If anyone thinks this show is weak they're entitled to opinions, but I have to heartily disagree! Say what you will about Set I, but they closed with Fluffhead! And if you don't like the new songs, maybe it's time to move on...most people I've talked to love them. The lyrics actually mean something now, check it out!

Hour and a half setbreak due to rain delay brought excitement to a fever pitch. If other reviewers missed the raw energy of this Set II, I am sorry, but I went to both Alpines as well and this Set II pwned all over any of the alpine Sets this year. "Ocean" has always been my fav off Undermind, and if you complain about Drowned then you're just lame and I can't help you. Twist was a semi-forced transition, as Page was going off on the piano and Trey just kinda started it. But the jam was interesting. With this new incarnation of Phish, the guys are stripping away the endless loops and layers that comprised the late 90s and also 03-04 period and just playing the shit out of stuff. When a jam comes to its natural conclusion (i.e. this Tweezer) instead of spacing for 15 minutes, they hit another tune. This 2001 is the best of the year (better than Festival 8, which I just saw in person). Suzy was pure energy and Possum provided a somewhat odd, quiet jam.

Monkey is always a treat. Getting totally soaked and dancing in the vending areas during "Tweeprise" will forever be etched in my momeory. Again, everyone's entitled to opinions, but as my 53rd show, I found the Set II material here better than almost anything since 10-7-00.

LOVED IT.

All I can say is Mother Nature became an unofficial member of the band this evening! The lightning during Fluffhead will forever be committed to my muscle-memory, its retina-scorching display forever imbedded deep within the catacombs of my brain! Outside of that, the first set is 'eh.' Moma Dance provides a sweltering funk dance-a-thon, but then again, when does it not? Ocelot was breezy, groovy and flowing, but Fluffhead truly saved this set.

Set 2, cautionary advice from Page and all, is the glory of this show! The Song>Drowned is beautiful, calling to memory hints of '98 era Phish, before embarking on the much-heralded Noblesville Jam after Drowned. Twist was ok, as are most 3.0 Twists. Let Me Lie was the relax and burn one down portion of this rain-soaked show (if you could successfully use a lighter at that point!)Tweezer>2001>Suzy was absolutely great! My first Tweezer (and Fluffhead) in 10 years was a royal treat, and not just a failed attempt at a truly epic Phish song. 2001 provided as the ritual disco-party segment of the evening, and everyone was all-smiles. Possum was interesting; its gradual build in intensity from the 'quiet' portion of its jam is worth noting. Definitely have not heard a Possum quite like this one before! Sleeping Monkey>Tweeprise for the encore was solid, leaving the masses at Deer Creek happy to traverse the muddy course back to their respectful tents and autos. It is worth noting that at some point during the 2nd set it did briefly stop raining, but as soon as the encore was finished, it began absolutely POARING harder than it had been all night!

Best lightning ever!!!!!

Three years to the day... and the two things that stick out in my mind about this show was the lightning and Fluffhead. Fluff was flawless, and Trey absolutely buried the solo at the end. I still get goosebumps thinking about the song with the lightning in the background. Ladies and Gentlemen, that is when I reached my Nirvana moment. I haven't come down since!

this show landed exactly 15 years after phish's first show at deer creek back in 1995. that show was also mine and most of my friends that i was with's first show, so need less to say, we were hoping some of that 1995 mojo would creep back in tonight.

i had just driven in that morning from a relatively hot but straight forward burgettestown show. while the previous night was good, we were really hoping hoping they would get weird...

the first set never really got too weird. I was happy to bdntl out of the way early in the show. i knew that was going to pop up either at deer creek or alpine, and being one of my least favorite of the new songs, i wanted it early... like pulling a band aid. ac/dc bag was welcome, and i was surprised to see limb by limb so early in the set. the moma dance keep the crowd rocking as clouds started to move in. water in the sky was a touch premature, but not by much. now, this melt just fell apart. this jam was very disjointed, and i kept waiting for them to pull it together, but that moment never came. i figured lawn boy would be an alpine valley song, but it's good to catch this page crooner at the creek. this wedge seemed to stretch out a little bit longer than normal. this was a particularly strong version. i really like faulty plan. like many songs in the repertoire, i was not too stoked on this tne until i saw them play it. i could've done without the connection, but ocelot got the crowd back into it. then, oh sweet jesus, fluff head! there were some flubs scattered in this fluff, but all in all, it was very well executed. the real story here is the lightning show that went along with the fluff head. i had some pavillion seats for this and i spent about 1/3 of this song turned around looking at the sky. trey really buried the end of this song, and despite the shit storm looming and a mediocre first set, fluff head sent everyone into set break jazzed!

this was one long set break. deer creek has a 11pm curfew, and usually that is pretty strict. as the set break reached 10:30-11, i was seriously wondering how much more show we were going to get. finally the guys came out and blasted into song i heard the ocean sing. i was really thinking ghost here, but maybe that was just some columbus '99/rainy ghost memories. anyway, the crowd quickly got into asihtos. the jam on this one had a nice dark, dreary, percussive sound. i don't know if it was just where i was sitting, but trey was really really loud this whole set. i was having a littl trouble hearing gordon due to trey's volume. i have never had trouble hearing a member of the band at deer creek, but gadzoots, trey was loud. luckily, trey was also on fire, so it was not a terrible problem to have.

anyway, after rocking this ocean jam for a few minutes, they began to space out a bit. out of a no where, page starts a piano solo that quickly turns a corner and leads to drowned. this drowned was a real barn burner. trey was so wailing away on this one. fishman also was pretty damn hot on this jam. they kind of forced the transition to twist, but hey, after that drowned, who cares? i am not really a big twist fan, but this one was pretty interesting. it had a santana'esque jam toward the end. let me lie was a good chance to burn one. the tweezer was phenomenal. page and trey were in the zone, and they really soared on this take of tweezer. i really feel that now a days they are trying to keep their tweezer relatively short but very focused, and I felt this was exactly what they were striving for all suummer. this jam finally gave way to 2001. page was all of this one, and the rain gave the disco funky feel a little twist. i really thought suzy would close this one out, but they tacked on a nice little possum before sending us up to alpine valley. the encore was a little anticlimatic but hell, good set!

highlights:

set 1:

the wedge,fluff head

set 2:
ocean sing>drowned, tweezer>2001

Proud Music of the Storm
by Walt Whitman

Proud music of the storm,
Blast that careers so free, whistling across the prairies,
Strong hum of forest tree-tops--wind of the mountains,
Personified dim shapes--you hidden orchestras,
You serenades of phantoms with instruments alert,
Blending with Nature's rhythmus all the tongues of nations;
You chords left as by vast composers--you choruses,
You formless, free, religious dances--you from the Orient,
You undertone of rivers, roar of pouring cataracts,
You sounds from distant guns with galloping cavalry,
Echoes of camps with all the different bugle-calls,
Trooping tumultuous, filling the midnight late, bending me powerless,
Entering my lonesome slumber-chamber, why have you seiz'd me?

Come forward O my soul, and let the rest retire,
Listen, lose not, it is toward thee they tend,
Parting the midnight, entering my slumber-chamber,
For thee they sing and dance O soul.
A festival song,
The duet of the bridegroom and the bride, a marriage-march,
With lips of love, and hearts of lovers fill'd to the brim with love,
The red-flush'd cheeks and perfumes, the cortege swarming full of
friendly faces young and old,
To flutes' clear notes and sounding harps' cantabile.
Now loud approaching drums,
Victoria! seest thou in powder-smoke the banners torn but flying?
the rout of the baffled?
Hearest those shouts of a conquering army?
(Ah soul, the sobs of women, the wounded groaning in agony,
The hiss and crackle of flames, the blacken'd ruins, the embers of cities,
The dirge and desolation of mankind.)
Now airs antique and mediaeval fill me,
I see and hear old harpers with their harps at Welsh festivals,
I hear the minnesingers singing their lays of love,
I hear the minstrels, gleemen, troubadours, of the middle ages.
Now the great organ sounds,
Tremulous, while underneath, (as the hid footholds of the earth,
On which arising rest, and leaping forth depend,
All shapes of beauty, grace and strength, all hues we know,
Green blades of grass and warbling birds, children that gambol and
play, the clouds of heaven above,)
The strong base stands, and its pulsations intermits not,
Bathing, supporting, merging all the rest, maternity of all the rest,
And with it every instrument in multitudes,
The players playing, all the world's musicians,
The solemn hymns and masses rousing adoration,
All passionate heart-chants, sorrowful appeals,
The measureless sweet vocalists of ages,
And for their solvent setting earth's own diapason,
Of winds and woods and mighty ocean waves,
A new composite orchestra, binder of years and climes, ten-fold renewer,
As of the far-back days the poets tell, the Paradiso,
The straying thence, the separation long, but now the wandering done,
The journey done, the journeyman come home,
And man and art with Nature fused again.
Tutti! for earth and heaven;
(The Almighty leader now for once has signal'd with his wand.)
The manly strophe of the husbands of the world,
And all the wives responding.
The tongues of violins,
(I think O tongues ye tell this heart, that cannot tell itself,
This brooding yearning heart, that cannot tell itself.)

Ah from a little child,
Thou knowest soul how to me all sounds became music,
My mother's voice in lullaby or hymn,
(The voice, O tender voices, memory's loving voices,
Last miracle of all, O dearest mother's, sister's, voices
The rain, the growing corn, the breeze among the long-leav'd corn,
The measur'd sea-surf beating on the sand,
The twittering bird, the hawk's sharp scream,
The wild-fowl's notes at night as flying low migrating north or south,
The psalm in the country church or mid the clustering trees, the
open air camp-meeting,
The fiddler in the tavern, the glee, the long-strung sailor-song,
The lowing cattle, bleating sheep, the crowing cock at dawn.
All songs of current lands come sounding round me,
The German airs of friendship, wine and love,
Irish ballads, merry jigs and dances, English warbles,
Chansons of France, Scotch tunes, and o'er the rest,
Italia's peerless compositions.
Across the stage with pallor on her face, yet lurid passion,
Stalks Norma brandishing the dagger in her hand.
I see poor crazed Lucia's eyes' unnatural gleam,
Her hair down her back falls loose and dishevel'd.
I see where Ernani walking the bridal garden,
Amid the scent of night-roses, radiant, holding his bride by the hand,
Hears the infernal call, the death-pledge of the horn.
To crossing swords and gray hairs bared to heaven,
The clear electric base and baritone of the world,
The trombone duo, Libertad forever!
From Spanish chestnut trees' dense shade,
By old and heavy convent walls a wailing song,
Song of lost love, the torch of youth and life quench'd in despair,
Song of the dying swan, Fernando's heart is breaking.
Awaking from her woes at last retriev'd Amina sings,
Copious as stars and glad as morning light the torrents of her joy.
(The teeming lady comes,
The lustrious orb, Venus contralto, the blooming mother,
Sister of loftiest gods, Alboni's self I hear.)

I hear those odes, symphonies, operas,
I hear in the William Tell the music of an arous'd and angry people,
I hear Meyerbeer's Huguenots, the Prophet, or Robert,
Gounod's Faust, or Mozart's Don Juan.
I hear the dance-music of all nations,
The waltz, some delicious measure, lapsing, bathing me in bliss,
The bolero to tinkling guitars and clattering castanets.
I see religious dances old and new,
I hear the sound of the Hebrew lyre,
I see the crusaders marching bearing the cross on high, to the
martial clang of cymbals,
I hear dervishes monotonously chanting, interspers'd with frantic
shouts, as they spin around turning always towards Mecca,
I see the rapt religious dances of the Persians and the Arabs,
Again, at Eleusis, home of Ceres, I see the modern Greeks dancing,
I hear them clapping their hands as they bend their bodies,
I hear the metrical shuffling of their feet.
I see again the wild old Corybantian dance, the performers wounding
each other,
I see the Roman youth to the shrill sound of flageolets throwing and
catching their weapons,
As they fall on their knees and rise again.
I hear from the Mussulman mosque the muezzin calling,
I see the worshippers within, nor form nor sermon, argument nor word,
But silent, strange, devout, rais'd, glowing heads, ecstatic faces.
I hear the Egyptian harp of many strings,
The primitive chants of the Nile boatmen,
The sacred imperial hymns of China,
To the delicate sounds of the king, (the stricken wood and stone,)
Or to Hindu flutes and the fretting twang of the vina,
A band of bayaderes.

Now Asia, Africa leave me, Europe seizing inflates me,
To organs huge and bands I hear as from vast concourses of voices,
Luther's strong hymn Eine feste Burg ist unser Gott,
Rossini's Stabat Mater dolorosa,
Or floating in some high cathedral dim with gorgeous color'd windows,
The passionate Agnus Dei or Gloria in Excelsis.
Composers! mighty maestros!
And you, sweet singers of old lands, soprani, tenori, bassi!
To you a new bard caroling in the West,
Obeisant sends his love.
(Such led to thee O soul,
All senses, shows and objects, lead to thee,
But now it seems to me sound leads o'er all the rest.)
I hear the annual singing of the children in St. Paul's cathedral,
Or, under the high roof of some colossal hall, the symphonies,
oratorios of Beethoven, Handel, or Haydn,
The Creation in billows of godhood laves me.
Give me to hold all sounds, (I madly struggling cry,)
Fill me with all the voices of the universe,
Endow me with their throbbings, Nature's also,
The tempests, waters, winds, operas and chants, marches and dances,
Utter, pour in, for I would take them all!

Then I woke softly,
And pausing, questioning awhile the music of my dream,
And questioning all those reminiscences, the tempest in its fury,
And all the songs of sopranos and tenors,
And those rapt oriental dances of religious fervor,
And the sweet varied instruments, and the diapason of organs,
And all the artless plaints of love and grief and death,
I said to my silent curious soul out of the bed of the slumber-chamber,
Come, for I have found the clew I sought so long,
Let us go forth refresh'd amid the day,
Cheerfully tallying life, walking the world, the real,
Nourish'd henceforth by our celestial dream.
And I said, moreover,
Haply what thou hast heard O soul was not the sound of winds,
Nor dream of raging storm, nor sea-hawk's flapping wings nor harsh scream,
Nor vocalism of sun-bright Italy,
Nor German organ majestic, nor vast concourse of voices, nor layers
of harmonies,
Nor strophes of husbands and wives, nor sound of marching soldiers,
Nor flutes, nor harps, nor the bugle-calls of camps,
But to a new rhythmus fitted for thee,
Poems bridging the way from Life to Death, vaguely wafted in night
air, uncaught, unwritten,
Which let us go forth in the bold day and write.

To those of you listening to the recordings, this show is all about the Second Set. To those who were there, this show is all about the lightning! When people talk about 6/19/09 years from now, they will talk about the lightning. First set highlights were AC/DC Bag (a personal favorite) and Fluffhead. Fluffhead with the oncoming storm and the glowsticks made for a memorable Phish experience. The Second Set, in my opinion, was phenomenal. As with most Second Sets, mostly songs with jamming potential. A Song I Heard the Ocean Sing featured a great jam that got a little out there and left Page to segue beautifully into Drowned. Tweezer->2001 was the absolute highlight. I honestly thought the set was over with Suzy Greenberg but the segue into Possum set the crowd on fire. The Suzy/Possum closer could not be more definitively Phish.
Like others, I was disappointed in the weak First Set and the amount of new songs. Going into the show I was really hoping for "It's Ice" and a "Cavern," so obviously I was a little let down by the likes of BDTNL and Ocelot. But the weather and the good jams that were played made this show a memorable one!

My first show. Wow.

To start things off, the first set is pretty "meh." I personally wasn't into it, not until the lightning/fluffhead started. Just a tame set, that is until fluffhead started and the storm was coming through. The long set break was a party, in the pavilion at least.

When the band came out for the 2nd set, it felt like a different band. ASIHTOS has a nice jam, which featured some nice work from Fishman. The Drowned started off absolutely blazing, and Trey killed it. In an era of a harsh tone and not as dexterous as the past, he really shined. The rest of the set doesn't get out there, but it was a blast.

The two songs that really have any real replay value are the ASIHTOS->Drowned.

Also, the Johnny B. Goode reference in the first set, and the following night at Alpine I was beginning to think they were gonna bust that out by the end of the run. Oh well.

There was an lightning storm in the distance during Fluffhead which made for an incredible "light show" to accompany a fantastic and well-played version of this song. First I ever saw. That would have been good enough...but the second set was terrific. Probably the highlight for me was the Tweezer>2001. I also got a kick out of Sleeping Monkey...to quote the guy you can hear on LivePhish..."thanks fellas"

On June 19th, 2009 m’lady and I pulled into the Closeby Campground near(-ish) the venue in Deer Creek and set up her small, budget-quality tent. I think we were running a little behind or maybe we were being time-cautious, but we went to the show without lingering too long at the campground and (significantly, it turned out) we left the tent empty; with an eye either on the clock or on safety and security all our belongings remained inside my big SUV.

We were here to see Phish. I had recently gotten into collecting gig posters so I bee-lined to the merch tent and laid down $50 for a really nice print by a guy I had never heard of: Tyler Stout. M’lady and I found ourselves a spot on the lawn and enjoyed a great first set.

As the night went on the clouds collecting on the horizon grew more ominous, but even more frightening was the lightning storm. Y’know how you learned in science class that lighting actually moves up from the ground? We could see it; the lightning was flashing upwards and in slow motion taboot. Over and over a consistent webbing of light rose around the venue, sometimes enveloping the whole sky. I remember the crowd collectively holding their breath in fear as an airplane flew across the sky heading directly towards the lightning. Somehow it made it through.

When setbreak came the band announced that the second set wouldn’t start until the storm blew over. Fans with pavilion seating would be good, but everyone on the lawn should go back to their cars until the rains came and went.

We took their advice and headed out the gate as the first drops fell, fat and heavy. I wrapped my plastic rain jacket tightly around my cardboard poster tube and put my head own against the coming rain. Before we got anywhere near our truck the clouds opened up. Some kind soul yelled for us to join him in his pickup truck. We took him up on his offer and missed the worst of it.

I mean that rain came down. We sat in the cab of buddy’s truck sipping his cold beers and absolutely marvelling at the storm. It was coming down cats and dogs and the lightning was still hummin’ but we were safe.

But when it cleared up it cleared up just as fast as it came and we all marched back in and found new spots on the soggy but sloped lawn. When the second set started it was actually a beautiful night, and the set was simply spectacular. During the encore came another torrential downpour. This time it was raining cats and dogs and moose and gerbils; I mean it was raining man. Walking to the increasingly inappropriately named Closeby Campground after the show m’lady and I kept dryish in our matching Maid Of The Mist plastic rain ponchos. And here I was with a poster.

When we finally got back to the campground we discovered that we had left m’lady’s tent flap completely open. Inside the tent was a little lake – anything we might have left in it would have been soaked through or stolen so things had worked out pretty okay. The big leather front seats in my Mitsubishi Montero reclined almost 180 degrees so spending the night in the SUV was not only dry, but surprisingly comfortable.

And my poster made it through the night 100% unscathed; I’m looking at it as I write this. It’s become a pretty valuable poster too, not only because it was one of the first Stout Phish posters (he’s since done many) and it looks amazing, but I suspect because quite a few were ruined in the rain leaving the print even rarer than its relatively low run of 700 units would suggest.

toddmanout.com

As Dickens may have said"... "It was the best of shows, it was the worst of shows"

It was my first show since the 1999/2000 New Years event at Big Cypress in Florida and it was also show number 25 for me. Since 25 is somewhat of a milestone (25 is also my lucky number, and the day of my birthday), my expectations were high. The last four times I had seen the boys at Deer Creek (I will NEVER call it by its corporate name), they tore the roof off the place. And while the music has always seemed to have that little something extra at Deer Creek, the venue itself has always had a "walking-on-eggshells" vibe. Ever since the Grateful Dead gate-crashing incident in '95, security has always seems a little more uptight at Deer Creek. If the Comic Book Guy were here he might have called it Bizarro-World, because tonight would be something different"...

Musically speaking, I was disappointed. I have the entire summer tour on my iTunes, and I feel it was the worst show of the tour! Looking through the setlists, there is no other show that they played so many of the new songs (five this night). Now, if the new songs rocked"... I would have been geeked. Unfortunately"... in this guy's opinion"... the new songs are awful! They are weak, slow-paced, lack energy, etc"... and we got stuck with five of them. On top of that, they played AC/DC Bag, Water in the Sky, Tweezer (with the always-present Reprise), Twist, and Sleeping Monkey. These are all songs I could go another 10 years without hearing live. Not that they are bad songs, but I have either heard them at half of the shows I have been to or feel that they are slow, boring, etc"... While there were a few high points (Wedge, Suzy, Possum), the show just never seemed to "get going".

Now for the flip side of the coin. While Deer Creek has traditionally been a pretty strict venue, they let their guard down tonight. It began raining during the first set (probably around Water in the Sky, Split Open and Melt - œ appropriate), and then the storm approached. It was getting dark by this point and the lightning show was AMAZING! It is one of the coolest things I have ever seen at a show"... ANY SHOW! By the time the first set ended, the storm was right on top of us, and the lightning was pretty intense. After the boys left the stage, a guy came out and announced that they were going to let the people sitting on the hill actually leave the venue to sit in the safety of their cars in the parking lot. He said the storm should blow through by 11:00 and that the band would be out for their second set at 11:00 sharp. So we headed out. We went to the car, had a few beers, changed our wet clothes and relaxed! By about 10:30 it did in fact stop raining, so we headed back in. No one was even checking tickets. The boys did start right at 11:00 and played a full set, with an encore (a good 90-100 minutes of music past the venue's curfew). By the end of the encore, it had begun pouring again.

Overall, it was good to see Phish again! The setlist was weak, but I guess that happens (I am just disappointed that the weakest show of the tour was the only show of the tour that I was able to attend). On the bright side of things, Mother Nature was ON that night. I saw one of the most amazing lightning shows, and actually witnessed Deer Creek being civilized. They were concerned about the safety of the people on the lawn and allowed us to see a full two-set show (despite going until almost 1:00 AM).

Looking forward to Fall Tour!

Great show once again. Loved AC/DC Bag, Limb By Limb, Moma Dance, Water in the Sky, Split Open and Melt combo. Not a big fan of Lawn Boy though. Ocelot is growing on me. This song sounds like a song that has been played in rotation for a long time now. I hope to hear more of it in the future. Fluffhead! What can I say about it. Great ending to the first set, to say the least. At this point though, things didn't look to good weather wise. You could see the sky behind the stage because of the lighting (great light show). At this point, we were told that the crowd on the lawn had to vacate do to the in coming storm and the second set would start a little late after the storm had passed and it did indeed. It passed by quickly and about 10:30 to 10:45, the second set started. The second song of the second set, Drowned seemed to get the crowd really going though. This went into a great Twist. Let me Lie didn't do much for me, but Tweezer, Also Sprach Zarathustra, Suzy Greenberg, and Possum did. Great, great finish. The sky was lightin' up once again. At this point, I started heading for the parking lot, moving kind of slow so I could hear what was next. Good Sleeping Monkey and when I heard Tweezer Reprise I kinda got moving real quick to my vehicle cause the rain was kind of a downpour at this point. But this was just the start of what was one hell of a drive home. I had a 2 hour drive back to Dayton and if I hadn't had to work the next day, I would have pulled over. This was the worst storm i've ever driven in. Besides the down pour all the way back to Brookville Ohio,( about 10 to 15 miles outside of Dayton) the Lighting was incredible. I had a hard time seeing wear I was going. I had no business being on the road at all, but I had to get home to get at least a little sleep. I drove back and fourth all 3 nights back in 2003, and got 12 hours sleep in 3 days and hope I never go through that ever again. I hope that when Phish comes back next year, I hope its either on the weekend or close to it..........

The first set here at the one-night installment of Deer Creek Phish was mellow and the highlights for me were Lawn Boy, the Wedge, and Fluffhead. I will say that the ASIHTOS jam was breathtaking to start the stormy second set. Tweezer > 2001 is a dream connection that all heads hope for, and this one was rockin', and the Suzy > Possum ended things right. Sleeping was a treat. Can't wait for two nights after a thorough tour to get things primed in 2010!