Phish Delivers Delightful 25-Minute ‘Down With Disease’: Riviera Maya Night 3 – Setlist, Recap & The Skinny

Phish crossed the halfway mark of their Phish: Riviera Maya 2023 destination event on Saturday with the third of four performances at Moon Palace in Cancún, Mexico. The first set saw interesting song choices and placements, while set two began with a massive 25-minute “Down With Disease,” and was followed by several additional improvisational highlights.

Phish continued their trend of the past two nights by starting Saturday’s first set with an unexpected opener. “Gotta Jibboo” got the call to open the show, marking just the second time it’s held the opener slot, the previous time coming back in June 2010. The “Jibboo” offered an introductory jam colored by guitarist Trey Anastasio’s signature siren loops that swirled around the beach. The second song slot was given to “No Men In No Man’s Land,” which like its predecessor, presented a pathway to a welcoming jam.

Drummer Jon Fishman kicked into the loping pulse of “Steam” as Lighting Director Chris Kuroda prepared to engulf the stage in a thick mist. Fish found a funky pocket and kept the “Steam” jam tight and dynamic as keyboardist Page McConnell filled in the patterns he laid out. By the end of “Steam,” the first three songs of the night tallied 30 minutes between them.

Bassist Mike Gordon then took a turn leading the band on his bluegrass favorite “Poor Heart,” which had not been played since Summer 2021. Gordon followed the brisk bust out with the acapella intro to “Halley’s Comet.” Though it stayed relatively tame and fizzled before too long, the “Halley’s” jam was consistent with the “get in, get there, and get out” approach heard earlier in the show within “Jibboo” and “NMINML.” A nifty segue from the end of the “Halley’s” jam into “Saw It Again” was seeded by Trey and picked up by the others onstage.

“Theme From The Bottom” and its location-appropriate nautical themes came next. While “Theme” can sometimes take on a dark, menacing feel, this edition was joyful, soaring from the bottom to the top. Immediately after ending “Theme,” Fish rattled the high-hat intro to “Maze,” teeing up the typical frenetic exchange between Trey’s guitar and Page’s Hammond B3 organ. “About To Run,” which was introduced as part of Trey’s Ghosts Of The Forest project, made its 16th appearance in a Phish setlist, and saw the guitarist lean into a fiercely searing and protracted solo.

There was another surprise of sorts in store for the first set closer. McConnell’s “Most Events Aren’t Planned,” a song that made its live debut in 2001 with the keyboardist’s side project Vida Blue, ended a Phish set for the first time. Making its 10th setlist, the vibey, synth-driven “Most Events Aren’t Planned” pushed the band into a somewhat unfamiliar realm, the foursome grooving hard and sliding into the song’s “dun dun dun” ending with ease.

Read on after The Skinny for the rest of the recap and more.

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The familiar cacophony of sounds erupting from Mike’s bass rig signaled the start of the second set and “Down With Disease.” As it has many times over the years, “DWD” was a gateway to a long and multifaceted improvisation, spanning 25 minutes from start to finish. Within that timeframe, Phish explored a variety of themes as they built up, and moved on from, one segment to the next.

Eight-and-a-half minutes in, Trey hit on a melody and stuck with it, modulating slightly when Page picked it up, and the two then demonstrated their expertise at instant composition, sounding just as much pre-composed as on-the-fly-improvisation. This deliberate approach persisted as if waiting for the muse to arrive and get fully situated.

Around the 14-minute mark, the jam shifted into a heavier, cyclical groove and pushed further into a spacey territory. A couple of minutes later, Trey found another melodic riff and road it to a soaring peak, Fish answering the bright and joyful tone by popping hollow snare hits. When the jam hit the 20-minute mark, another theme came into focus, blissful and serene, like one of the steady waves gently crashing into the shore nearby.

One way to survey the rest of the second set, which was a continuous stream of music with little to no breaks, is to look at the timings of the songs from the official LivePhish recordings:

• “Golden Age” – 9:50
• “Soul Planet” – 10:21
• “Runaway Jim” – 6:34
• “Light” – 9:58
• “Piper” – 9:28
• “2001” – 9:25
• “Say It To Me S.A.N.T.O.S.” – 7:11

There’s an obvious symmetry, even with the “Runaway Jim” and “Say It To Me S.A.N.T.O.S.” slight outliers, that flowed through the rest of the set. While each song had its own character and shape to the jams that developed from them, there was palatable pacing to the set that was evident from the “get in, get there, and get out” approach heard earlier in the show. “Golden Age” was the first to follow “DWD” and the slower-tempo start to the TV On The Radio cover contrasted with the intense jam that developed.

An abrupt transition into “Soul Planet” was a brief break before the four musicians dove right back into another exploratory improvisation. A somewhat unexpectedly placed “Runaway Jim” was an exhilarating mid-set jolt. Then came a jubilant “Light” that featured Trey’s crunchy tone as the jam explored darker terrain. The band seamlessly barreled into “Piper” and kept the propulsive energy flowing for several minutes of heightened improvising. The second cover of the night, “2001,” was a playful and energetic lead-up to the final song of the set. “Say It To Me S.A.N.T.O.S.” brought a hard rocking end to the well-rounded set.

Trey picked up his megaphone at the start of the encore giving a clear indication of the “Fee” that would be played to start the finale. The sweet harmonic conclusion of “Fee” was trailed by launching into “The Wedge,” as the highway to the great divide was ridden to the show’s spirited conclusion.

Phish: Riviera Maya 2023 concludes today, Sunday, February 26. The finale has an early 5 p.m. ET start time. Watch the action from Mexico by purchasing a livestream via LivePhish.com.

The band will then set out on their West Coast run in April and followed by their recently announced 2023 Summer Tour. Registration for a Phish Ticketing lottery closes on Monday, February 27 at 12 p.m. ET. General on-sales begin on Friday, March 3 through Ticketmaster and other outlets.

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