Photos and review by: Jason Robey

CHARLOTTE, NC — In the space between Phish’s recent Mexico run and their series of shows at the Las Vegas Sphere next month, bassist Mike Gordon took the opportunity to hit the road with his side project for a short tour up and down the east coast. The current lineup features guitarists Xavier Lynn and Bob Wagner, drummer John Kimock, and keyboardist Eli Winderman for some dates and Robert Walter for the others. The group made a highly-anticipated stop in Charlotte on Thursday, their first time in the city since 2017 and the state since 2019.

While there are some similarities to a Phish show, Gordon and his group bring a completely different flavor of a jam band concert with them. The first set had a somewhat upbeat, bluesy vibe to it, opening with “Connected,” from Gordon’s most recent album, 2023’s Flying Games. From there, the band rarely stopped playing, usually transitioning seamlessly from one song to the next. They moved into an exquisite version of the lone Phish song of the night, the rarely played “Meat,” to the delight of a packed room of dancing fans. The group kept the crowd moving with their  cover of J.J. Cale’s “Call Me the Breeze” into an early Gordon track, “Soul Food Man,” from his 2003 solo debut. Each guitarist got the chance to showcase their own material with Xavier Lynn’s original “Convince Me” followed by Bob Wagner’s “Universe Is Calling,” finally bookending the set with another Flying Games tune, “Guilty Pleasures.” The first half of the night proved to to be highly danceable and full of incredible musicianship.

The second set opener, a recently-debuted cover of the Kinks’ “You Really Got Me,” set the stage for a more groove-heavy direction. The bass-heavy slower take on the song left plenty of room for ethereal jams and interplay between the band members that took the audience on a musical journey through space and time. “Mull,” a Mike Gordon song that has made a number of appearances in Phish setlists, made for the perfect jam vehicle into a cover of Little’s Feat’s “Spanish Moon,” before returning to his own catalog for a flawless run through of the quirky “Tilting.” The Xavier Lynn original “Louisiana Lady” into Gordon’s “Steps” packed a heavy punch to close the set on, as the crowd chanted for more. The encore of the Aerosmith classic “Sweet Emotion” ended with a relatively short, but raging jam section, bringing an evening of out of this world performances to an end. Mike Gordon and his band are touring through the end of the month, leaving a few chances left to catch this rare tour.