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Well folks, its been the better part of a month since I went to see Phish down at Alpine Valley.   I’ve been under the impression that if I don’t turn my notes into a comprehensive document relatively soon, I am going to forget bits and pieces of the show.

I’ve been listening to Phish for six years.   Out of those six years, I have been studying Phish extensively for about 4 of those years.  In the last two years, I took a drift away from studying Phish musically, and started studying Phish culturally.   All in all, I’ve considered myself a hardcore, diehard Phan for a quarter of my life, and it always was embarrassing to talk Phish with another Phan when I never saw them live.   Nonetheless, I knew what I was in for, and prior to going, that I was ready for the weekend of my life.

Stacy and I arrived in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin the night before the first show.  Went out to a local brewery, ate pizza, and let the tornados, hail, and rain leave before we set up camp that night.   We knew the nasty weather wasn’t going hang around long, as the green blobs on the radar were on their way out into Lake Michigan.   We set up camp later that evening, went to bed, woke up to it being 80 degrees at 8:00AM.   Could ask for a better day to go see a show at one of the most gorgeous outdoor amphitheaters in the country.

We made breakfast(bacon, eggs, toast) and sat in the sun for a while, deciding what we should do before we went tailgating.   We had the whole day ahead of us, as the parking lot did not open until 3:00.   We went into town, checked out some local shops, stopped at a Caribou Coffee, and watched Phan come pouring into the small town of Lake Geneva.   The town was packed, and I’m sure business owners were happy to see Phans flooding their town.  Later on that day, we went down to the Bigfoot Beach, laid in the sun and relaxed.

2:30 arrived, and we figured it was time to head to the parking lot.   We had kabobs for tailgating, I had plenty of beer and bottled water to keep us going for the four hours before show time.  It took about 20 minutes to get into the parking lot, which I didn’t think was that bad.  Alpine Valley had a good traffic flow, given that there is only one road to get in and out of the place.  We got out of the car, and we were embraced with hugs, not handshakes by our neighbors.   After long discussions with a few of our neighbors, I was already feeling the warmth of the most friendly group of people in the United States.   The first person I interacted with was at his 20th show.  He said he always wanted to get to 20, and he has had to wait 5 years to get there.   We played the game, “So what do you think they are going to open with?” and he said “Llama” and I said “Punch.”

We walked around the parking lot to take in the culture as cars were flooding the gates.   I’ve never saw such a friendly crowd in all my life.   Every corner someone would say “Hi” or “How’s it going?”  When people asked me what number show I was at, I said my first.   Often I was embraced with a hug and a “Welcome.”   Many phans seems to be impressed with my knowledge and Phishtory.   I didn’t feel out of place at all, like I thought I would.

The demographics caught me by surprise.   I was expecting people in their 30s to be the age group that dominated the parking lot.   I found that there were a lot of Phans from the 90s (some people brought their wives, daughters and sons), but I also found that there were a lot of people in their early to mid-twenties there as well.   I was also expecting a lot more people from the Midwest, where it seems that most people have travelled quite some distance to get to Alpine Valley according to their license plates and small talk.

Stacy and I meandered our way over to the T-Shirt booth, picked out some shirts and headed back to our car to cook our kabobs.   There was plenty of commerce in the parking lot, people trying to sell shirts, bags, skirts, hoola hoops, food, beer, narcotics, posters, cd’s, water, flags, glowsticks, blankets, hoodies, tickets etc…you name it, someone was trying to sell it.  Heck, we had people want to buy our kabobs off of us.   If I were to do this all over again, I would have brought more food and made a few bucks.   I’m a damn good cook (I like to think so, anyway), I’d buy food off of me.

Stace and I finished eating and decided to head in about an hour before showtime to get a good seat.   We sat in almost exactly the same place as last year for the Dave Matthews Band, Center Left Pavilion.   The band, as expected, did not start right at 7, in fact, it was about 7:50 before they took the stage.   The crowed roared louder than at any point during Dave Matthews here last year.   You could immediately tell that people were here to see what they have missed the last five years.   Phish waited a good two to three minutes to soak in the recognition from the crowd before anyone hit a note.

Trey started scratching his guitar…was it it!?   Yes, it was, it was “Punch You in the Eye” and I called it.   I went nuts, started groovin’ almost immediately, waiting for my first “Hey!”   Talk about serious energy, starting with a “Punch.”  The sun was just going behind the billboard, helping with the lighting.  The band played “Punch” very solid, without a lot of improv, but it was an excellent jam to start.  The band kept the energy going, wasting no time going right into Runaway Jim, which was a well polished jam as well.   The band took a second, and start with Stash, in which they almost lost a few times.  Trey was not hitting his guitar licks in sync with the rest of the band.  ”Stash” was probably the largest disappointment in the first set of the first night, as the improv was going somewhere and I just felt that they ended the jam too soon.  Phish could have made up for the mishaps in the beginning of the song if they kept “rolling with the punches.”

Highlights of the rest of the night were “Run Like an Antelope” and “Maze” which were both off the hook.  Maze was a beast, and I developed a newfound love for this jam since hearing it at Alpine Valley.  There were some definite highs and lows in the show(Stash, and a pretty boring Ghost).  I give Night 1 a 7 out of 10

Once again, I cannot say in words how much energy there was throughout the course of my first night with Phish, it is something I have never experienced with any other fanbase in the country.

The sets one and two were as follows:

I: Punch You in the Eye, Runaway Jim, Stash, Yamar, Bathtub Gin, Kill Devil Falls, Train Song, Farmhouse, Sparkle, Run Like An Antelope

II: Waves > Sample In A Jar, Maze, Makisupa Policeman, Ghost > The Lizards, You Enjoy Myself > NICU, Prince Caspian > Waste, Fire

E: Character Zero

Night 2 we ended up meeting up with some folks from Colorado. They have been following Phish around all month, and they were very interesting people to talk to. Stacy and I played ladder golf with them.   I discussed the return of Phish with them in great detail. They say they have never been happier to be part of such a musical revolution.  I really enjoyed hearing their stories and their perspectives on Phish, and I was really glad to meet this highly intellectual group of people.  These guys new the band like the back of their hand, frontwards, backwards, inside and out, they could tell you anything.  Later, we met up with a Monk, who was taking an oath of poverty to follow Phish and share the wealth of knowledge of ancient Indian scripture. I didn’t agree with his thoughts fully, but he was an interesting person to talk to nonetheless.  We both walked away from each other with a great deal of respect for one another.

Stacy and I grilled hamburgers, played some frisbee and checked out the other end of the parking lots that we didn’t check out the day before. We decided to head in quite a bit earlier the second day in hope of finding a really good spot. We did, front and center on the lawn.

Once we were in and the Phish took the stage, I knew that night 2 would  end up being everything I expected  it to be.  Their last night to their first tour in 5 years.   They HAD to go out with a bang, right?

They started off the night with a little “Fathers Day Treat” which I found pretty meaningful. They brought their kids out on stage to sit in a bathtub during “Brother.” Why a bathtub? The lyrics to the song are as follows: “Somebody’s jumping in the tub with your brother”

Heres the video:

Phish played two solid sets from beginning to end.  Here is the setlist:

Set I: Brother, Wolfman’s Brother, Funky Bitch, The Divided Sky, Joy, Back on the Train, Taste, Poor Heart, The Horse > Silent in the Morning, The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday > Avenue Malkenu > The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday, Time Turns Elastic

Set II: Crosseyed & Painless -> Down with Disease, Bug, Piper, Wading in a Velvet Sea, Boogie On Reggae Woman, Slave to the Traffic Light

Encore: Grind, Frankenstein

I don’t know if I can highlight any particular jam from either set.  Everything was polished, Phish rarely any mistakes, and it was just a downright fun couple of sets.   Groovin’, from beginning to end.  Divided Sky was revolutionary to me, so much different than hearing it on album.  Trey’s crisp guitar notes and Page’s intense punches on the grand piano are exponentially more powerful when you hear the jam live.   Phish’s Piper was a monster as well, providing exploratory development from another dimension I have never heard Piper go before.   Phish literally silenced the crowd in awe a few times throughout the show with some deep and dark grooves.

Overall, Night 2 was everything everyone expected it to be.  There were some rarities, surprises, and some solid jams.   I was expecting either a Tweeprise or a Frankenstein for an encore, well, I got a Frankenstein for an encore, and it was downright unbelieveable…not just any Frankenstein, one with a 5-neck guitar, keytar, and a flamin’ bass guitar.  Here’s the video for the Frankenstein:

Couldn’t ask for a better second night.   I give this show a 9 out of 10.

I cannot go with closing this post without giving you my wish list for Toyota Park.  Yes, I am going to see Phish again in about 3 weeks down in Chicago.  Coldplay next week, Phish two weeks after!  Here is my wish list:

Set 1

• Axilla I
• Harry Hood
• Chalkdust Torture
• Reba
• Limb By Limb
• Cavern
• Possum
• Squirming Coil
• Loving Cup
• Guyute
• Theme From the Bottom

Set 2

• Axilla II
• Free
• Split Open and Melt
• Heavy Things
• Mikes Song
• I am Hydrogen
• Weekapug Groove
• ACDC Bag
• Suzy Greenburg

Encore:

• Twist
• Tweezer Reprise

I will write again when I come back from Alpine Valley next week to see Coldplay.

Have a good one.