phish

Phish Mansfield: Great Woods Setlist & Skinny

Scott Bernstein June 7, 2011 5 Comments

Phish @ Great Woods (Comcast Center), June 7

Phish returned to the venue formerly known as Great Woods – now the Comcast Center – for the 15th time this evening as the quartet’s summer tour continued in Mansfield, MA. Starting on July 21, 1992, a show where Phish opened for Santana, the venue has been a regular stop for the band outside of 1996 – 1998 and 2003.


The band opened up this evening’s show with only the fifth Llama since they reunited in Hampton. Possum reared its head for the fourth time in the tour’s nine performances thus far and didn’t reach the heights of the much buzzed about Blossom version according to Phish.net’s Scott Marks. Later in the set, Instant Karma! saw its first action since the quartet debuted the John Lennon cover on June 12, 2010 in Cuyahoga Falls, OH.

Great Woods shows are known for their one-timer covers such as Rita Clarke’s Lit O Bit in 2010, Tuesday’s Gone by Lynyrd Skynyrd and the only electric take on Boston’s Foreplay/Long Time in 1999 as well as a fun take on The Modern Lovers’ Roadrunner in 2000. This time around Al Green’s Rhymes, a song the Mike Gordon Band has performed 15 times between 2008 and 2011, got the call with Gordon handling vocals. Phish closed out the opening stanza with Divided Sky and the Joy staple Stealing Time From The Faulty Plan.

For the second set, Phish came out with Back On The Train and once again used the second slot for a song that provides an improvisational springboard with Rock and Roll filling the role this time around. Wyman noticed “distinct segmentation like [the Down With Disease] from Friday” while adding “[I] can’t compare, but very impressed.” The first Mango Song of the year followed and started a string of three 2011 debuts that also included Bug and Pebbles and Marbles. Fans hoping for another extended Halley’s Comet were disappointed as Phish quickly transitioned into Meatstick. The Run Like An Antelope closer featured Meatstick, Bug and Divided Sky teases before the group encored with a curfew-busting Suzy Greenberg.

HT’s Eric Wyman will provide a full review tomorrow, but in the meantime, READ ON for tonight’s setlist and The Skinny…

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Phish Riverbend Music Center Cincinnati – Setlist and The Skinny

Scott Bernstein June 5, 2011 3 Comments

Phish’s only show at the Riverbend Music Center in Cincinnati took place on September 20, 2000 The band finally returned to the shed tonight after two strong performances on Friday and Saturday.

[Photo via TravelPod]


The first set featured a number of tour debuts including Taste, Lawn Boy, Reba and Fee as well as fan favorite Mound which was performed for only the fourth time since 1996. Bathtub Gin reappeared for the first time since a stellar version at Bethel and was of the “Type I” variety according to YEMblogger/Oh Kee Pah Blog author Justin Wendt.

Set two started with Carini followed by a Tweezer that provided the improvisational meat of the concert with its “dark funk” and elements of the staccato, “plinko” jamming style that have emerged of late. Who would’ve thought that nine shows into 2011 Crosseyed and Painless would be the most played cover of the year, but that’s indeed the case as a third 2011 rendition of the Talking Heads classic was dropped this evening. Heavy rotation stalwarts Light, Boogie On Reggae Woman, Julius and You Enjoy Myself closed out the second set, while Loving Cup and Tweezer Reprise served as the encore.

We’ll have a full review of Phish’s return to Riverbend and a full set of photos soon. READ ON for tonight’s setlist and The Skinny…

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Phish Blossom Cuyahoga Falls: Setlist

Scott Bernstein June 4, 2011 7 Comments

Phish @ Blossom Music Center, Cuyahoga Falls OH

Phish returned to Blossom Music Center in Cuyahoga Falls, OH this evening for their fifth-ever performance at the Cleveland-area shed. The band continued on the improv-heavy path they went down last night once again tonight, especially during the second set.

[Photo by Joe Ringus]


The first set saw the band dust off their cover of Little Feat’s Rocket In My Pocket from Waiting for Columbus for its initial post-Halloween performance. Mike Gordon sang that one as well as Fuck Your Face, which popped up for the first time since Augusta. Foam, Guelah Papyrus and Guyute also made their 2011 debuts during an opening stanza that ended with a Run Like An Antelope which Justin Wendt of Oh Kee Pah Blog feels was “slaughtered.” The Antelope closer featured a Streets of Cairo tease and featured Trey making shout outs to his band mates and LD Chris “Toph” Kuroda.

Birds of a Feather opened the second set and was followed by Possum – the song Phish has played most since Hampton. Yet, this wasn’t a typical Possum as the group screwed around with the tempo towards the end leading towards a “meltdown” similar to the version of Boogie On from Bethel. Out of what Wendt described as “dark ambience” came the first original debut of 2011 entitled Steam. The Anastasio/Tom Marshall-penned tune had, “some elements of 46 days to it but played much slower and [more] deliberately” according to YEMblogger Josh Korin. Unlike the terribly short six-minute Piper from three nights earlier in Holmdel, the version that emerged out of sound effects used for Steam was extended nicely with improv HT’s Wade Wilby described as a “really pretty ambient jam.” Piper transitioned into Lizards before the quartet laid into a take on Allen Toussaint’s Sneakin’ Sally Through The Alley that had “heavy psychedelic overtones” according to Wilby and was “the business” in Wendt’s mind.

Out of Sally came Harry Hood and smack dab in the middle of the usual Hood jam, Phish switched up the tempo and had keyboardist Page McConnell lead them into the rare Have Mercy before finishing the Harry Hood sandwich. Character Zero, another staple of the rotation that doesn’t vary very much from version to version, wasn’t a standard take as guitarist Trey Anastasio worked in numerous Smoke On The Water teases in both his solo and the ending. Not content to end the evening with a throwaway encore, Phish delivered Slave to the Traffic Light in the bonus frame.

READ ON for tonight’s setlist and The Skinny…

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Phish Clarkston: Pine Knob Setlist & Skinny

Scott Bernstein June 3, 2011 6 Comments

Phish @ DTE Energy Music Theatre, Clarkston MI

Phish bassist Mike Gordon celebrated his birthday last night in Clarkston, MI, where his band performed at the DTE Energy Music Theatre aka Pine Knob. Yesterday marked Phish’s first outdoor show in Michigan since 1994.


After filling the PNC setlist with short versions of usually lengthy tunes, Phish broke out of their shell in Clarkston by delivering a near 25-minute Down With Disease in which the band found a groove and rode it hard. We’ll have a full review of last night’s show and a photo set soon. READ ON for the setlist and The Skinny…

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Bloggy Goodness: Team Jenny

Jeffrey Greenblatt June 3, 2011 No Comments

Last month it was announced that The Decemberists multi-instrumentalist Jenny Conlee had been diagnosed with breast cancer, which while caught early will force Conlee miss the band’s June dates during

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Phish Holmdel Setlist & Skinny: Night One

Scott Bernstein May 31, 2011 No Comments

Tonight Phish moved on to the second stop of Summer Tour 2011 and one that is familiar to both fans and the band – the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, NJ. Located a short drive from guitarist Trey Anastasio’s hometown of Princeton, Phish first performed at what was then the Garden State Arts Center as part of the H.O.R.D.E. tour on July 11, 1992 and have since returned six times before this week’s two-night stand.

[via PNC Bank Arts Center Facebook Page]


The band came out of the gates by crafting a first set filled with high-energy, arena rock favorites including Chalk Dust Torture, Punch You In The Eye, The Moma Dance and Divided Sky. Anastasio dedicated a straight forward yet strong version of Sand to “Max” before struggling through The Divided Sky later in the set. Trey had such issues with the complex tune that he gave up at one point and urged the crowd to sing his part.

There were no trainwrecks in set two as the quartet put together a tight, engaging second stanza that started with a cover of J.J. Cale’s After Midnight and featured an exploratory jam out of Drowned before ending with the tour’s first YEM. Outside of Alaska, the newest original played on this night, Sand, was debuted in 1999. Phish returns to the PNC Bank Arts Center tomorrow. READ ON for the setlist and for “The Skinny”…

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Postcards From Page Side: A Tour Opening Bonanza From Phish at Bethel

Brian Bavosa May 31, 2011 5 Comments

This week, we get an early dose of Postcards From Page Side from our featured columnist Brian Bavosa as he recounts Phish’s tour opening weekend at Bethel Woods in Bethel, NY…

After five months off since their triumphant New Year’s Eve run at the DCU Center in Worcester and NYC’s Madison Square Garden that seemingly saw the band turn a musical corner, Phish returned to the road this past weekend for a three-night run at Bethel Woods in upstate New York. After the holiday run, fans were very interested to see what might be in store for the band’s most aggressive and longest tour in nearly 20 years this summer – broken down into two legs, 30 proper shows and a 3-day festival over the 4th of July weekend in Superball IX.

[Photo by Dave Vann © Phish 2011]


Bethel Woods is a venue that fans (and the HT staff) have been hoping for years Phish would play. Sitting just atop the hill where Woodstock was held, simply put, the place has good bones. It is also the nicest ampitheater in the northeast in my opinion, if not the country. The sightlines and sound are awesome from any vantage point, and the lush, green lawn is as comfortable as they come. While ample trees and a full-fledged museum dedicated to Woodstock on-site (which is a site to behold on itself, and highly recommended), Bethel is the quintessential place to see the band, with plenty of space to move around and get down.

When the band finally hit the stage on Friday night, any question of proving a point was made with a bombastic Tweezer > My Friend, My Friend opening sequence. In fact, from start to finish, the first set of Summer Tour 2011 was as high energy as they come and sure to be a favorite of the weekend for many. Boasting a super-funky Wolfman’s Brother that slid effortlessly into Walk Away, one of the strongest tunes for Phish 3.0 on a consistent basis, any doubts of practice, or easing into the weekend were quickly dissipated.

READ ON for more on Phish’s tour-opening run in Bethel…

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Phish Bethel Night Two: Setlist and Skinny

Scott Bernstein May 28, 2011 5 Comments

On Friday night Phish kicked off the first leg of their summer tour with a hearty opening show that featured a number of expansive jams and laid the ground work for what should be an exciting run. The quartet returned to gorgeous Bethel Woods for the second of three performances at the venue near the site of 1969’s Woodstock Festival on Saturday.

[Photo via Liberty Independent]


Saturday’s show proved the power of the jams as the band continued to flex their improvisational muscles in Bethel. In the first set both Halley’s Comet and Bathtub Gin featured impressive improvisation, especially considering nearly every version of Halley’s since Hampton has been of the five-minute variety. Halley’s at Bethel surpassed the 12-minute mark to the delight of Phish fans, while Bathtub Gin contained elements of Manteca and some of the best group interplay seen from the run thanks in part of drummer Jon Fishman’s bombastic backbeat. Also of note was the rare stretching out of the post-first verse breakdown in Runaway Jim.

The second set started with a 15-minute-plus Down With Disease that devolved into a space jam before the band worked their way into Free. Backwards Down The Number Line could be a monster when Phish chooses to explore the space between the riff that forms the jam and the Bethel version showed why as each member of the group contributed to a tasty improvisation that alternated between light/airy playing and dark/evil-tinged themes. Night two wasn’t just about the jams, Phish was also having fun all night, which was most apparent during a Makisupa Policeman that found Trey, Page, Mike and Fish each taking a turn at laying down what the music would sound like at their respective houses in a cool segment that’s worth a listen. From there, the boys turned on a dime into Harry Hood land for a patient take on the tune that would be a standout version if it peaked harder. David Bowie gave Phish one last chance to jam and they took advantage with Trey in particular laying down some ripping riffs.

HT’s Brian Bavosa will be at all three tour-opening shows and will file a full report early next week. READ ON for tonight’s setlist and The Skinny…

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