After a tour packed with so many historic high points that it’s genuinely hard to remember them all, Phish on Sunday closed the main leg of its 23-date summer 2025 trek at Saratoga Springs, NY’s SPAC with what might have been the wildest and most creative performance of them all, thanks in large part to the most unlikely of improv culprits: “Tweezer Reprise”.
You’ve heard Phish take “Tweezer” to great lengths as a jam vehicle. You’ve heard it weave its way through full shows to thrilling effect (including, but not limited to, exactly 11 years ago Sunday night at Merriweather Post Pavilion and exactly five weeks ago Sunday night at this tour’s opening weekend in New Hampshire). But “Tweezer Reprise”—the big, triumphant conclusion that ties it all together at the end of the night—typically remains unchanged. On most “Tweezer” nights, it’s an anchor, an exclamation point, the finale of the fireworks show. Michael Caine might call it “the prestige.”
On Sunday, as a tour defined by intrepid experimentation drew to a close, Trey Anastasio, Page McConnell, Mike Gordon, and Jon Fishman instead used “Tweezer Reprise”—their most reliable “finisher”—as the creative starting point, allowing it to spark focused, high-voltage improv on multiple occasions and transfer some of its surging electricity to the rest of the performance.
When all was said and done, more than 45 minutes of Sunday’s show had been occupied by “Tweezer Reprise” and its various aftershocks (6 chunks in total)—and the song’s “leave it all on the floor for one final round of mayhem” ethos had invigorated the rest of the one-of-a-kind tour finale.
The night got started with “Buried Alive”, a rowdy starting point for many a first set, but things quickly departed “business as usual” territory as the anxious instrumental careened into a “Tweezer”-less “Tweezer Reprise”.
“Tweezer Reprise” second song? That’s more than enough to get Saratoga howling, though not entirely unprecedented: Back in 2019, Phish also dropped a strangely-placed “Tweeprise” in the two-slot during a performance at SPAC. But on Sunday, the band quickly made it clear that this out-of-place “Reprise” was intended for more than just novelty, pushing out of the back of the freezer and into a funky, improvised groove that followed the song’s silhouette while directing its steam engine momentum toward new, melodic detours.
The melodic inclinations of Sunday’s improv—during this 13-minute “Tweezer Reprise” jam (!) and the assorted bedlam that ensued—were just as significant to the show’s “wow” factor as the evening’s surprising launchpad. Phish jams with record-breaking lengths have been a regular occurrence all summer, and many of those extended excursions have leaned into experiments with layered soundscapes, often percolating on a given note or progression for extended periods in pursuit of texture and feel.
Related: What Song Is This, Mann? A Phish Jam Experiment In Philadelphia [Photos/Videos]
Last night, the improv Phish turned in was overwhelmingly focused on pursuing melodic narratives. That may have come from a sense of end-of-summer urgency, or a well-oiled team synchronicity after five weeks on the road, or any number of sources, but the unofficial song of the night undoubtedly had a hand in the adjustment: You don’t percolate on “Tweeprise.” You attack. You detonate. If that “Sand” in Philly showed us how the starting point of a jam doesn’t always matter to the twists and turns it ends up taking, the “Tweeprise”-fest at SPAC served as the counterpoint: Sometimes, it absolutely, definitely does.
That first, 13-minute “Tweeprise” eventually slipped into a “Reba” that surged from serene to intense to incendiary before rumbling back into, you guessed it, “Tweezer Reprise”. After a few minutes of ripping rock, the band briefly settled into some sleek, gloomy, Page-led vamps that threatened to mellow the proceedings. Sensing the momentary lull, Trey queued up the fight riff and blasted into Son Seals‘ “Funky Bitch” for one of the most impactful segues in a show stacked with them.
Phish – “Buried Alive” -> “Tweezer Reprise” -> “Reba” -> “Tweezer Reprise” [Pro-Shot] – SPAC – 7/27/25
Another “you know we’re feeling it if this one comes out” cover followed with Ween‘s “Roses Are Free”, which wound through various riffs and moods before rediscovering the “Reprise” piano riff around the 17-minute mark and sledgehammering back into the song (for the third time) at twice the usual tempo. And the crowd goes wild…
Phish – “Roses Are Free” (Ween) -> “Tweezer Reprise” – 7/27/25
[Video: Blanks&Postage]
On most nights, “46 Days” and “About to Run” serve as dependable energy shots for a set. While they did their thing admirably at SPAC (“46 Days” and its big Trey sustain moment, in particular), it stood as a testament to the genuinely open-ended nature of the night that they were the closest thing to a “breather” all set—that is to say, they were the only moments when a shocked, giddy smile and a “what is going on right now?” expression weren’t required dress code.
The “Split Open and Melt” that followed was apocalyptic—an evil-Phish robot lobotomy, a masterclass in controlled chaos. Where the rest of the night focused on melody, this “Melt” dove headfirst into molten, satanic sound baths—until Trey located a familiar, ascending chord progression in the pandemonium, paused at the ready until the feedback aligned, and slowly melted away the artifice to arrive back at the “Tweezer Reprise” well for the fourth time to close set one. Simply masterful stuff.
Phish – “Split Open And Melt” -> “Tweezer Reprise” – 7/27/25
[Video: Blanks&Postage]
Set two brought more of the same vehement improv, flow, and technical wizardry. An opening “Kill Devil Falls” picked up some subtle “Tweeprise” traces as it hurtled through 17 minutes of nimble, melodic way-finding. Fishman led the way on the ensuing “Twist”, which started sparse then briefly floated atop broad Trey runs en route to a potent peak.
“Golden Age”, often a jam vehicle itself, quickly became an afterthought as it jaunted through the age of miracles then charged back into the freezer for the fifth—and meatiest—”Tweezer Reprise” of the night: 23 minutes of eclectic, electric, expansive improvisation with “Reprise” coursing through its veins throughout.
Well past the point of “okay, this is getting absurd,” the band finally landed in “Boogie On Reggae Woman”. The grin on Anastasio’s face as the Stevie Wonder cover finished was a harbinger for the only song that could rightly fit at the end of this “Tweeprise” show, at the end of this captivating tour: “You Enjoy Myself”, complete with a post-vocal jam bonus section and, you know it, a “Tweezer Reprise” coda to finish it off.
What do you play for the encore when you’ve been playing the “encore song” the whole night? Well, “Tweezer”, of course— and a brief, “Tweeprise”-length take at that. “D’ya get it?” a cheeky Fishman asked as the song cut out abruptly. [Editor’s note: We get it.]
However funny it would have been for them to play “Tweezer Reprise” again after the truncated “Tweezer” (the first-ever encore rendition of the song), the “Harry Hood” that finally rounded out the unforgettable encore, show, and tour more than sufficed.
On Sunday at SPAC, Phish closed out an exceedingly strong summer with a show we’ll be talking about for a long, long time. It had the “we’re trying something unusual here” excitement of the Baker’s Dozen‘s Jam-Filled Tuesday (is this still Tweeprise?), the focused continuity and cheeky humor of a Tweezerfest, the improvisational intensity that has made this tour one for the history books, and the sort of top-to-bottom inventiveness that makes it virtually unassailable by any metric. A classic.
Phish – “Tweezer” – 7/27/25
[Video: Blanks&Postage]
After a break from the road, Phish will hit the stage next on September 12th at Louisville, KY’s Bourbon & Beyond Festival to kick off an eight-show late-summer run. Grab your Bourbon & Beyond tickets here. Find tickets to Phish’s upcoming tour dates here.
In the meantime, Trey Anastasio will link up with his solo band this coming weekend for a gig in L.A. ahead of an appearance at the final night of Dead & Company‘s three-show run at San Francisco, CA’s Golden Gate Park on August 3rd. Find tickets here. Order your Dead & Company Golden Gate Park livestreams here.
Below, check out the full setlist from Sunday night’s Phish summer tour closer at SPAC and view a gallery of photos from the night via Bahram Foroughi.
Setlist [via phish.net]: Phish | Broadview Stage at SPAC | Saratoga Performing Arts Center | 7/27/25
Set One: Buried Alive > Tweezer Reprise > Reba[1] -> Tweezer Reprise > Funky Bitch, Roses Are Free -> Tweezer Reprise > 46 Days, About to Run, Split Open and Melt[2] -> Tweezer Reprise
Set Two: Kill Devil Falls[2] > Twist, Golden Age -> Tweezer Reprise -> Boogie On Reggae Woman, You Enjoy Myself -> Tweezer Reprise
Encore: Tweezer, Harry Hood
Notes: [1] Unfinished, no whistling. [2] Unfinished. Reba was unfinished and did not contain the whistling ending. Split Open and Melt and Kill Devil Falls were also unfinished. The last Tweezer Reprise of the first set contained Split Open and Melt teases by Fish. Tweezer, which was played as an encore for the first time, ended abruptly, with Fishman saying “Do you get it?”
