Quick Hits: Pittsburgh, PA + Austin, TX

Summary

Helping Friendly Podcast Episode Summary
Title: Quick Hits: Pittsburgh, PA + Austin, TX
Host/Author: Osiris Media
Release Date: June 30, 2025

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Overview

In this episode of the Helping Friendly Podcast (HFPod), hosts Brian and Megan delve into their recent experiences attending Phish concerts in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Austin, Texas. The discussion is rich with detailed analyses of setlists, jam lengths, and the evolving dynamics of Phish's live performances. They also explore fan interactions, upcoming events, and their perspectives on the band's current tour. Notable insights include statistical breakdowns of jam durations and thoughtful reflections on the band's musical progression.

Show Recaps: Pittsburgh, PA [33:29 - 44:32]

Brian:
Initiates the recap of the Pittsburgh show held on June 24, 2025. Highlights include the introduction of new songs and long jam sessions.
“What a banger in Pittsburgh. Like, how awesome to just drop in and crush a show like this.” [35:26]

Megan:
Shares her excitement and appreciation for specific performances, emphasizing the seamless integration of new and classic Phish elements.
“I love what Fishman is playing these really deep like primal beat throughout this whole space section that just keeps it so grounded.” [39:05]

Key Highlights:

• Set One: Included tracks like "ACDC Bag," "Dog Stole Things," and "Paul and Silas," each contributing to a dynamic start.
• Set Two: Featured extended jams with songs such as "What's Going Through Your Mind" and "Fuego," culminating in the encore with "Howling" and "Ghost."
• Notable Jam: The Pittsburgh show showcased the sixth longest Phish jam of all time, a 43-minute rendition of "What's Going Through Your Mind," demonstrating the band's exceptional improvisational skills.
• Quotes:
  • “They have zero stress, an abundance of comfort, a still desire and willingness to see what is new and what is possible.” — Brian [16:56]

Show Recaps: Austin, TX [48:00 - 63:16]

Brian:
Reviews the Austin shows from June 27-28, 2025, noting the introduction of rare tracks and impressive musical segments.
“I love the version from Seattle as well. So we closed tonight's show. I think the only nitpick...” [73:38]

Megan:
Offers her perspectives on the performance quality, particularly praising the use of effects and the seamless flow between songs.
“I could hear it a lot more even, not just in the big jams, but in the kind of smaller jams as well.” [50:39]

Key Highlights:

• Set Lists: Included a mix of classic and newer songs such as "Crowd Control," "Fuego," "Golden Age," and "Ruby Waves."
• Extended Jams: Austin shows featured significant improvisational segments, including a 30-minute jam of "Ruby Waves," highlighting Phish's commitment to musical exploration.
• Technical Enhancements: Trey Anastasio's use of effects pedals was notably more prominent, adding depth to the performances.
• Quotes:
  • “This is one of the best Harry Hoods of the summer. Maybe rivals the hood from later in the year where we got the hood guy from.” — Osiris [10:05]
  • “There's spaceyness. I talked about this at the beginning, but it's really rhythmic.” — Megan [40:32]

Statistical Analysis of Jams [14:14 - 32:28]

Megan:
Provides an in-depth analysis of Phish's jam sessions, comparing current performances to previous years.
“Six jams over 20 minutes, not counting the yam. But there is a lot of jams too that hit very close to 20.” [14:40]

Brian:
Contextualizes the statistics within Phish's touring history, highlighting the unprecedented length and frequency of current jams.
“We are in pretty rarefied air for Fish. They seem to be in this place.” [16:56]

Key Insights:

• Jam Frequency: In the first six shows of the 2025 summer tour, Phish performed six jams exceeding 20 minutes, a significant increase compared to previous years.
• Comparison to Past Tours: This surge in extended jams places the current tour in a unique position within Phish's live performance history, rivaling notable summer tours from the early 2000s.
• Band Dynamics: The hosts suggest that Phish's current ease and creativity in producing extensive jams indicate a period of musical abundance and low stress within the band.
• Quotes:
  • “These are much more exploratory. They're using rhythm really well to ground all the textures and layers of these space effects.” — Megan [15:13]
  • “They seem to be in this place where there is zero stress, an abundance of comfort.” — Brian [16:56]

Fan Engagement and Upcoming Events [08:39 - 22:24]

Megan:
Announces upcoming live events and community engagements, including a live episode at the Man and a benefit barbecue.
“We are going to be doing a live episode of the Pod on July 16th... supporting this incredible cause.” [08:39]

Brian:
Discusses future shows and anticipates their impact on the fanbase, expressing enthusiasm for Reprise band performances and Boulder shows.
“Reprise as a band is killing it. I'm hoping that late 25 or early 26 is when they make their Denver debut.” [07:16]

Key Points:

• Reprise Band: Highlighting Reprise's impressive performances in Syracuse, Morristown, and Asbury Park, and anticipation for their Denver debut.
• HFPod Event: Promotion of a live episode at the Man event on July 16th, supporting the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia's Cancer Center.
• Community Insights: Emphasis on the strong bond within the Phish community and the excitement surrounding the current tour's unique routing.
• Quotes:
  • “We are in a really, really lucky space.” — Brian [73:38]
  • “Mike's already posting like pictures of Telluride 88. He's just like in the feels right now.” — Megan [73:38]

Musical Evolution and Band Dynamics [22:24 - 43:05]

Brian:
Explores Phish's musical growth, discussing how the band has achieved a balance between creativity and comfortable performance.
“They have figured out a way to jam this. I don't know what it is about that song.” [63:16]

Megan:
Reflects on the band's consistent energy and the positive reception from fans, attributing it to the members' active engagement and personal fulfillment.
“I am very excited to continue to see them dive deep here.” [70:13]

Key Insights:

• Creative Balance: Phish has mastered the art of delivering extended jams without the pressure of achieving specific milestones each night, allowing for a more organic musical flow.
• Energy and Engagement: Both members exhibit a sustained, positive energy that translates into their performances, fostering a deeper connection with the audience.
• Influence of Structure: The structured yet flexible touring schedule contributes to the band's ability to perform consistently high-quality shows without burnout.
• Quotes:
  • “This is the best level of fish that we can conceive. I can't imagine it getting better.” — Brian [32:28]
  • “It's an absolutely epic jam. I've listened to it I think three times and I'm completely captivating the whole time.” — Megan [40:32]

Concluding Thoughts

Brian and Megan conclude the episode by expressing their excitement for the upcoming Boulder shows, highlighting the special aura surrounding Phish's return to a historic venue. They emphasize the band's current creative peak and the unique experiences offered by the ongoing tour. The hosts also tease future content, including an episode focusing on the Boulder performances and their new Blockbuster Card series.

Final Quotes:

• “If you are going to be there, it's going to be such a special experience.” — Megan [77:00]
• “We're in a really, really lucky space.” — Brian [73:38]

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Brian:
  “They have zero stress, an abundance of comfort, a still desire and willingness to see what is new and what is possible.” [16:56]

• Megan:
  “Six jams over 20 minutes, not counting the yam.” [14:40]

• Brian:
  “If memory serves correctly, it was the Berkeley version. That Berkeley run is so legendary now.” [61:57]

• Megan:
  “This is the perfect way to close a set that like Bowie Wild Peaks.” [58:18]

• Brian:
  “We are in a really, really lucky space.” [73:38]

• Megan:
  “I can't believe there have been six jams over 20 minutes in these six shows.” [72:50]

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Conclusion

This episode of the Helping Friendly Podcast offers an in-depth and enthusiastic exploration of Phish's recent performances, highlighting the band's exceptional improvisational prowess and the positive trajectory of their current tour. Through detailed analysis, statistical insights, and passionate commentary, Brian and Megan provide listeners with a comprehensive understanding of Phish's evolving musical landscape and the vibrant community that supports them.

Transcript

[Brian]

Hey listeners. I want to tell you about an event this summer. The Roots Rock Revival Music Masters Collective is inviting you to the beautiful Catskills at Full Moon Resort for a four day, all inclusive music exploratory experience like no other. It's a week full of incredible music, creativity and connection. There will be intensive songwriting and music making with incredible artists like North Mississippi All Stars, brother and sister band, the Nth Power Taz, Steelin Peaches and more. They'll be showcasing intimate performances every night and hands on workshops during the day. There will also be an amazing wellness tent with meditation, yoga and massage as well as a deeply relaxing scene around the brand new pool. Whether you're a seasoned musician just starting out or simply a fan, they've designed this year so there's something here for everyone. And it's more than just an event. It's an opportunity to connect with the music directly, with artists, play with legends and with the amazing community of people who share your passion. Space is extremely limited because this is a truly personal experience. So don't wait. Grab your spot now. Everything's included. Lodging, meals, workshops, performances and a whole lot of good vibes. This is just the beginning. Artists have started their careers here. Bands have been formed once in a lifetime. Collaborations are witness. You do not want to miss it. Check it [e-mail] helpingfriendly that's rootsrockrevival.com helping friendly.

[Megan]

I think you're on mute.

[Osiris]

Workday starting to sound the same.

[Megan]

I think you're on mute.

[Osiris]

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[Megan]

Osiris.

[Osiris]

There it is. We are live one hour. And what would that be? 44 minutes before we're supposed to go live? Something like that. We're going live early, guys. So if you are catching us without warning, thank you for hanging here. If you have not caught us and you think in just under two hours you're gonna catch us. I do apologize. We've got Megan on vacation. I am starting my fish week on vacation here. I've got to work today and tomorrow. But you know, we're just, we're in the midst of it all right now. We're. We're living life in the middle of summer, trying to keep up with fish tour and so we Came to you a little bit earlier today. Thank you all for hanging with us. Here we are talking Pittsburgh and Austin. Fish. Megan, how are you doing here?

[Megan]

I'm doing great. I'm on vacation. I'm at the beach. But nothing will stop me from podcasting with you about Fish. Nothing. Not even being a vacation.

[Osiris]

Not even a four and a half hour Goose show.

[Megan]

Not even. Although it did, it did prevent me from watching Fish live. But.

[Osiris]

Me too.

[Megan]

I caught up. I caught up. But I'm proud of Goose. That was a great moment for them.

[Osiris]

Very proud of our dudes. You know, we've had a contentious relationship. Ups and downs. Moments where I'm like, they've got it. Moments where I'm like, I don't know, man. I don't know. Is this just dispatch 2.0? But seeing them come out on stage to the roar of the MSG crowd and fully deliver an incredible show was. Was something else. But we are here to talk about that. We are not Storm Sound Productions here. This is the Helping friendly podcast. You are coming here for the most recent run of Fish, which I don't even know if you could technically call a run. We just combined these shows together. Pittsburgh, which happened all the way last Tuesday, June 24, and the Austin shows, their. Their much anticipated return to Austin on June 27th and 28th. We're going to get into all of that. We're going to preview Boulder a little bit as well, because this tour is marching along and it's strange routing, strange dates, but it seems to be working. It all seems to be working, which is a great thing. But, Meg, we've got some reprise shows that are coming up. RJ is still out of the country. He is eating strawberries and cream right now as we speak. He is. What do they call. He's in the underground? The tube. Is that what they call it over there?

[Megan]

But he's in countryside. I don't know if he's in the Cotswolds or somewhere very romantic, where there's outdoor pubs and you can ride your bike to the pub and, you know, there's warm beer on tap and you can sit outside on a picnic table and just look at the farms. And he's in a really beautiful spot. So good for him.

[Osiris]

I have only ever laid over in England. It is a place I need to get to at some point in the next decade. I just imagine book culture, soccer culture, and pub culture will agree with me.

[Megan]

Yeah, you will totally like it. It's. It's an incredible place.

[Osiris]

I will hopefully Be there sometime soon. RG will be back next week. As we recap Boulder and as we rec whatchamacallit, we're gonna our next book, Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen. In the meantime, though, just to give you guys a heads up on what we've got coming up here, there are three upcoming Reprise shows here. July 17th in Syracuse, New York, July 30th in Morristown, New Jersey and July 31st in Asbury Park, New Jersey. All of those tickets can be bought at repriseband.com the Westcott Theater in Syracuse, the Homestead in Morristown, and the Wonder Bar in Asbury, New Jersey. A really cool bar.

[Megan]

Yeah. Have you been there?

[Osiris]

No, but Eggie just played an excellent show there, I believe. June 14 and they played an excellent show there in April of 2023. A great Onitsuka Tiger. So it's a great spot. I've only been as and I don't think that there were jam band shows happening. I just toured it and looked around at Bruce Springsteen historical artifacts.

[Megan]

Yeah, it's a really cool bar. It's right on the boardwalk. It's right on the beach and it's one of those old relics. It looks like it's from like the 60s or 70s. It's just super archaic looking. It's really awesome. And what a great venue to see Reprise.

[Osiris]

It'll be fun. So repriseband.com there's a bunch of other shows coming up. It's incredible going on this website here and seeing that they've got shows into August and September. Rj, man, band manager, is just killing it. Reprise as a band is killing it. I'm hoping that late 25 or early 26 is when they make their Denver debut because I will be there. We'll be there. But you've seen them, you love them.

[Megan]

Yeah, I've seen them a bunch of times. They're amazing. It's so incredible. Every time I'm at every price show people come up to me and say, I can't believe how good this is, honestly, every time, over and over again. They crushed when they played Brooklyn bowl last time. It was so exciting. So, yeah, they're. They're going to be out there and I can't make these shows. I can't make this New Jersey show, unfortunately. But there, there'll be lots of shows coming up that I'm sure I'll be at. But hopefully they'll get to Denver. I'm sure they will.

[Osiris]

They've got to. RJ knows that they have to. It's just a rule at this point in time. Yeah, you got to bring music to me. I'm sorry. You know, Meg, we have an HF POD event coming up as well in.

[Megan]

A couple of times.

[Osiris]

Do you want to tell our listeners about that where they can find info about it?

[Megan]

Absolutely. So we are going to be doing a live episode of the Pod on July 16th. It's night two of the Man. There's going to be a barbecue benefiting the Cancer center for the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. And we are going to be part of that benefit. So come and see us and support this incredible cause. And also the pod. We'll probably be recapping Man Night one there and my daughter Gemma is going to be there. It's her first Fish show, so you can see her. She'll be there too. Maybe we'll have some HF POD shirts, but we'll have more information about that as we get closer on our socials. So keep an eye out for that.

[Osiris]

I love it. I love it. Fish at the man is a fun thing. 9 years ago yesterday I played hooky from work to go see Fish at the man and all I got was a Dear Prudence, you know, and a great Harry Hood. It was one of those shows. They started great. I loved the first set. I loved the third quarter. And then they played like Tide Turns. I gotta look this up now because it's truly. It's truly.

[Megan]

No, it's not gonna happen this year because 2025 fish is no joke. And the last time I saw them at the man was amazing too. That incredible Mike song. Really great stuff.

[Osiris]

Listen to this second set I just found. Okay, so we start with Cross on and Painless, which is a solid jam into the debut of Friends, which I kind of would like for that song to return. I like that chorus. Fishman song opened up Big Boat. Pretty much everyone forgot about it. Then we go down with aziz unique mid second set slot for down with Z's decent 12, 13 minute jam into. What's the use? Okay, fine. We're in a good spot here. I can groove with this. But then listen to the way this set ends. Meetstick into the line, Tide turns backwards on the number line and dem bones. That is like a five song run of just like brutal summer 2016 fish. I don't wish that on my worst enemy. But then they come up with the encore and we get the second Dear Prudence of the tour. Only the third time ever played into. If you have not listened to the 62916 Harry Hood in some time, I Definitely, definitely recommend it. It is one of the best Harry Hoods of 3.0. One of the best Harry hoods of that summer. Maybe rivals the hood from later in the year where we got the hood guy from. So quick diversion into man history. Definitely, definitely recommend it.

[Megan]

All right, well, listen to that hood. I'm not going to listen to anything else from that show, but I. But I have. Dude still has PTSD from that. That's hilarious. Well, the last time I was at the man was 7, 26, 23 and that was amazing. That was when they opened with that mics into Boogie on Back in a Mike's incredible jam and then set to. We had that carini. Yeah, really good stuff.

[Osiris]

And then set two kind of fell off, I seem to recall. But you know, really good careening. One of my favorite jams of 2023. All right, so we got Reprise. We got a man show. We've got some questions coming in here. Brian, will you be hitting Tapers Choice on Wednesday? I hate to break it to you. I will not. I'm taking full advantage of this being a three night fish run this year rather than a four night fish run. And I will be probably watching baseball and movies on Wednesday night, getting myself all ready. We're bringing my son to a second fish show on the fourth, which should be a ton of fun. So we're trying to figure out the logistics of this. Parking is an issue this year compared to Dicks is just like easy.

[Megan]

Oh yeah.

[Osiris]

We also got ga. There's just so much always to go into this. I just. I need to get to my seat and, and hear the band start. That's all. That's all. I'm. I'm. I'm just trying to get to that headspace right now, guys. Okay?

[Megan]

It's a whole new thing. It's a whole new thing. So you've got to just get your, you know, reorient your whole thing. You're in Boulder now. You're not going to be at Dicks. I know. I feel for you. It's a lot of pre show anxiety.

[Osiris]

Redoing aesthetically. It should be really nice.

[Megan]

It's gonna be beautiful.

[Osiris]

Boulder's great. The drive out from Boulder back to Arvada is a little bit, a little bit more chill than the one from Commerce City. You know, it should be a ton of fun. Shermouth here says excited to see fish with a view of the Flatirons. That is one of the great perks. Flatirons are absolutely gorgeous. Downtown Boulder is a ton of Fun if you're going to be there. I can't wait. Hopefully I'll see some people. But we're not here to talk about Boulder yet because it has not happened. We don't know what's going to happen. We've got multiple days of anticipation building up to it. It's like they're throwing their own little mini festival. And hopefully Saturday is a little bit better than Sunday at Monda Green. But that's for another we are here to discuss three fish shows from this past week. Tuesday, June 24, 2025, Friday, June 27, 2025 and Saturday, June 28, 2025. The latter two from Austin, Texas. The first one here from Pittsburgh. Meg, let's just take a quick step back. We had three shows in Manchester last weekend, then these three shows. What were your thoughts going into this run? What do you think is kind of the big takeaway from these second installment of three shows on the tour?

[Megan]

Well, I was really excited going into this run. I mean, coming off the New Hampshire shows, they were just incredible, I thought, especially that Tweezer Fest. And we had huge, huge stuff coming in. I thought we had some really great jams. So I was excited. And I'm really happy to report that the big takeaway is that big jams continue to dominate. I was looking at some stats, Brian. Do you want to hear them?

[Osiris]

I would love to hear them.

[Megan]

Okay. So I was looking at some stats about summer tour and in these first six shows, we've had six jams over 20 minutes. So we've had the Carini from New Hampshire, the Tweezer from New Hampshire, and then we had the what's going through your mind from Pittsburgh and then the Fuego and the Golden Age and the Ruby Waves. So we've had a lot of really big jams over 20 minutes. We've also had. There's five if you count the yam. I also didn't count the yam just because. Or I'm sorry, seven total if you count the yam. I didn't count that.

[Osiris]

Yam is always an asterisk in this.

[Megan]

Yeah, so I didn't count that. Six jams over 20 minutes, not counting the yam. But there is a lot of jams too that hit very close to 20, so I didn't count those either. This is just over that 20 minute mark. So in 2024, in the first six shows, we had one jam over 20 minutes. The tweezer from Great Woods. In the first six shows of 2023, we had two jams. Over 20 minutes we had the Ruby Waves from alpharetta and a 29 minute tweezer from Alpharetta. So we are in. I don't know if we've ever been in this type of territory. I didn't have time to go back and look through all of the summer tours, but in the last few years, and I think we all agree that last summer tour was amazing, we are now looking at we're just really unprecedented amount of huge mega jams in the beginning of the tour. It's so exciting. And what's really cool about these jams is they're not just like long jams to be long jams. They're interesting. They're so interesting. They're spending more time in really exploratory space than in spring tour. Spring tour, a lot of the gems were like beautiful, but leading straight to big peaks. These are much more exploratory. They're using rhythm really well to ground all the textures and layers of these space effects. Mike and Fishman in particular sound so powerful and Trey sounds incredible on his new guitar and he's still loving this big sustain that he was doing a lot in the spring. But it sounds great on this new koa. And so it's. I think it's just a really, really exciting time to be a fan and I'm actually pretty blown away by this tour so far. That's my big takeaway.

[Osiris]

That's an incredible takeaway and really puts things into context. Thank you for doing all the data work. We really appreciate it here at the podcast headquarters. I'm just going through my head right now because of like kind of tours that would make sense comparably to this and summer 2003, first six shows. This is off the top of my head, so I could have this wrong. Come at me with bated breath if I get this wrong though. Two jams over 20 minutes. The gin from Shoreline and the seven below from the Gorge. Summer 2004, the June run. I guess I combine them both in my head. Off the top of my head, there are one. I think that there are four jams over 20 minutes in the first six shows. So less than this. Summer 2021, you've got, I think three jams over 20 minutes in the first 6 shows. So in summer 2017 would be the closest where you get the simple, the carini, the disease, the Mr. Completely. So I think it's four in the first six shows as well. So like, to your point, again, I could have one of those off, but I don't think, I don't think there's any other tours between 2003 and today that would, that would qualify. We're in pretty rarefied air for Fish. They seem to be in this place. This is kind of trend. This is a great segue into my kind of big takeaway. They seem to be in this place where there is zero stress, an abundance of comfort, a still desire and willingness to see what is new and what is possible, but no stress on getting there. And I, I bring this up because I don't want to jump too far ahead but like Saturday Night show is not going to be my favorite show of the year. I think that set list wise, it's not exactly my ideal terrain for set listing. Some of the flow is really lack in throughout, but you get a 30 minute jam that's an excellent jam right in the middle of the second set like that 10, 15 years ago within this community would have warranted like the entire Internet crumbling because people would have like lost their minds that like in a ho hum Show There's a 30 minute jam that is like worthy of years and years of relistening to understand what's going on in there. Like they are playing at a point in a place right now where they don't have to throw everything that they have into a 30 minute jam, into extended, even a 20 minute jam. Like there were periods in this band's history, in the not so distant past where to get them to a 20 minute jam was this leap of faith and this like focus that they had to kind of undergo that would really affect shows around a show with a big jam. And now it's just kind of like an everyday thing now. Is this going to be a trend that goes forward and continues? Who knows? Like I don't know what they're going to feel, but there is a sense of me that what strikes me about this tour in particular and about just where Fish is at right now is that they really have the year long schedule down. Where you get a couple shows in Mexico, nice little run in the spring, summer that doesn't really pack things in and stress them out. Nice little run in the fall. And MSG and like that structure which in the early 3.0 we did not have, the band would just go radio silent for like six months and then work things back across a pretty intense summer tour and then play Dicks and then either play a two week long fall tour or go completely radio silent again until msg. You now get like these little drop ins with Fish throughout the year. Where they play enough, they're practicing enough, but they're never playing so much that they're getting tired. And so even Saturday night in Austin, is this going to be, you know, like, how are we going to remember this show? I don't know, you know, five, ten years from now. But you know, it's like a show before a break, before a pretty anticipated show run of shows in Boulder. It's the kind of show that in years past they would have just like played it. Not a ton of effort, not a ton of memorability. Like I think of like Oklahoma City 2012. That's not a really memorable show. And it kind of felt like they had had a great night in St. Louis. They played a show in Oklahoma City, but the real focus was getting to dicks. This now feels like even when they're, I don't want to say mailing it in, but like, even when they're not playing the most aggressively high end show that they can string together from a set list flow jamming standpoint, they're still giving you incredible jams.

[Megan]

Exactly. And I think it is a combination of like what you're saying about really getting the structure down. And also I think they've just been playing more than they ever have before. You know, I was looking at last summer and I was thinking about how Trey was on that. He was on. He toured with Classic Tab a bunch in the spring and I just think they're all playing a lot and it shows and I think having the spring tour, huge impact on summer tour. Just absolutely huge.

[Osiris]

Massive, massive. Because it's just not that long ago that they played a concert so they don't have to rework everything and make sure that they can hear each other. And. Yeah, I'm. Go ahead.

[Megan]

Well, I was just gonna say I'm also think that there's a renewed energy within the band. Not renewed, but a constant energy. I think Mike has been really active on socials. He's been posting videos, talking about how much he's enjoying himself and how he's loving his new positioning and, you know, really just seems to be happy and really like engaged with the community and wanting to, to share that. And I think there's just a lot of like good energy. You know, Trey's making speeches about, you know, where he was born and you know, I, I just think they're feeling good. They're feeling really good. And it's exciting, it's an exciting time. I mean, it was a hard choice about Saturday night. What I was going to watch it was really hard because Fish is just lit up right now. It's thrilling.

[Osiris]

They are. And I mean, had that been any other good show, I would have been watching Fish. We both have emotional affinity to that band for a lot of reasons. And any band that I listen to as much as these two that has a moment like playing MSG for the first time, I'm going to put my heart there. I do want to. Before we get into the show, by shows here, I do want to present a little bit of a hot take, little aggro take here just to kind of spin things up in the chat. I was thinking about this after Friday night show in Austin, which was an awesome show. I thought the first set.

[Megan]

Yeah.

[Osiris]

Had great set listing. And then in the second set we get this pretty solid opening 13 minute no man in no man's land. And then this pretty monster candy coated groove in fuego. And then a outstanding mind altering golden age. Love that 24 minute jam. Followed by a 27 minute jam, I guess 26 because part of it is Trey's speech at the end. But we've, we've talked about this in the past. I think it was the second. No is the Syracuse show from 2023 that had a tweezer and oblivion both went 20 minutes and it led to the data analysis that Fish did not regularly play back to back 20 minute jams. And we were really shocked to see that. What I'm trying to get at here is that that has become like something of like a common place for Fish, this like back to back 20 minute jam thing. And what we were just hinting at that like there's just so much consistency and that, that 30 minute Ruby waves in the middle of a kind of average show. These have now become like this is the expected state of Fish. Yeah, this is the standard state of Fish. And I think we as a community have to kind of reset the way we're talking about this band because there was a lot of gaslighting throughout 3.0 that like, hey man, why are you being critical of this band? Hey man, maybe they're just not for you anymore because you're expecting too much like this right now for the last definitely three years, like going back to the start of 2023. But even like if you extend some gratitude to 2022, which I am learning how to do, the the entire 4.0 era is now like the standard bearer for like what we should anticipate like aging Fish to be like. Yeah, and I'm very thankful. I'm Very thankful in a lot of reasons for the 3.0 ERA. I think that seeing a band lose so much as they did in 2.0 and then rebuild it in front of our very eyes was a really emotional experience and a really just like, profound experience as like loving a band and loving a community at large. But I think we need to, like, come to terms with the fact that, like, calling people out for being critical of 2011 and 2016 and parts of 2018 and definitely parts of 2019, Fish was totally unwarranted. Like, that was like. That was like MAGA level propagation or propaganda that, like, those were like great years that you had to appreciate. Otherwise you weren't a Fish fan. Like, the criticism of this band during the 3.0 era was completely out of love by the people who were doing it. And the reason for it is because of what we're hearing right now. Like, this is. This is an older version of that band. Band that is playing worlds beyond what we were hearing.

[Megan]

Absolutely.

[Osiris]

For much of the 3.0 era. Even the best periods. What are your thoughts on that?

[Megan]

Well, I would say, and maybe this is sacrilegious to say too, but I don't think the band would be here if the audience wasn't as critical and didn't have as high of expectations.

[Osiris]

I appreciate that take, you know, I appreciate that take.

[Megan]

It is true, though, and this is something side note that I worry about Goose because I don't see that fan base being hypercritical, which I think can be. You know, it can be too much sometimes. But I do think that this band has exceeded expectations on so many levels in so many years that we expect the best from them. And for many years they couldn't do that because they had to build it back up. And I rejoined this community in 3.0. So I also have a love for 3.0, but I definitely feel like I agree with you. If we are going to listen to this band as much as we do and talk about this band as much as we do, we have to be critical and we have to be honest. And I really don't think they would be here if they didn't have fans that expected them to work hard and get better.

[Osiris]

Evdude says, don't worry. I'm talking to Shapiro about Whip it and Susie Q in last night's set to hey, man, who's played an amazing set one. I was like, wow. Like, they. They went from the biggest show of their career to like a total vibes night of like, hey, we're just gonna, like, throw down some jams and everything's gonna flow really nicely because we don't have any expectations. And then the second set, like, tanked all that.

[Megan]

I mean, the same thing happened in Fort Collins after their Red Rock show. Just saying in 2010. This is great.

[Osiris]

This is true.

[Megan]

Night two.

[Osiris]

Back to fish. Forbin 777 is telling us to stop because we're divert. We're converging podcasts right now, I guess. Like, look, this kind of gets back to a conversation we had a couple of months ago. The, like, do you have to be there? Like, I think that this. This is the. This is the eternal debate within the scene of if you're there, you get something that if you're at home, you can't get. And I have always. I mean, we have a full episode about how I resent this line of thinking. And I think part of it is the sense that, yeah, when you're there, it's like more of a party. And so, like, you want that party to feel really good. And there were definitely shows in the 3.0 era that were like, it was fish on stage, but it wasn't like the put this fish in my veins type of moment. Like this. It wasn't like I would continue consuming this level of fish as though it, like, is, you know, my lifeblood now. Like, this fish that we're hearing now is a fish that is clearly more inclined to take risks, more comfortable on stage. They're less worried about, like, the process. Like, it seemed like for so much of 3.0, there was this, like, process to get back to where they are right now. And now it's just like, it doesn't matter what they play each night because any jam could come out of pretty much any song. And the set list. Like, there's not as much dependent on the set list anymore, it feels like, because you kind of just know at some point they're going to turn on. You know, it's almost. It's like watching, like, LeBron and KD play basketball at this age. Like, they're not as fast as they used to be. They, you know, they may need a little bit more time on the bench here and there and not put as many minutes in, but, like, you just know they're going to deliver the goods because they just know how to do this more than they did 10, 15 years ago. So that's my hot take. I think that we need to just rationalize the way we spoke about this band in 3.0 versus how they're playing now because I think a lot of people got really uptight about criticism and praise for guys that we are like literally paying to entertain us. And it's just very clear to me that what we were getting worked up about in like 2014 and appreciating this band, this band still had more to do and more to say and they clearly worked back to get there. So, like, let's put into proper context that, like, this is. This is the best level of fish that we can conceive. I can't imagine it getting better. Honestly, I don't know.

[Megan]

How could it. How could.

[Osiris]

Like, are we just.

[Megan]

Sorry. Like that tweezer fast, like from New Hampshire? No, like, what's gonna happen? A 42 minute. What's going through your mind with a new song? No, it's not going to get better than this. And it. I mean it. I don't think it could.

[Osiris]

I don't know if it can.

[Megan]

I mean, it's. I mean, they could stop playing my soul maybe. I don't know. They could, I don't know, finish their festivals in a more empowering way. I don't know. I have a couple ideas, but not many, I think. Although I will say, how funny is it, Brian, that they completely trolled us about talking about how they're not really playing bust outs anymore, and then they literally came back and played like a million bust outs these last three shows.

[Osiris]

All right, so let's get into this because that's a great segue. Night one in Pittsburgh, yes, became ultimately a bit of an inside joke troll fest on us while also giving us an absolutely generational fish jam. Why don't you give us the set list here for set 12 and the encore and we can chat about the show.

[Megan]

Set one is ACDC Bag into dogs stole things. Paul and Silas. I always wanted it this way. Water in the sky stealing time from the faulty plan. Yamar Gumbo Walls of the cave. Set two is you enjoy myself into what's going through your mind. Prince Caspian into Julius into Blaze on. And the encore is Brian's favorite, the howling into Ghost.

[Osiris]

So if you look at the Gap chart, the night before the show before 6:22 had a 15.41 Gap, which included two two songs over 50 shows. The first, the second night in Manchester had a 12.33 Gap and the first night of the Tour had a 6.47 gap. Then we go to Pittsburgh where we get a 46.75 show cap. This show has 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 songs over a 25 show gap. Two song three. So over a 100 show gap and one song over a 300 show gap. Dog Stole Things was first since 7 31, 22 at Meriwether Post. That was 122 show 23 show gap. Paul and Silas first since Forum 2016. That's a 323 show gap. That is not to backtrack, but if you want like an argument in favor of why we should not just be blindly praising this band, go and look at the set list for 7, 22, 16 and then water in the sky. 134 show gap first since 71522 in Great Woods. What is your kind of big highlight and overall takeaway here from night from the lone show in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

[Megan]

What a banger in Pittsburgh. Like, how awesome to just drop in and crush a show like this. This is so exciting. I'm so happy for all the people that were there. I think the first set works really well. I loved. I wanted it this. I always wanted it this way. Just really propulsive fishmen in that. And the gumbo just sounding great in the first set too. Like this resurfaced as a jam vehicle in Bethel woods in the summer of 22. And the longest. The last time played was the longest version in 20 years. And it was this huge jam in one of the shows that Bill Graham in San Francisco this fall. Spring, excuse me. And this one wasn't as long, but it is over 13 minutes. And it's really, really awesome jam. Really optimistic and connected. But, you know, the big takeaway from this show is the sixth longest fish jam of all time. My God, that's crazy. This is the first, the longest jam they've played. The last time they played a jam this long was the Greek tweezer. So April 2023. So a little bit over two years, but like the sixth longest jam of all time. Happening in their 42nd year on like a Wednesday in Pittsburgh. You gotta love to see it.

[Osiris]

And in a song that is not.

[Megan]

Even 12 months old, I mean, this song, right? Like, think about the path this song has taken when it like debuts every time it's played. It's had like a monster version. I think almost everyone but one version is on the jam chart. It's bananas.

[Osiris]

I think you're right about that. Yeah, it's. It literally. Yeah. Nine times on the jam charts. We got a solid version of the debut with Billy Strings on August 7th. The version from Mondegreen was huge. Open season two. I saw a great one at Dick. MSG had the EDM version, outstanding version to open up the final night of Mexico this year. Very good version. Coming out of the golden age on 418. Then it opened. The second set on night one of the Hollywood bowl was not the biggest jam of that show. That would be the light, but it was a solid one. And now this. That went 43 minutes and really kind of. We got a great text from rjb who has been a big proponent of the theory that Fish sonically has not changed that much over the 4.0 era. And his. His text about this was, wow. New sounds everywhere. Complete new inspiration. So stoked. Which anytime you get that level of excitement from RJ is just a plus for the world at large. So like we're, we're. It did feel to me like this jam structurally was, you know, in line with these big blowout, 35 plus minute long jams that we are. I can't believe I'm about to say this, but like getting used to. In this period in time where segments are really stretched out for a long period of time, they let kind of space, spacious segments build an ebb and flow and then they come back into something else. And so it really just feels like a complete piece when you're done with it. But I found John Fishman to be just on another level here in this. I found the combination of kind of peaking melody in the first half of the jam meeting with spacious noise. It kind of reminded me of the Ruby Waves from MSG last year, where you just like get big chunks of ideas. But what was kind of your big thought about this jam and what does it say to you about where the band is evolving right now?

[Megan]

Yeah, I think that to me, what is really exciting about this jam is just the textures in it. If you listen to this jam on headphones, it's wild. There's so much going on in each section. I think what's cool, the one part that I. Well, there's a bunch of parts that I loved, but the one part that really blew me away was kind of halfway through, they find this familiar trajectory. They start building towards a really sunny peak. And Trey has that crystal clear soloing. But then inside the peak, when they get to the top of it, they start to kind of shred at it and they find this like discordant and treading sounds and it adds the depth to this climax and it kind of spins the jam in this darker direction and it just sends them off. It's almost as if they're kind of catapulted through space in this like dystopian noise jam. And I totally agree. Fishman is playing these really deep like primal beat throughout this whole space section that just keeps it so grounded and the others can just kind of go off on top of it. And to me it's just incredible. It's so. There's spaceyness. I talked about this at the beginning, but it's really rhythmic. So the space, that ambience that they're floating in doesn't ever feel disconnected or loose. It's really grounded because there's such a strong rhythm holding it down. And the way they kind of wind it down, it sounds like a machine. It's really, really cool. And I mean, I think it's just, just an absolutely epic jam. I've listened to it I think three times and I'm. It's completely captivating the whole time.

[Osiris]

Yeah, like they played two 40 minute jams last summer, the simple from Alpine Valley and the Tweezer. And I think that we all kind of came to the consensus. The simple felt like a lot of like stretching for 40 minutes. It didn't necessarily like naturally come together. The Tweezer, I loved that in the moment and I loved it on re listening this, but even that one feels like like eight sections kind of compacted together. They were chasing 40 minutes almost, which, hey, I'm. I'm not complaining. Give me a chase after 40 minute jam in any show at Boulder and be a happy, happy dude. It's like that and Albuquerque are the last two things I'm chasing. 40 minutes Albuquerque. Oh, and a four song second set. I've never seen a four song second set. So. Patrick Jordan, if you are listening and you want to just like give a message one night should be a four song second set. I would be very happy for that. But this reminded me of the Ruby Waves from MSG last year. It reminded me of the Wave of Hope and Choctaw's Torture from Mexico in that it is a massive like full on 40 minute long jam. But it never felt to me like they were chasing it.

[Megan]

No.

[Osiris]

There was a moment like 22 minutes into the jam where I was texting with some buddies while listening and I was just like, all I said was this just, just sounds like the kind of jam that has no end. The way that they're playing, they sound too locked into the groove that like these are the moments where if it's going to go 30 plus minutes, they're, they're just, they're in that space right now. They're not out of ideas. They could keep this thing going. It was kind of this like web of like a really hypnotic groo truth. And then check my watch. 28 minutes and I start texting a bunch of buddies. Like, hey, just heads up. Like we're. We're nearing the 30 minute mark. And then it just kept going because they just had more to say. You know, you got that in those Mexico jams from 24. You got that in the Ruby Waves. That it wasn't so much that the band felt like they were chasing big times, which I don't think they necessarily ever like. Like I. I don't think they're ever like on stage. Like, oh, one more minute and we get to 40. But like, they definitely sometimes feel like they are adding another segment on just to see what else they can do. This felt like the music was playing them in a really cool way.

[Megan]

Yeah. So patient, so exploratory. It. I totally agree with that.

[Osiris]

Shermouth here says I'm kind of blown away at how they returned to the song at the end. It really made it feel like a mind boggling journey. Foreman77 says they stuck the landing for sure. I agree with that. Sometimes they don't in these. They just like out of nowhere. It's like. And like, whoa. Like you just pulled me out of like a giant jam. This felt like. And I think that what's going through your mind has a way that they can do this in a way that like everything's right, for example, does not where they can just be playing a groove and subtly the like, it just comes back in very naturally. Fascinated by this song. Really hope that we get one at Boulder that in any way competes with this. What else do you have? Anything else you want to say about the show? I. I personally liked this encore. I think that this is the spot for the Howling. If we're going to do it, it is a. Just throw it in the encore. Do not take up my fourth quarter with this. I would be fine with them opening a show with the Howling.

[Megan]

That'd be fun.

[Osiris]

Just keep it out of like the last 20 minutes of the set because it just. It has the same effect that Meatst. I thought it was here plus Ghost was just a really cool, unique combination to close things out.

[Megan]

Yeah, the Ghost has a wild peak too. Like Trey is peaking so incredibly. He sounds amazing. Yeah. I thought I even liked the fourth quarter of the show. I thought the show was just awesome.

[Osiris]

I did too. This made my larger list from a show standpoint. This is tier 2, which we've labeled Scoreboard, which is basically, hey, check the scoreboard. Band. Like this is a band playing a 43 minute long jam in a. In a solid show. My second tier, not to give things away too much, but it's got 423 San Francisco, night two of San Francisco, Pittsburgh and Austin. My tier one, which I have named Planetary Alignment. This is that very special moment where everything comes together in the solar system. That is 418Seattle, 422San Francisco, and 622Manchester. I will. The. The what's going through your mind inspired me to create a new tier of jams. So do you want to hear my. My top jams right now? All right. Yeah, it's going to give something away for where we're going with this, but we're going to take a break here in a second anyway and we'll come back to talk about Austin, but just. I'll leave you all on this. So tier one is rough and rowdy, which is a nod at Bob Dylan's most recent studio album. And it is a Holy shit. I can't believe that this band is playing this well at this age of their career. And that is the tweezer fest from 622, the what's going through your mind from 624, and the golden age from 627. And then tier one, a second year in a row, we have a tier one a because so good that you cannot drop this down to tier 2. This is labeled Flower Moon, which is another hat tip to an aging auteur. This is a hat tip to Killers of the Flower moon, Martin Scorsese's 2023 film, which, like how. How is he still making movies that great at this point in his career? I don't know, but that is the 131Fuego, the two one what's going through your mind 422Ruby waves, the 425Light, and the 628Ruby wave. So that's kind of where my headspace is at right now in terms of the best jam of this period in time. Is there anything that's missing from there? Do you. Do you have any qualms, any. Any bones to pick with my listing?

[Megan]

No. You know, I was trying to go back and forth between the Golden Age and the Ruby Waves today a little bit to think about which one I liked more. I ultimately settled on Golden Age. But I do think that Ruby Waves is interesting.

[Osiris]

The last like 10 minutes of that Ruby Waves are just are wild.

[Megan]

I like the beginning of it, too, but we'll talk about it.

[Osiris]

We're going to talk about all this. We're going to get to Austin here in one second. We're going to take a break for everyone listening to the podcast, listen to some ads, get yourself a glass of water, get yourself all ready for part two of the podcast. Summer's here and Nordstrom has everything you need for your best dress season ever. From beach days and WED weddings to weekend getaways in your everyday wardrobe. Discover stylish options under $100 from tons of your favorite brands like Mango Skims, Princess Polly and madewell. It's easy, too, with free shipping and free returns in store order, pickup and more. Shop today in stores [e-mail] or download the Nordstrom app. Okay, we're back. I love how everyone live. Just gets to watch us hang out in silence while we while we wait it out for enough space that we can just drop the ads in. All right, so we had a this was again the strange routing of the 2025 summer tour. We had three shows to kick off the tour. One show in Pittsburgh. Hey, we're on the right track here. On Tuesday, nothing. On Wednesday, nothing until the band stepped on stage on Friday evening at the Moody center in Austin, Texas. They came out set one, crowd Control, Mike Song Into Cities Divided sky, the well, Daniel Saw the Stone, Taste Dirt and Weak Pod Groove. Set two, no Men in no Man's Land, Fuego in Golden Age, the squirming Coil, sand and Character zero. And the encore was A Life beyond the Dream and First Tube. And just for a note from the Gap charts, here we are at a 31.65 average song gap. We had two big bust outs. Crowd control played for the first time since August 2, 2022, which I believe was Detroit. Or maybe it was Blossom. I forget the way that that tour routed Blossom. Blossom. Okay, so that was 123 show gaps. Since then. That show had a 25 minute free and then the Daniel saw the stone for the first time since August 1st, 2017. Maple Night. That's a 284 show gap if you want to feel old for how long ago the Baker's Dozen was is exactly.

[Megan]

What happened because I was streaming the show and I looked it up and I was like, wow. I saw the last Daniel saw the stone. And I was like but that couldn't possibly have been that long ago. But it was long time. Long ago. Yeah. Wow.

[Osiris]

So what are your thoughts on this show? This is Night one in Austin's the first time the band has been back to Austin since, I believe, 7:31. 18. Is that. Could that be correct? Yeah. 7:31. Yeah, 18. Right, right, right. I think so. I think so. That seems accurate. It's not showing up here correctly on the Phish net stat.

[Megan]

Well, it wasn't, because I thought it had been 10 years since Phish played Texas, but it hadn't been seven.

[Osiris]

So it was 7.31.18. That was it.

[Megan]

I think the net stats were weird.

[Osiris]

For some reason, which I was at that show. That was a great show. Great. Everything's right. What are your thoughts on this show overall? What kind of big takeaways?

[Megan]

Yeah, I mean, more bust outs, which was cool. I also thought this second set's really great, especially the third quarter, super strong. And I also thought one thing that stood out about the show is just more effects. Trey was playing with a lot more effects than he has been, and that really stood out to me in the show. I could hear it a lot more even, not just in the big jams, but in the kind of smaller jams as well. Those are my biggest.

[Osiris]

Yeah, I got that. I felt like. And you immediately heard this in the mics and cities that, like, there was a desire and the. Well, I would say there was a desire to kind of see what is going on with his effects. We really got this in especially the latter part of the Golden Age. But the Fuego as well, the Nomens as well. It seemed like the synth pedal made a little bit more of a return, which it strikes me that, like, we've been having this kind of dueling back. Excuse me, back and forth, like, very clean approach during the spring, but also, like a very muddy, dirty kind of jamming approach in parts of 2024. It seems as though he's found kind of a balance of where he can hit on the clean and then, you know, dive deep into kind of the muddiness. I do wonder, because we talked about this a lot, that, like, Mike sounded slightly absent from the band in parts of 2021 and 2022. And then he's really reemerged in the last two and a half years as kind of a leading instrument. And part of that seemed to be because Trey was laying off the synth pedal, which ended up making him sound like bass guitar. I almost wonder if the move back to the center and he's closer to Trey now Fishman's on the other side of him. If there's more of, like, a mutual relationship with the synth pedal than there used to be. I don't know. That's just kind of where my head goes.

[Megan]

Yeah, absolutely. I could definitely feel the mics is. The mics is really great and I love when they're playing like a mic so early in the show. It's just that to me is always like a good sign, I feel like. But yeah, the mics in the cities definitely stand out. I thought it was fun to see the. The wow. Watching TR his face when it gets dark. He was like so leaning into it. He was just like loving it, which was really fun and interesting. I mean playing Dirt, even though it's not a bust out. It was played at Albany last fall, so only 22 shows, but I feel like it's pretty rare till here. Still it's kind of nice and I think it works well and. And then you have that slower tempoed, weak a pog again which is just getting dark and funky. I like what it's doing. I like how they're playing it a little bit slower. I think it's fine. I like it.

[Osiris]

Strangely. I'm just looking at my stats here. I have seen a lot of dirt. The last one I saw was the Austin show. They played it in the second set. It's only been played 77 times. It was like they pushed it really hard in 1997, laid off it in 98, laid off it again in 99, 2000, kind of the same. And then ever since then it's like maybe three. It was like four times in 2003, three times in 2009. Like it's really just like a once every or like three or four times a year type of thing. That is just a beautiful little ballad that I would even be down with that. That working its way into like a second set landing pad. It's just such a beautiful.

[Megan]

Yes, exactly. I know I haven't heard it since 2019 from Charleston, but I mean I. And I've only seen it twice in 3.0 and 4.0 or 3.0, I guess. And then all the other times were in 97.

[Osiris]

Yeah, that would make sense. You see a lot of 97 shows. You'd see a lot of Dirts.

[Megan]

Yeah.

[Osiris]

All right, let's chat. Fuego Golden Age. This is a Back to back 20 minute jam segment. You know, you're getting slightly more music than you got on Tuesday night in Pittsburgh in a jam segment, but you get it across. Two songs just from a, you know, show chaser, from a song chaser, from a jam state Chaser standpoint, wherever you fall, would you prefer to see a 40 minute long jam or two jams that kind of stretch that limit?

[Megan]

40 minutes? No question.

[Osiris]

40 minutes, yeah, that's kind of where I'm at.

[Megan]

It's just so special. It's just, you know, I have a list of the longest jams I've seen and I still have not seen a 40 minute jam. Jam. So I. That's the longest you've seen secret sets. I think it might be the ruby waves from last year.

[Osiris]

37 minutes. Nice.

[Megan]

Yeah, I think that's it. Yeah, I mean, it's. I just think there's something about seeing a super long jam like that. Yeah, it's the Ruby waves from last year. That was the longest I've seen. And the second longest is the tweezer from 12, 30, 19. So my longest jam is 37 minutes and 50 seconds. I would like that beat this summer fish.

[Osiris]

Choctaw torture from Mexico's mind. And that's like 39, 53. Something hilarious. Like just. Just shy of it. And. And Trey the next night during Choctaws Reprise, said, we're gonna play another 40 minute shock test. And I want to be like, no, you. You didn't actually hit 40 minutes.

[Megan]

Just so you know. How about you? You'd rather see. You'd rather see the longer one too, right?

[Osiris]

Until I get to the 40 minute jam, I'm always chasing that. The one thing I. The reason I ask it though is that like, there is something deeply satisfying about an awesome, near 25 minute long Fuego that you would think as it's winding down and fading into golden age will be the show highlight.

[Megan]

Yeah.

[Osiris]

And lo and behold, they not only have more to say, but so much more to say and they're now like primed and ready to say it that the. The golden age goes down as my favorite show of the night and my favorite show the weekend and one of my favorite, favorite jam of the weekend and one of my favorite jams of the year. Overall, it's just a really wild place to be. Like in years past. I know I keep harping on this, but like, I think it's just important to remind people of in years past, the no man in no man's land that opens a set might be the show. How highlight?

[Megan]

Yeah, totally. For sure.

[Osiris]

Really good. Years past the fuego would be the highlight.

[Megan]

Yeah.

[Osiris]

In this very unique and amazing period in fish history, the golden age then happens after the fuego. I don't really understand, like what is happening strikes me Age is a good thing for people that, like, the older you get, if you. If you embrace it and you. And you age into it, it's actually a benefit because this band is more creative than they were in their 40s and fift just wild. But I'm just blown away by it. I think, like, the Fuego gets to, like, that hypnotic, groovy dance space that, like, I think everyone wants to reach at a certain point in a show and is, like, super fun to hear for five minutes, let alone 25 minutes. Like, it's just sweet. Just keep coming at me with your, like, hypnotic grooves. The Golden Age is a little bit more cerebral. It's a little bit more of, like, a chin scratcher. It gets to kind of menacing, weird spaces at the end of it. And it really just, to me, showcases Fish at their best, is a musical conversation and a jam. Like, the Golden Age is kind of like you're hanging around with friends in conversation, and you get to, like, kind of the nasty parts of life and, like, challenging moments and, like, you actually, like, cross that threshold in conversation, and this sounds like that in music. It's a very special thing.

[Megan]

Yeah, I like that metaphor. The Fuego. First of all, can we just take a minute and say thank you, Fuego. Like, you saved Mondegreen Day four. You continue to ride as just a killer place for Fish right now.

[Osiris]

Like, longest encore ever in Hollywood.

[Megan]

Like, anytime Fuego comes on now, I just get excited because I'm like, yes. Like, they just are so inspired by the song right now. It's amazing. But this is where I really heard a lot more of the effects and. And I thought that this jam, you know, Mike breaking through at, like, 16, 17 minutes with this baseline, that would just. Yeah, talk about hypnotic groove. Just destroy you. And the way that Trey. Troy. Sorry, Trey. Starts to, like, soar over it with this really simple but melodic line, and it's so emotional, and it just has that gorgeous sustained peak and another expert level drop back into Fuego. Maybe Trey is getting better at this. Like, there's a really great drop back into the song, so I think that that's killer. And, yeah, this Gold Age is one of my favorite jams they put on this tour so far. It's now the longest Golden Age ever. It beat out Vegas from 16 minutes, which is exciting. You know, this jam has incredible flow. I've listened to this, I think twice today, and it just moves effortlessly between sections, and it has, like, some of what they found in the. What's going through your mind? I Heard some of that kind of spacey noise jam, but the way that it builds to like this really, really evocative, like kind of moody peak. You could call it that. It just has a lot of emotion in it, which I think is really beautiful. And the way they start rocking outside of the peak is really fun and energetic and so uplifting. The peak does not quit. This peak just keeps on going. And then an awesome segue back into the song again. So I think it's an incredible jam. I'm excited to keep listening to it.

[Osiris]

We got a great comment here from Ed that there have been a lot of boring fuegos and now it's almost always a show highlight. It's a really good point and it's a. It's something that I kind of remember feeling in late 3.0. This song was almost a lost cause. Like it had debuted the big jam vehicle out of Wingsuit. We got huge versions at spac14 and the man14 and then it kind of fell off. And then we would get like a cool version from the Forum and, you know. But it seemed like it was so much time and energy to like get there. It seemed like a song that was really hard for them to jam. And now it just feels like when in doubt, play fuego ghost boring 98 here. Since 2023, it's made a good comeback. I think it. If. If memory serves correctly, it was the Berkeley version. That Berkeley run is so legendary now, in hindsight. And midway through that second set of, I think the second night, 419, there was just an outstanding Fuego that seemed to come out of nowhere. It seemed to be a weird, setless call at the time. And then here we are, gigantic jam. And then we got the great version from Ms. Year. And ever since then we've just had really outstanding versions of Fuego that make it a show highlight and. And a moment like this and then Golden Age, another song. I wrote an essay back in 2013 about how the band seemed to be struggling to jam out of Golden Age. It seemed to be a very contained, hypnotic groove. And now we're just. That that idea is completely gone by the wayside because they've figured out a way to jam this. I'd really love to know if members of TV on the Radio have heard some of the highlight versions of Golden Age because it really just does justice to. To what that band did.

[Megan]

I know. How cool would that be to hear this band covering your song and playing it for almost 30 minutes? That's pretty cool.

[Osiris]

The amount of Times that they've just like absolutely taken it out in the last couple of years and it just ends up being a show and tour highlight. Awesome, awesome stuff here. I love the version from Seattle as well. So we. We closed tonight's show. I think the only nitpick I would have about this show is there's a very natural four song second set here. Squirming coil and everything. Beautiful. What a. What a thing on paper to look at. What a thing to behold. Sand character, zero. Just felt a little superfluous, you know. It just kind of. Okay. Life beyond the dreams.

[Megan]

Doing that though playing like an hour and a half sets now they're going longer.

[Osiris]

That. That's. That's. Yeah, that's now like it's a real thing since last summer that the band will give you like a complete section and then we'll tack on two songs to end the set. I love it from a flow standpoint. I'm not really complaining because we had such a great show in and of itself. But if there's any knit I'm going to pick with this show, it's that. Let's go then. Do you have anything else you want to say about night one or night one of Austin or can we move on?

[Megan]

No, I think we can move on. I mean the encore is very predictable.

[Osiris]

Extremely. And speaking of predictable, we would get relatively predictable on night two in Austin. 628. You want to give us the set list here?

[Megan]

Sure. It opens up with punch you in the eye into free followed by my soul 555. Reba. Hey stranger Plasma Gula, papyrus moon age Daydream. Set 2 is Chalk Dust torture into twist into ruby waves into monsters limb by limb, split open and melt Rock and roll. And the encore's waste and say it to me, Santos.

[Osiris]

So logic will dictate on any fish show or any fish tour that you will get a show like this on paper. What logic will not dictate was that this show will include a 30 minute jam off of one of the best jam vehicles. More on that later. But this to me feels like. Because I don't have a ton, I don't really have anything to say about the first set. It happened. I thought the plasma had a cool like 3 minutes. I'm curious your thoughts like you read through that set list list. You all out in the audience may disagree and if so let us know. I'd be more than happy to hear your opinions on this. My take is that this is a fairly boring set list and that these are this is a collection of songs that kind of just get played in the periphery of the rotation. And it just happened that they all were played during the same first set. I'm curious from your standpoint, like, what is the purpose of a first set like this? Is it literally just because we have to do it? And these songs, we know how to play them, so they're played. Is there a, like, table setting manner here of like, let's turn over the rotation because we're off for the next five days? What are your thoughts when you see a set list like this?

[Megan]

Yeah, I think it was just kind of like some songs we haven't played in a while. You know, you've got a classic opener and punchy. You've got some songs like, you've got a song by Mike, you know, five to five. You've got a new song. Hey Stranger. You've got like a Trey song, plasma. And then you've got some like an old classic fish song in Gula that's not played very often, you know, Last played last summer at Dick's, but before that, not since 2022. And then you've got Moon Age, which everybody loves to see because it's Bowie. And I actually think Moon Age is a fucking amazing set. One closer. Like, I think this is the perfect way to close a set that like Bowie Wild Peaks, like, yes. So I think it was kind of, you know, classic opener, fantastic closer, some just stuff in the middle. I think it's just trait trying to play some songs he hasn't played.

[Osiris]

Ed here says that the band was just tight. Trey was way more on point than the previous night's first set. I think that that's part of it. Maybe like, maybe the band was just like, let's play some songs that we know we can just like deliver on. The free. Had some weird tempo stuff. And then it made sense to me that they would play my soul because despite what I feel about that song, that song does seem to be a. We need a little bit of a reset to like, make sure, like, there's nothing better than like 12 bar blues. Get you back on. Like, okay, we're all on the same page here. Rebo was quite nice. I'm never going to complain about Areva Plasma I thought was interesting. This set was just. It felt like. Oh, and 4 and 77 says the punch with the. A long intro needed to release. And that's definitely. That's definitely a Good point here. 555 hinted at type 2 territory. The set just like it seems to me, like, this is a set that we see, like, throughout Fish history. If you go through set, you're gonna see a first set like this. That is not a ton. That's special. It's more just A, we need to play a set. B, we need to kind of keep these rotational songs in and see. Maybe we need to kind of like, focus on getting a little bit tighter as the tour rows along. Let's talk set two. So, again, I don't want to live in the negative waters, but what do you think made Trey abandon a relatively promising chalk dust torture 11 minutes sin?

[Megan]

I have no idea. I don't know. It sounded great. It sounded great. But Trey likes to play songs sometimes, and I don't know, I don't know if maybe he was like, I'm not ready to go deep right now. Because Twist kind of does the same thing too. Like, it gets a little interesting and then it's like, he's out of it.

[Osiris]

He's out of it.

[Megan]

He's like, I just want to play my new stuff, guys. I love what's going through your mind. I love Ruby Waves. Like, he's like, I just want to play the new stuff. Stuff. I don't know. I was a little surprised too. I mean, I was happy with where it ended up because Ruby Waves jams rule. They rule. But it was. It was a little bit. It was a huge ripcord out of Choctaws particularly. At least Twist kind of segued into Ruby Waves.

[Osiris]

But yeah, it's definitely something that if you again, you go back to, like, even as recent as 2016, if they abandoned this Chalk dust torture at this time and went for Twist, it was a sign of where the set was going, that the set was almost irrecoverable at that point in time. There are a lot of second sets where like an 11 minute jam is what you got and then a bunch of songs and you were like, okay, I thought you guys went deep here and there. The Ruby Waves, though, this is the clear show highlight, one of the tour highlights at this point in time. And this brings up, you know, an interesting point that Ed is making here. I thought they kept looking for a good direction in Choctaw's Torture, and nothing quite hit. So I think I I on. On listening, I thought the Choctaw's torture was a more warranting of, like, at least one to two more minutes of trying. But I will acknowledge here with what he's saying, what they're saying that, like, it. It seemed like it was going to a relatively standard chalk dust torture jam vehicle space. And maybe Trey was just like, nope, unless we have new ideas, like, I'm abandoning it. And Ruby Waves almost immediately goes to new direction, new space. Kind of similar stuff to what's going through your mind. Similar stuff to Golden Age, where it's, like, melodic and funky and groovy, but also, like, industrial and weird and dystopian and, like, it felt like this big mix in a way that, like, Ruby Waves just seems to inspire something in this band that I'm 100% here for, and I'm really, really excited to continue to see them dive deep here. What were your thoughts on this jam and kind of where it says about the band at this point in time?

[Megan]

I love this jam. It. You know, it starts off with that kind of horizontal jamming with fishermen just, like, urging the jam forward. They've got the kind of screeching on the loops, but then it gets this soundscape that's really eerie and dramatic. It's so dramatic. And then it slowly builds, like, a huge emotional peak. And then it has a little bit of, like, yards after catch situation with, like, some really kind of, like, evocative and, like, spacey stuff, and you're kind of floating. And then they return to that soundscape that they found in the beginning again. And then they segue pretty, pretty cool into Monsters. And I'm not a huge Monsters fan, but it was a cool segue. But the jam is awesome and. And really effortless.

[Osiris]

The Segway did work. I will give them that. Yeah. Ed also notes here that this reminded him of something Trey said about the Mercury at the Alpine Valley show in 2019. They thought that would be the big jam. They ran out of ideas, and Ruby Waves saved the day. That's a good point. Sometimes, you know, you may come out. Choctaws Torture set to opening jam is like, a very standard thing at this point in fish history. Again, not complaining. It's just like, when In Doubt, open the second set with choctaw torches torture. Usually you have at least 18 minutes banked away at that point in time. This Ruby Waves is just like, where the ideas came from. And I. I don't know what it is about that song. I wonder if it's, like, the tempo that they play at the fact that it's only, like, two and a half minutes long. I think Trey has to feel a lot when he sings those lyrics. Those are very, very powerful lyrics. And the fact that that song was written back in 2007, 2008, range really kind of hints at like where his headspace was at and. And that carrying over to here probably really impacts him. I don't know but we got like one of the tour highlights. One of the year highlights. I would say one of the top three or one of the top ten jams of the year out of this Ruby Waves. I was super into it. I have. I'm very excited to go back and re listen to it and revisit it. The set then kind of goes into like a weird terrain. I thought the split open and melt was very cool for a little bit in time. I'm always here for rock and roll which has somehow become a rare song fish history at least at this point in time. But I felt like this show in any other tour would be the off night and here you get this 30 minute Ruby waves that requires you to at least re listen and dig in a little bit more on this in a way that even seven years ago would have been the. Hopefully you didn't travel for that that show and now like no hopefully you did because you got a 30 minute jam.

[Megan]

That's what's crazy about where they're at right now. I, I just. I can't believe there have been six jams over 20 minutes in in these six shows. That's crazy. The and. And not just like boring little jams. Like big monster jams. Two of them back to back. Like one of them 40 minutes, one of them 30. Like this is big, big stuff is a lot of expectation. Like this band just like continues to just. I don't know. They ask for it. They ask for this expectations because they're just delivering so hard and it's so exciting thinking about them going to Colorado where they love. Mike's already posting like pictures of Telluride 88. He's just like in the. In the feels right now and it's gonna be exciting. You know they want to make it up to everybody. They're not going to be a dicks and everybody loves dick. So it's. I think it's pretty exciting going into.

[Osiris]

Colorado that this week I am excited about it. I don't know what to anticipate because these shows feel slightly unique. They're. You know, it's. There's nothing right before it and there's really nothing right after it. So it's like these three shows and then they have a little bit of time off and the tour like from a regular tour, you know, two days during the week, three days over the weekend doesn't really get started. I mean, we have a Wednesday show in Columbus next week, and then from there, like, it's two weeks of, of like hard touring for the band. It feels slightly different this, this tour. Just like it feels like it's very different from like, tours of the past where we won't really feel like we're in that, like, constant cycle of fish tour until post Boulder. It's gonna be a big stadium. I don't know. It's not. Still not sold out. This is like twice as big as Dick's. And I have a lot of friends who come to Dick's every year that are not coming to this because it's conflicting with family vacations that they, you know, have already booked in Labor Day is like, sorry, I'll see you later. So I think it's going to be a different vibe. I think the band is going to feel very cool being back in Boulder for the first time since, I believe, 1993. The first time that they're playing.

[Megan]

That's crazy.

[Osiris]

The band has played solo shows. Members have played solo shows in Boulder and the Boulder Theater and in the Fox. But it's definitely a, you know, a step back in time for them. They used to play Boulder all the time and play up and down the Front Range all the time in the early 90s. I think that there's going to be something very special in the air for it. Plus, the way the band is playing right now, it's pretty, pretty amazing. It's. I feel very lucky with where we're at right now. And like you said, six 20 minute jams at this point in time or 20 minute jams going into, you know, the seventh and eighth and ninth shows. The tour. We're just in a really, really lucky space. Last question for you. What would be your big highlight of these last three shows? Pittsburgh and the two Austins.

[Megan]

Ah, it's definitely what's going through your mind. Come on.

[Osiris]

That's where I'm at.

[Megan]

Come on. Right? Huge, huge jam. I just. I hope they do another one on this tour.

[Osiris]

I do too. And I hope it happens this week.

[Megan]

No, I hope it happens. Late meter.

[Osiris]

Fine. Let's have two more.

[Megan]

Let's have two more. We can have two more. You can do one at Spack maybe, and one in New York. How about New York City? How about a 45 minute jam in New York City? Come on. That'd be so crazy. Come on.

[Osiris]

Do you think that that would upset the neighbors if they were like, they're still playing the same song?

[Megan]

I can't wait. I hope so.

[Osiris]

Can't either. So we will be back next Monday to break down the Boulder shows. Come and check us out over on Blockbuster Card on Wednesday morning. New time, new new time. Same place, new time. We'll be talking about Brief Encounter, which is a unbelievable, fascinating movie over on our new Blockbuster Card series. Until then, I hope you guys dig into the jams. I hope you guys have an amazing week and I will see whoever I see at Boulder on Thursday. Cannot wait.

[Megan]

Brian. Have the best time at the shows you two. Everybody else is going.

[Osiris]

I'll have a time.

[Megan]

Have a less anxious, enjoyable time.

[Osiris]

We'll see you guys.

[Megan]

Thanks everyone.

[Osiris]

Sam Osiris Sam.

[Lawrence Lanahan]

This is Lawrence Lanahan, journalist, musician and host of Rearranged, an Osiris Media podcast about music around arranging. Once a song is written, arrangers make musical decisions that shape how we end up hearing the song. We're not just talking about adding orchestral accompaniment like horns and strings, or doing a cover version of a song. Arrangement can be putting happy music over dark lyrics, using samples, recording all acoustic, even tiny decisions like putting an electronic loop into an acoustic song to draw your attention to an important turn of phrase. It's all arranging. Rearranged Episodes are documentary essays where I use arrangements to answer some big questions like what is a song and what can a song become? And how can the sound of a song change the meaning you take from it? Listening this way has changed my relationship with music. Tune in to Rearranged and maybe it'll happen for you too. Learn [e-mail].

[Osiris]

Osiris.