Last night marked Phish’s fifteenth show at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium (“BGCA”) and first since 2018, having opted for Shoreline, Chase, and the Greek as the Bay Area stops between this week’s run and Phish’s last visit. For those unaware, there’s an odd gap in Bay Area venue capacities, with the Greek, Frost, and BGCA at around 8-8.5k, but the next level up – aside from Concord Sleep Train Pavilion (capacity 12,500), where I promise you no one wants to see a show – seats closer to 20k with venues like Chase Center, Oracle Arena, and Shoreline Amphitheatre. Rather than shutting out tons of fans in the 8k tier with weekend shows, or underselling the next tier up, Phish has played weekday shows the last four trips to BGCA (2014, 2016, 2018, and 2025). It was a beautiful, crisp spring day in San Francisco - I headed into work in the East Bay in the late morning and left before 4 pm for the city to drop off some birthday beers and give a ride to some friends who had gotten early entry. I crushed a burrito and headed back towards the venue before 6 pm, and found a parking spot three blocks from Civic Center Plaza and made my way towards the venue with those good pre-show jitters - or maybe it was the beans from my burrito? Hard to say.

Unlike the 2023 run at the Greek, where I lost my damn mind with people cutting lines, tarping, and exhibiting shitty, entitled behavior – the venue staff was absolutely no help in keeping any semblance of order – BGCA had the line situation dialed. Railings snaked back and forth, staff kept an eye on things, and everyone was sent to the end of the line to wait their turn – I know, it’s a radical leftist concept. By 5:45 pm, the line was already well up Larkin St. People ripped their pens and drank their dank brews, and the nitrous mafia was out in full force, but there wasn’t a lot of commotion on this Earth Day. There were more folks popping Advils than pressies. I tracked down my buddy John Greene (keyboardist of Chum, the local Phish tribute; also of Gamehendge CD-ROM fame!) and his old friend Dougie, and we enjoyed a tasty local beverage while catching up. The line started moving shortly after 6 pm, and by 6:30 I was seated in the first row of section 321, DFC. I’m usually a “show up solo, see who I run into on the floor, leave solo” guy these days, but given I was on recap duty, it had been a while since I had caught a show with my close friends, and that this was the first of three consecutive shows for me – I’m seeing Sturgill Simpson at the Greek tomorrow! – I figured I’d take ‘er easy on night one and enjoy the primo Kuroda Cam spot. I do not regret that decision.

By the posted ticket time of 7:30 pm, the venue was packed to the gills. The floor was full wall-to-wall, and there were few unoccupied seats up top as folks spilled into the aisles and walkways around the venue. There was an anticipatory vibe, if not a little subdued – more vet than noob on a Tuesday night in San Francisco perhaps? The lights went down at 8:08 pm, and for the fourth consecutive show – and for the first time at a Phish show I’ve attended (!) – Trey grabbed the OG Mar-Mar. He danced around the stage a little bit as if he were pumping himself up. And when you grab a guitar you played in 1987, you may as well open with a song that first opened a show in 1990: “Buried Alive.” “Axilla (Part II)” followed, and had a few flubs as the band struggled to get their sea legs. The outro jam (Did you know? The precursor to the “Axilla (Part II)” outro was first played after the 3/31/93 “It’s Ice”) was taken for a short walk, and as the lights went purple I pulled out my phone to take a picture, when I realized two things: there was a dude blocking my way, and that dude was also taking pictures of the band, because it is that dude’s job to be the official photographer for the band: Rene Huemer.

Continuing the theme (in more ways than one), the band dropped into “Mike’s Song.” Mike flubbed the lyrics to his own song, but the band made a solid recovery into the jam, which grew in intensity and passed through some “Manteca” teases. At one point mid-jam, Trey called out his guitar tech to fuss with his gear, but I didn’t detect any issue in the music at that point. Trey hit a long, sustained note, gave the signal, and the band arrived on the D together. “Mike’s” melted into “I Am Hydrogen,” the correct call, thematically speaking. When Fishman started “Weekapaug Groove,” it was incredibly slow – I called it “Fake-apaug,” and I saw a PTer refer to it as “Weirkapaug” (shout-out to Dad & Bro’s 0.5x tempos). This was the slowest “Weekapaug” since … the last one, played in Mexico; and probably the 11/24/09 “Weekapaug” before that. Unlike Mexico, this one went nowhere, and sputtered before the 5 minute mark and ground to a halt. I’m not sure what was going on up to that point – if the challenges were musical or technical – but Trey decided they needed to reset things and head back to soundcheck (h/t @reba_alliance) when he called for “My Soul.” Page crushed his piano jam, and Trey got his blues licks in, and I hoped the band could cut the deficit in the second quarter.

Unfortunately, things did not sort themselves out immediately, as Mike started “Halley’s Comet” in the wrong key. Trey and Page tried to nudge him up a note, but eventually relented and went flat with him until they started playing their instruments in the right key. The usual jam started off a little uneasy, but the band pushed on and modulated around the 8 minute mark. As they entered a blissful section, Trey leaned on his Whammy pedal, which didn’t really do it for me, as “whale calling” does not “sound good.” But the band powered through, and Trey began trilling around 12 minutes in, and the intensity built, and the lights started flashing so quickly they would have required a warning in Japan, and for a brief moment I forgot which song they were playing – had they kicked into the “Bathtub Gin” outro, I would have said “ah yes, they were playing ‘Gin,’ right” (Did you know? Phish has never played “Gin” at BGCA … not till tonight at least). The jam dissipated some, but Fishman came in with a “Melt”-like beat that foreshadowed what was to come. Instead of transitioning to the next song, the band instead finished with a vocal reprise before the fifth-longest “Halley’s” ever was on the books.

“Roggae” – a song that I had requested just a few weeks back – followed, and I was pleased to hear a “new” song mixed in too. This one was reminiscent of the 8/5/11 Gorge rendition, where there was a minor mode excursion between the typical “Roggae” goodness. The end was particularly beautiful with the band playing with the dynamics as they do in their best versions of the Story of the Ghost tune. A fiery but straightforward “Maze” followed – Trey turned and watched Page while comping him throughout the first jam; Page kept his back to everyone. “Split Open and Melt” closed the set – at the beginning of the jam, the band started in sync, but as it developed, each band member chose a pattern with different periodicity: at times, they came together, but those moments were fleeting as basic concepts of math collapsed down to a single point of infinite depth. It was CK5’s time to shine, and the band followed his lead from the darkness back to the light. A fan handed Trey a bouquet of flowers to close the set at 9:36 pm, almost 90 minutes in a tale of two quarters, separated by a mid-set soundcheck. Every song debuted in 1.0, naturally. Who’s the Mar-Mar?

The lights came down again after a half-hour long 15 minute setbreak, and at 10:07 pm Trey wasted no time kicking into “Carini.” We’ve had our fair share of incredible “Carini”s in San Francisco, both at BGCA and beyond - last night’s was no exception, and ended up being the longest of them all and the sixth-longest ever. In the composed (and I use that term loosely) section, Trey screamed “Everyone was screaming when they saw the lump!”, and everyone in the venue obliged - it was on. The jam picked up right where “Melt” left off, modulated, passed through a “Fuego”-like section, and modulated again while picking up pace. Trey teased or danced around “Dueling Banjos,” Page hopped on the synth, and Mike found a groove reminiscent of “Peace Frog.” The jam kept pulsing and growing brighter, and CK5 washed the crowd with white lights as the band hit peak after peak. Like clockwork, the moment the jam hit the 20 minute mark, Trey went back to the “Carini” theme for a tight finish. “No Men in No Man’s Land” batted second, and was the first song of the evening that debuted after 1998 – that’s a long time for them to go without breaking the seal! Much like “Carini,” there was no foreplay in the “NMINML” jam – all killer, no filler. The early jam had a “Ghost”-like feel to it, and it took a more downbeat turn. Some folks took that as a sign to start chomping away – another round of “Manteca” teases couldn’t shut their shoemouths. The jam turned back to a brighter melodic mood before winding down abruptly – or as abrupt as a 15 minute jam can end – and, seal completely broken, Trey gave a nod to Jesus (Happy Easter!) with some 3.0-era Christian Rock.

“Ruby Waves” did not disappoint, and fans blew white smoke into the air in anticipation for the selection of the next pope (RIP Francis). After some rhythmic swells, the band drifted away in unison before Trey found a riff akin to “Crosseyed & Painless.” Another super familiar melody followed – that’s not “Matador” is it? – and Trey went back to his Whammy pedal just to troll me as they built towards another peak, Fishman propelling the action. Trey found a celebratory trill for one last peak before slamming back into “Ruby Waves” proper after another 20+ minute jam, capping an hourlong triptych of jamming. I’m sorry for calling Phish “mid” earlier this year. Look, I hate my favorite band as much as the next guy, but sometimes I just need a big fat reminder in my urine-filled earholes.

In what many people were calling a nod to government spending on stuff like “life-saving scientific research,” “Waste” occupied the cooldown slot, and “What’s the Use?” continued the chill fourth quarter vibe – it’s fine to bench the starters when you’re up by 25 at the end of the third quarter, y’know? “WTU?” got quieter and quieter until it resulted in more than a minute of dead silence – Phish had the crowd in the palms of their hands. CK5 followed suit and left only the safety lights dimly illuminating the fringes of the venue. They gently brought back the song, and most in the crowd – except for one attention-seeking 🤡 who thought that was the precise moment to whistle loudly and repeatedly – shut their mouths completely and listened, rapt, to the band finish the beautiful Siket Disc instrumental. “Down with Disease” rumbled from the wreckage of “WTU?”, finishing the set with a short but sweet exclamation point. “DWD” has only ended one other set in 3.0, back in 2012 at Bader Field; I hadn’t seen “DWD” close a set since 7/10/03 Shoreline. The second set finished at 11:29 pm - 6 songs, 82 minutes.

One exclamation point was not enough, as “Fluffhead” started at 11:33 pm. The early composed parts were largely nailed, but there were some rough patches between “Clod” and “Bundle” (if I recall correctly) – but that’s besides the point. “Arrival” was great, and that’s all that matters. Tonight will mark the 16th BGCA show ever, tying BGCA with Shoreline for the #12 spot all-time (Did you know? Sort by Times Played at phish.net/venues). See you there! – @ucpete

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