Maia Stern | July 17, 2024
Trey Anastasio is no stranger to the Tiny Desk, having performed a solo set in 2015. Bassist Mike Gordon and drummer Jon Fishman also performed for our Tiny Desk (home) concert series in 2020 with guitarist Leo Kottke. And now, finally, we get a full Phish Tiny Desk concert.
The set began with “Sigma Oasis,” which included a little musical reference to the All Things Considered theme song. The band continued with “Evolve,” a track from its 16th studio album released last week. Before the band’s final song, Anastasio and Gordon warmed up their fingers on tiny trampolines, which likely had the uninitiated scratching their heads. But for fans of this band, it was a clear signal of what was coming next: “You Enjoy Myself,” a song that dates back to the band’s beginnings and can safely be called a Phish classic. In live performances, the jam segment features choreographed bouncing, and the band brought that spectacle right into our office.
After, the band ended its set and swerved out slowly through the crowd, singing while giving out high fives. But the audience’s applause didn’t stop, so Phish came back out and played two bonus tracks: “Sample in a Jar” and “Chalk Dust Torture.” “When we started the band, we used to practice in a room exactly this size… it was probably smaller,” Anastasio shared. What a gift to get to watch Phish perform in a similarly sized room 41 years later.
SET LIST
“Sigma Oasis”
“Evolve”
“You Enjoy Myself”
“Sample in a Jar”
“Chalk Dust Torture”
MUSICIANS
Trey Anastasio: guitar, lead vocals
Mike Gordon: bass, vocals
Jon Fishman: drums, vocals
Page McConnell: keys, vocals
TINY DESK TEAM
Producer/Director: Maia Stern
Audio Technical Director: Neil Tevault
Host/Series Producer: Bobby Carter
Videographers: Maia Stern, Joshua Bryant, Kara Frame, Mitra I. Arthur
Audio Engineer: Valentina Rodríguez Sánchez
Production Assistant: Ashley Pointer
Photographer: Elizabeth Gillis
Tiny Desk Copy Editor: Hazel Cills
Executive Producer: Suraya Mohamed
Series Creators: Bob Boilen, Stephen Thompson
VP, Visuals and Music: Keith Jenkins
#phish #tinydesk #nprmusic
NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Concerts is a popular video series featuring live, intimate music performances by diverse artists, from major stars to up-and-coming musicians, recorded in the small workspace of Bob Boilen’s NPR office in Washington, D.C.brought to you by SloppBoxx.Com.
Definitely the coolest rock band ever!
if you you enjoy yourself…clap
Fishman on the keys lfg
That one “s*it” in YEM got this video an explicit language warning
My first Phish show was at Argon Ballroom in the spring of ’93. You could walk up and sit 10 feet from the band with no problems. The venue was the inside of a castle with constellations on the ceiling. It forever changed my life musically. I had never heard of them but I was hooked… Seen at least 100 shows after that, the last being the millennium show.
The bass ties the room together.
not chris kuroda
You’d think after 40 years these guys would get better. Their singing sounds like middle school. As for these variety of tunes…. They must know that they are seldom listened to and basically are throw aways. Phish is awesome some of the time, yes, they pioneered a genre and it’s been long lasting. If they used AI to write them songs and even strengthen their singing…. No one would look down on it. Peace out
Meh. I kinda followed them as a teenager, hitching rides, took a Greyhound, or traveling w/ a hippie acquaintances, but Phish’s constant “riffing ” in songs or at the end of each song with no stops has always annoyed me, especially during a live concert. Even if I was “high” and with cool people. In the concert/album it would go ON and ON and ON! I was tripping at one of their concerts, and I felt I just needed to get away. Looking at the band while tripping, they were just lost in some endless solo, smiling at each other, and it was kind of annoying! It was like, “Let’s just do crazy solos until we fill our time and the show’s over!”
Also their lyrics are pretty silly. Now that I’m older, these lyrics seem silly. Senseless sometimes (or most of the time,) they ARE goofy, and they just like to “jam and jam”. I play bass , I don’t really write lyrics, but yeah, PHISH, it’s just not my style. Endless noodling for new stoners? I’m not dissing anyone who loves or understands them though! There were hardcore fans there. Not me.