Live Phish 05 - 7.8.00: Alpine Valley Music Theater, East Troy, Wisconsin Review

07/13/2005 7:43 AM, AMG


Easily the weakest of Phish's first six live releases, the choice of this show -- recorded in East Troy, WI, during the band's summer 2000 tour -- is somewhat boggling. Though the crystalline sound quality reveals a band with a rightfully legendary interplay, the polite way to describe that interaction on this show is subtle. To be fair, it is subtle, but the show is -- in many ways -- a lowest-common-denominator excursion, during which the band (specifically guitarist Trey Anastasio) often falls back on bombastic rock arranagements, such as a lazily loping "Wolfman's Brother," a boring "Twist," and the standard blues-rock tension and release of "Possum." Mostly, the show finds the band trying to play with a big energy and failing. A high point is provided by the take of "Piper" on the second disc, a song with which the band relentlessly experimented during the summer of 2000, working to play with the song's dynamics in a masterful way while still developing the melodic improvisation. The show, like the six-CD Hampton Comes Alive, is populist in a way that Phish's earlier work rarely is, favoring simplified rock and funk grooves over abstract excursions and hyperactive key changes. The Alpine Valley show is a stereotypical document of Phish in 2000, wallowing in a malaise. ~ Jesse Jarnow, All Music Guide