Run Like an Antelope

Words by: Billy Jack Sinkovic

Phish :: 06.18.11 :: Time Warner Cable Music Pavilion at Walnut Creek :: Raleigh, NC

Phish :: 06.19.11 :: nTelos Pavilion :: Portsmouth, VA

Phish :: 06.14.11 :: Alpharetta, GA Photo by Dave Vann Phish 2011

One more Saturday night on the first leg of Summer Tour, and many fans were still reeling from the previous night’s barn-burner in Charlotte. Folks got settled in on lot at Raleigh’s [insert revolving-door corporate sponsor here] Pavilion at Walnut Creek, grabbed a cup of whatever and caught their breath, while keeping their eyes on smart phone weather radars. A mega-storm of Alpharetta proportions was headed their way. But the higher powers [Icculus, perhaps?] were looking out for the children dancing on the lawn, and a perfect amphitheater-sized hole broke in the brightly colored band teeming across the NC Piedmont. Fans stayed dry, at least until two and a half hours of boogyin’ on drenched them in sweat.

For the first time in nearly 19 years, Phish opened with two instrumentals. [11/22/92 opened with Buried Alive and Oh Kee Pah]. Page‘s Cars Trucks Buses really deserves more rotation, especially if he and Trey jam it out like they did on this particular night. And only the second rendition of Frank Zappa’s Peaches En Regalia since 1999 had all the post-hiatus stats chasers high-fiving while they shook their tail-feathers. AC/DC Bag featured a mellow build with a raging peak, and the crowd was lit up. Guyute and yet another Possum [the second in a week and the seventh of tour] followed, and then Mike began the doo-wop intro to Halley’s Comet. Many fans have lamented the demise of this particular song throughout the post-breakup era. Once a monster jam vehicle, the song seems to get cut off in favor of another before it builds up any steam. This version was showing some serious potential – a nice peak was reached via some rockin’ piano chops, and a new and interesting jam segment was just beginning to be shaped by Mike’s bass line – but sure enough, a seemingly A.D.D. Trey forced the 46 Days intro over the top of everything else, and that was the end of Halley’s. Thankfully, 46 Days has its own post-breakup reputation as a rager, and this version was two minutes of composition followed by a fist-pumping five minutes of climax that left brows wet and knees weak. The set rounded out with Divided Sky (falling somewhere between the sloppy PNC iteration and the best versions edition at Great Woods), Curtis Loew (with a few lyric flubs by Page that were overshadowed the fact that it’s SUCH a great tune), and Run Like an Antelope.

Phish :: 06.15.11 :: Alpharetta, GA Photo by Dave Vann Phish 2011

Second set opened with a Twist that grooved steadily across Type I terrain and straight into an extremely tight and focused Rift. Prince Caspian floated upon the waves of upper-octave bass and into a serene pool of delay loop that teased Piper extensively before uncovering the calliope intro to the first Esther of the year. After that poor girl had drifted away to a tranquil and motionless sleep, Trey began fiddling around with the array of gadgets in front of him. Guitar tech Brian Brown was summoned, celebrated, and sent away. Mike rang his foot bell a couple of times on the urging of Trey, who was speaking through a vocal effect that pushed his voice to a timbre of, say, Perry Farrell. The ensuing Been Caught Stealing, played for the first time since the cover-laden year of ’98, was a PARTY. Next, the actualization of Piper sailed upon Fishman‘s never-ceasing polyrhythmic rolls and fills while dual-duty Page had one hand nimbly cavorting up and down the piano keys while the other saturated the jam with organ. Piper segued neatly into My Friend, My Friend, and instead of punctuating the end with a hearty Myfe, Trey ripped into a must-listen run through Kill Devil Falls.

After only a quick breath following that shredder of a KDF, Fishman kicked off what became the night’s highlight for many: Split Open and Melt. Clocking in at over 14 minutes, the band effortlessly nailed the composed segment before wandering about the main theme and into a shadowy valley of psychedelic improv. Held together at first by Fishman’s periodic assertion of the song’s complex time signature, the sound completely dissolved into a puddle of gloom. Each member of the band took their time to emerge on the main theme, and then it was done. A one-two punch closer of Golgi and a particularly vivacious First Tube (complete with Jedi Trey wielding his Languedoc light saber for all to see) put the exclamation point at the end of a fantastic set. For the encore, a brisk take on Zeppelin’s Good Times, Bad Times sent fans shakin’ out to Shakedown Street for food and frolic. Thus ended a particularly memorable summertime romp through North Carolina with only one show to go on the first leg of Summer Tour 2011.

Raleigh Setlist
Set 1: Cars Trucks Buses, Peaches en Regalia, AC/DC Bag, Guyute, Possum, Halley’s Comet > 46 Days, The Divided Sky, The Ballad of Curtis Loew, Run Like an Antelope

Set 2: Twist > Rift > Prince Caspian > Esther, Been Caught Stealing, Piper > My Friend, My Friend [1] > Kill Devil Falls, Split Open and Melt, Golgi Apparatus, First Tube

Encore: Good Times Bad Times

[1] No “Myfe” ending.

Phish :: 06.15.11 :: Alpharetta, GA Photo by Dave Vann Phish 2011

Fans lucky enough to have secured tickets to the smallest venue of the tour -with a 7,000-person capacity, the diminutive nTelos Pavilion holds just about one-third of the previous night’s stop in Raleigh – made their way across rural Eastern Virginia to a cluster of coastal cities that is all too familiar to veteran Phish aficionados. Portsmouth is perched on the mouth of the James River, along with Norfolk, Hampton and Virginia Beach, all of which have hosted a total of 21 shows since 1992. The venue itself was an astute architectural acknowledgment to the sailboats docked at the adjacent port. Ferries carried fans from the band of hotels on the Norfolk side of the river across to a scattered sea of festive parking lots and decks, and the brief stormy squall did little to quash the fevered anticipation of one last night of Phish.

Seeing as how the band had opened their last two Father’s Day shows with their kids piled in a bathtub while they played Brother, just about everyone assumed that’s how this show would open as well, but then Dr. Jack McConnell wandered out onstage for a quick dance step right before showtime, and all bets were off. Sure enough, those infamous lyrics, Oom Pa Pa, Oom Pa Pa, Oom Pa Paaaaaaa kicked off the first Harpua opener in 22 years. The middle portion of the song, which typically contains a silly narrative leading into an out-of-leftfield first-time cover, instead contained a Happy Birthday tease to a new 31 year-old and her mom in the front row before forging ahead to the story of Harpua and Poster Nutbag. And once the storm had gone, Jimmy and his father had their little tte--tte about Poster’s demise, voiced by Trey, Mike, Page and Jon and their fathers, Ernie, Bob, Jack and Leonard. Hilarious. The brief but brilliant Harpua was followed by the anticipated Brother with the kids, and after all of the family members had been introduced, including in utero, Question Mark McConnell!, there was an unspoken moment of reflection for both the band and the fans. 28 years into an awe-inspiring career and many of us have gone from crazy little kids rebelling against our own fathers into fathers ourselves, worrying about what kind of ridiculous shenanigans our own kids are seeking. Thankfully, there’s no need for an inquiry as to whether we can still have fun. Happy Father’s Day, everyone!

Phish :: 06.14.11 :: Alpharetta, GA Photo by Dave Vann Phish 2011

The rest of the first set [and the second set as well] contained more than a handful of repeats from earlier in the week, but this wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. Echoes from Alpharetta included solid versions of Back on the Train, Timber, The Moma Dance, and David Bowie, as well as particularly tasty takes on Down with Disease and Funky Bitch. The other special moment before the sun fell below the sea was a first-time cover of Bruce Springsteen’s Thunder Road in honor of the recently passed Clarence Clemons, who was both a long-time member of Springsteen’s E-Street Band and a native of nearby Chesapeake. Rounding out the set were a sadly short and stuttering Tube, a good but not great Alaska, and a textbook reading of The Wedge.

The lights went down for one final time in June of 2011, and the band wasted no time with a rip-roarin’ Crosseyed and Painless that never lost an ounce of energy. Walls of the Cave followed, leaving many to wonder why it isn’t in more of a regular rotation with its well-crafted multi-part composed portion and its easily explored rock-n-roll outro. Said outro segued into a sweet and sublime Slave, and then on into Fluffhead. Sliding on smoothly into Sand, the band found even greater party potential in this version than its last rockin’ take in Alpharetta. The jam wiggled and wandered with a great deal of subtle interplay between Trey & Page and included a bit of old school stop-start jamming. The final stop-start was practically a Sand Reprise, which then snuck into fan-favorite Sneakin’ Sally Through the Alley, featuring a brief vocal jam that then rocked its way into Light. Without a doubt the most powerful jam vehicle of Phish 3.0, this particular version went a slightly different direction than its many other versions, sticking to a major key for its able-bodied build, release and subsequent trek of tranquility. The already stellar jam began its second build along with the anticipation of the next tune. What followed was Backwards Down the Number Line. Say what you will about this tuneso I don’t have to. Closing out the set was another Page-powered Suzy Greenburg. Apparently, Page has houses in Alpharetta, Charlotte AND Portsmouth.

After Julius, an interesting choice for an encore but well-executed nonetheless, fans slipped off into the night for one last drink, one last dance, one last after-party. Without a doubt the hottest ticket was The Phro Boat. This new post-show tradition for notable tour stops near bodies of water, the double-decker party boat scooped up the lucky revelers from right behind the venue and took a wild trip up the James River before dropping them off at the hotel in the wee hours of morning. West Coast phans, don’t be the only ones left on the dock – check out The Tahoe Steamer coming to a rockin’ resort lake near you. And with that, we bid you a weary but cheerful Adieu. Rest up, get excited for SuperBall, and whatever you do, take care of those shoes.

Portsmouth Setlist
Set 1: Harpua [1] > Brother, Down with Disease > Back on the Train, Funky Bitch, Timber (Jerry), The Wedge, The Moma Dance, Thunder Road [2], Tube, Alaska > David Bowie

Set 2: Crosseyed and Painless > Walls of the Cave > Slave to the Traffic Light > Fluffhead > Sand > Sneakin’ Sally through the Alley > Light > Backwards Down the Number Line, Suzy Greenberg

Encore: Julius

[1] With the band’s fathers voicing the part of Jimmy’s father.
[2] Phish debut

Thanks yet again to the great and knowledgeable ZZYZX.

Phish Tour Dates :: Phish News

JamBase | Gilled Up
Go See Live Music!