6-20-09 - Alpine Valley Music Theater, East Troy, WI

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rom mgagss date Thu, Jun 25, 2009 at 2:37 PM subject Alpine Valley 6/20/09 Opened the show with 5 absolute raging jam songs that completely blew me away. How do you top PYITE, Jim, Stash, Yamar, Gin? You can't........Pyite was error-free for the most part; Jim was solid with the jam kept close to the vest; Stash was spot-on; Yamar is always fun; Gin had it's usual bad-ass jam clocking in at 13min. Kill Devil Falls was pretty good but not as jammy as other versions this tour, Oh well. I can do without Train Song, Farmhouse & Sparkle. However it was only a chance to rest for the killer Antelope to close the 1st set.......wasn't extremely long but rocking! Set 2 was the highlight of the tour for me.........Waves is one of the 03-04 songs I was hoping to hear (never did get Walls of the Cave). Average in length but solid. Sample is overplayed but the crowd loved it. Maze had a glowstick war on Fishman's side that lasted the entire song. Page's organ solo raged as did Trey's and was perhaps the peak of the night. Makisuppa had the Trey jokes about his past troubles which led ino a failrly tame Ghost. I've seen better but it was still good. This segued beautifully into Lizards which always gives me goose bumps during Page's piano solo. YEM was next and it seems everyone is pissed that it ended prematurely into NICU. I never cared for the vocal jam so I had no problem with it. My problem was how a 5star show totally wimped out at the end. Caspian, Waste, Fire, Zero is as lame an ending as I have ever seen. PALEASE. All in all I'd give the show a 9 out of 10.
from lukestutzman@ date Wed, Jun 24, 2009 at 8:55 AM subject Phish show review 6.20.09 Alpine Valley-Section 201 Row V First show since 2nd hiatus, great seats, great crowd. Punch you in the Eye 9:12 – Awesome opener, got the crowd up. Runaway Jim 9:32 – Trey is on fire, Mike is loud and crazy good. Stash 12:08 – Love this song, sounded great, Trey is still on fire, great jam, Page is better than ever. Ya Mar 7:14 – Crowd still on their feet, Trey smiling ear to ear, Mike & Page are now on Fire, Play it Leo for Mikes Uncle! Bathtub Gin 13:05 – Another crowd pleaser, great jam, Fishman is unwavering! Kill Devil Falls 8:20 – New tune, upbeat good jam, Trey still crazy, are they gonna slow down, give us a little rest? Train Song 2:47 - Nice Farmhouse 4:56 – This is the first time I liked this song live, very good. Sparkle 3:47 – gotta love Sparkle Antelope 10:25 – Great set closer, Trey still on fire. Waves 8:23 – great round room song, played flawlessly Sample 5:20 – short and sweet Maze 11:37 – mind blowing ass kicker, best song of the night(possibly the tour), blew the roof off of Alpine. Makisupa Policeman 5:13 – great placement, Trey mentioned calling his probation officer (funny) and the police came to his house Ghost 11:58 – Love ghost, great jam, nice Lizards 10:31 – Gamehenge, my favorite good version solid. YEM 12:28 – short version into NICU very nice NICU 4:56 – awesome, very well played Caspian 6:49 – played great for live version, kicked ass, did i mention that Fishman is unwavering? Waste 5:32 – nice cool down song played and sung well Fire – 1st time played this tour, nailed it, Trey killing everyone. Character Zero 7:37 – love the song played very well, not the best ender but the Band was on, is on and are BAAACCKKK! Thanks Boys, see ya in Chicago!!!! Liam N
from James Houck date Wed, Jun 24, 2009 at 7:59 PM subject Alpine 6/20 review Review of 6/20/09 Phish This show was/is a keeper from start to finish. My wife and I made the trek from Maryland to Milwaukee and loved every second. We will never see shows again from the lawn (I'm lying obviously), but the tunes were that good from our seats (5th row-woo hoo!). Without boring everyone with song by song notes, I will say that the foursome brought it on night one and cleaned up night two. The first five tunes on Saturday (Punch, Runaway, Stash, Ya Mar, and Bathtub) were what we, long time fans/long time not seeing em, craved. The Bathtub was the best (!) with their swirling epic climaxes and releases. End of set was mostly bathroom break material and my wife and I joked about the abundance of Antelopes we used to hear on tour (we're the better half of 200+ shows for those that need justification). Funny enough then, it was pleasantly surprisingly, in fact, to hear Phish finish set one with this great tune. Zero flubs, run of the mill, but tremendous fun! The second set was one for the [09] books; definitely a great set of tunes. Waves>Sample was a party (listen to Trey's crescendo near the end of Sample!), and Maze was Maze, a la early 90s. Fun stuff! The rest of the set played out like an old friend telling a damn fine story; lots of choice tunes. Ghost>Lizards and YEM>NICU, are you kidding me?! Even the Caspian was monumental fun. Waste was amazing. Mind you, we were right there just about as close to stage as you can be, which helps a lot. And Fire was as freakin fun as it gets. Look folks, there were almost zero flubs and the rock 'n' roll was ON (Fire!!). Phish is back folks and tons 'o' fun! Enjoy them . . .now!
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