Here are some of my all-time favorite Phish sets...what are yours?

I've been having some fun over the past several weeks re-exploring some of my all-time favorite Phish sets (not shows) with my girlfriend. I was lucky to have been at a lot of the all-time 90s shows, literally lucky (flight getting cancelled made me say fuck it and going to the Dark Side show in 98), and introducing her to these shows has been a fun rewind. Here are the SETS (not full shows) that I think deserve to be in the talks of best sets theyve ever played. Cypress and Great Went are my top 2 all-time, the rest aren't in any particular order. Keep in mind there are so many good sets that have been done, many here wont be listed, so don't flay me if I didn't list something. Also note that I'm only including shows that have been played since I started seeing Phish, which was Spring Tour 1994.

  • 12/31/99 Set 2 (obvious reasons)
  • Great Went Night 2 Set 2 (my favorite non-cypress set; every single jam in that set is an all-time version of the respective song, truly must-listen stuff, not to mention the first glowstick war ever and the burning of the statue we all helped build over the weekend)
  • 11/17/97 set 1 (5 song, MONSTER first set)
  • 12/30/97 set 2 (killer AC/DC bag, one of the more memorable Harpuas..into a 5 song encore that took us past midnight!)
  • 5/7/94 set 2 (the real Tweezerfest)
  • 12/31/95 set 2 (this show is considered by many to be one of the best full shows that was played in the 90s by any band. I think set 2 is a large part of that)
  • 10/31/96 set 2 (my all-time favorite costume, went as elvis that year; a set that set in motion the funk jams that would develop over the following 2 years)
  • 11/19/97 set 2 (I'm a sucker for big jams, this one has 2 back to back, one of my favorite 2001s, and a slick, funky 97-style Makisupa)
  • 12/31/98 set 1 (possibly my all-time favorite set opener with '1999,' maybe my second favorite next to the Riverport Gin)
  • 7/17/98 set 2 (4-song, all-time set includes the longest 2001 ever, a fan-favorite mikes song, and a SPEED FUNK WG.)
  • 4/3/98 set 2 (Roses>Jam and one of my favorite Antelopes)
  • 4/4/98 set 2 (another monster that's chalk full of improv and rarities)
  • 9/14/99 set 2 (peaches opener into one of my all-time favorite duos in AC/DC Bag->Gumbo that contain an 'another one bites the dust' jam)
  • 6/24/2000 set 1 (huge moma to start, and a Tweezer in the middle that to this day remains one of my favorites i've seen live)
  • 6/20/04 set 2 (4 song, heavy improv set; what's even more impressive is how incredibly tight this set is - and really both shows at SPAC 2004 were - given how terrible they were playing by the end of 2.0; the disco twist!)
  • Honorable mention: 7/26/17 set 2 (though it's obvious that Lawn Boy from the BD is king...overall I was more impressed with the second set the next night. It seemed like every single jam got out there and spacey)
  • Honorable Mention: 12/3/97 set 2 (while I don't think this is one of their best sets of all time, it was my 18th birthday, and they came out and played one hell of a jam throwdown...17 min first set drowned, 26 min bowie into a possum>funk jam. This show flies so far under the radar because of it's place next to the giants of fall 1997, but I assure you it's worth the listen!)

I would love to hear yours!

Posted Aug 17, 2017, 7:57 PM UTC · edited

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