This beast is effortless. Another instance of a jam you could see coming from a mile away that delivers in the finest fashion. You can really hear the experience of the 2017 tour all coalesce through the movements of this jam. This juggernaut is the fruits of the labor of the Baker's Dozen, a run where the band took massive risks at every turn with their catalog, new covers, and most importantly...improvisation. This run brought us things we thought we'd never see: songs that never get jammed like Taste, Steep, Meat, and that 30 minute Lawn Boy that people seem to be overlooking, the grand return of classic 1.0 jam vehicles in Mike's Song and Tube, and just inspiration at every corner.

Songs like Chalk Dust Torture and Simple have provided amazing moments in 3.0 (particularly CDT of course) so it makes sense that they delivered two of the finest versions of the song during this historic run. The 8/6 Simple glides from the traditional jam to blissy territory, than hits an incredibly cerebral and danceable space funk section. This is a band firing on all cylinders...and they're not worried about where they're going next because they have completely surrendered to the improvisational flow at this point. This thing moves with the confidence and swagger of days gone by and eventually finds itself to the mother of all bliss peaks. Seriously...this is IT. The HOSE.

You could feel it in the room when the ambience had faded out into Rise/Come Together. After 13 nights (plus the fantastic 5 nights that preceded NYC) of extensive improvisation you might think that they'd be tapped out. But this was 2017 Phish, at the Baker's Dozen. The experience only made them stronger, and this Simple is arguably the crown jewel of the run.

Oh yeah...stay for the rest of the set, particularly that mid-90s Trey revival in YEM. In my mind, it's perfect.

Really two amazing jams welded together, not unlike the famous 8/29/14 Dick's Simple - a mega-grotty effects-laden groove anchored by Fish deciding "I'm taking the reins on this mofo", and (with some tap-tap-tapping of the ol' woodblock) a bliss jam that goes *fucking interstellar* en route to a really blistering peak. Simple's 1996 is pretty tough to top in its history; with this and the 7/15/17 version, Simple's 2017 decided if it wasn't gonna win that gunfight, at least it'd go out guns blazing.