Having simply formally gained the Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame Fan Vote earlier within the day — coming in nicely forward of the White Stripes, Oasis, Mariah Carey, Outkast and the opposite nominees for the Class of 2025 — Phish then took the stage on the Invoice Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco on Tuesday night time and confirmed precisely why it deserves to be enshrined alongside the opposite biggest acts in pop music historical past.
Whether or not the Vermont quartet — that includes Trey Anastasio on guitar and lead vocals, Mike Gordon on bass, Jon Fishman on drums and Web page McConnell on keys — finally ends up truly moving into the Rock Corridor remains to be up within the air, though the voters are certainly anticipated to announce this 12 months’s batch of inductees any day now.
A optimistic end result will, in fact, be one other feather within the cap for Phish, cementing in a extra formal method that the best jam band on the planet earth can also be in the identical firm as Pink Floyd, R.E.M., Led Zeppelin, Roxy Music, The Supremes and different such icons.
But, essentially, it’s not going to alter issues a lot for the band, which — with or and not using a fancy plaque on the wall in Cleveland — will proceed to benefit from the adoration of essentially the most devoted fanbase in rock.
Guitarist and vocalist Trey Anastasio performs with Phish on the Invoice Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, Calif., on Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (Jane Tyska/Bay Space Information Group)
The extent of dedication — as witnessed by the Rock Corridor Fan Vote victory over acts which have offered much more information than Phish — was very simple to grasp whereas watching the band’s two-set present that ebbed and flowed, in extremely dramatic trend, with wonderful musicality, mind-blowing improvisation and diversely interesting materials.
Taking the stage proper after 8 p.m., the fabulous foursome opened the primary of two sold-out reveals at venue — with the second gig set for Wednesday night time — with a fast jaunt by way of the instrumental “Buried Alive.” From there, Phish journeyed into the hard-rocking “Axila,” which appeared prefer it is perhaps the proper automobile for the band to stretch issues out and jam, however, alas, it was to not be.
Bassist Mike Gordon performs with Phish on the Invoice Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, Calif., on Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (Jane Tyska/Bay Space Information Group)
“Mike’s Song” was properly funky, thriving on Gordon’s highly effective basslines — which rolled, rambled and, at occasions, almost quacked — earlier than Anastasio’s Languedoc guitar took over. The funk fest took a short relaxation cease with the mellow “I Am Hydrogen,” then jumped proper again into the fray with “Weekapaug Groove.” Extra good grooves adopted with the band’s enjoyable cowl of zydeco nice Clifton Chenier’s “My Soul.”
A half-dozen songs into the present, nonetheless, the group nonetheless actually hadn’t taken off on one among its patented interstellar overdrive jams. However then got here “Halley’s Comet” — appropriately sufficient — and Phish went full-on Katy Perry.
And flew proper off into area.
Drummer Jon Fishman performs with Phish on the Invoice Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, Calif., on Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (Jane Tyska/Bay Space Information Group)
That jammed-out “Halley’s” was one of many two distinct highlights of the primary set, with the opposite coming with the equally exploratory “Maze” that boasted some superb musical exchanges from these 4 musicians who’ve been honing their improvisation abilities collectively because the ’80s.
The jams simply grew meatier and extra intense within the second set, because the group opened the nightcap with a tenacious 20-minute tackle “Carini” that wiggled and wrestled into equally epic variations of “No Men in No Man’s Land” and “Ruby Waves.”
These three songs alone mixed to take up only a few seconds shy of an hour of stage time.
After that form of a musical marathon, Phish made the fitting name to supply up a concise take of 1 its most beautiful tunes — the romantic energy ballad “Waste” — a quantity that some Phans have truly used for his or her marriage ceremony dance music.
Keyboardist Web page McConnell performs with Phish on the Invoice Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, Calif., on Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (Jane Tyska/Bay Space Information Group)
Phish closed the second set with what might nicely have been the best model of “Down With Disease” ever carried out, powered to manic heights as a really animated Anastasio labored the stage like a younger Angus Younger and in any other case did all he may to reside as much as his repute as one of many high guitarists in rock historical past.
The group then introduced the almost four-hour present to a detailed with a “Fluffhead” that nearly matched “Down With Disease” in depth, sending the Phans out to Grove Road in nice anticipation of what Phish would do for a follow-up on Wednesday.
Guitarist and vocalist Trey Anastasio performs with Phish on the Invoice Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, Calif., on Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (Jane Tyska/Bay Space Information Group)
Setlist:
1. “Buried Alive”2. “Axilla, Part II”3. “Mike’s Song”4. “I Am Hydrogen”5. “Weekapaug Groove”6. “My Soul”7. “Halley’s Comet”8. “Roggae”9. “Maze”10. “Split Open and Melt”Set 2:11.”Carini”12. “No Men in No Man’s Land”13. “Ruby Waves”14. “Waste”15. “Down With Disease”Encore:16. “Fluffhead”
Guitarist and vocalist Trey Anastasio greets the gang as he prepares to carry out with Phish on the Invoice Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, Calif., on Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (Jane Tyska/Bay Space Information Group)
