For the last show of Phish Summer Tour 2010 – Leg One, the quartet delivered a performance that featured a lit bit of everything that has made the run so good. There were bust outs, random covers and even a few intense bouts of improvisation at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre, Encore Park in Alpharetta, GA that put a proverbial bow around this gift of a tour.

Phish opened the show by paying tribute to America on the Fourth of July with an a Capella Star Spangled Banner. The band then took a trip to Gamehendge for a potent Punch You In The Eye and the rare Colonel Forbin’s Ascent > Fly Famous Mockingbird. As with last year’s Forbin’s > Mockingbird in Hartford there was no narration to be found, but by the end of the concert a narration would come. Other first set highlights included the funky Camel Walk and ripping versions of David Bowie and Gotta Jibboo.

07/04/2010 Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre at Encore Park

Set 1: The Star Spangled Banner, Punch You In the Eye, Colonel Forbin’s Ascent > Fly Famous Mockingbird, Camel Walk, Ocelot, Heavy Things, My Friend, My Friend > Lawn Boy, David Bowie, Gotta Jibboo

Set 2: Down with Disease > Piper > Ghost > Waste, Julius > Mike’s Song > Tela, Harpua > Killing in the Name[1] > Harpua > Weekapaug Groove

Encore: First Tube

[1] Phish debut.

This show marked the Phish debut of Killing in the Name (Rage Against the Machine).

In a tour filled with dream setlists, the second set of the tour closer could just be the most insane sequence of songs Phish has thrown down this summer. The Disease > Piper > Ghost segment that opened the set was the meat of the show improvisationally. Although a rollicking Disease jam was cut short by Anastasio, Piper and Ghost each featured patient exploration. Waste and Julius were a mirage to lull attendees into a sense of standardness before the combination of Mike’s Song > Tela kicked off an epic end to the show.

READ ON for more on last night’s Phish Summer Tour closer…

Once again, Mike’s was kept short – clocking in at six minutes, but when the band segued into only the third Tela since 1998 (though second in five shows) no one cared. After Tela kept the ballad slot safe and secure, the four members of Phish sang the “Oom-Pah-Pah” refrain that signals the start of Harpua. While Forbin’s > Mockingbird didn’t contain a story, Trey gave an off-the-cuff narration in which he warned that history books and “alternate” history books are filled with lies and that the actual history of the country has been told through Phish songs. Red then mentioned that the only band who “won’t bullshit you” and whose lyrics you could trust are Phish and “this band” before launching into a Fishman-sang cover of Rage Against The Machine’s Killing In The Name.

Phish couldn’t end Jukebox Tour II without another random cover could they? As you can see in the video at the top of this post, the crowd flipped the fuck out during the Rage cover. Killing In The Name came to a cacophonous ending that led into the rest of Harpua. Weekapaug and the First Tube encore gave Trey two more chances to lean into his solos before calling it a night.

Last night’s tour closer put an exclamation point on what has not only been an extremely successful tour, but an important tour that has displayed the heights of which this band is still capable of scaling. You still have no idea what to expect when entering a Phish show on any given night – just the way fans like it. Phish returns for the second leg of Summer Tour on August 5th at the Greek in Berkeley, CA. Keep your eyes on HT this week for a few tour recaps and our popular Number Line: Summer Tour By The Numbers piece.

Scott Bernstein

Scott Bernstein co-founded Hidden Track in October 2006 and was managing editor until taking over as EiC in January 2008. Scotty also writes for Relix Magazine and curates YEMblog.com.

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