Written by Watch video from the second of nine nights at the state-of-the-art venue.
By Nate Todd Apr 18, 2026 • 8:57 am PDT
Phish returned to the Las Vegas Sphere for night two of nine. The first set was heavy on stunning visual landscapes while the second set saw the band going deep on “Light.” The band kicked off the encore with the debut of “Brief Time” before delivering a live favorite to seal the show.
The pre-show backdrop was a sylvan scene and the outhouse of The Barn recording facility, which featured on the cover art of Phish’s 2000 album Farmhouse. As the band took the stage, the door opened as guitarist Trey Anastasio, drummer Jon Fishman, bassist Mike Gordon and keyboardist Page McConnell lit into “Free.” The Billy Breathes opener was paired with a desert scene and floating porta-potties with the half moon and star of the outhouse.
The porta-potties began to coalesce to construct a bridge spanning the Grand Canyon and began to form landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower and Coliseum of Rome. Trey delivered some scorching riffs as the band wound through the funk hits ahead of the return to the final chorus of “Free.”
A vibrantly colored spinning record then splashed across the dome next, backdropped by Phish posters as the band jumped into “Birds Of A Feather.” The posters began to spin and the record became a whirling dervish of color and light. Characters from the posters then welled up from behind the band as they settled into a well-paced groove and on toward the song’s conclusion.
Page then dropped, with a touch of technical difficulty, the “Martian Monster” sample. The room transformed into a haunted house with perching gargoyles and spooky trees snaking upward reminiscent of the band’s Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House 2014 Halloween show in Las Vegas, of which “Martian Monster” was a part. Lightning flashes illuminated more scenes of the haunted house, like a graveyard, until it was lit with sickly purple and green light. The facade of the house then fell down, revealing ghostly renderings of the band inside.
“Guelah Papyrus” came next as blue chrome monoliths towered and fell around the quartet, which combined to give an almost grand pipe-organ-like scene as Phish worked their way through the circus composition. Trey and Mike managed not to fall down as they executed the swinging leg “Guelah” dance with the room moving around them.
A mountain scene then dawned as the band slid into the gorgeous opening strains of “Divided Sky.” Trey had a little trouble getting into one of the song’s main licks as sky and trees swirled, but quickly found his footing on the Phish classic. Then came the pause, which gave the band time to gaze around, as Trey famously did in 2024. As the song’s second famous sequence began, the mountains, trees and sky were lensed through triangles, circles, squares and more complex arrangements during the song’s blissed-out coda full of sustained notes from Anastasio.
“Hey Stranger” popped into the sixth song slot accompanied by electro-static particles under the gravitational sway of a black hole. The jam saw Trey firing up some backwards guitar effects with Page bubbling out 8-bit video game sounds on his Moog synthesizer over a hi-hat heavy beat from Fish and compartmentalized bass from Mike. Trey then began to work some wailing, echoing notes to peak out “Hey Stranger.”
Mike Gordon’s “Mull” came next as psychedelic 70s Vegas-esque scenes bloomed above the band. “Limb By Limb” followed. As Fish rolled the snare and Mike dropped the bass, a similar bronzy engraved scene to 2024’s “Limb” featuring the work of longtime Phish visual collaborator Jim Pollock, this time complete with a crown above the band, filled the dome’s walls like an Egyptian tomb. The vibey jam saw the band toggling between ominous and hopeful before bringing The Story Of A Ghost cut home.
“Suzy Greenberg” boasted a Galaga-style video game called “Tube Raider,” taking place in a night sky above a scrolling desert road. The highway finally reached its destination of Las Vegas. “Suzy” gave Page some time to roll through silky rock ‘n’ roll piano riffage to close out the first set.
Set two got underway with “No Men In No Man’s Land,” along with concert lights projected above the band a la Phish lighting designer Chris Kuroda. The improv saw Trey tossing around some right hand rhythmic work as Page warbled on the Wurlitzer electric piano. Fish held down a locked in beat laced with bounding bass notes from Gordon.
The groove flattened out as McConnell moved to his Rhodes electric piano and Trey shot laser stabs on the Languedoc moving the jam into a darker space as the band filtered back into “No Men In No Man’s Land” vocal vamping and on into “Light.”
The CK-style lights fittingly continued on the song off 2009’s Joy. A buoyant sequence emerged to begin the jam as the lights spiraled up and up above the band, silhouetting the quartet. A shimmering segment with ominous undertones evolved as McConnell conjured walls of sound from the Moog and Trey roped in cyclical runs. Fish then took a more tom-filled approach to the rhythm as Trey pulled demented warped wahs from his guitar heralding stranger things to come as the lights pulsed overhead.
Trey and Fish then picked up the groove as guitar loops continued to create a thunder cloud of sound before the band fell back into chaos, lights strobing incessantly as another groove came forth and just as quickly swerved back into “Light.”
The title track from Joy followed its companion “Light” as currents of colors slithered across the screen. Then came time for “Mike’s Song” to take a spin around the Sphere, which featured a similar gyroscopic installation as the 2024 “Mike’s,” this time taking place in a neon night reflected on water with purple corkscrews lighting up the trees.
Anastasio added some biting riffs to begin the jam before going full flange as the installation’s arms began to wave with the band now appearing at its base as they flew into the final hits as day dawned, revealing snowy peaks, a waterfall and “I Am Hydrogen.” The quartet then capped the traditional trifecta with “Weekapaug Groove.” The scene shifted back to night with the trees lighting up not unlike the instant classic that was the 2024 “Pillow Jets” forest, punctuated with Anastasio wizardry.
“Beneath a Sea of Stars Part 1” took place in an ethereal forest inhabited by a humpback whale, fish, peacocks, a horse, an elephant and jellyfish. Phish appropriately set the sonic scene with an otherworldly soundscape as the creatures took on psychedelic patterns and colors with the whale swooping in to swallow everything.
Page then brought in the throbbing synth of his “Most Events Aren’t Planned,” which saw the return of the black hole and a swirling accretion disc, with members of the band appearing within. Anastasio and McConnell made a joint effort in bringing “Most Events” to a boil as the backdrop went into interstellar overdrive, sealing the second set.
Trey fronted the band sans guitar on the Phish debut of his solo cut “Brief Time,” accompanied by Page on piano. “Carini” followed along with the return of the CK lights, the improv on the live favorite was a potent affair with Anastasio loading up on effects and going full flame thrower to put an exclamation point on night two at Sphere.
Phish’s first of three Sphere weekends continues on Saturday, April 18. Livestreams of all nine Phish Sphere shows are available to purchase through nugs and LivePhish.
The Setlist | |
|---|---|
Set 1: Free, Birds of a Feather, Martian Monster, Guelah Papyrus, Divided Sky, Hey Stranger, Mull, Limb By Limb, Suzy Greenberg Set 2: No Men In No Man’s Land > Light, Joy, Mike’s Song > I Am Hydrogen > Weekapaug Groove, Beneath a Sea of Stars Part 1 > Most Events Aren’t Planned Encore: Brief Time [1], Carini This show featured the Phish debut of Brief Time. Prior to the start of the show, the backdrop showed a dark forest setting with an outhouse bearing the crescent moon and star from the cover of Farmhouse. As the show began, the door swung open, revealing a vast landscape of buildings and bridges, all made out of port-a-potties, with hundreds of other port-a-potties floating in the air. During Divided Sky, the scene became blue sky and fluffy clouds above a mountainous terrain; following the pause, the images became fractalized and began to move. Trey teased Your Pet Cat in Mull. The backdrop for Suzy Greenberg became an 80’s-style video game called “Tube Raider,” appearing to be played in the night sky over Las Vegas. At the end of the song, the screen displayed “Game Over” along with video game avatars of the band. For Mike’s Song, the background showed a lakeshore in front of a mountain range, with lighted, moving sculptures reflecting off the water’s surface. During I Am Hydrogen, the view changed to a lush valley with a waterfall centered behind the band, then returned to focus on the lighted sculptures again during Weekapaug Groove. The backdrop for Beneath a Sea of Stars Part 1 was a dark forest at night, populated by animals with glowing eyes, as well as glowing fish swimming through the trees, and eventually glowing pink jellyfish which rose into the sky during the jam segment. Eventually the view returned to the forest, where peacocks displayed glowing tails amid numerous fish, until the entire perspective was swallowed by a whale. | |
The Venue | |
Sphere [See upcoming shows] | |
18,600 | |
5 shows | |
The Music | |
9 songs | |
10 songs | |
19 songs | |
2003 | |
8.72 [Gap chart] | |
Brief Time | |
All | |
Joy LTP 7/12/2025 (29 Show Gap) | |
Light 23:24 | |
Brief Time 2:40 | |
Junta – 1, A Picture of Nectar – 1, Billy Breathes – 1, The Story of the Ghost – 2, Joy – 2, Big Boat – 1, Chilling Thrilling Sounds – 1, Evolve – 1, Misc. – 9 | |
The Rest | |
66° and Clear at Showtime | |
Koa 1 | |
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