Phish, FirstMerit Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island, Chicago, Illinois

It had been three years since my last Phish show at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland in Summer 2010. A July evening in Chicago would mark my ninth time seeing them, which I believe to be more than I have seen any other band. Saturday night would be the middle of their three-night run in Chicago.


At Pitchfork the previous night, Björk was only rained out approximately 15-20 minutes before the end of her performance; not a huge loss. Phish on the other hand, had most of their second set rained out the previous night. To compensate fans, they announced they would start promptly at 7pm on Saturday night and play 3 sets. It was an unlucky break for those only attending last night but very lucky for us. There were dozens of phans wandering the parking areas and entrances looking for extra tickets for the evening’s sold out performance and nearly no tickets available for them. I hope there weren’t too many that were only showing up because last night was rained out. Fortunately, I don’t think the Sunday night show ever sold out.

The show started off in an unusual song choice, “Prince Caspian,” which they were only two minutes into the previous night before the rain interrupted. I’m not sure if we heard the rest of that set that they were planning to play Friday night or not. Hard to tell but I bet there’s discussion of it on a couple phan websites. Unfortunately, we didn’t realize how early they would start until we were already en route. With traffic, we arrived later than expected, thus missing the very beginning of the show. We heard their second song, “Twist,” while we were walking up to the venue. We had GA floor tickets and found a good spot on the right side not far from the stage. We were even able to move closer between sets, close enough that my eyes were drawn to the band instead of the screen. It was close enough to notice that even on stage, the members of Phish – Trey, Paige, Mike, and Fishman – appear to be regular, middle-aged guys instead of the rock stars they are.


Their first set was great, perhaps one of the better Phish sets that I’ve seen, including  “Lawn Boy,” “Kill Devil Falls,” and “Cavern.” The second and third sets were also good, though seemed to include a few less of my favorite songs such as “Meatstick,” “Ocelot,” and “Light.” Of the 29 songs that they played that evening, just over half (15) were songs that I had never heard before, a figure I find pretty incredible considering I’ve seen them so many times. Most notable of new songs for me were Phish concert staples such as “Mike’s Song,” “Rift,” the Richard Wright cover “I Didn’t Know,” “Theme From the Bottom,” and a great version of “Slave to the Traffic Light.” In particular, I was happy to hear “Weekapaug Groove,” one of my favorite songs that I had yet to hear. I was also happy to hear them cover the TV on the Radio song “Golden Age.” Of course the longest song of the evening was only about 12 minutes long; it’s been quite a long time since the days of the 30 minute “Tweezer.” A great rendition of “Harry Hood” closed off the original songs of the evening before they closed on a couple more covers, “Good Times, Bad Times” and “Shine a Light.”

Setlist:
Set One:Prince Caspian
Twist
Ha Ha Ha
Possum
Cities (Talking Heads cover)
Lawn Boy
I Didn't Know (Richard Wright cover)
Rift
Destiny Unbound
My Friend, My Friend
Kill Devil Falls
Cavern
David Bowie 
Set Two:Back on the Train
Mike's Song

Theme From the Bottom
Weekapaug Groove
Golden Age  (TV on the Radio cover)
Waves
Piper
Slave to the Traffic Light
Set Three:
Meatstick
Birds of a Feather
Strange Design
Ocelot
Light
Harry Hood
Good Times, Bad Times (Led Zeppelin cover)
Encore: Shine a Light (Rolling Stones cover)