This last week, legendary Vermont band Phish closed out their most recent West Coast tour with an illustrious three-night residency that packed the house at Los Angeles’ legendary Hollywood Bowl. Undeterred by the group’s recent—and regrettable—snub by the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, fans flocked from all corners of the globe for the unforgettable series that more than lived up to any and all expectations, with each show including the Herculean undertaking of two full-length sets and an extended encore.
True to form, the band gave fans as much as they could have possibly wanted from their time onstage, clocking in at more than three and a half hours each night. A culmination of the group’s more than four decades playing together, their weekend-long series told a cohesive story that flowed with an impassioned narrative, evoking a range of emotions in the audience throughout the evenings.
Night one kicked off with a sense of high intensity and showmanship that set the tone for the days to come. As the sun began to set behind the Hollywood Hills, frontman Trey Anastasio and company approached their places in the limelight, launching into the first set with their 2002 hit “46 Days.”
The crowd was immediately invested in the classic-rock cadence, standing to dance despite the opening stanza’s injunction to “sit yourself down when you’re ready to stay.” The show embraced a multi-sensory element, as the accompanying light display danced reflectively off the stage’s dome in symbiosis with the rhythm. Keeping a theme of upbeat, classic melody throughout their performance, the night was flush with recognizable standouts from their tenure, including “Rift,” “What’s Going Through Your Mind,” and the tour debut of “Mercury.”
Night two unfolded at a slower rhythmic pace than the evening before, leading to a show that heavily displayed the band’s proclivity for extemporization between their recorded songs. Sauntering onstage with clear reverence and appreciation for the audience that arrived early with boundless enthusiasm, the group launched the set with a Southern twang on their 1996 hit “Runaway Jim.”
Embellishing naturally slower and repetitive segments of the piece to build anticipation, the performers cued the crowd to interact with the music—a theme that remained constant throughout the evening. Stressing the comfort the musicians had among themselves and their collective creative spark, the night featured the most prominent display of musical improvisation of the weekend, while still delivering classics like “Birds of a Feather,” “Blaze On,” and “Slave to the Traffic Light.”
Night three began with tremendous energy and only grew from there. Opening with the tour debut of their 1992 piece “The Landlady,” Anastasio and bassist Mike Gordon even put their instruments down for a moment to dance in Samba style, with the crowd quickly following suit. Reminding all in attendance of the abundance of music the group has released, they treated fans to several more tour debuts—“Llama” and “Timber,” among others—despite having already plumbed vast swaths of their repertoire in recent weeks. The band continued to draw from its boundless list of hits with incredible animation, including “The Lizards,” “Kill Devil Falls,” and “Say It to Me S.A.N.T.O.S.,” with Anastasio and Gordon periodically hopping atop miniature trampolines, never missing a beat while playing in midair.
As the evening drew to a close, the group retained its commitment to theatrical showmanship until the very end. In homage to the history of Los Angeles, they triumphantly spliced in sections of the theme from Stanley Kubrick’s magnum opus “2001: A Space Odyssey,” symbolically capping the larger-than-life scale of their music throughout their Hollywood run. Turning up the jets for one last surge, the band returned for a truly sentimental encore, sending fans into the night with a more-than–20-minute rendition of their 2014 single “Fuego.”
While Phish may be marking the end of another successful burst on the road, they’re hardly pausing for breath. In just a few short weeks, the members will refocus their energy on the East Coast as they prepare for their second tour of the year. Given the level of enthusiasm shown at the Bowl, we can only expect many of the same faces to make the cross-country expedition to New Hampshire next month to witness the next chapter of this monumental legacy.
Check out more photos from Day 1.
