Phish fans from across the country will descend on Sin City starting April 18 for a four-show run at the Las Vegas Sphere. With support from the venue's 160,000-square-foot LED screen, the concerts are expected to be the most epic of the iconic jam band's four-decade career.
Leading up to the brief residency, details are being kept tightly under wraps, as the band prides itself on offering fans a magical, unique experience every time they perform, famously never repeating a set list. However, in a Washington Post profile ahead of the tour, Phish frontman Trey Anastasio teased what those lucky enough to score tickets can expect.
"There is a quality of Vegas where older bands go to play their old album, to make a lot of money late in the twilight of their career," Anastasio explained. "That’s not what we’re interested in."
The band will perform approximately 80 songs over the course of the four show without repeats, and will also include new material from their upcoming album Evolve, which doesn't drop until July.
Phish's co-creative director Abigail Rosen Holmes, who has collaborated with names such as Roger Waters, Peter Gabriel, and Miley Cyrus, was tasked with coming up with a theme that will link the four shows. But naturally, neither she nor Anastasio will reveal what that theme is.
"I’m not trying to be cagey," Holmes said. "I just want people to not have any idea what’s about to happen when they come into the room. That’s part of the fun of this."
Anastasio also made comparisons to U2, which had the honor of being the Sphere's first band residency. The Irish rockers expanded their originally planned 25-show run into 40 nights due to popular demand; despite commanding a higher ticket resale value, Phish refused to do the same.
"It’ll be good. But it won’t be great," he recalls Holmes telling him. "If you just do four nights, it’s going to blow minds."
He noted that Phish will also make different use of the high-tech LED screens than U2, which projected gigantic images of Bono and the Edge as they performed on stage.
"It suited Bono because he is that kind of star," Anastasio reasoned. "But that’s not me. I don’t do that. And same with Edge. There’s one song where he just rocks into the camera. He steps forward and he’s 800 feet high on the wall. I’m not going to do that.”
Instead, the band collaborated with Holmes to come up with what sounds like will be a wholly unique, one-of-a-kind experience.
"I said, ‘What do you think this is? Do you think this is one of those New Year’s productions or is this a Phish show in a great new environment?’” she remembers asking Anastasio. "And his thought is that it’s a Phish show in a great new environment. And so that’s sort of how we framed thinking about all of the creative choices we’ve made."
"We wanted to absolutely make the most out of the room and also support Phish doing what Phish does best," Holmes added.
Phish's residency at the Sphere will kick off April 18 and run through April 21.
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