Pillow Jets Of Sound: Phish Summer Tour 2024 Gets Underway In Mansfield

Phish began their 26-date 2024 Summer Tour on Friday night at the familiar confines of the Xfinity Center in Mansfield, Massachusetts. Opening night of the tour presented a balanced show: eight songs played in both of the two sets, none of which were covers, each set featuring one song from the band’s new studio album, Evolve, and noteworthy jamming within each the two halves.

The amphitheater south of Boston was the first venue to host the band following their four-show extravaganza in April at the Las Vegas Sphere. Friday’s concert was 32 years almost to the day since Phish first played the venue formerly known as Great Woods, back in 1992 when they opened for Santana. Two-night runs at Great Woods began in 1994 but this summer marks the first three-night stand for Phish.

The frenetic instrumental “Buried Alive” officially kicked off Phish’s 2024 Summer Tour. The full-speed-ahead start continued with a rare, early-first set “Character Zero.” The song typically saved for the end of the set saw the band settle into an atypical jazzy theme within the standby rocker.

“Hey Stranger,” which first appeared on Anastasio’s 2022 solo album mercy and was recorded by Phish for Evolve, came next and produced a funky little jam reminiscent of a “Cities”-like groove.

The first big jam of the summer evolved from the subsequent “Down With Disease.” Steered by Trey Anastasio’s linear lead playing and drummer Jon Fishman’s complementary rhythmic support, keyboardist Page McConnell’s melodic piano work and bassist Mike Gordon’s bubbly low-end worked together toward an emphatic peak before they all deftly hit upon the return to song’s conclusion.

The set continued with a gentle “Roggae” and exuberant “NICU.” The other substantial improvisation of the first set then materialized from “Stash.” Sticking to the song’s darker textures, the ensuing jam was a steady journey from those heavy depths to a brighter sonic pasture.

A boisterous “46 Days” swooped in after and brought the first set of the tour to a rocking end.

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

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Coming out of set break, Phish kept the momentum of the previous set going with a jubilant “Suzy Greenberg” getting the unexpected call to open the second half. Mirroring the first set, “Run Like An Antelope” appeared atypically as the second song of set two. The full-throttle, sprawling frenzy of “Antelope” was another momentum maintainer.

The pulse calmed but the intensity remained through the transition into “Ghost.” Clocking in at 19 minutes, “Ghost” surfaced the longest jam of the night. While he did not have the looming robot from the Sphere to augment “Ghost,” Phish lighting designer Chris Kuroda’s visual accompaniment equaled the transcendent music emitting from the stage below.

The workhorse of a jam factored in some skillful interplay, carving out a satisfying and lengthy excursion that turned into a wild, synth-heavy realm of otherworldly sonic effects. From there the band barreled into “Light” and in short time was back to improvising, with a choppy, nearly star-stop rhythm by Fishman and thundering bassline from Mike setting the tone for Trey and Page to add melodic layers.

The other Evolve track played on Friday, “Pillow Jets,” then made its fifth appearance in a setlist after being debuted last summer. Turning to Trey’s Ghosts Of The Forest project, “Beneath a Sea of Stars Part 1” kept the second set sauntering along, after causing the guitarist some issues getting through the lyrics.

“Over the years, there’s moments when we’re playing where I feel like I’m out in a realm that sounds only like we can,” Trey recently said on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast. “You know, especially like in a ‘Split Open And Melt’ jam.”

Phish entered that realm on Friday night, choosing “Split Open And Melt” as the build-up to the end of the set. The foursome took their time constructing the conduit to the other side Trey was referencing. Once fully in that sphere, the jam took on a menacing character, swelling with ferocity, pushing controlled chaos to its limit until releasing the tension through a pinpoint return to finish the song.

A well-served “Harry Hood” held down the encore slot and brought the tour opener to a rousing conclusion.

Phish returns to the Xfinity Center again tonight for the second 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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