Phish finished its two-night San Francisco run on Wednesday with a 30-minute “Tweezer”, the jam vehicle’s first performance on the band’s brief West Coast spring tour. This week marked Phish’s first run at the 8,500-capacity Bill Graham Civic Auditorium since 2018 and its first trip to San Francisco since 2021, when it played two nights at the 19,500-capacity Chase Center.
Coming in the two-slot of the second set, this “Tweezer” was emblematic of Phish’s performance throughout Wednesday’s show. The band rocketed out of the gate to start the concert with an engaging 11-minute “Simple”, and that energy carried over into the second set and “Tweezer”. Trey Anastasio got the jam started by playing with repetitive, echoed, muted notes, which gave Mike Gordon the floor to do a walkabout on his bass—only for “Too Many Notes” Trey to lock in with Mike and the two formed a double helix of guitar work.
While Jon Fishman‘s static rhythm work was the talk of Tuesday’s first set—perhaps best encapsulated in the slow “Weekapaug Groove”—he broke free of his mold in Wednesday’s “Tweezer”. Fish’s evolving beats pushed Trey into arena-rock soloing early on, then reeled back the intensity to accompany aquatic overtones stylized by Page McConnell‘s atmospheric synth work. Toward the end of the jam, Fishman pushed the band into an off-the-cuff composition based around a syncopated start-stop rhythmic pattern before pulling the whole thing in for a smooth landing.
Phish — “Tweezer” — 4/23/25 — Part One
[Video: Darwin Blinks]
Phish — “Tweezer” — 4/23/25 — Part Two
[Video: nowiknowuryder]
There was plenty more to like in Wednesday’s show, including the non-stop, 47-minute opening sequence of a “Simple” jam going uninterrupted into “Punch You in the Eye”, followed by smooth transitions into a savory 14-minute “Gumbo” and a “Reba” conclusion. The band even pushed itself through a modest “David Bowie” at the tail end of the first set. Beyond the “Tweezer”, the second set put Fishman out front once again on Talking Heads‘ “Crosseyed and Painless”—which Trey teased in the previous night’s “Ruby Waves” centerpiece. A delightfully chaotic “Pillow Jets” teed up a “You Enjoy Myself” set closer before a low-high encore of “Wading in the Velvet Sea” and “First Tube” capped off the show.
Phish — “Gumbo” [Pro-Shot] — 4/23/25
Check out videos from Phish’s second night in San Francisco. The band’s spring tour concludes this weekend with three nights at the Hollywood Bowl. Find tickets and tour dates here. The entire tour is available to livestream via LivePhish. Subscribers will receive a 15% discount, while those who bundle their individual show livestream purchase with a new LivePhish subscription will get 50% off the webcast. Click here for more details. [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!]
Phish — “Punch You In The Eye” — 4/23/25
[Video: Gregory M]
Setlist [via Phish.net]: Phish | Bill Graham Civic Auditorium | San Francisco, CA | 4/23/25
Set One: Simple -> Punch You in the Eye > Gumbo > Reba, The Well > David Bowie, Character Zero
Set Two: Sample in a Jar > Tweezer > Lonely Trip, Crosseyed and Painless (Talking Heads) > Pillow Jets, You Enjoy Myself
Encore: Wading in the Velvet Sea, First Tube
Trey teased Tweezer during Gumbo, and Esther during David Bowie.