Phish Weaves ‘Tweezer’ Through Both Sets In Jacksonville

As Hurricane Isaias rolled across Florida on Friday night, Phish kept the audience at Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida warm and dry, playing with a power and heat that probably helped to justify many fans’ treacherous ride home. The show was the band’s first in Florida in 10 years, and their strongest outing in the state in an even longer time. Weaving “Tweezer” and other songs throughout both sets, the band expertly combined setlist antics with the outstanding jamming that has characterized this tour.

Phish walked on stage and tore into the first notes of “Tweezer,” which had not opened a show since New Year’s Eve 2022. The first repeat of the tour, “Tweezer” featured a satisfying, if slightly by-the-numbers bliss jam and peak. The set next featured “Runaway Jim” and “Reba” — two songs that have served as the centerpiece for many a first set, but were mere footnotes to this barnburner. “Reba,” in particular, featured some lovely interplay and riff-trading between Mike Gordon and Trey Anastasio.

Without skipping a beat, the band began what would be an all-time-great version of “Plasma.” The jam found its way to a dark groove, which the band rode for a while, with Mike and Jon Fishman in perfect harmony, as Page McConnell banged away on his electric piano under Trey’s volcanic soloing. As it seemed like “Plasma” might be peaking, the band U-turned back into “Tweezer,” seesawing between the two songs for several more minutes of improvisational brilliance.

A solid version of “Pebbles and Marbles” followed, and “Dirt” gave the audience a much-needed breather. “Chalk Dust Torture” closed the set with a jam which featured a few minutes of Trey on his mini-drumkit before his guitar brought it home.

The band put their foot on the gas for the second-set-opening “Punch You in the Eye,” and never really took it off. “Crosseyed and Painless” was next, finding its way into a loping groove, on which it coasted for several minutes before entering a mind-bending, almost math-rock segment. The jam wove in several additional directions before transitioning into “Your Pet Cat.” This was no ordinary version of the Chilling, Thrilling tune: it saw Page putting his angry-cat sample into overdrive, bathing the crowd in screeching sounds. Let’s just say that if any mice were living in Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena at the beginning of the jam, they probably fled the state in terror and are safely in Georgia by now.

After finishing “Crosseyed,” the band treated “Twist” as a cooldown song, bringing the jam to a hush. Next up was “Waves,” which was pretty straightforward until it suddenly found its way to…”Tweezer”! Using the official setlist writers’ counts, this was the fourth “Tweezer” of the night, and it was definitely the nastiest. Page made it a spooky season special, dishing out creepy sounds on the lower end of his synth as Trey laid down some percussive hits on his wah pedal.

A typically great “Harry Hood” followed, before “Carini” closed out the set. Trey threw a lyrical curveball: “The thesis that you’re writing is a load of shit / But at least AI finished it.” (Doesn’t he know it’s called SI now?) The end of the “Carini” jam saw the band chanting “still waiting,” bringing the set full circle with the callback to “Crosseyed.”

As the band returned for the encore, Trey took a sign that said “Play Sleeping Monkey For My Birthday.” The quartet wove “Happy Birthday To You” into the “Sleeping Monkey” that followed. The tune was followed by “Ghost,” which featured a nice hard rock jam before the band closed out the night with “Tweezer Reprise.”

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Phish returns to the stage Sunday night in Huntsville, Alabama. Livestreams of Phish Fall Tour 2026 shows are available with a LivePhish With subscription.

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