The last time the four members of Phish all set foot in Portland, it was a different century. September 12, 1999 at the now-gone Portland Meadows, to be exact. In the more than twenty-five years since that date, a lot has happened. The Vermont jam legends played a marathon show to usher in the new millennium at Big Cypress, broke up a few years later, reunited a handful of years after that, and have been riding high ever since with a steady output of tours, festivals, albums, and solo projects. They’ve even finally earned the prestige beyond the jam band world they’ve long deserved with a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nomination and a recent massive feature in The New Yorker. Needless to say, when Phish announced that the third show of their spring 2025 tour would be in the Rose City, the excitement was palpable. Factor in it being 4/20, Easter, and a Sunday show, and you have a Phish fan’s veritable wet dream. By the time the band stepped onto the stage at Portland’s Moda Center on Sunday, April 20th, expectations for greatness were coursing through the audience.
Fortunately, those expectations were met and exceeded. Warmed up following a well-received double header tour kick-off at Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena, the band came to Portland ready to make up for lost time with a funkifed “46 Days” right out of the gate driven by Mike Gordon’s chunky bass lines while Trey Anastasio pushed the jam onward through peaks and valleys. The funky undertones were linked for this first part of set one, with “Moma Dance” giving just a touch of that ’97 groove and fun interplay between Anastasio’s guitar and Page McConnell’s bouncy keys. By the time the band reached the instrumental jam of the tune, they had the entire arena dancing along in unison, and they used that momentum to drop into their Talking Heads cover of “Cities.” As this tune started ramping up and anticipation for an extended jam built, the band cut it short with a sneaky segue right into “Plasma” that featured Anastasio and Gordon engaging in a sort of bass-guitar tit for tat that built up a darker, drippy tone and increased in its urgency as Anastasio wailed out long and high tones before the band kicked it into high gear and reached for a peak of strobe light-laden bliss. The strongest moment of the first set came when the seemingly funny choice of “Bouncing Around the Room” was followed immediately by “Sigma Oasis,” with the band veering into exploratory mode as they galloped along with delicious bass propelling it into a euphoria-inducing expansive rock and roll moment stretching past the twenty-minute mark. The band rode the wave into a rapid-fire “Run Like an Antelope” and “Say It To Me S.A.N.T.O.S.” to close out the ninety-minute first set on a rock and roll high.
If you’re getting technical, you could argue that set one actually contained more musical highlights. Still, there was no shortage of memorable moments when Phish returned to the stage and catapulted straight into a stretched out “A Wave of Hope” that slid into trippy, almost glitched out territory that was the kind of spacey, richly textured jam where you forget that this is only the beginning of the set. As they carved out a little pocket of psychedelia, Jon Fishman showcased his darkly urgent drumming to lead the band into a version of “Twist” that had fans wondering if it would explode into a larger jam vehicle. The tango-laced keys and guitar tones eventually gave way to “Scents and Subtle Sounds,” a highlight of the set that built on its prog rock foundation to eventually reach an almost transcendent, triumphant glory. Any seriousness from that extended jam quickly evaporated with the fun dance party accompanying the one-two punch of “Boogie On Reggae Woman” and “2001,” both of which were played straightforward but shone with their contrast of loose fun and composed technicality. While the fans looking for references to the stoner holiday of 4/20 or the fact that it was Easter Sunday, may have been left scratching their heads, few could argue with the massive closer of a respectable “Harry Hood” only to be followed with an encore of the shouted anthem “Wilson” and by the books “Slave to the Traffic Light.”
One might have expected Anastasio or other members of the band to acknowledge their long absence from Portland, but the band members said little more than a ‘thank you’ throughout the entirety of the three-hour show. Instead, they focused on delivering the kind of quality musical performance that has earned them their place as one of rock and roll’s most enduring acts. In Portland, their sets were filled with surprises, occasional blissful bust-outs, and the kind of energy that keeps their fans craving more. Let’s just hope we don’t have to wait another twenty-five years for it to happen again.
Set 1:
46 Days
The Moma Dance
Cities>
Plasma
Bouncing Around the Room
Sigma Oasis
Run Like An Antelope
Say It To Me S.A.N.T.O.S.
Set 2:
A Wave of Hope>
Twist
Scents and Subtle Sounds
Everything’s Right>
Boogie On Reggae Woman>
Also Sprach Zarathustra
A Life Beyond A Dream
Harry Hood
Encore:
Wilson>
Slave to the Traffic Light
All photos by Greg Homolka.
