LAS VEGAS – Since it formed in northern Vermont in 1983, Phish has been as famous for its marathon jam sessions as it is for delighting its audiences with unique and playful shows. Band members Trey Anastasio (guitar), Mike Gordon (bass), Jon Fishman (drums) and Page McConnell (keyboards) are simply full of surprises.
So when it was announced that Phish would be the first live act to follow U2 to Sphere in Las Vegas, many wondered how the production team would retain the element of surprise in an immersive $2.3 billion venue that seems more aligned with the trend toward concerts that serve up elaborate production elements that include more consistent setlists and perhaps even timecode.
But their four radically different shows that ran from April 18-21 with visuals that explored the four states of matter – solids, liquids, gas and plasma – proved that even an elaborate production, in the right hands, can be both free-form and tightly in synch with the music.
“It’s an entirely new form of entertainment, so of course we wanted to get in there,” Anastasio told CBS News in mid-April when asked of his interest in performing at Sphere. “It’s a hyper-directional sound system – it’s like laser sound.”
Anastasio spoke about how his solo shows at New York’s Beacon Theatre on Aug. 19-20, 2022 marked the first use of Holoplot’s sound system in the U.S., noting that the Beacon is “owned by the same people who own the Sphere” along with Madison Square Garden. (And only one act – Billy Joel – has performed more concerts at Madison Square Garden than Phish.)
The overall idea for Phish’s four-night run was to create completely different shows by delving into the four states of matter: solids, liquids, gases and plasma. While U2’s show visuals where firmly anchored in themes and tributes to Las Vegas, the Phish shows turned Sphere into a giant vehicle that took the audience through different realms each night: swirling sand, liquid seas, wind-blown clouds and pulsing plasma.
Through it all, of course, the band members were playing their hearts out, with fans reveling in the synergistic interplay of guitar, bass, keyboards and drums, enhanced, at times, with the perception of sonic movement through the venue and haptic seat knocks and vibrations that appeared to be synched with kick drum beats and subwoofer effects.
As with the creative team exploring Sphere’s visual potential with lighting and video, the venue imposed a steep learning curve on the audio side. “Sphere has been an interesting experience,” said Phish’s longtime FOH engineer, Garry Brown, speaking at a press event at Lawo’s NAB booth on April 16.
Noting an assist from people from Sphere that include a “mini-sphere” setup at Rock Lititz, PA a few weeks before the shows, Brown learned “very quickly” that mixing console functions wouldn’t work the same way. “Everything is direct-assigned to a specific array, a specific home. And because you’re now in that mode, obviously ‘Pan’ is now irrelevant.” With an assist from Lawo as well, “we basically programmed every single channel” assigning a home location for each.”
Brown also detailed how he uses Lawo’s mc² 56 console with Sphere’s enormous Holoplot speaker system to designate sounds as moving objects that can create a listening effect of music that swirls around the room. “I press one of the user button switches, and it takes it out of its home aux and assigns it to one of the moving object auxes, so now it’s moving around the room. And I can press the button again, and it takes it out of the moving object and puts it back.”
Along with his 48-fader mc² 56 at FOH, Brown keeps a 32-fader mc² 56 as a backup, and additional Lawo consoles were used at Sphere for monitors and broadcast functions.
For a video of Lawo’s NAB press event, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4SFrezis_U
