LAS VEGAS — “Let the music do the talking,” sang Phish vocalist-guitarist Trey Anastasio at the outset of the band’s concert Saturday at the Sphere, the new venue at the Venetian Las Vegas that surrounds the audience with a wraparound LED screen. Normally, hearing that advice from a singer who seemingly never tires of the stage would pass without a hint of irony.
However, given Phish was not even one minute into the third of its sold-out four-night stand at the $2.3 billion dome — expressly devised to push sensory boundaries to previously uncharted limits — one couldn’t help wonder how seriously the group would take its own instruction. Turns out Anastasio and company still place their hallmark interplay above everything.
At once playful and serious, Phish’s brilliantly unpredictable music led and complemented a non-stop parade of dizzying graphics, abstract patterns, distant universes and panoramic projections made possible by the Sphere, where the band took over from an opening residency by U2. The optical extravaganza erupted on nearly four acres worth of 16k LED screen wrapped behind, above and around the members’ positions on a minimalist oval stage.
Among the generated scenery that dropped the crowd into manipulated environments: Soap bubbles that grew in size, headed for the audience and acted as if they might swallow anyone in their path (“Tube”). A hilly meadow with trees and blowing grasses, which illuminated with alternating bright and pastel colors according to the band’s pace (“Pillow Jets”). A calming perch atop a forested peak shrouded in fog (“Mountains in the Mist”).
During “Tweezer Reprise,” cars tumbled across an empty sky, teasing chaos as they poured down like hail. Throughout “Taste,” layers of metal rings, stacked wedding-cake-style, rotated to reveal iconography and illustrations from an archival Phish CD series. Amid “Sigma Oasis,” plush clouds resembling gigantic mushrooms bloomed as others transformed into the shapes of birds and turtles. (Though some anticipated the numerical date of Saturday’s event would prompt the band to commemorate 420, marijuana’s unofficial holiday went unacknowledged — not surprising since the group thinks big and beyond trite concepts.)
Just the second act to use the Sphere as a boundless sandbox, Phish took a decidedly different approach than U2. In christening the facility last fall and winter, the Irish group opted for extraordinary displays that challenged conceptions of space and suspended disbelief, as well as literal and metaphorical visuals that delivered potent environmental and sociopolitical messages. U2 also stuck with a pre-scripted program at every performance.
Phish pursued improvisational tactics that reflected the emblematic fluidity of its concerts. Less interested in direct interpretation, the band orchestrated the optical spectacles to respond in real time to the music. The daring strategy permitted Anastasio, drummer Jon Fishman, bassist Mike Gordon and keyboardist Page McConnell to stay clear of prescribed routes and fenced-in passages. In short, the production allowed Phish to do what it does best: surrender to the flow and live in the moment.
Phish affirmed its commitment to adventure and exploration by spending almost 40 minutes sussing out the first three songs of the multi-set performance. With its start anchored by freewheeling renditions of two older favorites stemming from 1990 (“Tube” and “Stash”), the ensemble flashed a blend of dexterity, patience and surprise that continues to attract hordes of followers more than four decades after its formation in Burlington, Vermont.
Mirroring previous stands at Madison Square Garden, Phish avoided song repeats and scored each concert with different visuals. Preparation for the run began in July 2023 when creative director Abigail Rosen Holmes started on ideas proposed by the group. While she collaborated with Montreal-based Moment Factory — a multimedia studio specializing in immersive environments — on video presentation and show design, Phish audio engineer Garry Brown oversaw the deployment of the venue’s 167,000-strong loudspeaker system.
Fans unable to trek to the desert got the chance to livestream each performance on the group’s website. Others put their faith in the Phish community. On Saturday, dozens of followers milled around outside the venue holding up an index finger hoping for a “miracle” — an extra ticket, often gifted for free. Some fans already had tickets to one or several of the other shows. Other diehards, including Jessica Ganjon, arrived without knowing their fate. She flew in from Denver without guaranteed admission to any show in the limited run.
Indeed, given Phish’s proclivity for risk-taking performances and audiophile sonics, the brevity of its Sphere engagement seemed bizarre. By comparison, U2 delivered 40 concerts over the course of several months. Dead & Company will present 24 shows beginning in May.
In July, Phish will release its 16th studio album and commence on a 26-date tour. The jaunt swings through Alpine Valley in Wisconsin for a trio of shows late in the month before routing through Noblesville, Indiana, and Grand Rapids, Michigan — each less than a three-hour drive from Chicago. Anastasio arrives earlier. He and his solo ensemble hit the Salt Shed on May 9.
It’s conceivable the 59-year-old still might be smiling from the Vegas rush. As Phish’s de facto leader, Anastasio couldn’t disguise his enthusiasm on Saturday. The bespectacled road warrior hopped in place before a single note struck. Near midnight, as Phish completed the marathon 185-minute show, Anastasio still looked as if he could coax another symphony’s worth of articulate tones, free-form melodies and knife-edged solos from his guitar.
Phish’s license to walk the proverbial tightrope — and tendency to nestle into the thickets of on-the-fly arrangements — can prove overbearing for listeners who prefer concise hooks or conventional structures. To the Phish faithful, the group’s deep-dive excursions and without-a-net acrobatics explain why seeing the band in person is without parallel. That, and the thrilling light displays that designer Chris Kuroda orchestrates to respond to Phish’s whims.
The Sphere’s voluminous canvas and technological capacity helped explode those elements to exponential proportions — particularly since Phish stretched its collective legs on a majority of the material. Pulling from a grab-bag of rock, fusion, boogie and electric jazz, the quartet guided airy escapades filled with bounding tempos, gliding riffs, blissful vibes and subtle yet sudden shifts.
Largely steeped in fusion and funk, songs opened up to elongated jams that encouraged loose-limbed dancing, closed-eyes meditation and mouth-agape awe. Phish conveyed a wide range of emotional states — heroic, optimistic, dramatic, relaxed, anxious, giddy — without uttering a word. When Anastasio stepped to the microphone to sing, or teamed with Gordon or McConnell on a vocal, the phrases were usually brief, choral exclamations or onomatopoeic.
Drifting and expansive, songs’ architecture remained tethered to rhythmic foundations courtesy of Fishman’s steady drum beats and Gordon’s flexible bass lines. They provided a true compass on numerous occasions, most notably during an epic 20-plus-minute reading of “Fuego,” whose complex sprawl threatened to float away into the ether. Here and elsewhere, Phish benefited from selective use of the Sphere’s spatial sonic capabilities.
Without warning, the band isolated a particular instrument in a specific area, panned percussive sounds or added psychedelic accents to the mix. The results created 360-degree sonic vistas that enveloped the mind and body. Low-end frequencies, too, possessed elevated degrees of definition, clarity, depth and decay. Along with Phish’s adaptive visuals and probing tunes, the aural wizardry contributed to an immersive experience that triggered the imagination, entertained fantasy and incited waves of recurring joy.
Consciously or not, Anastasio summed up the future-is-now realities and dynamic sensations in “Golden Age,” singing: “The age of miracles, the age of sound / Well, there’s a Golden Age, comin’ round.” Enjoy it if and while you can.
Bob Gendron is a freelance critic.
Setlist from the Sphere in Las Vegas April 20:
Set I
“Set Your Soul Free”
“Tube”
“Stash”
“Pillow Jets”
“Steam”
“Mountains in the Mist”
“Taste”
“46 Days”
Set II
“Sigma Oasis”
“Fuego” →
“Golden Age” →
“Twist”
“I Am Hydrogen”
“Chalkdust Torture” →
“Say It to Me S.A.N.T.O.S.”
Encore
“A Life Beyond the Dream”
“Tweezer Reprise”
