Phish Plays Third Of Four Shows At MGM Grand Garden Arena In Las Vegas – Setlist, Videos & The Skinny
By Scott Bernstein Oct 30, 2016 • 11:35 pm PDT
On Sunday night Phish returned to the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas for the third of four shows leading to Monday night’s Halloween finale. The quartet unleashed a monumental “Golden Age” on Friday night and started Saturday’s second set with an otherworldly hour of music. Sunday’s show featured more of the same with yet another second set containing plenty of wondrous jamming.
Phish continued a now three-show-old trend of opening this fall’s shows in Las Vegas with songs from their Halloween ’14 Chilling, Thrilling Songs Of The Haunted House set. Following “Martian Monster” on Friday and “The Birds” on Saturday, it was “The Dogs” that got the call on Night Three. The foursome then struck up “Ghost,” treating the Vegas faithful to the fifth first set Ghost in seven plays. Trey Anastasio channeled Jimi Hendrix during the fierce Vegas “Ghost,” which featured exquisite interplay between the guitarist and keyboardist Page McConnell. It was then Mike Gordon who stepped into the spotlight to lead his mates through a cover of Son Seals’ “Funky Bitch.” The set moved on with a straight-ahead “Chalk Dust Torture” heavy on rapid-fire riffing from Trey and McConnell fronting the group on the tour debut of his own “Army Of One.”
Next up was the poppy “Heavy Things” ahead of the tour’s first rendition of Gordon/Murawski’s “How Many People Are You?” Mike debuted the song with his self-titled project, but it continues to thrive in the hands of Phish. While the “Stash” that followed didn’t stray too far from its normal boundaries, Phish offered a playful approach which made for a strong straight-forward version a la a similar rendition in Alpharetta last weekend. A pairing of “Theme From The Bottom” and “Suzy Greenberg” closed the first set. The former featured a particularly shred-heavy guitar solo, while the band struggled with the beginning of the latter before recovering to finish the classic Dude Of Life co-write in style including a handful of unusual drum breakdowns.
“Down With Disease” was Phish’s choice to open the second set, the seventh time this year the Hoist rocker has kicked off the closing stanza. Trey and his mates picked back up where they left off in last night’s second set as Anastasio utilized nasty, dirty guitar tones with impressive results. Page moved between piano, electric piano and synth, while Gordon drove the jam from a dark minor-key to a blissful major-key excursion. Trey weaved one gorgeous melody after the next throughout the blissful section of the “Disease” jam. Mike then employed a synth effect as the foursome alternated between pretty major-key flourishes and intense major-key riffage. Phish found a progression they used to build to a glorious climax that recalled the best moments of the previous two evening’s standout jams. Twenty minutes in Phish used a break in the progression to transition into “Birds Of A Feather.”
“Birds” hasn’t been used as a jam vehicle much in recent years, but that trend changed on Sunday when Phish took the song deep. The ethereal “Birds Of A Feather” improv was dripping in psychedelia and contained multiple exciting movements. After finishing the song Phish revved up “Fuego.” Trey continued to star on Sunday as he shined on a slower “Fuego” than usual and sang his heart out on “Miss You,” the evening’s first song off the recently released Big Boat. From there, Phish embarked on a “Harry Hood” that featured a cover of “Have Mercy” by The Mighty Diamonds within. The foursome last played “Have Mercy” on June 4, 2011 – a span of 221 shows – and it came as part of “Hood” on that night as well. Phish finished “Harry Hood” with a patiently built peak after the welcome excursion into the reggae classic and then ended the set with a cover of “A Day In The Life” by The Beatles. The band then said farewell with a “Character Zero” encore.
Phish plays the fourth of four shows at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on Monday, when they are expected to perform three sets. A webcast is available from Livephish.com. Watch “The Dogs” and “Down With Disease” from Sunday’s webcast below:
https://www.facebook.com/phish/videos/10153819209576290/ https://www.facebook.com/phish/videos/10153819442231290/Full Show Audio (Taped by Scott Schneider / Shared by JamBuzz)
Videos (Captured by Paul Giza)
The Skinny
The Setlist |
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Set 1: The Dogs > Ghost, Funky Bitch, Chalk Dust Torture, Army of One, Heavy Things, How Many People Are You, Stash, Theme From the Bottom > Suzy Greenberg Set 2: Down with Disease [1] -> Birds of a Feather, Fuego > Miss You > Harry Hood -> Have Mercy -> Harry Hood > A Day in the Life Encore: Character Zero
DWD was unfinished.ĆĀ The Birds was quoted afterĆĀ Birds of a Feather.ĆĀ Fuego contained Birds of a Feather and The Birds teases. HaveĆĀ Mercy was played for the first time since June 4, 2011 (221 shows). |
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The Venue |
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MGM Grand Garden Arena [See upcoming shows] |
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16,800 |
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5 shows |
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The Music |
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10 songs / 8:14 pm to 9:33 pm (79 minutes) |
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8 songs / 10:11 pm to 11:35 pm (84 minutes) |
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18 songs |
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1998 |
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21.68 [Gap chart] |
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None |
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The Dogs, Army Of One, Have Mercy |
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Have Mercy LTP 06/04/2011 (221 Show Gap) |
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Down With Disease 22:03 |
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Have Mercy 1:45 |
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A Picture of Nectar - 2, Hoist - 1, Billy Breathes - 2, The Story of the Ghost - 2, Farmhouse - 1, Undermind - 1, Fuego - 1, Big Boat - 1, Misc. - 4, Covers - 3 |
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The Rest |
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73Ā° and Mostly Cloudy at Show Time |
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Koa 1 |
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Capacity: 17,157 |
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Phish From The Road Photos
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