PHISH, FRIDAY 07/18/2003
ALPINE VALLEY MUSIC THEATRE
East Troy, WI

We made the drive overnight from Bonner Springs. First, we had to drop LMSYEM off at the Kansas City airport. LMSYEM, it was a real pleasure doing Phoenix>KS with you - 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! 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 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.

SET 1: 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.

Bathtub 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 fiery! 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 an incredible segue into ->

The Mango Song: 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: 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: > Dust in the Wind > 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. Dust in the Wind: A brief attempt at a collaborative 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 some time, something that our group had talked about leading up to these shows: the lack of banter in modern Phish. Anyway...

David 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.

SET 2: Down with Disease: 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 a lot 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!

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

Twist: Very solid, would recommend! >

Character Zero: Standard.

ENCORE: Harry 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. An interesting Type II Hood here in the encore slot. This Hood was much different than Chula's (i.e. 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.

Replay Value: Bathtub Gin -> The Mango Song, Roggae, Down with Disease -> Catapult, Harry Hood.

Summary: I would rate this as a solid enough 3.5 out of 5. Would like to bump it up closer to 4 but can’t because of the crash and burn in the second set. 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.