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Phish in Vegas 2016: Five thoughts on Night 2

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Phish bass guitarist Mike Gordon performs in concert with his band at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on Friday, Oct. 28, 2016.
Photo: L.E. Baskow

1. Saturday night’s Phish concert—the second of four consecutive sold-out MGM Grand Garden shows—felt like a calmer and more contemplative affair than one might’ve expected amid a Las Vegas-hosted, holiday-weekend stand. From the setlist choices to how they were executed (either in portions or totality), the Vermont quartet almost seemed to be playing a theater gig inside an arena, or as if they might be reserving their strength for the long weekend. It was felt early on in the first set, from the laidback funk jam “555” and stately “Roggae,” and then as it closed with the Pink Floydian “Wingsuit” and the Dead-like “More,” both reflecting the quasi-philosophical, life-affirming and relaxed but uber-focused feel of Phish 3.0’s compositions.

During the second set, the groove-lite “Scents and Subtle Sounds” lived up to its nuance-suggesting name, which nonetheless offered a great opportunity to process both guitarist/vocalist Trey Anastasio’s impressive pedal work and the stewardship and virtuosic flair of drummer Jon Fishman. “Silent in the Morning” and an epic “Mercury” were also easygoing and bombast-free enough for one to parse the song’s instrumental complexity. Even the encore kick-off—a cover of The Rolling Stones’ “Shine a Light,” perhaps a nod to a Halloween weekend seven years ago when Phish played Exile on Main Street from start to finish as their musical costume—prompted much of the otherwise hopped-up crowd to merely sway in place.

2. Surely most of the fanbase wasn’t expecting a revelatory performance from material off the just-released Big Boat. However, it got just that with the third-ever performance of “I Always Wanted It This Way,” led by keyman Page McConnell. It was tempting to close one’s eyes and trance out to the interstellar, Krautrockian exploration, but it was far more fascinating to watch the musician’s shifting of positions and instruments, McConnell employing a synthesizer, an organ and a clavinet keyboard to spacey effect, and Anastasio augmenting the atmospherics with the marimba lumina positioned just behind Fishman’s kit. As the song unfurled like Television attempting jazz fusion, the improvisation became a little wayward, but McConnell returned to the organ and Anastasio went back to his guitar, both once again finding harmony with the rhythm section and shifting the song’s dynamic narrative. For a tune that’s hardly been road-tested, it sounded well-considered, finespun and (mercifully) far removed from Phish’s aforementioned latter-era aesthetic.

3. This isn’t to say that Phish ditched the big arena-rock moments. “Piper” built for about 12 minutes to peak not once, but four times. Big power chords and resounding crowd participation filled the Grand Garden during “Wilson.” A playfully sinister take on funk fave “Gumbo” featured squalling guitar notes from Anastasio and cagey, Tom Morello-like processing of McConnell’s synth chords, begging fans to both jerk their hips and throw up their metal-horned hands. And then there was the rapturously received “Tweezer” and its show-closing reprise, both decided tonal shifts from the songs that preceded them and sexed-up celebrations of Southern rock and ‘70s funk that, even at the longer version’s most meditative and least ostentatious point, still maintained its rollicking boogie.

4. Phish and its lighting wiz, Chris Kuroda, have only occasionally flirted with the use of LED screens. However, this year’s summer and fall tour features screens surrounding the band on the stage and above it—and frankly, they’re unnecessary. They’re either so simple that they fail to complement the kaleidoscopic beam ballet typically coming from the lights—a talent that has made Kuroda one of, if not the best lighting designer in the concert industry—or they’re so distractingly bad that they look like a malfunctioning old-school Nintendo game. The visual displays were best when the LEDs were turned off: the beautiful, thin blue spotlights of “Maze,” the choreographed attack of white flashes during “Maze,” the heavenly—and clever—floodlighting of the audience during “Shine a Light.”

5. Speaking of illumination mechanisms: Has that unassuming, circular lighting truss hanging directly above the center of the crowd always been there? Perhaps it was only noticeable to those of us who had heard rumors of a possible in-the-round stage configuration for Monday’s big Halloween show. And while we’re on the topic of rumors: Reports of the band soundchecking Sunday with songs from The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars further fueled speculation that the David Bowie classic will be the musical costume for tomorrow night. But anyone familiar with Phish’s C.I.A.-level confidentiality and knack for playful misdirection shouldn’t place any wagers on the Thin White Duke, to say nothing of the unconventional album choices from the last two Halloween shows.

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