East Troy

Phish @ Alpine Valley, August 15

Coming off a scorcher on Saturday night it was tough to predict exactly what Phish had in store for the second night of a two-show run at Alpine Valley in East Troy, WI. While Saturday’s two-set affair was more of an “anything goes” type of show, Sunday’s gig was more a classic, quintessential Phish show that relied heavily on the band’s best material.

There’s two ways to look at a Tweezer opener – a. it’s a waste since there’s usually little improv in an opener or b. what a statement to start off the show. I’ll go with B. on this occasion as the boys actually did jam it out a bit. Sure, they didn’t explore very much but the Tweezer opener was the first notice that Phish was on top of their game on this night, especially guitarist Trey Anastasio who hit a flurry of peaks with his frenetic riffing. AC/DC Bag kept the collective energy up and gave Red another chance to shine.

With only three plays over the past 11 years On Your Way Down was quite a treat during the first set. This Allen Toussaint tune may have been made popular by Little Feat, but Phish certainly does the tune justice with keyboardist Page McConnell’s powerful vocals and a shredfest by Anastasio at the end. The rest of set one was song based and the quartet nailed nearly everything they touched on this night. David Bowie closed the set with a bang as the Junta tune featured tension and release fireworks leading up to an extended peak.

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