It's amazing to think that at the end of 2016, more than 27 years since I first saw Phish live, I have so much closer a connection with the band members than ever before. For instance, when Trey Anastasio took the stage with his bandmates ("the boys") Thursday night at Madison Square Garden, I saw instantly that I own the same hoodie Trey was wearing.

Phish's most recent concerts were a four-night run in Las Vegas, and they'd opened the first three of those shows with originals written for and debuted at their 2014 Haunted House performance. Tonight, another pattern emerged. For the second straight show of the current four-night run, they opened with an a cappella number: "Sweet Adeline," which Phish hadn't dusted off since needing it to make up the numbers at the S show at Dick's in 2011. If this trend continues ... aaayyyyyy. Here's hoping for a "Free Bird" tomorrow night.

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[Editor's Note: We'd like to welcome back guest contributor David Goldstein for this recap. - lbc]

Irrespective of your political affiliation, can we all agree that the two months since Phish last played a rock show have been, to put it neutrally, interesting? This goes double for New York City residents, most of whom are still coming to grips with the fact that Trump Tower, once synonymous with a lousy restaurant for unimaginative tourists, has since been transformed into an impenetrable fortress of intrigue. And in a case of unintended consequences only rivaled by Faith No More inadvertently enabling Limp Bizkit and Korn, Twitter, once used predominantly for celebrity gossip and ranking jambands into tiers, could now be partially responsible for launching a new nuclear arms race. The Chicago Cubs also won the World Series.

What I’m obliquely trying to say here is, more than any time in recent history, GOOD GOD could we all use a Phish show right about now. And few numbers in Phishstory spark the imagination as much as 12/28. Everything is on the table, anything feels possible, and we get to do THIS four nights in a row in a city in which Trey Anastasio can relax in his own bed. Expectations are rightfully though the roof given the stunning quality of the recent four night Las Vegas run, in addition to the fact that night one of the Garden holiday shows has resulted in some goodies in the recent past; in particular the “Little Drummer Boy” inflected “Wolfman’s Brother” from 12/28/12, the monstrous “Tweezer” that occurred forty minutes later, and on 12/28/13, the best version of “Steam” played to that date - a Fishman scream-fest anchoring an otherwise average show. The energy in the city was palpable within a five-block radius of Madison Square Garden; let’s see what the boys have in store.

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The Mockingbird Foundation will be having its year end special sale of The Phish Companion, 3d. Ed. and its associated poster art and merch at the PhanArt "Skyscraper is Grander" show on Thursday, December 29th from noon until 6. Admission is free. We will be among the 20 artists and craftspeople selling Phish-related art at the show in the Gold Room at the Hotel Pennsylvania at 401 7th Avenue (at W 33rd St, directly down the street from MSG).

Fans who have not yet picked up their copy of The Phish Companion may want to get to this show on the early side as we expect to sell out of our allotment of 50 books by mid-show as we have the several shows we've done earlier this year in Chicago and Las Vegas.

NOTE: THERE IS NOW A "LOW INVENTORY ALERT" ON THE PHISH COMPANION: WE HAVE FEWER THAN 1,000 COPIES LEFT AND EXPECT TO SELL OUT BY THE END OF JANUARY!

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Welcome to the 254th edition of Phish.Net's Mystery Jam Monday, the last of 2016 and the hardest of December. The winner will receive an MP3 download courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. To win, be the first person to identify the song and date of each of the three mystery jam clips. These three mystery jam clips are connected by a theme, but this week, the theme needn't be part of the answer – it's only there to help you. Each person gets one guess – if no one guesses correctly, I will post a hint on Tuesday, after which each person gets one more guess before I reveal the correct answer on Wednesday around 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET. Good luck and Happy Holidays and New Year!

Answer: This may be the first time in MJM history that the blog post has only gotten one comment, and that comment contained the correct answer! Congrats to @runlikecarini who wins his fourth MJM, crossing the halfway mark to his forced retirement, by identifying the 7/23/96 Mike's Song, the 11/15/98 Scent of a Mule, and the 7/20/14 Ghost. Somewhere between finding the first and second clips, he realized that I might just be in a celebratory enough mood to spell "M-S-G" with the final MJM of 2016 – how the hell else could he have found that SOAMule on the first day? Tune in Monday, when MJM255 rings in "2017: There's no way it can be worse than 2016, right??" ::prays for west coast tour dates::

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Welcome to the 253rd edition of Phish.Net's Mystery Jam Monday, the penultimate of December. Special thanks to @Dog_Faced_Boy for hosting last week's MJM in my stead – he's the real reason MJM 3.0 never takes a week off, even when yours truly is bouncing around the globe. The winner will receive an MP3 download courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. To win, be the first person to identify the song and date of each of the three mystery jam clips. These three mystery jam clips are connected by a theme, but this week, the theme needn't be part of the answer – it's only there to help you. Each person gets one guess – if no one guesses correctly, I will post a hint on Tuesday, after which each person gets one more guess before I reveal the correct answer on Wednesday around 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET. Good luck!

Hint (9:52 AM PT / 12:52 PM ET): If someone were to solve the first two clips first, they would likely be led astray by the obvious commonality between the two – the real theme was hinted at yesterday, but only one of you seemed to notice.

Answer: Congrats to @jerrytimber who wins his first MJM in 5+ years by identifying the 6/16/94 DWD, the 6/16/00 Theme, and the 11/18/98 Wolfman's Brother. @justino was well on his way to his way to his fourth win, having figured out the last two clips and the theme that they were both played in shows featuring performances of "Dog Faced Boy," but he gave up a lot of information right before the hint and @jerrytimber already had the first clip. Regarding the hint, which @HarborSeal correctly noticed I had provided as an Easter Egg in the initial blog post, I linked to the list of all DFB performances instead of to @DFB's user page in my thank you to Phil. The Easter Egg was to supposed to offset the red herring, where two of the clips shared the same date, but @jerrytimber was able to pick up the last couple bits from @justino and cruise to the win. I love the "connected by a Theme" connection that folks found, but I'd be lying if I said I meant to do that! Stay tuned for MJM 254 on Monday, December 26th, and have a great holiday!

Welcome to the 252nd edition of Phish.Net's Mystery Jam Monday, the second MJM of December. The winner will receive an MP3 download courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. To win, be the first person to identify the songs and dates of the TWO mystery jam clips, and what these two versions share in common. Each person gets one guess – if no one guesses correctly, I will post a hint on Tuesday, after which each person gets one more guess before I reveal the correct answer on Wednesday around 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET. Good luck! Also thanks yet again to @ucpete for letting me sit in for him, big shoes to fill!

Answer: Congratulations to @FunkyCFunkyDo and @andrewrose, who share in this week's victory, the 4th MJM victory for each. In a unique and unexpected sitution, we had @FunkyCFunkyDo as the first to correctly identify the two tracks: the Ghost from 2/26/03 and the Boogie On Reggae Woman from 6/7/12. Meanwhile, @andrewrose was right on @FunkyCFunkyDo's heels in identifying the tracks, but he was the first to correctly identify the theme: the venue formerly known as the Worcester Centrum, now known as the DCU Center. It was a sticky situation - the theme proposed by @FunkyCFunkyDo is very close and works as a unifying theme. However for reasons I won't go into, I specifically had the Centrum/DCU Center in mind as the theme. Therefore, they are both right. I would like to thank both winners for their amenable and good-natured spirit in sharing this week's win. It really is a nice community when ambitious MJM Emeritus seekers can put aside legitimate claims of victory, and agree to share the spotlight as co-winners. Thanks guys - I'll have to come up with some cool way to thank you for your sense of fair play. Tune in next Monday when @ucpete takes the difficulty level up several notches with MJM 253.

Phish.net was delighted to have the chance recently to talk to the accomplished production designers and engineers at TAIT Towers, the team that designed and built the LED video screens that debuted in 2016 as part of Phish's new-look onstage setup. As you'll read, TAIT is a company with longstanding ties to and a love for Phish, who were only too thrilled to be asked to work with the band on the most dramatic revision to its stage presentation in its 33-year history.

You couldn't miss it. When Phish took their usual places onstage in St. Paul to kick off their 2016 summer tour they had some impressive new hardware at their disposal. First, behind them in a half-circle, stretching from stage right to stage left, was a five-and-a-half-foot tall wall of light-emitting diode (LED) video screens. Second, above their heads was another huge, rectangular screen, facing down and toward the audience. As the show started, colors and images began playing across both screens. For the entire first set, the overhead array stayed in a compact rectangle. But when things got cooking at the start of the second set—during the throbbing minor-key “Mike’s Song” jam—the big rectangle fragmented, spreading apart into a patterned array of smaller screens, a look reminiscent of the hordes of perpetually attacking spacecraft from classic arcade games like Space Invaders and Galaga.

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Welcome to the 251st edition of Phish.Net's Mystery Jam Monday, the first and easiest of December. The winner will receive an MP3 download 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 clip. Each person gets one guess – if no one guesses correctly, I will post a hint on Tuesday, after which each person gets one more guess before I reveal the correct answer on Wednesday around 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET. Good luck!

Answer: Congrats to @dbertsch who quickly identified the 11/30/94 My Friend, My Friend outro jam and wins his fourth MJM – he's now more than halfway to Emeritus status. Will he get there next? Stop by on Monday for MJM252, when @Dog_Faced_Boy takes the reins.

[Editor's Note: The following is from user swittersdc of the Helping Friendly Podcast.]

We at the Helping Friendly Podcast had the privilege of interviewing Marco Walsh, Board President of The Mockingbird Foundation and a prominent member of the Phish.Net community, who's given countless hours of his time over the years. You can access the interview here.

This interview gave us the chance to talk in depth about the history of the site and the Foundation, while hearing about the incredible work that all the volunteers have done for 20+ years. We touch on the evolution of the website, the community’s relationship with the band, and of course, the Phish Companion. Hey, it's the holidays! Pick one up for a friend or loved one.

Marco also shares memories from his first show, 4.17.92 at the Warfield in San Francisco. We talk a bit about that tour and that show, and we play a few tracks from that night. A great memory for Marco and a good show to revisit.

If you haven’t listened to our podcast, we hope you give it a shot! We regularly combine the music of Phish with interesting guests from in and around the scene. You can find us on iTunes and Twitter. We’re looking forward to many more collaborations with this team.

Also, there's a contest! The Mockingbird Foundation donated one copy of the book as well as a really cool poster. All you have to do is share this post with your friends on Facebook and/or Twitter using #MbirdHFPod, and we'll pick two random winners (one for the book and one for the poster) on Monday, December 5.

Thanks to Ellis and Charlie as well for helping us get this together. HF Pod is made up of me, Brad and Jonathan.

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#GivingTuesday is a global day of giving fueled by the power of social media and collaboration. We can't think of a better group to embody this sentiment than the Phish community. Today only, every donation made to The Mockingbird Foundation through our Give the Gift of Music fundraising page will receive a thank you gift based on the giving level. There are 10 thank you gifts at varying levels! All donations over $40 receive a copy of The Phish Companion. Here are a few ways you can give the gift of music (see below for the rest!):

• Donate $10, receive an I Read The Book Bumper Sticker
• Donate $45, receive a copy of The Phish Companion
• Donate $70, receive a copy of The Phish Companion and one Phish Companion Limited Edition Print
• Donate $110, receive a copy The Phish Companion and a BoyerArt Jersey

>> Visit the fundraising page

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Welcome to the 250th edition of Phish.Net's Mystery Jam Monday! In order to celebrate this momentous occasion, and to cap off a yearlong celebration of the release of the third edition of The Phish Companion, we have put together the greatest prize in MJM history. The winner will not only receive the usual MP3 download courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net, but as a thank you for enduring the pop-up ads this year, the winner of MJM250 will also receive a copy of The Phish Companion and the complete set of eight (!) TPC3 limited edition prints from The Mockingbird Foundation!

And just because we're feeling the holiday spirit, starting Wednesday, November 30th, anyone can get $5 off the book using the code MYSTERY at phishcompanion.com. This offer is good through Sunday, December 4th, at 11:59 PM PT / Monday, December 5th, at 2:59 AM ET, as long as there are still books in stock – the already limited supply is dwindling rapidly during the holiday season, so don't hold off any longer!

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Welcome to the 249th edition of Phish.Net's Mystery Jam Monday, the penultimate MJM of November. The winner will receive an MP3 download courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. To win, be the first person to identify the songs and dates of the FIVE mystery jam clips. Each person gets one guess – if no one guesses correctly, I will post a hint on Tuesday, after which each person gets one more guess before I reveal the correct answer on Wednesday around 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET. Good luck!

Note: Today we're tweaking the format – today's MJM is a race. At 1 PM PT / 4 PM ET, I will post a SoundCloud link here on the blog. The FIVE clips (each 30 seconds long) are extremely well-known jams from Phish's vast live canon. Hit refresh when the time comes, and we'll see who can name them all first. You ready?

Answer: Congrats to @justino who swooped in just in the nick of time to correct the 5th clip from @illbuyyouaewe's nearly correct scorecard, winning his third MJM overall. The five well-known jams were of course the Woostah Hood, the Tahoe Tweezer, the Albany YEM, the SPAC Piper, and the Hampton Bag (on its anniversary taboot).

Attention: I know every week I say something like "stay tuned for next week's MJM," but this week I mean it more than ever. Next week we hit MJM #250, and we will be giving away the greatest prize package in MJM history. You'll have most of the week to solve the puzzle. Open up your setlist notebooks, fire up your LivePhish and PhishOD apps, wipe your keyboards clean, get a few dozen browser tabs ready, and lock yourself in the basement – you're going to need all the help you can get to solve MJM250. But I guarantee you it'll be worth your time given the 10-part gift we've put together for next week! MJM250 drops at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET sharp here at phish.net.

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Welcome to the 248th edition of Phish.Net's Mystery Jam Monday, the second of November. The winner will receive an MP3 download 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 clip. Each person gets one guess – if no one guesses correctly, I will post a hint on Tuesday, after which each person gets one more guess before I reveal the correct answer on Wednesday around 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET. Good luck!

Hint:

Answer: Congrats to @runlikecarini who won his third MJM by identifying the 4/10/94 Antelope. Do we have another savant on our hands? Apparently the hint – an image of the buildling on the cover of Pink Floyd's Animals – gave him a push in the right direction towards Antelope. But he didn't recognize (nor did he need to) that the hint had another layer to it: this week's clip was the Buffalo Antelope. Get it now? The MJM would be remiss if it didn't mention @Dog_Faced_Boy, who texted me a couple hours after MJM248 was posted with the correct answer – though his solving this week's MJM was completely unaided by his admin status, I asked him to withhold the answer unless no one else had solved it by this morning. See you next week for MJM249, when I'll throw yet another different style of MJM at you, and be sure to mark you calendars: On November 28th, 2016, the MJM will celebrate making it a quarter of the way to a thousand MJMs with a special MJM250 extravaganza, which may or may not have the most ridiculously awesome set of prizes ever given out for an MJM winner.

We're delighted to be partnering with The WaterWheel Foundation during Phish's New Years run in a Pre-Show Celebration benefiting children's music education!

Tickets go on sale Friday, November 11th @ Noon EST.

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Welcome to the 247th edition of Phish.Net's Mystery Jam Monday, the first and easiest of November. The winner will receive an MP3 download 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 clip. Each person gets one guess – if no one guesses correctly, I will post a hint on Tuesday, after which each person gets one more guess before I reveal the correct answer on Wednesday around 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET. Good luck!

Answer: Congrats to @HarborSeal who solved this week's MJM in a mere 15 minutes, earning his second win. He didn't have time to notice that MJM247 took place on the 18 year anniversary of the 11/7/98 Mike's Song, which took place in the same town celebrating their first World Series championship in 108 years – but he did notice that the jam featured this week was from the UIC run he had loaded onto his iPod a few weeks earlier. If you're feeling down today, perhaps hearing the entire 11/7/98 Mike's will cheer you up with its mix of funk, ambiance, and uplifting hose. The rest of that run ain't no slouch either. Stay tuned for MJM248, which will hopefully last at least 20 minutes before being solved!

Note: Just as a reminder, hints for the MJM are released, if needed, on Tuesday ~24 hours after MJM starts, and the answer is always revealed on Wednesday. If no one has answered correctly by ~48 hours after the MJM starts, the competition will be called and the answer will be revealed then. If it has been solved correctly before then, I tend to take my time on Wednesday posting the answer. If you're ever unsure if the MJM has been solved, and you don't see a particular answer with more thumbs up than the rest – a good (but not perfect!) indication it's been solved correctly – you can always check the MJM Results Spreadsheet (linked below the MJM every week). Even if I haven't updated the Blog post with the winner, I (almost) always update the spreadsheet with the winner as soon as I see the correct answer.