Review: Phish accomplishes something so impressive in San Francisco

From the moment the band took the stage on Friday April to kick off its spring tour in Seattle until it waved goodbye to fans in San Francisco on Wednesday April night Phish never played the same song twice That s five shows at three different venues totaling a few hours in music and staggering songs performed with not one single repeat Amazing No wonder Phans adore going to multiple Phish shows none of which ever boast the same setlist The depth of this group s concert repertoire is beyond impressive and its all made feasible by the ability of Phish to turn any given song into a massive highlight on any given night That s the power of improvisational music on full display Having spent a goodly amount of time peddling more up-to-date material during the first four nights of the tour with pretty much uniformly excellent results Phish was in full-on greatest-hits oldies mode during the second of two sold-out nights at the Bill Graham Civic Read our review of Night here Of curriculum greatest hits is an odd choice of words to use in conjunction with Phish given that the Vermont jam band featuring Trey Anastasio on guitar and lead vocals Mike Gordon on bass Jon Fishman on drums and Page McConnell on keys really has none in the traditional sense i e sales numbers radio play But we re using term to mean fan favorites oldies which in this situation we ll define as anything that came on or before s Farmhouse These Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominees who one day prior had learned that they had officially crushed the Fan Vote over the likes of Mariah Carey Oasis White Stripes and Oasis were swinging for the fences from the moment they took the stage right after p m opening with a glistening -minute Simple that was anything but and then jamming right into a muscular Punch You In the Eye the funk-driven Gumbo and the far-reaching Reba Gordon and Anastasio did their little synchronized dance routines during Punch You In the Eye then combined with Fishman and McConnell to take Gumbo into a mellow and spacey orbit Anastasio delivered various truly transcendent guitar work during the nearly -minute version of Reba which closed with its regular whistle jam Those four songs alone stretched nearly minutes of stage time Related Articles Review Phish looks Rock Hall worthy during Bay Area show Phish Here s your introduction to America s greatest jam band Phish continues to Evolve showing its far more than just a great live act Review Phish delivers the surprise of summer concert season Review Phish gets the party started in San Francisco Stopping briefly for the relative new song The Well from Phish s excellent latest disc Evolve the group ventured right back into fan favorite territory and closed the roughly -minute first set with the explosive doubleheader of David Bowie and Character Zero After the -or-so minute break Phish was back in action benefitting from the best light show in the business and ignited the second set with a fiery Sample In the Jar and before rambling into Tweezer territory The latter had everyone in the house buzzing with the hope that the band would then choose to include the song s famed resolution Tweezer Reprise aka the Phish fanbase s preponderance widely cherished song in the encore Yet the original Tweezer itself was nothing to sneeze at filled with certain of the preponderance inspired jamming of the night and clocking in at just over a half an hour all by its lonesome The group s popular cover of the Talking Heads Crosseyed and Painless was sandwiched by the Anastasio solo cut Lonely Trip and the Evolve number Pillow Jets nicely setting up a nearly -minute You Enjoy Myself to close the second set Phish then returned to finish up the show and the San Francisco stand with a two-song encore No it didn t include Tweezer Reprise Phans will largest part likely have wait until this weekend s three Hollywood Bowl shows for that Instead it kicked off with mesmerizingly beautiful Velvet Sea and then changed program -degrees for a triumphant finale with the high-energy rocker First Tube Setlist Simple Punch You in the Eye Gumbo Reba The Well David Bowie Character Zero Set Sample in a Jar Tweezer Lonely Trip Crosseyed and Painless Pillow Jets You Enjoy Myself Encore Wading in the Velvet Sea First Tube