After 40-plus years and more than 2,000 gigs together, most bands wouldn’t feel tasked to outdo themselves.

But Phish — the improvisational rock quartet formed in a University of Vermont dorm room in 1983 — has tried to push the envelope in every way possible since its inception.

At Mondegreen, the band’s four-day festival held this month outside Dover Motor Speedway in Delaware, Phish proved that it’s not only the most capable rock band to ever grace a stage, but one of the most brilliant and industrious outfits of all time.

For three nights and an afternoon at the venue known as the Woodlands, Phish astonished tens of thousands of devotees with monumental sets of music featuring songs from across its expansive catalogue and some of its most beloved covers, too.

Fueled by its four supremely talented musicians — guitarist Trey Anastasio, bassist Mike Gordon, keyboardist/pianist Page McConnell, and drummer Jon Fishman — the band demonstrated that its vision is unlike any other.

Listen to the sixteenth studio album from Phish, Evolve, via Spotify:

Cars rolled up to the Speedway in droves the afternoon of Thursday, Aug. 15, but it mattered not for anyone antsy to set up camp; for this shindig, Phish partnered with AEG Presents, the force behind events like Coachella and Firefly, which was previously held at the Woodlands until 2022.

And with revamped operations, Mondegreen began on the right foot for the many who were there on the first official day. Fans came from far and wide and the assortment of state flags, signs and sports team banners proudly on display had the grounds popping with color.

It was buzzing with life and antics as well. With so much to do, the choices were almost staggering for those on hand for Phish’s first multi-day event since before the pandemic. While they had a great run with Festival 8 in 2009, Super Ball IX in 2011 and Magnaball in 2015, the event named Curveball had to be canceled in 2018 after storms created a host of challenges at Watkins Glen International.

With its planned eight sets and a vast assembly of art installations, exhibits, comedians, DJs, and vendors, Mondegreen would rekindle the atmosphere of past Phish gatherings and set a new standard for what a music and arts festival can offer in a few days’ time.

To take it all in required a plan and even some research. Luckily, Phish fired up The Bunny, an on-site broadcast available via SiriusXM, LivePhish.com and the official Mondegreen app, which was crucial in transmitting updates and pointers to help concert attendees navigate the attractions and the schedule. Even Phish followers who couldn’t attend tuned in, and some eventually expressed their FOMO on social media in comic desperation.

Relix, a New York-based magazine that’s covered improv music for decades, was at the Woodlands and produced a daily print newspaper covering the festival: “The Daily Greens.” Copies were free to grab from stands within convenience stores stationed on “pods” throughout the campgrounds, providing campers with easy access to toiletries, ice, and more.

For all on site, an early stop had to be the huge monument outside the Speedway known as Miles the Monster, and everyone was taken aback by the massive muumuu the creature donned for the occasion — one that matched the famous getup worn by Mr. Fishman.

Dover Motor Speedway’s famous Miles the Monster became a big Phish fan at Mondegreen. (Photo by Casey Ryan Vock)

The sprawling concert grounds invited revelers in to wander and be amazed, as just about every nook and corridor was lit up, decorated or featured a commissioned piece of artwork. The marvels were large and small, with something for everyone.

The Heliographs, a glimmering geometric party palace, was the impressive project of international art house TRIADIC. The 74-foot-tall structure became a hub — a perch to take in Phish’s stunning sets and the headquarters for scorching, high-stepping nightly dance parties.

Another eye-catching structure, City Hall was built from 1,850 cardboard boxes. The work of a French artist named Olivier Grossetéte, it was modeled after Baltimore’s city hall and was pieced together by concert goers, who helped break it down and crush the boxes a couple days later.

There were other wonders, like “Eggcident,” a group of massive, three-dimensional fried eggs casting judgment on the response to global warming. Fans howled around “Museum of the Moon,” a suspended orb using NASA imagery to depict the details of Earth’s moon, with an approximate scale of 1:500,000.

But there was also the Cerealist Bowl, a strangely intriguing, wooded speakeasy, where a hypnotic blend of visual art and acting captivated folks as they enjoyed beverages underneath the shade of the forest. For anyone with a sweet tooth, Ben & Jerry’s — based in Burlington — was there to provide a generous scoop of cold, delicious ice cream.

Hundreds of Phish fans ran in the 103rd Running of The First Annual Runaway Jim Marathon on Friday morning at Mondegreen. (Photo by Casey Ryan Vock)

Though Phish is known to have one of the wildest of all scenes, its crowd and community have evolved since the late ‘90s and early 2000s, when the band became widely known for its fantastic concerts, as well as the insane parties they yielded.

Mondegreen was a bash for the ages, but it benefitted from a Phish scene that has cleaned up its act since the late 1990s and early 2000s, shifting the focus back to the music, which, as each set would prove, is as healthy if not better than ever.

That doesn’t mean tomfoolery’s been run off the lot for good, nor that old-school psychedelic favors weren’t abundant. But with a more natural appetite and steady hydration, most fans were intensely engaged to take in as much Phish as the event could offer.

And it packed a wallop with resounding, massive sets of Phish that showcased songs from as far back as the first demo, The White Tape, — circulated in 1986 on actual cassette tapes — and as recent as tunes from Evolve, the 16th and latest studio record, released in July on the band member’s own JEMP label.

Each set brought its own treasures, and the response from attendees and those who followed from afar was overwhelmingly positive, indicating Mondegreen to be successful as a festival and another stride forward for a band that appears to be ascending once more.

Undeniably fun Phish classics like “Wolfman’s Brother” from 1994’s Hoist and “Chalk Dust Torture” from 1992’s A Picture of Nectar made for an incredible first night, and the band’s takes on the Talking Heads’ “Crosseyed and Painless” and Stevie Wonder’s “Boogie On Reggae Woman” were festive delights.

Revelers partied way up high on the Heliograph, where London-based Flying Mojito Bros hosted afterhours DJ sets Thursday and Friday, and Made of Oak (Nick Sanborn of Sylvan Esso) took over Sunday late night. Some of the most notable guests on site, including Mike Gordon himself, visited the Heliograph.

Go ahead and move at work to the Flying Mojito Bros. It sure helps us.

Though Phish’s set on Sunday was moved to the afternoon to avoid incoming storms, DJ Questlove — drummer for The Roots — spun vinyl in the sunshine beforehand. Embellished with shimmering features like hologram mirrors and neon lights in any direction, the Heliograph’s main platform was a hot, sweaty get-down when Phish wasn’t playing, and it was full of onlookers when they were.

There’s heated discussion on Phish forums, Reddit, and even in-person at shows mulling the delineation of Phish’s unofficial life stages. The Phish “1.0” era spanned its start in 1983 to its first break in 2000; Phish “2.0,” generally considered a tough stretch for the group, began with its return in 2002 and closed with its heart-breaking farewell performance at Coventry in 2004, followed by a five-year hiatus.

A transformative period saw Anastasio arrested for drug possession and overcome addiction in the years that followed. Phish triumphantly returned to the studio and touring in 2009, marking the dawn of Phish “3.0.” Anastasio, reportedly in his 17th year of sobriety, recently opened an addiction recovery center in a remote Vermont town.

As it was for most groups, COVID was a hurdle for the live Phish machine. Any debate of a post-pandemic Phish “4.0” epoch was mostly quelled by Anastasio himself when he made the reference to introduce one of his custom-crafted guitars. But there’s no argument against where the band is today: cruising, leading the way as a creative force and playing at a level that few could ever match.

After a thrilling encore version of “Harry Hood” on Friday night, Anastasio moved to front center stage to cap an epic “First Tube.” He raised his humming, illuminated guitar before as many as 40,000 awestruck fans. They worshipped him like a real master of the universe.

Earlier, Mondegreeners were told by the festival app as well as the band leader himself that there was something special on the way. One of the many perks of attending their festivals, Phish always works a “secret set” into the mix, and before midnight Friday night, fans witnessed one of the most alluring projects in the band’s brave history of experimentation.

The grand stage was cloaked in white ribbons, and onto the drifting canvas Phish’s esteemed lighting designer, Chris Kuroda, beamed his most vivid dream to date. A sequence of truly mesmerizing imagery — forests, flowers, fungus, treehouses, clouds — intensified its pace and context as the band performed a breathtaking, 51-minute ambient jam. It heard Anastasio move from acoustic to electric guitar and other varied instrumentation.

Phish’s “secret set” at Mondegreen stunned all who witnessed it thanks to the perception of the band’s lighting engineer, Chris Kuroda. (Photo by Casey Ryan Vock)

The daring and imaginative display will live on as a milestone like past heroic endeavors, such as the midnight-to-sunrise, turn-of-the-century marathon at Big Cypress, and the “Tower Jam” at the IT Festival in 2003.

At Mondegreen, more than 20 years later, Phish was revitalized, with a sound as enormous and enlightening as ever. For those present at the Woodlands, eight sets of Phish would confirm what they already knew: there is simply no band that does it better.

Below is a mix of digital images and hand-rolled, home-developed and scanned 35mm black-and-white shots of Phish, from Vermont, performing at the band’s Mondegreen festival held Aug. 15 to 18, 2024, at the Woodlands in Dover, Del. All images copyright and courtesy of Casey Ryan Vock.

Setlists:

Aug 15
Set 1: The Moma Dance, Back on the Train, Wolfman’s Brother, Funky Bitch (Son Seals), Roggae, NICU, A Wave of Hope, Sand

Set 2: What’s Going Through Your Mind>Chalk Dust Torture>Light>Prince Caspian, Crosseyed and Painless (Talking Heads), Lonely Trip, Everything’s Right

Encore: Saw It Again>Possum, Slave to the Traffic Light

Aug 16
Set 1: Bouncing Around the Room, Kill Devil Falls>Peaches en Regalia (Frank Zappa), Free, Divided Sky, Tube, Mountains in the Mist, Reba, Twist>Character Zero

Set 2: My Friend, My Friend>No Men In No Man’s Land>Ruby Waves>Pillow Jets>Your Pet Cat>Ruby Waves>Ghost>No Men In No Man’s Land>Fluffhead

Encore: Harry Hood>First Tube

Set 3/Special Set: Woodlands Ambient Jam

Aug 17
Set 1: Mike’s Song>I Am Hydrogen>Weekapaug Groove, Theme From the Bottom>Blaze On, Gotta Jibboo, 46 Days, Evolve, Meatstick>David Bowie

Set 2: Also Sprach Zarathustra (Richard Strauss)>Oblivion, Down with Disease>Tweezer>Scents and Subtle Sounds>Boogie On Reggae Woman (Stevie Wonder), Carini

Encore: Backwards Down the Number Line, You Enjoy Myself, Tweezer Reprise

Aug 18
Party Time, Axilla>Maze, Steam, Martian Monster, AC/DC Bag, Sigma Oasis>Rift, Stash, Ya Mar (Cyril Ferguson), Timber (Josh White), Bathtub Gin>Izabella (Jimi Hendrix)>Simple>Golden Age (TV on the Radio)

Encore: Fuego

Phish

Trey Anastasio

Mike Gordon

Page McConnell

Jon Fishman

Museum of the Moon.

Mondegreen in all its glory.

Behold … the Heliograph.

Party at the Heliograph.

The view from the Heliograph.

“Eggcident”

Mondegreen City Hall, modeled after Baltimore’s, built of cardboard boxes.