Phish delivered a three-hour performance at the DCU Center in Worcester on Thursday night
The multi-colored light show is part of the Phish experience
WORCESTER _ Phish kicked off its summer tour with the first of a two-night concert stand at the DCU Center on Thursday night. The band will also hoof it down to Tennessee over the weekend to handle a headlining set that closes out the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival on Sunday night.
For the band, Trey Anastasio, Jon Fishman, Mike Gordon, and Page McConnell, the song and the scene essentially remains the same as it did in the early 90s when they began an amazing run as one of music’s best touring bands.
The glow sticks, balloons, multi-colored lights, and fans lighting up are all part of the Phish concert experience. If your last go-round with the group was the early 90s and you re-entered yesterday there would be little to suggest the years gone by.
Without new material (the band has released only two studio albums since 2004) the group continues to do what it does as well as any group of musicians on the planet, improvise and riff on the catalog making the same songs feel just a little bit like new.
The Phish fan-base remains fanatical, adding to the carnival-like atmosphere. They speak a language all their own while referencing the nuances and subtleties of Thursday night’s version of “Buried Alive” as opposed to the version that was played at the then Worcester Centrum in 1995.
It can be intimidating to the uninitiated, trying to figure exactly when to toss your glow sticks in the air during “Possum” and not being able to appreciate the material in the context of its history.
It was “Buried Alive” the striking instrumental that opened the show, flowing into “Runaway Jim” and “Torn and Frayed.”
As it has always been, the music was effortless and intoxicating on its own, a kaleidoscope of sound and melody that drifted along like the illicit haze that was mingling in the rafters. The band delivered 21 twisted tunes that skirted the edge of rock, blues, funk, and folk.
They dredged up an hour and fifteen minute opening set with songs like “Beauty of a Broken Heart,” the aforementioned “Possum” and the set-closer “Rocky Top.” They took a half hour break and came back with 90 minutes more.
The second half opened with a 12 minute version of “Carini” followed by “Taste” which was spiced with just a little taste (courtesy of Anastasio’s guitar) of “Norwegian Wood.” Highlights of the second set included “Quinn the Eskimo,” and “Cavern.”
The band closed with a walk through “Buried Alive,” and encored with “Loving Cup.”