Photo Credit: Dean Budnick
Phish returned to Albany, N.Y.’s MVP Arena, for the first time since 2018 this past weekend, continuing a long trend of memorable shows at the venue dating back to 1995. The concerts benefited Trey Anastasio’s Divided Sky Foundation but took on new meaning when Phil Lesh passed away on Friday. Adding even more significance to the run of events, the Grateful Dead performed several storied shows at the minor league hockey arena, some of which are captured on the popular 1996 size album Dozin’ at the Knick.
As previously reported, Phish kicked off their Friday performance with their debut cover of the Lesh/Robert Hunter classic “Box of Rain.” Bassist Mike Gordon, a devoted Deadhead in his youth who performed with Lesh many times between 1999 and this past March, also wore one of the Dead co-founder’s trademark red, white and blue wristbands throughout the show. The night’s setlist was dotted with songs that could be seen as both tributes to Lesh’s passing and/or Divided Sky’s recovery efforts, beginning with the reflective “Dirt.”
The group’s second set kicked off with an extended segue from “Blaze On” into “Piper,” “Light,” “Tweezer” and “The Wedge.” Through the lens of Lesh’s death, the sequence felt like a charge to continue to push on through hardship. The two newer numbers that followed, “The Howling” and “Monsters,” also echoed the night’s themes and, like “Wolfman’s Brother” during the first set and “Ghost” during the encore, were appropriate seasonal selections. The night’s encore also had an emotive but loose feel, moving from “Sleeping Monkey” into the aforementioned “Ghost” and then closing with “Tweezer Reprise.”
The Vermont Quartet’s Saturday concert kicked off with “Possum.” a tune the band played with its author, founding member Jeff Holdsworth, at the same venue in 2003. The first set focused more on songs, though Phish did move from “Sigma Oasis” into “Back on the Train” early on and slid from “Tube” into “Bathtub Gin” later in the set. Phish also busted out “Nothing,” a quirky original that first surfaced as part of a Tom Marshall solo project and was included on the 2004 Phish LP Undermind for the first time since a June 1, 2002 gig in South Carolina. Their second set, however, was an almost completely segued affair, kicking off with “Prince Caspian” and moving into “Down with Disease,” “Ruby Waves,” “Fuego,” “What’s the Use?” and TV on the Radio’s “Golden Age,” which the band debuted at the same venue in 2009. They closed the run with the tender “Lonely Trip” and then paused before closing the set with “Harry Hood.” Page McConnell also looked ahead to the holiday season by teasing “Little Drummer Boy” during the tune. A run from “Golgi Apparatus” into “Slave to the Traffic Light” served as the night’s encore.
Last night’s show had a similar flow. The night opened with the 2000 single “Heavy Things” and then jumped ahead to one of the band’s newest tunes, “What’s Going Through Your Mind,” which Anastasio tried out with his solo outfit and brought to Phish earlier this year. Later, Phish busted out another Undermind cut, Gordon’s “Access Me,” for the first time since August 31, 2019. It marked only the seventh time since 2004 the band has performed “Access Me;” “Nothing” had only been performed eight times prior to this weekend. The second set kicked off with an extended run from “Everything’s Right” into “Chalkdust Torture.” Choice versions of “Mercury,” “Wading in the Velvet Sea,” and the Vida Blue original “Most Events Aren’t Planned” brought the set to a close. Like the previous nights of the run, Phish offered an extended encore, beginning with “Gotta Jiboo” and then the unexpected segue from “Waste” into “Bug” and “Character Zero.”
Phish will return to the stage for their annual New Year’s run at New York’s Madison Square Garden on December 28.
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