Phish Merriweather Post Pavilion 2015 Night Two – Setlist & The Skinny

On Sunday night, Phish played their second show at Merriweather Post Pavilion, concluding the pre-festival portion of summer tour with another high-octane concert. Between the bust outs of “Nothing” in the first set and “Shine a Light” in the second, as well as the solid playing throughout the night, this show put an appropriate exclamation mark on what many fans believe to be one of the quartet’s finest tours in recent years.

The band came out to pleas of “Sleeping Monkey” from the yelling crowd, in reference to the previous night’s encore. They pretended to oblige, teasing the opening chord, before launching into the year’s first “Golgi Apparatus.” Textbook, impassioned versions of “Undermind” and “Julius” mixed some early improvisatory juice into the set. The tour’s fourth “555” was followed by the first bust out of the night: “Nothing,” making its sixth appearance ever, and its first since 2012. New groover “No Men in No Man’s Land” once again gave the middle of the first set a brief dance party. But the set’s real improvisatory beast came next, with a “Stash” / “David Bowie” combo. Like other recent versions of the former, the band spent the bulk of the “Stash” jam in a hyper-focused state of deep listening. This version was punctuated by an especially explosive peak. As Jon Fishman fired up the hi-hat intro to “David Bowie,” Mike and Trey played (or more accurately, swatted at) each other’s strings. The band quickly launched into the old classic. Trey took a couple quick detours into major keys en route to the song’s peak. For the second straight night, the first-set closer included a solo-trading session between Trey and Page. This time, the duel was hosted by “Possum.”

A Mike Gordon snafu in the intro to the second-set-opening “Down with Disease” led Trey to tease him by singing “dancing in Mike’s head!” The tune’s jam mostly stuck to the song’s structure, dipping briefly into a minor key before dissolving into “Slave to the Traffic Light.” The rare early-set “Slave” was typically beautiful, and yielded the stage to its jammier partner in luminosity, “Light.” The ensuing improv got about as deep and psychedelic as it could possibly get without abandoning the song’s rhythmic foundation. Trey made use of every corner of his pedalboard, as Page and Mike were in lockstep, establishing a mind-twisting atmosphere using all 12 tones of the scale. The jam slid into “Twist,” whose brief jam also got trippy, as Trey went heavy on the loops over his bandmates’ major key groove.

As “Twist” faded out, Trey sang the opening lines to the Rolling Stones’ “Shine a Light.” The song, which made its debut in Phish’s Exile on Main Street set on Halloween 2009, dipped in and out of rotation until its last appearance on July 20, 2013. It showed no rust, providing a soulful mid-set pause leading in to 2015’s most played song, “Fuego.” Before the jam could go much of anywhere, it was cut off for the tour’s first “Sneakin’ Sally Through the Alley.” Between Page’s crunchy clavinet work and Trey’s looped Mu-Tron chords, the tune got the crowd sweating, before the quartet stopped to get in one more song: “You Enjoy Myself.”

An impeccable trip through the difficult “YEM” composed section was followed by a jam full of theatrics. After the trampolines section, the drums and keys dropped out, leaving Mike and Trey playing face to face. They went back-to-back as Page joined in, laying down a funk groove that was highlighted by Fishman’s exemplary beat. As the groove continued, Trey played Fishman’s cymbal, and then Page’s keys, with the head of his guitar. An otherwise typical vocal jam contained a bit of “Sleeping Monkey” teasing from Fishman before the band took their bows. A by-the-books “Backwards Down the Number Line” occupied the encore slot. With the non-festival portion of the tour coming to a close, Trey gave a heartfelt thanks to the crowd.

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• Venue Type: Outdoor Amphitheatre / 19,316
• Previous Shows at Venue: 14 Shows – 07/17/1992, 08/08/1998, 07/09/1999, 09/17/2000, 08/15/2009, 06/26/2010, 06/27/2010, 06/11/2011, 06/12/2011, 07/13/2013, 07/14/2013, 07/26/2014, 07/27/2014 and 08/15/2015
• Number Of Songs / Length – First Set: 9 / 7:35 p.m. – 8:49 p.m. (74 Minutes)
• Number Of Songs / Length – Second Set & Encore: 9 / 9:22 p.m. – 10:49 p.m. (87 Minutes)
• Total Number of Songs / Covers / Originals: 18 / 2 / 16
• Biggest Bustout: Nothing – 192 Shows (Last Time Played – June 7, 2012)
• Average Song Vintage: 1998
• Debuts: N/A
• Tour Debuts: Golgi Apparatus, Nothing, Shine a Light, Sneakin’ Sally Through the Alley
• Weather: 84°F and Sunny at ticket time
• Guitar Used By Trey Anastasio: KOA #3, aka Ocedoc
• Average Song Gap: 19.33
• The Spread: Junta – 3, A Picture of Nectar – 1, Hoist – 2, Farmhouse – 1, Undermind – 2, Joy – 2, Fuego – 2, Covers – 2, Misc. – 3
• Longest LivePhish Track / Shortest LivePhish Track: YEM 19:27 / Sleeping Monkey 2:13
• Audio: Live Phish

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