Phish kicked off their second leg of their Summer Tour 2021 and began a three-night run at The Gorge in George, Washington last night. The band finished up on the East Coast a week and a half ago with a big three-night run on the Atlantic City Boardwalk beach, and the band came out like they hadn’t skipped a beat.
The show got started with “Torn and Frayed,” an obvious tribute to Charlie Watts’ recent passing and a throwback to the band’s Halloween 2009 set when they covered The Rolling Stones’ Exile On Main Street. “No Men in No Man’s Land” kicked the energy up a notch and delivered a nice bit of Type I jamming from the band. “Leaves” made its reappearance after a decent gap, and suddenly the setlist options really opened up as the band usually gets deeper into their repertoire as the tour progresses. Fishman started “Split Open and Melt” next, paused as if he had made a mistake, then Trey joked that he can’t just stop once he started it. So the band delivered a wild version pretty darn early in the show. Trey was loop master on this one; really loved the jam that coalesced.
The rest of the set had some great vibes and a “Ha Ha Ha” bust out that hadn’t been seen in a while, but nothing was too out of the ordinary. For set two, the band kicked off with “Sigma Oasis” before transitioning into a gorgeous “What’s the Use” which brought things in the venue down to a pin-drop level silence. “Blaze On” was nice and transitioned pretty cleanly into “Lifeboy,” which then somehow transitioned into “Camel Walk” after it was over. What seemed like a normal version of “Camel Walk” soon became the jam of the evening as it clocked in around 16 minutes all told. Super wild, must-hear stuff from the band in there.
Trey found a clean line to bring up the energy a bit after the Type II jam and “Chalk Dust Torture” and “Slave to the Traffic Light” closed the set. The band encored with “Drift While You’re Sleeping” and sent everyone back to their tents and cars happy enough with the first show of the run. Let’s hope the band has a massive set or two in them tonight.
Scroll down to see the setlist and some video links from the show:
Phish @ The Gorge, George WA 8.27.21
Set I: Torn and Frayed, No Men in No Man’s Land, Leaves, Split Open and Melt, Tube, I Been Around, Ha Ha Ha, Mull, Shade, Alaska, Golgi Apparatus
Set II: Sigma Oasis > What’s the Use?, Blaze On > Lifeboy > Camel Walk -> Chalk Dust Torture > Slave to the Traffic Light
Encore: Drift While You’re Sleeping
Here are this weekend’s LE poster for The Gorge Amphitheatre by Tyler Stout Two colorways. Edition of 800 of each. 18×24. Signed and numbered screenprint. Available at merch stands when doors open. No early stands. Limit of ONE print per person, so pick your favorite colorway. pic.twitter.com/7f3jBhS3dK
— Phish Dry Goods (@phishdrygoods) August 27, 2021
