[Take the Bait is spirited deliberation centered around the hyperbole of Phish’s music and fandom, passionately exuded via the written words of phish.net contributors @FunkyCFunkyDo and @n00b100. Opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of phish.net, The Mockingbird Foundation, or any fan… but we're pretty sure we’re right. Probably.]

The Bait: Summer 2021 is the best tour since Winter 2003.

Funky: Once in a great while, we are privileged to experience an event so extraordinary, it becomes part of our shared heritage. 1969: Man walks on the moon. 1971: Man walks on the moon…. again. Then for a long time, nothing happened. Until today. n00b and I are proud to finally present: The 17th volume spectacular of Take the Bait! ::crickets chirping:: I said, The 17th volume spectacular of… ahhh forget it...

Before we get started, let’s make one thing abundantly clear: we - verrry apathetically - do not care if you call it 3.0 or 4.0. “But Funky, Trey’s 4.0 guita-” QUIET YOU! “But n00b, they took almost a year and a half of-” YOU SHHMMM! And if any of you nerds nitpick this, well, I’m not sure how to finish that threat, but be warned: I will caustically and needlessly shame you in the comments section - like a mature internet stranger should. And n00b knows how to fire a crossbow! Very good.

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Welcome to the 480th edition of Phish.Net's Mystery Jam Monday, the second puzzle of October - shout-out to @justino for one of the clips! The winner will receive an MP3 download code courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. To win, be the first person to identify the song and date of both mystery clips, which are connected by a theme. Each person gets one guess to start – if no one answers correctly in the first 24 hours, I'll post a hint. After the hint, everyone gets one more guess before Wednesday at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET. Stay safe!

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John Greene - keyboardist of Bay Area Phish Tribute Chum, provider of "John's Special Tape" (containing the Gamehendge CD-ROM footage), and one of the first users to join the PhishNet - is fighting cancer ... again. His sons Floyd and Orion are raising funds in his honor for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Please consider donating towards their $50K goal to aid scientific research for treatment of these hard-to-treat cancers - you can read more about their story and donate here:

Floyd & Orion's Daddy will KIA Again!! (LLS.org)

Today, October 6th, is actually JG's birthday - when asked if there was anything special he wanted from his friends, he said all he wants is the Eagles to beat the Panthers this weekend and for his friends to donate to Floyd and Orion's fundraiser! You can follow John's treatment and recovery on his blog here: jgwkia.com.

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Reminder: For the first MJM of each month, only folks who have never won an MJM are allowed to answer on the blog before the hint. If you have never won an MJM, please answer as a comment below. If you have previously won an MJM, but you'd like to submit a guess before the hint, you may do so by PMing me; once the hint has been posted, everyone should answer on the blog. If that's confusing to you, check out the handy decision tree that I threw together for you. If you're not sure if you've won before, check in the MJM Results spreadsheet linked below.

Welcome to the 479th edition of Phish.Net's Mystery Jam Monday, the first of October - shout out to @justino for the clip! The winner will receive an two MP3 download codes courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. To win, be the first person to identify the song and date of the mystery jam. Each person gets one guess to start – if no one answers correctly in the first 24 hours, I'll post a hint. After the hint, everyone gets one more guess before Wednesday at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET. Stay safe!

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Welcome to the 478th edition of Phish.Net's Mystery Jam Monday, the final and most difficult puzzle of September - shout-out to @sumac22 for one of the clips! The winner will receive an MP3 download code courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. To win, be the first person to identify the song and date of all three mystery clips, which are connected by a theme. Each person gets one guess to start – if no one answers correctly in the first 24 hours, I'll post a hint. After the hint, everyone gets one more guess before Wednesday at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET. Stay safe!

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Welcome to the 477th edition of Phish.Net's Mystery Jam Monday, the second puzzle of September - shout-out to @sumac22 for one of the clips! The winner will receive an MP3 download code courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. To win, be the first person to identify the song and date of both mystery clips, which are connected by a theme. Each person gets one guess to start – if no one answers correctly in the first 24 hours, I'll post a hint. After the hint, everyone gets one more guess before Wednesday at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET. Stay safe!

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Welcome back from tour! Today we've got the 476th edition of Phish.Net's Mystery Jam Monday, the first of September - shout out to @sumac22 for the clip! The winner will receive an MP3 download code courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. To win, be the first person to identify the song and date of the mystery jam. Each person gets one guess to start – if no one answers correctly in the first 24 hours, I'll post a hint. After the hint, everyone gets one more guess before Wednesday at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET. Stay safe!

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[This site is run entirely by volunteers as a project of The Mockingbird Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to raising funds for educating children and young adults in musical arts. This post is courtesy of Neve Spicer, who promotes arts education. -Ed.]

Art, music, and film move us, inspire us, and help us to see the world in new ways. Studying the arts does more than just bring us closer to the media we love, it can also be a gateway to personal, psychological, and cognitive benefits -- this is especially true for kids.

Research has shown that participation in arts education during childhood is linked with positive impacts to self esteem, collaborative skill, physical development, and even math and literacy skills. It is valuable contributions like these which are the driving force behind National Arts in Education Week, an annual arts-ed advocacy campaign sponsored by Americans for the Arts.

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With a flourish of effects-laden guitar and swampy keyboards, Phish’s triumphant return to concerts comes to a close, thus capping one of the most consistent and entertaining tours in recent memory. The thirtieth show at famed Dick’s Sporting Goods Field was a raucous, but beautifully played, night of music that could satisfy jaded vets and casual fans alike.

I had the pleasure of being in attendance for the tour opener in AR. While a tremendous amount of fun, a little rust was obvious (although I think a number of songs from that show set the table for what would be so successful this summer). I was excited to track this tour, as I knew I would be there for the end, if we got there of course. The concerns that many had were justified, and as other touring acts rescheduled or downright cancelled, Phish kept it up and had no health-related cancellations. That in itself should be cause for celebration.

Getting back to Dick’s is always magic. The routine (I have sat in the same seat since Saturday night of 2014), the Shakedown, the vibe… It came back like riding a bicycle. The undeniable two show punch at Shoreline had expectations sky high, and while not reaching those stratospheric heights, the band delivered three fantastically executed (if a touch uneven in flow at times) shows, culminating in tonight’s closer.

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[We would like to thank Denny Kinlaw, user @SaintAndrew, for last night's recap, his first Dick’s show. -Ed.]

Some venues simply flaunt their status as beacons of musical heritage upon the American landscape: the mythic aura of Madison Square Garden, the sublime scale of Alpine Valley, and the dingy intimacy of Hampton Coliseum all come to mind. To enter these venues is to enter into the mythos of rock n’ roll history. For Phish and their fans, these venues represent not only the ascendancy of a band that labored most of its career in the shadows of more commercially celebrated acts—with Phish finally “making it” on the main stages by 12/30/1994 and utterly destroying them by 12/30/1997—but stand out as perennial havens for a band that continues to achieve improvisational high-water marks thirty years into its career. While Dick’s Sporting Goods Park will never elicit the type of hushed reverence these historic venues tend to evoke, nor will anyone ever gasp with stilted breath “It’s magnificent” upon entering Dick's (See Gorge), it simply is the most important outdoor venue for mapping Phish’s shape-shifting achievements in the 3.0 era.

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You know it when you see it, but it is still hard to put into words. “It’s real, but, in a different way,” I might say to someone who asks what magic is, “Your eyes and ears say, ‘absolutely,’ while your brain and logic say, ‘that can’t be,’” and neither are correct. Or maybe both are. Magic fills us with a sense of wonder about the world: a sense that beyond the surface of somethings, all things, radiates whole other worlds of timelessness and innocence for us to observe, but only through the right lens.

Logic and rationality no longer seem applicable or appropriate when magic is around. Magic supplants a new reality---a much better one, I will add---to our existence. Phish shows are one such lens that shows us magic is real. Vibrations and light and people come together to form experiences and memories that transcend what daily life is like; for most, at least. And that’s magic. For three hours a night, a handful of nights a year, we can experience magic, and we did tonight.

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[We would like to thank user @ObviousFool (@Nice_Shades on IG), Silas Cole, for recapping last night's show. -Ed.]

Two weeks ago, we couldn’t believe that our first Phish shows in a year and a half were almost upon us; one week ago, we were uncertain if they would even happen, as we watched the Caldor Fire explode toward the shores of Lake Tahoe. But that was far from our primary concern, as we knew thousands of people were in danger of losing everything. As of this writing, officials are “cautiously optimistic” about improving conditions, but the threat remains very high. I urge you to donate whatever you can through The Waterwheel Foundation today. All funds will be donated to the Caldor Fire Fund through the El Dorado County Community Foundation.

And so, it was nothing short of a miracle, made possible by some consummate professionals within the Phish organization, that the shows were relocated to Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, CA. We are beyond grateful.

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[We would like to thank guest recapper user gr8phul Jon Harris. -Ed.]

As we know the Tahoe shows had to be cancelled and moved to a new venue due to the Caldor Fire. First the shows were to be moved to the Greek Theater in Berkeley, but ultimately that did not happen and Shoreline it is. Now no one wants to go to Shoreline, we go because that's where Phish is playing. Not to say that Phish hasn't delivered hugely in the past at Shoreline, compared to being in Tahoe or in the magical Greek, Shoreline is sort of a letdown.

However, before we get to the music, I want to please ask all of you reading this to donate to Waterwheel as the money they raise will be going to help the people affected by the fires.

Now onto the music!

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Sunday night was my 22nd time making the walk from Thunderdome along the Sagecliff Saunter to the fabled Gorge Amphitheater to see and hear Phish do what they do. It is a special place, one of the greatest pocket amphitheaters ever, neatly hewn into the fabric of the rock that lines the walls of the canyon that towers over the Wanapum Lake segment of the Columbia River. No matter how many times I crest the rise and see the view behind the stage, I am never without the awe that the sheer majesty of the channeled scablands and the iridescent sky beyond deserve. If you still haven’t had the opportunity to see Phish at the Gorge, please add it to your bucket list, you are unlikely to be disappointed by the experience. This recap on the other hand, no guarantees.

Sixteen years prior to Sunday night’s show, I was sitting on a 36-foot sailboat, spinning in circles while becalmed in the mid-Pacific high, which had abnormally expanded due to Hurricane Katrina pulling all the available wind on the planet into her maw to lay waste to the gulf coast of Louisiana and beyond. At the same time, I learned on our daily satellite phone check in with family, a couple of my dearest friends were celebrating the birth of their second child Zevariah. As we made our way together into the show on Sunday, I pointed out the bizarrely synchronous events unfolding as Hurricane Ida attempted to do the same thing to Louisiana as he turned sixteen. Not to be outdone, Phish responded with a collection of songs to open the first set that were eerily on point. Sure, I’m ignoring "Cool Amber and Mercury", but "Moma Dance" is a sailing song, "Free" is a sailing and birth giving song, and "Lonely Trip" is a sailing song. I see you seeing me you guys. We appreciated the distinct nod.

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[Phish.net welcomes back guest recapper Oliver Pierson (user VermontCowFunk) for writing this recap. -Ed.]

Rolling into the Saturday show at the Gorge after a beautiful day in Central Washington, I felt all kinds of excitement. Night one’s patient jamming, bust-outs, and the best ever version of "Mull" were behind us, and seemed plausible that the band had now shaken off what little rust may have built up between Atlantic City and the Gorge and was ready to come out swinging. I’m a Vermonter and this Gorge run is my first west coast Phish, but I had been intrigued about seeing the band play in the pacific northwest since I first listened to the 10/13/1991 Olympia Surf Club show where Trey made a point in the Gamehendge narration at the band’s second show in Washington to comment twice about the beauty of the surroundings, and the sense of awe that I always feel out here is noticeable in his voice. Coming over that last rise at the venue before Friday night’s show, and reaching the spot where you first see the stage, the Columbia river, and the eroded canyon walls in the background provoked an exclamatory “wow” from me, and the guy walking next to me said “is this your first time here?” Yes, and I was stoked. Back to Saturday, our crew settled in at the bottom of the terraces Mike-side, waited for the sun to set over the ridge, and made our list of songs with a high show gap that we hoped to hear. And besides being a spectacular venue, I was impressed by the sheer number of vendors inside the venue, perhaps because the beer lines at Hershey two weeks ago required a 45-minute investment. Hello local craft beer tent with great selections and no line!

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