9/12/12 Umphrey's McGee @ Wooly's - Des Moines, IA

Umphrey's McGee
9/12/12
Wooly's
Des Moines, IA

I: Flamethrower > Ringo, Wappy Sprayberry > Alex's House > Eat > Example 1 > Eat, Room to Breathe, Domino Theory

II: Push the Pig, Hurt Bird Bath, Much Obliged, Live and Let Die, Higgins, Last Man Swerving > Smell the Mitten

E: Bright Lights



Audience Recording



On Wednesday afternoon after work my neighbor Jamie and I drove from Geneseo to Des Moines for Umphrey’s McGee. The show had been moved indoors to a new bar in the east village near the state capital building called Wooly’s. The reasoning for the move had been stated as due to the threat of bad weather, however, rumors were going around about there having been around only 170 advance tickets sold. I was put on the guest list for the performance by a friend of mine in Ames.

I would guess that by showtime the tavern was near capacity which was stated to be just less than 700. The place was very poorly ventilated and temperatures were almost unbearable the closer you got to the stage. Flamethrower was an appropriate opener and I recognized it from their most recent Umbowl show. Pony was dropping an infectious groove. I will say his get up with the mustache, rat tail, and several items of Umphrey’s merchandise is a little tacky to say the least. They took the stage the prerecorded intro and then started playing along with it as has been the custom most of this year with all the different named intros they now have. This led into Ringo which had several pieces of interesting improvisation. I can’t emphasize enough how much energy was exploding from the stage. Wappy was next and this also had a jam that strayed from the typical terrain usually associated with this dance number. Alex’s House featured some great soloing from Cinninger per usual. Eat was sandwiched with Example 1 in the middle. This also had a catchy groove. Room to Breathe was appropriate with the crowd packed in like sardines.  I wasn’t expecting Domino Theory in that slot in the setlist. That had a nice build into the end of the song. The intimate confines of Wooly’s reminded me of the old days of seeing Umphrey’s back when I was in college. It was almost too loud up front and I had to deal with several amateurs so I eventually moved further back for the second set. I saw several old school UM friends of mine namely O’Malley, Cleofus, Keith, and Waxhead Kenny.  My friend Curt was taping by the soundboard.  It was also good to see several people from Ames that I hadn’t seen in ages. I should note this was the first venue I’ve ever seen Umphrey’s McGee where they had deer mounted on the wall.

Push the Pig was fairly standard with the usual hip hop groove. The end of the song featured Xxplosive teases. Hurt Bird Bath was placed in the centerpiece position of the show and it turned out to be the highlight of the show. The raw power the band was producing was impressive. MO kept the energy going which really never let up the whole night with the exception of The Wings cover Live and Let Die which I could have done without. This is a progressive rock show not a James Bond movie. Higgins had another jam and they finished the composed ending with authority. Last Man Swerving was appropriate with much of the crowd becoming extremely inebriated. Smell the Mitten is always appreciated.  Bright Lights in the encore was my other major highlight of the show. Like so many versions recently this was a powerhouse jam. It was a great way to end the show. Umphrey’s McGee at Wooly’s was like a geyser of energy all evening. This was my 143^rd time seeing UM and they continue to find ways to keep my interest. After the show I drove us home and I crushed a McDouble at the Newton Iowa Speedway golden arches.

8/31-9/2 Phish @ Dick's Sporting Goods Park - Commerce City, CO

PHISH
8/31/12
Dick's Sporting Goods Park
Commerce City, CO

Set 1: First Tube, Uncle Pen, Carini, Kill Devil Falls, You Enjoy Myself, Ocelot, Undermind

Set 2: Runaway Jim > Farmhouse > Alaska, Chalk Dust Torture > Emotional Rescue > Fuck Your Face

Encore: Grind, Meatstick



The drive through the Texas panhandle was exciting as I had never been to that state before.  The desolate open country brought about images of cowboys and wilder times.  It was a welcome sight after I passed into New Mexico when I saw the front range of the Rockies jut up from the southern plains.  I followed these mountains the rest of my journey up into Colorado through Pueblo, Colorado Springs, Denver, and finally to my destination of Ft. Collins.  After gallons of coffee, dozens of cigarettes, and several footlongs worth of Subway I had arrived.  I hung out with my friend Skyler until my buddy from hometown Dave got back from seeing Tedeschi Trucks Band at Red Rocks.  It's always good seeing Dave.  We played a lot of soccer together and he lived down the street from me in Hazelwood Heights.  He joined me for the Sunday show. 

The next morning I drove down to Commerce City and checked in at the Super 8 where I'd stayed the year before.  I dropped off my canned goods and got the patches from Conscious Alliance.  Those were much nicer than the pin from last year.  I saw Oliver and Steve A waiting in line for the posters which were hot commodities. I settled on the event shirt which was the same as my patch.  I didn't notice the FUCKYOURFACE theme up on the Page side stands. I was just thoroughly impressed with the improvisation.  Carini and Undermind were things to behold.  It was just a different band compared to what I'd seen in Oklahoma. 

Runaway Jim was finally explored like back in the day.  With the full moon above the soccer stadium the band explore the outer limits of the galaxy and finally landed down in the Farmhouse.  It was a chilling transition.  Amazing work.  The fakeout of 2001/Alaska was a totally Phishy move.  This was the best Chalkdust Torture I've ever seen.  This was my 95th time seeing Phish and my first Emotional Rescue.  Fuck Your Face capped off the joke.  Its shows like these that make us follow the band around the country.  Grind, Meatstick was a fitting end to the jovial affair.  They brought serious jams in Carini, Undermind, Jim, and Chalkdust.  The band fucked our collective faces. 


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PHISH
9/1/12
Dick's Sporting Goods Park
Commerce City, CO

Set 1: Run Like An Antelope, Backwards Down The Number Line, Tweezer > Fluffhead, Roses are Free, Funky Bitch, The Moma Dance, When the Circus Comes to Town, Theme from the Bottom, Golgi Apparatus, Stealing Time From The Faulty Plan

Set 2: Golden Age, Prince Caspian > Light, Boogie On Reggae Woman, The Wedge, The Horse > Silent in the Morning, Mike's Song > No Quarter > Weekapaug Groove

Encore: Sleeping Monkey, Tweezer Reprise



With little else to do besides eat Sonic chili dogs and watch AMC movies all day I was able to get a lot of relaxation and rest during this run.  It felt good to get recharged from the drive from the midwest.  This was the first Antelope opener since '91.  Very special indeed.  Tweezer was the obvious highlight of the set which was well played but obviously song oriented. 

Golden Age had a great jam that expanded upon the ideas of the ATL version.  Caspian was an all timer that included a heavy metal jam.  This was likely the best version of Light they've played.  Light was clearly the highlight of the show.  Boogie On, Wedge, Horse>SITM worked as an interlude before a high energy Mike's that included Zeppelin's No Quarter before closing with Weekapaug. I liked this No Quarter better than the one at Alpine.  The Monkey, Tweeprise encore was  predictable.  Postshow P.A. music was Prince "Wanna Be Your Lover".  This was a very strong show for 3.0 era and a great counterpiece to the Friday offering. 


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PHISH
9/2/12
Dick's Sporting Goods Park
Commerce City, CO

Set 1: Cars Trucks Buses, AC/DC Bag > Down With Disease, Bathtub Gin, Nellie Kane, Sample in a Jar, Back On The Train, Rift, Free, Ride Captain Ride, Maze, Halley's Comet, 46 Days, Possum

Set 2: Sand > Ghost > Piper, Twenty Years Later, The Lizards, Harry Hood

Encore: Character Zero


Before the show it rained and when I met Dave in the back lot by the Colorado Rapids practice fields there was a huge rainbow off in the distance.  This was an upgrade of the night before when green smog was obvious nearby.  This 3 night run of Phish was the pot of gold at the end of my 13 year rainbow of seeing the band.  I gave a lot back but this run was a huge payoff for my loyalty.  This run brought the jamming the fans have been waiting for.  This first set was nothing too outrageous.  CTB and Bag was almost a double opener.  DWD and Gin were my highlights.  BOTT had some nice work as well.  Again the first set has to be described as song oriented. 

The second stanza was a different story as Phish churned out one of the best segments of my show going career in the form of Sand > Ghost.  They continued into a strong Piper before landing in the now rare Twenty Years Later which worked as the slowdown tune.  Lizards was perfect placement in a retrospective spot with the tour coming to an end.  Hood was a decent version, better than the OKC rendition.  Character Zero to close was anticlimatic but I saw it coming.  I was satisfied.  They delivered on their end.  After this tour I feel I can begin to scale back on seeing Phish.  They achieved what I hoped they would and the recordings of these shows are the proof.  Dick's 2012 was a huge win for Phish and their fans and they type of shows that make you appreciate seeing live music and simply being alive. 

8/29/12 Phish @ Zoo Amphitheatre - Oklahoma City, OK

PHISH
8/29/12
Zoo Amphitheatre
Oklahoma City, OK

Set 1: Kill Devil Falls, Rift, Wilson, Backwards Down The Number Line, The Moma Dance, The Divided Sky, Wolfman's Brother, Axilla, 46 Days, Ya Mar, Stealing Time From The Faulty Plan, Run Like An Antelope

Set 2: Down With Disease > Birds of a Feather > My Friend My Friend, My Friend My Friend > Rock and Roll > Twist, If I Could, Light > Harry Hood, Character Zero, Suzy Greenberg

Encore: Slave to the Traffic Light, Loving Cup


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I stayed at Ozzy's in St. Louis after the show.  In the morning I drove him to Bobby's place where he had left his car the day before.  The drive down I-44 was uneventful.  I was amused by the Jesse James and Todd Akin signage along the road.  There was a huge Homer Simpson billboard in Springfield.  I thought of the devastating tornado when I drove through Joplin.  The turnpike in Oklahoma was annoying.  I feel those shouldn't be allowed west of the Mississippi.  The landscape quickly changed and the red soil became visable.  Tulsa seemed like a sizeable city.  I made it to OKC and drove past the Cheseapeake Bay Arena which had been the site of rioting during the NBA playoffs last year.  We stayed at the Sheraton across from the arena right downtown.  I ate Subway pre-show.  Eat fresh.  Bobby, Steve A, and friends rode in the VUE out to the Zoo.  We parked in a distant lot of a casino adjacent to the Zoo.  This was the be the final summer of concerts at this venue which was clearly antiquated and basic.  I didn't mind the venue but it was quite hot weatherwise before the show. 

The crowd was a lot of locals and also plenty of Texans who had made the journey north.  I felt out of my element.  The first set was a song oriented affair.  Wolfman's and 46 Days were the only real highlights but even these versions were lacking comparatively speaking.  I hoped the second set would include some exploratory jamming like the night before in STL.  That was not to be.

The second set was more standard, phoned in Phish.  Trey said they were excited to be there but what they delivered was a watered down, bland performance.  I was bored at times and definitely felt tired from the long solo drive from St. Louis to OKC.  Phish really didn't make it worth out while to drive out of our way down to Oklahoma.  I should have just cruised straight west on 70 from STL to Denver and skipped this one in hindsight.  The scene in the lot afterwords had plenty of gas.  It was sketchy.  The next morning I dropped Bobby off at the Will Rogers Airport.  I cut my losses and hit the road for Colorado via Texas and New Mexico. 

8/28/12 Phish @ Chaifetz Arena - St. Louis, MO

PHISH
8/28/12
Chaifetz Arena
St. Louis, MO

Set 1: Punch You in the Eye, Runaway Jim, Ocelot, Reba, I Didn't Know, The Curtain, Peaches en Regalia, Mound, Sample in a Jar, The Sloth, Camel Walk, Possum, Mighty Quinn (Quinn the Eskimo)

Set 2: Chalk Dust Torture > Frankie Says > Undermind > Sand > Walk Away, Limb By Limb, Julius, Also Sprach Zarathustra, You Enjoy Myself

Encore: Shine A Light




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I drove to St. Louis during the middle of the day.  The weather was sunny and warm.  With Bobbyluv and his wife Erin moving to Denver this was to be a final gathering at his apartment before the show.  We cooked food on the grill for dinner.  After we parked in the SLU garage and walked around the Shakedown St. which was quite distant from the actual arena.  My friends had a few drinks at a bar which had a Phish cover band, Riker's Mailbox.  It was pretty cheesy to see a Phish cover band before actually going to see them.  However, the excitement was palpable as the crowd made its way from the lots and bars to the new campus arena with the city's trademark arch not far off in the distance.  This was the gateway to the west, an appropriate start for this final stretch of five shows that remained on the Phish Summer Tour. 

I've always loved arena Phish shows and this new arena was build with acoustics in mind with he panneling on the ceiling.  My spot was in the corner on the page side in this one level arena that is smaller than the one formerly known as the Kiel Center which Phish played in 1996.  I called the PYITE opener.  Jim stayed within the box.  I felt Ocelot was played with a bit more gusto than usual. 
I always enjoy Reba at about this point of a show but this wasn't the most memorable one by any means.  I Didn't Know was a comedic interlude with Fish on vacuum.  Curtain without into Peaches was a nice combination.  This was a decent 3.0 era Mound.  Not far from the Cahokia Mounds.  Sample in a Jar always works in the first set of an arena affair.  Sloth/Camel Walk was a nice old school pairing.  Possum appeared to be the set closer but Quinn provided a fun singalong.  This was a good first set but void of any risk taking. 

I was happy to see them explore Chalkdust a little bit outside of its normal territory before landing in Frankie Says.  I liked what they were doing with Undermind.  Both Chalkdust and Undermind from this show were a preview of things to come in Commerce City.  Sand stayed relatively groove oriented but was definitely a major highlight.  Walk Away kept the high energy at peak levels.  From Chalkdust to Walk Away the band had been on fire.  No one expected Limb by Limb to be an all time version but thats exactly what it was providing the high water mark of the show.  Julius and 2001 were both perfectly placed and well played.  There was only one way to cap off such a successful set of Phish and that was of course their quintessential tune, YEM.  The Rolling Stones spiritual anthem Shine A Light brought the crowd back down to earth before sending them off into the night.  The second set made this show a winner.