Phish Debuts Mike Gordon Original ‘Human Nature’ At 2nd Show Of Summer Tour

Following a strong showing on the opening night of Phish’s Summer Tour 2024 at the Xfinity Center (fka “Great Woods”) just outside of Boston, night two featured strong improv for a first set. With two almost equal length sets followed by a three-song encore, the band sound excellent – tight, focused, and dialed-in – for night two of a tour.

The second set was high energy with ample type II jamming late in the set. This focus appears to be reflected in the newly streamlined stage set up and perhaps more minimalist approach to lighting, though that could’ve been reflective of a limitation of the venue. Only time will tell.

Opening the show was a crisp, succinct “Theme From The Bottom,” a relative rarity in the number one slot, the last time being at Deer Creek in summer 2022. Next up was a “Back On the Train,” punctuated by Page McConnell’s funky clavinet and with some interesting lyrical phrasing by Trey Anastasio. The jam picked up momentum as Page moved to the piano and Trey synced with the rhythm section into a rollicking groove peaked with Lighting Director Chris Kuroda temporarily flashing his brights at the dialed-in audience.

The quartet next launched into “Sand” off 2000’s Farmhouse. It didn’t take long for the tune to venture into Type II jam-territory, soaring into a driving jam with interesting, atypical key changes, before tapering and heading into a concise “Bouncing Around the Room.” At just under four minutes, “Bouncing” was the shortest song of the show.

Notably, these shows have an updated stage set up: minimization featuring a smaller rig behind Trey, and his speakers now offstage, drummer Jon Fishman is now closer to the lip of the stage and more inline with his bandmates, and Mike’s speaker stack is also offstage, as it was at Sphere.

Trey appears to have traded in his rug for a riser, as Mike has used in the past. The elevated platforms, which Mike referred to as a “rumblepad” on Instagram, are haptic. Overall, Kuroda’s lights seem to lean more heavily on jewel tones and the contrast behind them, savoring the full-on bright lights and narrow spotlights as punctuation, and adding clarity and precision to the music.

A robust “Backwards Down the Number Line” followed “Bouncing” and was in turn followed by the live debut of Evolve’s “Human Nature” with Mike Gordon on lead vocals for the song he co-wrote with Scott Murawski. The tune was premiered by Gordon on his solo June tour and played several times and was heavily punctuated by his thrumming bass. Trey’s guitar lines bobbed and weaved around Fishman’s ever-present bedrock. The tune didn’t take long to stretch its legs and flex as a strong contender for deeper exploration.

Without missing a beat, the band initiated the opening notes of “It’s Ice,” from 1993’s masterpiece, Rift. Next up was “Wolfman’s Brother,” from 1994’s Hoist, a reliable jam vehicle, and boy howdy, jam they did, with a fuzzy funk groove reminiscent of “Boogie on Reggae Woman” before delving into a searing progression.

Next up was a no-nonsense “Drift While Your Sleeping” from Anastasio’s side project, Ghosts Of the Forest, released in 2019. At 12 minutes, it was the longest song of the first set.

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

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In the number one slot for the set two was “You Enjoy Myself” from 1989’s Junta. Rather than end the song after the vocal jam, they went back into some additional improv, mirroring the placement and post-vocal jam arrangement from Deer Creek on June 4, 2022. Notably this was only the second time “YEM” had opened a second set since 1989, and despite being the longest tune of the night, was still shorter than average.

Out of “YEM” bloomed an expansive, layered “Oblivion” from the new release, followed by an exploratory romp into no man’s land. Traversing pluckiness, bliss, chaos, deconstruction, the “No Men In No Men’s Land” ultimately unraveled into “Monsters,” also from Evolve.

Only the third time played, the emotionally impactful “Monsters,” which deals with the heavy subject of addiction, featured a powerful guitar solo and strong vocals by Anastasio. This gave way to the unhurried jazz-disco-funk of fan-favorite “Also Sprach Zarathustra,” more commonly called “2001,” the band’s take on Deodato’s funky arrangement of Richard Strauss’ classical composition of the same title. It was the first cover of the tour.

A Picture of Nectar’s “Chalkdust Torture” closed the second set with energetic and fruitful improvisation. Atypically and rather than waiting until the end of the tune, in this version the Type II jamming happened earlier, in the middle of the piece. Like reverting to improvisation after the “YEM” vocal jam, the band continues to subtly reinvent tunes played hundreds of times. Indeed, they continue to let the music evolve.

When the band returned to the stage for the encore, Anastasion introduced Jon Fishman as “Orange Whip,” a reference to the Blues Brothers sound sample Fishman has employed in the past. Los Lobos’ “When The Circus Comes” was a tender foray into the encore, and laid the groundwork for a ferocious “David Bowie” – the 500th time the band has played it live – and blistering “Say It to Me S.A.N.T.O.S.” from í rokk by Phish alter-ego, Kasvot Växt.

Phish returns to the Xfinity Center Sunday for the final show of the three-show run. Watch livestreams of Phish’s entire 2024 Summer Tour via LivePhish.com.

Photos by Jamie Soja

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