Phish may very well have an infinite supply of tricks up their sleeves. Just when you think they may hit you with something familiar, a “Big Black Furry Creature From Mars” comes out of nowhere and sends you on your way.

First off, Phish opened a show with “Simple” for the first time since June 23rd, 1995. It’s been a full twenty years and change, so we’re on pace for another “Simple” opener in 2035. Calling it now!

After “Simple” the band followed with three consecutive tour debuts, “Glide”, “Buried Alive”, and “McGrupp and the Watchful Hosemasters”. Interestingly enough, “Glide” and “McGrupp” were played together last summer at the Mann Center (7/9/14), 53 shows ago.

“Roggae” and “Limb By Limb” came next, followed by the Mike Gordon original “Big Black Furry Creature From Mars”. As the last time the band brought out the BBFCFM was the set immediately preceding Chilling, Thrilling Halloween, the band was now able to add in teases and segments from those Halloween tunes, including “Your Pet Cat” and “Martian Monster”. “Horn”, “Blaze On” and “Run Like An Antelope” closed out the first set.

Set two was essentially one long song, as the band never stopped playing music for all seventy-plus minutes. Starting with “Halley’s Comet”, Phish quickly jumped into an extended “46 Days”. The jam went into some spacey segments before cruising its way into the mellow tune “Bug”. That dropped into “Steam”, which quickly found its way into the spacey instrumental “What’s The Use?” before returning to “Steam”. Of course, that broke into “Piper”, and the floodgates were wide open.

Once the jam in “Piper” dropped into “Tweezer”, Merriweather Post could not have been louder. And when that segued into “NO2”, the energy in the building was out of control. The stuff of myths, NO2 was included on the band’s early demo The White Tape and has only been performed seven times in total. Complete with a full narration from Gordon, this was truly one of those “are they actually doing this?” moments that Phish delivers time and time again.

A few minutes of experimental sound later, the band dove back into “Tweezer” and closed off set two with “Walls of the Cave”.

Finally, Phish closed out the show with an encore performance of “Sleeping Monkey” followed by “Tweezer Reprise”. Trey Anastasio gave a bit of an extended monologue for “Sleeping Monkey”, saying that Page McConnell asks every night to play the song but Gordon always tells him “tonight is not your night, man.” Tonight was his night! And what a great night it was.

Phish will wrap up the main leg of their summer tour with the second of two nights at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, MD. After that, the group has a few days off before heading to Watkins Glen, NY for their 10th festival, Magnaball. Now that tickets are sold out, be sure to enter our contest for your chance to win!

Setlist: Phish at Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, MD – 8/15/15

Set 1: Simple > Glide, Buried Alive > McGrupp and the Watchful Hosemasters > Roggae, Limb By Limb, Big Black Furry Creature from Mars > Your Pet Cat > Big Black Furry Creature from Mars, Horn, Blaze On > Run Like an Antelope[1]

Set 2: Halley’s Comet > 46 Days -> Bug > Steam > What’s the Use? > Steam -> Piper -> Tweezer -> NO2 -> Tweezer > Walls of the Cave

Encore: Sleeping Monkey > Tweezer Reprise

[1] Marco Esquandolas lyric changed to “Gacktoidler Esquandolas.”

Notes: This show was webcast via LivePhish. Simple included a Magilla tease. The first Big Black Furry Creature from Mars included a Your Pet Cat quote and a Martian Monster tease. Run Like an Antelope included a Call To The Post tease and the lyrics were changed to “Gacktoidler Esquandolas.” Piper included a Steam tease. Tweezer included Trey on megaphone. NO2 was last played August 12, 2010 (202 shows) and included sound effects from Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House. During the intro to Sleeping Monkey, Trey said that backstage the band had read a website that ranked Phish songs and Page was disappointed that Sleeping Monkey wasn’t near the top of the list and that it is one of Page’s favorite songs. Trey then said walking off during encore breaks that Page asks to play it nearly every night and that Mike says, “No Page, not tonight, tonight is not your night man”. Then Trey added “Tonight is your night Page”. Tweezer Reprise included a Sleeping Monkey quote from Fish.