A week ago on Tuesday Evening (August 11), Phish made their Midwest Pitstop to play at the new soccer stadium in Chicago, Toyota Park. Certainly, at this point, I was ready for my phix. Phish is my version of crack, and it was over a month since I last saw them at Alpine Valley. I was sick of listening to set lists without being there, seeing Phish make remarkable progress in their improvisation and musical style. Fortunately, I was in luck, and I found tickets for real cheap, found a few buddies to bring along to split expenses, and we were off!
Aah yes, the parking lot. Once again, full of Phriendly people, grilling out, selling merchandise, meeting up with people they haven’t saw since The Gorge or Red Rocks. Soon we reached the parking lot, I knew that there was no other place on the planet that I would rather be than where I was. Rolling into the parking lot, the band was doing a sound check, and what were they playing? Harry Potter, no lie. They also played “Windy City” which none of us in the parking lot knew what they were sound checking (later we found out). After a few hours of grilling up a tenderloin and some potatoes, we made our way in to get a good spot of the field. I was rather impressed with the venue walking in, small, but very nice. I was a bit worried about the acoustics with all the metal around the stadium, but it didn’t seem to be a problem once the band took the stage.
Overall, the concert had little to no flow between songs. The show was much more of a “Greatest Hits” show than it was Phish in their rare and unique form. Phish provided gracious amounts of energy, as they always do, but they lacked to play any their complex compositions, and lacked to develop any jams into segued tracks. The band was on, with Harry Hood being the only noticeable jam that was forgettable. Am I going to complain about the whole show? Absolutely not, a “Greatest Hits” was just what I needed for my third Phish show. Toyota Park served as an eliminator to many songs that were on my wish list…in fact, lets go through that right now before I highlight my favorite parts of the show….
- Llama
- Harry Hood
- Chalkdust Torture
- Reba
- Limb By Limb
- Cavern
- Possum
- Squirming Coil
- Loving Cup
- Guyute
- Theme From the Bottom
- Free
- Split Open and Melt
- Heavy Things
- Mikes Song
- David Bowie
- Weekapug Groove
- ACDC Bag
- Suzy Greenburg
The setlist for Set 1 was as follows:
- Kill Devil Falls
- Sample In A Jar
- Ocelot
- Paul and Silas
- Windy City
- The Curtain With
- Train Song
- Gumbo
- Heavy Things
- Time Turns Elastic
The highlights of set one started with Windy City, a debut song written by Page. Jazzy, as expected, this jam has a lot of potential to evolve into a jam vehicle in the future. I expect to hear this jam carry a lot of weight as we move into what will likely be a staple in the 3.0 setlists of the future. After the debut of Windy City, Phish nailed “The Curtain With,” a song that was not on my original wish list, but damn, I’m so glad I got to hear it in such great form. “The Curtain With” offered the only real complex jam of the evening (Aside from TTE to close the set. No Reba, Stash, YEM, Guyute..etc.) and “The Curtain With” was an absolute beast. This song has a lot of meaning to me (as to most Phans), being the last jam that Phish played before leaving the stage what was supposed to be for good in 2004. To hear “The Curtain With” in the polished form that it was written in, as opposed to the hacked version that remains unforgettable from Coventry in ’04 was a real treat. Hearing “The Curtain With” live in person erased most of the negative connotation I associated with this piece of music. “Time Turns Elastic” closed the set, and while most people were disappointed, I was glad to see this jam take a completely different fold than when I heard it at Alpine Valley. Granted, “Time Turns Elastic” is very slow to start, but this jam has all the pieces in place to be a good opener/closer for many years to come. Time Turns Elastic is turning into a real beast, and has evolved nicely since June. I look forward to seeing where this jam goes this fall/next summer. What I’d ultimately like to see is “Time Turns Elastic” become an opener. I feel that it would offer a nice springboard into a high energy set. Things could only look up.
Set 2 lineup was as follows:
- Backwards Down the Number Line >
- Carini >
- Gotta Jibboo
- Theme From The Bottom
- Wilson
- 2001 >
- Chalk Dust Torture
- Harry Hood
- The Squirming Coil
Set 2 gave me my “Greatest Hits” section. My all time favorite jam, “Chalkdust Torture” was played, with a mediocre “Harry Hood,” a “Theme From the Bottom,” and a “Squirming Coil” to bring it all home. I was in my glory. Page closed the set with what I would argue is the best piano solo of Phish 3.0 thus far. None of these jams flowed good together, but it didn’t matter, I was 50 feet from the band with the lights shining on me, and the jams as individual entities were good for the most part, they just weren’t good as a whole. Mr. Miner said it best by saying, “While a Phish show is usually greater than the sum of its parts- this one wasn’t.”
Two nights at Alpine Valley, one night in Chicago at Toyota Park. I’ve visited my Midwest roots for Phish’s return, and I couldn’t be happier with the two venues I visited in 2009. What makes me even happier was seeing how the band has evolved so much in such a little amount of time. Phish could potentially return to the glory days of the late 1990s, and perhaps go beyond, to bring us to places musically we have never gone before. My next Phish experiences will hopefully lead me to other parts of the country, where I get to meet new Phriends, Phans, and Phamily. I look forward to seeing what the Phuture will bring!
August 18th, 2009 | 
Author: 
Posted in Uncategorized