Dave Vann 

So, Big Boat is basically here. Just a few short weeks until Phish puts out their newest record to follow up 2014’s Fuego. Today the band confirmed the tracklist, with eight of the thirteen tunes previously appearing on stage. We’ll finally get to hear studio cuts of recent standouts like “No Men in No Man’s Land” and “Blaze On” along with the recently premiered “Breath and Burning” complete with a horn section. 

As with every new tracklist, there are winners and losers, those tunes that made it onto the final version and those that were possibly left on the cutting room floor. In the modern era of Phish, there have been numerous originals with painstakingly short lifespans on stage and forgotten just as quickly when its time to assemble a record, and some that have made their mark on stage but have yet to find a spot on an album. 

Here are five that I’d love to see Phish pack into the studio with them when they eventually assemble the follow up to Big Boat (or a bonus disc or whatever that may be). 

“Dr. Gabel” 

I may be the charter member of the “Dr. Gabel” fan club, and I’m okay with that. As far as tunes in the Phish canon to go one-and-done, this might be the very best of them. Appearing in Mansfield, MA in 2010, “Dr. Gabel” was introduced to the world and gone just as quickly, unfortunately. A straight-ahead rocker that would be a welcome addition to kick off a record. 

“Shade”

I’m probably like most of you–I tend to look towards the beer line when Phish goes into ballad mode. But I think my affection towards “Shade” came while taking in one of the many LivePhish webcasts over the summer. The song landed perfectly out of Trey Anastasio’s “Wingsuit” solo like a breath of fresh air. The lyrics are sweet without being cheesy and I think there is a real place for it in the Phish catalog. I enjoy “Shade” for the same reasons I do “Dirt.” Overall, Phish can struggle at times to write the lovey-dovey ballad without it sounding forced, but there is some real honesty in “Shade.” 

“Steam”

“Steam” burst onto the scene in 2011 and has really never looked back. It’s as hypnotic as it is catchy, with its ellipse-like riff bouncing back and forth as the song progresses. One weird night in the studio with “Steam” may turn into one of their finest outputs in some time. 

“Mercury”

Maybe along the same lines as “Steam,” one of the originals to emerge from 2015, “Mercury,” ranks as one of the band’s most ambitious new songs in some time. There isn’t much that would need to be done to this song, and I’m not talking about condensing it into a 4-5 minute studio track, I’m talking letting it fully breathe at the end of a record. Something to the tune of 12 minutes. Let “Mercury” be “Mercury.” 

“You Never Know”

Out of all the songs that appeared during the Wingsuit set, “You Never Know” was the most Phish-y of the bunch and one of the (admittedly few) that I enjoyed from that set. While it didn’t appear on what would eventually become Fuego, I’m still holding out hope that “You Never Know” appears again either on stage or on a future record.