Phish Delivers 6-Song Encore On Night 3 At Dick’s

Phish returned to Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, Colorado last night for the third of four annual concerts celebrating Labor Day Weekend.

While the show lacked the massive tentpole improvisation of Thursday’s “Tweezer” and “Carini” or Friday’s “Sand,” the band laid down two blazing sets of music full of tight playing, good flow and dense pockets of jamming.

“Fluffhead” is one of the quintessential Phish compositions and is always welcome as an opener – the song filled that slot only four times between 1991 and 2019, but last night was the fourth “Fluff” to begin a show in the 4.0 era. Good things come in fours, apparently, since last night was also the fourth “Fluffhead” to get jammed out in the 4.0 era.

Executing the composition with practiced ease, the band nailed the explosive ending and moved beautifully through the customary guitar solo before bassist Mike Gordon initiated a modulation into a new key and vein of improv. Hitting on a groove similar to a “Mike’s Song” jam at first, guitarist Trey Anastasio laid down some chunky riffs as keyboardist Page McConnell switched to Wurlitzer electric piano among a major-key shift.

This beautiful bliss jam stretched “Fluff” past the 20-minute mark for…you guessed it, the fourth time in the song’s history. Anastasio’s glorious delay-infused leads had many in attendance grinning ear-to-ear as he deftly found his way back to the song proper to close it out.

A bluesy romp through “My Soul” and a fun “Cavern” led to another very well-executed composition in “Reba,” which showcased some beautiful interplay between McConnell and Anastasio in the early part of the patiently-built jam. Phish eschewed the whistling ending in favor of “Mound,” the second version of the year.

“A Wave of Hope” has been one of the band’s premier jam vehicles since 2022, delivering some of the finest jams of the year as recently as MSG and SPAC. Last night’s was of the concise, fiery variety, opening up into a raging motif in a relatively short nine minutes.

“Taste” and another small pocket of jamming in “Ghost” ended the set on a high note — easily the finest first set of the weekend in my opinion. Front to back energy, well-played compositions, excellent song selection and some bright spots of jamming — it bade very well for the second frame.

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

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“AC/DC Bag” was a huge and consistent jammer for much of the late 1.0 and 2.0 eras, before becoming a five-minute first set staple for the duration of 3.0. Since last year, some versions have slowly been creeping outside their standard box, with last night’s really showing us that there is definitely a 20-minute version in our near future.

While only 12 minutes long, the second-set opener really got out there into some beautiful bliss territory, showing off a delicate and patient side to the band with gentle melodies from Anastasio and McConnell in the early part. While not being hugely present in many of Thursday and Friday’s jams, Gordon was all over last night, prodding Anastasio down from the peak and into a darker mode just after the nine-minute mark with some darker effects.

Spacing out beautifully, Anastasio cleanly found the opening riff to “Chalk Dust Torture” within the improv and the rest of the band jumped into the segue with gusto. Opening up into Type II territory with ease once again, Phish reached a contemplative and dreamy mode with lots of space, differentiating it from the show’s other major-key excursions. Anastasio’s upper-register chirps melded perfectly with McConnell’s bright piano as all four band members traded riffs (yes, ALL FOUR! Listen around 7:30!). A somewhat abrupt segue into “Ether Edge” seemed to cut off the momentum that was just being built in the exploratory “Chalk Dust,” but that was regained with the quick pivot into “46 Days.”

Breaking into a percussive and funky mode thanks to McConnell’s Hammond B3 work and Jon Fishman‘s octopus-like drumming, the jam continued to find fresh themes with some inspired dissonant playing from Anastasio ahead of a brighter pivot around halfway through. McConnell began to layer in some synthesizer work as the looped bass-synth guitar gave the major mode an ominous and darker feel, juxtaposing the common bliss themes of last night. Fish pushed the pace and drove back into an awesome and rocking percussive mode, McConnell once again at the forefront with his muscular organ tone — much like Friday’s “Sand.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWfHQi7wJ5M

A clean ending led to “The Howling” — arguably the best song to come from the 2021 Sci-Fi Soldier Halloween musical costume. McConnell, newly armed with samples of howling noises, spurred the audience into doing the same as Anastasio grinned at the crowd participation. Most versions of this song to date have been concise second-set rockers, but last night went full jam vehicle and was full of inspired Type II playing. Coasting atop the spacey sounds of staccato envelope-filtered guitar and synth work from McConnell, Phish went full deep funk with three members utilizing synth tones of some kind.

Disintegrating into a spacier section, McConnell once again added in the howling samples — but this time they took on a sad, almost ominous feel within the darker jam. The final section of the best “Howling” to date was a nice blissy return to its chorus that felt full of catharsis and joy as Anastasio hinted at “Mountain Jam,” a big theme of this summer.

Melting away into “Piper” was an absolutely perfect choice for the end of the second set, and was a perfect time for Fish to put on an absolute clinic, like he does in every rendition of the song. Instead of going straight for the raging motif that “Piper” is known for, Anastasio led into some breathtaking quiet play and then hung back, letting McConnell lead the music on Wurlitzer as the two musicians danced around each other’s melodies. The energy gradually began to ramp up again as Anastasio unleashed some serious fretboard fireworks upon the Dick’s crowd to end the second set on an incredibly strong note. Oh yeah…and Jon Fishman is an absolutely INSANE drummer.

“Theme From the Bottom” was an auspicious start to the encore, as this version was infused with a similar funky element to the version played at MSG last month, full of wah and extra riffing in between lyrics that gave it an extra-fresh feel. When “The Mango Song” led into “Don’t Doubt Me,” the band seemed to be making a statement — they weren’t going to just throw in a five-minute encore tonight. “Evolve” was a gentle choice ahead of a “Golgi Apparatus” that seemed to be the perfunctory closer in a five-song, thirty-minute encore — but we were wrong once again as Anastasio strummed the familiar opening chords to “Run Like an Antelope.”

A six-song encore that was only 25 minutes shorter than the second set itself was a pretty special way to end off Saturday night at Dick’s. The fourth and final show of the run comes up tonight. Watch a livestream via LivePhish.com

It’s still true…we love Dick’s!

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