well, it looks like i'm going to have to suck it up this year and miss the alpine run, which i havent missed since 98. i guess it's ok since i'm missing it in order to hit telluride and a buddy's wedding in crested butte but...

anyway, this one is one of my favorite alpine shows. the first set is a little flat. access me and scents, especially without the nifty intro, were kind of a bland opener. stash never really seemed to "go there." things pick up a little with moma dance. fishman/gordon appeared to be in sync on this one. the divided sky was good, but still, like stash, just never really soared like it normally does. the wilson>funky bitch combo really picked things up. zero is not my favorite tune, but at least, it was played with some passion and energy.

now, in the second set, the boys turned it up a huge notch, especially gordon and fishman. this is my all time favorite boogie on. trey is back in the game on this one and has some good playing in this one. page has some nice fills too, but the real heroes in this jam are gordon and fishman. like the tube and the cross eyed at deer creek, gordon is just all over this one. after a scorching hot funk jam, they find their way into a nice long ghost. there is some very nice dark funky exploration in this one. granted, this does not hit the peaks they were hitting from 98-00, but it is still well-played. this one works nicely into a good funky free. trey keeps up the good playing, but once again, the other 3 members really play nicely on this free. friday provides everyone with an ice breather and it wanders nicely into a very inspired piper. this is one of those songs that i never really want to hear until it really starts smoking. this one rocks pretty hard before finding some funkier realms. eventually, fishman leads the charge into a very good alpine harry hood. this song works so well at this massive venue, and this is no exception. like ghost, it does not soar as high as it used to, but it is still a strong version worth hearing. at the time, i thought this encore was going to be the last thing i would ever hear phish play together, i skipped the east coast shows in august. well, possum was a good way to go out. sure, i would've loved harpua, forbin's, camel walk, etc, but they played possum at my first 2 shows, so i should hear at my last!! good version too.

overall, i would say this is a good show. as mentioned, the first set was a little flat, but the first half of the second set is just pure gravy!. in my opinion, this is the last really interesting set that phish played before 2009. the east coast leg that came a couple of months later was just god awful. i'm sure emotions were running high, but they were not running as "high" as trey was. i feel like every east coast show almost got proggressively worse until the big suck fest that was coventry. anyway, the boogie>ghost>free alone was worth the price of admission.

highlights:
set 1:
wilson>funky bitch

set 2:
boogie>ghost>free, piper>hood