuck yes. You’ll never be younger than you are right now. Let that sink in. 

Phish dove head first into “Twist”, then a 30 minute “Ruby Waves” that was jam-packed! It was a fun ride with a lot of twists and turns. I caught someone a few rows in front of me getting lost in the song and it reminded me of a friend saying that everyone’s least favorite song is someone’s favorite song. Speaking of, “Monsters” was next, an absolute bummer of a song that was as ill-placed as the “A Life Beyond the Dream” encore from night one.

Considering the other extremely long songs, I felt lucky when the first few notes of “Limb By Limb” dropped, as that meant the monsters were finally out of my head. The last two songs of the set were absolute bangers, “Split Open and Melt” and the only cover I was hoping to hear besides “Frankenstein” as I gave up on that dream long ago, was The Velvet Underground’s “Rock and Roll” and they played it! Everyone in that room had been saved by rock and roll at some point in their lives and it showed.

Let’s go back to “Split Open and Melt”. When the song ended my cousin looked at me and asked, “you got lost in another dimension too, didn’t you?” It was absolutely bananas and when I re-watched the show later, it seemed way shorter than my experience at Moody. 

The encore on the second night started out sappy with a song that has grown on me over the years. “Waste” always makes me cry and this was no exception, so it was good when “Say it To Me S.A.N.T.O.S.” began because it’s impossible to cry while singing “Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, heigh-ho!” with 15,000 other freaks. 

Is it a Tasty Jam?

Let’s take a moment to discuss jams. It helps to separate jam bands from other kinds of rock music, but if a jam is what saves a song, is it really a good song? It’s kind of like grits. A friend recently said, “if you have to add cheese and bacon, are grits really good?” Literal food for thought. 

I now equate good jams inside of meh songs to cheesy-bacon grits. It’s lipstick on a pig, but fans of jam band music know the jams are where the magic happens. What I’m saying is we need more good songs with great jams wrapped inside of them as opposed to trying to save bad songs with great jams. 

“Clap your hands if you think you’re in the right place.” – Golden Age

An amazing weekend of rock and roll ended with a memorial for a friend from the Austin bicycle community that was filled with heartache, memories, love, and friendship. As I looked around the room at all the people that came together to celebrate Blake’s life, I felt the power of community, the same feeling I have during Phish shows.

Shit be absolutely crazy these days, and human connection is fundamental for our happiness and survival. Be kind, stay kind, and whatever you do, take care of your shoes.

Featured photo by René Huemer courtesy of Phish. All other photos by April Dawne except where noted