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Pheel Today

August 23, 2017 - By Brando Rich

Let's talk Phish. Most fans need to at least see an image, comment in a group, or physically talk to another person at least 8 times a day about these guys or else they go nuts. As if it wasn't hard enough before to pretend every sign in life was a Phish reference, now we can't even look at our co-workers breakfast or doughnuts related things in stores and not be brought somewhere completely different...thinking about Phish completing a legendary residency at MSG just a couple weeks ago. We're just supposed to go back to work and tell your co-workers who ask "How was your trip?" that it was "Great" when you're secretly daydreaming about quitting your job and becoming one of Ck5's lights in time for Dick's...

Renue Huemer

Photo Rene Huemer

Photo Rene Huemer

Or perhaps you're sitting at work or home stressed because you're flying to Colorado in 9 days with no tickets for Dick's. Heart stopping every time you get that alert for a ticket, shaking while responding only to find out you were in a 200 person line before you could even click reply. We understand that not only are we coming off of this insane residency, but also we are moving forward into another legendary show. Some of us have to do to Dick's because the Dozen was so good and simply need MORE. Maybe you're that person who couch toured the Dozen and it's really hitting you that Dick's is the only show left until NEW YEARS...plus Colorado isn't a bad place to get "stuck" without tickets to every night, so why not? We get it here at CashorTrade and just want you to know that we PHEEL you all! That we just want to remind you during this hard time of coming down from the Dozen or stressing out about Dick's, that we can all get through this. So we wanted to take a few minutes to take in all that is today. Today two years ago was the last Festival the guys did...two years ago, we weren't at work. It was a breezy sunny Sunday. We were about to listen to the last two sets of Phish. Let's remember the good that today itself brought. It brought two previous days of music that left us all so fulfilled. Friday we were given that The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday sandwich. The insanely long Bathtub Gin. The perfectly timed First Tube encore to close out day one.

Day two we spent the day soaking up the sun grooving around in the daytime leaving us with an Undermined>Run Like an Antelope to send us off until the night shows. The Saturday night was opened with Wolfman's and bounced into Halley's Comet and had us grooving all the way to the end of that set which was the Tweezer>Caspian, Jonathan Schwartz, from SiriusXMJamOn, dubbed MagnaCaspian. Boogie On Reggae Woman into Tweeprise had us all sparkling back to our camps, high fiving strangers and hugging our phriends and phamily.

Photo : Rene Huemer

As the night winded down and the cool air and dew started to creep in around 2-2:30ish (if I'm remembering correctly), the first sound of anything but the happy subtle murmurs from campers surrounding came from the concert field. The secret set. The ambient sounds that had all of us in a quiet trance walking to the concert grounds to the "drive-ins". There we all were again, captivated for another hour by the ambient raw jams. At the end of the progression, the LED panels changed from their colorful moving pictures to reveal the silhouettes of our favorite quartet...mind melting.

So here we are now, Sunday 8/23/15, at this point probably drinking a cold one with no worries about what you should be doing or where you should be. You were there, doing it. So while we're sitting at home or work right now, let's go back to that moment and hopefully feel some bliss. Some relief and gratitude that regardless of the post Baker's Dozen blues or the Dick's dilemmas simply do not exist for now. The only things left to worry about is Phish playing two more sets...the last day of Magnaball was filled with a fantastic variety of 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 songs. I'm going to leave the set list right here so we can all remember, not wanting to leave anything unnoted for this day.

Set 1: Punch You In the Eye > Buffalo Bill, A Song I Heard the Ocean Sing > Limb By Limb, Waiting All Night > Theme From the Bottom > Maze, The Line, Stash,Reba, I Didn't Know, Character Zero

Set 2: Martian Monster > Down with Disease -> Scents and Subtle Sounds -> What's the Use? > Dirt > Mike's Song > Fuego > Twist -> Weekapaug Groove -> Martian Monster

Encore: You Enjoy Myself with the most magical firework displays I have ever seen, it seemed to never end.

So special, we did it. Three days later, souls filled with all the phishy goodness and memories that will last a life-time. So while you're sitting wherever you are, no matter how blue or stressed, remember it's all going to be okay. Hang in there! You will get your tickets and you will eventually lose the urge to steal every 8 year old's inflatable doughnut float at the beach...hug your loved ones, give Magnaball a listen, pretend you're there and not here and most of all surrender to the flow.

Photo Rene Huemer

Magnaball Watkins Glenn, NY 2015

Set list via phish.net

Friday: 8/21/15

SET 1: Simple > The Dogs > The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday > Avenu Malkenu > The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday > Free, Happy Birthday to You, The Wedge, Mock Song, Roggae > Rift > Bathtub Gin

SET 2: Ghost.">Chalk Dust Torture > Ghost -> Rock and Roll > Harry Hood -> Waste > neatly into "Slave."">No Men In No Man's Land -> Slave to the Traffic Light

ENCORE: Farmhouse, First Tube

Saturday: 8/22/15

SET 1: Divided Sky, The Moma Dance > Mound, Army of One, Scabbard > Sample in a Jar, Tube, Halfway to the Moon, Camel Walk, How Many People Are You,When the Circus Comes, Undermind > Run Like an Antelope

SET 2: Wolfman's Brother, Halley's Comet > to BDTNL.>46 Days -> Backwards Down the Number Line > Tweezer > Prince Caspian

SET 3: Meatstick > "Possum".">Blaze On -> Possum > Light.">Cities > Light > 555, Wading in the Velvet Sea > Walls of the Cave

ENCORE: Boogie On Reggae Woman > Tweezer Reprise

SET 4: Drive-In Jam

Sunday: 8/23/15

SET 1: Punch You In the Eye > Buffalo Bill, A Song I Heard the Ocean Sing > Limb By Limb, Waiting All Night > Theme From the Bottom > Maze, The Line, Stash,Reba, I Didn't Know, Character Zero

SET 2: Martian Monster > Down with Disease -> to -> WTU?>Scents and Subtle Sounds -> in from Scents & Subtle Sounds. Dies away to a near hush at the 2 minute mark, then wonderfully explodes back to life. The Kent '94 Hood version of WTU?, and proof that you really can teach an old dog new tricks.>What's the Use? > Dirt > Mike's Song > Fuego > Weekapaug.>Twist -> Weekapaug Groove -> Martian Monster

ENCORE: You Enjoy Myself