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.
New songs are a given on this tour so it comes as a bit of a surprise that it took so long to get to “Alaska” in the first set. They stretch this out with a reasonably mellow Trey solo ending on a vocal reprise of the line “I’ll stay right here.” This may have been a hint for the audience because we soon hear a little high hat signaling for “David Bowie”. Unfortunately, reports from the show of botched composed sections were not wildly exaggerated. Trey seems to simply give up after a number of missteps (and a few properly played passes, as well) and the band takes it to the jam. Here, the band regains its groove with Trey even stepping up with some melodic leads but they don’t mess around for long before confronting the reprise. This goes better than the pre-jam segments but, not surprisingly, the band hurries off for a break.
Set two begins with the space and bass intro of “Down With Disease”. There is almost something apologetic about Trey singing the lyrics, “…I’m always losing time” and perhaps amends were on his mind when he took on this solo. He certainly takes it out back and shows it who’s boss. Page invokes his synthesizer, suggesting a spacier direction, but Trey does not relent for several minutes more. When he does let up they pass into a mode that is not space nor ambient jam (Fishman and Trey are far too active for either) but is well outside the confines of “Down With Disease”. This melts into “Free”. After Trey nails the southern-rock-esque riff the first time through and this song rocks with high energy throughout (aside from the main verse which is supposed to be relaxed and quiet; a calm before the storm.)
“Guyute” is not perfect but it hits most of the peaks well and is enjoyable. “Piper” comes roaring out of the gates next. It gets up, tears around for a bit but, again, in keeping with the Phish 3.0 guidelines, settles down after eleven minutes and into Los Lobos’ “When The Circus Comes To Town”. This gets a particularly impassioned performance from Trey. So, with what can they follow the bittersweet ballad? “Harry Hood”, of course. This one gets high marks for accuracy and sheer delight. The “Mr. Minor” segment is pretty good and the jam terrific (although not atypical.) While “Hood” is a common and appropriate set-closer, it came awfully early for that role and so, when they began to play “The Squirming Coil”, I’ve little doubt that some took a breath and prepared to savor the end of the set. Played beautifully, “Coil” came with the usual solo piano coda from Page. This one was as delightful as ever. I can only imagine the surprise in the venue when Trey played the opening riff to “You Enjoy Myself”.
I won’t bore you with a blow by blow writeup of of this “YEM”. Suffice to say, little is 100% perfect in Phish 3.0 but there is some passion there and at times they come together. Trey certainly drilled The Note(s) home in this performance, Page delivered for the tramps segment, Trey and Mike’s solos both were good and Fishman held it all neatly together. Top it all off with a perfectly bizarre vocal jam and you have the essence of Phish. And the end of the second set.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rsGsM9_MaQ[/youtube]
The band circled up at the front of the stage to start their encore acapella with “Grind”. (See the video above.) This endearing yet silly number was followed by an aborted attempt of “Hello My Baby”. Trey had jokingly said, “If this doesn’t work, Fish is gonna sing ‘Bike’.” Sure enough, when they ditched “Hello My Baby” Trey went to the drums and, after a quick “Hold Your Head Up” introduction, Fishman welcomed the audience to the “train wreck portion of the show” and sang Pink Floyd’s “Bike”. One vacuum solo and a “Hold Your Head Up” coda later (with much hamming it up from Fishman,) the band played what has become a standard closer/encore for this tour, “Loving Cup”. This one is no slouch and wraps up the show in style.
In summary, This show is typical Phish 3.0. High highs, low lows. We’ll try and forget the lows and, as for the highs, I don’t think they hold up to some other moments so far on this tour (see 6/5, 6/7, 6/12…) For now, we’ll have to accept that Phish is not the precision machine that many of of saw in the 90s (though, careful listening sometimes reveals that they weren’t as precise as we credit them.) They are out there, trying hard, sometimes falling down but constantly getting back up going back for more and, if the encore is any indication, trying to have fun with it along the way.