After not spelling anything on the opening night of their Dick’s Sporting Goods Park run like they have in past stints at the Colorado venue, Phish saved it for the finale as they delivered an encore for the ages to close out their summer tour.

Coming out from the encore, the band quickly launched into “Tweezer Reprise,” completing the “Tweezer” played earlier in the second set. After the rocking rendition, the band paused before getting into the first “Harpua” of the tour and first since Northerly Island 2013. Anastasio’s narration included a nod to Colorado, with the guitarist saying that the band loves to play the song in the Rocky Mountain State.

In this particular narration, Jimmy was an “East Coast guy” who moved out to Colorado and he can’t breathe very well so he gets himself an oxygen tank. Anastasio, with an oxygen tank next to him, then signaled the start of “After Midnight,” the first since 2013 after saying Jimmy was sitting in Colorado with his oxygen tank, vape and edibles listening to some of his favorite records.

As the song wound to a close, Anastasio remarked that Jimmy didn’t feel good all of a sudden and sucked on his oxygen tank more to get some air. That sequence led into “NO2” which featured Mike Gordon using the drill on his bass in a particularly weird segment while the band members congregated at Page’s rig for a “Keyboard Army” jam with all four members collaborating on a different keyboard.

As the group starts to return the narration to the “Harpua” theme, they break into the Chilling, Thrilling Sounds cut “Your Pet Cat” following a brief mention of Poster Nutbag. The jam concluded with a narration from Mike Gordon about the bassist eating Poster Nutbag before the band transitioned into one of the ending sections of “Harpua.”

It wasn’t over just quite yet as Anastasio once again took to the mic to continue the narration, with Jimmy thinking, “how did I get here?” which then led into the first “Once in a Lifetime” since it debuted on Halloween night in 1996. The end of the tune included a return to “Harpua” as well before Anastasio took to the mic to thank the crowd for a great summer tour. They then went into the final number, “United We Stand,” a Phish debut. Without spelling anything the first night, the encore spelled “Thank You.”

While the encore was the highlight, Phish also delivered two additional impressive sets. Next to the encore in the highlight department was the opening number of “The Landlady,” which hadn’t been played since 12/3/94. Also in the first set was “The Birdwatcher,” which made its first appearance since 2012 before the set-closing “Frankenstein.”

The second set saw Phish hit on some of their biggest live staples, including the second “Wilson” of the tour as well as a lengthy “Down with Disease.” Additional cuts included a smooth segment of “Carini,” “Steam” and “Piper” that led into “2001” before “Tweezer” set off the finale of “The Horse,” “Silent in the Morning” and a “Slave to the Traffic Light” finale.

Here’s a look at the setlist as it appears in our Box Scores section:

Phish
Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, Commerce City, CO

Set I: The Landlady, Free > The Moma Dance > Seven Below > Prince Caspian > Backwards Down the Number Line, The Line, Scent of a Mule*, Saw It Again, Halfway to the Moon, The Birdwatcher, Frankenstein^

Set II: Wilson > Down with Disease^^ > Carini > Steam > Piper > Also Sprach Zarathustra > Tweezer > The Horse > Silent in the Morning > Slave to the Traffic Light

Enc: Tweezer Reprise, Harpua% > After Midnight > NO2* > Keyboard Army > Your Pet Cat%%, Once in a Lifetime > United We Stand$

Notes:
*Fish on Marimba Lumina.
^Page on keytar.
^^Unfinished.
%Unfinished. Narration included Jimmy being a guy from the east coast coming west and needing an oxygen tank. Trey sucked from an oxygen tank.
%%Included narration from Mike about eating Poster Nutbag.
$Phish debut.

Source: Phish.net