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It would be easy to say that, heading in to the doubleheader of Flood Recovery Benefit shows held by Phish at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, it would be hard to know what to expect - but then, when isn’t that the case with Phish? To be sure, there were reasons to believe that the weekend could be a special one: Given the scale of venue they usually play, SPAC is probably the closest Phish will ever get to performing in their home state of Vermont in this era. For that, and a multitude of other reasons, it’s one of the band’s favorite venues - and yet it’s one that I’ve never visited before this year, despite having seen them live forty-plus times. Moreover, the cause of the show is near and dear to the band’s hearts, and though they have a well-established charity in the Waterwheel Foundations, they rarely do actual benefit concerts. The circumstances were further intriguing thanks to the Trey-and-Page acoustic concerts before the show, a first in the history of Phish and a further chance to cull songs from the list of possibilities.

So, what could we all expect when we arrived in Saratoga Springs on Friday, then, apart from a lot of traffic? A rare bust-out or two? Bizarre hijinks of some kind? A single, extraordinarily lengthy jam? A Phish debut of a new song, perhaps one of Trey’s new numbers, something from Mike Gordon’s album, or perhaps pulling from the McConnell/Anastasio album released earlier this year?

Well, it turns out no, no, no, and no. There were no debuts all weekend, no bust-outs, and the longest song was 22 minutes. If, after hearing all that and seeing the setlists, you’re thinking the weekend turned out to be a bit of a dud, well, you’d be forgiven, but also spectacularly wrong. In terms of song selection, it was fairly pedestrian: everything had been played recently, even the newer songs that many of us might not have caught before. For instance, I was happy to get the new Mike Gordon song, Mull, which I had been enjoying since its debut. I’d had the chance to see Mike perform it live with his band in Portland at the State Theater earlier this year, but it was a treat to see it live with Phish.

Even if you might not have been particularly thrilled with the setlists, though, Phish made the most of every song, in every single minute, as they are wont to do. The first night was particularly jam-filled right from the get-go. They opened up with a rousing rendition of Kill Devil Falls, a crowd-pleaser that is appropriate as an opener. While it’s often achieved jam status before, though, it didn’t quite lift off that night - a recurring theme that would plague the first set before they settled in. Although the first set of night one was certainly jammy overall, none of the songs quite achieved full velocity, leaving the jamminess to digest in more bite-sized chunks than in enormous meals.

The second song, The Moma Dance, is a prime example of this phenomenon. The band seems to have zeroed in on this one as of late: it’s been played nine times in the past year, with its largest gap being eleven shows. While an enjoyable song that served as the vehicle for the second-longest jam of the first set, it never came close to rivaling the 2016 SPAC Moma Dance, instead settling in to a nice little groove that built on the song without veering off into dramatic new territory.

After that, the band moved on to Ocelot, The Wedge, and Mull. They all had their excellent moments, but it was in Mull that the band started to find more adventurous ground to cover. They built on the song itself, and it seemed as if they were just beginning to depart from it to establish the first long jam of the evening about six minutes in, but instead they slowly began to wind down before transitioning smoothly into a raucous Punch You In The Eye. They built off that PYITE energy to move  play in Sand, where the theme of the evening would emerge. The moment they began teasing Munchkinland in Sand, it was clear that they were up to something, though at the time I must admit I couldn’t have named the tune. They expertly wove the song into and out of an interesting jam in the middle of Sand, delighting the crowd before closing out the first set with a raucous version of Rock & Roll.

After the jammy, if somewhat unconventional, first set, they returned to the stage with Evolve, from Trey’s quarantine album Lonely Trip. Now, even though it’s one of Trey’s slower, more melodic songs, I’ve always thought since its debut that it could serve as a jam vehicle, but that was not to be tonight. Instead, they smoothly transitioned into A Wave of Hope - the first time they’d played the songs back-to-back. It was at this point that the evening really began to take off, as they quickly launched into a melodic, pretty jam that could have easily been dropped right into the middle of Evolve. Just as they had in the first set (and have been all year, really), they continued to play as a tight unit, allowing the jam to naturally ebb and flow (dare I say, evolve). This time they finally let it go, and the wave kept building and building,  transitioning into Simple just before it could become the longest version ever. This was, indeed, a very subtle and pretty jam, and the subsequent 20-minute plus jam in Simple started out that way. Sure, it began as Simple, but that didn’t keep, almost as if someone regretted pulling the plug on the Wave jam a tiny bit early. Almost the moment they transitioned into Simple, it was clear that the main thrust of the song wouldn’t last long, as they started to move towards a new jam about 4 minutes in. That jam, too, started lighter and airy, playing off the Wave jam quite a bit. Gradually, though, it changed, becoming louder and darker. Indeed, as the tone of the jam changed, it felt like a musical chronicle of a man’s slow descent into madness, leading me to intuitively suspect a transition into Down With Disease, but instead Fuego was lit up. With Fuego and the ensuing Chalk Dust Torture, the band returned to the short but intense jamming that had characterized the entire first set, even revisiting the Wizard of Oz theme at the end of Chalk Dust before returning for the encore. The encore started off with Wading in the Velvet Sea, harkening back to the pretty jamming sprinkled throughout the evening, before they sent us off with Say It To Me S.A.N.T.O.S., a high-energy song that has become a frequent show-closer.

Even before arriving at the venue Saturday, there was a buzz amongst fans with expectations of a sit-in that evening - expectations that were essentially confirmed when we entered and saw an extra mic set up on stage. It would be easy to say that the two first sets were like night and day, but that’s really not true: they were more like the difference between a bright, sunny warm morning and a cool, crisp beautiful autumn dawn. While the first set on Friday started with Kill Devil Falls, starting off with high energy, the first set Saturday started with Free, a much slower, prettier song. Both songs served to set the tone for the rest of the set, though not in a totally overwhelming way. They’ve also both been used as jam vehicles in the past, but weren’t last weekend, instead being slightly extended with solid Type I jamming.

Wolfman’s Brother, while certainly a higher-energy song than Free, didn’t lean into that tone much on Saturday - at least, not at first. Spinning out of the mellow Free, a standard Wolfman’s Brother ensued for a few minutes until the band gradually began to ramp up both the energy and the inventiveness with a short jam. Even though it wasn’t a seamless transition, the gradual change in tone effectively set up the audience for Maze - and not a return of the extremely slow, funky version that we saw last summer, but the faster-paced traditional one. Again, Maze was only slightly extended without much variance before they smoothly ended it and launched into Sigma Oasis, the title track from Phish’s latest studio album. They developed a nice, melodic Type I jam towards the end of Sigma Oasis, helped along by the superb drumming of Jonathan Fishman, but rather than let the song meander too far, they instead wrapped it up and moved on to the much slower Pillow Jets, a new Trey Anastasio song that debuted with the Trey Anastasio Trio. This decision may have seemed slightly misplaced, since Pillow Jets could easily be used as a chance for the band to hit the pause for a while - something that didn’t really seem necessary at this point. In both of its appearances thus far Pillow Jets has shown up in the same set as Sigma Oasis; it will be interesting to see whether that trend continues. While I appreciate it more after hearing it live, it wasn’t one of my favorite of the new Trey songs to emerge from the Trio performances.

After that, the band quickly ramped it up again with Tube, which also began the first big jam of the evening, albeit one spread across three songs, from Tube to Twist to Harry Hood. These sorts of jams are always nice, because each song lends the developing jam a bit of its own flavor. Though it’s easy for all of us to zero in on the big jams, it’s these often these multi-song masterpieces where Phish is at their best, and that night was a prime example. A nice, groovy, funky, jazzy jam got going in the middle of Tube, while Twist had a nice high-paced jam, then the groovy, funky jam returned into Harry Hood, gradually getting darker and darker until they finished it off and we headed to the intermission.

After the intermission, in another nice flip of the script from the night before, they opened with a rousing song, Down With Disease. It’s quite a different experience having Down With Disease leading off a set than it is when it flows out of another song. It gives a quick burst of energy that sets the tone, not unlike a lead-off home run in a baseball game. Now, that high energy might not be maintained throughout, but it still gets the crowd - and the band - headed in the right direction. The DwD jam started off, curiously enough, lighter, before it began to darken and transition in to Ghost. Surprisingly, even that Ghost had its lighter moments, before becoming funkier, darker, and moving directly in to 2001. Typically at that point, the audience would be agitating for a longer jam, as 2001 is a common vehicle for that and the first two songs, while jammy, were shorter. That night, though, we were anticipating the arrival of something else: a special guest.

Derek Trucks entered unannounced right at the beginning of Golden Age, and was greeted with a roar of approval from the crowd. It was immediately apparent, even to though of us who were less familiar with his work, why he was there; his impact was undeniable. While Phish is more than able to reach soaring heights of energy on their own, his addition not only encouraged that, but brought a different sort of sound to the stage. He wasn’t simply a skilled guitarist joining Trey on stage, he was a superb teammate joining the band for the duration of the set. He regularly communicated with Page, Fishman, and Mike as well as Trey; he was a seamless addition, even with the newer songs that he’d never performed in front of an audience before. In both Golden Age and Everything’s Right, the band departed from the song almost immediately, performing very energetic, rocky Type II jamming throughout. It was a treat, of course, to see Trey and Derek riffing together, and they both clearly enjoyed it, but so did the rest of the band. It was definitely the fastest-paced portion of either evening, especially given the slower, funkier grooving that had appeared sporadically on Friday. It also stood nicely in contrast to the slower, more melodic first set, ramping up the energy quite a bit.

They came back to earth with A Life Beyond The Dream, a GotF/Trey Anastasio Band staple that Trucks had actually sat in on before. At the time, it seemed like a simple chance for a slower song as a break; it’s become more poignant since with the passing of James Casey, the incredibly talented saxophonist who toured with TAB.

After that emotional break, they returned to the high energy with a rip-roaring performance of First Tube. A nearby audience member had been eagerly hoping for a ‘First Tube’ all weekend; I’d already told her that, well, at least she’d gotten Tube. Not only did she get her song, she got possibly the best version ever, and one that will likely be appearing on its very brief Jam Chart list. It featured both superb Type I jamming and a brief step off the tune’s usual path, with Derek and Trey trading licks at the guitar before they brought it to a close and Trey triumphantly hoisted his guitar into the air. They weren’t done quite yet, though: Trucks returned to the stage with the band shortly to close out the show, and the weekend, with a rousing Possum, sending us off into the evening on quite the high note.

All in all, it was an excellent weekend of music. Phish had a good balance of intriguing jamming, louder, rockier songs, and more melodic, slower tunes throughout. The Wizard of Oz references were an appropriate, and subtle, gimmick that added to, rather than detracting from, the music itself on both nights. Derek Trucks was a superb guest on Saturday, creating a unique sound that certainly gave the evening a special feeling. The band put together two superb performances all while raising $3.5 million to help flood victims and setting themselves up for what will surely be a specular four-night run at Dick’s this weekend.

You may follow Jim on Twitter or Facebook. He is also a weekly political columnist for the Portland Press Herald, Maine’s largest daily newspaper

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