Review: Phish’s Phenway Phenomenology

In terms of the scene in and around Fenway, the place was festive, not all that unlike a Red Sox game, with lots of the trademark impromptu cheers and a noticeable uptick of random high-fiving as folks roamed the strip of nearby bars and licensed concessions. The bar scene was mobbed and the streets were pretty much body to body as far as they eye could see. Thus, the pre-show festivities were definitely hectic. Vending by fans was all but nonexistent. Tickets were actually floating around with last minute sales going for well below face as low as $20.

Inside the venue was another story. The rig looked cool and the backdrop of the green monster and it felt great walking into that stadium knowing we were all about to notch a lifelong memory. One widely held concern about the stadium was the seat space. Can you dance in such a narrow row? See, many ballparks really squeeze those seats together extremely tight (i.e., Citi Field), yet Fenway rows offer more than enough room to comfortably shake a tail feather and squeeze in an extra friend or two if need be.

As for the setup, the band and their gear were set up in centerfield, facing home plate with the closest seats being portable chairs laid in rows across the outfield with a tarp covering the grass. Nobody sat on the infield as they blocked this area off with a chain link fence. Also, nobody sat in the grandstand in the outfield or up on top of the monster as these seats really offered no view. All in all, it didn’t really seem like any of the seats were all that bad, although the view and sound from the upper deck may have been pretty poor. The only common complaint was that for folks in the stadium seats a little further from the stage, the sound was plain bad in most spots. All in all, everybody knows Fenway is a great place to see a ballgame, but after this Sunday’s Phish show, we now know it is fun music venue for nostalgic purposes, but that’s about it. I’d guess the total capacity crowd was in the neighborhood of maybe 25,000.

The first set kicked off the tour in a rather uncanny fashion. First, a blue sky abruptly morphed into a dark gray tarp of cloud cover and let out a pour around 6:30, exactly the time the band was set to begin (early show time due to Fenway’s curfew). In the midst of the chaos from the rain and shuffling bodies, Phish came out on the field and performed their a capella version of the Star Spangled Banner, which despite being pretty widely anticipated, kicked things off with everyone feeling the whimsy. The band took a more clever approach to the anthem as they sung with some unique colorful vocal chords, some of which worked, while some sounded off key at times.

From there, the set was a classic case of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. The set included a lot of the hits, running through renditions of Sample in a Jar, Bouncing Around the Room, Wading in the Velvet Sea, which love them or hate them, do not do much for the excitement level. The new song Ocelot left faces staring blankly at one another, asking what song we were hearing. Ocelot plays very much like a Dead tune (think a slightly up-tempo Row Jimmy or Tennessee Jed) with slow meandering playing and familiar song structure. Fun tune.

Mixed in between some of the relative duds though, were real gems and a huge bust out. A daytime Moma Dance gave the fans their first opportunity to shake loose. A big part of why seeing Phish is so fun right now is simply hearing the songs you haven’t heard in such a long time and rocking out and singing along. Poor Heart served that very purpose and also reminded us why everyone couldn’t get enough Page at the Hampton shows, as he really got the crowd country-rockin’. Limb By Limb delivered its always solid pleasant jam. Under any semblance of normal conditions, Down With Disease would have taken the title as the set’s best song, as the band went for the straight-forward raging rock approach, more characteristic of a ‘93 or ‘94 as opposed to the darker eerie DWDs from latter era Phish.

Next, the band took heed from the song’s proclamation of the coming travels of, “We gotta get on the road. Destiny unbound.” The band played one of the all-time rare tunes, Destiny Unbound. Lots of fans thought this song might open the show at Hampton, but in reality it makes more sense in Boston, because the Boston show is the start of an actual tour. The “we gotta get on the road” line held a special meaning on this night.

After a first set played almost entirely in broad daylight, the sun finally went down for set two and everybody knew they would come out with guns blazing. Sure enough, the house lights went down and Phish pulled out another highly anticipated Fenway song, Tweezer. Given the video of the Red Sox house organist playing Tweezer Reprise to announce the show. Phish laid on the funk and got the dance party started. From there, they introduced another new original called Light, a song Trey debuted at the Williamsburg Music Hall with Classic TAB, which we’ll tag for now with the “potential” label.

From there, we got three long opuses in the form of Bathtub Gin, David Bowie and Time Turns Elastic. The Bathtub Gin jam stayed pretty close to home, not straying too far from the original theme, but they did stretch it out and got creative with the improv. David Bowie cranked up the energy inside the ballpark as Trey delivered one melodic lick after another in quick succession. Again, they kept it pretty close the vest, meaning this one didn’t not stretch into outer space too far, but just maneuvered a very fluid, hard rocking Bowie with no funny business. Fans of melodic Bowies will love this one.

Time Turns Elastic, in its first time played with Phish, sounded pretty much the same as the studio single with the addition of a solid hard-charging dark jam in the final three minutes. I appreciate the complexity of the changes of this song and really enjoy the introduction, but it feels like something is missing. Hopefully, Phish will take this to new places as the tour progresses. At the close of the song, Trey quipped while giggling, “That’s our single!”

A solid Free led to maybe the biggest surprise of the night, the first Ballad of Curtis Loew in 621 shows and 16 years, a classic Lynyrd Skynyrd cover, since 1993. It’s funny as this song has really started coming up in conversation a lot lately, including Scotty B’s article a couple weeks ago which we obviously assume is the reason they played it 😉

Like the Destiny Unbound bust out, the crowd reception for the Curtis Loew was rather poor. If I had to guess, I would say maybe 25% of the fans in attendance were even remotely aware of the significance of these two songs. In fact, these two songs probably got some of the worst cheers of the night. Meanwhile, you would’ve thought Character Zero was the band’s most popular song from the number of fists pumping throughout that tune.

Now, the bust outs at Fenway were special and made for a memorable show for sure, but if you want to hear a nice Phish jam since the break up, listen to the You Enjoy Myself. Pre- or Post- anything, it doesn’t matter, this is a fun YEM. Mike Gordon stole the show in the midst of just a monster (possibly green) funk jam when he brought our his Meatball tone that sounds practically like a bear growl. When Mike switched to this deep roar, everybody stopped and let Mike lay down a Yawkey Way rattling bass solo with the crowd clapping keeping the funky beat down. The crowds at Fenway always cheer a little harder for Boston-area natives and Mike Gordon received quite the reception when he was done with his solo.

With the curfew rapidly approaching, the encore felt a bit rushed, but Phish still managed to surprise us with a three song encore, including a trio of high energy rock songs to send the crowd off on a high note. Cavern rocked as per the norm, but Good Times, Bad Time provided the real highlight of the three finale tunes with Trey cutting up his Jimmy Page licks. Tweezer Reprise got a little sloppy and clocked in at only three and a half minutes before the stadium lights came on informing everyone that the show was over, but still provided a fitting cap on the historical Fenway show, one that will likely be remembered for the quirky location, if not for the music.

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