Phish Unleashes Outrageous 30-Minute ‘Ruby Waves’ At Dayton Finale

Phish‘s fall tour continued last night with the second of two nights at Dayton, Ohio’s Nutter Center, where the band unleashed arguably the best show of the run so far. With Type II improv across both sets and some awesome song selection, many fans in the venue and on the couch were awed by the performance.

Coming out of the gate with “Set Your Soul Free,” Phish quickly dove into improvisational waters, bucking its trend of staying inside the box from this summer. Guitarist Trey Anastasio initiated a modulation to a bright major key as keyboardist Page McConnell‘s twinkling piano work weaved around the guitar riffs. The two musicians would be in perfect sync throughout the show, often linking in the midst of jams for moments of interplay. Once the initial bliss segment began to fade, bassist Mike Gordon flipped on a deep, dark synth effect, offering a cool counterpoint to Anastasio and McConnell’s continued major-key play.

Coasting atop the keyboards — first Wurlitzer electric piano and then Moog One synthesizer — Anastasio continued to craft beautiful melodies atop drummer Jon Fishman‘s loose beat until the time came to go beneath the surface into some minor-key territory. Anastasio kept up his busy leads as McConnell offered blocky chordal work underneath. Without missing a beat, the piano began to soar as the guitar focused on delay work. From here, Phish built a strong peak from which Fish executed a return to “SYSF” proper after a powerful 15-minute opener.

The key word is effortless. This is how the jamming has felt on fall tour so far — the quartet is opening portals to uncharted dimensions at the drop of a hat and is getting into deep territory within minutes … something you truly love to see.

“Funky Bitch” offered a solid, energetic reading to continue the first set ahead of a gorgeous “Roggae” that once again saw Anastasio and McConnell linking up on a series of wonderful melodies and licks. Anastasio in particular kept coming back to the chorus’ vocal melody throughout the jam as he peppered in use of delay and reverse effects through Fish’s swirling drumbeats.

The next big jam of the night came within “Kill Devil Falls,” whose deceptively short 12-minute runtime packed some serious improv within. Phish began the jam with a low-key choogle tinged with some “Back on the Train” and “Passing Through” before it began to pick up some steam with McConnell’s switch from Hammond B3 to Wurlitzer. The band worked in perfect sync to craft a propulsive minor-key groove before Anastasio blasted off with some bright and joyous licks, where he was quickly joined by McConnell’s piano work. The twin MVPs for the night kept building and building as Fish pushed the tempo and intensity to an amazing peak — Anastasio landed back into the chorus of the song right at the apex.

Solid renditions of “Steam” and “My Friend, My Friend” let the band explore the moodier side of their catalogue before Gordon fronted the first version of “Crazy Sometimes” since December 8, 2019 — a gap of 132 shows. “Walls of the Cave” was tapped as the set closer and let Anastasio hose down the arena with powerful and ripping leads.

Read on after The Skinny for the rest of the recap and more.

With no repeats on the fall run so far, “Down with Disease” was the obvious choice as the second-set opener and delivered on an excellent 15-minute rendition. Once again achieving liftoff in a completely effortless manner, the “Disease” jam hearkened back to October 19, 2021 in its patience and exploratory manner with very little hurry or intensity. McConnell’s B3 work stood out in the early part of the jam as he and Anastasio traded familiar-sounding melodies (hint: check out the Camden 2019 “Twenty Years Later”). The guitarist danced around the theme to “Mountain Jam,” as has been a common trend this year, as Fish seemed to be everywhere on his kit at once.

A minor shift just past the 10-minute mark signaled the next segment of this jam as Anastasio used his Whammy pedal to warble his chords. The brief foray into minor quickly turned major again as McConnell continued to lay on thick organ riffs atop Anastasio’s relatively restrained delay textures. Effects-laden space began to creep in at the edges of the improv as the rhythm section continued to drive forward, the percussive B3 remaining the focal point of the music. Guitar emerged from the murk with some powerful leads alterting that it was time for a peak, and Phish blended together into a singular organism for a blistering conclusion that included a return to the ending of “Disease.”

Wasting no time, Anastasio kicked off what would eventually turn into a half-hour rendition of jam staple “Ruby Waves.” Guitar and Wurlitzer immediately intertwined in the early stages of the jam as Fish pushed the pace underneath. Slowing down the pace of the jam into a relaxed major-key space, the band began a narrative of beauty as McConnell’s piano work really stood at the forefront of the music. Switching to Rhodes, the “Ruby” jam began to head deeper into the unknown also thanks to Gordon’s space-bombs.

Anastasio’s delay loops took over for a brief moment as off-kilter dissonance seemed to be in our future, but that was quickly exchanged for a classic rock Zeppelin-esque peak. Fish came down from the peak with a cowbell-centric beat similar to the intro of “Foam” as the groovy motif began to inform Phish’s next move. Not even halfway through this jam, the band kept up the effortless vibe to the music, with nothing feeling forced or contrived as the improv just flowed out of them.

Fish drove forward as McConnell laid down a solid bed of piano and the band rested on the cusp of major and minor – decision time. Anastasio opted to modulate into a triumphant bliss mode that sounded distinctly familiar to many fans – seek out the July 20, 2014 “The Wedge,” the October 16, 2021 “Carini,” or the song “Paradise City” if you really liked this. Milking the peak for every second it was worth, the guitarist stuck to rhythm for much of the segment — just drifting along in the uplifting chord progression in no hurry to get anywhere.

As the peak ended, Fish initiated a return to the conclusion of “Ruby Waves,” but it was immediately clear that Anastasio was not done with the song – and we got a “second jam” of sorts, something that has happened in a number of “Tweezer” jams this year.

Ruby Waves by itself makes me feel some pretty powerful emotions. It is cathartic arena rock Phish. But when they communicate and connect with such stunning improvisation like they did tonight, Ruby Waves is one of the best things you can ask for at a Phish show. Heavyweight jam.

— Ben Gardner (@BenGardner87) October 12, 2023

Departing into a mellow space, McConnell hopped on Moog One synthesizer as the darkness began in earnest. In less than a minute, we had gone from all-out triumph arena rock to exploring the depths of a black hole — Fish’s steady beat were all that held the jam together and prevented total meltdown. Anastasio layered in synth effects and delays as he bent it all with the Whammy pedal as textures from Gordon and McConnell continued to take over.

The thick cloud of soupy noise was soon infiltrated by chirpy guitar leads as Anastasio pulled us from the depths of the pit and into a charging minor-key groove thanks to Fish’s continued propulsion. McConnell’s funky Wurlitzer work and occasional blasts of synth led the way as Anastasio stayed within the pocket of minor-key rhythm work. Through most of 2023, dark jams have been short-lived pockets among big bliss progressions, but Phish stuck with it last night, moving next into a ring-modulator zone (Anastasio’s dial-tone effect) that continued to be not only dark, but weird.

McConnell’s Wurlitzer seemed the only anchor to reality among a torrent of ring mod and space-age tones from Anastasio and Gordon as Jon Fishman continued to be his monstrous self, just obliterating everything in his path with an aggressive groove. THIS is why we Phish.

Finally returning home to “Ruby Waves,” it felt as though the crowd exhaled for the first time in minutes as the insane tension of the final jam section was released at last in a final moment of euphoria — concluding 30 minutes of some of the finest jamming of 2023.

There are honestly few songs that would have suited the cool-down slot here better than the tender “Lifeboy,” making its first appearance of the year and offering the venue and couch crowds alike a few minutes to bask in the beautiful songwriting as we all struggled to process the behemoth jam that had just gone down.

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“Piper” made its usual fiery late-second-set appearance with strong fretboard fireworks from Anastasio ahead of an exuberant “Backwards Down the Number Line” and a surprise “I Am the Walrus” set closer, marking the first time the Beatles classic had been played more than once in a calendar year since 2016. The dissonant peak that closed the set featured McConnell blasting every sample in his arsenal as Anastasio hammered waves of ascending guitar – Phish-ifying the weird Magical Mystery Tour vibe even further.

A wild and ridiculous “Egg In A Hole” began the encore with sweeping waves of synthesizer and guitar as the appropriate “I’ve got to get back to Chicago” lyrics foreshadowed the three nights to come this weekend. In the show-closing “Possum,” Anastasio referred to Gordon as “The Eggman,” tying together a reference from the set closer and the first song of the encore.

Profusely thanking the Ohio crowd and voicing his love for the Nutter Center, Anastasio and Phish struck out for their three-night run at Chicago’s United Center after burning yet another venue to the ground. This weekend will no doubt prove to us if this October run of eight shows can stack up to the monstrous April tour — and I have a hunch we’re in for a treat, based on how trends are going!

Tickets are available for all three nights in Chicago. Fans can also tune in via LivePhish.com livestreams.

Phish From The Road Photos

https://www.instagram.com/p/CyRcx2wJjn2

Posters

https://www.instagram.com/p/CyOWYlluaEQ/

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Source: JamBase.com