Phish returned to Los Angeles Friday, playing the first of three nights at the legendary Hollywood Bowl and it was an appropriately Lights! Camera! Action! show in Tinseltown.
The show opened in decidedly rom-com territory, starting off with “Moma Dance,” the meet-cute of the Phish repertoire, guitarist Trey Anastasio futzing a bit with his in-ear monitor as the band got the crowd moving. “Sigma Oasis” and “Party Time,” an affable-if-inoffensive Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan pairing, allowed the band to get fully loosened up, SoCal vibes permeating the venue. The ninth “Strawberry Letter #23” and first of 2023 felt like the turning point of the first set, the final dance-party preview before the feature.
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The spring tour has delivered several highlight first set set-pieces and opening night in Hollywood continued the trend with an excellent “Everything’s Right” midway through. This was the indie film that could, exploring challenging themes with a scene-stealing supporting role from bassist Mike Gordon who guided the improv through some dark psychedelia. Trey Anastasio went fully spirograph with his guitar playing, Page McConnell adding color on the piano, and drummer Jon Fishman fleshing out the in-real-time twists-and-turns screenplay, certain to be a contender at the Independent Spirit Awards.
Oscar-bait “Shade” was the post-jam cool down and the bluesy noir of “Funky Bitch” with its questionable femme fatale was the first real straight-rocker of the night, setting things up for the set closer. “A Wave of Hope” has taken on many forms depending on where it lands in a Phish setlist, and Friday, in the pre-intermission slot, it was pure action film, a bus barrelling down an L.A. freeway that has to stay about 50 mph or it’ll explode. The pace was relentless from start to finish, Fishman and Gordon playing the villains, pushing things weird and angular as Trey Keanustasio played the floppy-haired protagonist, expertly guiding the white-knuckles jam down the road to safety.
Read on after The Skinny for the rest of the recap and more.
The Skinny
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The Setlist | |
|---|---|
Set 1: The Moma Dance > Sigma Oasis, Party Time, Strawberry Letter 23, Everything’s Right, Shade, Funky Bitch, A Wave of Hope Set 2: Sample in a Jar > Down with Disease [1] > Mercury -> Blaze On [2] > You Enjoy Myself, Cavern Encore: Down with Disease was unfinished. Blaze On’s lyrics were changed to reference “Bowl.” | |
The Venue | |
Hollywood Bowl [See upcoming shows] | |
17,500 | |
2 shows | |
The Music | |
8 songs | |
7 songs | |
15 songs | |
2006 | |
11.6 [Gap chart] | |
None | |
Sigma Oasis, Party Time, Strawberry Letter 23, Everything’s Right, Shade, Funky Bitch, Down With Disease, Mercury, You Enjoy Myself, Cavern, Drift While You’re Sleeping | |
Party Time LTP 07/20/2022 (35 Show Gap) | |
Down With Disease 21:50 | |
Strawberry Letter 23 3:57 | |
Junta – 1, A Picture of Nectar – 1, Hoist – 2, The Story of the Ghost – 1, Big Boat – 1, Sigma Oasis – 4, Misc. – 3, Covers – 2 | |
The Rest | |
78° and Sunny at Showtime | |
Koa 1 | |
After a let’s-all-go-to-the-lobby setbreak, the second act kicked off with an admittedly rough “Sample in a Jar,” which would ultimately prove to be the night’s MacGuffin. There was a “Down With Disease” looming for the Hollywood Bowl run, it was only a question of when and what genre it would take. The HB1 “DWD” was a masterclass in cinematic storytelling with a strong ensemble cast and inventive world-building. All four members of the band were moving, interacting and reacting to each other, diving deeply into their roles. The jam was a musical Rashomon, four seemingly separate stories — Gordon’s thickly-accented bass, McConnell’s lively Rhodes, Fishman’s cerebral rhythms and Anastasio’s densely layered guitar — that fit together into a single mindbending plot. Phish has newfound patience with their jamming, setting up the story and then seeing it through to its natural, often jaw-dropping conclusion and Friday night’s Disease was a prime example.
But the band was not done hopping around the multiplex, the “Mercury” -> “Blaze On” pairing going full sci-fi popcorn flick. “Mercury” was nicely executed, moving through its composed sections to a short outer-space groove that turned out to be the prequel for the following slick-segued “Blaze On.” Trey was in high spirits, namechecking “The Bowl” in the lyrics and getting his voice to cooperate with his fun-loving work through the lyrics. This opened up into a set-phasers-for-kill jam, Trey providing lots of rhythm guitar while Mike and Page were all lasers and light-sabers, no CGI, no greenscreen, just old school, without-a-net Phish improvisation, a grizzled-but-lovable Harrison Ford still getting it done deep into their career.
With multiple signature moments already down on film, the final quarter of the show might have been set up to be a letdown, but the set closer would not be a mail-it-in role for the quartet, Trey counting out “You Enjoy Myself” to the crowd’s delight. “YEM” is a triple-feature in of itself, an historical epic, a plot-twist thriller and a dialog-heavy drama. When the band is playing well, it’s all seamless, and Friday night it moved from one to the other with natural momentum. The post-tramps jam built to a Tarantinoesque banter, Anastasio and Gordon going face to face, back and forth, playfully challenging each other and creating a nifty groove in the process. The vocal segment was a playground for lighting director Chris Kuroda who had been technicoloring the Bowl’s architecture all night. Frenetic bright whites made way for mesmerizing spirals of pink and red.
“Cavern” is Phish’s slasher flick, Fishman and Gordon providing the chunky gore and splatter to end the set. “Drift While You’re Sleeping,” with its editing-room-floor shifts, provided a feel-good encore after a night largely filled with drama and tension.
Phish is back in action and ready for their close-up at the Hollywood Bowl for the second of three tonight. Watch a livestream at LivePhish.com.
Steve Rose Photos
https://www.instagram.com/p/CrV1I4ZtcYO/
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Phish From The Road Photos
https://www.instagram.com/p/CrUTUpGOjCg/
https://www.instagram.com/p/CrUu14huVpj/
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Posters
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