The last Phish show of the summer started as a downpour enveloped the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, NY. DaveO is reporting live for @YEMblog and we’ll keep the setlist updated over here as well.
Set 1: Llama, The Moma Dance, Guyute, Anything But Me, Cars Trucks Buses, Chalk Dust Torture, Golgi Apparatus, David Bowie, Cavern, Possum, Ocelot, Run Like An Antelope
Set 2: Backwards Down The Number Line > 20 Years Later, Halley’s Comet > Rock and Roll, Harpua > I Kissed A Girl > HYHU > Harpua, You Enjoy Myself
Encore: Grind, I’ve Been Around, Highway to Hell
11 Responses
Hot Show tonight – awesome 1st set
First time I got to go to a Phish show, so I can’t compare it to other shows. However; I’ve seen several SPAC shows and the vibe and energy of this concert was far beyond any other band I’ve seen here. The energy level of the crowd was insane. I don’t think I’ve ever danced that much at a concert. Not even the torrential downpour could keep this crowd quiet. It was a good hard rain right before the concert, going heavily for 15 minutes. A flood advisory was issued. But concertgoers ringed out their shirts when it let up and proceeded to enjoy the evening, even if soaking wet.
The police kept somewhat regular patrols of the parking areas up on atv and car, but there was still plenty that they weren’t seeing and being offered up. However it was a much more calm tailgate crowd than even Dave Matthews which was overrun by a drunk young and largely underage crowd.
The music was awesome. Though I’ve never been to a show before, I have listened to some tapings and I must say its just not the same. The acoustics on the lawn are pretty decent up to where the hill levels out. Outside of that you can hear the music pretty good, but it looses its crispness; vocals get muffled and so on. The crowd just seemed to feed of the energy of the people around them and multiply it. It was one of the most enjoyable times of my life.
Though there is so much good that can be said about a show like this, each time I go to a big concert at SPAC I become more and more afraid that the level of disregard to the grounds will either increase prices or prevent larger shows from coming to the venue. The park needs to be more proactive in dealing with the crowds that will be visiting the park that day. Not only do people go to SPAC for the concert – but many show up at noon or earlier to enjoy the park beforehand, and appropriate levels of bathrooms and garbage cans need to be supplied. The concert grounds were muddy from the downpour – enough to suck you shoe off in places. There were not enough bathroom facilities for the crowd. The men were literally using mop buckets in the bathroom and lining up along the fences in order to avoid a 10-15 minute wait at times. I saw a poor girl wet herself waiting to use the porta-potties. There were not enough trash cans throughout the park, and the amount of trash left behind is evidence of that.
Overall a great show – but common SPAC – get your act together. I will be buying a physical copy of this album because of the show – something I rarely seem to do anymore.
Phantastic!
what a great way to end the summer comeback tour?
i loved it.
highway to hell was epic!
http://phishandthedead.blogspot.com/2009/08/phishs-last-summer-show.html
All killer no filler, confirmed.
oh my god best concert cant belive phish did harpua omg it was great
hot damn, what a show!
15 years as a phan, but my phirst show…Harpua? Are you kidding me? what luck, well worth the wait.
No one else commented on the sound on the lawn being piss poor awful to start the show? The volume was so low people were chanting “Turn it up!” and it didn’t get better until the end of Guyute, the first three songs were barely audible from the lawn. I was very disappointed.
I’m from Saratoga, and have been to SPAC millions of times, and have seen Phish 35 times, but this show was one of the most special, fun , shows I’ve ever been to in my 27 years on this earth….And I did not physically even go into the venue!! The connections I made with the people I came with, and the new friends I met along the way, are connections that will stay with me a lifetime…..fucking epic.