"Nothing I see can be taken from me..." Some thoughts on the first night of the Mexico run from my vantage point splashing in the sea for this entire show from Free onward...

The extensive, subtle, hidden yet obvious route they took to honor David Bowie (and I wasn't the first to point this out but definitely jumped on board with the perspective) was the entire Friday night show! Combined with the ocean-themed songs, the rest of the song selections had a very David Bowie-esque* mystique to them…

Set1

A Song I Heard the Ocean Sing > (welcome to the first time Phish has ever played on a beach immediately next to warm ocean water that you could be in during the show...)

*My Soul, (first since 2014 and who better to embody the idea behind these lyrics than >)

*Martian Monster > (Mr. David Robert Jones, the man with the soul of a space oddity)

Ya Mar, (apparently Gordon first heard this song as a kid at a tropical resort on vacation)

Halley’s Comet > (“what is the truth, what is the faithful lasting proof”)

Fuego > (“I’m a sailor’s girl, the best is yet to come”)

The Wedge, (numerous water references)

*Theme From the Bottom > (“keep what’s important and know who’s your friend” ~ Bowie a friend. Also the underground theme of death and darkness.)

*Free > (“I feel no curiosity, I see the path ahead of me…” Nod to Bowie’s acceptance of death and the artistry of his last album and timing of its release.)

*David Bowie (The man himself)

Set 2

*Drowned -> (“I ain’t seen a sign of my hero”, look closer young jedi… Plus the obvious death reference in this song.)

*What’s the Use? > (reflections of life and death. absolutely surreal from out in the ocean floating on my back and hearing this from under water...)

*Sand -> (“I would choose my own religion” very Bowie-esque. Also, the idea of the circle of life where death decomposing back into the earth provides for new life. And the obvious beach reference.)

*Ghost -> (out of death buried in the sand, the spirit rises… Bowie’s ghost is now free to roam…)

*Also Sprach Zarathustra > (…into the cosmos)

*Wolfman’s Brother > (climbing “on a stairway to the stars”)

*Possum, (The idea of "playing dead", captured in Bowie’s Lazarus video released three days before his death.)

*Shine a Light (“Angels beating all their wings in time … thought I heard one sigh for you … come on up, come on up now”. Bowie shining his light back down from the cosmos. Ah-ho!)

Encore

*Rock and Roll (“you know [all our lives] were saved by Rock ‘n’ Roll”… Bowie, Phish, the fans)

Probably more to it, but that's a start…