A fun start to the Mexico run. They seem like they havent missed a beat since MSG. Disease, Halfway to the Moon and Life Saving gun were epic and deserve listens. One set shows can be tough to rank but in reality its 2 hrs plus of Phish so it should not be very hard. Cant rank anymore so ill give it here, this was a 3.6

PHISH, WEDNESDAY 02/21/2024
MOON PALACE
Cancun, Quintana Roo, Mexico

SET 1:

Back on the Train: Standard.

The Moma Dance: Standard. >

Down with Disease[1] - Standard >

If I Could: When this came on I wanted to skip it. These past few years it’s criminal how Trey plays this tune – just strumming his way through the solo and don’t get me started on the vibrato, makes me want to puke. But in this one he does actually take a nice solo and injects life into a song that I used to love.

Everything's Right: Standard.

Halfway to the Moon: Standard.

Stash: Standard.

Alaska: Standard.

Destiny Unbound: Nicely jammed!!

Ocelot: Standard.

Julius: Standard.

Sand: Standard. >

Life Saving Gun: Standard.

ENCORE:

The Mango Song: Very touching that they played this for Ellie. RIP.

Carini: Standard.

Summary: I guess I don’t understand the concept of a warm up show. Would rate as a 2.5/5.

Replay Value: None. Maybe Destiny?

[1] Unfinished. Lyrics changed to "dancing on my beach."

Down with Disease was unfinished and its lyrics were changed to "dancing on my beach." Trey dedicated The Mango Song to Ellie, a young fan who had recently passed away.
SHOW RATING
Ratings are currently offline.
Overall: 3/5 (

February 21st, 2024 was the first night of Phish’s annual Mexico run, this time a four-nighter at the Moon Palace in Cancun. This was Phish’s seventh time playing on the beach in Mexico, and my third time being there for it (m’lady’s fourth). I had gone the first two years when the band played at a different resort, so this was my inaugural visit to Moon Palace.

We arrived at the resort the day before and settled in to the dense luxury of the high-end resort quite nicely, after keeping to a relatively spartan budget during our previous week scuba diving off the island of Cozumel. When we had checked in we were semi-tricked into signing up for a timeshare-esque meeting. We later decided against it so when they called at 8:30am to remind us about the tour we politely told them to get stuffed and tried to get back to sleep. Half of us succeeded.

I (on the other hand) took advantage of the early wakeup to find the morning meditation session. Phish & Co. had scheduled tons of activities at the resort every day and I had mentally circled the morning meditation session as a must-do-provided-I-was-already-awake event, and whattya know, I was already awake. I pulled on my shorts and a t-shirt and meandered towards the beach.

I found a dozen people meditating underneath a canopy so I sat in a spot of shade on the fringes and joined in. After five minutes some staff members arrived at the restaurant right next to us and began setting up for lunch, which meant dragging heavy steel chairs around on the concrete floor like grotesquely large fingernails scratching on the world’s biggest chalkboard.

Screeeee….screeeee….screeeeeee….screeeeeee!!!

Dear lord, it was so un-meditative it was all I could do to keep from laughing. And it went on for about twenty minutes. Hilarious.

(Imagine my surprise when I learned later in the day that this wasn’t even “the” meditation workshop. I guess I had attended some sort of rogue workshop for the people who couldn’t find the real one. The actual meditation gathering had been in a geodesic dome further down the beach.)

Next up was the surprisingly busy gym for a bit of exercise and then finally: coffee. And with all that maintenance behind me I was free to relax beside the pool all day with an ever-morphing parade of friends both old and new (but mostly old) before ducking into the poolside steakhouse for an early pre-show supper.

Back when the Barcelo was hosting Phish’s Mexican residencies we fans would gather down by the beach on the evening before the first show so we could hear (but not see) the band run through several songs for their soundcheck. When they moved to Moon Palace the band decided to add a fourth night to the run by opening up the soundcheck to the fans, and that’s what we were in for on this night.

Only, it’s not a soundcheck. It’s simply a shortened, one-set show, with all the authenticity of an encore, only in reverse. Phish had done their actual soundcheck the day before, and once again I joined a crowd gathered by the front gate to listen (but not see). Maybe next time they’ll add a fifth night: A soundcheck for the soundcheck set.

Regardless, a rose by any other colour is still an extra set of Phish, and it was a good one. And long too, containing a fairly whopping fifteen songs in total from the weekend-opening Back on the Train to the gritty show-closing Carini. Special mention goes to the If I Could they stuck in the middle, one of the few Phish ballads that I really, really like and one they hardly ever play (at least when I’m around; I caught it at my first Phish show and then just twice more over the next three decades of following the band around. This was just the fourth time in 124 Phish concerts that I saw them play If I Could). Plus I always love Stash and they stuck that in the middle of the set too (unlike If I Could, they play Stash all the time. I’ve seen them play it…let’s see now…twenty-four times*, including at my first show).

Really, it was a good, fun set top-to-bottom. And how could it not be? It was a gorgeous night spent under palm trees with good friends and a bottomless pit of good food and unlimited drinks readily at hand. It certainly felt like it was the right place to be.

The show ended just before midnight and moments later m’lady and I were back in our room, which was immediately adjacent to the concert area. While we were both too tired to go over to the Nizac pool (wherever the heck that was) for the post-show pool party, I figured I had enough wind in me for a good jam so I grabbed my guitar and a couple of beers and set off on a prowl. After a couple of rounds through the barren hotel grounds it occurred to me that the entire resort was either at the Nizac pool or in bed.

I joined the latter, in a matter of speaking.

*In case you’re wondering how I manage to pull out numbers like this, there is a website called zzyzx where you input the dates of all the Phish shows you’ve attended and it gives you stats on, well, everything. I’ve said it before and I say it here again: Phish is very much a “hobby” band.

https://toddmanout.com/

A songy, one setter of mostly Type 1 material in Mexico? If the past is prologue, this warmup show doesn't stand a chance if/when the ratings come back online. But no matter, just press play at Halfway To The Moon and you've got yourself a typical good/great Set 1 of Phish. Destiny is well executed, twin brothers Alaska and Ocelot bring the dancy blues breaks, and Sand>LSG heaps on the energetic bombast. The Mango encore is for Ellie is just one of those moments that glue us all together. 3.8 with the discounts for one set feels about right.

2.5? This is an absolutely horrible rating of this show. This more than good DWD > If I Could with a solid Everything’s Right into a more than respectable quality run with Stash, Alaska, Destiny Ocelot, followed later by a fun Sand and punchy Life Saving Gun make this show worth more than the garbage rating this show was unjustifiably given. 3.8 out of 5.