Photos: Frankie Cavone
After a full year of closely paying attention to Phish’s live concerts, listening to every show daily after they happen, continuously studying and comparing the year’s highlights, and loving every second of it, I wanted to compile a list of every Phish show in 2024, from worst to best, and summarize what does (or doesn’t) set each show apart. There were so many quality highlights this year that elevated shows beyond where they otherwise would be, that a list like this deserves to exist with detail.
To clarify how I’m ranking these shows; this is my subjective opinion on the objective listing of shows. My personal favorite show of the year (New Year’s Eve) is not #1; rather, the highest-ranked shows earn their spot through the merits that set them apart from the others. These merits are, no doubt, still colored in by my personal preferences. But, for this list, I’m much more interested in comparing the objectivity observed in highlights, rather than simply what sounds good to my untrained ears. In other words, this list is subjectively objective.
Expect to disagree with this list! With that said, I hope you find it interesting, and I hope it helps to color in your thoughts on how the shows this year fall or give you a new show to check out.
*denotes my attendance of the listed show
Runts of the Litter
Like any year, on some nights (or days), Phish just don’t have it. 2024 offered us six shows that gain the rare honor of being remembered as “bad” Phish shows. None of these shows are so abhorrent that they should make you worry about the future of the band, but the negative qualities that set them apart from the rest are undeniable.
41.) Mexico, Night 1 (2/21)
The first show of the year is my pick for the worst show of the year. If there’s anything to check out about this show, it’s the foreshadowing of the ballad-extension trend that would continue throughout this year in If I Could, and the wonderful tribute to Ellie in “The Mango Song”. Otherwise, there’s not one thing about this show that doesn’t have a better counterpart hidden elsewhere in the year.
40.) Mondegreen, Night 4 (8/18)*
Unsurprisingly, the other one-setter is also at the bottom of the list. Getting any music at all was surely the better choice if the other option was cancelation, but this is very much a jukebox kind of show. Check out the Gin, Golden Age, and Fuego in this show, which gives festival attendees a small sample of jam to close out Phish’s 11th festival.
39.) Mohegan Sun, Night 2 (7/24)*
2024’s worst two-setter goes to an early Summer entry. Night two at Mohegan Sun is filled with x-factor surprises, from the two-spot Curtain, the powerful welcome of “Most Events Aren’t Planned” into the year’s rotation, a callback to the Mike’s-less Weekapaug from 2019 with “Mikes>With>Groove”, and a quirky dark “Fuego” that would summon the vibes of a popular Albany version from later in the year. Unfortunately, these qualities don’t have much relistening power, which throws the show way down the list.
38.) Madison Square Garden, Night 1 (12/28)*
The opener to the New Year’s Run fell a bit flat this rotation around the sun. It was obvious early on that Trey was facing some sort of illness, as a lot of his singing in this show is noticeably scratchy. In terms of jamming, this show has a very-happy Simple to open the run, followed by a Mike-led extended Free, and a quirky little Twist hidden away in the second set; otherwise, you’re looking at bustouts of Driver, Round Room, and Fuck Your Face if you want to hear something interesting in this show.
37.) Alpine Valley, Night 3 (7/28)
This show’s first set isn’t actually all that bad. Check out the show-opening “A Song I Heard The Ocean Sing” and mid-set “Wolfman’s Brother” for some genuine highlights. Unfortunately, once they get to the second set, things start to fall apart. “Chalk Dust Torture” gets a little juice, and “Split Open and Melt” is a solid version in a year without a lot of high-quality Melts, but otherwise, the show lacks cohesion in a way that many other shows don’t, with nothing big anchoring the concert.
36.) Bethel Woods, Night 2 (8/10)
The best of the worst. This show is just kinda boring, especially when you consider it’s surrounded by two much better shows. “Dinner and a Movie” and “Weigh” are bustouts welcomed by seemingly everyone, and the show’s jam anchor “Kill Devil Falls” certainly has its fans, but other than that, you’re left with subjective opinions on song selection if you want to enjoy this show. Nothing else truly stands out.
Flawed Nights of Phish
Shows that contain brief flashes of Phish executing on their vision, contrasted with stretches of show that leave attendees yearning for more. “Inessential” is a good word for these shows.
35.) Mansfield, Night 2 (7/20)*
Again, I consider this a rather boring show. There’s nothing particularly bad about it, it is just forgettable. In terms of highlights, you’re gonna want to seek out the dark energy exuded by the NMINML>Monsters segment (which is quite good; it’s the only reason this escaped the last section!), or the debut of Human Nature. That’s all there is to say about this show.
34.) Alpine Valley, Night 1 (7/26)
This is the first show on this list that shows its value through bigger chunks of its’ setlist, rather than through scattered individual moments. The back half of Set 1 is a fantastic run of songs (Llama, Cities > Ya Mar, Stash, Cavern), and the energy throughout is well-managed. I have a couple of gripes about this show which hold in back; the first being that all three of this show’s big jams are oddly identical, in a way I’ve never heard before. MFMF, Disease, and Ghost are all similar lengths long, they’re all bliss jams, and they all peak the same way… MFMF sets itself apart a little bit, but not by a lot. There are plenty of jams that sound like these jams, but the fact that there are THREE in a single show? It’s just incredibly odd. Also of note; the Mercury crashout into Taste may be my least favorite moment of the year. It’s a disappointing moment that doesn’t necessarily derail the show, but it does ultimately bring it down.
33.) Grand Rapids, Night 2 (8/7)
Billy’s second sit-in with Phish focuses less on long-form improv and more on weaving through more songs relatively rapidly. Opening that section of the show with a debut in “What’s Going Through Your Mind”, and having Billy take on an entire section of the song’s lyrics is one of the most daring moves of the year. The fun continues through a space-funk Wolfmans into a slow DDHVL, and profoundly dazzling versions of Evolve and Mountains in the Mist. It goes without saying that the entire Billy section of this show, including the encore, is fantastic; unfortunately, the rest of the show seems to suffer as a result, as it feels like the band was just trying to get to the Billy part (Oblivion is a rocking version, I’ll give you that). Once they get to Billy, though; fantastic.
32.) Sphere, Night 2 (4/19)
Maybe a controversial opinion to have Sphere2 this low, but I would argue that nothing about the music in this show stands out. Every jam vehicle used has at least one better counterpart elsewhere in the year, the Type 1 jamming is as standard as it gets, and there are no notable bustouts to speak of… Musically, this is a boring show. Visually; NOW we’re getting somewhere! This show, speaking as someone who was not at the Sphere, has my favorite visuals of the run. The waterfalls of Free look like magic, Gin is my personal favorite visual of the whole four nights, Melt’s black hole thematic is on point, WTU? matches the tranquility of the song, and, of course, YEM is a love letter to the fanbase and everything that sets us, and them, apart.
31.) St. Louis, Night 2 (7/31)
Another scattered show, with this show’s highlights being found at random points in the show. And they’re not bad highlights! A spirited Pebbles and Marbles, and Boogie On Reggae Woman, pepper an otherwise standard first set. Once we get into the second set, Mr. Completely makes his annual appearance for a fun joyride through St. Louis, and Ruby Waves sets the stage for the incoming crazy versions of late Summer. These are good highlights, but not great ones; in conjunction with that, the rest of the sets having not much to offer bring this show down.
30.) Mexico, Night 4 (2/24)
The entire first set of Night 4 of Mexico earns it the top spot of this section; Simple is the best show opener of the year in collaboration with the super smooth segue into Sanity, which is then followed by a well-earned Chalk Dust Torture Reprise (more on that later!). The rest of the set features dynamite versions of Wolfman’s and Gin(!), with otherwise good song selection augmenting the set. Once we get to the second set, however, the show just kind of stops. There is nothing here worth writing about, which, after the precedent set on Nights 2 and 3, was a bit of a bummer. Okay, there’s one more thing worth writing about; check out this encore 2001… It is SNEAKILY quite good!
“Average-Great” 2024
Shows that make up the baseline of what makes 2024 a good year for Phish. There are excellent moments to discover in these shows, but the overall sum of their parts come together to form a merely good concert in comparison to the peaks of their contemporaries.
29.) Mansfield, Night 1 (7/19)*
Regarded as an up-to-standard start to Summer Tour, Night 1 of Mansfield explodes out the gate with extended, early versions of Character Zero, Hey Stranger, and Down with Disease. The entire first set had a wonderous energy that, in hindsight, was more reminiscent of 2023 shows than what 2024 shows would end up looking like, but regardless, it was a great sign to see on the first night back. Ghost>Light holds down the second set with simultaneously joyous and creepy energy, and we get the best Split Open and Melt the year has to offer. If any show embodies the feeling of “boding”, it might be this one.
28.) Albany, Night 2 (10/26)*
Night 2 of “Fall Tour” offers a couple of notable highlights to sink your teeth into. Sigma gives off a little burst of weird energy early on, and Gin stands tall with other versions of the year. Add in a cool bust out of Nothing, and you’ve got a good first set. The second set is simultaneously not weird at all and yet quite weird; there’s no surprise moves, no surprise songs, no surprise placements, and yet songs are used to abnormal effect. Disease sets up a strange Ruby Waves>Fuego movement that sounds more Melt-like than either of those songs, Golden Age takes a turn following the composition that squeezes the music into sludge, and Slave quietly got a great version, given that these days, most versions sound identical. Overall, I’ve got nothing to say other than this is a good show. Nothing more, nothing less.
27.) Mohegan Sun, Night 1 (7/23)*
This is a show that’s earned a lower spot on the list through its execution. Based on the setlist and the “ideas” that built this show, this show had the potential to be a highlight of the year. The only two-show first-set Golden Age ever (and, the best of the year; it’s a gorgeous jam), Gumbo, Guyute, and an enthusiastic Walls of the Cave make up a solid first set.
Plasma>KDF>Carini>Ruby Waves>Piper is a phenomenal run of songs; the first four all offer platforms for the band to flex its improvisational muscle. Kill Devil Falls is the big highlight here, delivering some of the best alien-abduction soundtracks of 2024. This is also the only Carini all year to deliver on its ability to execute darkness through Kuroda’s light. Following the only Mercy of Summer Tour, the band began the year-long placement of Everything’s Right in the set closing spot, an exclamation point on a sexy-looking setlist. This show sounds great, right?
And yet, when you compare it to other shows of the year, the only real highlight we’re looking at is the alien-spaceship-sounding Kill Devil Falls, and even that is outdone several times by the end of the year. By no means is this a bad show; its greatest sin was being, merely, a solidly played show in the year 2024.
26.) Deer Creek, Night 1 (8/2)
The first night of the lauded Deer Creek run offers solid jams contrasted with a ridiculously fun gimmick. The first set offers fiery versions of Life Saving Gun and A Day in the Life, as well as the only Scent of a Mule of the year (and, somehow, the first in two years?!).
Down with Disease is the night’s rocker, and they also execute the best version of the year of Scents and Subtle Sounds with more badassery that simultaneously sounds dreamlike. The rest of the second set and encore is augmented through the repetition of the ending of Disease; they execute the ending FOUR times! Check out the show-ending YEM>Disease. Trey is one funny motha’. Otherwise, we’re looking at a very standard show.
25.) Madison Square Garden, Night 3 (12/30)*
I find three, rather obvious, highlights to this show; Disease, Tweezer, and Hood. These are solid, full highlights. Disease highlighted the band’s use of effects throughout the year to a fabulously robotic effect that many have come to love. Tweezer offers some of the most patient rock-and-roll of the year (great moments are sprinkled throughout this jam!). Hood has received a ton of attention from vets, it is a wondrous reminder of what this song sounded like decades ago. Pure joy rains from this Hood, it is remarkable. Other than these three moments, the ONLY thing I have to say about this show is that Winterqueen following Disease should be applauded as a highly risky move. We love to hear Phish take risks, and this might be THE setlist risk of the year. I personally don’t like it as much as others, but stuff like that keeps the band, and setlists fresh. Otherwise, this show offers an unremarkable first set (save for a fun-yet-brief rarity in Lengthwise), and falls off toward the end of the second. The highlights are grand, but the overall show suffers.
24.) Grand Rapids, Night 1 (8/6)
Like the second Billy show, this one very much feels like the band was playing just to get to that sit-in segment. Contrasting with 8/7, the first night of Grand Rapids does offer some good Phish in that leadup. Check out the shows Stash, Gin (we love a great fast-paced set-closing Gin!), and Ruby Waves for decent Phish-only jamming in this show. Once Billy joins up, however, things initially get a little shaky. The composed section of Moma Dance is SCUFFED. They sing the first verse twice, and adjusting to two guitars leaves everyone shaken; it’s just some of the most awkward playing of the year. Once the jam kicks off, though, EVERYTHING locks into place. This jam is so freaking good. Trey and Billy swirl around each other like phoenixes, coalescing into such a pretty sound. The ending of the jam is painted with precise strokes that probably lead someone to tears, it is that majestic. The jam then awkwardly crashes back into Moma Dance; it is a truly bizarre 24 minutes of music. The rest of the sit-in is as good as the sit-in that would follow the next day, but Moma is by far the highlight of the full thing. Seek it out immediately.
23.) Albany, Night 1 (10/25)*
When you listen to this show without the context that heavily guides it, this sounds like such a normal Phish show. There’s not a whole lot of highlights in comparison to other 2024 shows. Set 1 is bookended with a worthy (yet not as potent) follow-up to the Sand played at Dicks. You’ve got Piper, which is a firecracker of a version and executes some explosive energy. In terms of “major highlights”, that’s it… And yet, Phish’s tribute to Phil Lesh is one that all Grateful Dead fans should check out. The gratitude levied toward the Dead’s bassist feels evident through every moment of this show. Box of Rain, the second GD song played by only the four members of Phish since the 80s, kicks things off in a fashion that immediately grabbed the jam world’s attention. Beyond that, though, the little moments of this show offer significantly higher gravity than normal. The lyrics of Dirt and Sleeping Monkey are exceptionally sad (I’m still not 100% sure if Fish was crying at the beginning of SM, but I think he was?). Grateful Dead teases abound throughout the show; check out The Howling for abundant Shakedown Street teasing, and Tweezer for some I Know You Rider. Light, a brief 7-minute version, sounds like the opening of the pearly gates of Heaven. There are probably more tiny moments that I’ve forgotten, but they’re seriously there. On its own, this is very much a normal Phish show; but if you’re a Dead fan, listen closely to this show, and you will be rewarded with a full three-hour tribute to the life and contributions of Phil Lesh, in the form of an exceptionally thankful Phish show.
Top 10, Outside of the Top 10
In my Albany reactions, I called 10/27/24 “probably a top 10 show of the year” (spoilers: it didn’t make it!). Despite that show, and the other 9 shows here, falling well outside of that distinction, I truly believe every concert in this section contains comparable quality to that best-of tier. This is a true testament to 2024 Phish: I would call 22 of the years 41 shows downright FANTASTIC, all of which provide above-average listening power for years to come.
22.) Bethel Woods, Night 3 (8/11)*
The finale of Bethel offers one of the best first quarters of 2024, kicking off with a not-dead-yet I Never Needed You Like This Before. The following three songs are DYNAMITE. 46 Days is one of three versions this year that exceptionally execute the song’s basic promise to rock out. Gin is the best version of the year; the jam starts normally and then (figuratively) dies in real time, dripping in psychedelic juices before grinding to a quiet halt. No issue there, though, as this leads into the year’s biggest bust out in Fikus, executed with that same juice that Gin swam through. The rest of the set plays out without much interesting going down, but this is a fire start to a show.
Set two picks that energy right up, with Buried Alive kickstarting a fire that would burn throughout the rest of the set. The jam highlight of this show is, without a doubt, AC/DC Bag>Fuego. Bag, in many ways, is a mini-Mexico-ChalkDust (more on that jam soon!); a swirly, angry mess that sucks you in. This contrasts well with the funky Fuego that followed. The rest of the set, although mostly unremarkable (save for a banger Life Saving Gun!), keeps the energy flowing throughout to make up a great set of Phish, and an overall valid show.
21.) Deer Creek, Night 2
So, weirdly, a show ranked this high has a bit of a bunk first set. It’s (mostly) not HORRIBLE; it starts out with a classic Mike’s Groove, which is ALWAYS a good sign. Check out Mike’s specifically, it is a soaring start to the show. Maze through Izabella is also a great run of songs. However, this is a massive chunk of this set devoted to a standard Character Zero into… Drift While You’re Sleeping. No version in this set stands out from other versions; if you don’t love any of these songs, there is nothing to check out in this first set.
Thankfully, this is a tale of two sets, and that second set ABSOLUTELY makes up for this first. The set opening Chalk Dust is beat out by other big versions found elsewhere in the year (which, given the year Chalk Dust has had, still makes this a solid entry), but still offers a powerful punch to kick off the music. Plasma is the best version of the year; it confuses and rages at the same time, a wondrous combo. We get an always-welcome interruption by Guy Forget during Crosseyed which develops into a screwy (this is a good thing!) three minutes of music, and Fuego winds the set down with one more wind-up in the form of more hard rock. Add in a wild iteration of “Monsters” in the middle of this madness, and this hyperactive set redeems the show positively well.
20.) Mansfield, Night 3 (7/21)*
Early into Summer Tour, Phish delivered a fantastic sign of things to come. There are no year-defining moments in this show, no jam-of-the-year contenders, and, ultimately, nothing major happens. And yet, the entire package comes together to deliver a monstrous sign of things to come. 30 minutes of patient bliss jamming kick off this show between Wave of Hope and Bathtub Gin, which I like as an early show move. This is followed up by bust outs of The Connection and Thread, both of which are executed with precision. Otherwise, song choice throughout the set is standard, but they complement the highlights well (check out Jim>LSG if you’re into high-energy type 1 set closings!)
Set 2’s highlights include a Tweezer that resists beauty for as long as it can, until it crystalizes and embraces it anyway; and a Scents that stays within the song proper until it eventually truly ascends to Godhood. The rest of this set also doesn’t amount to a whole lot other than delivering on the energy that Phish shows are known for, but there are good moments sprinkled in here and there. Check out Twist if you want a little more!
19.) Albany, Night 3 (10/27)*
19’s not bad, right?
Set 1 of Albany 3 shares with us the 5-year bust out of Access Me, and a Kill Devil Falls that casts a massive shadow over New York’s capital. The rest of the set flows into each other well, even if there’s not a ton of relisten value to be had. Check out Limb by Limb for a great type-1 take on the song.
Set 2, on the other hand, is a monster of a set. Everything’s Right steps back into its set-opening shoes, after spending the year closing sets, to deliver what would become a Frankenstein techno-bliss appetizer of a jam into the real show highlight, the Albany Chalk Dust; my second favorite rendition of the song across the year. A badass mofo of a jam, this music leans into the sounds of the holiday following it; it sounds like a mashup of frenzied electric energy being blended by the talons of the skeleton of an unalive vulture. It is a horrifying piece of music, and it is awesome. Mercury follows, and it shows the band may have been doing some work on the song; compare the beginning and section after Fish’s Marimba Lumina solo with any other version to hear what I mean. The song’s jam also comes together to form a memorable take on the song’s dancy outro. An exceptional Wading and a welcome Most Events Aren’t Planned wrap up this 5-song set, and a prolonged encore ends the Albany run with style.
18.) Sphere, Night 1 (4/18)
Initial reactions to the first night of the Sphere were a little mixed, or at least, they were from those watching the webcast (not from me, I was super jealous!). I’m not sure if that was exclusively because people got something different than what they expected out of the visuals or what; but, at least musically, this show has held up remarkably well. Everything’s Right, opened by a pre-recorded piece of intro music that has helped to define the Sphere run as “something else”, offers showgoers a way to ease into the magic of what they are about to behold. Wolfman’s and Life Saving Gun, which is my overall favorite version of the song thus far, also show early that Phish isn’t here just to show off their visuals; this is a Phish show like any other (while being unlike any other! How Phishy is that?) through extended jamming below the screens of the venue.
Sand, the set-two kick-off, is quieter than normal, yet it encapsulates the majestic, contemplative energy that this band is best at controlling. Tweezer follows and is a wobbly, happy little jam for the majority of its runtime until it goes off-kilter and becomes a serial killer in its closing moments. Lifeboy, sandwiched in a Mike’s Groove, is also the epitome of Phish beauty; they knock it out of the park in this version. These are all solid highlights that were only the beginning of Phish’s exploits at the Sphere.
17.) Dicks, Night 1 (8/29)
Finally, 24 entries in, we get to the first of four nights at Dicks. I’ll just come right out and say it; if you attended Dicks in 2024, you saw one of the best four-night runs ever. Point me to another run where all four shows are THIS good; the only comparable run that comes to mind, by the merit of consistent greatness over four nights, is the Island Tour (and does that count if it’s split across multiple venues? I think in this case, it does, but other comparable cases may not- I don’t know. Someone probably disagrees).
One show has to be the last of the 4, though, and it’s probably Night 1. This last-place show opens with a scorching one-two-three punch in Cities, Disease, and Ether Edge; with Cities welcoming attendees into the venue with a sophisticated groove, Disease spinning its typical set 1 appearance with a touch of supernatural flair, and Ether Edge building on the success of its outing in St. Louis with a decidedly more heavy, standard air of celebration. The late first set Ocelot also brings another good version to the table, as the song’s slow-breath slink mutates into a rousing finale.
The section of the second set most worth checking out is Sigma Oasis > Pillow Jets. Sigma is a decidedly more patient affair. The jam, past a more rambunctious opening section, is a slow burn that builds into a pretty yet still subdued finale. Pillow Jets, on the other hand, is the song’s first shot at being a true showstopper, and it succeeds well in the role. It fluctuates between loud, mind-boggling, melodic rock and quieter, introspective explorations of the mind several times, delivering a memorable opening for this song as a show centerpiece. Combo this combo with a serviceable Ghost>Wave of Hope to open, as well as a classic 2001>Hood to close out the set, and you’ve got a solid opening to a magnificent run.
16) Mondegreen, Night 1 (8/15)*
Night 1 of Phish’s 11th festival got off to a fiery start. Right off the rip, Moma Dance featured a soaring ambiance that wore its relief on its sleeve; unlike a certain 2018 event, this festival was actually happening. Wolfman’s shortly thereafter was the best version of the year, digging deep into the mystic grime of what a Phish festival jam could sound like. It’s a wonderfully weird version, give it a listen. Wave of Hope into Sand is also a gorgeous piece that closes out the first set; for a year that didn’t offer a whole lot of jamming to close out first sets, this was a fantastic break from that habit, with Wave flowing into a mysterious rock vibe and Sand drawing out some patience from the group.
What’s Going Through Your Mind saw its first chance to anchor a show, and anchor a show it did; although I’m not sure there’s a more “standard-Phish sounding” jam played all year, night one of a festival is the time to herald in those glorious sounds of celebration. Light, despite being short, has its fans. It is a monstrous and swift breakdown of that same “standard Phish sound” I was just discussing; it tears up whatever Phish sounds like and dumps it into a fire. This leads us to Prince Caspian, which ends up being a worthy follow-up to the version played at Magnaball. An ascension of sound, including audience-provided woos, leads us to the (second) most beautiful forest clearing your mind can conjure up. Glorious. Wrap the show up with some hilarious references to the festival in Saw It Again, and you can take it to the bank that Curveball had, at least to some extent, finally seen its redemption.
15.) Madison Square Garden, Night 4 (12/31)*
After last year’s Gamehendge gag, the big question on everyone’s mind was “How do you follow up THAT?!” That big answer turned out to be “put on a fantastic Phish show, and then twist the idea of what Phish music can sound like”, and, frankly, that’s an answer that works for me. Jamming in this show tended to lean darker than average; Stash, Melt, and Golden Age all lean into good versions that put in the work swiftly to twist the senses, and that’s before we get into the real highlights. My Friend My Friend is the best version of the year in a crowded year for the fledgling jam vehicle, the sound trapping the audience in stasis as a bouncy groove ricochets the Garden. It’s a monstrous version that seems to point toward MFMF going even bigger in the new year. Sand also serves a compact, strong version that spends half its time doing it’s best Dec ‘99 impression and half its time leaning into Rock Sand.
Finally, the genre-bending gag paints Phish as a band that’s STILL looking forward, making unique uses of newer songs in a cryptic take on Pillow Jets, an electronic version of What’s Going Through Your Mind, and an anger-inducing Life Saving Gun, while also paying homage to where they came from (check out the segue into Chalk Dust!!). Even if you’re not a fan of the sound applied in this gag, especially the EDM stuff, you gotta appreciate the risk they took in stepping so far out of their typical comfort zone.
14.) Alpine Valley, Night 2 (7/27)
The (chronologically) first must-hear show of Summer Tour, night two of Alpine has multiple segments worth checking out. The first is the back half of set 1; Foam, Moonage Daydream, My Soul, The Lizards, David Bowie is just such a great run of songs. There’s little to no jamming in this set, but if you’re a fan of Phish music, this combo runs super well together.
Second, of course, the Alpine Simple is the longest jam of the year. This jam is a bit one-dimensional; it leans hard into a power fantasy, offering a straight 40 minutes of badass rock-and-roll, white light peaking, explosive playing from the band, and one small segment toward the end that sees aliens joining in on the show. If strong, confident playing is what you’re into Phish for, check this jam out. Wave of Hope>Lifeboy>Sand is also a quiet little highlight from this show. It’s overshadowed by Simple, by these songs combine to build the set into something even more than the already strong sum-of-it’s-parts.
13.) Dicks, Night 4 (9/1)
Lambasted a bit unfairly by a songy fourth quarter, the Dicks finale is, overall, a colossal show. The first set features an instant, huge bust out in Dog Log, which itself is paired with a fun Runaway Jim. My Friend My Friend is another standout version; this version remains a bit more down-and-funky than most other Summer versions for most of its run until it bursts out singing for its finale. Tube gets a little more fun than normal with Trey exclaiming “Science!” throughout the song run; that’s all there is to say about Tube, but you should still listen, it’s genuinely funny. Cap the set off with a run of Fluffhead, Stash, and Life Saving Gun, and this is quietly a really good first set.
Set Your Soul Free, the only tentpole version of the year, is the big highlight of the second set. It swims and sings in bliss until a blackhole forms around the sound, sucking in the entirety of Dicks in the meantime, before spitting it back out with a drop into Tweezer. This jam, along with the Light jam that follows it up, is another good 25 minutes of attractive singing from the band’s instruments that builds the potential for a great set. This isn’t what would end up happening, as the back half of set 2 is filled with normal, uninspired versions of typical set closers (A Life Beyond the Dream, More, Character Zero, and Slave!); but, thankfully, the show sees total redemption with a bust out of Sabotage and a jammed out Tweezer Reprise in the encore, which actually wrecked enough of the venue that they may not be able to play there this year… Tell me, Dicks attendees, was it worth it? If the recording is anything to go by, it sounds like it was!
Elevating Concerts Through Exceptional Jamming
All year, I have been asking myself the question, “How much can one jam carry a show?” Turns out, probably this far. Each one of these shows contains one great, year-defining reason to seek them out, and not a whole lot more. This keeps them out of the top tier, but the prowess of these top individual moments cannot be ignored, with these moments shooting the shows they’re in above everything before the year’s peak.
12.) Mondegreen, Night 2 (8/16)*
This is the most extreme example of one piece of music carrying a show. Mondegreen’s Secret Set, dubbed by many as the “Woodlands Jam”, is a tent pole moment of the year. The jam weaves such a rich tapestry of music, with moments ranging from quiet acoustic bliss to synthy alien adventures, all the way to an explosive finale, with rapidly evolving, blending visuals aiding every step of the way. Without a doubt, the Secret Set is a large reason I believe 2024 will be remembered as a powerful year.
Beyond that, I find there’s not a ton that’s mega-interesting about this show; there’s nothing in Set 1 I would recommend listening to, “Ruby Waves” gets a touch weird (which would get one-upped about two weeks later), and “Pillow Jets>Your Pet Cat” features a quirky, mega-funky transition… But that’s really it. Fluffhead is a little stronger than usual too, I guess. In my eyes, that’s as far as this show goes.
11.) Dicks, Night 3 (8/31)
Instead of one jam defining this show, it’s a one-two punch that night 3 of Dicks sits upon. Serviceable versions of Oblivion and Gin add spice to the first set, and Crosseyed, Melt, Monsters, and Carini are great rocks to carry a second set to its conclusion.
That said, the centerpiece of Set 2, that being Kill Devil Falls > What’s Going Through Your Mind, is a gruesome combo that I think might surprise some when listening. Kill Devil Falls, although having been going through a rebirth as a big jam vehicle in the past couple of years, makes it’s grand entrance as a show-anchoring behemoth with this entry. The jam combines multiple sections, ranging from pixie observation to wartime urgency to a rebirth in life to an explosive finale with catchy overtones. It’s the best KDF of the year and joins 7/31/15 and 7/23/23 as an all-time great iteration of the song.
This monster is followed up by the third playthrough of What’s Going Through Your Mind?, and is the most exploratory version yet. It’s the personification of the portal described in the song; what a black hole would sound like if you entered one on psychedelics (assuming you didn’t just end the second you approached it!), and with a funky twist, no less. It’s a complete set of two songs, and, if you haven’t, you should check it out ASAP.
10.) Mexico, Night 3 (2/23)
Finally, the top 10. Kicking off 2024’s apex is night three of Mexico, and truthfully, it is only here for one reason. You know what that reason is already, surely. Even if you haven’t heard it, the volume of support that the superstar jam of this show has received has been heard countless times across all forms of Phish social media. And that jam is the one reason you really should check this show. Sure, you’ll occasionally see someone vouching for the starry Kill Devil Falls of set 1, or the zany set-2 kick-off in Blaze On, or the classic-leaning screams of Harry Hood. But make no mistake; this show has made the top 10 off of the unique majesty of its Chalk Dust Torture.
This jam is mind-blowingly amazing. I know you probably see people talk about jams like this all the time, but this jam really is that good. I was webcasting this show live as it was happening, and I’ve never felt more like I was at a show while watching it than when I was listening to this jam unfold. It’s so good I can picture myself witnessing it live at, say, MSG or whatever venue I’m thinking of, and see how the crowd would have reacted to each of its movements. There is not one wasted moment of this jam; it is a constant stream of ideas, the band continually reframing the question of “How do we make this even more delightfully diabolical?”, and every section is better than the last. Every time you listen, you will hear something new that you didn’t hear the last time.
I’m comfortable saying that this is the best jam of the modern era of Phish. I would take it over all the secret sets, the Tahoe Tweezer, Lawn Man, Alpine Ruby Waves, MSG Tweezer, Deer Creek Simple, Bangor Disease, any of 2023’s Tweezers, Dayton Ruby Waves, or anything else from this stacked year. As of now, this is the best gift post-breakup Phish has given us. It is a masterpiece, and singlehandedly makes Mexico Night 3 a top 10 show of the year.
9.) Sphere, Night 4 (4/21)
The finale of the Sphere run is the one show in this section that has the most going on beyond its one big jam. Check out the delicious Plasma that opens up the show (especially that funky pre-recorded intro version!) with a joyous yet weird sound; a literally robotic Ghost (check it out on YouTube!) that has unlimited happiness to yield; and a prolonged version of Light deep in the second set that straddles a line between bathing in the sun and basking under the moon, alternating between the two. As a full show experience, this is a fan-favorite from the Sphere.
The real star of the show, though, is the set-2 star of Down With Disease. The best version of the year, this is a bit of an oddball of a jam, in the sense that it has long stretches of the band contently sitting on a groove that doesn’t do much to invoke intense listening, and then out of nowhere, morphs into some of the best jamming of the year. And then it does it again… And again. There’s a section in here where the band is actually able to peer into the pearly gates of the afterlife, and another that paints the picture of peering into a crystalized chasm that begins combusting in real time. This is a badass of a jam and one of the best of the year, achieved almost entirely by some intensely satisfying individual moments. These best moments are so good, that they ultimately overshadow the rest of the show.
The Top 8
If you like 2024 Phish, these are the shows you want to seek out. They contain the year’s best overall ideas, expanded further beyond the scope of a single good jam. Every moment of these shows is worth hearing, from beginning to end.
8.) Sphere, Night 3 (4/20)
Kicking off the best of the best, night 3 of the Sphere run was the most exceptional night of the four, delivering 2 outstandingly great sets. The opening run of 5 songs- Set Your Soul Free, Tube, Stash, Pillow Jets, Steam- is the best run of multiple songs throughout the entire Sphere run. It achieves what Mohegan 1 tried to do in its second set by stacking jams on jams extraordinarily well, with the technique working much better in the first set. Set Your Soul Free sets the stage with a mystical opening. Tube begins subdued but builds to the good old funky Tube we all know and love. Stash is the best version of the year, utilizing 2024’s signature effects to augment the Fish-led jamming the song seems to fall back on a good amount these days. Pillow Jets, although a confusing choice at the time, was the first version to hint at the banner year the song was about to undergo. It dips into a massively satisfying alien world, then revels in it (watch this one with the video; this graphic augments the music so much). Steam, although not departing from the song’s form too much, tests the boundaries as much as you’ll hear a type 1 Steam jam do. Combine this fantastic run of songs with one of the best Sphere graphics in Taste (shoutouts to Jim!) and a typically explosive 46 Days, and this is a wonderful first set.
The second set doesn’t let the energy go anywhere. Fuego, a jam built not too dissimilar to the Alpine Simple, is a nonstop unrelenting force. It doesn’t let off the breaks for an entire half an hour, executing on face-paced funk, alien jazz, and a soaring finale. It’s the best jam of the Sphere run. Throw in two brief ten-minute excursions with Golden Age and Twist, the only independent I Am Hydrogen since the 80s, and a restrained exercise in summoning deep space with Chalk Dust, and you’ve got one hell of a show.
7.) Bethel Woods, Night 1 (8/9)
Next up, Bethel’s opener proved to be a late summer doozy. No Men’s in the Two Spot was a standard bliss jam affair, but given the threatening weather that was hanging over the venue on this day, it seemed like a celebration was rightfully in the air. My Friend My Friend was the other set 1 highlight, building its jam upon the murderous rampage the song is known for before finding a dancy peace to resolve things. Also of note in this first set; song placement was defined by early placements of show-ending tunes. First Tube opening the show, mid-first-set versions of Cavern, Bug, Julius, and 2001(?!), and a less-weird-but-still-somewhat-different set 1 closing Character Zero set this show apart. This is a very serviceable first set, but it’s the second upon which this show has built its reputation.
[Weird set opener] > Big Tweezer has become a prominent move over the past few years, and the pattern holds in this case with a set opening Wedge. The big Tweezer that follows is decidedly less aggressive than many other 2024 Tweezers, locking into a more dissonant groove that finds small pockets to freak out before calming back down. In a year whose identity is built upon noise generation, this Tweezer is a refreshing break from that characteristic. Phish might have realized this too because what follows is a Pillow Jets that leans into that identity hard and executes upon those ideas beautifully. This Jets is the business. If you’re a fan of Rock God Trey, or if you’re simply a fan of hearing Phish build excellence out of thin air, then check this out! Piper unleashes a more traditional high-paced jam with a sexy slide back into Tweezer, and Chalk Dust wraps the set up with a tornado of aggressive yet blissful energy. Throw in the only Shine a Light and Big Black Furry Creature from Mars of the year, and this show earns a high spot on the list through parts coming together to build something greater than themselves. The whole show flows incredibly well from beginning to end and is worthy of being referred to as one of 2024’s best.
6.) Mondegreen, Night 3 (8/17)*
The best of the four nights of Mondegreen opens up with a classic Mike’s Groove, which is among the best signs that a show is going to be something special. Interestingly, this is another show defined by the strength of its second set; the first set is marked by generally good song selection, another notably-strong-yet-still-in-the-box 46 Days, and a soaring Mike-led Jibboo. Speaking of Mike-led, if you listen to this show, turn up the bass on your speakers/headphones. Mike seriously BRINGS IT to this show. Beyond these two highlights, though, the first set doesn’t have a whole lot to talk about.
The second set opens up with an early ’90s callback to set-opening 2001s, and although it doesn’t stretch itself out much, it’s another fantastic sign of things to come. Let’s just get right into it- Disease>Tweezer>Scents is a top two segment of three-chained songs from the entire year. Disease gets the ball rolling with a vicious cyclone that sours into a storm cloud of soaring anger. They find space to brighten up the space as Trey builds a catchy hook to peak on, over and over again. Fantastic start. Tweezer is up next, serving as the funked-up dance party befitting of a Phish festival. The jam sheds hallucinatory stacked sounds swiftly in favor of a rocking, crowd-pleasing conclusion, before a drop back into Tweezer, which loops itself into Scents. The final piece of this segment leans much more ambient, perhaps feeding back into the ambient sections of the previous night’s Secret Set. Despite that, energy still abounds, no doubt, and the resulting jam is rich with texture. This segment should be on your shortlist of 2024 jams to check out; it’s fantastic.
This show, quite honestly, is hard to put into words how good it is. Songs flow into each other extraordinarily well, from beginning to end, as the band showcases some of the most important songs from every era of Phish. It doesn’t have one highlight that REALLY makes it stand out, but as a cohesive show (and a festival show, at that!), it earns its spot in 2024’s rafters.
5.) St. Louis, Night 1 (7/30)
The top 5 opens with an innocuous, fan-favorite entry from mid-summer. There is so much to love about both sets in this show. To start, set one offers bustouts in Cars Trucks Buses, and Vultures. Both songs are executed with ease, instantly spicing up the set. Theme from the Bottom is one of the best jams to come out of a first set all year; Theme’s familiar jamming morphs into an amphibian form, awkwardly and yet with confidence squishing about, building into a full band peak, then falling back into the mud before bursting back into the song. It is fantastic. Also check out this set’s Ocelot (which, as Phish.net’s jam charts note, sounds a lot like a Roggae jam!) and Timber (a down-and-dirty first-set affair). Finally of note, the funniest vocal flub of the year goes down in this shows NICU; Trey repeats the lyric “tomorrow’s verse” on accident, and his delivery is just so funny. Check it out.
Like Mondegreen 3, this second set is also anchored by a trio of jams, although, unlike that show, this is one monster-length jam followed by two unique-sounding sounding baby-jams. Tweezer is what gets us going following a standard I Never Needed You Like This Before, beginning with a soft opening that walks a line between bliss and ballad. Hard rock begins to drip through the pleaseness as the tone of the jam fogs up into something more sinister. Over time, this begins to shift into something more like a Split Open and Melt jam, buying into the strangeness of outer space before the band begins to set off an abundance of auditory nukes. The final segment of this jam sees peak after peak after peak- it is GLORIOUS Phish. This jam comes in as my fourth favorite jam of the year. Ether Edge follows up, and although the crowd moans in disapproval over a newer song following up the intense energy of a year highlight, the song shows its potential for the first time as a jam vehicle by tapping into some magical energy to dance around. A memorable finale, led by a pretty hook by Trey, bleeds into Piper, which is another highly unique yet abbreviated jam this year. There’s something really… sophisticated about this jam. I could see this music being set to a library book search montage in a movie, as a lawyer looks for the one bit of obscure law that could help make their case before eventually finding it. I know that’s such a weird description for this jam, but that’s what a weird jam like this deserves. It’s amazing. The show ends with a unique Saw It Again > Tweeprise encore, and cements its place as one of 2024’s finest.
4.) Madison Square Garden, Night 2 (12/29)*
After a weak start to the New Year’s run, a different band showed up on Night 2. Set 1, for the most part, plays out like the best standard set 1 that you could hope for. If you judge Bag and Jim by their runtimes, you’d probably guess that these are like any 10-minute jams; you’ve heard it before, it’s skippable, not essential to the show. Not in this case. Bag uses its short runtime to deliver a concentrated dose of serious, locked-in, bouncy rock, and Jim uniquely blends a simultaneous run of type-1 Jim jamming with an angry robotic screech from Trey. Caspian is a more traditional focus of this set, awash in many of 2024’s signature effects contrasting with a more conventional progression of jamming. YEM>Ghost is the true highlight of this monstrous first set; YEM’s jam section following Tramps is refreshingly, fantastically subdued. The song’s signature power is still present, but the jam reads as if the band has slowed down time to study what that power literally is. This lowered energy carries through to the vocal jam, which seems to be winding down the set; but instead, Ghost bursts out of NOWHERE and shocks all to be the true set closer, delivering a frantic scurry of the sound in the process. Combine all these memorable moments with well-chosen “cooldowns” in Sample, Rift, and Monsters, and you’ve got yourself one hell of a first set.
Set 2 doesn’t let the first down at all. Gin, it’s only Set 2 appearance of the year(!), is delivered as a shortened snack portending a year-highlight in Ruby Waves. This gem of a jam, the longest ever played at the Garden, takes on a much more friendlier appearance than a lot of its contemporaries, drawing more comparisons to the pretty section of the 12/30/19 Tweezer than something like the Dayton Ruby Waves. It still has its moments where the band lets loose and delivers white light explosions, but those lead out into quiet, gorgeous clearings that set the mind ablaze with hope. It is my fourth favorite jam of the year. The rest of the set cleans up nicely with a Waste, 20 minutes of fast-paced explosive playing through Fuego>Crosseyed, and a brief encore of a busted-out Bold as Love wraps up the show with a massive bow. This second set is a lot shorter than a lot of other 2024 set 2s, but that hardly matters when the entire show is comprised of such high-quality stuff.
3.) Deer Creek, Night 3 (8/4)
Arriving at number three, night three of Deer Creek delivers a unique first-set in a year partially defined by the repetition found in setlists, and a second set that stands out, both in terms of setlist construction and jamming, in a year defined by the wide range of sound that jams were able to find. Set 1 is a light bustout set- maybe not as destined to be as notable a bustout set as 7/20/16 I or 7/14/19 I, but nonetheless, we see the only plays of The Final Hurrah, Knuckle Bone Broth Avenue, Stealing Time From the Faulty Plan, The Dogs, McGrupp, and Wingsuit, as well as one of two plays of Party Time and Destiny Unbound. Throw in one of several powerful 46 Days played this summer, and you’ve got a set with a lot of individual merit.
The true notoriety of this show, of course, comes with the second set. Beginning with Ghost, the jam leads in with happy jamming reminiscent of the stereotypical “3.0 Ghost”, offering a harder take on the whirly-swirly happiness the song has come to represent. This happiness envelopes Deer Creek for a solid twenty minutes until Phish finds a cool way to morph the sound on a dime to a heavy rock finale. It’s a fantastic jam complete with full band cohesion. This finale finds its way back into the ending of Ghost to wrap up a thirty-minute jam. Following that, to almost everyone’s chagrin, the band launches the year’s only iteration of Soul Planet; thankfully, maybe as thanks for us indulging their newer efforts of writing music, this Soul Planet comes in as my second favorite jam of the year. It is a jazzy, whimsical journey that leads us through multiple sections of dancy goo, quirky bliss, and even more, even better, more hard rock (with funny cat noises contrasting the seriousness of the situation!). This jam just might turn you into a Soul Planet lover, seriously- check it out. This rock quietly finds a way to drop into Billy Breathes, one more fantastic bust out in a night full of them. Throw in a Split Open and Melt which gets up to the standard greatness of the Modern Melt™, and a Slave encore (as well as a proclamation about how much the band loves playing Deer Creek!), and you’ve got one of 2024’s absolute finest shows.
2.) Dicks, Night 2 (8/30)
Night two of this freakishly good Dicks run swoops in to grab the number two spot of the year, almost entirely off the back of an insane run in the second set and encore. Set one isn’t bad by any stretch of the imagination; bustouts of Guelah Papyrus and Strange Design, and well-played versions of Wolfman’s, NMINML, and Steam make the set somewhat worth checking out.
The real magic of this show is the 1-2-3 punch of the second set, beginning with the longest jam ever performed at Dicks in Chalk Dust Torture. Beginning as a textbook 2024 jam of whirly, effect-ridden music, the jam coalesces and transforms into a parade, celebrating the moment with as much pace as the band can muster. Make no mistake, this is a solid Chalk Dust- yet, to my ears, this is the least interesting jam of everything else to come. Next is the Sand, a jam I have mentioned several times thus far in this write-up, and for good reason. The band works itself into a box – a tight, awkward, ambient space, reminiscent of the Sands of yester-millenia. Slowly, the sounds begin to work themselves out of that space, and, in victory, even begin to dance around that space with a vicious return into Sand. It is the best Sand is a year crowded with Sands that skew what Sand can sound like in the modern day; magnificent. How do you follow THAT up?
The Dicks Ruby Waves, that’s how. My third favorite jam of the year. An interesting facet is that it starts quite standardly; there’s nothing wrong with the first 8 minutes of this jam, although there’s not much interesting to write about. Trey and Fish seem to agree, as around 8:30 in the jam, they seem to want to exit; something stops them, though. To this day, I’m not sure what that something was, as on most nights, Ruby Waves would have ended right there. Instead, they push through, and what follows is 12 minutes that can stand up to any 30+ minute jam in the modern era. It is a perfect roller coaster that flows from a funky dance party to a psycho-killer chase scene to an evil-scientist-brain-scrambling-machine to a soaring rock-and-roll finish in RAPID succession. It is masterful shit and an all-time great recovery to what was shaping up to be a forgettable section of music. It segues well into What’s the Use?, a move that they’ve gotten so good at executing. Less talked about in this set than I would have expected, but the set-closing Everything’s Right is the best version of the year; it combines so many elements of the big three of this set to draw the set to a close in spectacular fashion.
Most shows don’t have much to say in the encore; Dicks2 is certainly an exception. Fee is yet another bust out Phish has to share with us. Then, we get to You Enjoy Myself. For my money, this is the best version played since 2009. You ever hear the quote that they play Sleeping Monkey > Tweezer Reprise when they know they’ve played a great show? This is like that, except it’s You Enjoy Myself instead. The confidence in this version is so exceptionally strong, that you can hear it in every decision they make. The first jam exudes confidence, drums and bass goes a bit further with Mike’s soloing, and the post-vocal-jam is one version of only a handful more that doesn’t just feel gimmicky, and adds a rousing detonation of a finale to the song. This fantastic version seals the deal for Dicks2 as an incredible show; by offering many great versions of some of 2024’s most contested songs, it locks in its spot as second best of the year.
1.) Mexico, Night 2 (2/22)
My pick for show of the year goes to the second night of Mexico. How about that? The first show is the worst, the second is the best. It’s funny how it goes sometimes. Listening to this show as it was happening, the beginning of the first set didn’t stand out as anything too crazy. I enjoy the song selection; First Tube is a fun subversion of an opener, Roggae is always pretty, Driver is THE best ballad in Phish’s arsenal (it’s true, don’t deny it!), Gumbo’s a funky good time. Nothing crazy. Once Birds of a Feather kicks off, though, this show ascends. What follows that memorable opening of Birds is a straight two hours of re-listenable show, which is not a common feature of most shows throughout Phish’s history. Birds features a screwy, angst-filled journey of a jam that wobbles its way through multiple fake-out finishes until it finds a massively satisfying true ending. Axilla 2 is the year’s most experimental jam; there is little like it. It screams, anguishes, and truly withers away to nothingness. It ends the set without the typical white lights, no congratulatory finish, it just ENDS the set, leaving attendees bewildered. It is among the best short jams ever played.
The second set begins with them resurrecting the same sound that they just murdered, which becomes a platform for Phish to launch into A Song I Heard The Ocean Sing. Although this version shows promise to forge together a titanic robot for attendees to hop into for a voyage across the ocean, the set-opener actually serves as merely an appetizer for the kaiju to follow. A Wave of Hope, the other of the Mexico Monsters, has certainly been overshadowed by the next night’s Chalk Dust Torture – and for good reason. Don’t let that be a deterrent to checking this jam out, though; the night’s centerpiece jam is a devious punk, starting with a section of music that follows the dadrock promise of its composition before morphing into a stone-cold black hole about 15 minutes in, and the beauty we eventually find after searching through that black hole is a top moment of this stacked, stacked year. Unbelievable. Oblivion, at the time, was a disappointing version that didn’t live up to its 2023 promise; but after watching how the song has performed in 2024, this is a fine version that provides more funky shadow dancing as the set’s “cooldown”. Tweezer follows a sick, Page-led jam that serves as an explosion of the orbital chaos that has been going on for an hour and a half now… It’s no individual highlight, but in context, it’s exactly what the show needed. To end the set, Phish cues up a weird, nonsensical, confusing, amazing mashup of… Tube and Runaway Jim? It makes no sense and is all the more fantastic for it.
Throw in a Bug>Tweeprise encore, and you’ve got yourself a classic show. In my eyes, the limitless treasures offered by this show aren’t the best moments of the year, but there’s enough that’s close enough, in such quick succession, in such a heavy quantity, that night two of Mexico earns my number one spot of the year.
