7/5/12 Umphrey's McGee @ CEFCU Center Stage - Peoria, IL

Umphrey's McGee

7/5/12

CEFCU Center Stage

Peoria, IL

I: Catshot > Domino Theory, Intentions Clear > Wellwishers, All Things Ninja, Liquid* > 40's Theme*

II: Jajunk > The Bottom Half, Fussy Dutchman, Comma Later, Can't You Hear Me Knocking*, Wappy Sprayberry > Jajunk

E: Hajimemashite*

* w/ Stanley Jordan

On Thursday I worked earlier in the day and hit the road for Peoria around 5:30.  It was extremely hot with weather nearing triple digits not including the heat index.  If we don't get rain in this area of Illinois soon the farmers are in for serious trouble.  I found a parking spot in the free lot across the street from the venue.  The sounds of the opening act, G. Love and The Special Sauce, could be heard.  At this point I walked up the hill a few blocks to Sully's to meet up with some friends. 

Umphrey's McGee was onstage shortly after 8:30.  Initially the sound left something to be desired but they improved it the best they could given the stacks were on the ground.  There was a good sized crowd on hand.  The demographic was obviously younger but I didn't see too many displays of amateurism.  Pony continues to sport the Pringles man look with that mustache.  I felt this was a different side to Umphrey's McGee than what we saw at Summer Camp.  Those were dance driven shows comprised of heavy hitters where this performance was a little more nuanced.  I've heard that pre-recorded intro before several times including nearby at the Canopy Club.  Domino Theory was my least favorite of the new songs but I love the improvisation it has produced.  They took their time with the return to the end of the song.  Intentions Clear also had an interesting jam but I was surprised how much I enjoyed the Wellwishers that followed.  I didn't care for how Pony announced on the internet earlier in the day that they would play All Things Ninja.  I could also do without his merchandise banter.  Stanley Jordan added a lot to the jam out of Liquid and the set closing, 40's Theme.  During 40's Theme he took the BB solo at the end.  I liked the energy of the first set.  There really was no lulls.  We had a good group of friends near the soundboard for the whole show.

Jajunk got the set going with a decent jam albeit somewhat generic.  Pony played more slapbass than I think I've ever seen him.  I liked Jake's work during The Bottom Half.  Fussy Dutchman is an instrumental I always enjoy.  Comma Later was pretty much my only request going into the show so I was pleased to hear that new Steely Dan infused dance number.  I've heard Can't You Hear Me Knocking way too many times over the years with UM and moe. but it was well done.    Once again Stanley Jordan added to the mix.  I was surprised but not necessarily disappointed that G. Love didn't step out with his harmonica.  Wappy Sprayberry was my favorite improvisation of the evening with a very successful dance jam into the conclusion of Jajunk to end the set.  Hajimemashite featured Stanley Jordan and was a fitting encore to a fun show from Umphrey's McGee on the banks of the Illinois River in Peoria on a sweltering night. 

6/30-7/1 Phish @ Alpine Valley Music Theatre - East Troy, WI

PHISH

6/30/12

Alpine Valley Music Theatre

East Troy, WI

I: My Soul, Daniel Saw the Stone, AC/DC Bag, Moma Dance, Runaway Jim, Let It Loose, Reba, Kill Devil Falls, Sloth, Ocelot, Poor Heart, Circus Comes to Town, Timber Ho!, Oh Kee Pah Ceremony > Suzy Greenberg

II: Backwards Down the Number Line, Carini > Wilson, Golden Age > 2001, Rock and Roll > Steam > Piper > Quinn the Eskimo, Harry Hood, Character Zero

E: Good Times Bad Times

The drive from Deer Creek to Alpine Valley is a route I know very well. This is a famous stretch of highway on Phish tour. I always take I-39 and avoid Chicago, though this way is a bit longer. It goes near many of our research sites for the company where I work. After this summer I hope to find employment somewhere else so all the driving around Illinois and Iowa is coming to an end. I feel like its time to move forward to new challenges. After this summer I am going to scale back my Phish tours so I can find a place of my own. It's been a great journey these past 13 years of seeing live music. Alpine Valley is where the story started for me with Phish in 1999. We were a bunch of high school noobs with lawn tickets who drove home that night. This time around I had pit tickets and stayed at the Alpine Valley Resort. Saturday was my 90th time seeing Phish.

We had a suite at the Alpine Valley Resort. It was the three of us who stayed at the hotel for Deer Creek plus my friend Steve from Chicago who drove up and met us. We ate lunch next to the pool. Many of our Phish friends were around and many fans were still talking about the great show from Thursday in Noblesville. We heard the soundcheck during the afternoon from the parking lot of the lodge. Around 7 pm I made the short walk across the fairway to the side entrance to the pavilion and made my way down to the pit. It was fun watching the show with my friend Jenna.

It's always good to see the familiar wooden roof up above. If you have good seats at Alpine and stay at the lodge it can be one of the best amphitheatres in the United States. There is a certain vibe to a Saturday night show at Alpine. I've heard the band and their family looks forward to this weekend every summer and that they stay at a nice condo in Lake Geneva, WI. The obvious highlights for me was The Rolling Stones cover Let It Loose followed by an emotive Reba. They dropped a Timber Ho! which I thought may end the set but they included a spirited Oh Kee Pah > Suzy. Some of the set seemed like filler to be honest. We'd heard them soundcheck Daniel Saw the Stone earlier in the day so that wasn't a surprise. 

The second set doesn't appear to be anything too outrageous just by judging the setlist but it had a tremendous flow that was unmatched in the run of shows I saw this summer. To be honest #Line was a bit disappointing but once they got to the uplifting ending it was on as they crashed into the intro of Carini. This Carini had a distinctive Tweezer-esque feel to it. The drop into Wilson was abrupt but it worked on this Saturday night at Alpine as this didn't hurt the energy. Golden Age is being overplayed at this point and this version didn't compare to the one they played at Cuyahoga Falls but it had a decent groove that extended into 2001. Kuroda flexed his muscles at this point and the approximately 30,000 Phish fans in attendance danced in approval. Rock and Roll was the third Velvet Underground cover in as many nights from the Loaded album. Page always does a good job with that one and this morphed into the only Steam of the tour which was basically the only song I wanted to hear so that made my night.  Steam segued into the best jam of the night, Piper.  This had several themes and featured some amazing work by Page when the rest of the band allowed him to towards the end of the improvisation.  Quinn the Eskimo is a song that was played by The Grateful Dead in "89 at this venue.  Hood in dairyland makes sense.  There's a dairy farm next to the yellow lot, however, this wasn't the best buildup to the "you can feel good" part by any means.  Character Zero was almost guaranteed at this point.  It's Trey's favorite rocker and he loves it on Saturday at Alpine.  GTBT was a fairly straight forward one and done encore.  I had a great time during this show and I was surprised to hear fans criticize the performance. 

PHISH

7/1/12

Alpine Valley Music Theatre

East Troy, WI

I: Soul Shakedown Party, Lonesome Cowboy Bill, Vultures, Gotta Jibboo, Dirt, A Song I Heard the Ocean Sing, Access Me, Meat, Frankenstein, Fee, Maze, Squirming Coil

II: Crosseyed and Painless > No Quarter, Light > Ghost > Back on the Train, Farmhouse, 46 Days, Heavy Things, Joy, Julius

E: Meatstick

postshow P.A. music was Heatwave "Boogie Nights"

We spent the day watching the EURO 2012 Final.  Spain dominated Germany to an easy 4-nil victory.  My friends from Ames stopped by.  Once again we listened to the soundcheck.  All the Upstaging semis were parked back by the resort.  The evening before I saw the police escort for the tour bus.  I was tired and ready to head home with this having been a long stretch of midwest Phish shows.  It was nice to finally get caught up with my sleep the last evening.

The first set on Sunday was more to my liking than the evening before.  Overall, it had more cohesion.  Soul Shakedown Party is a rarity for an opener.  Lonesome Cowboy Bill made it four different songs off that album during the four Deer Creek/Alpine Valley shows.  Jibboo was a well played concise version.  We had heard them soundcheck A Song I Heard the Ocean Sing and that turned out to be the only time played during the tour.  It was good to hear Access Me and Meat.  That allowed Mike to shine.  Frankenstein featured Page on his James Brown white keytar.  Fee was unquestionably the highlight of the set.  The outro was amazing.  Coil to end the set with Page by himself is always a treat. 

Crosseyed has been a little stale lately and when it segued into No Quarter it was fun but still a repeat of what they did recently at UIC Pavilion.  Light was the highlight of the second set and this transitioned into Ghost.  This featured some four on the floor dance beats that you wouldn't usually associate with Phish.  Fishman and Gordon were locked in.  They're the best Jewish rhythm section in the business.  Back on the Train was a repeat from Deer Creek and did not compare to the version from Noblesville.  Farmhouse worked as a breather in this spot but the rest of the playcalling left a lot to be desired.  This set needed a YEM or a Slave to finish it out.  Instead we got 46, Heavy Things, Joy, Julius with an encore of Meatstick.  The encore had the same schtick of crowd dancers that they did the previous Sunday in Cuyahoga Falls.  46 Days had a lot of energy but in general I felt like everyone was waiting for something that never materialized.  "Still waiting..."  That's why we keep chasing these guys though.  It's the mystery and suspense.  Seeing what happens next is a big part of why we keep coming back.  See you in Kansas City in August!

6/28-29 Phish @ Klipsch Music Center - Noblesville, IN

After three days off Phish continued their tour through the midwest on Thursday in Noblesville, IN.  It was 100 degrees when I made the familiar drive during the afternoon.  This was retracing the journey I'd made to Cincinnati only 6 days before.  I stayed with my buddies from Decatur at a hotel in Fishers.  This was the first time for a Deer Creek run that I hadn't camped.  I originally planned on staying at Closeby Campground but I called an audible at the line of scrimmage when I saw the forecast.  We tailgaited prior and endured the extreme weather before mercifully the sun finally went down midway through the first set.  They allowed you to bring in two water bottles because it was so hot.  It made you sweat just standing there.   The three of us had a good vantage point in the middle of the pavilion behind the SBD and taper section. 

It was unique for them step up and start the show with the acapella Birdwatcher.  Curtain With immediately made it be known that this would be a special show.  The emotion of the With part is what shows are all about.  I remember seeing them bring back Curtain With at this same venue in 2000.  Later in the first set Pebbles and Marbles almost had a DWD sounding jam.  The funky triad of Wolfman's, Cool It Down, and Tweezer.  Cool It Down was appropriate with the unbearable heat.  Tweezer was much better than the Cuyahoga Falls version.  These were the highlights of an incredibly strong first set for this current era. 

The combination of Mike's > McGrupp was a strong start to the second frame.  McGrupp was the best version I think I've seen.  Back on the Train featured a really interesting outro jam.  The Fishman antics worked as an interlude before a well played Weekapaug.  Caspian was unfinished and floated upon the Waves into that neutically inspired tune.  This version killed it.  I'd consider this one of the best jams of the tour.  The improvisation landed into Bug and this was also a top shelf rendition.  Without stopping Fishman started up the set closing David Bowie.  Huge set.  I love David Bowie to close set II, IMO that's a great setlist spot for it.  There was a real sense of victory in the parking lot after the show.  Phish had won.

PHISH

6/28/12

Klipsch Music Center

Noblesville, IN

I: Birdwatcher, Curtain With, Fuck Your Face, Old Home Place, Pebbles and Marbles, Weigh, Chalkdust Torture, Wolfman's Brother, Cool It Down, Tweezer, Tela, Stealing Time from the Faulty Plan

II: Mike's Song > McGrupp and the Watchful Hosemasters > Back on the Train > Hold Your Head Up, Bike > Hold Your Head Up > Weekapaug Groove, Prince Caspian > Waves > Bug > David Bowie

E: Show of Life, Tweezer Reprise

postshow P.A. music was The Isley Brothers "Who's That Lady"

PHISH

6/29/12

Klipsch Music Center

Noblesville, IN

I: Crowd Control, Dinner and a Movie, Sweet Jane, Limb by Limb, Possum, Mound, Life on Mars, Mango Song, Big Black Furry Creatures from Mars, Strange Design, Birds of a Feather, Halley's Comet, While My Guitar Gently Weeps

II: Down with Disease > Sand > Twist > Rift, Bathtub Gin > Fluffhead, Ride Captain Ride, Run Like an Antelope

E: Cavern > Sanity, First Tube

_________________________________

On Friday it was still blistering hot in the beginning of the day.  We ate breakfast at IHOP.  The venue posted on Facebook that the doors wouldn't open until an hour later than scheduled because of an approaching storm.  We weathered it out at the hotel.  We witnessed some EZ-UP devastation when we drove by Closeby Campground and along Shakedown Street.  Especially staying at a hotel this year (which turned out to be a great decision with the extreme weather) it was obvious to me that the vibe of Deer Creek had clearly changed.  No longer was this a rural location where Phish played amongst the cornfields and we camped at farms and in pastures.  The game has changed with the urban sprawl thats occured northward along I-69.  We cooked some Nathan's hot dogs in the lot both night (non-vending).  I have a lot of great memories of this venue.  Structurally it makes it one of the best from an acoustic standpoint.  This is one of the best lawns to see a show at.  However, it's over 5 hours from my home and they play here on the weeknights so moving forward this may have to be a run of the past for me.  We shall see. 

The first set was disappointing for me in the sense that it lacked cohesion and was like a long jukebox set.  Everything was played well.  I did like hearing Dinner and a Movie.  Sweet Jane was the second song off The Velvet Underground's Loaded in as many nights. 

The second set was highlighted by a traditional take on Down with Disease that segued into the best Sand of the tour.  Twist had no improvisation.  Just when things were getting interesting during a rare second set Gin it seemed like Trey hit the eject button too soon.  Fluffhead takes up too much time in the second set.  It's always good to hear the Blues Image cover Ride Captain Ride.  This Antelope did not compare to the one played in Cuyahoga Falls the prior Sunday.  I liked the encore.  Overall, this show will live in the shadow of the evening before and for good reason.