Watch: Phish Deliver Massive “Kill Devil Falls” Jam at Mohegan Sun Arena
Photo Credi: Dean Budnick
On Tuesday, July 22, Phish touched down at Uncasville, Conn.’s Mohegan Sun Arena for the second stop on its summer tour. After a thrilling first weekend, the band rallied again with another closely-honed set of certified classics and fan-favorite recent entries, delivered with the artful precision and finesse that come with four decades on the forefront of jam. In keeping with a theme from the opening weekend, this first of two nights in Connecticut was a pitch-perfect run through a classic Phish show, foregoing bells and whistles to focus on the fundamentals and bridge the band’s towering legacy into its prolific new era.
Phish took the stage to the tune of “Martian Monster,” a beloved setlist staple drawn from the band’s iconic Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House set issued on Halloween, 2014. The band kept on rolling with a rip-roaring “Rift,” then merged into a treatment of TV on the Radio’s 2008 trademark “Golden Age” – a now classic cover that frontman Tunde Adebimpe recently detailed in an interview with Hollywood Reporter. In a relatively stable setlist, “Golden Age” stood out as the first time it featured in the first frame.
Next came “Gumbo,” where the band slipped into a hard-stomping funk that held for a longtime cover of Son Seals’ “Funky Bitch.” After the classic “Guyute,” which also figured in the soundcheck, and a titanic first 2024 treatment of “Undermind,” the band blazed into “Evolve” – the only song from the band’s recently released album of the same name, in keeping with a one-per-set rate established through the opening weekend. With a pause, the band dug deep for the simple and stirring Billy Breathes entry “Waste,” starting small and accumulating emotional force to bridge over to the explosive set closer “Walls of the Cave.”
The Vermont quartet returned to the stage with a blazing, shape-shifting “Plasma” which launched an expansive jam that saw Page McConnell offer up some spiraling synth lines that Trey Anastasio echoed back and elaborated with a whole new rig of effects. With the move to “Kill Devil Falls,” the band kept up its tour format of fully transitioned second sets and brought on the broadest jam of the evening, which reached out to some elaborate, heady sounds as all four members expanded each other’s ideas to culminate in a gripping, ripping highlight. Watch a fan-recorded video of the magic moment below.
The second set continued with classics “Carini” and “Piper,” plus the 2019 Ghosts of the Forest cut “Ruby Waves,” before merging into “Mercy,” the second and final Evolve entry of the evening. The band stopped its transitions before the final track of the second set, gathering potency and building anticipation for the bright-eyed and infectiously positive set closer of “Everything’s Right.” After the lights went low, the quartet returned for an encore of “Julius” and “About to Run.”
Phish will perform at Mohegan Sun Arena again tonight to close its run at the venue. For tickets and more information on these shows and Phish’s full summer calendar, visit phish.com/tours. Fans can stream the band’s tour opener and further performances on the summer 2024 tour via LivePhish.
Read on for the complete setlist from Tuesday night.
Phish
Mohegan Sun Arena – Uncasville, Conn.
7/24/24
Set I: Martian Monster, Rift > Golden Age, Gumbo, Funky Bitch, Guyute, Undermind, Evolve, Waste > Walls of the Cave
Set II: Plasma > Kill Devil Falls > Carini > Ruby Waves > Piper > Mercy, Everything’s Right
Encore: Julius, About to Run
