Bay Area Bliss: Phish’s Improvisational Prowess On Full Display At Bill Graham Civic Auditorium

Phish returned to San Francisco’s Bill Graham Civic Auditorium on Tuesday night for the first of two mid-week shows. Though the band has racked up an impressive string of post-pandemic concerts at other Bay Area venues, Tuesday was their first time at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium since 2018. They quickly made up for lost time, treating the crowd to a smorgasbord of psychedelic excursions that spanned two long sets.

The evening’s first quarter was long on classic songs, but it was shorter on jams than the rest of the show would be. The band opened with energetic but brief versions of “Buried Alive,” “Axilla (Part II),” and “Mike’s Song.” Also included in the show’s first segment were a stunning “I Am Hydrogen” and an unusually slow “Weekapaug Groove.”

Trey Anastasio tore into his blonde Languedoc in his “My Soul” solo, and the band seemed to ride the ensuing burst of energy for the remainder of the set. Aside from a rocky intro to “Halley’s Comet,” in which the band couldn’t quite agree on what key to sing in, the song was outstanding, featuring an extended hazy, ethereal jam that evoked a perfect afternoon in Golden Gate Park. As the jam’s final embers died down, the band lit it back up, with a slinky groove over which they reprised the “Halley’s” introductory vocals — all in the same key this time.

What might have appeared to be a cool-down “Roggae” took a turn, as the band entered a minor key, making this one of the longer and eerier versions of the song. After a fiery “Maze,” the quartet closed the first set with “Split Open and Melt,” finding some brighter-than-usual ambient spaces before taking the song for its customary ride to another dimension.

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

Want more Phish stats?

Visit JamBase’s The Skinny Hub

More Skinny

The second set opened with a bang, as the band drove “Carini” down blissful boulevards and through funky tunnels before emerging into a life-affirming, seemingly endless peak. “No Men in No Man’s Land” somehow covered even more ground than “Carini” in less time, flipping between different keys, musical genres and feels. It was an outstanding jam that may end up being overshadowed by the stunner that preceded it and the one that followed: “Ruby Waves.” The latter was perhaps the trippiest of the evening’s improvisational journeys, floating between guitar-driven psychedelia and delicate textural grooves, each featuring a quartet closely following each other’s every move, often trading melodies.

After a solid hour of jamming, the band finally let the crowd catch its breath, with lovely versions of “Waste” and “What’s the Use?” The set came to a crashing close with a guitar clinic in “Down with Disease.” In a night that was heavy on vintage Phish songs, the band closed with one of the most classic of them all: “Fluffhead.”

Phish returns to Bill Graham on Wednesday.

---

Follow Phish’s Spring Tour 2025 via The Skinny sponsored by tryply. Watch Phish’s entire Spring Tour 2025 via LivePhish.com livestreams.

---

Videos

Posters

Phish Photos