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Phish Unleashed Fireworks Both Literal And Musical To Close Magnaball, Three Years Ago Today [Videos]

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Phish‘s Magnaball festival was quite the experience. For three beautiful days, fans from far and wide descended on the Watkins Glen International racetrack to create one of the most perfect weekends since the band reunited in 2009. With fans feeling right at home at the band’s second festival at the Glen, the weekend had a celebratory vibe from the get-go, and the musical highlights poured in at a dizzying pace. The first night featured a thrilling 20+ minute “Bathtub Gin.” The second night saw the band launch “Tweezer” and “Prince Caspian” into orbit, as well as a daytime set and the mind-bending “Drive-In Jam” taboot.

On the third and final night of Magnaball, Phish once again delivered the goods throughout the evening, culminating in a full set-long “Martian Monster” sandwich and a “You Enjoy Myself” encore filled with fireworks, both literal and metaphorical. The band’s first set featured several impressive segues, with the “Punch You In the Eye” opener transitioning into the rare “Buffalo Bill”, “A Song I Heard the Ocean Sing” moving into “Limb by Limb”, and the impressive run from “Waiting All Night” into “Theme From the Bottom” into “Maze”. The set also saw the band take “Reba” deep, to the crowd’s delight.

For their final set of the weekend, Phish made their intentions clear immediately, launching into outer space with “Martian Monster” to get the ball rolling. After setting the tone with their opener, the band provided the audience with a beautiful moment of improv, as Phish delivered an exploratory rendition of “Down With Disease.” “Disease” flowed brilliantly into “Scents & Subtle Sounds,” which skipped the intro to keep the intensity high. The “Scents” jam picked up right where “DWD” left off, with Trey Anastasio continuing to take the lead, bringing the jam to a huge peak with screeching guitar stabs. The jam then dissolved into a cascading “What’s The Use?”, during which you could essentially hear a pin drop, as the band had the audience in the palm of their hands, silently taking in every note of the spacey instrumental track.

Coming out of the bliss of “What’s The Use?”, Phish segued into one of their most heartfelt ballads. “Dirt.” Following the beautiful breather the band returned to high gear, kicking into a ridiculous “Mike’s Groove” with sparkling versions of “Fuego” and “Twist” in the middle. With time for one more surprise before the end of the set, the band steered “Weekapaug Groove”  back into “Martian Monster” to finish the set, jamming on the funky Chilling, Thrilling Sounds instrumental for five more minutes before bringing things to a close.

Finally, in a spectacular send-off after their smashingly successful party, the band returned for a euphoric “You Enjoy Myself” encore whose vocal jam conjured an enormous fireworks display. Before the smoke had cleared, the weekend was already being ranked among the happiest and most enjoyable in many fans’ concert-going history.

It’s a little tough to look back on Magnaball this week, as we should have been celebrating new Watkins Glen memories in the wake of Curveball. However, while this anniversary is bittersweet, the events of the years following Phish’s 10th festival have only helped to bolster Magnaball’s case as one of the best Phish festivals ever.

Watch some close-up videos of Trey from the final set at Magnaball on 8/23/15 below, via YouTube user LazyLightning55a:

“Martian Monster” second set opener:

“Scents and Subtle Sounds” > “What’s The Use?”

“Dirt”

You can also watch a full crowd-shot video of 8/23/17’s second set via YouTube user notmkdevo:

SETLIST: Phish | Watkins Glen International | Watkins Glen, NY | 08/23/2015

Set 1: Punch You In the Eye > Buffalo Bill, A Song I Heard the Ocean Sing > Limb By Limb, Waiting All Night > Theme From the Bottom > Maze, The Line, Stash, Reba, I Didn’t Know[1], Character Zero

Set 2: Martian Monster > Down with Disease[2] -> Scents and Subtle Sounds[3] -> What’s the Use? > Dirt > Mike’s Song > Fuego > Twist -> Weekapaug Groove[2] -> Martian Monster

Encore: You Enjoy Myself

[1] Trey thanked the crew, production staff and local officials.
[2] Unfinished.
[3] No intro.

The post Phish Unleashed Fireworks Both Literal And Musical To Close Magnaball, Three Years Ago Today [Videos] appeared first on L4LM.