After wrapping up the East Coast leg of their summer tour last weekend in Syracuse, Phish kicked off their West Coast swing with the first of two shows at the Gorge Amphitheatre in George, WA, with a performance that included a packed first set that featured a debut “song” from Jon Fishman and a seamless, tease-laden second set.

The quartet jumped out of the gate with “Tweezer” into “Sample in a Jar” before busting out their cover of The Dillards’ “The Old Home Place” for the first time since June 28, 2012. The bluegrass tune preceded a spirited “Wolfman’s Brother.” The middle portion of the set featured a funky “Undermind” followed by the rocking “Kill Devil Falls” before “Lawn Boy” prompted Trey Anastasio to complement Fishman’s drumming and asked to hear some of his songwriting prowess, introducing, as Anastasio said, what “could be the greatest song ever written.” The drummer agreed that it was “possibly the truest thing ever written in a song.”

Watch Fishman’s a capella debut of “Ass Handed”:

The band then went into another Fishman tune, “Party Time,” and the 14-song first set came to a close with the new original “Tide Turns,” “Rift” and “Walls of the Cave.”

Phish wasted no time getting into the meat of the second set with their cover of “Crosseyed and Painless,” which kicked off the tease-heavy set in which the Talking Heads tune would be referenced many times over. The instrumental and relaxed “What’s the Use” gave the band a chance to catch their breath before “No Men In No Man’s Land,” which was teased in “Crosseyed.” “Stash” then kept the cross-song theme going with a tease of “What’s the Use” before a “Ghost” that saw Anastasio work in nods to “No Men,” “What’s the Use” and “Crosseyed.” The song also featured Anastasio returning to the marimba lumina that he has visited several times so far in the tour, and Page McConnell and Mike Gordon eventually joined him behind Fishman’s rig, with all four members playing percussion during the jam.

After moving back into “No Men,” Phish jumped into a frenzied “Chalk Dust Torture” that featured even more teases of the previous songs in the set. An interesting “Meatstick” led into “Also Sprach Zarathustra” before the wild set came to a close with “Cavern.” The band would return to the stage for a three-song encore that kicked off with the reggae-infused “Makisupa Policeman” that immediately fell into the crowd-assisted intro to “Wilson.” A cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Good Times Bad Times” rounded out the evening. Watch a video of the encore below.

Phish return to the Gorge stage tonight.

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

Phish
Gorge Amphitheatre, George, WA

Set I: Tweezer > Sample in a Jar, The Old Home Place*, Wolfman’s Brother, Bouncing Around the Room, Undermind, Kill Devil Falls, Lawn Boy, Ass Handed^, Party Time, The Line, Tide Turns, Rift, Walls of the Cave

Set II: Crosseyed and Painless > What’s the Use? > No Men In No Man’s Land > Stash > Ghost^^ > No Men In No Man’s Land -> Chalk Dust Torture > Meatstick > Also Sprach Zarathustra > Cavern

Enc: Makisupa Policeman% > Wilson > Good Times Bad Times

Notes:
*Last time played 6/28/12
^Debut
^^Trey on Marimba Lumina; Mike and Page on percussion.
^^^Keyword = “pot.”

Source: www.phish.net