This May is the 20th anniversary of the Friends series finale. The episode, “The Last One,” aired on May 6, 2004, and was seen by over 52 million viewers, making it one of the most-watched non-Super Bowl broadcasts ever. The Friends cast is debating how to celebrate the anniversary of the finale, while also being respectful to Matthew Perry, who died in October 2023.
“The prospect of having a reunion or a formal get-together without Matthew is bittersweet. There will be a huge void,” a source told Us Weekly. “[But] they know Matthew would’ve wanted them to carry on and celebrate the show. So that’s very much on their minds as they move forward.”
According to the source, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, and David Schwimmer still “talk via group chats as well as one-on-ones.” They added, “Matthew’s death reminded them how precious life is and the importance of catching up with each other more frequently. It underlined the unbreakable bond they share and the need to look out for each other.”
There’s another big anniversary coming up this year.
The actors are “all aware” of birthdays and anniversaries that are coming up, says the source, explaining that the cast has had “ongoing discussions” about how to celebrate the finale’s milestone. “They will most certainly be commemorating it somehow,” continues the source, noting that Aniston, Cox, Kudrow, LeBlanc, and Schwimmer will likely post something on social media and get together privately. (The 30th anniversary of the show’s 1994 debut will take place in September.)
For now, you can watch the Friends finale (and every other episode) on Max.
It took four long years, but we are finally just days away from a new PARTYNEXTDOOR album. The singer’s fourth album, aptly titled PARTYNEXTDOOR 4 (P4), will arrive on April 26 and serve as the long-awaited follow-up to his 2020 third album PARTYMOBILE. PND spent the better part of the last year teasing P4 as the album was first announced during a spring 2023 concert in his hometown of Toronto. The rollout for the project officially began four months prior when PND released “Her Old Friends,” a record that served as the lead single for P4.
This is the second time in PND’s career that he’s taken about four years to release a new album, a duration that can feel like centuries in today’s streaming era. PARTYMOBILE arrived about four years after his second album PARTYNEXTDOOR 3 (P3). Still, PND delivered songs to fans in that time span. There was 2017’s Colours 2 and Seven Days EPs, the former which spawned the fan-favorite “Freak In You.” Following PARTYMOBILE, things were a bit quieter. Fans received collaborations with Trippie Redd, Drake, OG Parker, and others as well as uploads of unreleased favorites to streaming services through 2020’s PARTYPACK and 2021’s COLOURS. In a recent interview with Billboard, PND explained his absence over the years.
“I get into relationships and then music becomes second,” he confessed to Billboard‘s Heran Mamo. “I think I’m going to take a break from relationships, a long break, and just get back to making music.”
We’ll see if PND sticks to this promise in the years after P4, but for now, we can enjoy the music we’re about to get. In celebration of P4, here are four wishes we’d love to see come true on the upcoming album.
Restore The Classic Feeling Of P1 and P2
PARTYNEXTDOOR is one of the pioneers of today’s contemporary R&B sound, a world that he, The Weeknd, and Bryson Tiller emerged from and heavily influenced in the early- to mid-2010s. PND’s first two project, PARTYNEXTDOOR (P1) and PARTYNEXTDOOR 2 (P2) helped cement him as one of the greats of modern-day R&B. Churning out hits like “Break From Toronto” and “Recognize,” PND proved that he was a name to respect. Furthermore, P1 and P2 went down as classic R&B releases from the 2010s. With four singles out — “Her Old Friends,” “Resentment,” “Real Woman,” and “Resentment — PND seems to be channeling the same energy from P1 and P2. It would be amazing if P4 was a return to those glory days. At just 14 songs, it appears that PND is focused on delivering a great album as opposed to the 20+ song streaming traps that we see from artists nowadays. Give us another classic Party, we’re begging you.
It’s (Almost) Summertime, Give Us A Dancehall Track!
Nearly a decade ago, PND wrote “Work” for Rihanna and sprinkled some dancehall flavor into his own music with “Only U” and “Not Nice.” The three songs joined “Controlla” and “One Dance” to make for a sizzling summer of 2016 as fans dance their way through the year’s hottest months. Eight years later, it’s only right that fans are treated to this experience once again and PND can certainly be a contributor to that. One or two (I won’t be greedy) dancehall-inspired songs on P4 will be perfect and prove to be a bright spot on the album, especially with it coming from someone who’s shown his ability to do so time and time again (see: Popcaan’s “Twist & Turn”).
It’s Time For Another Classic Drake Collaboration
Every PARTYNEXTDOOR album has featured a collaboration with OVO Sound boss Drake. “Over Here,” “Recognize,” “Come And See Me,” and “Loyal” are all highlights in PND’s discography, but the latter most record, which was housed on his 2020 album PartyMobile, was not up to par compared to their first three collaborations. With P4, it’s time for Drake and PND to get back to the old formula. Just last year, they proved they could do that with “Members Only,” the duo’s most recent collaboration from Drake’s album For All The Dogs. Now it’s time for PND to lead the way and add another gem to his and Drake’s run of strong collaborations.
A New Album Cover (Please!)
On April Fool’s Day, PARTYNEXTDOOR took to social media to reveal the album cover for PARTYNEXTDOOR 4, and it’s risqué, to say the least. The NSFW image is a first-person view of a woman face-down on a bed with her backside arched in the air. A “4” tattoo can be seen on her lower back, while four long braids are sprawled out in various directions on the bed. The artwork is a bit of a jump scare, warranting a side-eye from those who may catch the image sitting on your phone as you play the album (Flashback to Lloyd’s Tru album cover). This actually happened to me as my roommate saw the tweet of PND revealing the album cover open on my computer and asked, “What’s going on over there?!” There was certainly some explaining to do.
In all seriousness, the current cover for P4 is awkward and seemingly leans more into garnering a reaction than presenting the project in its true essence. This isn’t to say that PND has blown us away with album covers in his career, but another edition of the singer looking into the distance would’ve sufficed. Worse comes to worst, I’ll just edit the metadata and change the artwork myself to avoid any further questions from my roommate.
PARTYNEXTDOOR 4 (P4) is out 4/26 via OVO Sound/Santa Anna Label Group. Find out more information here.
Since 2019, Kodi Lee has wowed “America’s Got Talent” audiences with his next-level musical skills. That goes for whether he’s performing touching original works or putting his own personal touch on well-known songs.
For “America’s Got Talent: Fantasy League,” the music savant was guided by his mentor Howie Mandel to cover “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen.
It’s hard to imagine a version of this fan-favorite tune you haven’t already heard before, since the song has been covered quite a few times. But once again Lee delivered something epic and completely unique.
Even though judges Mel B and Heidi Klum still prefer Lee’s original songs, all applauded his haunting and emotional piano rendition of the rock-n-roll anthem.
Simon Cowell even said “You use these words ‘Star Quality’ a lot, but you genuinely, Kodi, over the years we’ve got to know you, you’ve just got better as an artist. You’ve never given up, and the Finals just wouldn’t be the same without you in it this year.”
Other viewers applauded Lee for one-of-a-kind performance, agreeing that he did freddie Mercury proud.
One wrote, “‘You can do whatever you want to do in my music, just don’t make it boring’ -Freddie. What a magical performance.”
Another added, “Kodi has an amazingly rare talent to be able to sing across different musical genres. He owns them all!!!”
Last but not least, I think this comment sums up the general consensus pretty well: “This version is unlike anything anyone has ever seen before. It’s truly a masterpiece. Kodi is an amazing gift to our world. He continues to change the world just by being himself.”
Doing good is its own reward, but sometimes recognizing these acts of kindness helps bring even more good into the world. That’s why we’re excited to partner with P&G again on the #ActsOfGood Awards.
The #ActsOfGood Awards recognize individuals who actively support their communities. It could be a rockstar volunteer, an amazing community leader, or someone who shows up for others in special ways.
Do you know someone in your community doing #ActsOfGood? Nominate them between April 24th-June 3rdhere.Three winners will receive $1,000 dedicated to the charity of their choice, plus their story will be highlighted on Upworthy’s social channels. And yes, it’s totally fine to nominate yourself!
We want to see the good work you’re doing and most of all, we want to help you make a difference.
While every good deed is meaningful, winners will be selected based on how well they reflect Upworthy and P&G’s commitment to do #ActsOfGood to help communities grow.
That means be on the lookout for individuals who:
Strengthen their community
Make a tangible and unique impact
Go above and beyond day-to-day work
The #ActsOfGood Awards are just one part of P&G’s larger mission to help communities around the world to grow. For generations, P&G has been a force for growth—making everyday products that people love and trust—while also being a force for good by giving back to the communities where we live, work, and serve consumers. This includes serving over 90,000 people affected by emergencies and disasters through the Tide Loads of Hope mobile laundry program and helping some of the millions of girls who miss school due to a lack of access to period products through the Always #EndPeriodPoverty initiative.
Visit upworthy.com/actsofgood and fill out the nomination form for a chance for you or someone you know to win. It takes less than ten minutes to help someone make an even bigger impact.
The controversial TikTok ban seems to be on track to become a real possibility now that Joe Biden has signed the bill that could put a ban into effect. Where will we ever learn to dance or make fun of women now?
In March, the House of Representatives passed a bill called “Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act,” that requires ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, to sell the app or face a ban in the U.S. app stores, unless the app cuts connections to ByteDance within six months. This week, Biden signed the bill, and now ByteDance has about nine months to sell the app, which currently has over 150 million US residents. Biden also has the power to extend an additional 90 days if the company expresses interest in a sale.
At the time, it does not seem like ByteDance is on board with any type of sale, and TikTok is disappointed, though CEO Shou Chew says they are not backing down.
But even if the ban moves forward, it does not mean TikTok will magically disappear from your phone in a Flappy Bird-esque frenzy. TikTok will still work even if the app gets deleted from online app stores, but it will be impossible to update the app, which would cause problems down the line. Eventually, the app will be rendered useless, though that would be at least a year out from now.
For now, the app will stay put, but after months of unresolved licensing issues, fans might have to settle for other activities. Like maybe going outside or touching grass, just to see what happens!
III Points Festival is returning for the 11th year. Over the course of two days (October 18 and 19) this coming fall, music lovers can look forward to a diverse array of musicians delivering performances and DJ sets at the Mana Wynwood Convention Center in Miami.
Today (April 24), III Points has revealed the first phase of the 2024 festival lineup. Set to take the stage are Justice, Rick Ross, Yung Lean, Jamie xx, Toro Y Moi, Mochakk, Sara Landry, Jungle, Arca, Bad Gyal and more.
Solid Grooves mainstay PAWSA, industrial techno enchantress Sara Landry, and Hellbent Records label head Cloonee are also set to make appearances at III Points 2024. A press release teases that the lineup will draw from the realms of both live and electronic music, and there are at least 100 more acts that will be announced soon.
In the meantime, fans can begin planning their ticket purchases. Tickets will go on sale beginning this Friday (April 26) at 11:11 a.m. ET for the pre-sale and 1:11 p.m ET for general on-sale. Fans can register for the pre-sale and purchase tickets here. Fans can pay for tickets in full, or set up payment plans, with down payments beginning at $11.11.
You can see the full first-phase line-up for III Points Festival 2024 below.
Over the past few years, Beyoncé’s penchant for sending flowers to collaborators has become something of a meme in itself. Jack White, Mickey Guyton, and Nicki Minaj have all been on her recipients list; Bey even recently acknowledged championship-winning coach Dawn Staley with a bouquet after her team’s victory in the NCAA women’s basketball tournament. But her latest recipient proved ou don’t have to be a celebrity collaborator or championship-winning coach to get a gift from Beyoncé, when she sent her customary bouquet of flowers to a toddler whose adorable TikTok video went viral.
The video was posted by the curious kid’s patient mom, who captured his questions during a pizza date at the local mall food court. The child, Tyler, wanted to know, “Where’s Beyoncé?” Upon learning that “she’s in her house,” he next wanted to know, “Can I visit Beyoncé?” This left mom explaining that she and Beyoncé aren’t personally acquainted (as much as she would no doubt like to be) However, young Tyler was not deterred, insisting, “Beyoncé is our friend!” Well, Beyoncé wasn’t able to meet him personally, but she did the next best thing: Reaching out to find out where to send flowers (and toys for Tyler). In a caption on Instagram, Tyler’s mom thanked the BeyHive for making the star aware of the cute interaction and blessing the family with her presents — if not her presence. Check out the post below.
Where Kardashians go, gossip is bound to follow. That’s the nature of their fame, and they have stoked those flames on infinite occasions, but thus far, the family has not weighed in on a new-ish rumor that Kylie Jenner and Timothée Chalamet are pregnant and expecting parenthood. The pair has been linked for about a year with constant chatter circulating about their relationship status and whether any Golden Globe drama had been pointed in their direction.
Now, yes, baby rumors are afoot. They do not appear to be true but are running rampant on Twitter (which doesn’t mean anything), and no confirmation has come from any legitimate source. The Kardashians have chosen to stay quiet on the subject, although there is also speculation (if you look in the right places) that Travis Scott (with whom Kylie shares two children) tweeted and deleted a “WTF”-style response. TMZ has followed up on Daniel Tosh’s recent podcast claim that probably sparked these rumors.
Tosh claimed that a grocery store employee overheard Kylie allegedly discussing her third pregnancy in a store that was reportedly closed for The Kardashians filming purposes. TMZ has more:
The bigger headline here that Tosh is floating is that her boyfriend Timmy is the dad — this while noting he doesn’t know for sure if it’s true or not … saying this is just what he heard.
As it turns out, the story isn’t true — this according to production sources who tell us “The Kardashians” hasn’t filmed at a grocery store once for the upcoming season. We’re also told by sources with direct knowledge that the notion Kylie is pregnant via Timmy is false.
So there you have it. Until confirmed by Jenner or Chalamet, this story appears to be false. Hom(i)elander can now rest easy:
Even though it seems like TikTok is the epicenter for social trends, the government thinks that it could be used for things besides cute pets. Maybe you are an avid TikToker, or just a Scorsese fan, but things are looking grim for the app.
Last month, the House of Representatives passed a bill that requires ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, to sell the app or face a ban in the U.S. The bill, which is called “Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act,” prevents any app store in the U.S. from hosting ByteDance’s apps, including TikTok, unless the app severs ties to ByteDance within six months.
Now, the app has been granted nine months to move on from ByteDance and possible be sold to another company. If that happens, the app will have an additional three months to complete the sale. So if TikTok ban goes into effect, it would be at least a year until we see any changes.
This doesn’t mean that the app will automatically be deleted from user’s phones, however it would prevent any future updates or bug fixes, which would eventually render the app useless, much like the Old Reddit app (RIP).
The TikTok ban has many divided. The U.S. government does not want the Chinese company to own the app used by nearly 150 million U.S. residents. Meanwhile, Gen Z Democratic Rep Maxwell Frost believes that the attempt to ban the app violates the First Amendment. “I think that it is a violation of people’s First Amendment rights,” he said. “TikTok is a place for people to express ideas. I have many small businesses in my district and content creators in my district, and I think it’s going to drastically impact them too.”
About a month ago I made an important decision. I had been hemming and hawing on it for weeks. Did I really want to do this? Did I really need to do this? What was the point? What was the point of anything? But this brooding was all just self-indulgent procrastination. What was the point? The point was that I’m a rock critic and I needed something to write about, and that was reason enough. So, I finally accepted my fate and informed the publicist that I was in.
I was going to see Phish at Sphere in Las Vegas during the weekend of 4/20.
I wanted to do this. I needed to do this. Even though I recognized the potential pitfalls. The possibility of lapsing into cliché on this assignment was almost insurmountable. You have a $2.3 billion concert venue situated in the heart of Las Vegas (which is to say the very center of crass American capitalism). A jam band playing on a date dedicated to celebrating the smoking of marijuana. An election year in which two ancient boomer presidential candidates are once again pitted against each other. A cultural backdrop in which creative stagnation reigns in all corners of the popular arts. An oppressive tech industry determined to swallow these popular arts whole, with A.I. poised to spit out our collective artistic heritage in bizarre new shapes for the delight of soulless blue-check losers.
The metaphors were as obvious as they were seductive. We live in a time in which innovation and excitement appear to have died, and all that’s left is empty escape. The temptation to do that thing writers like to do where they pile adverbs on top of adjectives on top of invective on top of self-righteous indignation until you have an endless 50-word sentence that will compel somebody online to invoke Hunter S. Thompson in Fear And Loathing mode is very real. My pledge was to avoid these rhetorical traps. (The second sentence of this paragraph notwithstanding.) My assignment was not motivated by prevailing political or cultural winds, or a compulsion To Make A Point. How Phish At Sphere Explains The Dark Night Of Our Nation’s Soul is a column another person must write.
The motivation was entirely my own self-interest. I wanted to see Phish at Sphere (Sphishere?) because I had reached a startling conclusion that I’d long secretly felt but didn’t want to confess: I was disenchanted with the live music experience.
It had been like this since the pandemic. During lockdown, I yearned to go out. But once we reached the “unlockdown” times, I struggled to pry myself from the comforts of home. I still loved the music — I endlessly listen to bootlegs during my “non-professional” listening hours. It’s the experience part that’s been lacking.
I accept part of the blame for this. I am a middle-aged man now, and while I would not describe myself as jaded, my capacity for being absolutely wowed by the live music experience has naturally depleted some. Also, my body is weaker. I was born with the knees of a 68-year-old, and this condition has not improved with age. But the shows themselves often didn’t deliver quite what I was looking for. They were fine, but not great. Suitable, but not transcendent. The bands on stage worked hard, but they didn’t attempt to be legendary. Even when I enjoyed what I saw, it did not move me in the places deep down where I wanted to be moved.
I still want to be blown away. Failing that, I want to believe that the people on stage are trying to blow me away. Not to get all Jack Black in School Of Rock here but I yearn to watch someone who believes that a rock show can change the world. Or at least that it can rewire your brain in some permanent fashion for the better.
To do this, you must risk failure, embarrassment, and accusations of overreaching ambition for the chance of achieving transcendence. Not many artists are willing to make that kind of gamble, not even in Las Vegas. But I know one man who is.
His name is Mr. Trey Anastasio.
Rich Fury
… HE HAS A GUITAR IN ONE HAND AND A MINI VERSION OF SPHERE IN THE OTHER …
Because Phish exists in the jam-band ghetto, a proper accounting of their recent run of risky, high-stakes performances has not been made by the mainstream critical community. So, allow me to give a brief assessment.
Phish has been doing some batshit crazy things on stage lately.
Not that this is exactly a “recent” development. This is the band, after all, that invented a fake Scandinavian synth-rock outfit called Kasvot Växt back in 2018 for their annual Halloween concert, going as far as to fabricate an album review on the actual AllMusic website to support the ruse. But in the past few years this penchant for playful artistic chicanery has only grown more extreme. There were the massive drone-controlled 3D whales and dolphins sent sailing above the audience at Madison Square Garden in 2022. There was the elaborate staging of the mythical song cycle “Gamehendge” that took place at MSG on New Year’s Eve in 2023, complete with enormous flying mockingbirds and dancing lizards and a large cast of Broadway actors performing acid-fried soliloquies set to stupid-complex prog-rock. And there’s the four-day festival the band is planning for this summer in Delaware, which Trey has hinted will have some sort of elaborate and carefully considered theme.
But before that, there was Sphere. In interviews leading up to the four-night stand, Trey revealed that his creative co-pilot in conceptualizing the shows was Abigail Rosen Holmes, whose resumé in rock spectacle includes work on Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense tour as well as Roger Waters’ overwhelming 21st century tours for The Wall. He also announced that Phish (unlike Sphere’s debut act U2) would play different sets each night, and not repeat a song over the run. Ahead of that, Trey worked with Holmes to coordinate imagery corresponding with the band’s on-the-fly jams. He also oversaw the creation of a mini-Sphere in the band’s practice space, which allowed their sound team to craft the perfect mix for every seat in the house.
The most confounding question posed to Trey leading up to the run was this: Why only four shows? U2 played 10 times as many and Phish could have at least doubled or tripled their original number. The amount of money and time put into just four shows must have been astronomical. But Holmes discouraged playing more gigs. “It’ll be good,” she apparently told Trey, according to The Washington Post. “But it won’t be great. If you just do four nights, it’s going to blow minds.”
That was enough for Trey. And it was enough for me.
… THE BARTENDER ASKS, “WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?” …
This was not my first time at Sphere. My previous visit was U2’s premiere concert back in September. At the time, I mused on other acts that might potentially be a good fit for the venue, and I mentioned Phish as one who might not be. I doubted whether video effects on that humongous screen could be improvised along with an improvisational band. “It takes certain delusions of grandeur to function in this space,” I wrote. “You need ideas big enough to fill that huge canvas. Not even U2 is able to pull that one off completely.”
Obviously, I was wrong about that. When I wrote those words, Trey and his team had already been working on Phish’s Sphere concerts for three months. But I was also wrong about Phish’s delusions of grandeur. U2 and Phish are different in absolutely every way except for their shared inclination for grandiosity. It’s just that their approaches to gigantism vary wildly.
For U2, grandiosity is a means for achieving mass cultural impact. You gather 50,000 people in a stadium by enticing them with flashy screens and heartrending anthems. Then you make them feel that the spectacle is profound, because it is one of the only things left that can unite people under a common banner anymore. It’s show business, but Bono believes that it is also a sociopolitical statement, and he persuades the audience to believe this as well.
Unlike U2, Phish has never been a mainstream proposition. So, Trey’s grandiosity is not the grandiosity of a man who serenades Martin Luther King, Jr. each time he steps in front of a stadium-rock audience. Phish is a secret handshake shared by misunderstood cultists. It’s not a well-kept secret given that Phish plays the same arenas (and billion-dollar bowling balls) that U2 does. But it does mean that Trey’s grandiosity serves a different purpose. For Phish, playing Sphere is an opportunity to surprise and wow a demanding niche audience that wants to be constantly surprised and wowed. It’s the classic addiction cycle — to keep the high going, you have to keep upping the dose. You start by playing different setlists each night. You graduate to themed festivals with marathon running times. You evolve further by sending imaginary ocean life into the arena rafters. When even that becomes old hat, you turn to James Dolan and say, “Okay, give us the keys to this new ridiculous thing and let us dream up something else.”
An unsurprised mind can’t be blown away. Therefore, an unsurprised mind is the enemy of Trey Anastasio. And Sphere is his most recent weapon of choice.
Rich Fury
… THE GUY SAYS, “I GUESS I HAVEN’T BEEN HERE IN A WHILE” …
I arrived in Las Vegas on Saturday, the morning of 4/20. My Midwestern ass could feel the jet lag as soon as I stepped off the gate and into the airport. But I was determined to overcome fatigue. I pushed the fog out of my brain and started to get mentally primed for that night’s show.
My plan was to avoid missives on social media from the first two shows on Thursday and Friday. But I am a degenerate Twitter addict, so inevitably I was exposed to dozens of tweets and smartphone videos. By the end of Friday, fans deduced that the theme for the Sphere stand related to the natural elements: Thursday was Earth (songs performed included “Leaves,” “Dirt,” and “Sand”) and Friday was water (“A Wave Of Hope,” “Ruby Waves,” “A Song I Heard The Ocean Sing,” etc.) The online consensus seemed to be that Thursday was underwhelming and Friday was a major upgrade, spotlighted by startlingly photo-realistic images of aquatic vistas alternating with a hound the size of Reno licking Sphere’s screen during the multi-part warhorse “You Enjoy Myself.”
A misconception about Phish fans is that they are drug-taking dullards who will happily lap up whatever elongated guitar solo or retina-scratching light show that gets shoved into their faces. That was my impression when I first started investigating Phish bootlegs and going to shows more than a decade ago. At the time, I was burned out with the indie and pop music worlds I was covering as a journalist and critic. I was sick of the constant trend-humping and power jockeying for “hot young thing” status that was endemic among artists and writers alike. In my mind I romanticized a scene that appeared concerned only with good times and tasty jams. I wanted to escape there, like a disenchanted 9-to-5er who decides to hit the road and live out of his van.
Once I entered Phish world, I quickly figured out how wrong I had been. The reality of the jam-band world is that it is more critical than the indie and pop worlds, not less. Way more critical, in fact. Reactions to Phish’s Sphere run were typical — some people (i.e. the fans who lucked into tickets) were ecstatic while many others (i.e. the ones streaming the shows at home) were dismissive about these very expensive concerts staged at a very corporate venue. Was this a new peak for the band or evidence that Phish was lapsing into gimmickry? Personally, I found the cynicism from some corners to be a bit much, though given this moment of hyper-annoying pop-star worship it was also pretty refreshing. Phish fans are not like Taylor Swift stans. They do not demand unquestioning adoration. They’re more like sports fanatics from Philadelphia. Passionate and loyal, but also ready to pelt their heroes with batteries if the moment requires.
After years of Phish immersion, some of that ambient cynicism had seeped into me. My previous Phish shows before Sphere were at Wisconsin’s Alpine Valley Music Theatre in the summer of 2022. I attended all three concerts and found each one more boring than the last. Trey’s post-rehab habit of writing songs centered on the same stock of feel-good buzz words — “love,” “light,” “hope,” “soul” — had finally started to wear on me, especially since the band wouldn’t stop prominently featuring those songs in their setlists. One particular tune, “Ruby Waves,” stood out for having egregiously cringe-y lyrics: “If I could touch the stars with my fingertips / The doors would open all around me / Gonna escape from this prison of lies / And swim in the ocean up above my head.” (Though in fairness to “Ruby Waves,” it was the basis of an all-time jam I saw performed at Alpine three years prior.)
I didn’t excommunicate myself from Phish world after that, but I did go on hiatus for a while. I canceled my LivePhish app and only casually followed new tours via social media. Eventually, the online chatter enticed me back. The accounts I follow were excited about the band’s shows in Mexico this February. The 40-minute “Chalk Dust Torture” from 2/23/24 knocked me on my heels, particularly the second half where it takes a turn into the “evil” sound that the heads yearn for.
The band themselves were energized by the shows. “I thought the Mexico shows [in February] were just crushing in terms of music,” Trey told The Post. “Just the music itself. I know bands always say, ‘Well, our last shows were the best shows,’ and most of the time they’re lying. I’m actually not.”
By then, Trey didn’t have to sell me. I was already back on the train.
… THE BARTENDER SAYS, “WHY THE LONG FACE?” …
Let me get something out of the way quick: I did not take drugs on 4/20 at Sphere while watching Phish. Many people did, but I did not. Unless you count something called the Sphere Mule, which is a cocktail made with tequila and I’m not sure what else that was available at one 200 level bar. I did have a few of those. But no drugs for me! Because I no longer enjoy taking drugs when I am in public — this has been true since I was 32, for reasons too mundane to get into — and because I am a professional rock writer.
As a person who has now seen both legacy rock bands that have played the venue, I am also a veteran Sphere attender. And one thing I have noticed about this building is that you get acclimated to the amazing visuals faster than you might expect. Your standard for what looks cool accelerates even faster than the images on the screen. This obviously works against the venue, and it works against the band.
On Saturday night, the showstopper from a visual and musical perspective was a new song from their forthcoming album Evolve, “Pillow Jets,” which arrived in the first set. The song is pretty good — at least Trey is back to singing about fanciful concepts (silver serpents, pulsating halcyon scepters, etc.) rather than prisons made of lies. Saturday night’s theme was fire, and the band played “Pillow Jets” against stunning images of an alien forest landscape where plants and trees slowly morphed into fireworks. As the band segued into the jam, the forest floor melted into surly waves of molten lava. The images aligned with the controlled chaos of the improvisation for more than 10 minutes. When the band ventured back to the song, the fiery hellscape reshaped backed to the original forest in perfect unison with the music.
A few tracks later, during the ’90s oldie “Taste,” a wall of images culled from Phish’s Live Phish CD artwork created by Jim Pollack stacked the screen like hieroglyphics from 4th century Egypt, along with a 3D crown shape that convincingly hung suspended above the band. It was like Raiders Of The Lost Ark crossed with a vintage head shop from 1998. The effect was spectacular, and it took the visual splendor of what U2 achieved to another level.
But then there were the songs around those songs. For “Mountains In The Mist,” Phish against an authentic facsimile of … mountains in the mist. For “Steam,” the enormous screen was clouded with (you guessed it) steam. Watching this, I found myself thinking, “These images are a little blah.” And then I immediately chastised myself for not appreciating the world-class technical wizardry on display. There’s a goddamn mountain in front of you, you cretin! Don’t be blasé about this! But I had just seen an alien forest turn into molten lava. At Sphere, good can become the enemy of great awfully quick.
When comparing Phish’s Sphere presentation to U2, Trey hinted to the Associated Press that when the screen showed the band members, the images would be “deconstructed,” a more technical way of saying “made to look weirder and cooler.” And Phish did look weirder and cooler during the set one closer “46 Days,” when each member was given their own primary color and then multiplied into endless variations of themselves in a sky-high panorama. In the second set, the half-hour “Fuego” melded front-lit stage lighting that evoked Stop Making Sense along with a kaleidoscope of larger-than-life Trey’s on the big screen. While not as dramatic as the flourishes applied to “Pillow Jets” and “Taste,” these effects nonetheless amounted to a creative reimagining of how bands are presented in spaces like this.
There’s also the matter of sound quality of Sphere, which also was improved upon the U2 run. Mike Gordon’s bass was as clear as I have ever heard it on stage, and it bounced vividly amid Jon Fishman’s virtuosic timekeeping and Page McConnell’s variety of crisply rendered keyboard sounds. Having listened to the recordings streamed on the LivePhish app — I reupped my subscription —I feel like this is the rare instance of the band actually sounding better in the room than they do on tape.
But here’s the thing: When you’re in the room, it’s awfully hard to listen. As my show companion Rob later observed, “Taste” looked incredible but he could not recall a single note that the band played. Inside of Sphere, that big screen owns you. And it compels the audience to experience the show via the second screen of their phones. Thousands of those phones were poised at that screen all night.
A question that occurred to me during U2’s debut at Sphere came back to mind as I turned in that night: Is this another example of tech overwhelming music while ostensibly trying to fix or “save” it? If Sphere is an instrument, Trey was presenting himself as the Les Paul of giant bowling balls. But at what point do the tools replace the music?
Rich Fury
… THE MAN FROWNS AND SAYS, “MY FACE ISN’T LONG, IT’S ONLY 34 MINUTES.”
On Sunday, I prepared for the final night of Phish’s Sphere run in methodical fashion. I felt exhaustion creeping in during Saturday’s second set, which according to my jet lagged body clock didn’t wrap until 1:45 a.m. (It was actually 11:45 p.m. in Sphere time.) I wanted to be strong, so I adhered to the following plan until 4 p.m.: Sleep in, rest, eat a big brunch, rest. Then I started drinking diabetes-inducing canned cocktail drinks in regular intervals until my energy levels were appropriately calibrated.
I enjoyed Saturday’s concert but I hadn’t yet achieved the “mind-blowing” feeling that Trey promised and I was seeking. I purposely planned my trip to include the Sunday night show, as the jam-band maxim “Never Miss A Sunday Show” has proven true in my personal experience. The Sunday show is special because it needs to be — otherwise people would just home after the Saturday show. But in this instance, the Sunday show represented Trey’s last stab (for now) at that 160,000-square foot canvas. It was time to empty the tank.
Heading in, given that the remaining elements were sky/space, it was a safe bet that Phish was going to play “Divided Sky” and their funkified version of the 2001 theme. The former arrived in the first set, and the imagery again was a literal depiction of the titular subject. The clarity of the sky was stunning, but it was overshadowed by the previous number, “Ghost,” in which three Iron Giant-like behemoths constructed with clean neon lines towered over the audience with alternating degrees of whimsy and menace. It was reminiscent of Holmes’ work with Waters on The Wall, though without the acidity of Pink Floyd’s stadium-rock masterwork.
It was breathtaking spectacle. And it’s the only thing I remember from the first set. That’s because the second set proved to be the tour-de-force I was waiting for. And this time it wasn’t about the visuals, though the visuals were of course wondrous. While Saturday and the first set of Sunday engaged my eyes, Sunday’s second set was about the music. It proved to be one of the longest second sets in the band’s history — nearly two hours, with one quarter of that dedicated to an epic 34-minute rendition of “Down With Disease.”
Now, I know for the non-jam band fan — if you are still reading this, god bless — the idea of a 34-minute rendition of any song is a frankly preposterous proposition. But the point of a 34-minute jam aligns with the point of Sphere. You are trying to transport the listener to an unexpected place they would have never found on their own. It’s about taking something you think you know (a song, a concert venue) and transforming it into some magical new thing. In this particular “Down With Disease,” it happens around the 26-minute mark — I know, bear with me! — as the band floats into a woozy space waltz augmented by McConnell’s sci-fi synth tinkering. Then the pace quickens and it sounds like the audience is being rapidly sucked into a black hole, with quick stabs of Psycho-like accents emphasizing the dread.
You can’t write that. And you can’t plan it out for 10 months. Unlike so much at Sphere, it’s something that just happens instantly. In this instance, I don’t remember what was on the screen. I just remember the playing. And that carried through to the other long jams in the set, including a delectable 22-minute version of “Light,” which opened with (what sounded to me anyway) a tease of Led Zeppelin’s “No Quarter.” (Side note: Someone must pay Robert Plant and Jimmy Page $1 billion to play Led Zeppelin songs at Sphere.) A relatively brief nine-minute “2001” preceded it, but the hugeness of “Light” was the first in a series of climaxes that Phish piled on top of each other, like Peter Jackson dealing out ending after ending at the close of The Return Of The King. “Piper” peaked, and then “First Tube” peaked on top of that peak. Then “Slave To The Traffic Light” peaked that peak of a peak.
Here was the most impressive special effect of the entire weekend: This immaculate room, this feat of modern technology, this multi-billion playground for superstars — it made me feel like I was back at Allstate Arena, that dumpy minor-league hockey arena outside of Chicago where I have seen and loved Phish many times, all while trying to avoid the worst bathrooms in arena rock.
That’s what I had been missing. And now I had it. The live music experience felt like home again.
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