We’ve come to the end of the first leg of Phish Summer Tour 2011. Tonight’s performance at the nTelos Wireless Pavilion in Portsmouth, VA is the 18th and last of the run. Phish has only played at the intimate venue once before this evening, back on June 15, 2010.
[From @Phish_FTR]
Phish played on Father’s Day for the third year in a row tonight. To mark the occasion, the band members welcomed each of their fathers to the stage during the show opening Harpua. This extreme rarity (10th version in 15 years) didn’t feature an extensive narration with guitarist Trey Anastasio taking a quick opportunity to welcome the audience to the show and explain that the tune was performed in honor of a fan a sign for their 31st birthday. The fan was birthday girl Kristen Goess who attended the show with her mother. She brought a sign that said “31 Minute Walls of the Cave” on the front and “For My 31st Birthday” on the back. Kristen not only got Harpua played in her honor, but Walls of the Cave as well (though not a 31-minute version). Trey then introduced all of the band member’s fathers who helped sing the call and response section at the end of the song making for a memorable moment.
[Photo via SpencerBC]
READ ON for the setlist and The Skinny…
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…
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…
Phish Summer Tour 2011 is in full swing as the band returns to the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, NJ once again this evening.
[Photo by Balaji Mani from 5/31]
@alliedise will be reporting live from Holmdel for @YEMblog, so be sure to follow along for the latest. READ ON for tonight’s setlist and The Skinny…
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”…
