By Paul Robicheau

For those seeking adventure away from cookie-cutter arena rock, Phish still fit the bill.

Trey Anastasio, Mike Gordon and Jon Fishman of Phish at SNHU Arena. Photo Paul Robicheau

Phish uncorked a heady old-school feast over the weekend’s three-night return to Manchester’s SNHU Arena, nearly 15 years since the band last played the 11,000-capacity venue and 30-plus years since the Vermont jammers went from crossing New England borders to growing nationally to arenas twice that size.

Apart from the cozier local setting to kick off a summer tour, the first sign of throwback vibes was a return to Phish’s side-by-side stage setup. Drummer Jon Fishman’s kit was switched from the center rear to the right front, now cocked at a 45-degree angle to face the crowd as well as bandmates. Trey Anastasio also debuted a rewired ’90s-era model of his custom guitar.

Page McConnell of Phish at SNHU Arena. Photo Paul Robicheau

But the real old-school payoff came in the stellar music. Of the 52 different songs played across the weekend (including some lengthy jams topped by an epic 42 minutes of “Tweezer” that wove in and out of Sunday’s exploratory final set), just seven tunes came from recordings since Phish’s reformation in 2009.

Friday’s tour opener seemed like more of a warm-up for the exhilarating evolution of nights to follow, led by such pedestrian early choices as the country-ish shuffle “Back on the Train” and bluesy rocker “46 Days.” But the first set found footing in the elastic edges of a funky “Wolfman’s Brother” jam and the bubbling flow of “Theme From the Bottom,” where the quartet began to lock into near-telepathic mimicry of spontaneous motifs in surprisingly abstract ways before reviving the bluegrass standard “Old Home Place.” The second set likewise lacked a signature warhorse to carry the weight, though the new Fishman-rinsed wall of sound “Life Saving Gun” and late ’90s entry “Twist” each passed the 18-minute mark as twin centerpieces. The latter number began with its slinky prompts of “Woo!” from the crowd, though (perhaps hastened by momentarily hoarse vocals from Anastasio) it more interestingly dipped into instant deconstruction for a spacious jam.

Jon Fishman of Phish at SNHU Arena. Photo: Paul Robicheau

Still, Friday hung on relaxed delivery, carried through the second set closer “Everything’s Right” (its optimistic call to “just hold tight” in a “crazy world” was an even odder gesture in hindsight with that night’s bombing of Iran). The same went for a rare three-song encore that dug out the Beatlesque trifle “Strange Design” and the primarily serene favorite “Harry Hood,” a last chance for fans to chant and toss handfuls of glow sticks like the old days, before the group felt compelled to tack on the rollicking “Suzy Greenberg.” It was amusing to think that the catchphrase lyrics to “Harry Hood” still refer to that mascot pictured on a Hood milk plant across the street from where band members lived in the mid-1980s, and the song’s still being performed today, this time one state over.

Saturday got right down to business when the heavy glide of “Free” ” greased a gateway to more challenging territory with a crisp run through the composed curves, floaty jam, and whistled coda of “Reba” and a 17-minute exploration of the serpentine “Stash.” Lighting designer Chris Kuroda’s hydra-like rig slowly descended over the band’s heads during an Anastasio-steered drop in dynamics, only for the truss to rise along with the guitarist’s re-escalating tendrils before he reprised the “Stash” melody. The swampy funk of “Meat” followed, with Anastasio and Fishman egging on bassist Mike Gordon to flex through playful stops and starts before a typically driving “Down with Disease” appeared for a power-packed end to Saturday’s first set. “When I think it’s time to leave it all behind,” Anastasio sang, “I try to find a way to, but nothing I can say to make it stop.” When Phish is cooking like this, why stop?

Mike Gordon of Phish at SNHU Arena. Photo Paul Robicheau

“Drift While You’re Sleeping,” from Anastasio’s 2019 side project Ghosts of the Forest, began Saturday’s second set with its “love will carry us through” theme and measured side-step into reggae. But Phish covered wide terrain to ensure the night could balance its strong first frame, led next by the crunch of “Carini.” Anastasio’s rising pedal effect dropped into its Led Zeppelin-y riffs to launch a surprisingly introverted 23-minute ride, the guitarist chiming teases of TV on the Radio’s “Golden Age” and Talking Heads’ “Cities,” two established Phish covers. Much like with Friday’s second set, the new “A Wave of Hope” added its own long jam, Anastasio and Gordon building textures off their raised pedal boards opposite keyboardist Page McConnell like Pink Floyd gone electro. Of course, such improvised segments lead to lows as well as highs, and at a certain point, the groove seemed kinda stuck (even if it was quite a groove), slowly evolving as if the players were test-driving new toys for the tour ahead.

A gentle “Billy Breathes” lent a sweet cooldown before the band locked into its danceable theme to the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, laced with roving beams and rows of lights that panned up into arena-illuminating climaxes. It set up a strange but solid combo of “Meatstick” (where Anastasio and Gordon led fans in hand choreography to Japanese lyrics), the brooding, guitar-lashed “About to Run,” and the wound-up tension and release of bluegrassy bop “Possum.” As if that wasn’t enough, the encore went triple again with a McConnell-sung cover of Jimi Hendrix’s “Bold as Love” and a short steamroll through “David Bowie” before a tight “Wilson” for a last rocking blast of fan-echoed fun.

Trey Anastasio of Phish at SNHU Arena. Photo: Paul Robicheau

Anyone who thought Saturday would be hard to beat didn’t trust the old Phish axiom: “Never miss a Sunday show,” and damn if the third night went beyond expectations. In a sense, Sunday’s first set might have been the weekend’s best: song-based with 10 selections, yet stretched to 90 minutes with the inclusion of intricate, beloved suites “The Curtain With” and a 16-minute closing punch of “Fluffhead.” The group likewise nailed a retro-fast “Llama” fueled by McConnell’s organ and Anastasio’s ripping rock guitar before an ironic segue into a lilting “Fast Enough for You.” And Anastasio sounded diabolical in “My Friend, My Friend,” grinding guitar strings on his mic stand and hollering “He’s got a knife” in a menacing peak that slid into the Spinal Tap-ish plod of the proggy/silly “Egg in a Hole” for a two-fer of evil Phish.

People who tire of Phish’s meandering jam excursions may not have loved Sunday’s final set, especially if they were on their third night. But fans along for the full ride more likely felt lucky to reach the unexpected nirvana of a practical “Tweezer” fest. Phish sparked that warhorse after a bashing dash of “Axilla” for an initial 21-minute spin that showcased Kuroda’s dazzling palette of lights, which peaked with what looked like crackling zig-zagged flashes of lightning to complement the band’s cycling surge of intensity.

“Tweezer” first gave way to a more focused “Mercury” (though Fishman’s brief rolls on MIDI vibes didn’t seem to make it worth carrying that extra apparatus for just that sporadic song), then the billowing new landing pad “Pillow Jets.” But “Tweezer” only gained momentum after each diversion. Its third round – galvanized around buzzy space in the middle– could have ended the set, but “Golgi Apparatus” popped up as a taut old-school punctuation, culminating in the boisterous singalong “I saw you, with a ticket stub in your hand!” An encore of the contemplative “Bug” and a perfunctory if powerful shot of “Tweezer Reprise” didn’t matter by that point. Hard ticket stubs are practically extinct in this digital age, but true Phish fans were sure glad to be in the door for this event.

This was the second year that two of the three nights at a local summer launch delivered shows to rival most tour-culminating standouts, demonstrating that Phish remains as vital now as in decades past. The Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame just ignored that the band got the most public votes for induction, reflecting the attitude of a dismissive larger public. But for those seeking adventure away from cookie-cutter arena rock, Phish still fit the bill.

Paul Robicheau served more than 20 years as contributing editor for music at the Improper Bostonian in addition to writing and photography for The Boston Globe, Rolling Stone, and many other publications. He was also the founding arts editor of Boston Metro.