Phish | 2020-02-22 | The Moon Palace, Quintana Roo, Cancun, Mexico [AUD]

I believe in miracles…like windless nights that create beautiful tapes of Phish‘s third night at The Grand at Moon Palace Cancun!

For round three of Phish‘s festivities south of the boarder, the band came out the gate on a sentimental note, delivering a poignant performance of “Willin'” off of Little Feat’s “Waiting For Columbus” — the tune had not been performed by Phish since its debut back in 2010 when the band performed the full album in Atlantic City, which was a 349 show gap. The lyrics referencing Mexico clearly resonated with the crowd, showing the band was still having fun with their set list selection and paying homage to our surroundings.

After “Willin'”, the band was shot out of a cannon, launching into a funked-out and jammed-out “Tube”. The excursion into jam territory is often a hot topic of conversation in the 3.0 era, as fans accuse the band of never extending the song like they had in years past, however this take gave notice that “Tube” still had some jam left in it. As great as the jam was, (and it WAS) the transition back into the blues breakdown was a bit of a rough landing, but for a jammed out “Tube”, all is forgiven. The set continued with a performance of “Evening Song” which had only seen one other appearance at the band’s last multi-night run at Madison Square Garden for New Year’s Eve. This was followed-up by “Set Your Soul Free”, containing a solid jam that flirted with darkness several times before eventually seguing into a return of the cover “You Sexy Thing”, which hadn’t been seen since 2018. The transitions kept coming as the band took “You Sexy Thing” into the pulsating rock of “46 Days”, before bringing everything down a bit to contemplate life and get sentimental during “Waste”. Prior to the show, a fan serendipitously gave me a bracelet that said “Phexico Meetup – Cancun 2020 – Come waste your time with me” – Phish is kinda magic like that sometimes.

The band continued the first set with “Your Pet Cat”, which brought the energy back up to set the scene for the set centerpiece, a mighty “Tweezer > Manteca > Makisupa Policeman > Twist” segment to close out the set. Makisupa was played over the music to “You Sexy Thing”, and the key word was “You Sexy Thing” — clearly the band wanted to send fans a message, maybe on Tinder…

The second set started with a cover of Apples in Stereo’s “Energy”, which eventually segued into the second part of the night’s soul-suite with “Soul Planet”. As much as people may grumble about the tune, the crowd was certainly in agreement that the ocean was indeed love, albeit a bit brown and full of seaweed. Next up, the band performed the jam of the evening, an apropos take on “Waves” that just barely fell under the 20-minute mark before being paired with an evil and yet lustrous “Carini”. The jam was an expansive 30+ minutes of music that brings listeners through the many phases of a jam, from the blissfulness of “Waves” to the hectic darkness of “Carini”, before bringing us back to straight-rock territory with a transition into “Chalkdust Torture”. This particular rendition launched right into a patient and airy jam that built to a more funked-up rhythm, before dropping into a soulful “Have Mercy”. The transition chain finally ended with the ballad, “A Life Beyond The Dream”. Never ones to leave a single jaw not on the floor, Phish closed the set with a “Harry Hood” that broke itself down to a euphoric and spacious jam that gave everyone one last moment to vibe out on. The encore then brought only the fifth ever performance of “Sweet Jane”, and the expected but always welcome “Tweezer Reprise”, once again giving everyone one last chance to rage.

The third night at The Moon Palace brought plenty of highlight jam moments, plenty of rare covers, and plenty of reasons for me to find a way back here next year. The set selection was stupendous and the band’s playing has been confident, assertive, and very in touch with the crowd. To quote Little Feet, “I’m drunk and dirty don’t ya know, and I’m still, oh I’m still…willin'”.

Phish | 2020-02-22 | The Moon Palace, Quintana Roo, Cancun, Mexico

-= Set 1 =-
01. (Set 1 Intro)
02. Willin’
03. Tube
04. Evening Song
05. Set Your Soul Free >
06. You Sexy Thing >
07. 46 Days >
08. Waste >
09. Your Pet Cat
10. Tweezer >
11. Manteca >
12. Makisupa Policeman[1] >
13. Twist

-= Set 2 =-
14. (Set 2 Intro)
15. Energy >
16. Soul Planet >
17. Waves >
18. Carini >
19. Chalkdust Torture ->
20. Have Mercy >
21. A Life Beyond The Dream
22. Harry Hood

-= Encore =-
23. (Encore Break)
24. Sweet Jane >
25. Tweezer Reprise

Show Notes: This was the third night of a four-night-run at The Moon Palace Resort.
[1] “Makisupa Policeman” was played over the music to “You Sexy Thing”.

Taper Notes: Stage left of the soundboard. Mics raised around 10′ PAS.

Thanks to Phish and The Grand at Moon Palace Cancun for being cool with taping/sharing shows. Go see live music and tip your bartenders! #spacetape

ETREE LINK: http://bt.etree.org/details.php?torrentId=608702