Bob Weir Jammed With Phish at Ascend Last Night and We Were There!

Tonight,

Phish's second consecutive show at Ascend Amphitheater and Bob Weir's rare appearance at the Ryman (assuming you have tickets for both). But on Tuesday, the stars aligned for Phishheads who packed into Ascend: The Phish and Grateful Dead universes collided when Weir sat in for the bulk of Trey & Co.'s second set. Reports circulated all afternoon that Weir had performed with the group during soundcheck, making the likelihood of an appearance pretty high. But it's doubtful anyone expected much more than a delightful cameo — certainly nothing like this.

Three songs after intermission, frontman Trey Anastasio bolted toward the back of the stage, where I expected him to trade out his guitar for a spare. Instead, he came back with Weir in tow, and the crowd of 6,800 or so third-eye-squeegeed, already-beaming faces (and a slew of fans camped out on the Korean Veterans Bridge) erupted into one of the loudest cheers I've ever heard. Following a hug and a brief line check — Bobby clearly needed no introduction — the augmented outfit launched into a ferocious rendition of the Dead staple "Samson and Delilah." Drugs or no drugs, it was a surreal, out-of-body experience for me and everyone noodle-dancing around me (go ahead and mock, but those moves are pretty much involuntary).

This limber, muscular hybrid wasn't quite Phish and it wasn't quite the Dead, and it wasn't there to take a stroll through the garden of greatest hits. After "Delilah," they fired up Phish's funky jam-launching vehicle "Twist." This version was slowed down a bit, and the jam section took its time to reach full throttle, with Bobby and Trey feeling each other out while Jon Fishman, Mike Gordon and Page McConnell kept the rhythm going. Eventually, Trey signaled an audible, and the groove morphed like a battleship making an about-face, settling into something everyone could dig into.

Was it the best "Twist" ever? Maybe not. But everyone including the guest of honor was game to take chances, which made every minute more exciting than the last.

As the jam wound down, it crystallized into "Miss You," a poignant cut which appears on Phish's brand new record Big Boat. It's a Trey song, but Weir took the lead vocal, lending its universal message (about remembering loved ones who've died) an special extra gravitas. Next came a perfectly greasy "West L.A. Fadeaway," which segued into a rip-roaring "Playing in the Band." Everyone made their bows, but they weren't done yet: There was still the funked-up encore of recent Nobel laureate Bob Dylan's "Quinn the Eskimo" to go. 

This confluence of jam titans — Weir's first appearance with Phish since 2000, and his longest ever (Trey's 2015 run as a guest member of the Dead doesn't count) — in such a comparatively intimate venue was certainly a lightning-in-a-bottle moment, which you can relive through fan videos posted to YouTube. Check them out above and below, as well as a soundboard recording of the whole segment featuring Weir.