Welcome to the 364th edition of Phish.Net's Mystery Jam Monday, the fourth and hardest of February. 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 songs and dates of the three mystery clips – these clips are connected by a theme that need not be part of the correct answer. 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. Good luck!
Hint:
Answer: Wizard or vulture, it doesn't take a mathematician to figure out that @ChalkDustTeacher is only one win shy of the promised land. This week he schooled the rest of the weekly MJM crew for the sixth time, using the hint (and some juicy comments) to identify the 10/31/10 "Stash," the 10/31/98 "Sneakin' Sally Through the Alley," and the 7/30/03 "Twist." @ChalkDustTeacher didn't fall for the Halloween red herring, and instead figured out that the hint referred to show gaps – the first night of Mexico featured huge bust-outs of "Spock's Brain" (429 show gap), "Who Loves the Sun?" (602) and "Spanish Moon" (306), last played on 7/30/03, 10/31/98, and 10/31/10, respectively – the shows from which this week's clips derive. Stay tuned for MJM365 when we drop a single clip puzzle that will complete our first orbit.
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more 3.0...cool jam,
IT style, muddy funk. 46 Days IT
1998/10/31 Sally
2003/07/30 Twist
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The theme was, jams from shows occurring the last time major bustouts from 2/21/19 were played. The gap charts (plus at least one jam) were needed to solve this week’s puzzle, hence the hint.
I started out thinking that the theme was 'jams from shows with big bustouts' which was certainly relevant to the Mexico shows. I was checking the shows with the biggest bustouts: FYF, Skin it Back, Curtain With, etc.
But then I read @uctweezer 's comment: Surprised no one has solved this yet – this is a juicy ass hint [insert retail changing room joke here] for anyone who has been following Phish closely of late and has already found one of the clips
I figured there was probably a closer tie to the Mexico bustouts, looked at the setlist notes, and started searching for shows on the other side of these bustouts. I got the 2003 Twist first and then the others weren't hard.
I feel like I've been lucky on my last few wins to be one of the first people to understand the hint AND to have a little bit of free time to search.
That 10/31/98 Sally remains my pick for best ever. The song and jam are as good as it gets. I was at that show, and Mike's slap bass deep in the jam and the ensuing cheer through the crowd are engrained deep in my memory.
Sometimes the hints are trickier than the fucking jams.
My non-head friends all think I'm the biggest Phish geek, just because I can identify songs by their first bar or two and have been to -- get this -- 14 shows. I always say, you have NO idea how far down that list I am.
I know I'll never make it to your level but I love watching the game!
I’ll start out with this: despite the level of geekery you see in MJM, it is never a competition for or measure of who is the biggest Phish fan.
Look, at the end of the day, you hear something in the music just like the rest of us - that’s the thing about Phish, there is room in the fan base for all of us. Just because some of us identify jams from 30-second snippets doesn’t make us “better” or “more dedicated” than you.
And if you want to get more involved in MJM, all of us start somewhere. Every first-of-the-month, we have n00b week where if you’ve never won you get first crack at trying to solve the puzzle over past winners; that happens to be tomorrow. Keep showing up, play the clips, follow along with the clues and answers if you can’t figure it out, and eventually you’ll build an ear for it. You can also check the spreadsheet in OP, click on “MJM Results” and you can check the entire history of MJMs with answers and build an ear for the catalog (in addition to hearing a MASSIVE treasure trove of jams that runs the gamut from well-known like Riverport/Went Gin, to obscure one-off performances and themes like “jams from shows where they played Jennifer Dances” or Whipping Posts from ‘88. This particular MJM was the hardest-of-the-month which is always a serious challenge, so don’t feel disheartened by not getting it immediately or even with some digging - it’s usually a challenge for myself and the emeriti too. Heck, a few weeks ago @justino recommended an MJM puzzle, and upon hearing the clips couldn’t identify the jams himself! And I’ve gone back and only gotten about a 75% success rate of clips and puzzles that I myself have constructed.
I remember when I was at 14 shows, my friends considered me a Phish geek and attaining emeritus status or figuring out MJM seemed like a pipe dream. It’s something that is a lot of fun, and something VERY doable for all of you out there. I fully encourage you to explore the catalog, but also enjoy every second of hearing it all for the first time. I WISH I could hear my favorite jams all over again for the first time, and while those jams have grown and matured with me and made my life more complete as a soundtrack to my own growth, I still love sharing that fresh feeling of seeing someone hear the 7/23/99 Ghost > Free or the 11/7/98 AC/DC Bag for the first time. Don’t rush it, keep exploring, and spread kindness wherever you go and you can’t go wrong in life my friend.