I’m a simple man – when the circus comes to town, I go see it.
When Phish announced its 16th-19th shows in Atlantic City, New Jersey, the home of The High Note, I eagerly awaited the presale.
Thirteen years earlier, I covered Phish at Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall for The High Note when it was a newspaper column. Back then, I would get a photo pass, wait my turn to shoot the first song or two, lock my camera in a manager’s office and get ushered out of the building, only to come back in with my ticket.
These days, sitting with the crowd is a better experience for me. It gives me more freedom to roam around and enjoy the scene.
Ever since my first Phish show on Nov. 25, 2009, in Philadelphia, I’ve made my first stop Shakedown Street, which this time was in the rubble of the old Trump Plaza.
Gone are the days of drinking at the Liquid Bar before heading to the beach bar, replaced with hot apple cider and the sound of balloons being filled and popped.
For many folks, it was another pilgrimage to the Jersey Shore. For me, it was a home game. And for three nights, the old Convention Hall felt like a carnival ride you had to get on.
Friday Fuego
I’ve gotten pretty lucky finding friends at Phish shows, shout-out to Andrew, who was my buddy on the beach in 2022. This time, Daniel and Miriam from Denver sat next to me in Section 209 and gave my wife, Justyna, and me little llama pins.
The lights dropped at 7:39 p.m., and Phish opened with “Fuego,” a wink at the room. I was in the room, camera in hand, when the band debuted that song on Halloween 2013, the night it played the “album from the future” it called “Wingsuit,” which became the 2014 album “Fuego.” According to JamBase, the song has now opened a show only three times in 104 performances.
“A Wave of Hope” was the first real flight. During Trey Anastasio’s solo, the lights fanned out like they were sailing over the ocean a few hundred feet away, throwing patterns across the ceiling. It earned the first applause break of the weekend.
During “Slave to the Traffic Light,” I watched a very high guy try to get down the steps while holding up a photo of his ticket on his phone, like the usher might wave him through to another dimension.
Then came “Pillow Jets” and a man who looked exactly like Hunter S. Thompson, Las Vegas button-down and all. A thunder sound effect cracked with a flash of light, and the jam went into deep, spacey funk, weird and wonderful, at one point almost sounding like an alarm going off.
Anastasio picked his way right into “It’s Ice,” which got a funky breakdown with Page McConnell leaning on the organ.
“Ghost” closed the set under wave lights. Somewhere in there, Anastasio snuck in a tease of the Kiss song “I Was Made for Lovin’ You.”
During set break, a woman walked up to the guy behind me in line at the water bottle filling station and announced that the trip she was on was a roller coaster you have to ride. And the smoky, dark section just past us? Well, that was a carnival ride over there. She wasn’t wrong.
Set two started at 9:25 p.m. with “Oblivion” and never really stopped. It slid into “Down with Disease,” where Anastasio stepped away from his guitar and sat down at his mini drum kit.
The lights blinked and spun like stars, very Grateful Dead “Space,” and it got as strange as anything I heard at the Mann last summer – prog organ from McConnell, lights rising like a spaceship, then everything went dark, the red lights came up and the band sped right into “Tweezer.”
Right after the “Uncle Ebenezer” line in “Tweezer” came the glow stick shower, and Anastasio was back on the drums.
At this rate, maybe he’ll switch for good, like when Bob Dylan moved to the keyboard. The jam eased down into “Mercury,” and Jon Fishman stepped over to his Marimba Lumina – it looks like a xylophone but sounds like a synth – laying down glassy, electronic notes that felt like they were bouncing off the ocean.
Then came “Death Don’t Hurt Very Long” and an epic version of “Fluffhead,” with Anastasio and Mike Gordon jumping around onstage, McConnell crushing the piano and Fishman killing the drums.
The band came back at 11:03 p.m., and Anastasio called the encore a “September/October song.” The group busted out “Alumni Blues” > “Letter to Jimmy Page” > “Alumni Blues” for the first time since July 2023, with McConnell crushing it, then – hi-ho, hi-ho, hi-ho – sent us home at 11:16 p.m. with “Say It to Me S.A.N.T.O.S.”
Just a couple of Jersey boys hanging out Saturday night
Night two felt like a reunion. I ran into my cousin Greg and his wife, Lynn; my friend Scott from high school; and Eddie, whom I met Friday night after complimenting his light-up shoes.
By 7:37 p.m., Phish was already deep in a trippy “Sand” – fitting, since The High Note made “Sand” stickers for the weekend in the style of the old Sands Atlantic City logo. The band also played the song Aug. 5, 2022, on the beach in Atlantic City.
“Everything’s Right” got a funky McConnell organ breakdown after the last chorus before the band hit it back for one more round. “Back on the Train” had McConnell’s piano leading the charge, and the floor went nuts.
Glow sticks flew again for “Stash,” with Anastasio and McConnell trading lines back and forth.
By “555,” it was clear McConnell was on one, working the organ like the building owed him money. “Mountains in the Mist” gave everybody a breather, and “Bathtub Gin” closed the set at 8:51 p.m.
Set two opened at 9:19 p.m. with “Chalk Dust Torture.” A fan near me was dressed like Feeney from “How to Get to Heaven from Belfast,” and Anastasio and I both lost it, though I did catch him teasing “Oye Como Va.”
Then came “What’s Going Through Your Mind,” which my buddy Aneudy called his favorite song of his first Phish show. The funky breakdown got all four guys locked in, the lights going crazy above them, and Anastasio went back to his mini kit. He is having way too much fun playing drums. The “mind, mind, mind” chant kept coming back.
It came back again in “Mike’s Song,” when Gordon called back to the “mind, mind, mind” hook. Even though there are no screens in Boardwalk Hall, I thought I could see him fighting back a smile as he looked around at the band.
“Waste” was a sweet breather with McConnell on piano, then came “Weekapaug Groove” with glitter floating through the air. “Monsters” slowed things down again before “Harry Hood.” I literally got chills at the “thank you, Mr. Hood” moment heading into the breakdown, and the song closed at 10:52 p.m.
The encore started at 10:55 p.m. with “Character Zero,” then some banter. Anastasio thanked everybody, said it was a pretty good time here at the Shore and pointed out that he and McConnell are a couple of Jersey boys. The room cheered like it was a homecoming.
Anastasio was born Sept. 30, 1964, in Fort Worth, Texas, and moved to Princeton, New Jersey, when he was 3. McConnell was born May 17, 1963, in Philadelphia, and his family moved to Basking Ridge, New Jersey, in 1969.
They dropped into “Sleeping Monkey,” its first appearance since spring 2025, then “Tweezer Reprise,” which also closed the band’s Saturday, Aug. 14, 2021, show in Atlantic City.
When the first notes of “Tweezer Reprise” hit, Miriam leaned over and told Aneudy, “The last two minutes are going to blow your mind.”
Anastasio was running around front and center like a rock star before the lights came up at 11:09 p.m.
‘Never miss a Sunday show’
I went to Phish shows alone until 2021, when my good friend Heather started coming with me. She said, “I always heard ‘Never miss a Sunday show,’ so I never miss a Sunday show.” This was her first indoor Sunday show.
In 2022, while we were hanging out with Andrew on the beach, we were throwing out what we wanted the band to open with. Heather’s pick was “Wolfman’s Brother,” which is exactly what opened the Aug. 7 show.
So while we were hanging out on Shakedown Street, she threw out a few songs on her list – “David Bowie,” “The Moma Dance” and “Wilson.” All three were played in the first set. She also shouted out “Carini” which was the encore.
The band hit the stage at 7:32 p.m. and started at 7:33 p.m. with “David Bowie,” a rare opener, with McConnell and Anastasio trading lines through it.
Then came a slowed-down, funky intro to “The Moma Dance.” McConnell got fired up on piano, the jam slowed down and spaced out, and the band stuck the landing on a pretty epic version. According to Storm Sound, it was only the second “Moma” ever to pass 20 minutes.
Anastasio went back to the mini kit for “Sigma Oasis,” and the crowd was really into the drums. McConnell went off, Anastasio played like a garage-band drummer, and Gordon picked up the groove.
“Blaze On” was an awesome version, and “Halley’s Comet” had McConnell and Anastasio going off again. Glow sticks flew in “Wilson.”
Then came the moment of the weekend. During “The Squirming Coil,” McConnell left the stage piano, and I said to Heather, “I think he’s going to play the organ.” As he walked across the stage and sat down at the Midmer-Losh pipe organ, Boardwalk Hall’s own and billed as the largest musical instrument on earth, the crowd erupted.
According to Relix, Phish is the first artist to use the organ onstage during a show – at least since it was damaged by a 1944 hurricane. If you live here, you know that organ. Hearing it close a Phish set was surreal. Set break came at 8:59 p.m.
Set two started at 9:24 p.m. with a fiery “Split Open and Melt,” then “No Men in No Man’s Land,” with the glow sticks back out. I don’t really like “No Men in No Man’s Land,” but I was a fan by the time they were done.
Then came a 30-minute “Simple” that was a ton of fun with Anastasio back on the drums, “Lonely Trip” and a long “You Enjoy Myself,” where the band picked its instruments back up after the vocal jam and kept going. “Carini” closed the weekend.
Phish is the only band that gets better every time I see it. The band, which has been playing Atlantic City only since 2010, seems to have an affinity for the city.
It really doesn’t matter whether you’re a fan of Phish or any jam band. If you like rock music, seeing Phish in Atlantic City is an experience to be treasured, like a worn piece of sea glass that has tumbled in the sand and surf since 1983 and washed up on shore a gem.
Setlists
Friday, Oct. 2, 2026
Set 1
Fuego
A Wave of Hope
Slave to the Traffic Light
Pillow Jets ->
It’s Ice >
Ghost
Set 2
Oblivion >
Down with Disease >
Tweezer >
Mercury >
Death Don’t Hurt Very Long >
Fluffhead
Encore
Alumni Blues >
Letter to Jimmy Page >
Alumni Blues
Say It to Me S.A.N.T.O.S.
Saturday, Oct. 3, 2026
Set 1
Sand
Everything’s Right
Back on the Train
Stash
555
Mountains in the Mist
Bathtub Gin
Set 2
Chalk Dust Torture
What’s Going Through Your Mind
Mike’s Song >
Waste >
Weekapaug Groove
Monsters
Harry Hood
Encore
Character Zero >
Sleeping Monkey >
Tweezer Reprise
Sunday, Oct. 4, 2026
Set 1
David Bowie
The Moma Dance
Sigma Oasis
Blaze On
Halley’s Comet
Wilson
The Squirming Coil
Set 2
Split Open and Melt
No Men in No Man’s Land
Simple
Lonely Trip
You Enjoy Myself
Encore
Carini
