Phish Show Review - 10/22/21 Phoenix, AZ
My first show in 28 months
Last night, I saw my first live music since January 2020 and my first Phish show since June 2019. To say I was excited when I woke up at 6am ET to catch my flight to Phoenix is a huge understatement.
From the moment my dad and I pulled up to Ak-Chin Pavilion, I immediately felt that distinctive Phish concert energy on lot. After joining the long entry line, we met a couple attending their first show (if you guys are reading this somehow, I hope it was better than Dead and Co ;).
Taking our seats at the front of the 300 section, I was struck by how incredible the sight lines of the venue were. As showtime grew closer, I got increasingly giddy and excited.
Then the lights went down and the band took the stage.
Wasting no time, Trey jumped right into a patient Julius opener, the first of the year and breaking the longest gap in the song’s history. Of course, by the end of the first song, I was tired from dancing and my face hurt from smiling. I turned and gave my dad a huge hug as the band lit into a funky Martian Monster. Don’t be fooled by the 7-minute runtime – this is the first truly Type II version of the song played! While I was a bit dismayed by the ripcord into Soul Planet, my doubts were immediately put to rest by the sprawling 18-minute jam (side note: the song portion of SP is now approximately 2-3 minutes long, as Trey continues to cut verses). A trend for the night possibly brought on by the gorgeous outdoor weather, Phish moved away from the dark jams we’ve seen so far on tour and put a heavy emphasis on gorgeous major-key bliss jams. Containing four modulations and some incredible playing from all four, the Soul Planet felt like 30 minutes of sublime improvisation before melting smoothly into My Friend, My Friend. A raucous and screaming peak later, the first breather tune of the night came with Bouncing Around the Room. I took a moment during this song to take in the absolute magic of where I was. Seeing thousands of people together dancing and singing for the entirety of last night’s show was so beautiful.
Scent of a Mule came next (I joked to myself that Fish was teasing Flodown by Goose) and, while Mike seemed to forget most of the words, kept the energy high with an amazing extra-mustard Page solo and a rocking klezmer section. The sound at Ak-Chin was absolutely perfect and I could hear each band member clearly throughout the show. After Mule, Trey started More and had me looking at my watch in confusion, hoping they weren’t closing the set at just under an hour. Luckily, after an energetic peak where pretty much every person in the venue was belting out the chorus, Trey started up the first first-set-closing Ghost since 6/22/97. It’s funny to me when people talk about Ghost in the modern era – while there are only a couple of 20-minute versions and the funk doesn’t reach the levels of the late 90s, pretty much every version, no matter if it’s 10 or 15 minutes, reaches a blissful Type II space, and that’s exactly what this one did. Continuing the outdoor bliss trend I mentioned earlier, Phish closed an incredible first set with gorgeous peak after gorgeous peak and a solid return to the song complete with a brief “Julius Reprise” tease.
At setbreak, I frantically ran around the venue trying to meet as many people from Twitter as possible (shoutout to Brandon, Skoi, Matt, and Ash from GrooveSafe).
We took our seats again a few minutes before the band walked onstage for the first second-set-opening Loving Cup since the legendary 5/7/94 Bomb Factory show. After patiently building the song to a great peak, Trey ripped into Mike’s Song, causing me to absolutely SCREAM. Last night was my eighth show and I had yet to see a Mike’s Groove, so getting a perfectly executed one with a super patient and explosive jam complete with a serene Hydrogen in the middle was an incredible gift. While Mike’s and Weekapaug stayed inside the box (Page hinted at a major modulation briefly in Mike’s and Trey almost took Weekapaug minor a couple times), the Everything’s Right that followed was anything but. One of my favourite moments of the night was the vocal break, featuring another incredible wave of energy with every person in the crowd belting the lyrics (for a fanbase that likes to complain about these songs so much, people sure love to sing them). Trey bounced around the stage before lighting into an absolutely phenomenal jam. This ER is all about Fish. Leading it from the get-go with some incredible Rhodes work from Page, he kept the jam driving forward before a really cool shift into a Possum-like build (I did worry briefly about Trey bailing on the jam for that segue). Featuring FOUR modulations again, Everything’s Right’s 26-minute runtime seemed to stretch forever as they hit on passage after passage, all four band members zeroed in on each other (I will do a more in-depth breakdown once I relisten). The second huge shift in the jam came when Fish took a brief lull as an opportunity to kick into a fast and driving groove, egging Trey to build an amazing peak before dissolving into a minute or so of quiet space before A Life Beyond the Dream. This song has really become a power ballad – Trey absolutely ripped this solo to a great white-light peak (speaking of lights, I cannot even begin to describe how incredible the new rig is in person and I haven’t even seen it with the moving trusses yet). Cities gave a quick five minutes of funk before the Hood we could all feel coming arrived. Diving immediately into a minor-key jam, Phish built and built and built – Trey is on FIRE during this jam. Exploding perfectly at the apex back into the Hood theme, the band closed the set with a bang as I stood there with a massive smile on my face.
A high-energy encore of Suzy Greenberg and Cavern featuring more incredible crowd energy sent us off into the warm Phoenix night perfectly.
Recency or attendance bias included, this show easily tops the list of the ones I’ve seen. Jams galore, patient Type I jams, incredible full-band improvisation, and songs I’ve been chasing – my first phish show in 28 months could not have been more perfect. Falling asleep after a crazy 21-hour day last night, I was so thankful that this band is playing at such an incredibly high level 38 years into their career and that we are all lucky enough to share in this experience with each other.
See you tonight and tomorrow in Chula Vista and LA!