What a feeling to be back at the Gorge! The Gorge is one of the most beautiful, special music venues in the country, and for Phish and their fans, it’s nothing short of hallowed ground. Simply put, it’s a must-visit.
Last night (August 27th) kicked off the first of three shows with a heartfelt nod to recently passed Rolling Stones drummer, Charlie Watts with “Torn and Frayed” off Exile on Main Street. Launching into “No Men In No Man’s Land”, with a pretty sick “Let it Grow” tease, the band showed early signs of how well tuned up they are after a scorching first leg of the summer tour. Phish immediately found room to improvise wholly here through a cosmic soundscape that would end up being a theme for the night. “Leaves” provided a landing pad from the solid TYPE II in “No Men’s”. Drummer Jon Fishman then started the classic opening beats to “Split Open and Melt”, which seemingly caught the rest of the band by surprise. The funny banter that followed signaled good things to come as after Fishman stopped playing, guitarist Trey Anastasio offered, “you can’t do that and stop”. A mid-first set “Split” isn’t too common these days and brought the feel of the first set back to the spacey funk that started in “No Men”. “Tube” continued the galactic trend with an extra groove on the front and backend. Keyboardist Page McConnell then took the vocal lead on “I Been Around” before and out of nowhere “Ha Ha Ha”, and a quartet of tunes to end the set in “Mull”, “Shade”, “Alaska”, and “Golgi Apparatus.”
With everything on the table, set two kicked off with a loose “Sigma Oasis” that dropped right into a magnificent “What’s the Use”. The funk was not so much featured here, but the cosmic space textures certainly were. This “What’s the Use?” was a slow, drippy, patient take. “Blaze On” followed once again pushing out improvisationally into unchartered territory before bleeding smoothly into “Lifeboy.”
What took place next was the standout highlight of the night with a take on “Camel Walk” that was as fresh, out there, and as exploratory as Phish gets. Here’s where the themes of the night all came together, with spacey, cosmic funk rhythms on the lead layered against the traditional bluesy beats of the Jeff Holdsworth written tune. This is the song to go back to if you missed last night and want to jump right to the highlights. I won’t go ahead and proclaim this as best version ever, but there’s certainly an argument there. Regardless, this “Camel Walk” will be relistened to many times in the future and will be a clear highlight of the 2021 Summer tour. Amazing music was played throughout those 16+ minutes.
The next segue into “Chalkdust Torture” was fluid after such celestial playing for most of the show, it was time to turn things up and rip before finding one more landing pad in “Slave to the Traffic Light” to end the set. “Drift While You’re Sleeping” served as the lone encore sending show-goers back to the campground as stoked as could be after an amazing night of music, with two more to go before the run wraps up and heads south to Shoreline Amphitheater.
Photos by Brennan Lagasse
