Phish Conclude Forest Hills Run with Extended Jams, Five Songs Topping 15 Minutes
Photo: Stevo Rood
On Wednesday, July 23, Phish played their second and final show at Forest Hills Stadium in Queens, N.Y., the historic tennis venue nestled at the edge of New York City’s urban sprawl. The outdoor performance marked a significant shift for the band, which had exclusively played Madison Square Garden in New York over the past decade until making their Forest Hills debut the night before.
Ahead of the band’s call time for their midweek concert, lifelong Mets fan and Phish’s keyboardist Page McConnell stepped on the mound at Citi Field, where he threw the ceremonial first pitch to initiate the ballgame between the aforementioned New York league and the Los Angeles Angels. McConnell’s Mets moment occurred just after 1 p.m., before his appointment in Queens. Watch a can shot video below.
Like the night prior, and by the venue’s stringent sound ordinance, the show kicked off during the six o’clock hour, while the sun shone on the band, adding a golden illumination and inspiring some squints. While night one at Forest Hills Stadium delivered the longest “Carini” to date, the band incorporated locational context into the lyrics, presenting twists that appealed to the venue’s history, the day’s earlier events, and show times, built into a two-set performance that gleamed with five extensive jams that topped 15 minutes each.
The concert began with ‘90s flair that nodded to Phish’s sixth studio LP, Billy Breathes, through the arrival of “Free” and “Theme From the Bottom.” The aforementioned songs were not performed consecutively; instead, they used “Back on the Train” as a spacer. One of the hallmarks of the night was extended jams, which emerged through the extemporized rendition of Talking Heads’ “Cities.” During the cover, Trey Anastasio acknowledged the venue’s 10 p.m. cut-off, with the addition of “bright in the daytime.”
Continuing with early features of their repertoire, Phish delivered the complex and venerable concert feature, “Divided Sky.” Amid the delivery, Anastasio caught on to the fans’ excitement, pointing his axe at certain sections of the audience and causing an uproar of elation. In another pick up of late-80s material, the band pulled out “Timber (Jerry The Mule),” presenting the Josh White original as a Type I jam.
Breaking from the motif of early material, Phish produced the catchy melody of “Ether Edge.” The delivery combined the best of Jon Fishman and Mike Gordon’s locked-in groove. At the same time, the other twosome, Anastasio and McConnell, began their instrumental conversation, before the cleansing retrieval of “The Squirming Coil” brought the fame to a close.
The onset of the second set coincided with the band’s performance of “Punch You in the Eye,” before transitioning into the follow-up “Ghost,” without pause. The latter included a tease of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” as a direct nod to McConnell’s earlier activities. “Ghost” was extemporized with dark instrumentation that flexed the keyboardist’s use of electric and acoustic piano, in addition to synth and clavinet, before smacking into “Wave of Hope.”
The Lonely Trip-featured track clocked in at 15 minutes of bliss and transitioned into “What’s The Use?” On the other side of the 1999 debut, Phish maximized their treatment of “Ruby Waves,” pushing the composition to the 20-minute mark, and sparked reggae-inspired extemporizations. Without a stop, the band positioned “Backwards Down the Number Line” and “Character Zero” as the second set’s final features.
“Sneakin’ Sally Through the Alley” was a welcome cover to open up the evening’s encore. Like the framework of set two’s nonstop pick up of songs, the encore mimicked the standard, and merged into a fitting ode to the tennis venue, on “Wilson.” Ultimately, “Rocky Tio” served as the final number and produced one final nod to McConnell’s big day, with Trey introducing him as the “relief pitcher.”
After the band’s time in Queens, they will take a night off the road before resuming their tour tomorrow night, Friday, July 25, during the start of their three-night run at SPAC. Tickets remain on sale, phish.com/tours.
Phish
Forest Hills Stadium – Queens, N.Y.
July 23, 2025
Set I: Free, Back on the Train, Theme From the Bottom, Cities[1], Divided Sky, Timber (Jerry the Mule), Ether Edge, The Squirming Coil
Set II: Punch You in the Eye > Ghost > A Wave of Hope > What’s the Use? > Ruby Waves > Backwards Down the Number Line > Character Zero
Enc.: Sneakin’ Sally Through the Alley > Wilson > Rocky Top
[1] With added lyrics.
Notes via phish.net:
Trey added the lyrics “bright in the daytime” to Cities in reference to the show’s early start time of 6:30 pm, and teased Take Me Out to the Ballgame during Ghost. During Rocky Top, Trey introduced Page, who had thrown out the first pitch at Citi Field earlier in the day, as the “relief pitcher.”
