Phish, image via YouTube

Phish returned to the stage in Las Vegas last night for the penultimate performance in their second Sphere residency. Eight shows into their series at the technologically unmatched arena, the iconic jam quartet continued to turn up tracks that hadn’t yet appeared in the run, now totaling more than 140 distinct entries, and expanded their already sprawling repertoire with three rarer tracks, plus some old-school technological innovation from Jon Fishman

Phish’s show on Friday night opened with another scene from The Barn, Trey Anastasio’s Vermont recording studio. As the performance began, the dusky interior view zoomed to a stained glass window in the eaves, and the rest of the room’s details slipped into shadows as more windows appeared and the band struck the radiant first notes of “Sample in a Jar.” Pillars of light streamed down from the ceiling while they slipped into a supremely funky rendition of “Boogie on Reggae Woman,” and the ensuing “Heavy Things” was complemented by more abstract flashes of color, now forming paint-like waves across the dome, while “Bouncing Around the Room” projected video of the band in performance.

The first surprise of the night arrived with “Mound,” staged for the first time since September 2023 and paired with an animation of the Rift cover, a sequence that’s accompanied several other songs from the 1993 album over the past few weeks. Fans hardly had a chance to settle down again through “Mountains in the Mist” and “Stealing Time From the Faulty Plan” before “Tela” appeared for the first time since New Year’s Eve 2023. Exactly 100 shows after its last appearance, the song, and the following “McGrupp and the Watchful Hosemasters,” were paired with animations of the vivid fantasy world of Gamehendge.

Phish capped off their first frame with the uncommon Fuego cut “Wingsuit,” performed for the first time since August 2024, and an adventurous 15-minute rendition of “David Bowie.” After opening their second set with “Wilson,” complete with a striking moment of the crowd calling out the song’s refrain, the group launched a shapeshifting segued spring through “Seven Below,” “Plasma,” “Crosseyed and Painless” and “Pillow Jets,” clocking in at a combined total of 58 minutes and showcasing live lighting from Chris Kuroda. “Shade” gave the room a momentary reprieve under natural scenes before “Sand” came crashing inn to punctuate the frame with the menacing dentist visual sequence.

While walking out for the encore, Fishman approached the drum kit, then veered off course to add a vacuum cleaner solo to the a capella romp of “I Didn’t Know.” After five hard-hitting minutes of “Saw It Again,” Anastasio walked to the kit and seamlessly swapped in for Fishman, so he could once again exhibit his musical mastery of the household appliance. “Moses Brown, Moses Heaps, Moses DeWitt! The 500-foot-tall man!,” Anastasio said at the song’s conclusion. “Sucking for you! We saw it again!” At long last, to finish arguably their most exciting Sphere show yet, keyboardist Page McConnell led a cover of The Velvet Underground’s “Rock & Roll.”