Phish Atlantic City Setlist and The Skinny: Night Three

We’ve come to the end of Phish’s three-night stand in Atlantic City, where the quartet will wrap the weekend up at Bader Field tonight after two well jammed out performances on Friday and Saturday.

[Photo by Phish_FTR]

Be sure to follow @bizarchive for updates live from Bader Field.

For the show opener, Phish continued a tradition started on Father’s Day in 2009 at Alpine Valley by kicking off the evening with the rarity Brother. This was the fourth Father’s Day Brother in a row and once again featured the band members’ children filling a bathtub place on stage. Following Runaway Jim the band offered only the second Dogs Stole Things since 2003, with the only other one coming at Lake Tahoe on August 10, 2011. From there, fans were treated to tour debuts of repertoire staples NICU and Foam, while Wilson gave the crowd a chance to scream at the band.

Trey reprised the vocal ending of Brother after a tight version of Timber Ho! and asked the crowd a trivia question about what songs end with “woooooah” like Brother. He named My Friend, My Friend as well as Rift and told the audience that from now on Timber would end with a “woooooah.” Anastasio went on to discuss Metallica, who are hosting their own festival at Bader Field later this month, and mentioned they don’t end any songs that way. To add another song to that list, Phish ended Fluffhead with the “woooooah” bit that had just discussed. A typically fierce Walls of the Cave saw its first action of the tour before the arena rock stylings of Character Zero brought the set to a close.

Setlist…

Soundcheck: Backwards Down the Number Line, Buffalo Bill

Set 1: Brother, Runaway Jim, Dogs Stole Things, Boogie On Reggae Woman > NICU, Foam > Wilson> Timber (Jerry), Fluffhead, Walls of the Cave > Character Zero

Set 2: Drowned > Also Sprach Zarathustra > Reba^[1], Roses Are Free > Chalk Dust Torture > Prince Caspian^[2] -> Silent in the Morning, Bug > A Day in the Life > Down with Disease

Encore: Gotta Jibboo > Quinn the Eskimo

[1] No whistling.
[2] Unfinished.

Notes: For the fourth Father’s Day in a row, Brother was performed and featured all of the band’s children on stage and subsequent introductions. Reba did not contain the whistling ending and Caspian was unfinished.

[via Phish.net]

The final set of the weekend began with a cover of Drowned by The Who. Drowned had been a repertoire staple from 2009 through early last summer, but this marked the first version of the tune since May 31, 2011, a gap of 40 shows. The last time Phish went 40 shows without playing Drowned was way back in 1999. Just as the jam was getting started, the band took a left turn and segued in 2001. The four members took their time working their way through the funk tune and even threw in a couple of breakdowns. While Rebas are always beautiful, tonight’s take was particularly pretty as Phish’s patient approach made for a Reba worth hearing again and again. Next up was Roses Are Free and hopes were high for another jammed out Roses since the Worcester version from last Friday was the first improv-heavy version of the Ween cover in over a decade, but it wasn’t to be on this night.

The ballad slot was filled by Prince Caspian and instead of the typical Trey shredfest, Page McConnell took a solo after the verses. After a few minutes of Page-led beauty, Trey segued the uncompleted Caspian into Silent In The Morning, which was played without The Horse — a song that saw action last night — for only the fourth time ever. The ballad slot was supersized on this night as Bug followed Caspian and Silent. A Day In The Life, the fourth cover of the set, came next and led into a rare Down With Disease second set closer. In fact, the last time Phish closed a second set with Down With Disease was all the way back on December 30, 2003. Trey had some fun with the end of Disease and closed it out with a “woooooah” referencing the banter from the first set. Another surprising placement took place in the encore, when Phish finished the run with an encore that consisted of the only Gotta Jibboo encore outside of a June 15, 2000 performance in Osaka, Japan, and a cover of Quinn The Eskimo. Phish Summer Tour 2012 continues on Tuesday in Portsmouth.

Here’s The Skinny for Night Three of Phish at Bader Field…

• Venue Capacity / Attendance / Type: 35,000 / 15,000 (Estimate) / Large Outdoor Field
• Previous Shows at Venue: 2 – 06/15/2012 and 6/16/2012
• Number Of Songs / Length – First Set: 11/ 7:57PM – 9:25PM (78 Minutes)
• Number Of Songs / Length – Second Set & Encore: 12 / 10:01PM – 11:37PM (96 Minutes)
• Total Number of Songs / Covers / Originals: 23 / 7 / 16
• Biggest Bustout: Drowned [LTP 05/31/2011 – 40 Shows]
• Debuts: N/A
• Weather: 62 degrees and Sunny at Showtime
• Wardrobe: Trey – Grey Plaid Button-Down Shirt and Jeans / Mike – Black Short-Sleeve T-Shirt / Page – Forthcoming / Fish – Dress
• Average Song Gap: 10.23
• The Spread: Misc. – 5, Covers – 7, Junta – 2, Lawn Boy – 1, Picture of Nectar – 1, Rift – 1, Hoist – 1, Billy Breathes – 2, Farmhouse – 2, Round Room – 1
• Longest LivePhish Track / Shortest LivePhish Track: Fluffhead (15:53) / Prince Caspian (3:56)
• Audio: Live Phish

Poster…