[We would like to thank Aaron Presuhn (@presuhn) for recapping last night’s show. -Ed.]

Four shows into summer tour, and the band is as hot as the weather has been. We’re currently in the midst of a heat dome and the whole northeast has been scorching for the past few days. I’d hoped for a return to Star Lake and some outdoor Burgettstown Phish. But I’ve gotta say that I was really feeling the air conditioning on a day like yesterday.

After a meetup with some friends at Piper's Pub for some shepherd’s pie and scotch eggs, we opted to drink a few brews at our buddy’s hotel instead of sweltering in the heat of a parking garage. Yeah, yeah, I know. But the older I get, the less tolerant of extreme temperatures I become.

Petersen Events Center or “The Pete”, as the locals affectionately call it, is the University of Pittsburgh’s sports arena, and host to three Phish shows over the past decade. I’ve been to all three, the first of which was the summer of ‘17, on a day much like this one. We parked at a garage at the top of the hill and had to walk down as opposed to up to the arena. Good call. Because hot. Ok, I’ll STFU about the heat and talk about the show!

We posted up towards the front of section 201. The Pete isn’t that large, so we had a nice centered birds-eye view of the band. Kinda seems like they’re getting a bit more punctual in their old age…you could always count on a good 40-45 minutes after ticket time. Tonight, they hit the stage at 8:01, complete with Fishman FIRE donuts and opened with “AC/DC Bag.” Always a pleasure to hear in the opening slot, this version started out what sounded a bit more laid back than usual. A good 7 minutes or so of some Type I jamming builds to a nice rocking peak and then winds down to the first of two bustouts of the evening.

“Dogs Stole Things” is a relative 3.0 rarity, but always a fun tune to hear. Next up is “Paul and Silas” and this one hasn’t been seen since 2016. I struggled to remember if I’d ever seen it live before and I hadn’t! Bonus points when I get a new song.

Page’s time to shine came with “I Always Wanted It This Way.” Synthy, and danceable, Page displayed the mastery of the keys that we all know and love, and Fishman held a steady beat throughout. After a standout Page performance, this lead into a breezy “Water in the Sky."

“Stealing Time From The Faulty Plan” was fine, as was “Ya Mar”, although I think Ya Mar works better as an outside song. I’ve always loved to hear it as the sun was getting low and a nice breeze was in the air. The penultimate “Gumbo” clocked in at 13.5 minutes and definitely had the proverbial extra mustard. Seems like that song might be trending in a direction that takes it places in 2025. The version from San Fran this past spring was also a standout.

“Walls of the Cave” assumed its rightful spot as a set-ender to send us on our way for the end of the first. Overall, I thought the set was well-played with some good song choices and bustouts. Trey’s voice sounded great. Whatever plagued him for the start of the tour seems to be gone.

We lingered in the concourse a bit too long at halftime talking to friends, and got back to our seats a minute late to rock out to “You Enjoy Myself”. Is there a more quintessential song in their catalog? For me, YEM is IT. What was it Trey said around the time they came back…”I could play that song every day for the rest of my life” or something along those lines. Yeah. That. I could hear it every show and be happy. When YEM shows up to open a set 2, I always view it as a harbinger of something special happening. We’ll get to that. There was a brief second of utter terror as Trey almost fell off the trampoline. He recovered instantly, because he’s a goddamn rock star. It makes me wonder how much longer they’ll jump around on those things. Of course, Mick Jagger has a good 20 years on these guys and I recently saw him run around the stage like a madman, so…

So…there was some Trey shredding, some Mike and Fish Bass & Drums dueling, a short beat-boxy vocal jam. Then we settled down into a nice funky groove that wound down and bled into “What's Going Through Your Mind."

I’ve seen this song a few times, including the debut at Van Andel with Billy Strings and the standout version at Mondegreen last year. Remember YEM being a harbinger of things to come? I expected them to take it for a nice ride, but…damn. This is the 6th longest jam of all time and, in my opinion, is worth the price of admission alone. Some people like bliss jamming, some prefer the dark side. This one has both, but skews very heavily towards the darkness. I’ve never been very good with putting my experience with really good jams into words, so I’ll refrain from trying to describe every part of this jam.

After the song proper, there were sections of darkness, and they’d rise out of that into some lighter major key jamming. Just when you thought that maybe something else was coming, they’d dip back down into the abyss. During a few of the dark passages, I swear Page was trying to signal a No Quarter. THAT would have been perfect. The last 10 minutes or so of this jam I can only describe as a sonic hellscape. Demented. I use these words as the highest praise. If you haven’t listened to this jam yet, go do that right now.

After an hour spread over two songs , a breather was warranted. I prefer “Prince Caspian” to be taken for a ride, but a short version was fine. Now, after that WGTYM, all I really wanted was an equally demented Melt. But they went in a different direction. “Julius” was rockin’ and “Blaze On” was a nice cap on a great set anchored by a jam that will be talked about for a while.

A brief pause brings the band back for a celebration lap. “The Howling” gets downright murky, and “Ghost” was the perfect way to bring the heat and end this heater of a show.

I’ve heard people say that the best show is the next show, and I think there’s some validity to that. This was my first show of tour and I have a bunch more planned. Maybe it’s recency bias, but I usually don’t end up saying that the first show I see in a given tour is the best one. This one might be hard to top, if just for that stupendous jam. But if any band can do it, it’s these guys.

Thanks, Pittsburgh! And thanks, Phish!

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