PHISH
6/5/11
Riverbend Music Center
Cincinnati, OH
I: AC/DC Bag, Punch You In the Eye, Bathtub Gin, Taste, Lawn Boy, Mound, Gotta Jibboo, Reba, Fee > Backwards Down the Number Line
II: Carini > Tweezer > Free, Crosseyed and Painless > Light > Boogie On Reggae Woman > Julius, You Enjoy Myself
E: Loving Cup, Tweezer Reprise
We got a good look at the state of Ohio as we drove from the Cleveland/Akron area through Columbus to Cincinnati. Columbus is the state's largest city a fact I was only recently made aware of. It was fitting for us to be near Ohio State University with Jim Tressel on the cover of SI that week. We got lost and ended up having to turn around in the ghetto but I didn't see any tattoo parlors. That was Timbo's fault that we missed the turn on the interstate. We are lucky the Dodge Caravan didn't have Honky Lips spray painted on the side of it ala National Lampoon's Vacation. Prior to this travel mishap we stopped and had a pleasant breakfast in Burbank, Ohio down on the farm at Bob Evan's. We watched the Cubs allow the second walkoff homer by Pujols in as many days. Riverbend is not one of my favorites on the circuit. We parked in the blacktop lot near River Downs.
I found a spot behind the soundboard. It was extremely hot inside the shed area. You could see the Ohio River off to the side of Fishman. The first set started nicely with the anthemic AC/DC Bag. "Let's get this show on the road!" PYITE was almost a second opener in that slot. I love an early first set Bathtub Gin and this was one of the best jams of the evening. This summer when Phish plays together as a unit they are a powerful force. Taste featured some good playing by Trey and overall was a good example of their polyrhthymic jamming. The sun broke through during Lawn Boy as Page took centerstage. This was appropriate for this night of the run which I was supposed to be on the lawn. Mound started a string of four songs that anchored down this set. This version of Mound was better played than the one in Worcester. I really enjoyed the grooves during Gotta Jibboo. It was a well played version. The first Reba of the summer was expected and the refreshing part worked well as the sun was going down. Fee featured Trey on the megaphone and had a nice outro jam that found its way eventually to Number Line. This was a straight forward rocker version that served its purpose as the set closer.
Carini was a fairly abbreviated version in comparison to what they were doing with it last fall. There were no complaints from the crowd when they dropped into Tweezer. This turned out to be a highlight of the evening. They used Free as a the landing point for the Tweezer jamming. Free itself once was a jam vehicle alas not in this current era. Crosseyed and Painless kept the energy of this set going and had some fiery licks from Anastasio. They segued into Light which ironically would explore some of the darkest territory of the night. This was juxtaposed against the light hearted reggae of Boogie On. Next came the shredding blues of Julius which may have appeared to end the set but most of us knew YEM was on its way to end an extremely succesful set of Phish. It had been a great weekend of Phish and Loving Cup, Tweeprise wrapped it up nicely. The music in Michigan and Ohio from Phish has me excited for Super Ball IX in Watkins Glen, NY.
pictures taken by Dave Vann (Phish.com)
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