Phish Picks Up Where Summer Tour Left Off At Night 1 Of 2024 Dick’s Residency

One of longest-running traditions of the band’s 41-year history continued on Thursday when Phish returned to Dick’s Sporting Goods Park to kick off their annual Labor Day Weekend run near Denver. The Dick’s shows have completed every summer tour since Phish made their debut at the venue in 2011.

The band’s 39th-lifetime concert at Dick’s and first of four consecutive nights at the professional soccer stadium in 2024 saw them employ a similar gameplan to their recently completed Mondegreen festival. Phish favored material in heavy rotation with nine of the 16 songs played last night repeated from two weekends prior in Delaware. There was also plenty of diverse jamming at Dick’s like there was at Mondegreen. The first three songs of the night each went Type II and the second set featured a 42-minute pairing of all-time versions of “Sigma Oasis” and “Pillow Jets.”

“Cities” opened for the first time since December 30, 2010 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The quartet wasted little time diving into the deep end, cracking through the Talking Heads cover into a majestic Type II jam. Phish connected on a gorgeous descending progression and rode it to glory. The 15-minute “Cities” was ended properly before “Down With Disease” took the provisional pole position as the most played song of the tour, a title it would share with three others before the night was through.

The sixth “Disease” of the summer was a torrid affair featuring an “Evil Phish” exploration on the complete opposite end of the improvisational palette from the “Cities” jam. It may not have been particularly long but the version of the Hoist classic at Dick’s was strong. Phish then looked to their latest studio album, Evolve, for “Ether Edge.” The song was debuted by guitarist Trey Anastasio‘s Trey Anastasio Trio outfit a stone’s throw away from Dick’s at Denver’s Mission Ballroom on June 9, 2023. “Ether Edge” has come far in the past 15 months, with Thursday’s rendition being the most adventurous yet and just the second to go Type II. The foursome built the jam to a massive crowd-pleasing climax ahead of a swerve into a potent “Llama.”

Phish added extra mustard to the subsequent “Theme From The Bottom” and then broke out bassist Mike Gordon‘s “Sugar Shack” for its annual play. Next came an “Ocelot” that was all over the place in the best way possible. At times, the Joy cut had a blues feel, and others more languid before a balls-to-the-wall conclusion. The band tacked on “Golgi Apparatus” to represent the ’80s and a “Blaze On” with a fiery Trey solo to end the set.

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

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After another sub-30-minute setbreak, Phish returned to get the closing stanza underway with “Ghost.” Mike Gordon starred on the bombastic jam vehicle as the band explored bliss-laden and rock-heavy territory. Trey landed on a cool theme he worked into the mix a second time as the band ended the song. “A Wave Of Hope” came out of the chaos but never really took off. “Sigma Oasis” filled the three-slot and saw drummer Jon Fishman give a master class in keeping the improvisation moving. The title track from Phish’s 2020 studio album contained two distinct and impressive sections the band patiently dug in on.

“Pillow Jets” followed and also featured multiple major shifts within its jam. The first portion was filled with fretboard fireworks while the second was more egalitarian as all four band members equally contributed to an eerie soundscape far removed from the structure of the song. Keyboardist Page McConnell was on Wurlitzer and came up with a pair of interesting melodies his bandmates quickly latched onto. Anastasio kicked the jam into overdrive around the 18-minute mark and unleashed a torrent of angular riffs before the quartet explored ambient terrain.

The ambiance at the end of the longest “Pillow Jets” yet gave way to a straight-forward “Also Sprach Zarathustra”.” Then, “Harry Hood” joined “Down With Disease,” “Ghost” and “Theme From The Bottom” in the Six-Timer Club for Summer Tour 2024. Trey was enjoying himself so much at the end of the typically triumphant “Hood” that he extended the outro by throwing a few extra bars of fierce riffing into the mix after the rest of the band had started singing “You can feel good.” For the encore, Phish said farewell to the Colorado faithful with “Say It To Me S.A.N.T.O.S.”

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Phish returns to Dick’s Sporting Goods Park on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. Livestreams of the entire run are available via LivePhish.com.

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