It’s hard to process the fact that July 6 will mark the passage of thirteen years since the last time the nation of Canada – or any land outside of the Unites States, for that matter – hosted a Phish show. A variety of theories abound to explain the lengthy embargo, from previous border-crossing difficulties, to Trey’s probationary terms stemming from his December 2006 arrest, to the band’s devotion to Dunkin’ Donuts and utter contempt for Tim Hortons.

Regardless of the actual reasoning, it will come to an end a mere three days following that milestone. That roar you vaguely remember coming down from north of the border this past winter? Well, okay – it was almost certainly the celebration of professional hockey’s return from yet another labor stoppage. But there’s a slim chance it was the long-neglected Canadian contingency of Phish fans cheering the announcement of the upcoming July 9, 2013 show at Toronto’s Molson Canadian Amphitheatre.

The band’s history in Canada originated with yet another early July show. On July 1, 1989 as part of the Montréal International Jazz Festival, Phish played a one-set show at les Foufounes Électriques. Because a recording does not appear to circulate, it’s unfortunately impossible to determine if the playing lived up to the venue’s translated name of “The Electric Buttocks”. However, the setlist does provoke some curiosity. It’s a bit surprising that, given their late-1980s jazz-heavy rotation, “Donna Lee” was the band’s only jazz cover they chose to play. And perhaps more notably, the encore featured what might be Phish’s a cappella debut, with a vocals-only take on Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song”.

Considering Burlington is less than an hour from the border, it’s somewhat surprising that almost three and a half years passed before Phish’s next Canadian jaunt. Their debut headlining international gig occurred on December 12, 1992 in Toronto, followed the next day by a return appearance in Montréal, both at venues named the (le) Spectrum. The short-list of highlights of the 1992 Fall Tour’s closing pair of shows are dominated by the brilliant first night, with compact-yet-rousing versions of “Reba” and “Split Open and Melt”, an exploratory-for-its-time “Tweezer”, and the first “Ride Captain Ride” in 337 shows (and the next-to-last version played until 1998).

Possibly encouraged by this experience, the next two years included five Canadian shows apiece, accounting for a whopping ten of the eighteen they’ve played there to date. Western Canada hosted its first Phish show on April 3, 1993 at the 86th Street Music Hall in Vancouver, containing a rollicking 27-minute “You Enjoy Myself”, which from a glance at PhishTracks.com appears to be the longest version played up to that point. As the vocal jam wound down, Trey whispered “Mr. Neil Young”, perhaps as a nod to their future collaborator’s Canadian origins. Continuing this trend later that month, the second set of April 27’s show at the Concert Hall in Toronto featured teases of “Sundown” and “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”, two of Ontario-native singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot’s best-known songs. Two days later on the 29th, Phish returned to play Montréal’s Le Spectrum for the second and last time, with a performance best remembered for its blistering version of “Run Like an Antelope” and a “Weekapaug Groove” bookending the return of “Makisupa Policeman”, not seen in 322 previous shows.

Phish’s 1993 Summer Tour represents a historical landmark in their capacity for improvisation, most notably the nineteen August shows of the tour’s thirty-three. On August 9, its second show at the Concert Hall, a since-closed live music club located in Toronto’s Masonic Temple, the band opened with a “Chalk Dust Torture” that seamlessly sandwiched a foray into the Band of Gypsys’ “Who Knows”. The second-set “You Enjoy Myself” is just one of that monumental month’s many jams that show four musicians willing to go to its most eccentric extremes, seemingly incapable of self-consciousness, as they sang “Here Comes Speed Racer” over musical teases of Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water” before masterfully segueing the subsequent vocal jam – containing lyrics from Talking Heads’ “Psycho Killer” – into “Contact”. The show played at Vancouver’s Commodore Ballroom on August 24 featured less wackiness, but a greater success rate in terms of its jamming excursions. In light of that month’s numerous top-shelf editions of “Split Open and Melt” and “Run Like an Antelope”, the ones played on this day could be easy to overlook, but they’re both worthy of your attention. And both “Mike’s Song” and “Weekapaug Groove” venture well inside type-II territory.

Another trek across the continent begat another three Canadian concerts with the 1994 Spring Tour. After opening the tour at the Flynn in Burlington, Phish played the next two nights at the Metropolis in Montréal (April 5) and their third and last-ever performance at the Concert Hall (April 6). The short-yet-melodic Montréal “Tweezer” and the building, swirling Toronto “Stash” stood out as each show’s high point, as the pair of shows function as a microcosm of a majority of the month that followed – musically acceptable, yet lacking the adventurousness of the previous summer. As tour trucks and buses hit Vancouver less than seven weeks later, the band’s confidence level was beginning an upswing, no doubt bolstered by what transpired during the second set at The Bomb Factory in Dallas a mere fifteen days prior. On May 22, for the only time in Phish’s history, “Demand” was the opening song played, fittingly at their lone show at the gorgeous Vogue Theatre. Later that initial set brought another simmering Vancouver “Split Open and Melt”, followed by an acoustic, unamplified trio of songs, a trend they continued throughout the year at intimate venues that displayed their burgeoning interest in bluegrass. Set two further testified to Phish’s ability to alternate melting brains with healing souls, but to much greater effect – the majestic Page-led “McGrupp and the Watchful Hosemasters” jam found its way to an incendiary “Tweezer” climax, segueing into a moving “Lifeboy”, furious “Rift”, soothing “Slave to the Traffic Light”, and an exhilarating “Tweezer Reprise” closer. Mastering ultimate control of the energy at any moment at any concert now appeared to be an attainable achievement by the band.

If their previous seven-week period of improvement can be viewed as analogous to the climbing of a mountain, please consider the progress made by Phish in the seven subsequent weeks a shot into orbit. Almost a month into the exceptional 1994 Summer Tour, the band’s momentum was unstoppable. July 5 at the Congress Centre – to date their only tour stop at Canada’s capital city – was an instant classic, highlighted by the first “Letter to Jimmy Page” in 357 shows, a wonderfully deranged “Stash”, unrelenting “Bathtub Gin”, and a rare “Cities”, not played in 674 previous shows and not seen again for another 222. Somehow, they found a way to best this performance the following night at the Théâtre St-Denis, with astonishingly brilliant takes on “David Bowie”, “Tweezer”, and “Harry Hood” at their last appearance in Montréal. Yet even these are topped by what I consider the true crème de la crème of all eighteen Canadian shows: the Montréal “Reba”. Phish’s premier piece of improvisational music produced in the true north strong and free. This jam is HOSE incarnate. And if you disagree … well … you can just take off, you hoser.

As with each of the six Phish has played in the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, the October 6, 1995 concert took place at a specific venue for the first and last time. This particular time, the choice of location was the Orpheum Theatre. Not much sticks out from this show, quite honestly. The fifteen months since their last trip northward were monumental. They inaugurated a Halloween tradition by donning a musical costume, covering the Beatles’ White Album. They’d pushed their willingness to experiment as far as they could, epitomized by the Bozeman and Mud Island “Tweezers” and Minneapolis and Providence “David Bowies”. Their most-recent album release was their first of many live ones. And perhaps most significantly, with the death of Jerry Garcia and demise of the Grateful Dead, Phish became the media-appointed successors to the jam-band throne. It’s little wonder that the start of their massive 54-show 1995 Fall Tour found the band catching its collective breath; at its lone Canadian stop, occurring in the second of its nearly twelve weeks, the highlights are scarce. If you’re compelled to check the show out, I advise taking a direct path to its face-melting rendition of “Maze”.

Phish found themselves in a similar situation the following fall, as their popularity in North American culture continued its meteoric rise. Their lone 1996 Fall Tour appearance in the North America North of America was once again located at a one-time-only Vancouver venue, and with a maximum capacity of over 17,000, the Pacific Coliseum was easily the largest they’d played in Canada to that point. The November 23, 1996 show is possibly most noteworthy for what occurred before the show at the U.S.-Canada border crossing, alluded to during that night’s “Makisupa Policeman”. During their lengthy wait at the border, Mike taught the rest of the band Hot Rize’s apropos “Midnight on the Highway”. While you’re at it, be sure to check out the show’s excellent “Weekapaug Groove”.

Likely having more to do with a newfound attempt at strengthening their foothold in Europe than with any trauma still lingering from the confiscation of dank miscellanea incident, nearly three years passed until their next Canadian show. On July 20, 1999, Phish’s inaugural Molson Canadian Amphitheatre show became their first in Toronto in over five years. A criminally-underrated “Ghost” and the persistent funk of “You Enjoy Myself” helped anchor a massive first set that exceeded ninety minutes, overshadowing a second set that found the band mostly eschewing boldness in favor of playing it safe within the confines of a spacefunk-lite soundscape. Ultimately, the closer to this set packed a wallop, as the debut of Led Zeppelin’s “Misty Mountain Hop” was typical of numerous 1999 Summer Tour jams, building ecstatic peak on top of ecstatic peak, contrasting sharply with that tour’s other penchant for delicate, narcotic grooving. The subsequent 1999 Fall Tour combined these two extremes, with a dab of good ol’ rock ‘n roll evilness mixed in for good measure. With their first North American tour to kick off outside of the continental Unites States, Phish employed this style of improv to great effect at the September 9, 1999 opener at General Motors Place in Vancouver. Both the first-set “Stash” and second-set “Tweezer” brilliantly exemplified this swirling, churning, visceral approach that dominated many of the musical peaks they’d reach throughout the next year.

Although the Summer 2000 edition of the Doniac Schvice indicated a New Year’s run would follow the upcoming month-long fall tour, rumors of an extended hiatus persisted both online and at 2000 Summer Tour stops, likely originating from a Rolling Stone interview with Trey the previous fall. However, I’d be shocked if anyone attending the July 6, 2000 show truly believed it’d be well over a decade before Phish returned to America’s neighbo(u)r to the north. As had occurred at their previous show at the Molson, an immense set one – ten minutes short of two hours! – outshined a comparatively weaker second set. Though no match for the one played exactly six years earlier in Montréal, an enchanting “Reba” opened a Phish show for the first time since 1992. Later in the set brought another rarity – “The Moma Dance” with its closing riff leading to an extended jam. As it did a year earlier, a pulsating “You Enjoy Myself” led the Toronto crowd to set break. Set two delivered strong versions of “Limb by Limb” and “Piper” that are surely worth listening to. Pacing and energy in the homestretch proved to be a problem, however – issues that would often vex the band’s performances throughout the last two years of the “1.0” era.

Given the previous eighteen Canadian Phish shows, what can attendees of show number nineteen expect? If the previous setlists and the show statistics indicate any trends, don’t expect to see a “Possum”, “Fire”, “Forbin’s”/”Mockingbird”, or “Tube”. Going by the previous two Molson shows, make sure to take care of those preshow XXXs before the lights go down, because it’ll be a long time to wait for the “YEM” vocal jam to segue into setbreak. Finally, although located right off the coast of Lake Ontario, don’t expect to be blown away by the aesthetics of the venue. Having attended both previous Molson shows, I quite honestly can’t remember a single quality, good or bad, the amphitheatre has to offer. Instead, if you’re travelling to the show, you’d be well-off taking the time to explore the best that Toronto has to offer.

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