Solid show here on Friday night in the desert. The return of Soul Planet was awesome and a great first set treat. The song is really getting jammed far out. My Friend My Friend was a nice launching pad from that jam and was played nicely. More > Ghost was also a solid way to close out the set.

2nd set opens with a Loving Cup which was neat, a great song to hear at any time. Sweet Mikes Groove came after - and the highlight on the 2nd set came next with this Everythings Right, which had a nice long jam in it too - probably right up there with the soul planet jam from set 1. I think Life Beyond the Dream is a great song, and this was a stupendous version. Cities -> Hood were 2 great choices to close us out. All played very well. Double encore with Suzy and Cavern and we have ourselves a pretty darn good show here tonight, I will give it 4 stars.

Must Listens: Soul Planet -> My Friend My Friend, Ghost and the entire 2nd set. Cant wait for more, Phish is refusing to play a bad show currently. It feels like theyre ready to go off any given night

This show rose from the ashes like a Phoenix over the 18 year drought between phish shows in the Valley of the sun. From start to finish this was a high energy show that kept the crowd moving!

I only ask that we don't have to wait another extended hiatus for the band from Vermont to return to the valley of the sun.

Really fun show!

I want to give credit to this show’s opening segment, because it was the type of opening sequence that means so much more in context than it does in a vacuum.

Julius reappears after not being seen since late 2019 and it’s opening notes set the crowd in Phoenix ablaze. Though Julius made its name as a set-closer and encore tune, it makes a ton of sense as an opener. Serving as a high energy, bluesy jam to get the band and crowd feeling good out of the gate? Yes please. Hell, any time Julius is played is a good time, but to open a Friday night show after a significant hiatus? Danger? Yea, we’ve been told to expect it.

Before we could even catch our breath, the first Martian Monster of fall tour (and only second since 2019) comes crawling out of the lurch. The “composed” sections of this particular Monster signaled good things to come, and the band seemed to be doing that thing where they take an innocuous musical segment and layer it so richly with new ideas that it almost sounds like a new piece of music.

Don’t sleep on the length of this one either, because the jam in this Martian Monster might’ve been the best group improv of the whole show. Almost immediately, Mike starts dropping singularity bombs, perhaps signaling the beginning of a funky Mike-driven jam a la Sneakin’ Sally from 11/2/18…but the band modulates to major key…and what they find themselves in afterwards is a space of pure cohesion. Trey and Page start pushing and pulling each other through conversational melodies, almost rowing the big boat spaceship back and forth…drifting off into orbit around the Soul Planet.

And then….liftoff

What a sequence to ring in Phish’s first show in Arizona!

One final note, this may have been the best straightforward Hood peak I’ve been able to catch live. Featured a big minor key jam with its own peak before absolutely crushing the standard major coda.

Thank you Phish!

This was my 300th show! It seems like the more milestones I hit, the more demanding I become. It was my first show of the fall tour and I came in pretty fresh having not paid attention to much else despite my affinity for the new Golden 1 Center in Sacramento that I helped build. Did everyone like it? I hope nobody needed the world class sports medicine facility powered by Kaiser that’s attached.
Anyway, Desert Sky, I mean Ak-Chin, does everyone else remember the Camel Walk and Guy Forget? Well I did so it’s kind of difficult to top that, right?
Especially when I’m so heavily distracted by people asking if my party is “OK”. It’s called dancing, it’s called raging, it’s called freaking out. Perhaps try it and you’ll like it. We were the freakers right by the speakers, we were more than Ok.
Trey put some extra mustard on that Julius so you knew it would be fun. They played some other stuff, the segue into Soul Planet was cool and the jam was fun. I loved dancing to More and we got a bonus Ghost to close the set. I always love when they close a set with 2 or 3 set closers in a row because that creates such a palpable energy going into set break.
Speaking of closers, set 2 opened with Loving Cup. I know I’m getting older because I couldn’t help but think about the dearly departed Sharon Jones. I’m sorry Phish, there will never be another Loving Cup as moving unless you get Mick and Keith on stage too.
My name is Mike and so of course I dig into Mike’s groove with aplomb. I have heard Hydrogen since Dick’s ‘19 so that was lovely to my ears.
But, geez, “Yes! We’re OK, now shh!”
The Everything’s Right was so good but I got sick of the looky loos so I went to get some water and was reminded that dancing in the back with friends is also a lot of fun. Except for the military reject that wanted to know where my seat was. Why isn’t everything GA yet?
Before the nazi grabbed I managed to drop a jump kick to emphasize the Life Beyond a Dream. I returned to my section and several friends followed suit and we were rewarded with a lovely Hood. I love seeing love during Hood. I didn’t see any glow sticks, I only saw my friend giving lots of sweet hugs.
The encore, for this tour, was pedestrian right? No bonus spacey jams last night, just a solid show.

Did anyone else hear “Passing Through” at some point during the second set? I started humming the Hey, Heyo Heyo, and it worked but someone geekier than me will need to figure that out.

Please stay safe, wear a mask, wash your hands frequently, and get tested regularly so we can finish this tour as it started. Much love

Over a week after this show and it still holds up, especially after not seeing the band since 2016. Energy from the band and the crowd was there from the get go (perhaps the what seemed to be hour long wait in line got a few people excited once they were amongst the grounds). Both sets, a great balance of songs and they definitely made a point of jamming TF outta a couple new tunes in Soul Planet and Everything's Right. No complaints here, those jams soared. With a good Ghost, magical Hood and Mike's volume swells during the Scent break, this is exactly what the doctor ordered (aside from my gf not getting her David Bowie, soon though babe, soon!). Couple happy campers here!