Thurday Night Concert AWWHHOO

Thursday night’s concert was Phish in crowd-pleasing mode: uptempo, playing familiar songs and ready to keep fans dancing — never getting too abstract or experimental. Its two sets were both CD-length, just under 80 minutes each, with the Rolling Stones’ “Loving Cup” as a splashy, gospelly encore.

This was the Phish that’s so light-fingered that its remarkable musicianship is often taken for granted; after all, things just keep bubbling along. The camaraderie of musicians who have been playing together since 1983 (with two major breaks) was acted out in the way each player’s improvisations peeked out and then tucked themselves back into the band.

 

Mike Gordon’s bass double timed its way into counterpoint and then eased back toward riff. Page McConnell’s keyboards, particularly Hammond organ, pushed forward with insistent, meaty chords, and then dissolved into support. Jon Fishman’s drumming rode the rhythms as much as it defined them. And Trey Anastasio’s lead guitar, the band’s dominant instrument, regularly stepped out, more pointed and purposeful than in some of Phish’s past phases: with wailing long blues lines or twangy little jabs, with ambling chromatic lines or quick filigrees. Yet instead of tracing the full storytelling arc of a guitar hero’s solo, they tapered away, handing off the spotlight to another member of the group.