Thanks to both of you Left Coasters and sorry about your "Fall" Tour snub.

As for the challenge of unearthing the hidden gems of Summer 2019 - you've set the hook boys. My obsession with this band runs deep & wide and my personal musical sensibilities seek out the best of both Phish worlds- first an ambient groove that transmogrifies into a blissful peak. The Golden Age of 12/28/16 has become a near-daily ritual for myself and those within earshot - not one but two dirty grooves followed by monstrous hose (plus a ton of Whammy and Mutron from Trey) and a crash landing into Simple. Yes - more please!

Sooooo - my current obsession from Summer 2019 comes from the one setter at Bonnaroo (7/14/19). WAIT! Keep reading. I know, know - it seems like the double whammy for a meh Phish show: 1. A shared stage (to be read - festival) and 2. a single set. This one garnered exactly zero words of the hundreds of thousands above but the tight and ferocious Tweezer from Night 1 deserves our collective attention.

It clocks in at a paltry 11:46 and (following the through line of the post) looks bad on paper. It. Is. Not.

From the jump this Tweezer feels loose, with a bit of swagger, and right before our Uncle shows up we are treated to a quiet funk breakdown, heavy on Page's D6 clav. After dispensing with the "song" proper, Trey gives us two minutes of staccato Whammy awesomeness as the boys hold the pocket and stay outta the way.

At 6:32 Trey descends (to me it sounds like a signal) and all four turn on a dime into a key change. Flawless execution and communication. Instantly positive and uplifting. A mere twenty seconds later Trey has found the phrase that will take us up the mountain. No searching or trying a few on for size. Just instantly pegging the pickup volume knobs and liftoff. My wife started to cry at 8:45 on her first (of many) listen. Mike bombing away. Page now on the piano running right beside a possessed Trey who keeps climbing up several mini-peaks (or one sustained hose peak - tomayto/tomahto). And the cherry on top of this fantastic sundae is a mostly stuck landing into 2001. No, it's not a 25 minute ambient exploratory masterpiece a la 1.0 but a straight ahead, glorious, life affirming guitar explosion.

Give it a listen or 50 won't you? Or just sit in traffic in West Austin and roll your window down........can you hear it?........on the wind?.......or seeping through the windows of that white truck just ahead of you......

Peace & see you on the floor at Dick's,

Matty
South Austin. Texas. Earth.