after hauling ass from burgettestown to deer creek, it as time to do it again. unlike 2004, i made sure to leave at nice and early so we could get situated and make it in before show time. after 8 hours in chicago traffic, we barely got there on time. we had lawn seats for both nights, but after this show, i was convinced i need to upgrade to pavillion. if you are going to a show at alpine valley to listen to the music, you better get some pavillion seats! the sound in the lawn is god awful, and sometimes your company might be god awful, see the wasted frat boys i was sitting next to up to bt gin....

punch you in the eye: anyone that was feeling a little weary after two days in a row of driving got a little boogie woogie back in their step on this one.

run away jim: nice early set treat. i was rooting for a big 2nd set jim or gin, but they both found their way into this first set. anyway, this one seemed to be appropriately jammed before petering out. it didn't go too far, but it was well-received two songs into the show.

stash: the band's energy level seemed to jump up a notch on this one. not the craziest stash i've seen, but a good solid version none the less.

yamar: good mid set cool down song. gordon and page sounded good on this one.

bt gin: here we go! this one had a lot of energy and some nimble playing by trey. they did not take this one out too far, but like jim, it was a welcome addition to the set.

kill devil falls: this song just reminds me of a watered down chalk dust torture.... not my favorite

train song: nice little slow number... didn't see this one coming

farmhouse: blah

sparkle: at least it's quick

antelope: back on track. after doing their first year at deer creek without playing antelope, i figured they's bring a good one to alpine, and i was right. trey and gordon were lighting this one up. this set was starting to peter out a bit, but this one brought it right back up. very good lope

set 2:

waves: not my favorite song, but there was some nice exploration in this one before it jumped into...

sample: once again, not my favorite song, but trey and the boys seemed to be a little extra firey on this take. if you are a sample fan, this one has a much more rocking edge than most.

maze: now we are entering flavor country. this might be the best maze of the year. shoreline had a good one too, but i think this one takes the cake. page's solo rocked all 40,000 people to the bone. trey bounced off page nicely, but page is the star on this tune.

makisupa: very good makisupa. it's good to hear trey has a sense of humor pertaining to his legal woes. also, i think if you've ever been on probation, this one was particularly funny.

ghost: very nice but short ghost. this had a nice layered/textured jam. fishman and gordon layed a really nice foundation and page and trey worked all over it before dropping down into...

the lizards: this was a nice straight forward lizards. well played.

yem: i love a "vocal jam'less" yem. they tore through the composed part, and they started to play a funky little jam in the post-tramps slot that worked seamlessly into...

nicu: ah, another song where leo get's to "play it!" this nicu was strong, but unfortunately, this was the last really good song of the set.

caspian: boo... i really don't like this one, but after a hot maze, ghost, and yem>nicu combo, i needed to catch a sit down and bowl. i'm sure they'll be rocking after this...

waste: hmmmmm...back to back with caspian to end the set.

fire: here we go. a little hendrix to get us going again. nothing out of this world, but hell, i'll take hendrix where ever i can get it.

enc:

character zero: i find this song to be a little cheesey, but hey, people seem to like.... whatcha gonna do.

overall:

the first set was evenly played. everything was above average, but nothing really took off to that next level, except for possibly antelope. the second set started and ended slow, but everything from maze to nicu was gravy. this was a good first night, leaving room to step it up the 2nd night.

highlights:

1st set:
gin, antelope

2nd set
maze, makisupa>ghost, yem>nicu

First show I ever saw. Being a Wisconsin native alpine is not only a music venue but a legend. At the point when I got into phish I didn't have the wildest dream of ever seeing them as it was right around 2006. I always loved their music but didn't really listen to any live stuff until being there in person! Totally the best way for me I was 15 years old right in my backyard watching some of the best live entertainment known to man. This was only the spark of t he obsession, next show was Bridgeview Illinois thay same year at toyota park. No matter how many shows I go to or discover I always will go back to this one and revisited the wonderful memories.

First Show!
Met up with an old friend and her husband who flew in from So Cal to see Phish.

Not much I can say here since it was my first other than I was blown away and it made me a Phan for life!

We placed a small wager on calling the opener, and with my neophyte knowledge of Phish at the time I called PYITE! Free beer for me!

That Maze was my first glow stick experience that probably put me over the edge that I need to see as many live shows as I can before I die.

Was a bit bummed that we didn't get a YEM vocal jam, but hey NICU was excellent as well.

Other highlights were Jim, Makisupa, and The Lizards

Waves is definitely an underrated second set opener. Selectively played, chill vibe and an elastic jumping off point from which each member of band plays comfortably. Perfect placement for the first night of two night stand that injected a bit of intimacy into the caverns of Alpine.

I would like to tell a brief story of why this show is my favorite Phish show of all time. I first got into Phish in the summer 2004, right after Coventry. I was in High School so I was too young to even know about the band before I heard them. I immediately fell in love. As soon as my love affair began, I realized the grim reality that I would probably never see the band live. Years went by and I regulated myself to acceptance of no Phish until the fall of 2008 when it was announced that the boys would reunite at Hampton. My jubilation grew even more when the 2009 Summer Tour was announced and I was able to attend the first night at Alpine. I will confess, I don’t think that most of the shows in 2009 were that good. Not to say they were not memorable, but when I listen again to this show, Phish just does not sound super tight. And I do not blame them since they were coming back from 5-year hiatus. Still I listen to the jams in this show, I hear a bit of tepidness and awkwardness in the delivery. However, as a young Phish Phan going my first show, didn’t know better or care. Plus, this setlist for a first-time show is like Christmas and your Birthday combined. PYINTE, Stash, Antelope, Maksisupa, Lizards and YEM! I mean that’s a treat! But the song that made this first show super special for me was NICU. NICU is my favorite song as you can see from my Username. When YEM moved into NICU, I was frozen in time. In that movement, all I could think about was how lucky I was to see my favorite band in the world playing my favorite song by them. It’s hard to believe now the power of that moment. But that’s the magic of Phish and that is why this show is my favorite show of all time.

first show. i think back to this weekend a lot, and most of my memories come from N2. HOWEVER - i remember very clearly that Stash, and how it made me feel that, yes, i was ready for IT.. a few years passed til i really got IT, but this was my initiation, and for that i'm forever grateful.

First show what else can I say. I do think this show is better then night two IMO but I know I'm in the minority.

Anytime Punch starts a show it's going to be on. Jim is good, Ya Mar was funny and tight, "Mike's grandpa". Antelope was really good, the best of the early summer no doubt. Maze was a highlight, with a nice glowstick party on the ski-hill lawn. Lizards was a treat as was Fire. YEM > NICU was another highlight. Good opener to a two-night stand.

On June 20th, 2009 m’lady and I found ourselves mired in a traffic jam of epic proportions just outside of Chicago. Before us lay a sea of cars so dense it wouldn’t have parted for an ambulance driven by Moses. Every inch of asphalt in every direction was covered with stop-and-go traffic that was decidedly more stop than go. Every offramp was a parking lot…in fact the only cars that seemed to be going anywhere where the ones merging onto the highway in front of us.

In a fit of desperation (or maybe it was just boredom) we inched off of the highway at a random exit and relied on instinct and a vague road atlas to backroad it to Alpine Valley. We ended up driving twice the miles in half the time and made it to our Stalin-esque no-fun hotel with plenty of time to get to the venue.

Of course the band was Phish, playing the first night of their tour-ending two-nighter in the steep Alpine Valley. This was my first time at the classic outdoor venue, one I first heard of on August 27th, 1990 when Stevie Ray Vaughan died in a helicopter crash after playing a show there.

Sigh*

We had pavilion seats and enjoyed a rollickingly great show from our spot just in front of the notoriously steep GA lawn. The setlist almost looked like I picked it myself, hitting tons of my favourite Phish tunes: Runaway Jim, Stash, Maze, YEM, Makisupa Policeman, Lizards, Sparkle, Ghost…it was great.

They even encored with Character Zero, as much to my enjoyment as it was to m’lady’s chagrin.

I don’t remember how we got back and forth to the hotel – I’m thinking there was a shuttle involved – but I do know when we returned to our hotel we started to get a fuller appreciation of just how strict the place was. They were scrutinizing wristbands, checking room keys and stomping on good vibes with an enthusiastic fervour that showed just how reluctant they were to put up with filling their hotel to capacity at premium prices for any future Phish concerts.

I thought it was us that was supposed to be giving them the business, not the other way around.

*I’ll certainly never forget about the moment I heard about that helicopter crash. My band was driving to Toronto for a gig in two vehicles; me and JP in my Toyota minivan packed full of gear (and most likely our soundguy-ish Paöule) with Patrick and Raymond following behind. The news of a helicopter crash came over the radio. The announcer said that members of Eric Clapton’s crew and band were aboard. There was no mention of Stevie Ray Vaughan whatsoever.

After the next song the DJ came on and said, “We now have confirmed reports that Stevie Ray Vaughan has died in a helicopter crash over Alpine Valley.”

We were floored.

This was pre-cell phone so I pulled the van to the side of the old highway 16 to tell the guys in the other car the terrible news (they were undoubtedly listening to old cassettes of The Osmonds; pre-Donny of course). As we commiserated at the side of the road it started to rain big, hard drops. We hopped back into our vehicles just ahead of an epic downpour that continued for the entire drive to Toronto.

We loaded into Clinton’s in the pouring rain, watched the opening band complete outclass us (an act called The Saddletramps featuring a young singer named Sarah Harmer) before working up an extra-sweaty set in front of our usual mediocre crowd in the swamp-like humid Toronto night. Outside the rains continued to pour down.

I have no idea where we slept that night but I do know we woke up under continued dark skies and still more rain. Impossibly it kept pouring all the way back to Ottawa. We unloaded the gear into Pat’s basement quickly to avoid getting it too wet and I continued on towards my dorm room at Carleton University.

As I approached the Hog’s Back Bridge I heard what turned out to be a final burst of thunder and all at once the rains stopped and the sun came out. I found myself stuck in traffic and got out to see what the hold up was. I walked up to the Hog’s Back Bridge and was told that lightning had just hit the…let’s see, what are those things called?

You know those black and white wooden barriers that came down at railway crossings to stop the traffic? Anyways, the Hog’s Back Bridge has one of those on either side and one of them had just then been struck by lightning. I saw two-foot length of the shattered wooden barrier laying on the ground and grabbed it.

So here’s what happened. As soon as I got the news that SRV was gone the sky opened up and stayed that way as I travelled for almost a thousand kilometres. The deluge ended abruptly with a bolt of lightning pretty much exactly twenty-four hours after it began and in a Zoroastrianist fit I drew a connection between the spirit of Stevie Ray Vaughan and that destroyed bit of wood. That fleeting burst of energy lifting from the earth up to the heavens (they say lightning actually goes up) represented a tangible transmission of the guitarist’s soul and the destroyed piece of…whatever those things are called…was an actual physical relic of SRV’s own explosive energy.

I cherished that piece of wood like it was holy and displayed it prominently everywhere I lived until I finally lost it in a house fire.

Sigh.

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