Phish.net

Sphere1 Recap, posted by phishnet

[This recap primarily of the scene is courtesy of dot net user @saw_ita_Jen, Jenny Chadbourne. As with all recaps, the views expressed are those of the recapper and may not reflect the views of any of the volunteers who run this site. -Ed.]

With night one on the books, I sit here in my room trying best articulate this experience, which is not easy. It's akin to trying to describe the sky and the colors of the sunset, or what it feels like to be in a redwood forest at sunset. The full emergence of the experience is truly grand, beyond anything you can comprehend. In this case a picture (of Nectar) is really worth a thousand words (so there a bunch in this recap).

The Sphere is a force of color and light on the strip, it’s hard to miss in the day or nighttime. It’s constantly radiating light, and color. A true work of psychedelic genius. For reference, the Hampton Coliseum is 84,827 cubic feet (26,263 square foot arena floor and a 70-foot ceiling), but Sphere is 875,000 cubic feet, as it's 366 feet tall and 516 feet wide. As the cherry on top, we get graphics for Dead and Co---it’s really special to have that steal your face imagery in the mix.

As you approach the sphere from the various entrances you have options of entry, floor GA and then two main walkways into the 100-400 level seeing. It’s a little clustered getting to the ticket scanner bag pat down part but not bad. It felt slow but the energy was off the charts, everyone in show mode but also like "wait, what is really about to happen?" Best to get your phone on to the free Sphere WiFi prior to the ticket scanner... caused a little jam at the POEntry.. then you're through and you walk thru the door to this:

This installation was Phish specific, no donuts for U2. The lobby has Phish space music playing, for sure created by them, reminiscent of the ambient music from the festival sets especially SuperBall IX. So it’s like the sickest five-story movie theater lobby that is only rivaled in looks by Disney.

Some reasonable lines for food and merch. I mean it was just out of this world. Most comments were like “oh my god great to see you!" and "see you on the other side.”

No detail too small to reveal, animated versions of the poster, in the lobby. Immersive all encompassing instantly. Like hanging with friends new and old in a Phish wonderland.

Then through one final rhombus portal into the Sphere..

So we are now entering the Sphere.. chills, colors, clutter and a vibes so excited you could feel it, but unlike New Years Runs on Hallowed grounds, this had an X factor, a wild card no one knew or could comprehend what to expect.. and this is what the view looked like from the 100 level:

We have a very scaled back stage set up. Fishman in a plexiglass tank much like he would use in a recording studio. Then you have Trey with a rumble pad ala what Mike has been using for the last five plus or minus years. It allows them to feel the low end which is harder to hear on stage. The pads have vibrational qualities that allow those bass bombs to really drop. Sphere has 4400(+) directional speakers---the sound swirling and traveling around the room was just incredible. Page would come in loud on Mike side and then whirl around, and Trey would loop around and up and over and back to center. The sound dimensionality is explained by Trey himself in the AP interview which is on YouTube and is required viewing.

There was so much space for the sound, the low end had depths to it, the high end had layers to it that you can create in a studio but typically aren't executed in real time live, just an incredible audio experience. Think Phish video game. With all the speakers there is so much more density to the sound than at a typical venue during a live performance, a fully personally fucked-with auditory sensation.

There was no real light drop when the band took the stage. They just came up and it began. There were Easter eggs, there was transcendence, the crowd gasped out of pure awe, or cheered cause it was so legit. There was. Just everything you could want.

I mean the brain can only comprehend the space as sky and the horizon. You are in a environment that is created by Phish. And boy did they go for it. The first set ended and the set break was quick... and second set they dropped into the most fire setlist.

The imagery for "Mike’s>Lifeboy>Weekaupaug" was pure heavenly ascension bliss. I mean I light cried at the beauty and perfection of all. The attention to detail is what really set it apart.. there was no stone unturned.

"Tweezer"??’ with the “ literal jam vehicles” whipping around the venue, with the headlights turning on making the cars disappear and looking a lot like Scooby doo ghost eyes in the dark and right when the band said “Uncle Ebenezer” was sick.. there were times where the song tempo has to be just .03% slower for the music to line up with the images. Fishman would slow down a tad, it would line up for 1/3 min and then it would just kind of go back to the normal flow. That was cool to see.

The encore of "Farmhouse" was stunning.The barn, the northern lights, the stars so bright. It was more literal than some, and fully incredible.. the barn ... a cool homage..

They closed night 1 with a truly stunning "Antelope." It was the most trippy and beautiful thing ever…the song opened with what looked like a page of acid tabs and then splintered into a million bursts of light. Intended or not it was almost heavenly, and I could not help but think about the most misunderstood human in the Phish community, the infamous Antelope Greg himself. Those who knew him, knew the magic from that guy's heart.

Greg was a wonderful travel companion who always had the scoop on the best routes/rooms/reviews of the shows. His life was seeing the thing we all love the most. He was at over 850 shows. As a whole, I feel that bullying is so off brand for the Phish community. We are all humans growing up and evolving and if we can’t give one another the space to grow, then chapters of the book are being skipped. To those who tried to make his life a living hell by trolling him, to those who made a game of bullying someone at a concert, you have no idea the love this man had, but Phish knew. And that lovely---intended or not---set closer with the points of light, and their heavenly feel, was a fitting tribute to such a force of energy for the community...I personally could write for hours more but we have 3 more shows and sleep is needed.. these are shows for the books. Phish leveled up with this one hard core. The show was solid, solid as a rock in fact.