Official Poster by Julia Rothman

After a six-month hibernation, the Phish hath returned!

Finally. At last. The highly-anticipated 2013 summer tour kicked off in Bangor, Maine at Darling's Waterfront Pavilion. In the band's 30th year of existence, Phish mixed things up with a new set-up featuring Fishman directly behind Trey instead of way-out on stage left. Trey wanted to hear Fish better, so now he's right on his ass.

For a live-stream check out HoodStream.com.

Pic courtesy of @Phish_FTR

And here is the setlist for the summer tour opener...

Phish - 7/3/13 Bangor, Maine - Darling's Waterfront

Set 1: Possum, JIM, Stash > NICU, Wolfman's Brah, Rift, Theme from the Bottom > Chalk Dust Torture, Mike's Song > Silent in the Morning ** > Weekapaug Groove

Set 2: Golden Age > Twist > Backwards, Ocelot ^, Rock and Roll > 2001 > Cavern > Antelope

Encore: HOOD

Show Notes:
^ First-ever second set Ocelot
** Silent performed without Horse intro; last time 6/17/12 AC

Times: Band took stage at 7:53pm ET and Set 1 ended at 9:25pm. Set 2 began at 9:59pm. Show ended at 11:29pm.


Couch Tour Recap: Bangor Blastoff
by Pauly

I love being on the West Coast for couch tour because Phish shows start around 5pm PT. As soon as I get off work, I'm ready to rip bongs and grind Twitter. BTW, thanks to the guys working the streams. It's far from perfect, but I appreciate the effort. I sincerely hope Phish, Inc. gets their shit together and offers up audio streams. A free one like PanicStream.com would be awesome, but I'd be willing to custy up a few bucks a show for a crisp audio, or subscribe to an audio stream for the entire summer tour.

Photo by @mkdevo

Phish returned to Maine. First show in Bangor since 1994 (that evening's Tweezer appeared on A Live One). You know phans are antsy when they're jacking off to the soundcheck.

Old-school first set. Perfect callback to the band's New England roots. The youngest tune in the first set was from the 96-97 era. Ninety minutes of classic songs. Not much jamming (Stash was the longest song of the set and barely clocked in at 12 minutes). Possum kicked off the entire tour. Stash popped up too early in the set to really scare the shit out of acidheads and the random Bisco-kid cooking on bathsalts, Four Loko and ketamine. Brief moment of cow funk with Wolfman's Brah, that barely lasted 10 minutes. Wolfie-quickie. Rift was equally stellar and irksome. The Mike's Groove sandwich featured a rare solo Silent in the Morning, seldom played without its Horse intro. Last time that occurred? Atlantic City last summer at Bader Field. They also played a solo Silent in Colorado for the infamous "S Show" at Dick's in 2011.

After a short setbreak, the second set kicked-off with a nod to TV on the Radio's Golden Age. The jam marked the first time the band hit the deep end of the jamming pool. We hoped that Twist would develop into a Maine-Monstah, but Trey pulled the first ripcord of the summer in favor of his self-indulgent, navel-gazing Backwards. My personal highlight was the first-ever second set Ocelot. I don't hide the fact that Ocelot is my favorite 3.0 song and I'd love to see it get stretched out in the second set more often. Page finally rocked out with Velvet's Rock and Roll. Short and sweet RR jam (nothing close to the Long Beach Beiber jam, though). Quickly seg'd into 2001 for a lobster-disco party (local pronunciation is "lobstah-diskah-pahhhteee"). Smoking Antelope capped off an 8-song set. Bangor was far from those fatty 5-song and 6-song funk-a-thons from 16 years ago. It wasn't one of those ADD-Trey second sets when he rattled off a baker's dozen of greatest hits inside an hour, but then again, only Golden Age and Antelope surpassed the 10-minute mark. Trey and the band kept everything on a short leash. Felt like they were holding back just a little too much after a six-month hiatus and their first shows since MSG's NYE Garden Party. Heavy-handed encore with Hood (watch video). Glad they didn't cheese out with something inferior. As the Joker noted, Page busted out a new toy -- a talk box.

Solid start to the summer. The boys shook off the rust and blew out the cobwebs. The circus moves onward to SPAC for a three-night run. If you're going to the shows, hope you're not stuck up on the lawn! Good news for couch tour rats... the SPAC shows will be webcast (plus buy all three shows and get a discount).

FYI... download the 7.3.13 Bangor show over at LivePhish.