On Thursday night (April 18), for the first time, a band not named U2 performed at the Las Vegas Sphere. Phish shares some traits with the Irish group – both are quartets with decades-long histories of concert production experimentation who remain major live draws – but the revered Vermont jam band still had something to prove as it kicked off a four-night run at the cutting-edge Sin City venue: How would an act known for its exploratory improvisation navigate a daunting visual space that on its face might seem more suited for tightly planned productions like U2:UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere, which remained relatively static throughout its 40-show run?
The answer was straightforward. Phish was Phish. Across three-and-a-half hours and two sets of music, singer-guitarist Trey Anastasio, bassist Mike Gordon, keyboardist Page McConnell, and drummer Jon Fishman seemed relatively unphased by the eye-popping animations darting across the 160,000-square-foot Sphere screen above them – at least, other than when Anastasio remarked to the crowd halfway through Phish’s first set that they “should see it this way, it’s pretty cool!” – and instead focused on delivering quality versions of jam vehicles old (“Tweezer”) and new (“Life Saving Gun”).
Of course, fans in attendance had much more to process than at a normal Phish show. Each of the setlist’s 18 songs featured a different animation, ranging from kooky graphics to abstract patterns, and Sphere Immersive Sound rendered the band’s audio in new, novel ways. An audio recording might sound like another present-day Phish show; the sensory experience in the room was anything but.
Still, as Abigail Rosen Holmes, the co-creative director for Phish’s Sphere shows, told Billboard earlier this week, “We’re going to use all of the opportunities of this building – the audio, the visuals – and do it while supporting Phish truly playing music the way Phish plays music.” Phish’s first Sphere show largely accomplished that, pushing boundaries without letting that interfere with the music-making at hand.
Billboard was on the scene, and we’ve rounded up the best moments below.
