Phish Continues Exploratory Streak & Cuts Syracuse Show Short Due To Weather

Phish found their way to Empower FCU Amphitheater at Lakeview in Syracuse, New York on Tuesday night. The talk of the tour has been “every song is on the table” for jamming, and Phish certainly made good on the trend by taking several first set tunes in Syracuse deeper than they usually would, delivering a seven-song frame with adventurous juxtapositions.

Phish even seemed to play on the stormy weather that swirled around the shed. Set two saw more improv, however, the aforementioned stormy weather forced the band to cut the show a bit short sans encore.

Phish launched the one-off with the Kasvot Växt cut “Turtle In The Clouds,” performed for the first time since July 13, 2025. The band stomped through the group vocal effort and visited the legendary Clueless Wallob. Usually delivered as a straight forward song, Phish swerved into improvisational territory keeping with the summer theme.

The jam began with guitarist Trey Anastasio soaring before landing in edgier terrain. Trey, keyboardist Page McConnell and bassist Mike Gordon then linked up in rhythmic, transposed runs as drummer Jon Fishman fanned out a groove that dropped into “Bug.”

The exploration on the Farmhouse track saw Anastasio firing off downward spiraling licks that swirled into what sounded like a robot drowning in a whirlpool with Trey flipping on a growling autowah and Page working both the Moog synthesizer and Wurlitzer electric piano. The four-piece then began to claw their way back up and into “Seven Below.”

The Round Room cut saw McConnell taking whimsical artistic liberties with the melody on the Moog ahead of a jaunt secured by a rolling snare from Fish and counter melody by Mike on his Serek bass. Trey and Page then danced around on guitar and piano respectively ahead of a darker turn laced with rinsed out Fender Rhodes electric piano and Yamaha synth. Anastasio switched to a more front pickup sound as the jam dissipated into noise.

Out of which “Ocelot” emerged. Slouch on. Phish slid into a mellow, kick your shoes off and dance groove with Trey working up and down the neck of the Languedoc ahead of a controlled collapse leading into Mike’s “Mull.” A very funky groove rolled out of the song structure with Gordon working squishy bass runs. Anastasio whipped things up to a boil to put the song to bed.

“Sigma Oasis” fell in the sixth-song slot. The band melted from the triumph of “Sigma” to a hard driving jam full of rock ‘n’ roll riffs and fell into a funk exploration with Page jumping on his hollowed out percussion patch on the Hammond organ.

Trey then found some stabbing notes and worked into a melodic motif he returned to in various stages of intensity leading into “Ghost” as the rain began to come down, eliciting a big rise out of the audience during the “wind and rain” lyric. Anastasio pulled some growling wails or wailing growls out of the Languedoc to get into the improv as the band lit into a grimier funk which Anastasio built to a screaming peak to wrap up the first frame.

Set two got underway with “Sand.” An understated groove emerged from the song save for a lone whale bellow from Anastasio. The improv slowly gained intensity in a searching sequence anchored by Trey’s cyclical riffs, finally flipping to a major key framed by “Transformer” lights from LD Chris Kuroda.

The improv then flattened out into an alluvial plain of sound: flange flights from Trey, Phrygian runs from Mike, a hypnotic groove from Fish and wind chime-like electric piano from Page, which all swirled together into a sludge out of which Anastasio raced with right hand work dropping the band into “Everything’s Right.”

Fish laid down a pocket accentuated with cowbell to get into the jam. Anastasio and McConnell linked up for licks before Trey shifted through stuttering bends. A series of staggering segments buoyed by cacophonous fills from Fish and “whooos” from the audience followed before landing back in the pocket briefly, ahead of a drop into the otherworldly “What’s the Use?”

“Light” then stabbed through the haze of “What’s the Use.” A bounding improv full of toms found its footing out of the main song structure laced with more lick linkage and flighty forays from Anastasio. A unique little jam followed, full of weird phrasing and unconventional sounds, like an elf eating a mushroom was gonna pop around the corner at any moment until Trey unfurled a shimmering curtain of guitar.

Instead, “Also Sprach Zarathustra” popped around the corner. Phish strutted through the sci-fi funk of “2001” with Trey teasing Page McConnell’s “Most Events Aren’t Planned.” It was then time to “Blaze On.” Anastasio informed the audience mid-blaze that because of the weather moving through the band would play until they were told to stop with no encore.

The quartet then rambled through a herky-jerky jam before finding upward mobility, lifted by soaring notes from Anastasio before falling off a cliff into the ocean of “Prince Caspian.” Trey darted between the masts and climbed to the crow’s nest on the song named for the Chronicles of Narnia character before jumping into “More.”

Anastasio then slid into the gravely opening funk strains of “Say It To Me S.A.N.T.O.S.” A brief but energetic rendition followed to cap the concert a little early due to weather, bookending the show with Kasvot Växt numbers. Trey also shouted out “Syracuse native” Jon Fishman, aka Moses DeWitt, to bring the show to an end.

Check out more clips from the Syracuse show below:

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The quartet kick off their “Phish In Five” run at Madison Square Garden in New York City tonight (July 22). Livestreams of Phish Summer Tour 2026 shows are available with a LivePhish With subscription.

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