Phish just kicked off their Summer 2019 tour last in St. Louis, and we watched the show via webcast and took some notes on what we saw go down.
The band started the show with the Kasvot Växt jam, “Cool Amber and Mercury,” a great groovy kickoff. From there, the start of “46 Days” started to build and the band launched into the song as an obvious tribute to Leigh Fordham who recently passed away and who’s mentioned in the song lyrics.
“Stash” was given the number three slot, and went out there with a wild Type II jam, something very impressive for the early location in the show. Never heard a “Stash” like this. Suddenly it was obvious the band came to play, and they sounded relaxed right away and stretched out early. Good sign for the Summer Tour to come…
A confident stretch of “Nellie Kane > Free > Theme From the Bottom” came next before the band delivered a fantastically relaxed “Tube.” Great jam built out of it, confident relaxed listening… really a solid version. Almost 10 minutes.
To close the first set, the band played a debut of their version of the Ghosts of the Forest song, “Drift While You Sleeping,” delivered perfectly to the studio version with Page McConnell and Mike Gordon taking the backing vocal duties in a well-rehearsed and perfect sonic delivery. Really excited to see this song surface. We covered that Ghosts of the Forest tour extensively and it’s something that a lot of fans seem to turn off from given the emotional content of the lyrics, but I think they’ve got some of the deepest staying power and we could see more of these going forward.
For the second set the band opened with “No Men in No Man’s Land” which lead into a pretty chill Type I jam before moving into a transition of the notes of “Bathtub Gin,” a second slot slowdown but fun jam session nonetheless. “Ghost” rose quickly out of the dissolve from Gin and had some great energy flowing throughout. Loved some of the dark tones coming out of this jam. “Piper” came next, a slower-build than usual, and the band worked a nice jam out of it that moved into a fun rocker “Blaze On.”
“Joy” brought some emotional energy to the second set as a cool-down, but the band quickly brought things back up with “Simple.” I thought it may end there, but Trey got the notes out to “Limb by Limb” then sorta hesitated, seemed to pull back, then they all went for it. There was an “off to see the wizard” tease from The Wizard of Oz from Trey, and the band chose “Slave to the Traffic Light” to close out the set triumphantly.
For the encore, Phish took another cover from the Kasvot Växt catalog and played “Turtle in the Clouds” and closed strong with the “Character Zero” rock-fest.
I mean, just the cutest #phish pic.twitter.com/Gm1nmRhr45
— Channing (@BlueMountainBel) June 12, 2019
See below for the full audio from the show via Jam.Buzz and the setlist and choice tweets from the show; the band returns to the same venue tomorrow.
Phish @ Chaifetz Arena, St. Louis MO 6.11.19
Set I: Cool Amber and Mercury, 46 Days, Stash*, Nellie Kane > Free > Theme From the Bottom, Tube^, Drift While You’re Sleeping%
Set II: No Men In No Man’s Land > Bathtub Gin > Ghost -> Piper -> Blaze On, Joy > Simple > Limb By Limb# > Slave to the Traffic Light
Encore: Turtle in the Clouds > Character Zero^
Notes:
* – Must-hear jam
^ – with “Faceplant into rock” sample teases from Page
% – Ghosts of the Forest song, Phish debut
# – “We’re Off to See the Wizard” tease
Let stash get weird again. 👍👍 #phish
— PosterBuckeyes (@PosterBuckeyes) June 12, 2019
In the middle of a fresh tour cut !! 🙉⚔️ pic.twitter.com/LAGYXrdOBh
— Mike Gordon (@mike_gordon) June 8, 2019
Soundcheck night one St Louis 📸 Rene Huemer @ChaifetzArena pic.twitter.com/tmqOsZkc3M
— Phish: From The Road (@Phish_FTR) June 11, 2019
