Phish Staple Makes Encore Debut To Wrap 1st Multi-Night Run At Star Lake Near Pittsburgh

On Saturday Night Phish rolled into Burgettstown, Pennsylvania for the back-end of a two-night run, the first ever multi-night stand at the venue since Phish first began playing it back in 1997.

Kicking off the show was the Trey Anastasio composition “I Never Needed You Like This Before, from Trey’s 2020 quarantine album Lonely Trip. “INNYLTB” made its debut, also in the opening slot, on what many fans (and Trey) refers to as the “4.0” era of Phish back on July 28th, 2021 in Arkansas. After a brisk run through of the verses and chorus, the jam took on a tone that is a bit more laid back and airy than some previous renditions produced by the ensemble. The quartet immediately sounded comfortable delivering a jam that simultaneously sounded laid back but not sluggish. Out of the gate they certainly sounded like a band playing their 9th show in 12 days, and I mean that in a good way.

Before counting off “Turtle In The Clouds” in the second slot, Trey stepped to the mic for a quick “Thanks everybody, thank you. Nice to see you. So nice to see you.” Phish’s catalog is so massive and always expanding, it’s remarkable that a song like this Kasvot Vaxt cut had not been played in 364 calendar days, or 44 Phish shows, by far its longest ever gap since being debuted on Halloween 2018 in Las Vegas. The song itself has come a long way since that debut performance, where Trey barely played his guitar. After a brief jam, the song abruptly came to a close without its typical expansive and ludicrous dance routine.

Trey, knowing many in the crowd and watching at home would surely notice its omission explained, “You may be asking, why didn’t they dance? And the answer is because, I don’t want to! I prefer to watch you dance!” Trey then went on to reference the classic Mike Myers Saturday Night Live skit “Sprockets” quipping into the mic, “Now is the time on sprockets when we don’t dance.” Phish fans may also know the similar “Sprockets” reference worked directly into the lyrics of “Sci-Fi Soldier” song “Knuckle Bone Broth Avenue.”

In an obviously chatty mood this early in the show, Trey introduced drummer Jon Fishman multiple times. Each time Fish would play about 1 second of the (fast) “Llama” intro and then stop. Once finally being introduced by one of his numerous nicknames “Henrietta,” Fish played the full Llama intro and the band was on its way with a fiery and brisk take on this now 33-year-old song.

The band was obviously feeling the “debuted on Halloween” vibe, as the four slot pulled from the “Sci-Fi Soldier” Halloween from 2021 with the fourth ever reading of “Clear Your Mind.” The jury is still out on how many of these songs, and with what frequency, will integrate into the Phish rotation. The collection of tunes has on the whole felt slow to make their presence known in the cannon. The multiple run-throughs the band had done of “Clear Your Mind” at soundcheck seemed to pay off as the song was performed with great precision, perhaps a slightly alternate arrangement, but did not include any real improv and was likely the shortest ever reading of the quirky song.

Two out of the last three performances of “Sample In A Jar” prior to last night’s performance had surprisingly stretched beyond the 10 minute mark, breathing unexpected jamming into this always concise arena rocker. That trend did not continue last night (or from the other 2023 version in Seattle), so perhaps “Sample” is back to consistently being a six minute workout for the time being.

The Billy Breathes track “Taste” followed. Taste is not a song I would say Phish has been playing with confidence and to the fullest of their abilities of late. Perhaps it’s due to its relatively infrequency compared to years past that the band has just not been consistently finding their fitting on the groove. In this performance, the song proper felt like a stronger return to form, but the solo sections from both Page McConnell and Trey Anastasio still just do not seem to even attempt some of the peaks from the song’s glory days of the late 1990’s / early 2000’s.

“Ocelot” followed, also coming off the shelf for its longest time on it since its 2009 debut, this being the first performance in 28 Phish shows, last played at Dick’s in 2022. As soon as the jam began, this band felt the most relaxed they had all set. For years now, Trey, Mike, Page, and Fish have felt very at-home in this slinky groove, and while the jam section is normally relatively straightforward from a tonal standpoint, the subtle band interaction is always top notch, and is typically a clinic from Fishman on interesting fills and playing with a controlled finesse that few drummers possess. Simply put, this band always sounds dialed-in in the back-half of “Ocelot,’ and this performance was no different.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZxp9r_zp5Y&ab_channel=SunnyHippies

The second verse of “Julius” featured the at times polarizing new Trey vocal approach of singing a full octave up from a song’s original composition. For Julius it seemed to work, and hey, can’t we just Let Trey Sing? After a quick section of Page piano, Trey seemed to really have his tone dialed in to his liking as he had full control over the attack and bite of his leads. Trey showed visible frustration when the band was not able to execute the ending of the song with any real semblance of accuracy.

Trey immediately launched into “Saw It Again” after the botched “Julius” ending and things still did not feel right with the band’s connectivity. Trey even seemed to put a little more emphasis on the line, “Something’s not right” in the lyrics to this goofy rarity. The band again was unable to find any real second gear, as the outro did not feature any fireworks from any member of the band, it just sort of quickly fizzled out and Trey quickly kicked off “Sparkle.” Trey laughed into the microphone during the final chorus of “Sparkle,” perhaps because that song is just funny as it speeds up to a comical ending, or more likely, he had just decided that the next song would be “Ass Handed,” and picking that classic from the songlist will put a smile on any bandleader’s face, even if your ensemble has been struggling a bit these past few tunes.

Fishman intro’d his composition by theorizing that “Ass Handed” was kind of a “companion song” to “Sparkle.” Sure?!?

The set-closing “Sand,” while intense and well played, did not take any opportunities to stray meaningfully from the song’s one-chord groove for longer than a few measures at a time, so lovers of when Phish goes “Type II” and gets experimental harmonically with group improvisation would have little to dig into in this 70 minute set of music.

The quartet at times felt at ease and in the pocket, but for other portions felt uninspired in this set, never finding that elusive space that would take any of their songs to the next level.

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

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As the second set began with “Everything’s Right,” I had a good feeling this was a strong song selection and the open-ended and mostly free-form jam section of the song would do well to help find the band much needed space to explore. With a jam that started in its default key of B-minor, the band attempted a modulation to D-major that just didn’t stick and with what looked like another frustrated look from Trey, I was worried for this band, perhaps it just was not their night.

The band however quickly found solid footing over in the land of F#-minor and all was right on the stage again. This section of the jam was lovely, with liquidy bass effects, extensive clavinet from Page, and stellar use of octave and delay pedals from Trey. The band felt equally at hope in the next section of the improvisation in the key of A-Major, Page moving over to his baby grand piano and our stringed instruments players opting for cleaner tones. The jam in A took on a four-chord progression of A-G-D-C. Swipe that “C” for an “E” and you have a “Slave To The Traffic Light” jam. Great stuff.

Not wanting to leave the song proper unfinished, Trey forced the band back to the song’s original key to sing a quick closing coda on the chorus.

Since the band had found their footing on a modern Phish tune with an open-ended jam starting in the key of B with “Everything’s Right,” why not just do the exact same thing again? Sure! That’s exactly what “Soul Planet” was here in the second slot in the second set. The structure of “Soul Planet” has been chopped down as time has gone by, the chorus and verses are shorter and less repetitive, it is essentially just +-two-minutes of singing and then a launchpad for an open-ended jam starting in B. And just like that they were again off to the races.

While the band had no eye contact with each other, the ensemble was in sync, playing telepathically and with great interplay. As some ambience approached and the drums died down at about the 10 minute mark, the jam had an important fork in the road. Would this just fizzle and the next song begins, or do we build on this space? For lovers of extended improvisation, powering through the space for a new section of jamming in the key of D-major they couldn’t land back in “Everything’s Right” was a most welcome development. This section in D was glorious with inspired playing from Trey including a beautifully sustained note.

With the victory-sounding jam over, the band still had more in the tank, Page moving back to clavinet, Trey kicking on his octave pedal, kicking up a full two registers from the notes he was playing on his guitar. The section was somewhat short lived, with Trey hitting a G-Chord that signified not a new section of the jam, but a transition into “Twist.” This band was three-for-three in song selection if you are looking for entries in the repertoire that by definition include a large open jam section.

“Twist” jams have been trending a bit shorter, you need to head back to the New Year’s Run of 2017 for a reading that breaks the 15-minute mark. But I hope if you are reading this, you know that the length of improvisation is not the most important way to quantify the excellence of music. And while Twist jams have been shorter of late than they were in say 2015 – 2017, they continue to showcase the strengths of this band, and this version was no exception. Brief sure, but featuring great full band jamming, all contained to the main key of the standard “Twist” jam.

Forty-five minutes into the set and we had only traversed three songs – typically good news for lovers of all things jamming! As “Twist” fizzled, there was a little bit of noise before you could really figure out what this band was up to. What was coming out of this space? With a quick hit of some chords on his keyboards it was clear coming up next was the most welcome in any set Page McConnell composition “Most Events Aren’t Planned.”

This song has had a remarkable journey to the Phish stage, debuted by Page’s Vida Blue project back in 2001, it would not make it to a Phish setlist until the Baker’s Dozen in 2017. Since then it has settled into a once-every-20-shows rotation, which feels kind of perfect for it. The band always crushes this one, but somehow it also feels like it might lose a little of its luster if it was played with increased frequency.

The most distinguishing feature of this tour is the onslaught of new material. Largely drawing from songs Trey first debuted with his trio featuring Fishman and bassist Dezron Douglas a couple months ago, and it was time for another one of those songs to make it onto the Phish stage. Tonight’s debut was “Monsters,” a stellar new composition from Trey written in the saddest of all keys. The band showcased great command with this one, having soundchecked it multiple times throughout the tour. This did not feel like the band’s first public performance of this tune, it was well rehearsed and Page and Mike delivered strong backup vocals to the chorus. “Monsters” gives Trey a new chord progression to flex his mid-tempo David Gilmour inspired ballad chops and while it’s perhaps not likely “Monsters” will be a new Type II jam vehicle, I think it is set up to be a potent contribution to the song possibilities for the “ballad slot.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eC4HqBXkW-I&ab

After a full-stop after “Monsters” and a brief contemplation on the next song selection at the 60-minute mark of the set, Trey motioned to Fishman and it was “2001” time. “Also Sprach Zarathustra” if we are being precise, and if “Twist” jams have been trending shorter of late, “2001” jams have been trending the opposite, with the band lending a bit more of their bandwidth to more extended takes on this instrumental classic.

After the tiniest bit of extended synth work in “2001,” Trey would call Page’s number for lead vocals a second time in this set as he briskly kicked off the opening chords to The Velvet Underground’s “Rock and Roll.”

If you’re someone overly worried about the tempo bands play things at (this writer is not), and you like your tempos more upbeat, this rendition of “Rock & Roll,” and many of the selections this evening were right up your alley. This “Rock & Roll” was smoking.

Leaving the stage with plenty of time left on the clock, the stage was set for what felt like it would be a longer than average encore. The band had soundchecked their a cappella rig, reportedly running through “Grind” multiple times as well as briefly portions of “Memories” and “Carolina,” so it was no surprise when the band emerged for the encore walking not towards their instruments, but the lip of the stage towards their a cappella microphones. It was indeed “Grind” that had its number called, complete with its standard updated statistics on just how many days each band member has individually and collectively lived to this day.

It’s worth noting that Burgettstown was the home of what Fishman called “the trainwreck portion of the show” back in 2009 when Phish botched not one, but two a cappella numbers due to incorrect usage or a dysfunctional pitch pipe. We’ll likely never know if this was top of mind for the band, perhaps looking for some a cappella redemption, or simply a coincidence.

Thanking the crowd yet again, the band kicked off “Tube,” which is really having a renaissance of late with inspired jam sections and common modulations outside of its standard key. Saturday’s version however was of the straightforward variety as the band quickly navigated the jam section and returned to the song.

The third song of the encore maybe explained a bit why the ensemble opted for a straight reading of “Tube.” They had bigger plans for a song to utilize the A-minor jam, ahh yes – “Ghost!??” Appearing in the encore slot for the first time EVER (!!!) “Ghost” was a massive surprise to hear this late in a setlist. High octane for sure, but under eight minutes in total, the crowd was sent back out to the parking lot on a high-energy note with this first ever “Ghost” encore.

While the first set at times felt a little Jekyll & Hyde with a band that one moment would sound dialed in and the next scrambling for their footing, the band showed no signs of anxiety in the second set, delivering a beautiful set that was architected masterfully.

Tour continues tonight in Syracuse and is rushing towards a seven-night run at Madison Square Garden. This writer is loving this tour so far, the band seems to be executing at high levels and the new originals to the catalog are always a most welcome addition. If I had one request, I would love to see some tunes from Trey and Page’s album January make it onto the Phish stage. When that album was released, I was optimistic on how many of them would translate, but as of yet, we have not seen any of them, or even heard a report of one being soundchecked. Phish – please don’t forget about this other pile of songs you have ready to dig into!

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