Welcome to Mystery Jam Monday Part 104 here at Phish.net, back after a one-week hiatus. As usual, we will be playing for an MP3 download, courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. The rules haven't changed: you need to correctly identify the song and the date to win. Post your guess in the comments. One guess per person per day (with the second “day” starting after I post the hint). A hint will be posted on Tuesday (if necessary) and the answer will be posted on Wednesday. Good luck...

Tuesday Answer: Well, may as well end this thing now. It was the "Jam" that concluded the 6/30/11 Super Ball IX soundcheck. @benhatley is our nominal winner, but I will roll over the prize until next week, as he requested. @phriendlyghost, if you were half as smart as you seem to think you are, you would have just waited for the hint and guessed first thing today.

With the conclusion of Phish’s midwest swing, the heat will certainly be spoken about for years to come. In more than one way, even. As temperatures grew towards the century mark, so did the band’s own brand of fire.

When the band hit the stage on Sunday evening the typical tradition of discussing what to play first commenced, with the island infused rhythms of Bob Marley’s “Soul Shakedown Party” setting stage for the evening. Important to note though was what Trey and Mike both fiddled with during the preamble. If you listen back to the Live Phish recording, at 0:23 you can clearly hear Trey begin playing “Chalk Dust Torture Reprise” with Mike following suit. Definitely a fun trivia fact (h/t @zzyzx) and something to throw on to the rarities wish list. Speaking of rarities, for the fourth show in a row, another track off the Velvet Underground’s Loaded found its way into the set. Driven by Fish’s vocal stylings the country rock number "Lonesome Cowboy Bill" is highlighted by a fancy bit of guitar work from Trey, that begs for even more exploration. But the majority of the first set is marked not by high improvisation, rather with the outstanding technical play that has become much more prevalent over the recent week as the set bounces between styles that are masterfully executed.

Read more...