Phish Bolsters Alpharetta Run With Elaborate 27-Minute ‘Carini’

Phish continued their mid-week visit to Ameris Bank Amphitheatre in Alpharetta, Georgia on Wednesday with their second concert in a row at the shed near Atlanta. Crossing the midway point of their eight-show run of September 2025 Tour dates, the foursome unleashed the lengthiest jam thus far by opening the second set with a 27-minute “Carini.”

Wednesday’s show was welcomed in by “Wolfman’s Brother.” Like Tuesday’s concert at the same venue, guitarist Trey Anastasio, bassist Mike Gordon, drummer Jon Fishman and keyboardist Page McConnell gave another impactful serving of lean jamming within the 14-minute opener.

A poorly communicated start between guitarist and drummer at the onset of the two-slot “Llama” was quickly overshadowed by McConnell’s commanding Hammond organ soloing. A short trip through “Martian Monster,” the Chilling Thrilling Sounds-sampled groover debuted on Halloween 2014, kept things rolling.

The band continued to pull from Halloween premieres with the 2013 debut “Devotion To A Dream.” After being resurrected in July from a nine-year absence, the Fuego rarity made its third setlist of 2025 with Wednesday’s appearance in Alpharetta.

Anastasio dialed up “The Divided Sky,” and judging by the smile on the guitarist’s face while soaking in the cheering crowd during the song’s lengthy pregnant pause, that silent part might be why one of his oldest compositions is still in regular live rotation.

Phish ripped through “Axilla (Part II)” as longtime lighting designer Chris Kuroda responded to Trey’s “don’t shine that light in my face” lyric by bathing the venue in darkness. The quartet stretched out a bit again by way of “Hey Stranger,” which sounded at times like it was going to drop back into the funkiness of the “Sneakin’ Sally Through the Alley” played the show prior.

Kuroda held back from fully engulfing the stage in a heavy fog for the “Steam” that simmered along Trey’s scorching guitar lines and Mike’s tastefully thunderous bass work. Set one banged into intermission with the forceful pairing of the interactive call-and-response “Wilson” and suspenseful “Taste.”

The 27-minute “Carini” arrived at the start of the second set. While the length of a jam does not determine its quality, as proven by Phish numerous time on this September run of shows alone, longer jams can allow for more elaborate storytelling in instrumental form, told with a greater degree of patience and detail.

That scenario played out while the four musicians left “Carini” behind and methodically developed a new plot, unfolding it through a series of musical chapters. Authorship was passed between them as their individual sentences came together to form aural paragraphs. Action on stage grew to a tasteful apex with the denouement resolving as the segue into “Light.”

Acting as a sequel to what preceded it, “Light” picked up where the previous adventure left off and despite having a shorter run time, delivered the thematic goods. Trey was the narrator of the “Light” jam, cycling through characters of melodic riffs before landing on a single motif that guided his cohorts to a focused conclusion. An epilogue was tacked on with a brief segue beck into “Carini” out of “Light.”

The intense opening sequence was countered with “Sand” and a gentle, vibey groove it fostered. Trey’s sirens looped around the venue while Mike fattened his bass sound to formulate a solid undercurrent and continued adjusting his tone by layering in synthetic effects. This was done in conjunction with Fish’s easy-going but sturdy posturing and Page’s textured embellishments from his various keyboards.

An effortless arrival of “Piper,” whose intro featured Fish triggering samples including an Austin Powers’ “Yeah baby!,” kept the set’s momentum flowing. The compact ensuing jam was well-executed reminder that lengthiness is not measure of impact and a solid final statement of the more jam-oriented portion of the set.

The penultimate song of the second half was a detour to Gamehendge to visit “The Lizards.” Trey smiled in reaction to encouraging cheers from the crowd in response to his less-than-perfect execution of the song’s composition.

“You Enjoy Myself” brought along typical trampoline antics executed by Trey and Mike, as well as the common-of-late return to full instrumentation from the vocal jam that typically concludes the classic song.

The encore selection of “Meatstick” solidified the show was entirely made up of original Phish songs. Pardon the expression, but Phish put a little extra mustard on this “Meatstick,” encasing the performance with a final side of improvisation before bringing the show to an end.

Phish wraps their September 2025 Tour with their return to Hampton Coliseum in Hampton, Virginia, where the band will play the first of three shows at the Mothership on Friday, September 19.

Photos by Ian Rawn

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