Phish, 6.10.95, Red Rocks, Morrison, CO

Set 1: Makisupa Policeman -> Llama, Prince Caspian > It’s Ice > Free, Rift, You Enjoy Myself -> Hold Your Head Up > Lonesome Cowboy Bill > Hold Your Head Up, Suzy Greenberg

Set 2: Maze, Fee > Uncle Pen, Mike’s Song > I Am Hydrogen > Weekapaug Groove, Amazing Grace, Sample in a Jar

Encore: A Day in the Life*

*Debut

This one opens with Trey’s announcement that his grandma is at the show, which is pretty cool, then they immediately go into “Makisupa” and talk about 4:20 and “dank.” Kind of an entertaining juxtaposition there.

One of the highlights of the first set is a nice “It’s Ice” that has a little bit more exploration from Trey and Page than a typical version. A mid-set “You Enjoy Myself” must have been a bit of a surprise. The jam starts slowly, and almost has a “Bowie” jam feel for a minute or so. Mike’s bass is killer throughout and Trey’s jam is fairly limited, actually. This is a fully Mike “YEM.”

Very obviously, the highlight of this Set 2 is the monstrous “Mike’s Groove.” This one is worth a deep dive. The “Mike’s” starts fairly normally, perhaps with more of Page on the organ.

But after a standard start, it gets nasty. At around 6:30 we get dirty and spacey, with the whole band adding to the cacophony. Just before 8 minutes we get a “Simple” tease from Mike and Trey, with Fishman potentially playing along, but then they decide that’s much too fast of a departure from this adventure.

Trey is attempting to lead them…somewhere. Where, who knows? Tom describes this jam as “a nightmarish improvisation in the best possible way.” About 11 minutes in, Page goes with an organ jam that just seems to add to the noise, then there’s almost just silence.

Are we going underwater? Around 13 minutes, it feels like we’re diving into the depths of the sea, quickly, quickly, hitting bottom around 15 minutes. Trey is trying to bring us back up, but running into some obstacles along the way. Still dark, still wild. But around 16 minutes, we start getting into something resembling a jam, but not quite.

The madness crescendos back into the main them of “Mike’s” and then this jam heads “into the fluff of ‘Hydrogen,’” as Alex describes it. What a beautiful and necessary respite this is.

The “Weekapaug” that closes out this groove stands the test of time. And the debut of “A Day in the Life” makes this show even more unique and worth revisiting.