Phish, Alpine Valley Music Theatre, East Troy, Wisconsin

It was a cloudy and cool evening on the lawn at Alpine Valley, where I returned for my second show of the summer. We secured a spot a bit further back than the Dave Matthews show a few weeks ago, behind a set of rear speakers but with a decent view of the stage. If the show wasn’t sold out, it must have been close, as the lawn was full by show time. It would be my eleventh time seeing Phish, more than any other artist.

At the time, I wasn’t all that impressed with the setlist. It just seemed like an unusually slow and mellow show. It didn’t seem like there were too many of my favorite songs in the mix either. However, looking back at it now, they certainly did play a bunch of great songs, including “Maze,” “Possum,” and “Meatstick.” They also played “Julius,” a personal favorite song of mine, and I always enjoy a show that ends with “Character Zero.” Their opening choice of “No Men in No Man's Land” wasn’t a popular choice with me, being a new song that few people have probably heard. I also would have liked them to finish “Down with Disease,” and there seemed to be a few other frustrating teases including “Prince Caspian.” Perhaps that was just wishful thinking on my part.

It was certainly a fun crowd though, and everyone was very into the show. Also, the number of genres that they threw into their songs and jams was impressive – a bluegrass “Poor Heart;” blurred funk, psychedelic, and blues on "Maze;" folk harmonies on "Mercury;" pop rock mixed with spoken word on “Reba;” rockabilly on "Possum;” and psychedelic/experimental on “Light.” The whole things was of course punctuated by instrumental, jazzy jams.

As per usual at a Phish show, glow sticks exploded from the crowd like shrapnel from a cannon, often during the songs' climactic moments but also at random. Most of them eventually made their way down the hill into the seated sections. Someone behind us also started throwing marshmallows, which I had never seen before. I’m not sure the impetus. Perhaps if “Fluffhead” found its way into the setlist, but that didn’t happen.

By the end of their two-hour-and-forty-five minute concert (not including the 35-minute intermission), the band had played 19 songs, including seven that I had never seen live before, the highlights of which include “Halley’s Comet” and “Reba.” A fan-run website, phish.net, lists every concert and setlist that the band has played. Recently, I delved into features on the site that allows nerds like me to input which shows they have attended and track various stats related to song appearances and other metrics. From the site, I gleaned that I have now seen a 226 total songs performed by Phish including 130 unique songs. This is only 15% of all the songs that they have ever played. I have seen 72 songs once, and 58 more than once. Commonly played songs that still elude me include “Hold Your Head Up,” “Bouncing Around the Room,” “The Squirming Coil,” "I Am Hydrogen," "Split Open and Melt," "Llama," "Fee," and "Fluffhead."

Set 1:
No Men in No Man's Land
Stealing Time from the Faulty Plan
Poor Heart
Julius
Frankie Says
Maze (with Mission: Impossible Theme tease by Page)
Mercury
Reba
Possum
Set 2:
Down With Disease (unfinished)
Halley's Comet [Richard Wright cover]
Twist
Light
What's the Use?
Fuego
Backwards Down the Number Line
Slave to the Traffic Light
Encore:
Meatstick
Character Zero