Photo Credit: Bahram Foroughi

On Sunday, Aug. 11, Phish got back in the saddle for the third and final performance in its series at Bethel, N.Y.’s Bethel Woods Center for the Arts. To wrap its third formal run at the venue, the band kept up its summer tour trend of insistently reminding fans to never miss a Sunday show, delivering athletic, mind-bending jams and a healthy serving of surprises. The centerpiece of this impressive performance was a long-awaited dust-off of “Fikus,” which shocked fans as its first staging in more than 25 years.

Phish kicked off its show with an explosive, fast-paced staging of Trey Anastasio’s Lonely Trip original “I Never Needed You Like This Before,” then plowed ahead into a restrained, then triumphant “46 Days,” which launched the first extended jam of the evening. As the quartet explored some hidden rhythms and traded the primary melodic voice of the piece, they built pressure that came to a head with “Bathtub Gin,” where a fiery pace led the band to jump off the edge into unrestrained improvisation, circling down the drain with some eye-widening territory before leveling out to a fast funk with a heavy footprint.

When it finally came to silence, the band elicited a roar from the crowd with the moody, mellow, first tones of “Fikus.” The oft-unsung entry from The Story of the Ghost arrived in its sixth-ever staging, 26 years after its July 1998 debut and its most recent performance in Nov. 1998, some 800 shows ago. The hazy canon that emerged between Mike Gordon’s lead vocals and Anastasio’s guitar widened as the song drew on, stretching out to a subtle, intricate and understated atmosphere that stood in contrast to the band’s broader performance. Watch a fan-recorded video of the bust-out below.

“Theme From the Bottom,” followed, building to some heady and heavenly moments before dropping the band into the rolling blues of “Timber (Jerry the Mule).” After the second-ever staging of “Human Nature,” which was the first of two cuts from the band’s recent 16th studio album Evolve in Sunday’s setlist, and “Limb By Limb,” the band closed out its first frame with a powerful “Axilla,” merged into the anthemic closer of “Sigma Oasis.”

Phish returned to the stage with the short and sweet percussive clatter of “Buried Alive,” which sped the band like a bullet train into the fan-favorite “AC/DC Bag,” which launched the longest jam of Sunday’s show. Building speed before leaving the ground entirely, the quartet seemed at times to be totally unmoored to any song beneath them, letting total clarity of instrumental communication between its members drive it through myriad shifts in tempo and tone; Lightning-quick ascendant passages gave way by the midpoint to a shadowy, sludgy core, slushing through a heady dark-psych-scape that gave each member the opportunity to to play with effects as it set a shoegaze-y ground floor for the set to follow.

“Fuego” planted roots here, then blooming with new, slight splashed of color like an irrepressible smile, without abandoning the moody, stuttering funk of the song’s core, before lifting off with a gospel-tinged, radiantly joyful jam in “Golden Age.” The band turned this new high inside-out with an impressive total segue into a new high of “Simple,” then coasted through “Life Saving Gun”–rapidly proving to be the live staple of Phish’s latest studio set–en route to the show closer of “Harry Hood.” After the lights fell, the band rallied once more for an encore of “A Life Beyond The Dream” and “Say It To Me S.A.N.T.O.S.”

Phish returns on Thursday, Aug. 15, to set off its long-awaited 11th festival weekend Mondegreen at The Woodlands of Dover, Del. Fans in attendance can find coverage from Relix on-site with The Daily Greens, the official newspaper of the experience. For tickets and more information on Mondegreen and Phish’s broader summer tour, visit phish.com/tours.

Read on for the complete setlist from Sunday night.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Phish (@phish)

Phish
Bethel Woods Center for the Arts – Bethel, N.Y.
8/12/24

Set I: I Never Needed You Like This Before, 46 Days, Bathtub Gin, Fikus+, Theme From the Bottom > Timber (Jerry the Mule), Human Nature, Limb By Limb, Axilla > Sigma Oasis
Set II: Buried Alive, AC/DC Bag > Fuego > Golden Age -> Simple, Life Saving Gun, Harry Hood
Encore: A Life Beyond The Dream, Say It To Me S.A.N.T.O.S.

Notes:
+ Dust-off of “Fikus,” last played on Nov. 7, 1998 (800 shows)