Phish at The Sphere in Las Vegas, Nevada-Live Review - Psychedelic Scene Magazine (2024)

• Bill Kurzenberger
• May 20, 2024
• 3:17 pm

This April, Vermont-based neo-psych band Phish and their legions of dedicated phans descended on Las Vegas for a four-night concert run at the new immersive venue simply called Sphere. This revolutionary round room opened in September 2023 with a forty-show residency by Irish band U2, with Phish staking their claim as only the second band to ever perform there. This reviewer attended the band’s April 19^th “Bicycle Day” performance at Sphere, my 49^th Phish show which fell on the same weekend as my first concert by the band way back in 1993.

Arriving on foot at Sphere on East Sands Avenue was not unlike attending a concert at an arena, with the impressive yet imposing visage resembling Epcot Center at Disneyworld, and the requisite confusion of crisscrossing lines entering the venue. The inside experience was more streamlined, with escalators guiding concert-goers to the proper levels to their seats. Although some attendees expressed trepidation about ascending and descending the steeper stairs, the aisle stairs were just around a 45-degree angle as is common in the upper levels of hockey arenas.

Familiar Phish sounds were audible moments before the band members appeared onstage, with a pre-recorded instrumental emanating from the speakers throughout the Sphere. The recording was very similar to the band’s song “Free” but with electronic drums that sounded a bit like techno-Phish. As the lights dropped, the Phabulous Phour took to the stage and promptly kicked off the show with a full version of the liberating launchpad “Free.”

Suddenly, the vast backdrop of the 367-foot-tall venue erupted into a cascading rainbow of colors that dripped down the interior wall of the Sphere like technicolor lava. The “Free”-flowing jam accelerated in pace, with the band members clearly energized by the panoramic visuals and crowd awe, lasting nearly ten minutes before reaching its conclusion.

After catching their breaths, the band started into “The Moma Dance,” with Mike ‘Cactus’ Gordon and ‘Chairman of the Boards’ Page McConnell holding down the groove on bass and clavichord respectively. A round fish-eye lens of the band and crowd was projected immediately above the band while the band’s lightman “fifth member” Chris Kuroda took more of a back-seat role, limited to accenting the band with six vertical light towers instead of his customary mammoth light rig that typically accompanies Phish’s live performances.

“Axilla” got the crowd dancing and head-banging. The Sphere nearly spun off its axis on this foot stomper, accentuated by monochrome stripes which rotated through every conceivable angle. As the band continued into a spacey jam, it became clear that this was actually “Axilla part 2” from their album Hoist, even rarer in their live performances.

The first ballad of the night came next in the form of “mercy.” The spotlight turned back to the band’s frontman guitarist/vocalist Trey Anastasio, giving him a chance to showcase his introspective, sentimental side. As the Sphere visage transformed into an oceanic underwater view, animated seabirds began to swim and fly through, up and over the water.

“Bathtub Gin” used to be one of my favorite Phish songs to see performed live. However, I couldn’t help but groan as its opening notes rang out, due to seeing them play it so often in recent years – including three out of my last four Phish shows. “Been there, done that,” I mused during its intro, although I couldn’t have been more wrong. The deep-sea view was suddenly filled with images of people haplessly wafting on pool floats, morphing in and out of focus into a vast, swirling cascade of ascending and descending columns of multi-colored hues. As was the case with “Free,” the jam quickened in pace and intensity in a frenzied foray of psychedelia. Although I’ve seen the band play “Bathtub Gin” nearly twenty times, I had never heard the centerpiece jam performed with such speed and vivacity, proving me wrong about the validity of the song’s inclusion.

The aquatic motif continued as Page’s piano rang in the opening notes of “Theme from the Bottom.” Suddenly the stage sank to the bottom of the ocean, providing a dazzling display complete with undersea plant life, scuba divers, and yes, fish. The patiently-played “Theme” dipped into a dark, trippy Type II jam, musically delving into minor chords for the first time in this concert of mostly dominant major chords.

Speaking of themes: the four nights of the group’s Sphere run were tied together by a unifying theme, with each night depicting an elemental state of matter. By this point in the show, it was evident that this evening’s concert was represented by liquid / water, the most apropos of the elemental states for a band named Phish.

It’s like seeing your favored band inside of a planetarium; however instead of merely displaying stars, Sphere is an imaginarium that can conjure any setting or place that the mind can conceive. It is a world of pure imagination, like Wonkavision for concert-goers.

“Split Open & Melt” concluded the first set with another favorite that I’ve seen performed live more often than I can count, a welcome addition on this night as well. As the band voyaged into the “SO&M” jam in near darkness, a series of iridescent wormholes began to open on the curved visage above the stage, warping the Sphere into interstellar bliss and providing the evening’s trippiest moments for the ears and eyes.

The group returned to the stage after intermission with the happy-go-lucky “A Wave of Hope,” an uncommon set-starter which the band first debuted a few years ago. The celebratory middle segment was accentuated by geometric shapes resembling flowers and ghastly apparitions, giving way to a blue haze as the foursome took the jam into unfamiliar territory that ebbed and flowed before swelling to a gorgeous conclusion after eighteen minutes.

Up next was “What’s the Use,” a poignant instrumental highlighted by Anastasio’s yearning guitar lead containing hints of “The Curtain With.” Magnified images of the band bathed in blue appeared above the stage behind a sublime starscape.

“Ruby Waves” followed as another relatively new addition to the band’s vast catalog. While the jam didn’t quite reach the legendary status of their expanded version from Dayton’s Nutter Center last fall, its peak yielded one of this evening’s most lauded and applauded segments under a magenta rainbow. “Lonely Trip” has an arrangement reminiscent of the Temptations and early R&B but with less soul, presented here in a sedated format sans drums.

Following four uncommon songs recognizable only to the most ardent Phishheads was “A Song I Heard The Ocean Sing.” The Sphere plunged back underwater amidst bioluminescent jellyfish, kelp and sub-aquatic life as the musical tension increased then released, turning the minor-driven “ASIHTOS” into a blissful Type II jam of suspended majors. Anastasio utilized delay and doubling effects during his zany lead, eventually segueing into the fanciful “Prince Caspian.”

During “Caspian” the venue was transformed into a majestic Olympian Colosseum with gigantic columns of ancient Greek architecture, while remaining underwater. After the requisite sing-along refrain, Trey dazzled the crowd with rapid-fire hammer-ons while dueling with Page’s piano at the song’s peak. The dynamics faded to near silence for a moment, before Gordon and Anastasio commenced with the introductory notes of “You Enjoy Myself.”

“Y.E.M.” is a rollicking rollercoaster from Phish’s first album Junta, one of their oldest songs described in detail in previous reviews. When played accurately as on this night, the composition is typically uniform and unvarying, rarely if at all differing until its closing section.

What set “Y.E.M.” apart on this night was the vivid visual of the screen transforming into a giant car wash named the Tunnel of Luv, with the entire audience riding along as passengers in the car. Trey and Mike momentarily levitated on trampolines as they are typically inclined, with Gordo laying it heavy on the flanger during his bass solo. As they reached the a capella ‘vocal jam,’ the drying phase of the car wash was assumed by a giant black dog – its head three hundred feet tall – with its enormous tongue licking the screen clean. Of all the memorable visuals created by Moment Factory for display at Sphere during Phish’s run, this was the most humorous and pictorial.

After slipping off-stage momentarily for a quick encore break, the band returned with “Wading in the Velvet Sea.” Anastasio mercifully lent the lead vocal duties to McConnell for a ravishing rendition of this ballad. Page’s vocals used to be much more commonplace in Phish shows; however over the past decade plus it is typically all about Trey, who sang lead on every other song in this setlist.

Just when their phans were ready to head for the exits, the quartet catapulted into the reggae intro of “Harry Hood.” This song about a Lothario milkman is one of the group’s oldest songs dating back to 1985, rarely varying in its form and presentation from night to night, similar to “Y.E.M.” However as with most songs performed on this night, the band added a little special sauce to compliment the impressive visuals. Drummer Jon Fishman was particularly percussive, adding polyrhythmic flares to the centerpiece jam. It was a triumphant and rip-roaring finale to an exalted, exceptional night, lauded as the favorite of the four Sphere concerts by many in attendance.

How is the Sphere concert experience different from a regular arena or concert hall? It’s like seeing your favored band inside of a planetarium; however instead of merely displaying stars, Sphere is an imaginarium that can conjure any setting or place that the mind can conceive. It is a world of pure imagination, like Wonkavision for concert-goers. The sound itself was exceptional and crystalline even in the 400 level, owing to hidden speakers in each row, an impeccable improvement over the boomy sounds audible in the upper levels of most concert venues.

In an interview with CBS News conducted on the same day as this performance, Anastasio referred to live concert experiences at Sphere as an “entirely new form of entertainment” with the objective to “show, not tell” the stories behind the songs. This description is completely accurate to this reviewer after experiencing the most stunning and artistically inventive Phish concert I’ve ever witnessed over three decades.

As Phish takes a brief pause to prepare for their upcoming tour, the Sphere spotlight turns to Dead & Company as they embark on a twenty-four show residency that started this past weekend. Stay tuned for a Psychedelic Scene review of an upcoming Dead & Company concert at Sphere.

Anastasio is currently on tour with his eponymous project Trey Anastasio Band, with Phish’s next concert scheduled for July 19^th at Xfinity Center in Mansfield, Massachusetts to begin their 2024 summer tour.

– Bill Kurzenberger

PHISH 4/19/2024 Sphere, Las Vegas, Nevada
Set I: Prerecorded Free intro(2) -> Free (9), Moma Dance (9), Axilla part II (17), mercy (6), Bathtub Gin (14), Theme From the Bottom (15) -> Split Open & Melt (15)

Set II: A Wave of Hope (18), What’s the Use? (8) -> Ruby Waves (12), Lonely Trip (7), A Song I heard the Ocean Sing (11) -> Prince Caspian (9) -> You Enjoy Myself (17)

Encores: Wading in the Velvet Sea (12), Harry Hood (13)