It’s the most wonderful time of the year, Phish summer tour. The band kicked off its 26-date seasonal trek on Friday with its first of three shows at Mansfield, MA’s Xfinity Center, delivering a straightforward concert of classic—if a little predictable—cuts along with a couple songs from the band’s latest album, Evolve.
It doesn’t get more textbook than a “Buried Alive” show opener, though for only the second time in the band’s history the instrumental segued into “Character Zero”. For a bit more variety, Phish brought out Evolve newbie “Hey Stranger” for just the sixth time, and with it came a fun compact jam propelled by Page McConnell‘s robotic synths and Trey Anastasio diving into the low end with one of his favorite pedals of the 4.0 era. The proceeding “Down with Disease” allowed for even more depth, and at 17 minutes stood as the second-longest jam of the evening.
Phish — “Hey Stranger” [Pro-Shot] — 7/19/24
In the band’s first true test of courage of the summer, Phish stepped up with tenacity on DwD as Page’s murky synthesizers laid a foundation for frenetic Trey leads and the rhythm section of drummer Jon Fishman and bassist Mike Gordon undulated beneath the surface. Fishman never allowed the tempo to slow, keeping the jam a consistent speed throughout which facilitated some flashy type I improv. More conventional cuts followed with “Roggae”, “NICU”, and the set-closing “46 Days”, with a modest “Stash” stuck in the middle that once again put Trey out front.
For set two, Phish didn’t take a breath the entire 80 minutes with a non-stop stream of music. An opening “Suzy Greenberg” teed up the centerpiece of the frame, a somewhat tame “Run Like An Antelope” stitched together with a deep “Ghost” that amounted to nearly half an hour by the time the band transitioned into “Light”. On “Ghost”, Phish finally took its time to relax for the first time in the evening (and therefore the tour). The slower tempo facilitated more full-band improvisation, with Page’s electric piano twinkling overhead and Trey raining down triplet notes while Fishman kept his steady hand on the rhythmic dial, and Mike providing foundational support throughout.
A fairly succinct “Light” gave way to the second of two Evolve cuts of the evening, the fifth-ever “Pillow Jets” which—despite its name—came crashing down with noise-y coarseness, juxtaposing the inherent softness of the ensuing “Beneath a Sea of Stars Part 1”. Apparently Phish had a bit more havoc left to unspool, as a fittingly chaotic and climactic “Split Open And Melt” closed the set. Though perhaps a bit conventional, a “Harry Hood” encore was the perfect punctuation to the start of Phish’s 2024 summer tour.
Check out a gallery of images from Phish in Mansfield, MA on Friday courtesy of photographer Charlie Francis along with some fan-shot videos. The band returns to the Xfinity Center tonight, July 20th, for its second of two shows. Find tickets and a full list of tour dates on Phish’s website. Subscribe to LivePhish+ to listen to every show on the tour and browse an archive of live Phish recordings. To order your LivePhish webcasts for any of the band’s upcoming summer shows, head here. [Note: Live For Live Music is a LivePhish. Ordering your subscription or purchasing an audio download via the links on this page helps support our work covering Phish and the world of live music as a whole. Thanks for reading!]
Phish — “Hey Stranger” — 7/19/24
[Video: digidigit]
Setlist [via Phish.net]: Phish | Xfinity Center | Mansfield, MA | 7/19/24
SET 1: Buried Alive > Character Zero, Hey Stranger, Down with Disease, Roggae > NICU, Stash, 46 Days
SET 2: Suzy Greenberg > Run Like an Antelope > Ghost > Light > Pillow Jets > Beneath a Sea of Stars Part 1 > Split Open and Melt
ENCORE: Harry Hood
Trey and Page teased Maria in Light. Split Open and Melt contained Shipwreck quotes.
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