Vermont-native jam band Phish rolled into the University of Colorado’s Folsom Field in Boulder yesterday for its first of three shows just days after Metallica and Pantera brought over 75,000 people to Denver for a very different kind of guitar-god seminar.
Which school of six-string virtuosity carries more prestige? It depends who you ask. Well-known Denver guitarist Jonah Wisneski, chiefly of the rock band King Cardinal, told me in Boulder before last night’s Phish show that he appreciates guitarists like Zakk Wylde and Kirk Hammett “because they’re shredders,” but, “No one is doing what Phish does, taking risks, continuing to write new material well into their later years, and improvising as a group, not just playing solos.”
Folsom Field has a capacity of just over 50,000. The areas behind and adjacent to the stage were blocked off last night, and maybe a dozen sections in the 200 and 300 levels were nearly empty. By numbers alone, the bulk of the Front Range may not have agreed with Wisneski in preferring Phish to Metallica, but the floor at Folsom was a throbbing mass of happy dancers when Trey Anastasio (guitar), Page McConnell (keys), Jon Fishman (drums), and Mike Gordon (bass) launched into the slow funk of “Wolfman’s Brother” to kick off night one.
For the uninitiated—people at their first Phish concert, especially people at their first Phish concert who have never heard the band’s music before walking in—it must be strange in modern times to see tens of thousands of people, most not looking at their phones, blissfully rocking out to the the pleasing lilt of “Wolfman’s” and then the up-tempo bounce of “Tube” with no screens, no pyrotechnics, no visuals except lighting designer Chris Kuroda‘s fifth-band-member improvisations.
Phish – “Tube” [Pro-Shot] – 7/3/25
Yessssss #phish
— DidTheyJamOutTube (@tubejamupdate.bsky.social) July 3, 2025 at 10:17 PM
Anastasio bobbing his head and knees during Page McConnell’s keyboard solos is about all the stage activity Phish provides, and it’s always impressive how that doesn’t matter, because the group says so much with its music, to the audience and to each other. An uninitiated non-jam band fan at the show would be dually surprised to see the first three songs of a rock concert (up next was the Ween classic “Roses are Free”) last for 30 minutes (about two thirds of that being improvisation)—and to see tens of thousands of people singing along to a song as silly as “Tube”. Stupendous.
Related: Wherever They May Roam: Metallica Gives Denver “Whiplash” [Videos]
Not unlike Frank Zappa, one of Phish’s biggest influences, many of Phish’s best songs juxtapose smart composition and breathtaking musicianship with funny lyrics, but there are exceptions: “Maze”, which Phish debuted in 1992, was presented in Boulder last night as a deep, exciting, and searching musical workout—with Anastasio’s volcanic guitar solo matriculating across Folsom Field—with deep, exciting and searching lyrics by Anastasio’s childhood friend and lifelong collaborator Tom Marshall. The songs preceding “Maze” found Phish proverbially looking for car keys in the dark, funking it up for a crowd that looked pleased just to be pleased, but “Maze” hit heights even someone who raged with Metallica and Pantera earlier in the week could absorb and enjoy.
Phish – “Maze” – 7/3/25
[Video: gratefulweb]
It also seemed ambitious for Phish to play the bluegrass staple “Nellie Kane” in the first set, not just because bluegrass is a keystone of Colorado music but because local legends Hot Rize wrote it. This version was disjointed and soft, in my opinion, though the band would redeem its bluegrass chops on the Mike Gordon-led “Rocky Top” that closed the evening.
A family next to me last night brought three kids with them who looked to be around 8, 10 and 12. The kids found excitement in the lights and balloons being tossed amid the crowd, but they were also avid fans: The youngest told me she wanted to hear “Bouncing Around the Room” and beamed at me when Phish started playing it.
Phish – “Bouncing Around The Room” – 7/3/25
[Video: gratefulweb]
As another aside, the closest thing to a political moment in the show was when an airplane made trips around Folsom Field—nearby the site of the 2021 King Soopers tragedy—carrying a banner requesting that Phish play the XTC song “Melt the Guns,” but I also felt some association when a woman put her hand on my shoulder and looked me in the eyes as we sang “resist all the urges that make you wanna go out and kill” during “Roses Are Free.”
Conversely, during “Creeping Death” last Friday in Denver, Metallica literally had its fans chant “die” over and over. Phish was an altogether different vibe. However, the two bands formed around the same time and discerning music lovers can see how something like Phish’s 40-year-old “Fluffhead”, which happily appeared in the second set last night with its ridiculously goofy lyrics, is like a bizarro-world sibling of deftly composed Metallica songs like “Master of Puppets”, which is just as musically ambitious but vastly darker. Then again, maybe there’s more to Anastasio’s “hellborn elfchild roadhog mountain” than we know.
It’s been said that rock ‘n’ roll is about execution and jam band music is, at its best, about anticipation, expectation and ambition, but last night in Boulder I was amazed how beautifully Phish executed “Stash,” “Fluffhead,” and “Maze”—playing a storied football field while working as a team and occasionally pulling off Anastasio’s Hail Marys as the musical quarterback.
Night one at Folsom from America’s biggest cult band had something for everyone, from noodly funk jams (“Sneaking Sally Through the Alley”) to enigmatic instrumentals (“What’s the Use?”) to a thoughtful question from my showmate, Keith: “What other musical group can headline football stadiums and most likely not find a vendor, security guard, or random person outside the concert, who can name one of its songs?”
Phish – “You Enjoy Myself” – 7/3/25
[Video: gratefulweb]
Below, check out Thursday’s Phish setlist from Folsom Field in Boulder, CO as well as a selection of photos (via Brad Niederman) and pro-shot videos from the show. Phish returns to Folsom Field on Friday and Saturday, July 4th and 5th. Tune in from home via LivePhish’s nightly livestreams here.
Setlist [via phish.net]: Phish | Folsom Field | Boulder, CO | 7/3/25
Set One: Wolfman’s Brother, Tube, Roses Are Free > Maze, Bouncing Around the Room, Nellie Kane, Kill Devil Falls, Sand > Fluffhead
Set Two: Carini > You Enjoy Myself > Sneakin’ Sally Through the Alley, Light > What’s the Use?, Pillow Jets > Also Sprach Zarathustra > Possum
Encore: Stash, Rocky Top
Notes: Roses Are Free (Ween) was played for the first time since July 16, 2022 (136 shows). Trey and Mike teased Dueling Banjos during Carini, and teased Plasma during Light. Rocky Top was played for the first time since December 28, 2019 (198 shows).
Phish – “Wolfman’s Brother” [Pro-Shot] – 7/3/25
Phish – “Carini” [Pro-Shot] – 7/3/25
