Phish @ The Sphere in Vegas!
My favorite band Phish just finished a four-night run at the new Sphere venue in Las Vegas. Tassa and I attended the Saturday 4/20 show. This experience was over the top amazing and totally lived up the hype. My only regret is that I didn’t go to all four shows.
Tassa and I made a 24-hour pilgrimage to Sin City, flying out of St. Louis at 6 am on Saturday morning and leaving Vegas at 5 am Sunday. We blew a descent amount of money on tickets, food, hotel, etc.… but in the end it was all worth it. The Sphere is the most technologically advanced music venue on the planet. U2 is the only band to have played there but last weekend Phish took their turn and it was next level. What I love the most about Phish and why I have been a die-hard fan since 1995, is that they never compromise their integrity. They could have done a four week or a four-month residency at the Sphere, but they wanted to make sure that they abided by their core beliefs – spontaneity and long improvised jams. That is hard to do when you must include large visual elements to your show that need to be created and synchronized. For that reason, they only committed to a four-show run that would be themed and no song or visual element would be repeated. Pretty cool. The only downside to this was that the ticket prices got out of control. Saturday afternoon, tickets for Saturday night on StubHub were $7,000 to $18,000 – no kidding. We got our tickets a few weeks ago before they went insane, and I still think we paid too much but, in the end, it was worth every penny.
Sound
The thing that struck me the most was the sound. Obviously, the visuals were cool but the sound in that place is incredible. In the Sphere, I realized that music is normally always coming at you. At a concert the sound comes towards you, which then distorts and bends with the wind, obstructions, and people. Rock music in general is usually blasted as loud as possible too, which in turn limits the subtle essence of the music to come through clearly. In the Sphere the sound came at you from every angle. It was truly 360-degree multidimensional stereo surround sound that seemed to sort of pressurize the entire room with sound. The music was so clear and audible it was unbelievable. The whole back wall at the top level was a giant sound system that then ran along the line where the screen and the seats met. I have never heard bass this clear at any live show ever. In addition to the clarity, each band member could utilize effects that made sounds come from different angles in the room. It wasn’t deafeningly loud either, it was clear, clean, and filled the room evenly.
This picture shows the immense sound system at the top of the venue, up above the seats.
Visuals
The visuals were an interesting addition to the Sphere experience. The room is essentially a beefed-up planetarium with a huge LED screen, capable of all kinds of visual effects. The Phish community has a tremendous love for the live light show that is an integral part of the normal Phish experience and I think it was difficult for some to accept or at least get used to the lack of lights. That said, the visual effects were insane and very well done. There were three types of visuals: graphics, band footage, and landscapes. Some highlights from Saturday for me were the tree landscape in Pillow Jets, the fire in Fuego, and the shrine of Pollock in Taste. Every song had some interesting visual effect but at times the repeated graphic over a long jam became a bit tiresome, however, the sound quality and over all intensity of the show made up for any lull in the visuals.
For me, Pillow Jets, Fuego, and Taste were the showstoppers. Pillow Jets is a new song and probably not one that anyone would predict to be the highlight of the show, but the intense jam that evolved and the visual element of a field of trees that you sort of flew through was totally amazing. The song started off and the landscape of trees and field were dead, like after winter. As the song progressed the trees became lush and green, and the leaves rustled as you sort of felt like you were the wind moving through the scene. The trees progressively became more colorful and eventually as the jam was ascending into its full momentum the trees were exploding in color from the ground up like fireworks. It was the coolest thing I have ever seen.
Fuego is a song that I think represents the 3.0 era perfectly and is a catalyst for intense jamming, which they showcased clocking in at 30 minutes. The visual effect was a spotlight silhouette right behind the band that revolved to each member over and over, then that image was projected above in larger shots that looked like each member was burning. As the song progressed the fire element seemed to build and turn to embers, eventually coming back to full intensity. This was the big jam of the night and the clarity and intensity of the music and the visual really revealed the full potential of the Sphere experience.
Perhaps the biggest gift the band gave the fans Saturday night was Taste. As the song began there was a gold crown that revolved around above the band. The crown contained elements from artist Jim Pollock’s LivePhish original album covers. Then as the song intensified the whole screen, essentially the whole room became a shrine or temple with the art moving in bands around and even incorporating a domed ceiling. Phish has always held a freakishly cultish feeling and this moment felt like you were entering the holy mecca and witnessing the temple of Phishdom.
Magnitude
Other noteworthy moments from the evening were Tube with the bubbles visual, Mountains in the Mist with an eerily realistic scene where you felt like you were in the mountains and the mist, and a standalone I am Hydrogen. The 46 Days and Chalkdust Torture were solid jams as well. The crowd was super attentive and quiet but responsive when appropriate. The room was always lit to a level where you could see people, which was different than a normal show. When it was over there was even a pause before everyone left in mass and it felt like people were acknowledging the magnitude of what they had just seen. In a show of spontaneous appreciation, the crowd started cheering as we left the lobby areas and it truly felt like you were a part of something big and special that the normal world outside has no idea about. Overall, it was the single greatest Phish experience that I have ever had.
I have been seeing this band for almost 30 years, and maybe the greatest compliment that I can give them is that it has never gotten boring, and I have never lost interest. I am especially thankful for this experience since Tassa and I are moving to England soon and we will not be going to see Phish for a while, this experience has satisfied me on every level, and I feel like I can let it rest for now. I will still follow them and listen to the shows and bootlegs but after the intensity and uniqueness of the Sphere experience, I feel better about taking a hiatus from the pond for a while.
If you find yourself stumbling upon this blog and were at any of the Sphere shows, or if you just love Phish…please leave a comment about your experience.
MeatSpace Adventures 
Leave a comment