Last night Phish finished off the first leg of their Summer tour in in Alpine Valley (East Troy, WI) so we thought we’d leave you with a few thoughts.

Phish traveled a long way on this tour. It started a little rough and hit a few bumps along the way but they wrapped it up in style with a wild, soaking wet show at Deer Creek and the two nights at Alpine Valley. In listening to those three shows, I’m hearing redemption for some of the earlier ‘bumps’ and promise for the future. Come July 31 at Red Rocks, I expect they’ll have even more songs rehearsed and the second leg will be a smoker.

Let’s hope.

Now, how about some pictures from last Thursday’s show at Star Lake (or whatever it’s called now.) Huge thanks go out to our friend, John Neely for these photos.

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Disclaimer: This has been written solely by listening to the audio of the show. I did not attend…

First things first, here’s the setlist:

2009-06-18 Star Lake Amphitheater - Burgettstown, PA
1: Golgi Apparatus, Chalk Dust Torture, Bouncing Around The Room, Wolfman's Brother,
The Divided Sky, Heavy Things, Walk Away*, Wilson, Tube, Alaska, David Bowie
2: Down With Disease > Free, Guyute, Piper > When The Circus Comes To Town,
Harry Hood > The Squirming Coil, You Enjoy Myself
E: Grind**, Hello My Baby**^, Hold Your Head Up > Bike^^ > Hold Your Head Up,
Loving Cup

* Last Time Played 2000-10-05
** acapella
^ aborted
^^ Last Time Played 2000-09-12

Phish returned to Starlake Ampitheater last night (it has a new name now but I can’t be expected to track all of these damned corporate sponsorship pavilions) and they kicked the show off with a double-opener of “Golgi Apparatus” and “Chalkdust Torture”. “Golgi” was quick and well played whereas “Chalkdust”, also well played, featured a nice, long, on-point, solo from Trey. “Bouncing Around The Room” seems always to disappoint some, both in person and on paper, but this is straightforward and delightful Phish. This version comes off well and is quickly followed by “Wolfman’s Brother”. In keeping with the current Phish 3.0 mode of shorter jams, this version clocks in at just over ten minutes and contains slow-starting jam that, once it gathers steam, is simply rockin’. Mike and Fishman hold it down from the beginning while Trey and Page bring it up slowly with a combination of clavinet and loose, chicken scratch guitar work. After Page moves to piano, Trey’s lead heats up and the whole thing soon climaxes. Next up to bat: “Divided Sky”. Ah… Listening to this on the train as the sun rises across the river is not a bad way to start the day. This version is not the most precise. It starts very strong but, on the final jam, Trey misses an early cue and seems not to get fully back on track. Even when he’s hitting his mark he seems tentative as if he’s concerned that being too out front when making an error will bring the show down too much. He redeems with the last note, holding it well and staying out front to finish the song.

Next we hear Trey capturing his loop for “Heavy Things” and the bouncy tune returns us to the song zone from our place of instrumental bliss.  This one takes a little to get going and, as such, doesn’t get to that ideal space of the Hampton performance in March of this year. Don’t get down on this set yet, though.  For the first time since just before the first hiatus, the classic James Gang song, “Walk Away”, reared its head.  With a great vocal delivery from Page and a bit of rust on the arrangement this doesn’t really go anywhere but is still fun to hear. Similarly, “Wilson” was not a ‘version for the ages’.  During the show, I received a text message suggesting that label be applied to this next song, “Tube”.  While that may have been a bit of caught-up-in-the-moment hyperbole, this “Tube” delivers a great funky jam and an on-the-money rock jam transition resulting in a great version. Continue reading →