[Editor's Note: The staff here at phish.net was batting around the abundant merits of this summer's marquee jams, and thought we'd share our thoughts with you. Click through and read about the Randall's "Chalk Dust," the Dick's "Simple," and lots, lots more. This overview is not meant to be comprehensive; if your favorite jam isn't listed, it wasn't a slight. By all means please feel free to discuss your favorites in the comments. These jams are meticulously and painstakingly ranked... by date, ascending. -CB]

“Harry Hood” – 7/1/14, Mansfield, MA (Parker Harrington)
Tour openers are what Christmas mornings used to be for me as a kid: Tons of anticipation that builds, and builds. Regardless of what gifts Santa left under the tree, you were always around family and loved ones and the day provided fantastic memories. I’ve seen several dozen Phish tour openers over the years and they’ve been packed with epic jams, monster versions of classics, top shelf moments of the entire tour and plenty of Phish debuts. Of course, a shift in style or a glimpse into the future is often evident after long breaks and the advent of a new tour as well.

Walking into Great Woods, in Mansfield, MA on July 1st it was fun thinking about all the shows I had seen there as well as trying to guess what type of opener it would be? Shaking off the rust is always part of it but I think, that too, is part of the fun. But would there be more debuts? With the Fuego tunes looming for heavy rotation, that was unlikely. So I was indeed hoping for a tour highlight or two and a masterful take on a Phish classic staple. The only question left in my mind was just which song would it be?

The answer would not be revealed until deep into the second set in an intense, powerful, engaging and thoroughly magnificent “Harry Hood” that left jaws dropped to the ground and the feeling that indeed, “IT” can happen at any time. Phish littered the country over the summer with a seemingly endless supply of stellar “Hoods.” Yet of all the epic versions, Mansfield remains to many fans, me included, as the best “Hood” of the summer.

This near nineteen-minute monster – while not the longest of all the summer “Hoods” (but right up there) – packs a punch from the opening notes. A slow and steady crescendo builds confidently and consciously to the mid-point without a wasted note but having already covered tons of musical ground. Shifting effortlessly from a reggae infused feeling to deep spacey tones to wide open and carefree rock bliss, Phish had already provided a thrilling ride and the powerful, cathartic peak was still off in the horizon. Seemingly every venue and every stop of summer 2014 had at least one signature & marquee jam. Mansfield was no exception and this “Harry Hood” was most certainly a welcome omen for the tour to come.

“Fuego” – 7/4/14, Saratoga Springs, NY (John Demeter)
At their best – and often even at their medium-est – Phish plays the essence of their environment, or of the environment, conjuring the natural elements. Watery and fluid, light and airy, thunderous and grounding, or straight fire? On the 238th birthday of the United States, Phish opened set two with the title track of their new album and selected “All of the Above,” blithely transcending the cultural occasion and opting instead to drop some geologic history on us.

The composed section of “Fuego” fades after six minutes, and Trey leads with some tasty if not particularly noteworthy licks, using part of the vocal melody of the song to stretch out. Around 9:00, he recedes and plays a few trills, changing direction, with Page mimicking, the four members clearly listening intently and reacting. Fishman is a one-man band throughout, and a watery effect bubbles up near 10:00. For the next three minutes the jam dissolves to air, with spacious 4-way improvisation, grounded to earth by the delicate thunder of the drums, oriented once again by a faint reference to the vocal melody.

Around 13:40, magma begins to pool under Mike, and rises through in the form of a simple ascending progression, thick and heavy. The piece is not going to float off to the ether at this point; tangible mass has coalesced. Fish gravitates to the rhythm, Trey repeats a simple complementary riff. The next three minutes are magic. Or science. Or evolution. Or simply music. Trey subtly adjusts tone at the end of his repetitive rhythmic riff – the introduction of a highly reactive element that results in the volcano erupting right around 17:00, lava roiling to the surface. Not an explosion, no 4th of July fireworks, but absolutely molten, celebrating the universe for about two eternal minutes, drenched in white-hot earth gravy.

The peak – simple, elegant, and organic, yet so decisive it sounds composed – could be the kid brother (or perhaps the wise old uncle) of the Camden ‘99 “Chalk Dust” or Nassau ‘03 “Tweezer.” After yet another faint reference to the “Fuego” melody, the thing simmers down, all energy naturally expended, no effort or need to push any further. Lingering thumps from Mike and Fish solidify the ground underneath us, cooling to form a bedrock for the remaining phenomenal set of music.

“Chalk Dust Torture” – 7/13/14, New York, NY (Dan Purcell)
It starts with a lurch, like a 30-year-old Econoline full of vintage gear allowing itself a quick sputter before springing to life at a low idle. It ends 28 minutes later in an unrecognizable wash of color and texture before the drop into a remarkable version of “Light.” If summer 2014 were the Eurovision Song Contest, with points awarded on aggregate results, “Chalk Dust Torture” either would have been outright champeen or narrow bridesmaid to “Harry Hood,” and the glorious Randall’s Island “Chalk Dust” was, in my opinion at least, the jam of the tour.

The band’s deliberate tempo was a far cry from the traditional hyperspeed show-opening or first-set-closing “Chalk Dust.” One has to assume they were inviting themselves to jam; it’s easier to take a good look around when you’re not at a dead run out of the gate. Here, once the second chorus is over, there’s not much hesitation. Camped out on the grand, Page wants to move away from orthodox “Chalk Dust” blues-rock and explore the sunny pastures of the key of D major, so he tinkles away with his nimble right hand until he finally draws the band into a gorgeous two-chord progression that surges to a peak hot enough to anchor any second set. This is not even ten minutes in.

Penalize this jam if you must for hitting its crowd-pleasing peak at the beginning and not the end, but the ensuing twenty minutes don’t contain a dull moment. First there’s a modulation to a minor key and things get funkier; Trey even toys with the by-now-familiar three-chords-then-a-rest Tahoe “Tweezer” jam. Any attempts by the crowd to “Woo!” are buried under Page’s Rhodes and Jon Fishman doing any motherfucking thing he feels. As happened so often this summer, Page and Fish won’t let the jam go, rising and falling together. With so much energy and drive coming from the rhythm section, Trey is free to pick his spots: more chords and rhythm comping than blitzkrieg soloing, focused on adding subtle harmonic colors and small detours from the already-brilliant groove. I know you’ve all heard this jam a hundred times, but you could listen to it a hundred more and not hit bottom.

“Wombat” – 7/18/14, Chicago, IL (Tim Wade)
The Chicago “Wombat” isn’t what I would necessarily call a “great” jam, in that I think it would have a hard time making many Top 10 Improv lists from the tour. But it’s definitely got a spot on the summer 2014 highlight reel.

Bursting from an atypically subdued “Halley’s” outro, the first notes of “Wombat” are greeted with a huge cheer. Fishman’s vocals in this version are straight ridiculous and have Trey cracking up through most of the song. The jam starts with staccato plucking from Trey and typically tasty funk breakdowns. A syncopated, melodic section marks the first departure from typical “Wombat” territory, but that drops right back into the funk groove. At about 4:45 Trey finds a phrase to hook on to, is quickly followed by Page and then Mike, and the jam becomes dreamy and, in short order, fully type-II. After floating for a time, the music coalesces into a proud strut: The March of the Wombat. An enormous Cactus bomb punctuates this section, pushing Page to the Hammond. After much fluttering and warbling from both guitar and organ, the tempo slowly increases to a gallop. Page takes over on piano for a few minutes of celebration, and the jam culminates in a bit of distortion before Trey slams into “Chalk Dust.”

There is no getting around one glaring fact about “Wombat”: The song is plain silly. It employs an SAT vocabulary word in “crepuscular,” rhymes “centrifuge” with “Baton Rouge,” gives us the memorable slogan “cuddly but deadly” and came pre-packaged with an inside joke about Abe Vigoda. Not to mention it’s about an animal which has cubed-shaped feces and uses its thick, tough posterior for defense. When you add to that a deeply infectious funk groove and the preposterous rap stylings of Jon Fishman, you have a song that is truly Phishy. After all, this is band whose menagerie has included bazooka-toting llamas, knife-wielding pigs and more dogs than you can shake a stick at. But “Wombat” is more than just the goofiest song on Fuego. The song is immensely, almost impossibly, FUN!!

The Chicago “Wombat” represents a milestone, both for being the first version to break from its type-I burrow, and only the second track from Fuego to delve into type-II improv. Hopefully even those who roll their eyes and declare that they absolutely did not have to have that will be placated by the added potential of this song opening the door to jaw-dropping improvisation. We haven’t seen it yet, but 7/18/14 showed definitively that “Wombat” can be a jam vehicle. So either bring it forward, people, or leave it behind.

“The Wedge” -> “Ghost” – 7/20/14, Chicago, IL (Marty Acaster)
“The Wedge” is one of a handful of Phish songs that I believe would be welcomed by most attendees of any given show. It has lyrics that evoke both the aquatic tone and connection to the Earth that pervades the thematic construct the band has engineered, and the epic drives through some of the more beautiful parts of the North American continent that we can enjoy between tour stops. It reminds us that it is the journey through life – not the final destination – that is the real prize. However, beyond the location of the show, a random tease, or a rare guest appearance, no individual performance of “The Wedge” really stood out above any other. It is as utilitarian a song as the stonecutter’s tool for which it is named. Its role is to cleave the space that separates one chunk of rock from another.

Though initially unassuming and seemingly just another song to replace “I Am Hydrogen” in that evening’s “Mike’s Groove," the Northerly Island performance would become the most exploratory version of “The Wedge” Phish has played to date. It wasn’t even a particularly pleasing “average-great” performance of the song proper at first, and perhaps therein lies the key to the magic that ensued. The band seems to wobble unsteadily towards a sloppy and tired resolution of the song. However, reminiscent of any one of those moments during the Tahoe “Tweezer” when you thought the end had arrived… the band played on.

First keyed by Page and gradually building into a full band funky groove that hints of “Revival” and Siket Disco Dead jam space; the journey ultimately culminates in a glorious ride through “Paradise City” blasting “Roll with the Changes” on the car stereo. In other words, what is undoubtedly “the best” (read as most exploratory) Phish performance of “The Wedge,” was actually a subtle nod to Amfibian’s cover version of the song included on The Mockingbird Foundation’s Sharin’ in the Groove album. The SITG album version itself is undoubtedly dwarfed by the 45-minute long monster that was reportedly laid down during Amfibian’s recording session at Fireproof Studios in Brooklyn. Outtakes reel anybody? “The Wedge” returns to its expected conclusion and “Ghost” materializes from the cloud of shock and awe that hung over the island.

The composed portion of “Ghost” is equally nondescript and they miss the drop as is the norm these days, but the jam segment just tears right out of the gate. As stated in the jamming table, I described this “Ghost” thusly - Swirling Samurai with a Sawzall wields the power blade on a scintillating space disco mirror ball. What I mean by that is that I heard shades of “My Woman from Tokyo” as a precursor to a thrilling foray through a high energy heavy metal dance groove that reminded me a great deal of Oysterhead’s “Wield the Spade” being played by machine elves on performance enhancing drugs. Taken together, the meat of this particular “Mike’s Groove” sandwich was well marinated and particularly flavorful. Would eat it again.

“Carini” -> “Ghost” – 7/26/14, Columbia, MD (Dan Mielcarz)
After a solid first set with a stand out “Roggae," the band ferociously launches into the dark riff of “Carini" to start the second set. Slight vocal mix-up in the third verse, made up for by a terrifying scream by Fishman during the “people all were screaming when they saw the lump” line. Trey immediately launches into a ripping solo typical of “Carini," but about five minutes in Page moves to the Rhodes and things take a decidedly chill turn. Trey hits on some melodic lines backed by an ever evolving beat from Fish, all layered on top of some walking bass from Mike. For a song that starts off so angry, this gets very pretty very quickly. Page gets back to the baby grand, the tempo increases and Trey starts to fill a little more space with more rock and roll style riffs. Almost as soon as it begins, this section ends, heading into a more groove-oriented section, Trey playing more rhythmically, with Page on organ and Fish laying down a funky beat. This quickly changes into a thrilling rave-up section with some heavier chords and effects from Trey.

The band hits on a rhythmic theme and “Carini" comes to a close with a lighting fast key change into the opening notes of “Ghost.” It’s truly amazing how many places that “Carini” goes in such a short time. At the show, some folks were feeling like the jam ended prematurely, but on a deeper listen there is a lot to hear in those thirteen minutes, and the segue is just plain cool. As if they can’t get to the jam fast enough, the composed section of “Ghost” ends and takes a turn into a small spacey Animals-era Floyd section. This builds into a more classic rock feel with Trey hitting upon a riff that is similar to Judas Priests’ “Living After Midnight.”

But this is a friendly major-key riff that morphs and builds and climbs to a triumphant peak. During the show I compared it to the peak of the Great Went “Bathtub Gin.” On a relisten it isn’t quite that level, but it is in that same genre of Phish jams that I am unable to listen to without getting a big shit-eating grin on my face. Following the peak, the jam takes another turn, with Trey hitting his delay effects, Page on clav and Mike and Fish backing with a darker feel. This outro jam devolves and tumbles down until Trey launches into the opening riff of “Steam."

While largely overshadowed by the next night’s “Tweezerfest.” this “Carini” -> ”Ghost” combo from contains some truly fantastic playing, and is arguably more exploratory than anything from the 7/27/14 show. It stands as one example of many from the 2014 summer tour, demonstrating the band’s current ability to instantly turn the switch from composed tune to incredible improvisation with minimal noodling. Check it out!

“Tweezer” et al – 7/27/14, Columbia, MD (Charlie Dirksen)
If you’ve somehow managed not to hear the second set of MPP2, what are you waiting for? Are you concerned it might not hold-up to the hype, or at least not compete with the merits of the second sets of 2/20/93 Roxy, 5/7/94 Bomb Factory, 7/13/94 Big Birch, and 10/30/10 Boardwalk Hall, each of which involve “Tweezer” to varying degrees? Just like each of these sets, MPP2 is absolutely worth your time to hear, repeatedly.

A “Wilson” opener is often a good omen for the set if not the entire show (see for example 12/6/96 or 10/30/98 Vegas, 12/30/99 Cypress, 11/2/13 AC). “Tweezer” follows, and it isn’t long into the composed opening section before Trey repeats a “Back on the Train”-like riff, and Fish teases “Back on the Train,” which probably helped inspire Trey to return to a variation on the same riff as the “Tweezer” jam segment started, prompting Fish to begin playing “BOTT” again. Trey then modulates the key and begins playing and singing “BOTT,” singing a few verses before launching back into “Tweezer.”

This second “Tweezer” doesn’t last too long before “BOTT” kicks back in for another few verses, and then yes, “Tweezer” appears yet again. It’s this third “Tweezer” segment that contains some dazzling type II improv, as well as a jam for a spell that’s very “Manteca”-like. Of course, this set was just getting started at this point.

“Tweezer” makes several more appearances during it, getting sandwiched by “Free” while also sandwiching “Simple.” Surprisingly, “DwD” follows “Slave,” and there’s also a notably unusual jam out of “NICU” for a few minutes before the set concludes with a hilariously-absurd, must-hear performance by Fish of “Jennifer Dances” (with vacuum) and “I Been Around.” Watching the band slow-walk offstage while finishing “I Been Around” is, like this wonderful set, among the many highlights of 2014.

“Meatstick” – 7/30/14, Portsmouth, VA (Phillip Zerbo)
“Variety is the spice of life” may be a cliché, but it definitely applies to Phish. Even the most beloved Phish songs, played in more or less the same way, year after year, can lead to a rut. Just like people, songs don’t have to change who they are, dress up in some sexy outfit, or deny their essence in order to keep the audience on our toes. As an audience member, you never want to be too comfortable heading off to grab a beverage and hit the can; if it is true that we come to Phish shows in part because “it is never the same show twice” and “you never know what’s going to happen” then those things need to be actually true, right? “IT” is not always about hitting home runs. A few well placed singles and doubles – a little afternoon delight – something that kicks the spark that makes you realize why you seek “IT” in the first place.

So it is with the Portsmouth “Meatstick.” By the five minute mark we’ve wrapped up the dance, and in dozens of similar spots Trey would already be on to the next idea, ready to shift gears. But the funk is too thick, Page riding high and bouncy over the thick, indestructible backbone of Mike and Fish, with Trey content to take a shift bringing up the rear with flowing supportive rhythms. Chris Kuroda knows a moment as well as anyone and seizes upon the energy with cascading waves of visual bubbles that grew to compass not just the stage but the entire venue awning as a surround-sight psychedelic canvass. By 7:30, the “Meatstick” is fully consumed and we are engaged in type-II exploration. The jam doesn’t go that far out, the peak is perhaps a little muted… but none of that matters because the band grabbed a moment, they saw the hole and they hit it.

Phish played to the moment, reminding even the most jaded among us to stay on our toes, because you really don’t know what will happen next. No, the jam out of this “Meatstick” isn’t a top-x jam – it is may be the third or fourth best jam in the first four songs of the set that also witnessed versions of “Fuego,” “Jibboo” and “Piper” that all were among the best of summer for each respective song. Taken together as a package, the first 45+ minutes of the Portsmouth2 second set is among my favorite segments of the past summer.

“Simple” – 8/29/14, Commerce, CO (Chris Bertolet)
From the first notes, it is obvious that the band is blatantly jazzed to be playing this song: each of them simply stampedes out of the gates and gallops off for glory. And while it isn’t the year’s first noteworthy “Simple” – the version a few weeks earlier at Oak Mountain featured some majestic riffage and a blazing meteorite streaking across the Alabama sky to underscore the Universe’s approval, taboot – the Dick’s “Simple” ultimately proves to be the finest version in quite a few years, and an easy contender for jam of the summer.

Fishman relished his tip-of-the-spear role in many of this summer’s finest jams, kicking down doors and compelling his bandmates to follow him through. But this “Simple” is a different beast. Here, Fish is content to establish a blank canvas of open space and steady meter, and let his mates paint over it.

Each of them take a turn with the palette and brush. Everybody follows the familiar path for a short while until the 6:40 mark, when Mike strips out the Bb and C to introduce a patient and blissful meditation on the tonic F. Classic Phish here: breaking a harmonic conversation down to the most basic and bare to create infinite possibility. Around the nine minute mark, Trey introduces some syrupy, sultry blues riffs that keep matters earthbound a while longer, tugging on the reins a spell before Cutting The Fuck Loose and propelling the band through a set of incendiary peaks and crashing modal waves. Fifteen minutes in there is a full-band ebb, and Page pivots to his clav, proposing a funkier vector. By eighteen minutes, things get unlawfully raunchy as Trey’s guitar lines strongly suggest Bowie’s “Fame” – then Mike drops out for a few measures to build tension, eliciting huge cheers from the Colorado crowd when he re-enters the mix. Then, the afterglow.

Having listened to this several thousand times, it’s possible that I might be exaggerating when I say this is the funkiest thing Phish has played since 1997, but I really don’t think I am. Start to finish, this “Simple” is a devastatingly entertaining performance that you could drop on just about any non-fan you’ve struggled to convince. Or just put it on a loop and make it the soundtrack to your most awesome life. It’s that good.

“Mike’s Song” – 8/31/14 Commerce, CO (Chris Glushko)
Let me start by saying the Dick’s “Mike’s Song” is far from my favorite jam from the summer. That award goes to the Dick’s “Simple” with the Randall’s “Chalk Dust” nipping at its heels. I’d venture to say that the Dick’s “Mike’s” doesn’t even make my top 30 jams from summer. Hell, it’s not even in my top three jams from 8/31/14! With that said, you’re probably asking why I chose to write about it. The answer it quite simple – it has the potential to be the most important jam to come out of summer 2014.

From 1993 through 2000, “Mike’s Song” was one of the most deadly jam weapons in Phish’s arsenal. To discover some of the finest versions, check out the jamming chart. When the band came back in 2002 from the first hiatus, “Mike’s Song” lost its mojo. The band stretched out a few versions – see Cincinnati 2/21/03 – but none even came remotely close to the level of play from previous years. Then, when Phish returned to the stage in 2009 after a five-year “retirement,” they placed a renewed focus on playing their songs right. For “Mike’s Song,” this meant a return to the song’s form from the early 90s. What it also meant was not much room to open up the song – leaving us with versions that although fiery, felt very routine.

Five years later and we still have not had a “Mike’s Song” that deviated far from form… until Dick’s. In just over nine minutes, Phish played the best “Mike’s Song” of the last five years, and maybe even the best “Mike’s” since 2000. But more important, they delivered hope that “Mike’s” can one day return to greatness for every fan that’s crossed their fingers and said a little prayer at the start of a ‘09-’14 “Mike’s,” hoping that just maybe it might be the one the breaks the mold. The mold has now been broken. Let’s hope this is just a preview of great things to come in the fall.

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