A Lot of Words About Two Very Long Jams

The best Phish: Riviera Maya yet and its insane improv

Photo by Alive Coverage

Just like that, during the seventh year of Phish: Riviera Maya, the band decides to drop two of the longest and most adventurous jams of their 40+ year career.

Given how 2023 ended with the first Gamehendge performance since 1994, expectations were high and speculation abounded for what the band had in store for the first shows of 2024. Would we get the “Icculus” that was left out of the NYE show? Would they reference it at all?

Obviously, Phish is not a band that dwells on the past, however glorious their accomplishments have been. They are always looking to the future both musically and in the way they approach shows – and that’s exactly what they did over four nights in Mexico. While Wednesday night’s welcome set was a little bit hesitantly-played, with promising jams in “Down with Disease” and “Everything’s Right” getting cut before they had time to truly bloom, something happened during the “Birds of a Feather” during Thursday’s first set.

It was clear it was going to be a different type of show when Phish had already locked into a gorgeous major-key hose jam with cascading waves of airy guitar riffs from Trey Anastasio in less than seven minutes (leading into a peak very reminiscent of the legendary 7/10/99 “Chalk Dust Torture”), and when the improv proceeded to go further and further despite easy “exit ramps” and natural conclusions, I could feel the energy change even from the couch. The set-closing wormhole of doom inside “Axilla II” just reinforced that belief.

While I normally only write recaps for shows I attend, I felt as though I couldn’t let these shows – and specifically the jams – pass without writing way too many words about the music. Much like my 1000-word insanity about last year’s Greek “Tweezer” and Dayton “Ruby Waves,” I’m about to break down the “Wave of Hope” and “Chalk Dust” in equal parts excitement and musical geekery. I’m not known for my brevity in podcasting OR writing 😉

Without further ado…here we go!

“Wave of Hope” emerged out of a very solid “A Song I Heard the Ocean Sing” set opener, a 17-minute amuse bouche of sorts that traverses from beachy major keys to synthy funk zones. As always, when a jam seems to make a segue before it finishes, there is some worry about “TreyDHD” and ripcords to come later in the set, so I was holding my breath for the early part of “Wave.”

Sticking to a solid and fiery Type I jam at first, Anastasio rips a great solo before leading the band into uncharted territory after the six-minute mark. Page McConnell goes to clav as the propulsive groove gets more exploratory and searching, seeking its first big idea. The band spends a few minutes crafting a layer of delayed and chirping notes before a pleasant major mode emerges from the murk atop a bed of McConnell’s Rhodes electric piano.

One of the best things about the weekend was Jon Fishman’s aggressive playing on drums in every big jam, the motor behind the band keeping the momentum strong through every section. The democratic space after the 11-minute mark is truly spectacular – an unhurried and gorgeous space influenced by the warm beach vibe, keyboard and guitar twirling and mingling with each other as Mike Gordon locks in with Fish on the low end. So many layers of the jam to appreciate on each listen – and so much patience exhibited.

A hallmark of modern-era Phish is their ability to switch jam modes quickly, moving through a variety of styles in a shorter time frame whereas late 1.0 was built more on long stretches of exploration in a single mode. This weekend seemed to hint at a move more back in the direction of patience, as the band seemed in no hurry to escape this lovely zone.

The significant shift came just before 14:30 when Fish roughly pushed back into what could have been the “Wave of Hope” song proper – possibly anticipating Anastasio wanting to segue – but the rest of the band had no intention of stopping as McConnell moved over to deep space noises on Prophet Rev2 synthesizer and Anastasio laid down a thick carpet of guitar loops, activating his reverse pedal. Listening to this part in headphones is particularly astounding due to the depth of the synthesizer sounds, and the way it cycles back and forth from left to right – and that’s even before the Yamaha CS60 swells come in.

Photo by Alive Coverage

Anastasio locked into a rocking riff and seemed to lift the music from the murk – though still in a darker space – but it immediately dove right back down into a sea of sound, a lifeline offered to us by way of a soaring blast of guitar sustain. The jam continued in this amazingly layered vein for several minutes, eerie guitar and keyboard effects getting soupy over Fish and Gordon’s pounding and insistent rhythms.

Fish pushed the pace as we emerged from the depths into a charging minor-key zone with hints of the insanity we had just left. McConnell and Anastasio’s interplay continued to be absolutely on point, the two musicians locking in on a repeated motif that was picked up on by Fish via cymbal hits. The energy began to rise gradually around the motif, with McConnell hitting to piano as it hit a pseudo-peak – though the band quickly swerved to avoid the full push to white-light blasts and dove back into the murk instead.

Lots of more jaded fans like to point at the reliance on bliss and major-key jamming as a weak point of modern-era Phish (I disagree), but this pivotal moment right here and the final eight minutes of the jam are a perfect antithesis to this argument. On a level of a “Siket Disc”-type jam from 1999 or 2000, some brief dissonant effects led to a low-key and spaced-out wind down, a calming and layered piece of music that is honestly the best way to close out a jam like this.

The base layer of gentle synthesizer from McConnell is beautifully contrasted by Anastasio’s thick loops, but those eventually fade away as we are left with a gorgeous dreamscape, a laid-back theme that is incredibly uncommon in 4.0 Phish.

“A Wave of Hope” concludes on this note, picking up a little bit of energy at the end with some soloing from Anastasio before he leads into “Oblivion.”

With one 35-minute jam under their belts amid a pretty perfect set of music (do NOT overlook this explosive fourth-quarter “Tweezer”), it could have been excused if Friday night’s show failed to reach the heights of the previous night. Luckily for us, Phish decided to go in the other direction and play a somehow better jam, the longest “Chalk Dust Torture” in the song’s decades-long history and quite possibly the best.

It's funny to think that this song was a contained Type I rocker for over 20 years until the 3.0 era saw it become one of the most consistent jam vehicles in the catalog – a status that has only elevated since 2021 – just under half of the 20+ min versions have come in 4.0.

Much like “A Wave of Hope,” “Chalk Dust” emerged from an appetizer jam to open the set before it, this time a perfectly pleasant “Blaze On.” You can always tell that there’s intention to jam this song in a big way when they rush the song proper – the “second jam” begins just over five minutes in.

While “Wave” took a few minutes to depart into uncharted waters, “Chalk Dust” escaped into an amazing ambient mode in what felt like the snap of a fingers, quietly stripping down to almost nothing from the exuberant rock of the song’s chorus in less than fifteen seconds.

Photo by Alive Coverage

Anastasio and McConnell plunged ahead together, modulating into a moody space – again, quiet and patient. Within two minutes, we were in twinkly ambient land, hearkening back to the end of the “Wave of Hope” in the 99-00 style of layered textures among an open soundscape. Fish continued to excel at the forefront of the jam, keeping the tempo fierce while leaving so much space for the rest of the band to improvise, one of the skills that makes him one of the best drummers of all time.

Gordon added haunting low-end to Anastasio’s easy major-key soloing, synth bass effects growling under the surface and warning of what was to come later in the jam. Anastasio’s squiggly guitar lines entered the fray around 9:30 as each member just kept layering. It’s incredible that they reached this level of depth so quickly, a space that would once take them a long time to get to.

Anastasio began to pull the band back to Earth with insistent soloing, but Gordon and McConnell kept one foot firmly in orbit, with continuing layers of synth for a minute or so. It was then time for a ramp-up when Fish followed Anastasio’s lead and they locked in on a repeating theme – another common thread of why these jams were so good. Upbeat major jamming ensued, hitting a solid peak as the jam crossed 15 minutes.

Back to space we went as Anastasio’s riffs bled together thanks to his thick reverb and McConnell attacked his clavinet, much to my delight. We quickly pivoted from a nice peak jam to more of the soupy darkness that was so prevalent the previous night. Charging ahead with more and more momentum, Fish turned his beat on a dime to reflect Anastasio’s riffing and dropped firmly into a half-time blues swing with a moment’s notice. Crazy.

Before we knew it, we were in a deep funk zone reminiscent of a “2001” as stank faces took over. McConnell grooved onto his Moog One as Gordon dug in on a bass line similar to the “Mike’s Song” jam. The rhythm section continued in their deep pocket as Anastasio and McConnell began to head for space zones again – once again exhibiting patience and very little urgency in their playing. This is another headphone-mandatory moment, which will greatly help you to appreciate McConnell’s stereo-panned synth work. Industrial funk has been a favourite theme of 4.0 Phish, and they have gotten really good at it.

Ring modulator entered the fray before too long as the funk continued, building us into a stew that would be right at home in recent versions of “Split Open and Melt.” Anastasio stepped out of the groove and turned on a variety of reverb and delay pedals at once, giving it a seriously eerie and dark vibe – the opposite of what you’d expect on a beach.

The funk eventually dissolved and Fish quickly seized the opportunity to begin a charging beat for us to go back into the real dark stuff with. Gordon activated a different synth pedal and began influencing the evil with a repeated bass line. Everyone very quickly began playing dissonant circular riffs – but the star of this segment is the bass. Incredible leadership as the darkness and haze became the focal point, Gordon’s bombs really made this segment what it was.

By the 28-minute mark, we were pretty much inside a black hole in the style of a “Split Open and Melt” as Anastasio reintroduced the squiggly bubble effect. Fish’s toms pounded away as McConnell’s deceptively contemplative Wurlitzer work offered an anchor amidst the darkness. Anastasio emerged between squiggles to rip strong leads, slowly solidifying the haze into a psychedelic rock march of sorts. For several minutes, Phish just grinds away at our sanity, stripping away layers of space and time with a huge wall of sound that honestly should not be possible for just four people to create.

We finally hit a long, sustained peak – space laser blast noises coming from all sides, Fish hitting toms and cymbals with reckless abandon – and at its heart, McConnell’s pounding piano work and Anastasio’s massive chords. The last five minutes of “Chalk Dust” are easily the finest segment, the death march of DOOM that all the evil improv had been building toward. It’s all about the power felt coming out of this segment of music. Completely different than the soupy evil jams from earlier, this is just a statement of pure aggression in musical form. Gordon blasts in with the “Down with Disease” intro effect out of nowhere as Anastasio’s space-age reverse soloing gets augmented by McConnell’s switch to Hammond B3 organ.

Photo by Alive Coverage

THIS is Phish at its finest. Four people, one brain, absolutely batshit insane music.

It’s honestly hard to figure out where you even go from there, but the band spends a minute ramping down from the all-out balls-to-the-walls peak before going into a beautiful choice of “Beneath a Sea of Stars Part I.”

Listening to these two behemoth jams again back-to-back while writing this has me out of breath from exhilaration at the fact that Phish has managed to do the unthinkable yet again – just casually play two of the best and longest jams of their career on a beach in Mexico.

And again – they could have easily treated Saturday night’s earlier show as a fun closer to the run, but they decided to open up with an 18-minute “Simple” and close the first frame with an epic 20-minute “Bathtub Gin” that returned to some of the space-age themes of the previous two nights.

This Mexico run’s incredible improv is centered around segments where the band – especially Anastasio and McConnell – find each other on a theme or riff and take their time exploring it over an incredible and fluid rhythm section from Gordon and Fish. Whatever 2024 holds – Sphere and beyond – is going to be damn good based on what we just saw.

Thank you, Phish, for continuing to blow minds like you did over the past four nights. Thank you for being the best band on the planet.