Shortly after announcing that Sunday’s show would begin at 1 p.m. due to a high likelihood of sever weather, Trey Anastasio, Page McConnell, Jon Fishman, and Mike Gordon returned to the stage at Mondegreen on Saturday night for another two spectacular sets.
Gordon led the charge on the opening “Mike’s Song”, still dressed up in his sport coat after having a pop-in comedy set earlier in the day. A sea of beach balls took over the front of the crowd from the opening notes, and the band dropped into a major key jam right off the rip.
A serene “I am Hydrogen” then gave way to “Weekapaug Groove” (a modegreen). The foursome was well oiled from the start, with everyone knowing their place: Page on wurly, Mike bubbling underneath, Trey delivering danceable staccato notes.
The intro and lyrics to “Theme from the Bottom” emphasized the brooding grey skies off in the distance, but those anxieties were soon quelled by Trey’s blissful leads and Page’s grand piano flourishes during a modestly deep jam.
An unfortunately brief “Blaze On” came next, with a rolling kinetic wave of linear rainbow lights overhead, rising and falling along with the band, who definitely sounds like a group that had been playing for three straight days.
Page took the wheel during “Gotta Jibboo” and steered into dark territory with moody baby grand chords then shimmery Rhodes. Mike chimed in with a bass bomb that reverberated through the concert grounds.
Phish kept picking right back up where they left off and pushing it a little bit further each time, and “46 Days” was no exception. A subaquatic funk jam featured Page on Wurlitzer, with Trey and Mike working in tandem on the low-end.
“Evolve”, the title track from Phish’s recent studio release, threw a bit of cold water on this hot first set, but “Meatstick” was met with audience-wide elation.
The first set closer, “David Bowie”, felt cohesive and communal, clearly benefitting from the band members already being dialed in with one another. They all moved as one through the short but focused soft jam.
Blasting off for set two with “2001”, Phish took its time on this one, unlike recent rushed versions of the song. Amid glowing lights of the Ferris Wheel and Heliograph, a couple huge crescendos emphasized Phish was in a state of peak performance this weekend.
Mike filled up a lot of space with thick, sparring strikes during “Oblivion”, which included a solid jam that bridged light and dark.
Then during “Down with Disease”, Fishman rolling all over the kit before settling into a sustainable base groove. Trey played some of short, ascending, echoing runs up the neck he was big on in 2021–2022 and teased ZZ Top‘s “La Grange” and The Beatles‘ “Eleanor Rigby”. He also improvised and later reprised a super tasty lick with a hammer-on and note bend that drove the crowd nuts.
“Tweezer” saw the crowd join in with spontaneous woos like night night one. By this point in the weekend, they had plenty of patience and observed them well. Page traversed opaque aquatics on his keys as Trey did some Dickey Betts-style classic rock riffing. Mike dropped more bass bombs as a jam reminiscent of the “Blaze On” from earlier took “Tweezer” over the finish line.
Mike removed his snazzy blazer for “Scents and Subtle Sounds”, which continued the parade of consistent improv. Throughout the night, the jams were all so connected and unified. If you spliced them all together (and someone probably should) they would all probably fit together pretty nicely. Gone was the lovely chaos of Friday’s show, replaced by organized cohesive precision.
“Boogie on Reggae Woman” was fun, plain and simple. Mike had a heavy presence as he had throughout the second set, never falling far away. “Carini” was the icing on the cake—straight peak all the way through.
A climactic encore kicked off with “Backwards Down the Numberline”, followed by fan favorite “You Enjoy Myself”, and “Tweezer Reprise”.
Saturday was an especially strong show, from beginning to end. Though none of the jams were exceptionally long, they were all so cohesive, as if you could put them end to end and have a cohesive piece of improvisation (at least in the second set). Two full days of warmup were clearly evident last night. It almost seemed as if the band was leaving it all on the line just in case they weren’t able to mount a full Sunday show.”TweePrize” felt especially indicative of that.
Phish returns to the stage this afternoon for a matinee performance due to the chance of sever weather this evening. Those unable to make it in person can tune in to Phish’s nightly performances via LivePhish. [Note: Live For Live Music is a LivePhish affiliate. Ordering your webcast 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 – “Mike’s Song” > “I Am Hydrogen” > “Weekapaug Groove” – 8/17/24
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Setlist: Phish | Mondegreen | The Woodlands | Dover, DE | 8/17/24
Set 1: Mike’s Song > I Am Hydrogen > Weekapaug Groove, Theme From the Bottom > Blaze On, Gotta Jibboo, 46 Days, Evolve, Meatstick > David Bowie
Set 2: Also Sprach Zarathustra > Oblivion, Down with Disease > Tweezer > Scents and Subtle Sounds > Boogie On Reggae Woman, Carini
Encore: Backwards Down the Number Line, You Enjoy Myself, Tweezer Reprise
This was the third show of the Mondegreen festival. DWD was unfinished. Trey teased La Grange and Eleanor Rigby in DWD and Eleanor Rigby in Tweezer.
The post You Enjoy Mondegreen: Phish Goes Deep On Night 3 With 2 Sets Of Cohesive Jamming [Photos/Videos] appeared first on L4LM.
