7-18-03 - Alpine Valley, East Troy, WI

please review the show, not the other reviews....

Date: Thu, 05 Feb 2004 17:16:52 -0700
From: eric tipton 
Subject: Re: Phish 7/18/03 review


from Phish.net:

07/18/03 - Alpine Valley Music Theatre - East Troy, Wisconsin

Set 1: Axilla, Rift, Bathtub Gin > Mango Song, Roggae, Discern, I Didn't
Know^ > Dust in the Wind^*, David Bowie

Set 2: Down with Disease > Catapult, Bug, Secret Smile, Two Versions of
Me, Twist, Character Zero

Encore: Harry Hood

^ w/ vacuum solo; * for Dave, who won the hotline contest

We made the drive overnight from Bonner Springs. First we had to drop Lee
off at the Kansas City airport. Lee, it was a real pleasure doing
Phoenix>KS - I hope we can do it again sometime. The drive was really
stressful. I got an hour and 10 minutes of sleep at some rest area in
Iowa at 7am and that is all the sleep I would get before this show! Sleep
when your dead!

We arrived at our campsite (Mukwonago, WI - Mukwonago Park) around 4 I
think after running into danelson1749 and his crew at a liquor store in
Lake Geneva. They had decided last minute to jump in the car and go to
Alpine from Denver! They drove all night as well. These guys were camping
w/ us so it was pretty funny running into them at the booze shop 15 miles
away from where we were going to camp!

Joe Ringus/JoeR67 organized this group campsite and when it was all said
and done I think there were 45 people there! Great place to camp if you
are going to a show at Alpine, the rangers are friendly and it's about 15
minutes from the venue.

We did not hit the lot until 6 or so. It was a very mellow scene. There
was hardly any vending going on. Apparently if you were caught vending
the fine was $1,000!

We ran into Kevin and Lindsey shortly before we went in:

L - R - Malcolm, me, Woolfall, Kevin, Lindsey, Tony

[31791595.jpg]

Ahh back at Alpine Valley! I really like this place having seen Phish
here in 97 and 00 both excellent shows (especially 97!). It was good to
be back in the midwest and seeing Phish.

First Set:

Axilla: Nice opener, really starts things off with a bang.

Rift: The energy stays high with a relatively well played Rift. It did
have a few minor flubs. I don't think I have seen a completely clean Rift
since 96 but what are you going to do.

Gin: Page just destroys his baby grand on this intro. Hell yeah! Could it
possibly top the monster from Shoreline? No. But this was a great Gin in
and of itself. Totally straightforward jamming in this one, very firey!
This version is about 13:30 featuring Trey really tearing it up. At the
end he toys w/ the intro to Mango very slowly and the band picks up on it
and segue into >

Mango: Right on! Great version of Mango, almost flawless I thought.
Vocals sounded great, and the composition of the song stayed true. Great
job here and sweet pairing w/ the Bathtub.

Roggae: Not a fan of this song. However, this one really soared. This is
the best version I have heard, live or on tape. If you are a fan, go out
and get this show.

Discern: Doh! OK, this song isn't that bad - it does have a nice jamming
section to it.

I Didn't Know: Good old humorous Phish! This featured Fish on vacuum,
Trey announcing Dan (Page has to correct him on the guy's name, Trey was
saying Dave) as the winner to last night's Mike's hotline contest to see
who could name what Trey had teased in Makisupa; it was Dust in the
Wind. So what Dan won was a Fishman vacuum solo just for him (EARMUFF's -
LOL!). Comical stuff. Segues into >

Dust in the Wind: A brief attempt at a colatteral effort by Trey and Page
at the lyrics. Again, comical Phish here. I have to say between last
night's Bonner Springs show and Alpine this night, this is the most
banter we've seen out of the boys in quite sometime, something that our
group had talked about leading up to these shows: the lack of banter in
modern Phish. Anyway...

Bowie: Smoking, stellar version. This one had all 35,000 on their feet
and going nuts. Th is Bowie really set the table for what I thought was
going to be a big time throw down during the second set.

Setbreak: First Set highlights: Gin>Mango, Bowie

Second Set:

DWD: My God, this one is an absolute monster. I think this one will go
down in the phishtory books for sure. This one takes out Chula Vista as
best on tour so far I thought. Absolutely smoking Disease. Somewhere
relatively late in the jam there was some Psycho Killer teasing going on,
but it was not to be unfortunately. Scintillating segue into >

Catapult: Nice! Crazy Phish lyrics. This one sort of goes back into DWD
(not the reprise just the jam that they laid underneath Catapult) but not
really then melts into brief silence...

Bug: Excellent. There were definitely some groans around me but after
that DWD toyed w/ my head after so little sleep, I was ready for a semi
breather. I LOVE the lyrics to the song, they mean alot to me and did not
disappoint tonight. Good version. After this tune is where the evening
goes south for the rest of the set:

Secret Smile: YO! Stop playing this! Not good! Not good at all!

2 Versions of Me: Like the song, abhor the placement.

Twist: Fuck! I actually liked the Shoreline version alot and that's
saying something as I am not a Twist fan by any stretch of the
imagination. In ten short minutes this one still manages to bore the hell
out of me. Bah!

Character Zero - What the hell. Wanking. Then some more wanking. Yarg.

Encore:

Hood: I like to refer to this set as the one Harry Hood salvaged. After
such an amazing start w/ DWD>Catapult it just totally bogged down. Hood
propped it back up. A simply uplifting version of Hood here in the encore
slot. This Hood was much different than Chula's (ie not jammed) and much
better than the too mellow Gorge version. Flat out inspiring let me tell
you. They sent us out into the night w/ a great buzz after a spine
tingling encore. Good stuff.

Second set highlights: DWD>Catapult, Hood.< BR>
We hung out in the lots pretty late drinking. After it had cleared out we
made our way back to Mukwonago and partied for another hour or so.
Finally I could not deny myself my comfy sleeping bag and tent so I
crashed out.

Here is a pic of our group at Mukwonago courtesy of Joe:

[32010357.jpg]

Hey Joe, do you or Woolfall have any pics of that crazy laser thingy Dan
had after the show? Dan I heard moe. needs a light guy, mayhap you should
apply?! [wink.gif]

On the Tipton-o-meter, this gets a 7. Good solid show.




peace,


et


Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2003 09:22:22 EDT
From: PHISHTAMITE@aol.com
Subject: July 18 Alpine Valley Review

This was one of the best times of my life.  In the lot me and my buddy The Bant
walked around checking out the scene.  He bought a Lemon Vodka, I met Mike
Gordan.  When we were walking around we got side tracked after we originally
ran into him as he did his usual rounds.  He left and so did we, but we ran
into him again not long after, only it was The Bant and I.  I tried to throw
him a frisbee as he was driving.  He missed claiming he "is not very
athletic."  Then i asked him if he was there to see Phish, which drew a
snicker.  We talked for 5 more minutes and I made a "Wiegh" request in which he
replied with a smile..."Sure".  He shook my hand politely and drove away.  I
was nothing but smiles, head to toe.
       The Bant and I then made our way into the show.  We had decent seats for
this one.  We sat in the seats listening to the pre-show music; simply
waiting.  Until...
Axilla.  Not an expected one for me but it set the mood and got me going. 
Whats better than opening with Axilla?  Following it with a fast Rift.  I dont
believe that i will see the day when I get sick of hearing it.  Page was just
when on when his solo came and he sure did shine.  The Bant and I didnt know
what to expect from here.  And then it comes in the form of GIN, baby.  Here we
go!  Page came to play tonight.  GIN just washed us all.  It was grooving in
and out the crowd.  We can almost touch the music.  This was the best GIN I
have heard.  It fell into the arms of the Mango Song.  I just started laughing.
Treys guitar was extra spunky.  Mango reallt hit the spot.  Not to off the wall
but average great Mango.  Roggae came next.  I really like this one.  Nice
mellow groove after the jam fest.  Next, they played a new one...Discern.  Page
had some nice arrangements to start.  Ill have to hear it again to make up my
mind on this one.  I Didnt Know>Dust In The Wind.  I was real excited to hear
this.  Fishmans vaccum solo was just sweet.  Bowie came next,  and made it sure
did rage.  Trey was just tearing it up all over the place.  The sun was down
and CK5 was lighting it up big time.  Mege cool to the max for this set.
       Set 2 started with a bang.  Down with Diesese opened it up and
definately got the ball rolling.  The Bant and I were just getting hosed down. 
Gordan was pumping beats and thumping bass.  Trey was throwing grooves
everywhere until it turned into Catapult.  This was a real funky version too. 
Bug was next and it was also no slouch.  The band started to make it a little
bluesy.  I was locked.  Next came Secret Smile and Two Versions Of Me.  I dont
remeber Secret Smile too much. (Useless Fact #1: Secret Smile is also the name
of a song by the half-ass alt band Semi-Sonic).  But i remember that Two
Versions of Me rocked.  Twist was up next.  It was a little wicked sounding. 
Lost the funk a little bit but still raged.  Character Zero was up next.  I
like this song.  It really does rock, even if it stays standard.  Trey was just
ripping it and we were dripping in music.  Nice set, but the encore couldnt
have been better.  And no it wasnt Wiegh.  It was Hood.  THe Bant looked at me
as I looked at him, we both knew it was the shit.  Hood raged. The show did
indeed rock.  Thanks to everyone involved in putting on the show: PHISH, CK5,
The Crew, Alpine, The city of East Troy, Greenpeace, PhishNet,and the sand of
people there to groove. -Dan Smith

Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2003 15:06:30 -0500
From: Joe Thielen 
Subject: Phish review for 7-18-03

Not too many folks have reviewed this show.  I feel it is my duty to do so, to
add more perspective :)

Axilla, Rift, Bathtub Gin > Mango Song, Roggae, Discern, I Didn't Know^ > Dust
in the Wind^*, David Bowie

The show started with a quick, hard Axilla.  This was my fifth show, and my
first Axilla...not that I'd been waiting for one, because it's generally the
same every time they play it, but it was nice to get off to a rocking start.  
Rift followed, and the rocking continued.  We were all happy to get such a
pumped up beginning.  It was a fine start to my girlfriend's first show, and,
since we're engaged, I figure it is my duty to at least introduce her to the
boys she'll be seeing (as time and money allows) for the rest of her life.  
When they opened up into Bathtub, my friends and I were extremely
pumped...Bathtubs, unlike Axillas and Rifts, are known for their
unpredictability.  This one did not disappoint, although it pretty much stayed a
type I jam the whole way through.  The segue into Mango was nice.  At the show I
loved it; on the tapes there are noticeable lyric flubs.  I was at Alpine in 99
for the mammoth orgasm that Mango turned into during the second set, but after
listening to several tens of Mangos as my show library has grown, I knew not to
expect anything other than a standard Mango.  But this was still nice, happy,
and full of all sorts of fun, even with the lyrics flubs...the music was
dead-on.

Roggae was a nice break from the fast-paced start of the show.  The jam was as
relaxing as any Roggae I've heard, and there really was some great interplay
between the fellas.  A friend commented afterward that Page seemed to be really
loud in the wash all night.  I could definitely hear him loud and clear.  Trey
and Page were great at complimenting riffs all evening.  Discern was good...all
of us were standing around saying "Which new song is this???"  I've never been
on hand for a new song-tour so I wasn't used to that feeling.  But it was a
decent song.  I Didn't Know was funny, everyone has heard by now the comments or
the quotes or what-have-you.  But it was nice and unexpected.  I've been calling
the hotline all tour so it was funny to see it referenced.

I think the hotline sort of gave new energy to the band for the tour, sort of as
a way to bring back the hilarity and the connections that the band used to have
with its audience.  Over the past few years...since about probably late 97, I
think the band has been missing this piece.  They have had good times but
nothing like the chess games or the macaroni-and-cheese-handouts.  The hotline
sort of brought that back, as well as everyday tour updates on the website.  
After the funny stupidity of the vacuum solo, the boys finished the set off with
a crisp and strong Bowie.

SET BREAK: Alpine is a cool venue on a nice summer night.  7-18 was definitely
nice.  Plus we had a blanket, and we weren't that far up the lawn, so it wasn't
too steep to stand or dance.  The blanket effect is interesting in the show
context: people come barreling through the crowd, but when they see the blanket,
they don't barrel through our group; they find a way around.  It's a great way
to sort of rope off your territory as a safe zone from intruders too, like the
guy in front of us with the backwards upside-down visor who knew all of the
lyrics to the first set songs.  Thankfully, there weren't too many words in the
second set.

SET II:  

Set 2: Down with Disease > Catapult, Bug, Secret Smile, Two Versions of Me,
Twist, Character Zero

DWD was an awesome opener to an awesome set.  The static, unchanging energetic
part was right on, and the jam went into some really great places.  For a
moment, we thought we'd get a 'Psycho Killer,' and Trey stepped up to the
mic.....and sang, to our surprise and delight, a strangely adjusted Catapult, to
fit the feeling of the jam.  They continued on with the jam, slowly fading down,
and then back up into Bug.  Bug was very, very nice to hear.  I really like the
lyrics to Bug, strangely (hopefully none of my friends are reading this :) and
Trey didn't disappoint with his soaring leads.  Page's fills in this Bug also
leave me breathless every time I hear it on the tapes.  Followed by that: Two
new songs.  The harmonies in Secret Smile were nice, and the song was short.  
Two Versions of Me had a good jam and it was nice not to have the visor kid
singing at us for a few minutes.  Twist's "Woo's" were nice to play along with.  
35,000 people yelling at the same time can be cool.  I was expecting either a
Chalkdust or a Character Zero for the closer.  I got Character, which was fine.  
It was relatively standard, but a nice solid way to end the set.

ENCORE:  Harry Hood (!!!)

I just about collapsed when they started this one.  They even teased us a bit in
the beginning, during the reggae intro.  I think Trey knew we could see him on
the big screen.  Everyone was waiting for his little fill, and instead he just
paused, took his guitar off, and then gave a 'Awww, I'm just kidding' sort of
look that was cute and hilarious.  And for the record, Page didn't fuck anything
up (I know we're not supposed to review reviews, but listen to the tapes...no
one screwed up).  This Harry Hood was amazing, and it's not getting enough
credit yet in the circles and chatrooms.  I've never heard a Hood break away
like this one did.  The boys listened to each other and turned the beat around
into this really, really strange and great place.  I didn't think they'd get
back gracefully, but then they started the turn-around into 'You can feel
good...good...good about Hood' and the whole place just melted.  Harry Hood is
the song that hooked me with these guys.  This Hood, even on tapes, rivals any
Hood out there, including the monster that's on 'A Live One.' What a great
encore.  I was left dazed, wondering what they could do to make it better on the
19th.  But that's another review for another soul to write (and lots of folks
did write theirs...read them!).

Well, that's all for me.  I'd say Phish is back in full force.  If anyone
doubted their kick-ass-ed-ness, the reviews for this tour should just about put
that to rest.


Joseph Thielen


Date: Sat, 19 Jul 2003 07:11:20 -0700
From: Kevin Hanson 
Subject: Alpine 4/18 Review

It's 830 am Sat. morning and I am trying to collect my thoughts on last 
nights Phish show at Alpine.  First, I will say the lot scene was really 
chill and laid back from my perspective.  Weather was perfect.  It was a 
bright sunny day, not too hot or too cold, just right.  We got to our seats, 
located 20 rows back and dead center, as the band was launching in to 
Axilla.  Great Axilla, good placement at the beginning of the set, it got 
everyone riled up.  Next came Rift.  Rift was perfect, unlike the Allstate 
version from this past spring (022003), it was dead on perfect.  The energy 
continued into Bathtub Gin.  A remember this jam had many good moments and 
to me the jamming tonight was very thematic.  The band was lacing themes 
into their jams all night long opposed to the noodling that can also happen, 
that can be fun in its own right, but I prefer the thematic jams.  I felt at 
this point that the boys were very much on and in good spirits.  While 
Bathtub Gin was winding down, we begin to hear the Mango song seep out.  I 
heard Trey practicing the Mango Song at soundcheck around 4:30 or so before 
the rest of the band showed up, so I had a sense that they might be playing 
it tonight.  I was very excited because this is one of my wife's favorites 
and it seems to follow her around a little.  Anyways, Mango Song was a great 
standard version.  Next, after a little break while Trey figures out the 
chords, they fade up into Roggae.  I was expecting this since we have not 
heard it this tour and was pleasantly surprised at the jam within it.  I 
don't believe it was mentioned on the Phantasy tour setlist, but there was a 
jam on What's the Use? in the mid section of the song before melting back 
into the ending.  I am pretty sure, but I could be wrong.  Well after Roggae 
we got our first new track, Discern.  Well, I must say that the song is 
interesting.  The music is really good, but the words don't seem to 
intersect with the music that well.  Anyways, there were some good moments 
in the jam of the song if I remember correctly, and in the end, I enjoyed 
it, even though the music/words didn't seem to coalesce.  Ah, I Didn't Know, 
have not heard this since Big Cypress.  I Didn't Know was unique in the fact 
that the vacuum jam, accompanied by Mike and Page, was played to the tune of 
Dust in the Wind (see 041703 for more details) and of course back into I 
Didn't Know.  It was funny because Trey was saying that this guy David won 
the contest from 4/17 for awhile and how Fish is going to play this tune 
just for him and rest of us should put on our earmuffs.  The funny part was 
that then he went, Oh, I am sorry it was Dan, Dan you won the contest.  Well 
after the conclusion of I Didn't know they jump right into Bowie. There was 
very probably about 30 seconds of the spacey intro before bursting into the 
song.  The composed section was dead on and the jam was focused and hosed me 
at the end.  It is always fun to watch the face on your friend when these 
moments happen.  The smile widens, face crinkles up, head goes slightly 
back, and then the release, ahh.  Well, the bowie was great and so ended the 
set.

Set break was not very long and Trey was warming up by playing Night Speaks 
to A Women, and then we hear the bubbling sounds from Mike's bass and we 
know that a Disease is on its way.  This was by far the best Disease I have 
seen and I am looking forward to hearing the tapes.  There was this one 
theme that was teased on throughout the second that I am sure you will hear 
it on the tapes and it originated I believe in the Disease early on in the 
jam.  There was a techno flavor to a part of the jam with Fish throwing down 
the repetitive quarter note beats on the kick drum, very cool.  You must 
hear this show, if only for the Disease it was great, I was hoping it would 
go on all night.  Well, the band locked into a groove near the end of 
Disease, and Trey begins to speak Catapult over the groove and the second 
Catapult was finished it was right back into the jam.  Perfect.  Well, the 
jam then slowed down and petered out, but it was great.  There were many
great moments within it.  Bug was next and it rocked hard, just a great 
version.  The energy in the place was overflowing, at least in the pavilion. 
  Then after Bug cam two new tracks, secret smile followed by Two versions 
of Me.  The former was okay, nice vocal work by the band.  The latter seemed 
to perk up some people from their seats and was a really nice tune.  I think 
that one might grown on me.  The mid section of this set was a little slow 
and definitely brought the energy way down, but I don't care that disease 
rocked!  Twist emerged and I will tell that I have seen some evil songs, the 
Mikes 123099, Simple 22003, though this version was more disturbing than it 
was evil.  Though I will say it is the evilest Twist ever.  The sounds the 
band were making made me cringe at times.  Downright dirty evil music.  I 
loved it!  Well I can't explain how it went I wish I could, I would listen 
to it.  I can say it would be good night driving music on a moonless gravel 
country road.  Character 0 finished the set and raged as hard as Bug and at 
this point I went to my friend and said if this is the end of set or if it 
is not we will see a Hood.  The encore began with that familiar drum intro 
by fish and were off.  The hood had a flub by Page in the intro sections and 
it prompted Trey to take off his guitar and he was about to point it at 
Page, but laughed and placed it back on.  The composed sections was flawless 
besides the aforementioned flub, and the jam began as your typical Harry 
Hood, but soon veered of into another frontier.  The jam got very 
interesting and built up an unreal amount of tension.  I was thinking there 
is no way out of this and back into Harry.  Well, there wasn't, but while 
the release was not sweet, though they played through it well, the tension 
was sick, I loved it.  This Harry is definitely my favorite  at the moment I 
write this.  They brought back the Harry theme very nice after the atypical 
jam and we got it feels good about hood ending and I left with a huge smile 
and excited for tonight.  This was a great show, I enjoyed and will 
definitely get the tapes.

Kevin Hanson

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