"Who can again hear “Tela” without seeing her in blue, twirling high above the stage, the fluttering notes of Trey’s guitar solo seemingly scripting her revolutions through the air? Who’ll be able to hear “Lizards” without imagining a stage full of costumed Lizards dancing around? It almost seems like they were always meant to be there, that previous versions sadly lacked them."

This resonated with me so much. I always had this cartoonish, wacky vision of Lizards in my head whenever Phish played it. Almost like an OG Mario Brothers world/level music in how catchy, fun, imaginative and playful it sounded. To see the "Lizards" onstage, dancing around, acting like characters from a video game was, for me, incredibly gratifying and wholesome. And then to see them drop one by one (again, video game style) through a trap door "the Lizards they had died" was so perfectly comical, goofy, natural, on-point, and realistic to the vibe/journey of the song.

The same with Tela, but in a different sense. The song, for me, always took on an dynamic synesthesia of blues and purples fluttering together like feathers caught in a spring breeze. Seeing Tela do essentially the same thing (above the stage) as my mind had in the past created was incredible. Validating even.

Point being, the creative exuberance of 12.31.23 Gamehendge was everything I could have wanted from Phish: playful, fun, funny, wacky, goofy, and thought-out just enough to be fresh and original and captivating, but still innocent and youthful without taking itself too seriously.

Great write up, thank you!