Phish Wrap Summer Tour Kickoff Series with 42-Minute “Tweezer” Saga
Phish, photo by Dave Vann
Over the weekend, Phish officially kicked off their highly anticipated Summer Tour with a three-night stand at Manchester, N.H.’s SNHU arena. Following Friday’s tour opener, which brought a litany of reliably crowd-pleasing songs like a 13-minute “Wolfman’s Brother,” 14-minute “Theme From the Bottom,” 19-minute “Life Saving Gun” and an 18-minute “Twist,” as well as the first live performance of “The Old Home Place” since 2024, Saturday and Sunday kept the energy high with masterful and adventurous treatments of more longtime favorites.
Phish stepped onstage on Saturday, June 21, to continue their first billing in New Hampshire since 2010 with the head rush of Billy Breathes opener “Free.” The foundational jamband continued the first set by merging into a 14-minute “Reba,” then found further peaks with a blissed-out medley of “Halley’s Comet” and “Stash,” which stretched to a total of 18 minutes and featured a surprising tease of “Halfway to the Moon” from Trey Anastasio’s electrifying guitar heroics.
After a dynamic and danceable set-closing “Down with Disease,” the ensemble sped into a transcendent, unbounded second set that seamlessly joined “Drift While You’re Sleeping,” “Carini,” “A Wave of Hope” and “Billy Breathes” for an epic 57 minutes, moving from twisted, chunky riffs to wide-eyed shuffling awe and finally a clear and resonant wind-down. When they launched again into “Also Sprach Zarathustra,” Anastasio snuck in a hint of “Let’s Go Blue,” then led the charge into a finale of the fun-forward “Meatstick,” the contemplative Ghosts of the Forest standout “About to Run” and locomotive last blast of “Possum.” For their encore, the group followed keyboardist Page McConnell into a stirring and eruptive cover of Jimi Hendrix’s “Bold as Love,” punctuated by “David Bowie” and “Wilson.”
On Sunday, Phish once again emerged in their side-by-side formation, which returned over the weekend after structuring their shows from the 1980s through 1998 and then again from their 2009 reformation until 2012. With clear sight-lines enabling their ever-evolving instrumental communication, the quartet dove headfirst into the reliable show opener of “Runaway Jim,” then continued with the Evolve favorite “Oblivion” and the first 2025 presentation of “The Curtain With.” From another 2025 debut of “Fast Enough for You,” the group launched an 11-minute “My Friend, My Friend,” eschewing the traditional “Myfe” ending for the evening’s first perfect segue into “Egg in a Hole.” A 16-minute “Fluffhead” emptied the tank before the set break.
Phish’s sixth and final set in New Hampshire was yet another reminder of the truth behind the old adage: Never miss a Sunday show. Off the tip of “Axilla (Part II),” the legendary jamband deftly spun off into a sprawling 21-minute “Tweezer” that navigated from rigid and commanding riffs to a distant, dubby funk and exhilarating spirals of locked-in interplay. But the band was just getting started. After swerving into “Mercury,” the combo dropped back to “Tweezer” for another eight minutes of bliss jams. Then, as the clouds cleared for a peaceful “Pillow Jets,” they came storming in again for yet another 13-minute outing in the A Picture of Nectar classic. After a roaring set-closer of “Golgi Apparatus” and first encore of “Bug,” Phish finally bookended the “Tweezer” extravaganza with a rewarding four-minute “Tweezer Reprise” finale.
Phish will return to the stage tomorrow, June 24 for a performance at Pittsburgh’s Peterson Events Center. The Summer Tour will continue through late July with standout stagings like two nights at Austin, Texas’ Moody Center on June 27 and 28, two nights at Queens, N.Y.’s beloved Forest Hills Stadium on July 22 and 23, a series-closing three-night return to Saratoga Springs’ Broadview Stage at SPAC from July 25-27 and a three-show Independence Day series at Boulder, Colo.’s Folsom Field from July 3-5, which will replace their traditional Labor Day weekend run at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, Colo. Following their Summer Tour, the band will embark on a seven-stop fall series from Sept. 13-21.
Find tickets and more information here.
Phish
SNHU Arena – Manchester, N.H.
6/21/25
Set I: Free > Reba, Halfway to the Moon, Halley’s Comet > Stash, Meat, Down with Disease
Set II: Drift While You’re Sleeping > Carini > A Wave of Hope > Billy Breathes, Also Sprach Zarathustra > Meatstick > About to Run > Possum
Encore: Bold As Love > David Bowie, Wilson
Phish
SNHU Arena – Manchester, N.H.
6/22/25
Set I: Runaway Jim, Oblivion, The Curtain With, Llama, Fast Enough for You, The Wedge, Pebbles and Marbles, My Friend, My Friend -> Egg in a Hole, Fluffhead
Set II: Axilla (Part II) > Tweezer > Mercury > Tweezer > Pillow Jets > Tweezer > Golgi ApparatusEncore: Bug > Tweezer Reprise
