Segues

From Wikipaug

A Little Bit About Segues

When viewing Phish setlists, you have probably noticed symbols in between songs (mainly the comma, ">" and "->"). These symbols indicate segues. A seague is basically a musical transition between songs.

The Comma
The comma doesn't really indicate a seague, but rather the lack thereof. When a comma is used in a setlist, it indicates that a song stopped, there was a pause for a few seconds or longer and another song began. For example, in the setlist for June 12, 2009, Phish played "The Divided Sky, Possum". They clearly stopped The Divided Sky, paused for a moment and began Possum. Any lack of musical transition between songs is indicated by a comma.

The Arrow (>)
The arrow (>) indicates that one song was played, then stopped and another began after it with no pause. The popular Mike's Song > I Am Hydrogen > Weekapaug Groove is a good example. Mike's Song is played and then I Am Hydrogen begins with no pause and then Weekapaug Groove begins with no pause. There isn't any improvisation or jamming, each song just stops and the following begins.

The Hyphenated Arrow (->)
An arrow with a hyphen (->) indicates a seague between two songs where there was improvisation or jamming involved. On March 08, 2009, the second set opened with Down with Disease -> Seven Below. The ending of Down with Disease included some improvisational jamming that eventually blended in to Seven Below. This type of seague is different than a regular arrow since the ending of one song blends together with the beginning of another one musically. One song doesn't end but rather morphs into the next seamlessly by improvisational jamming.

Using symbols this way help to describe a written setlist to a reader without a lot of extra notation.

Other Symbols
Sometimes other symbols are also used on printed setlists such as an asterisk (*) or any number of others (@, #, $, %, ^, & for example). These symbols work in the same way as an asterisk in a book or encyclopedia. Usually, it just means that there is some extra information about a song such as:
You Enjoy Myself @ -> Character Zero,

@ had to be restarted after a guitar string snapped

Since show entries and setlists at wikipaug.net have their own pages and areas, we really have no need for these symbols since each show has a notes section. However, when reading setlists elsewhere on the internet (such as a web forum), using these symbols is commonplace.