With Phish now firmly in the home stretch of their tour, a two-night run at Merriweather Post Pavilion is all that stands in the way of the band’s 10th festival, Magnaball, slated to kick off next weekend.

Although the end of the tour is in sight, Phish made the most of their first night in Columbia, MD, delivering yet another notable performance with arguably their most creative set of the tour.

Once again, the first set was peppered with some of the lesser-played tunes on the tour, including “Glide,” “Buried Alive” and “McGrupp and the Watchful Hosemasters,” among others. Also of note was a particularly rocking “Big Black Furry Creature From Mars” that dropped into the Chilling, Thrilling tune “Your Pet Cat.” The brief jam hasn’t been played since Halloween night in Las Vegas.

If most of the first set wasn’t evidence enough that the band intended on having a loose, fun night at Merriweather Post, the set-closing “Run Like an Antelope” confirmed it as the high-energy jam concluded with Anastasio changing up the lyrics to “Gaktoidler Esquandolas” and modulating the end section slightly.

While the second set opening “Halley’s Comet” was brief, “46 Days” picked up the slack with one of the notable jams on the evening. Alternating between grungy funk riffs from Anastasio and more delicate, ambient work from McConnell and Fishman, the band constructed a weird, compelling jam that ultimately found it’s way smoothly into “Bug” with the help of the guitarist.

“Steam” once again found its way back into the setlist, returning to the same venue where it was played for just the second time ever in 2011. This version of the tune may rank as one of the best as Anastasio steered the jam into “What’s the Use?” before returning to “Steam.” The brief interlude back into the song provided the band with the momentum to start “Piper,” producing yet another notable jam on the night.

The “Piper” jam would pick up where the “46 Days” improv left off, with more sporadic funk and atmospheric jamming from the group, even teasing “Steam” again towards the end. After thoroughly fleshing out the jam, the band found themselves in “Tweezer,” recalling memories of the Tweezerfest that occurred at the venue in 2014. While that wouldn’t happen again, the band did find their way into the first “NO2” since 2010 and just the seventh overall. During the particularly spooky jam, “Martian Monster” was once again teased as Mike Gordon led the band through the bizarre White Tape cut with Anastasio utilizing his megaphone to add to the haunting aspect of it all. A standalone “Walls of the Cave” brought the set to a close.

Before the encore, Anastasio took to the mic to tell a quick story about how the band came across SPIN’s ranking of every Phish song and how Page McConnell was disappointed that his favorite song, “Sleeping Monkey,” wasn’t at the top of the list. The guitarist then commented that they were going to play the tune for Page tonight, which they then followed up with a “Tweezer Reprise.”

Phish returns to Merriweather tonight.

Here’s a look at the setlist as it appears in our Box Scores section:

Phish
Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, MD

Set I: Simple > Glide, Buried Alive > McGrupp and the Watchful Hosemasters > Roggae, Limb By Limb, Big Black Furry Creature from Mars > Your Pet Cat > Big Black Furry Creature from Mars, Horn, Blaze On > Run Like an Antelope

Set II: Halley’s Comet > 46 Days->Bug > Steam > What’s the Use? > Steam->Piper->Tweezer->NO2->Tweezer > Walls of the Cave

Enc: Sleeping Monkey > Tweezer Reprise