Photo Credit: Bahram Foroughi
On Saturday, Aug. 10, Phish followed their well-packed footpath back to Bethel Woods Center for the Arts in Woodstock, N.Y. Night two of three at the historic site for music yielded a to-be-expected two-set performance, with jammed-out sequences and an influx of rarities. Like night one, the band nodded to their early discography, pulling in material from Junta (1989) to Farmhouse (2000), with outliers, “Hey Stranger” and “Cities,” breaking the motif.
Not unlike their first night during 2024’s return to the Empire State venue, Phish continued its onstage concentration with relatively standard interpretations of “Back on the Train” and “Sample in a Jar,” working through both numbers without adding frill and more of a bookish approach. From the depths of their early archive, Phish resurfaced for Trey Anastasio’s Mercy standout, “Hey Stranger.”
A high point of the night’s first half was an ensuing “Dinner and a Movie,” the rarity was last played during the ensemble’s destination concert vacation in Mexico circa 2023–tracking the song’s history, the uncommon arrival was performed at MSG in 2017, prior to 2023’s revisit and, inevitably, Saturday evening’s return. Nodding toward the cosmos during the annual Perseid meteor shower on Aug. 10, Phish added “Halley’s Comet,” which merged into a follow-up of earthy proportions on “Sand.”
A pause separated the onset of “Gumbo,” which ran into “Maze.” Landing on back-to-back Rift pulls, the foursome continued their charge with another infrequent play, “Weigh,” which included an Anastasio-teased piece of “Call to the Post.” The uncommon pick-up last occurred in concert form at the end of “Wilson” in 2022–the song that would ultimately call the band back to the stage post-set break, but not before ending the concert’s first half with Talking Heads’ “Cities,” and fan favorite, “Run Like an Antelope.”
Set two was seemingly non-stop, with Mike Gordon’s fuzzed-out bass introducing “Down with Disease,” clocking in at 18 minutes, yet left unfinished. On the other side of the abandoned Hoist feature, Phish placed “Waves” ahead of “Twist,” with stand-out moments provided by Jon Fishman. The group slid into their ever-morphing “Kill Devil Falls,” which gave way to another reminder to look up and appreciate movement across the night sky on “Beneath a Sea of Stars Part 1.”
“Backwards Down the Number Line” felt as though it could have concluded the concert’s latter half. Instead, Phish kept it brief before a tight take on “Ghost” and a seemingly full-circle moment stemming from night one’s “Tweezer” with Saturday’s “Tweezer Reprise.” Upon their return for the evening’s encore, high-level jams on “Wading in the Velvet Sea” ensued and the first encore take on “Runaway Jim” since 1999.
With Phish’s Friday and Saturday concerts in the books, the jammers will return to Bethel Woods Center for the Arts in Woodstock, N.Y. tonight, for their third and final stand at this specific venue on their 2024 Summer Tour. Tickets for tonight’s concert remain on sale.
Phish
Bethel Woods Center for the Arts – Woodstock, NY
August 10, 2024
Set I: Back on the Train, Sample in a Jar, Hey Stranger, Dinner and a Movie, Halley’s Comet > Sand, Gumbo > Maze, Weigh, Cities > Run Like an Antelope
Set II: Wilson > Down with Disease -> Waves > Twist > Kill Devil Falls > Beneath a Sea of Stars Part 1 -> Backwards Down the Number Line > Ghost > Tweezer Reprise
Enc.: Wading in the Velvet Sea > Runaway Jim
Notes:
Trey teased “Call to the Post” at the end of “Weigh.”
“Down with Disease” was left unfinished.
Setlist via Phish.net.