Songfacts®:

• "Wading In The Velvet Sea" is one of the more mellow and reflective Phish songs, telling the story of a package sent across the velvet sea to a loved one. As the package makes its journey, we wonder if it will stay intact or break apart. It's one heck of a metaphor.
  
  The song was written by Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio along with his friend Tom Marshall, who has written lyrics to many songs in the band's catalog. On the Under The Scales podcast, Marshall talked about the meaning of the lyrics:
  
  "To me it's a straight-up, mission someone love song. They're far away, so you send them some of your thoughts and memories. But there's some uncertainty. You'll get it pretty soon unless the packaging begins to break. The uncertainty is brought on by the distance. Will the box of memories break in the mail? Will too much time pass while were apart? Will life get in the way?"
• Setting clocks during daylight savings time in America, when the time shifts an hour twice a year, could be a challenge in 1998 before devices were synched to the internet and the clocks adjusted automatically. In most couplings, the more tech-savvy partner would set the clocks. That's the reference in these lines:
  
  You won't find moments in a box
  And someone else will set your clocks
  
  "To me, this is conveying the memories to someone in a distance relationship," Tom Marshall explained. "The box might have broken apart and you won't find moments now. Someone else will set your clocks because a life leaked in. If the box breaks open, you won't find the memories and the moments, and someone else is setting your clocks - spending time with you."
• "Wading In The Velvet Sea" is part of the 1998 Phish album The Story Of The Ghost, but they played it live in the summer of 1997. Much of the album has songs that were written in the studio and rehearsal space by the entire band, but "Velvet Sea" was just Trey Anastasio and Tom Marshall. The lead vocal is by Phish keyboard player Page McConnell.
• Phish played this song in their second set on August 15, 2004, in Coventry, Vermont. This was a very emotional show for the band because it was the last before their breakup. Page McConnell struggled to sing it without tearing and sobbing a bit. He didn't even get out the first line, and they have to repeat that part because he could not get past the words "I took a moment from my day" without sniffling and crying a bit.
  
  Phish ended up reuniting in 2009 and when they did, they returned the song to their setlists.