Phish set up shop at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley on Monday night (April 17) for the first time in 13 years, performing the first of three sold-out shows before 8,000-plus fans at the historic venue that first opened its doors nearly 120 years ago.
The Vermont group — consisting of lead vocalist and guitarist Trey Anastasio, bassist Mike Gordon, drummer Jon Fishman and keyboardist Page McConnell — marked its long-awaited return to the Greek by delivering a nice, but rather routine (at least by Phish’s amazingly high standards), first set.
Then it upped the ante in spectacular fashion with an epic second set that illustrated many of the reasons why Phish — now 40 years into its legendary career — remains the world’s greatest jam band.
It was still light out as the quartet took the stage at around 6:40 p.m., following the advertised early start time of 6 p.m. in order to comply with the weekday curfew at the open-air venue. The crowd lit up like a Catherine wheel at the sight of these musical heroes, who immediately rewarded fans by dusting off “The Curtain With” — a tune that the band hadn’t played in many years.
Phish stretched out that opener for some 14 minutes, as the music zigged and zagged through different vibes and feels, and then moved onto another first set highlight — “Carini” — a number that begins in the hard-rock realm and then transitions into a funk fest led by Gordon’s deeply groovy bass work.
After the full-on “Carini” party, the crowd used the mellow “All of Dreams” from 2002’s “Round Room” — one of Phish’s best studio albums — as a kind of a breather, with some fans taking their seats for the first time of the evening. Yet, that’s no knock on this small, but bright gem of a song, which features some truly lovely vocal work by Anastasio and gorgeous piano playing from McConnell.
The group amped up again with the longtime favorite “Stash,” but the song’s meandering, spacey jam closed in anticlimactic fashion. A couple of moderately entertaining numbers followed — “Halfway to the Moon” and “Mull” sung by McConnell and Gordon, respectively — but the set wouldn’t really get back on track until Phish revisited the fun title track to 2004’s “Undermind.”
Yet, the musicians definitely felt like they were still trying to find their footing as they closed the approximately 75-minute first set with a lukewarm “Theme From the Bottom.”
Oh, but they’d definitely find the right groove in the second set.
Following a 30-minute break, the quartet opened the nightcap with its fun cover of zydeco icon Clifton Chenier’s “My Soul,” which ran just under six minutes. From there, the group flipped the switch into interstellar overdrive and used the next hour and change to explore deep space with just two songs — “Tweezer” and “Simple.”
We had no idea where we were going when the group first opened what would amount to a 40-minute-plus version of “Tweezer” — and some thoughts immediately went to wondering when the group would follow up with the eventual companion piece, “Tweezer Reprise.” (It didn’t happen on Night 1, which led some in attendance to believe it would be played when the band closes the Berkeley run on Wednesday.)
The group started off by sticking pretty close to the original studio version of “Tweezer,” which can be found on 1992’s “A Picture of Nectar,” and then continued to morph its way through the music, shaping the sounds in new and intriguing ways, to the point where one could totally forget what song was even being played. As the number raced past the half-hour mark, the music had grown so powerful and transcendent that thousands in attendance began to yell out in sheer euphoria as they listened to Anastasio burn through his many mind-bending guitar parts.
And then the whole process would repeat, albeit in a way that felt so satisfyingly different, as the group worked a 20-minute-version of “Simple” out in ways that were anything but.
After playing just three songs in about an hour and 10 minutes of stage time, Phish turned to the Velvet Underground and closed the second set with a glorious cover of “Rock & Roll.”
Yup, even after 40 years, this band has still got it. And following a two-song encore, fans left the building on Monday night with high hopes for what Phish would deliver during the rest of the run in Berkeley.
The group also performs Friday-Sunday at the Hollywood Bowl. See phish.com for details.
Berkeley April 17 set list:
SET ONE
1, “The Curtain With”
2, “Carini”
3, “All of these Dreams”
4, “Stash”
5, “Halfway To The Moon”
6, “Mull”
7, “Undermind”
8, “Theme From the Bottom”
SET TWO
9, “My Soul”
10, “Tweezer”
11, “Simple”
12, “Rock & Roll”
ENCORE
13, “Miss You”
14, “Sand”
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