Phish - Worcester DCU Center (10/25/2013)

So last night I saw Phish for the first time.  They had been a major bucket-list band for me pretty much nearly a decade.  I discovered them in middle school and they were my favorite band for years.  My parents wouldn't let me go at the time (which in hindsight was probably a wise decision on their part haha).  Then the band went on hiatus my freshman year of high-school...Then when the tickets went on sale last summer for last night's show I decided to drop some dough on floor tickets - which was well worth it for my first time experiencing the band live.  The show was absolutely epic - they played for over 3 hours with a pretty diverse setlist and lots of jamming.

There were a handful of tunes I had never heard before that aren't on any of the studio albums or the live albums that I had which were absolutely amazing.  "The Curtain With" was easily one of my favorites (a tune back from the late 80's of theirs that was super proggy and harmonically really interesting) and "Vultures" which was seriously bad ass.  Also some great covers such as "Cities" (Talking Heads) and the Encore closer, "Good Times Bad Times" (Led Zeppelin).  From the way they closed with that and jammed on it - it seems likely that for their Halloween show they might be covering Led Zeppelin's debut album.  It was also cool to hear some of their newer tunes such as "46 Days" and "Backwards Down the Number Line", which on the albums seem more like song ideas rather than songs, fully developed and realized.

Got to hear a real good amount of jamming too on a lot of tunes I hadn't heard them ever jam on before - highlights for me would be "Carini" (maybe their most metal tune?) which grooved super hard and "Ghost".  Given I haven't heard what the band has been doing live for over 10 years, but the jamming seemed much more mathy (lots of crazy polyrhythms and phasing going on) and often darker than anything I had heard them do before.

(Photo courtesy of Ari - who I was standing next to, is taller, and take better photographs that me) 

The Setlist:

Set 1: Funky Bitch, Wolfman's Brother, Wilson > The Curtain With, Cities > Rift, Free, My Mind's Got a Mind of its Own, Vultures, 46 Days

Set 2: Waves > Carini, Prince Caspian > Backwards Down the Number Line > Ghost > Dirt > Down with Disease > Sneakin' Sally Through the Alley > Cavern > Run Like an Antelope

Encore: Contact > Suzy Greenberg > Rocky Top > Good Times Bad Times

You can listen to or download the whole set from last night here if you're interested.

Although I can't go again tonight (going to see Mehldau tonight!) - I'll definitely have to catch them next time they're in the area for sure.

Pumped for the other shows that are coming up later this Fall!