So, if it wasn’t obvious, I’d been looking forward to these shows for a very, very long time. In 2004, I threw a party at my apartment during the weekend of what was to be Phish’s final concert. We watched the setlist come in on the internet and tried to replicate the setlist, playing the songs they were playing, as it happened. It was really fun, but also extremely bittersweet, since, at the time, I knew I’d never be seeing Phish again. I had seen 18 shows over 8 years at that point. A week or so later, while listening to a recording of the final show, I actually cried.
Anyway, when it was announced last October that Phish was reuniting for three shows in March, I was completely thrilled. And I was even more thrilled when they announced the summer tour and I saw Alpine Valley was to be the last two shows of the tour. I immediately put in an order for two tickets to each of the two shows for Meghan & I through Phish’s online lottery. I lucked out and got tickets to both shows. Then when tickets went on sale via LiveNation, I spent a good hour and a half on a Sunday attempting to buy tickets for Meghan’s sister and b33n3r. I eventually succeeded for both*. As it turns out, Ben ended up deciding to not go to the Sunday show, since it was Father’s Day. Luckily, we were able to sell his ticket to Meghan’s sister for her boyfriend.
The day of the Saturday show, Meghan & I got up around 8am and headed down to Melissa’s house to pick her up, and then over to her boyfriend Mark’s house to pick him up. It’s about a five and a half hour drive to Waukesha where we were staying. Our goal was to get there in plenty of time to meet up with the Ben & Kerry and Amy & Lundo before heading to the show. We got into Waukesha around 3:30. After trekking over to the liquor store and back to the hotel for a bite to eat, we headed out to the show. We made Lundo drive ahead of us because he has a GPS. Traffic was almost non-existent until we got about a mile away from the show, and we ended up in the lot around 6:30. After a couple beers, we headed into the show.
… and it was f-ing CROWDED. It may have been that we didn’t go in until a little after seven, but it was easiliy the biggest crowd I can ever remember walking into at Alpine. Meghan & I had decided before the show that we ideally wanted to sit on the left side of the soundboard, close to the building with the big bathrooms, since we had a couple issues at Dave Matthews last year with getting to the bathrooms and back. It ended up working out that we didn’t have a whole lot of choice, and sat pretty high up past the main paved path to the building. We got some beers and before we knew it, the show was starting.
06/20/09 Alpine Valley Music Theatre – East Troy, WI
- 1: Punch You in the Eye, Runaway Jim, Stash, Ya Mar, Bathtub Gin, Kill Devil Falls, Train Song, Farmhouse, Sparkle, Run Like An Antelope
- 2: Waves > Sample In A Jar, Maze, Makisupa Policeman > Ghost -> The Lizards, You Enjoy Myself* -> NICU > Prince Caspian -> Waste > Fire
- E: Character Zero
- Notes: * unfinished, at about 12 minutes.
In the days leading up the show, I had specifically tried to keep myself from expecting anything. I kept thinking about times I’d gone to see Phish and really wanting to hear a specific song and then being disappointed that they didn’t play it, or being ever-so-slightly annoyed that they had opened with Possum or at hearing Fluffhead yet again. I wanted to go into these shows ready for whatever they may play, and knowing that I was going to be happy just that they were playing, no matter what they were playing. Of course, I still couldn’t help trying to imagine what they might play. I remember thinking during the drive to Waukesha that Punch You In The Eye makes such a great opening song. I was ecstatic to hear them open with it.
Throughout the show, I had an amazing feeling of being-in-the-right-place. It’s kind of hard to explain, but it just felt very very right to be outside on the lawn, with my best friends in the world, listening to what is, for me, pretty close to the best music in the world. It was just… awesome. I had a blast going back and forth between dancing** with my wife, turning around and announcing songs at Melissa, making faces at Mark, and running up the hill a bit to chat with Kerry or rock out with Ben.
Of course, due to pre-show beers in the lot, I ended up listening to quite a bit of the first set (and the beginning of the second set) from the bathroom in the building next to the lawn. Which was fine. Highlights of the show for me were the PYITE opener, the Stash jam, Ya Mar, Makisupa Policeman, YEM > NICU…. although the best musical moment for me was the end of Lizards. The guitar melody was played perfectly, and it punctuated that feeling of being-in-right-place.
Of course, the real highlight was enjoying it all with my wife. More on that later.
After the show, we headed back to the hotel. We had an enteraining drive where we followed Lundo into the McDonald’s drive-thru, out through a stoplight to a left turn where he went through the light and we were stuck behind the red light, and then through an illegal U-Turn*** before getting back the right way.
The next day, we all met for breakfast in the hotel restaurant before saying goodbye to the Lundos and Ken****, who were not going to be attending the Sunday show. That afternoon, we went to a local Waukesha bar for a few beers and then to dinner at the town’s fanciest restaurant, which happened to be down the block.
The drive to the show was a bit more crowded on Sunday, which is kind of ironic, since the show was so oversold. Within minutes of parking, we saw at least three people walking by trying to sell extra tickets. We ended up in the lot a little after 6, so we had a little more time to relax and people-watch before heading into the venue. People-watching at Phish shows is always highly entertaining. We saw one girl dressed up like some sort of really high spacewoman. She had silver tights on with turqoise bikini bottoms over the tights, and ridiculous 80′s sunglasses. On the way into the show, somebody handed me a red clown nose and said we’d find out what is for during the second set#.
We got into the show around the same time as the previous night, and it was noticably roomier inside the venue. I had had a feeling prior to the show that the crowd wouldn’t be as large, since it was a Sunday night. It ended up being about the same, but I think more people came in later after getting supercheap tickets.
06/21/09 Alpine Valley Music Theatre – East Troy, WI
- 1: Brother, Wolfman’s Brother, Funky Bitch > The Divided Sky, Joy, Back On The Train, Taste, Poor Heart, The Horse > Silent in the Morning, The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday > Avenu Malkenu The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday, Time Turns Elastic
- 2: Crosseyed and Painless > Down With Disease > Bug > Piper -> Wading In The Velvet Sea, Boogie On Reggae Woman, Slave To The Traffic Light
- E: Grind, Frankenstein
When the show opened, I got so excited that they were playing ‘Brother’ that I completely missed the fact the there was a big ol’ bathtub at the front of the stage with children jumping into it. After the song, they announced the names of all of their children who had been jumping in the tub. It was a great way to open a tour-ending Father’s Day show.
As with previous Alpine Valley shows, we had brought a blanket with us to sit on and to block out a personal space for us. Before and during the show, we kept chiding people who would walk through our little area and step on the blanket. One of the many things I love about my wife is her ability to banter with strangers. It became somewhat of a fun game, especially with the people who were ridiculously high, because most often people, after hearing us yell at them, would stop, stare at us for a couple seconds waiting for their brain to catch up with their ears, and then profusely apologize. At some point while we were sitting down, a guy walked through with glowsticks sticking out his pocket. Meghan grabbed one as he walked by and he didn’t notice. A bit proud of her accomplishment, she decided to see how many she could get. The second guy she tried totally caught her and then promptly gave her all the glowsticks he had on him (5 or 6).
The previous night, Meghan & I had missed the glowstick wars because we were either in the bathroom or getting water/food. The second night, we got to fully take part. My favorite part of the entire show was when a big group of glowsticks landed by us and Meghan exclaimed “it’s like Christmas!” :^)
I have to say again how much I loved being there with my wife. I get an overwhelming sense of joy out of listening to Phish, and being with my wife at the shows ballooned that joy powerfully. And I love her for coming to the shows and enjoying herself, even without knowing most of the music.
The second set of this show is one of the best setlists I’ve seen in a very long time. If I had tried to put together a dream setlist for the show, the second set of Sunday would have been extremely close (Bug probably would have been replaced by something from the first night’s show). I feel like it made up for not seeing any shows in 1997. Other highlights of the show were me trying to explain the “pregnant pause” during Divided Sky to Meghan, and the insanity of the musical instruments during Frankenstein, which including a keytar, a flame-shaped bass guitar, and a 5-necked guitar.
And, all too soon, the show was over. All-in-all, the weekend was awesome. Several people have asked me this week how the show was, and all I’ve been able to say was that it was awesome, because trying to explain it in less than a couple hours of extremely earnest discussion would be almost impossible for me. At least now I can point people to this blog post. ;^)
* – As it turns out, much of this ticket hoopla was completely unnecessary, because, while both of the shows were sold out, there were lots and LOTS of extras available for both shows in the parking lot. On Sunday, we ran into one guy trying to sell an extra ticket for $10 and nobody was buying. Several people gave their extras away for free.
** - if you can call my slight swaying “dancing”
*** – I came up with an awesome joke about being fed up with the TomTom-foolery, but I was pretty much the only one who thought it was funny.
**** – Apparently, Ben & Kerry are not fond of being called “Berry”
# – Unfortunately, nothing ever came of it.