Phish hit the beach once again on Thursday night for the second night of the band’s 2025 Phish: Riviera Maya destination event at Moon Palace in Quintana Roo, Cancún, Mexico.
Trey Anastasio, Mike Gordon, Page McConnell, and Jon Fishman eased into the evening with a fun though relatively unremarkable first set featuring renditions of “Blaze On”, “Plasma”, “Halfway to the Moon”, “46 Days”, “Back on the Train”, “Gumbo”, “Funky Bitch”, “Roggae”, “Halley’s Comet”, “Runaway Jim”, and “Cavern”. With the exception of “Roggae”, which featured a particularly emotive back half, the band remained reined in throughout the opening frame, putting out improvisational feelers here and there but keeping the focus on churning through songs.
Related: Phish Plays First Show Of 2025 On The Beach In Mexico [Photos/Videos]
Things got more interesting quickly at the start of set two as reliable jam vehicle “Everything’s Right” took off on a nearly 20-minute expedition. Midway through, the quartet broke the jam’s watery, electric piano-led melody down into a sparse funk groove, Gordon’s percussive bass melodies leading the way. They maintained a patient approach from there, testing tones and sending piecemeal melodies back and forth to see how they might collied while the audience looked on like pedestrians waiting for an opening to cross a busy street.
“Everything’s Right” eventually tumbled (quite creatively) into the funky jaunt of “No Men In No Man’s Land”. While smaller in stature than some of the set’s other tentpole jams, this one was no less satisfying as some great Mike/Page interplay meshed with a splashy Fish drum pattern to help set it on course toward a blistering Trey peak.
The “Twenty Years Later” that followed started with a head full of steam but soon settled into a throbbing, major-key organ vamp before sliding comfortably into “Piper”. This rendezvous with the red, red worm was the clear high point of Thursday’s show. While the largely atmospheric sound of recent Phish improv was present throughout the number’s nearly 22-minute runtime (which made it the longest “Piper” since the hallowed SPAC rendition from 2004), the band often opted for rhythmic sections over amorphous texture when faced with a crossroads. While it gracefully moved through moments of meditation, this “Piper” never seemed to lose its jagged, rock and roll edge. Anastasio and Fishman, in particular, seemed locked in with each other throughout, often playing the foil to textural Page embellishments by volleying staccato sixteenth-note groupings back and forth for emphasis. Following a cathartic detour through the melody of The Beatles “Norwegian Wood”, Anastasio finally guided the band into a delicate “Taste”. Long story short: Make sure you listen to this one.
A pretty “Shade” then set up the final segment of the set: a take on “The Wedge” played in a higher key than usual and an emphatic “Character Zero” that referenced the key change in a lyrical ad-lib (“Then I learned just yesterday, to play that song in the key of A) and included a “Wipe Out” tease for good measure. They are on the beach, after all. They’re feeling good. A “Harry Hood” encore only underscored that notion. Have fun and be safe out there, you crazy kids.
Scroll down to view the full setlist and check out a selection of photos and videos from Night 2 of Phish: Riviera Maya 2025 in Cancún, Mexico.
Phish continues its Riviera Maya event on Friday and Saturday. You can stream the remaining two nights of Phish’s 2025 Riviera Maya getaway via LivePhish. Purchase your livestream here. [Editor’s note: Live For Live Music is a LivePhish affiliate. Ordering a webcast or purchasing a LivePhish+ subscription via the links on this page helps support our work covering Phish and the live music world as a whole. Thanks for reading!]
After Mexico, Trey Anastasio will head out on a lengthy solo acoustic spring tour before linking back up with Fishman, Gordon, and McConnell for Phish’s eight-date West Coast spring tour.
Setlist [via phish.net]: Phish | Moon Palace | Cancún, Quintana Roo, Mexico | 1/30/25
Set One: Blaze On, Plasma, Halfway to the Moon, 46 Days, Back on the Train, Gumbo > Funky Bitch, Roggae, Halley’s Comet > Runaway Jim > Cavern
Set Two: Everything’s Right > No Men In No Man’s Land, Twenty Years Later > Piper > Taste, Shade, The Wedge, Character Zero
Encore: Harry Hood
Notes: Page teased We’re Off to See the Wizard in Roggae. Trey teased Norwegian Wood in Piper. The Wedge was played in a higher key than normal which prompted Trey to say “to play that song in the key of A” during Character Zero. Trey quoted Wipe Out at the end of Character Zero.
Phish – “Roggae” – 1/30/25
[Video: lauren’s videos]
Phish — “Twenty Years Later” > “Piper” [Pro-Shot] — 1/30/25
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