Phish torches the Granite State

In their long-awaited return, Phish made a strong start to summer tour

So, unfortunately, I wasn’t able to make it, but Phish just kicked off their summer tour in Manchester, New Hampshire with a three day stand, their first appearance in the Granite State since 2010 as part of the fall tour. That earlier appearance in New Hampshire wasn’t long after one of my favorite shows ever, my one and only hometown show, when they showed up at the Augusta Civic Center in Augusta, Maine and blew the roof off the place. This year, they decided to blow the roof off the SNHU Arena, formerly the Verizon Wireless Center, in Manchester instead.

In the spirit of following, could we please get a three-night stand in Augusta, Maine to follow on our earlier epic one show? That would be not only nice synchronicity, but also, you know, incredibly convenient for me personally. I’m just kidding; I know it’s never going to happen. Phish only plays Portland or Bangor in Maine now, but I’d be happy to at least get them back there. I just wish the ACC sat more like 10,000 for a concert so it was at least theoretically possible, but you know what? Maine hasn’t had a three-day Phish stand since our last festival, IT, in 2003. Come on, guys, bring it home.

At any rate, Phish was clearly in the mood for an expansive, and expressive, set of shows over the course of the weekend. They didn’t have any big, 30+ minute jams, but there was still plenty of solid jamming. The first night, Friday, June 20¹, was a bit dark and funky, starting off with The Moma Dance, a solid version of a song that I’m not particularly fond of. They followed that with Back on the Train, then with an especially excellent Wolfman’s Brother that had some nice, slow meandering at times, followed by a more uplifting Theme from the Bottom that brought the light back a touch without getting too uplifting or bright. Even as it began bright, it briefly dropped into a more repetitive, funky jam, bringing back some of the themes from the Wolfman’s. They followed that with Old Home Place, which wasn’t quite exactly a bust-out per se, but they’ve generally played bluegrass less lately, so it was nicely placed and nice to see.

The rest of the first set meandered its way along, while the second set opened with Bouncing Around The Room - the first time it had served in that role since May 22, 2000. They went on to Sample in a Jar, before turning a more cosmic turn with a jam in Life Saving Gun, then transitioning into a mix of the uplifting, cosmic and meandering in Twist. Twist got especially fascinating around the 8:00 mark, when it hit a fascinating repetitive floating spacey pattern that gradually slowed down before launching, surprisingly, into Piper - another more uplifting song on a funky night. Both of them got funky at times, but not deeply so, a theme that would be continued by the Harry Hood in the encore. So, while the first night saw a generally funky vibe, it wasn’t evil Phish by any means, sticking just above that level. Still, at times it managed to evoke memories of 94’-95’ Phish, when they could easily dip into the dark and funky with alarming regularity.

The second night², by contrast, was even more uplifting - which one wouldn’t guess at all judging by the set list, which featured Down With Disease and Carini. This show, though, began with Free, followed by Reba, both of which went to medium-length, setting the tone early. These two songs can both go in vastly different directions, but that night, both mostly stuck within the guidelines, leading to excellent Type I jamming. That was certainly the tale of the tape for the first set, which is not entirely uncommon for first sets. Stash - the longest jam of the first set - got slightly inventive at times, but it didn’t meander too far. Page got a little floaty with the melodies during Stash, and it seemed as if it might pull away more, but it instead settled into a nice, floating pretty jam once the band all found the same bookmark. Down With Disease was, as expected, the darkest jam of the set, but it didn’t nearly reach the depths that song can. Instead, it relatively quietly slunk off the stage after notching its first first-set closer since 12/2/2003.

The second set started off with Drift While You’re Sleeping - the first time it had ever launched the second set - which mostly stuck to being its usual gorgeous self. DWYS has never even opened a first or second set before, yet another example of the ways they played games with expectations this weekend. It’s also never transitioned into Carini before, which makes sense: Carini is decidedly not encore song unless it closes it, and having something else in between makes more sense. In fact, Carini more usually opens a set than Drift does. Carini got a little funky at times, but never quite into the dark territory that it can - much like the DWD to close the first. After that, they went into A Wave Of Hope, meandering their way through high-minded, floating jamminess that was beautiful and uplifting. For the rest of the show, they sort of bounced back and forth between beautiful and uplifting rock songs, finally ending in Wilson - and playing a Beach Boys song during the credits, undoubtedly a tribute to Brian Wilson. I’m not surprised at all that a good friend of mine immediately declared this his favorite show ever after; it had nearly everything, but he didn’t have to wait long to top it.

The first set Sunday night³ seemed difficult to get a grip on, initially: They opened with Runaway Jim, one of my favorite songs that has sadly fallen by the wayside as a jam vehicle as of late. It serves perfectly as an opener with its energy, of course, or as a closer, but I’d still like to see them stretch it out to thirty minutes or so - I hope for it every time. From there, they went into Oblivion, and The Curtain With, again playing with patterns and switching back and forth, wrapping in the energy of the prior two nights. By now, it was clear to anyone paying attention that they were up to something: They had a pattern going of no big jams, no big bustouts, but interesting set selection. That’s a good way to mess with the audience: It doesn’t draw immediate attention, glancing at the setlist, but it plays well in the room - something that’s often true at shows. The end of the first set got more interesting, when they got a little darker by going in to MYFE. It wasn’t immediately apparent that they would go there - MYFE doesn’t always, believe it or not - but around 4 minutes in, it seriously descended resulting in a very dark and rocky version of MYFE. That led directly in to a truly weird version of Egg In A Hole, resurrected after 62 shows, that quoted MYFE and was even darker and stranger than it had been in the past. Here, Phish was truly descending into madness, crafting something entirely new before they ended the set with Fluffhead.

The second set opened with high-energy rock energy straight-up, launching with Axilla (Part II), before launching quickly into a 21-minute Tweezer. This Tweezer, interestingly, wasn’t all that dark, but more spacey and floating, recalling the energy of the night before as it floated its way along. There was quite a bit of interesting interplay between the band members during this jam, with them debating a bit about which way to take the piece, it appeared, at times. They generally stayed more positive, though, before slowing down and transitioning into Mercury. The transition was perfect, and Mercury stayed slow and pretty, extending itself into a nice Type I jam before going back to….Tweezer.

Oh, man, now it’s on. This is happening. It’s a Tweezerfest. In case you’re unfamiliar, a Tweezerfest - or, more rarely, a Chalk Dust Torture fest or Down With Disease fest - is a second set where Phish keeps returning to one song, and not subtly. In this case, they followed up in the 21 minute Tweezer with a 15-minute Mercury before going back into Tweezer. They’d return to Tweezer again this set, and neither were short. It’s as if they were saying, “OK, New Hampshire, we get it, we haven’t been here in fifteen years. You get a Tweezerfest. Welcome to Sunday.” The second Tweezer clocked in around 7 minutes, making it a substantial one - sometimes these fests only briefly dip back in to the song for a minute or two. The second Tweezer on Sunday was spacier and jazzier, floating around much like the energy on the second night. In fact, this Tweezerfest was a way to tie in all three nights together. The second Tweezer gradually became lighter and slower, before transitioning into Pillow Jets - a perfect chance to show the New Hampshire crowd one of their newest songs. This Pillow Jets mostly followed its usual pattern, although the pattern between its light and dark segments was more clearly obvious than is typical. That darkness served as the perfect transition to another Tweezer, this one stretching out to thirteen minutes. This third Tweezer was definitely pure Type II, getting very spacey and jazzy, developing into an unsettling repeating pattern punctuated by Trey laughing. It carried some of the Lovecraftian elements of Pillow Jets from 2024 NYE in the air with it, floating down on to the audience in the arena before gradually transitioning into a rockier moment that then switched to an angelic synth orchestral moment that also evoked memories of NYE. It was like a miniature version of the NYE prank; I wouldn’t have been surprised if they’d followed it with What’s Going Through Your Mind, but they didn’t.

Instead, they got more uplifting again, before neatly transitioning into Golgi Apparatus - a perfectly rocky way to end the evening. The encore consisted of Bug into Tweezer Reprise (of course), as they sent phans off into the friendly streets of Manchester.

Congratulations, New Hampshire, you got an amazing run. You deserved it. I wish I could’ve been there. If you were, and you have any thoughts, impressions, or corrections, please leave them below! I appreciate the input.

Jim is also a weekly columnist for the Portland Press Herald, Maine’s largest daily newspaper. Follow him on X, BlueSky, or on Facebook.

1. See the full setlist courtesy of Phish.net.

2. See the full setlist courtesy of Phish.net.

3. See the full setlist courtesy of Phish.net.