Phish started their 2026 Fall tour with a three night run back at Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall on October 2, 3 and 4. Phish has played Atlantic City a few times over the last decade but has not returned indoors to Boardwalk Hall since the Halloween when they played the Wingsuit/Fuego set in 2013. It’s a shame that it’s been so long because it’s such a beautiful room, hopefully this weekend will get it back on their radar.

I was not able to make the first show on Friday, but by all reports it was an excellent tour opener. Tour openers used to be a thing I avoided as it used to take them a few shows to get their sea legs, but over the last few years this has changed. It’s not uncommon nowadays for the tour openers to be a real highlight of the tour.

After their first night in Atlantic City, the crowd on Saturday looked a little rough around the edges going in, but even though people might have been a little worse for wear considering where the shows were located and what they were probably doing all night, they brought energy all weekend long.

Besides it being overcast, it was a perfect fall night for a Phish show, and there was that pre-show buzz in the air that only happens when something good is about to happen.

Photographer duties pulled me away from most of the first set but it seemed to be a really solid and fun set on relisten. They gave several songs room to breathe but it was probably the most song focused set of the last two nights. I made it back in time for “Bathtub Gin” and Trey basically shredded peaks the whole jam. Seemed like a good way to get himself really loosened up for set two.

“Chalkdust Torture” opened up Set 2 and boy did they cover a lot of ground in 20 minutes. The jam started off murky and disoriented, and then it got weird. Lighting director Chris Kuroda started making the lights spin with the music, Page started calling out to aliens and Trey kind of made his guitar sound like a synth. Then it turned on a dime into a joyous dancey bop, everyone was equally contributing and bouncing ideas off of each other. It was my first peek at just how well they are jamming right now.

Trey’s new favorite, “What’s Going Through Your Mind?” had a jam that started off with Trey doing this fun little scratchy noises before hopping on his percussive mini-kit. Then things started to get weird again in the best way. Since these jams have Trey sitting out on guitar, it really gives the other band members more room than usual to play around. Page seems to particularly enjoy these jams as it allows him to play with his synths, and it seems like he had a lot of new sounds this weekend. They then do this wild section that sounded like they were jamming with raindrops before machine gun Trey showed up for a happy and shreddy ending. This section of the show was a two headed monster and you could really tell that they were having a blast up there.

“Mike’s Song” was next and the intro section to the jam on here was another signal of how well they are playing. They were so locked in for the first part of the jam that it sounded like it was a produced studio track. Page was making his keys growl. Trey set off some sirens and then wailed through the ending. “Waste” was the breather in the middle. “Weekapaug Groove” was a stellar version. Since they seemed to have fixed Mike Gordon’s sound problems and he is up in the mix where he should be, this one was a real treat. “Monsters” was up next, and a very solid “Harry Hood” followed.

The encore started with a standard “Character Zero.” “Sleeping Monkey” followed and before it started, Trey talked about how he and Page grew up on the Jersey shore. They then played “Tweezer Reprise” to complete the “Tweezer” from Friday night.

Setlist via Phish.net

10/3/26 Atlantic City, New Jersey

Set 1: Sand, Everything’s Right, Back on the Train, Stash, 555, Mountains in the Mist, Bathtub Gin

Set 2: Chalk Dust Torture, What’s Going Through Your Mind, Mike’s Song > Waste > Weekapaug Groove, Monsters, Harry Hood

Encore: Character Zero > Sleeping Monkey > Tweezer Reprise

Sunday was a colder, darker vibe outside. It rained and the temperature dropped. Good thing they keep Boardwalk Hall hot.

Same deal with the first set, I missed most of it. I was a lot more bummed to miss this one then the previous night’s set 1 when I heard it.

A “David Bowie” is a great way to start off the show, a warning that there wouldn’t be too much wasting time tonight. They took “Moma Dance” for a spin, which usually isn’t a thing. It seemed pretty standard fare until Trey was able to come up with this gorgeous Layla-ish melody (maybe some Clapton rubbed off of him since he just played his Crossroads Guitar Festival). “Sigma Oasis” featured another fun jam with Trey on the mini-kit.

At the end of the set the band played “The Squirming Coil.” As the song reached the end, the crowd waited for Page’s beautiful little outro solo. Suddenly Page got up and he walked over to play the loudest instrument in the entire world, the Boardwalk Hall organ. Louder than a dozen orchestra’s, the organ features 33,112 pipes. It was incredibly striking to hear Page play that lovely melody on that monster organ. It was heavy. The room stood there and soaked it in. It was the only time any band has ever featured the organ as a part of their concert.

“Split Open and Melt” opened set 2, and it was a sure sign that this set was going to be the business. And what a Melt it was. This version, while still very weird (as most “Split Open and Melt”‘s are) was a little bit more structered than the usual Melt jam, which I think worked in it’s favor. Next up was “Simple.” Or I should say, the AC Simple. This kind of jam is one of the reasons that people have been following around Phish for over 2 decades.

It featured a kind of theme from the jamming I noticed that night. A lot of time in this show there seemed to be a battle between happy and evil Phish. Songs would start dark and end like a beaming sun. Blissful jamming devolved into music people might put on to worship aliens. This tug and pull seemed to happen over and over throughout the night and the mix between the two is one of the reasons that I think it was such a great show.

The real treat of this jam is that it was mostly led by Mike Gordon, something that is very rare nowadays. Once Trey got on his kit I’m pretty sure they messed around and accidentally invented a new genre of music.

They “You Enjoy Myself” that a lot of us were waiting for was next. This intro was great and it featured (to my ears) some new and trippy synthesizer sounds from Page. It was a steller version of YEM, and as they started ending the vocal jam, they all of a sudden launched into a ridiculous funk groove. This groove would have been right at home during their funk filled 98 Island Tour Run. You know that a Phish jam is good when you think they are about to cover a new song, but it’s just that they are so good at improvisation that it’s hard to tell that they are making it up on the spot.

After that set, I was prepared for them to play a mellow “Show of Life” or something for the encore but Phish had other plans. Not ready to take their jamming shoes off yet, the encore was a ridiculously good Carini. For the jam, Trey hopped back on his kit. They were able to create this incredible wall of sound that sounded like they were about to rip the universe apart.

You can always tell by others people’s faces on the way out, when you see a great Phish show. It’s a combination of giddy and dazed. It’s a good feeling to have.

Phish continues this strange little Fall tour with shows in Richmond, Florida and then Alabama.

10/4/26 Atlantic City, New Jersey

Set 1: David Bowie, The Moma Dance, Sigma Oasis, Blaze On, Halley’s Comet, Wilson, The Squirming Coil

Set 2: Split Open and Melt, No Men In No Man’s Land, Simple, Lonely Trip, You Enjoy Myself

Encore: Carini

Gallery – Saturday 10/3