Unexpected things are part and parcel of the Phish experience and have always added to the mystique, aura, and wonderment of this band. Tours are usually sprinkled with a few surprise moments but this summer seemed to be chock-full of surprises.

What surprised you the most?

Read on to learn about the ten most surprising things that the band did this summer.

10. Sold Out Magnaball. And Dick’s. If you told most fans after the New Year’s run that they better not sleep on Magna and Dick’s tickets this year, they probably would’ve looked at you like you were mad. While the “Fare Thee Well effect” likely made a small difference, it was really a “Phish” effect. With incredibly strong playing and a stellar Summer Tour, it is no wonder that many who were on the fence decided to pony-up and get their asses to these shows. Admittedly, despite the admonition not to arrive without tickets in Watkins Glen, tickets were ultimately sold at the gates. (Presumably only to fans arriving in a car with other ticketed fans but with a little bullshitting, anyone got in.) Nevertheless, it was surprisingly strong demand for both.

9. Debuted Heavy Rotation Page’s “Heavy Rotation” was released on his self-titled album all the way back in 2007. And indeed, Sirius’ “JamOn” channel really did put it into a heavy rotation after the album was released. Yet, several months later the song disappeared from Sirius, and after it being played at every single show of Page’s tour in 2007, it was but a distant memory. That is until the first set of the second Bend show. It fit in nicely with a band member “side-show centric” set. (2-26-2003 in Worcester had a very similar setlist construction). The Bend show also included Trey’s “Scabbard” (also a Phish debut) and “Winterqueen” and Mike’s “How Many People are You” (yet another Phish debut). While it is always possible for Phish to cover a song performed by a band member, given the eight years since “Heavy Rotation” was performed, that was most surprising.

8. The Landlady Landlady has been around since the beginning of time - specifically 1989 when the “Latin-esque” instrumental ditty was sandwiched between “Punch You In The Eye”. After “Punch” was shelved, the standalone “Landlady” portion reappeared on 9-13-1990 and was played seemingly every night for a couple years. It was so common, that I’ve personally seen it 73 times. Yet, the “Landlady” was evicted in 1994. While of course, the “Punch You In The Eye” returned after a 414 show gap on 2-5-1993 at the Roseland and continued with relatively common frequency. So while many fans had a standalone “Landlady” on a personal bucket-list despite all the “Punch” performances, it wasn’t until the last night of Dick’s that they were able to check it off the list. A 768 show gap. Nearly twice as long as the Punch gap.

[Landlady. 9-6-2015 at Dick's. Video by @kembra allen]

7. First Sets that mattered. Look, this isn’t overly harsh or critical, but let us be honest with ourselves. Most first sets since the triumphant return in 2009 have lacked significant replay value. Don’t get me wrong: They don’t all suck and many (most?) are a total howl to be at in person. But candidates for entry in the revered “Jam Charts” and sets that really kicked ass? There are scant few in the last seven years. 2015 included many “first sets that mattered”. Among many 1st set gems included “Reba” from Shoreline, “Bathtub Gin” from Watkins Glen and “David Bowie” from the Mann. It was great that so many shows got the memo, particularly Magnaball Night 1 and Alpine Night 2. (Sadly, the memo didn’t circulate to Dick’s 3.)

6. No F’s. No Fluffhead. No Fee. No Foam. This is a particular tragedy to me as these three songs number among my “Top 10” favorite Phish tunes. The expectation of a monumental “Fluff” on the final night of Dick’s was palpable. The odds were so favorable, Vegas likely wouldn’t even take the bet. When “Fluffhead” opened 3.0, it was the longest show gap that it had ever had as it had not been performed since 2000. Yet, throughout 3.0, it has been a stalwart appearing in every year and every ten shows or so. No “Fluffs” this summer at all. Likewise, “Fee”, while not as common as “Fluff”, was a notable omission from 2015 Summer setlists. “Foam” also fell into a deep well, never to surface.

[This didn't happen here or anywhere else.]

5. No F's? No D's either. D for Dead. Many fans were convinced Trey was going to put to use his many hours in the woodshed preparing for “Fare The Well” and bust out a Grateful Dead song or two over the summer. There’s no doubt he approached some songs differently and perhaps teased a song or two. Fans variously heard “Dark Star” all over the place, “Terrapin Station”, “I Know You Rider”, and “Scarlet Begonias” teases and perhaps others. But after the final notes of “United We Stand” were played: Final Grateful Dead song count tally: 0, null set, zero, zilch, zip.

4. Debuts That Crush Hell yeah, in the history of Phish, tons of songs come out of the gate and just kick ass and take names from Day 1. But that’s kind of ancient history. Many 3.0 debuts have ripened on the vine and matured like a fine wine over time. In the Summer of 2015, no fewer than three songs came out of the gate running: “Blaze On”, “No Men In No Man’s Land” and “Mercury”. If you need evidence of how finely tuned these songs are, check out the very second “Blaze On” from Shoreline or the Magnaball version from Watkins Glen. Likewise, “No Men” had many strong performances: pretty much take your pick of any of nine. But personally, I really enjoyed The Mann and Magnaball performances. Finally, you only have a pick of three Mercuries. But good Lord: what a trifecta!

["Mercury" at Alpine on 8/8/2015. Video by @madpicken]

3. Five or Six Song Set Five song sets are common. You know, if we are talking 1997. But 2015? Yeah. It happened. 8-12-2015 was a throwback to an era where five (or even four!) songs could command an entire set in spectacular fashion. “Bathtub Gin”, “No Men In No Man's Land” > “Twist”, “Scents and Subtle Sounds” and “Harry Hood” was the set. Read that again. That was the entire set. “No Men”, “Twist” and “Scent” all were epic enough to earn spots on the Jam Charts. Previously in the tour on 7-24-2015, another spectacular set only included six songs: “Blaze On” > “Twist” > “Light” > “Joy”, “Harry Hood” > “Cavern”. All but “Joy” and “Cavern” have spots etched on the Jam Charts.

2. Return of "Second Jam" in Mike’s. Much ink has been spilled all over, both on the web, and here on Phish.net about the triumphant return of the “Second Jam in Mike’s”. For fans lucky enough to be at Ascend Amphitheater in Nashville, they witnessed this highly anticipated jam for the first time since 7-14-2000. Had it just been the “Mike’s”, fans would have left happy but it additionally contained a great “Piper” and culminating in the ferocious “Crosseyed-Groove”.

"Mike's Song", 8-4-15, Nashville, TN. Video by @LazyLightning55a

1. Dick’s Encore - THANK YOU Who possibly could have predicted one of the most, if not THE MOST STUNNING encore in the history of the band? After a great three nights to close the Dick’s run and the special 2015 Summer Tour, the bombastic notes of “Tweezer Reprise” engulfed the stadium and signaled the end of the run. Umm….wait, not so much. Spelling out ‘THANK YOU’ and continuing the tradition of “setlist antics”, the encore continued with “Harpua” > “After Midnight” > “NO2” > “Keyboard Army” > “Your Pet Cat” > “Once in a Lifetime” > “United We Stand”. In all that craziness we only had:

1) Perhaps the most entertaining “Harpua” ever performed

2) The first ”Keyboard Army” since 1995

3) The first “Once In a Lifetime" since its debut it 1996

4) An entertaining “NO2”

and

5) The debut of “United We Stand”.

So yeah, that. I knew it was coming all along.

"THANK YOU" encore at Dick's.



Honorable Mention:

> Halloween Songs That Really Stuck Around Fuses, Cats, Dogs, Birds, and particulary Monsters were scattered liberally throughout the summer. "Martian Monster" was showcased variously as a show opener, set opener, set closer, Free Interlude and Little Feat mash-up. Mike previously stated in an interview that many of these were written as deep grooves to have open space to build on, and "Martian Monster" is indeed deep, and as successfully versatile as anything in recent memory. Perhaps no surprise as “The Haunted House” set was one of the most well received sets in Phish’s long history.

> No Randall’s After an overwhelming successful three-night stand in the Summer of 2014, I think many people assumed an encore performance was in store. With an almost festival-like vibe, ample space, fantastic acoustics and prime geography in one of the most densely fan-populated areas of the country, hopefully 2016 is on the horizon.

> Loose and liberal segues and sandwiches While this IS what Phish does and really should NOT be a surprise- the success and the way segues flowed especially as tour went on was jaw dropping. It represented a huge step above anything else in 3.0. "Martian Monster" sandwiches and Steam/WTU/Steam are cases in point. Chalkdust Torture -> Twist from Dick's was one of the best pure segues in many years as was the "Chalkdust -> Tweezer" (Or "Cheezer") from Blossom.

> No Northeast Shows Why does the Northeast always get shafted? Enough said. Hopefully this diabolical pattern ceases next year. Interesting reading here about tour patterns.

> Mexico Announced Though there were ample rumors, it was easy to write them off as yet another of the millions of rumors that don’t pan out. Even when URLs and images started circulating, many still thought it was an elaborate prank. But it was true. Phish is playing somewhere other than the United States or Canada for the first time since Osaka, Japan on 6-16-2000.

What did I miss? What were YOUR most surprising things from Summer 2015?