, attached to 2012-06-29

Review by EducateFright

EducateFright I attended this night and the previous night: my first time at Deer Creek. Though I've been catching shows since 1996, and am from Michigan (close enough), until now I'd never actually been to this venue that is so loved by Phish fans and so storied with tales of epic shows. Having heard (downloaded) some of the shows leading up to Deer Creek - Riverbend with its stunning Simple > Light > Paug, and Blossom with that jaw-dropping Golden Age > Ghost (love that haunting Ghost jam) - I was hoping that the momentum would continue to build and bubble over for the Deer Creek shows.

Plenty of Phish shows have crazy weather stories that go along with them, and one this was no exception. Central Indiana was the hottest since the 1930s, said the weather reports. As we drove into Indiana for the first DC show (which, BTW, did not disappoint), we started to experience the epic heat - we'd step out of the car for a break and come back 5-10 minutes later, suddenly realizing that we were dripping wet.
The heat continued throughout the 29th, and with greater humidity! We got some dinner before the show, and all the sudden the sky got evil dark. Soon enough it started to rain like crazy - and hail! The wind was stupid strong. BUT, soon the storm passed, leaving the air wonderfully cool... at least for a while.

Set 1. I'd never heard Crowd Control and I don't remember much about it. Then BAM, Dinner and a Movie! YES! Second song and the lawn was just RAGING. They nailed it. Sweet Jane - another song I didn't know (I snuck off to the bathroom for that one). Limb x2 was nice, and then they ripped a new asshole in Possum. Possum has surprised me a number of times in 3.0, c.f. the Blossom Possum from 2011... this one, as I recall, just ripped HARD. Great to hear Mound, of course. Live of Mars? was completely unexpected and they played it wonderfully. I'm a big Bowie fan (meaning David Bowie the musician), so I was thrilled, and really quite surprised at how well Trey nailed all the symphonic crescendos. All smiles for the Mango Song. I was extraordinarily excited for BBFCFM, as it's one of my favorite Phish songs (really!). I'd never caught it live before, and I was flipping out with plenty of happy first pumping.
If I remember correctly, the rest of the first set was well-played, but short and to the point (which has been rather common occurrence thus far on this tour... not that I'm necessarily complaining).

Set 2 is perhaps a little bit hazy for me. My buddy and I were both quite happy with the song selection. I had no idea what was going on with Trey and his mixed-up name-twisting. The whole place erupted when Sand segued into Twist. Fluffhead was tight, which is how I like it. ;)

The highlight for me was definitely the encore. Sanity? Are you kidding me? Talk about another song that I would have never ever expected! This was just so much fun. It was great to watch the huge monitors hanging from the pavilion and clearly see how sincere Trey looked as he sang the unsettling lyrics. First Tube was a great way to wrap up the DC shows, being a wonderfully energetic tune. Near the end Trey was doing his overly-excited hop-up-and-down, take-two-steps, hop-around-again thing (exactly as I remember seeing him do it from a video of the Tweeprise that closed one of the Island Tour shows from back in 98).

According the this fan, DC lived up to its reputation. I made lots of great memories.


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