Customer Reviews

Live Phish Vol. 5: 7/8/00, Alpine Valley Music Theater, East Troy, Wisconsin

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

7/8/00 was my first show at Alpine Valley, famed ampitheater that is home to many great Phish and Grateful Dead shows. I was glad to finally make it for my first show which opened up with a really nice PYITE (Punch You In The Eye for those who don't speak Phish), followed by a really nice NICU. The first set has a really nice, mellow Wolfman's Brother. The Antelope that closes the first set is classic. It was my favorite of the three I saw that summer. The second disc, starts off slowly with a Heavy Things, but goes into one of the better Piper's I have heard seguing into Rock And Roll, a great Velvet Underground cover. An extremely nice and mellow Tweezer segues into what was my first Walk Away, and makes for a nice ending of disc 2. Disc 3 starts of with yet another one of my personal favorites, Twist which gives way to The Horse > Silent in the Morning, and Possum. A rare, and nice Suzy Greenberg (my first in 4 years)makes an appearance in the encore and gives way to Tweezer Reprise to close out the show and 3 disc set. As far as Phish shows from 2000 are concerned, this ranks high on my list, if you like this disc, also check out 6-14-00, another Live Phish release.

I stayed away from this show for a long time since so many fans seemed lukewarm about it. I finally bought it, and am so glad I did. I think this release is an example of why the band doesn't always see eye to eye with the fans. Rumor had it that Trey was really happy with this show, and thus it ended up in the first 6 live releases. Hearing it, you can understand why. It is a solid/tight show! There are few mistakes, and the set-list just flows very smoothly. There are also some great versions of some of their big numbers:

Tweezer-one of my favorite versions. Interesting unique features, such as Trey putting an interesting variation on the key riff in the beginning, and the mellow follow-up to Uncle Ebeneezer (in contrast to the typically cacophony).

Antelope-a very gradual build up until Trey puts himself stuck into an interesting robotic sounding loop that repeats and then KICKS into the final jam (with nice coordination from Fishman).

Piper-one of the best versions I've heard

First Tube-Smoking version of this relatively rare song. When I saw the setlist I wondered how this would ever fit into the middle of a set (seems like a good opener or closer), but the positioning before Llama is perfect-the songs seem to fit together somehow.

And the rest of the show is just solid around these highpoints. I bought the Island tour discs around the same time I got this show. The fans love the Island tour, because of the many highpoints and great jams. In general, those shows are much sloppier than this show, though (since the guys barely rehearsed and hadn't been on tour). This is a nice contrast to those-a very tight live performance with a nice setlist. I can totally understand why the band considered this one of their favorite shows of 2000.

This show from Wisconsin is excellent. All of the jams are stellar. My favorite tracks are First Tube and Guyute, both which feature the band's later 'mature' style of jams (not just high octane guitar solos, but a full band effort.) Phish really clicked at this concert and it is definately my favorite of the series.

This was my first Phish show and the best concert that I've ever experienced. It also happened to be my birthday. Every song went the distance regardless of what previous reviewers write. Guyute and Antelope seem immaculate and the sound quality of the album is near perfection. Not to sound biased or anything but every song sounds just as good as it did being there. The Alpine Valley parking lot was quite the festival-type environment. It was your typical Phish experience and a solid show.

Hello
OK, i own a ton of live phish releases, and in all honesty, Live 05 is the weakest i've heard. Thats not to say its terrible, cuz there are some highlights. The first set comes out firing with pyite and NICU, my soul and poor heart. First Tube is real trippy with trey looping a bunch of stuff. ill placed Llama. so first set is cool, good antelope closer. The second set is kinda weak in my opinion. heavy things is not done well to start off the set. Piper is decent. Tweezer is decent at best. and walk away is really not that good. Twist is decent, silent in the morning is what you expect. I've heard Possum too many times. Suzy is only ok, and tweprise is always fun to hear. so all in all its a decent show. but the thing is this, when compared to every other live phish release, this is really low grade stuff. its not phish at their best. if you buy 04 or 11, there is some epic stuff. 05 is ok, but not that great.

... I can't imagine why of all the thousands of shows Phish has played, the band chose to release this one as one of the FIRST SIX of their live series.

The first set is sloppy with lots of miscues. Disc two has a setlist to drool over but doesn't live up to its promise. It also features the worse Walk Away ever. Disc three finds Trey tired and uninspired.

But the thing that's really missing here is that elusive "X factor": An energy and vibe that soaks through the music. It's not something you hear, but feel, either at a live Phish show or while listening to one. It's the reason why we love them as much as we do. Try finding the X factor at a Blink 182 show.

This is just a regular, run-of-the-mill Phish release. Which of course is better than 99.9% of the CDs on the market. But it only gets two stars from this die-hard phan.

Look to either side of this release for examples of the X factor. Both Live Phish Vol. 4 and Live Phish Vol. 6 are must-haves and are superb, high energy shows with unique setlists.

I have always said any Phish show with a Walk Away (like 2/20/93, 5/7/94, and 10/28/98) is a great show. This show is an exception to that rule.

I have all of the other CDs in this collection and I have to say that this is the weakest of the six volumes. None of the jams really go as far as they should. When each song/jam is over you feel that they should have taken it a little further and much harder. There is nothing about this show that makes me want to listen to it over the other five. Even the Piper>Rock & Roll, which I was looking forward to hearing, was disapointing. Granted, it's still a Phish show, so it's not that bad. Songs like PYITE, Tweezer, Walk Away, Twist, Suzy Greenburg, Heavy Things, NICU, The Horse>Silent in the Morning, and Antelope are on the other live albums and are much, much better. If your thinking about getting this show and you don't own the others yet, re-think your purchase. I recommend vol. 6 the most, but vols. 1, 2, 3 & 4 are great too. I don't like to bad mouth Phish, but I just think that you'll be happier with any of the other shows more that this one.

Phish is incredible, and this show is proof of that. If you've never listened to Phish than you should probably look to one of these new live albums to hear what they are about. They are all great in my opinion, but number 5 definately stands out. Highlights are Punch you in the eye > NICU, Wolfman's Brother, First Tube. Piper > Rock and Roll, Twist, and Possum but those are just my personal favorites, every song is great. I defintely recommend buying any of the live phish cds, and this one in my opinion is one of the 2 best(the other being number 2 which is just insane).

I went to this show last summer and I have to say that this album brought back all the songs to life. With twenty songs covering all of their music expertises perfectly this set is a must have for any phan. With killer versions of Piper and Punch You in the Eye to name a couple, this CD set defines what Phish is all about. Also,because it is professionally done the sound quality is unmatched. If you were at the show or not, listening to this Album will bring you there. Definetely something that will keep a phan occupied until they end their hiatus!!

Excellent recording of this show. Alpine Valley has always been the most impressive venue to see live acts in the summertime, especially PHISH. As all previous years, Phish sold out this Saturday show and really drew an even larger crowd of Pholks to the lots. As far as Summer 2000 Phish, goes, this show was pretty ho-hum. The only Llama of the tour was the only real surprise from the first set. The Heavy Things set two opener can be heard to disappoint the crowd, but the Piper follow up is the absolute cherry of the whole show. It is one of those moments that keeps people coming back for 50 shows or more. The only Horse and Silent in the Morning of the tour are near the end of the set. The only Suzy Greenberg is part of the encore (ho-hum short version) and the obligatory Tweezer Reprise closes the show with a bash. All in all, great release from Phish, but why release the 2000 stuff that everybody already has on CD???????????? !!!