Phish St. Louis Chaifetz Arena Setlist and The Skinny
After a swing through the south, Phish returned to the Midwest tonight for their first-ever performance at Chaifetz Arena on the campus of the University of St. Louis in St. Louis, Missouri. The band turned in another old school affair that featured one of the best Limb By Limb’s ever played.
Keeping with the leg’s old school theme, Phish once again focused on classic material in tonight’s first set. In fact, Ocelot was the only song played which was debuted after 1993 with ten of the set’s 13 songs performed added to Phish’s repertoire in 1990 or earlier. High-energy takes on Punch You In The Eye and Runaway Jim, that both featured the “extra mustard” treatment from guitarist Trey Anastasio, set the pace for the rest of the opening stanza.
Reba stood out as the first set’s improvisational highlight thanks to a patient and deliberate build up that led to an extended climax. The Curtain was played without the “With” segment for only the third time since The Curtain With was revived on July 12, 2000 with the other instances taking place on September 9, 2000 and July 3, 2011. A Peaches En Regalia, Mound segment was the stuff setlist dreams were made of as recently as two years ago before both tunes were performed more regularly. Quinn The Eskimo brought the set of straight-forward, old school rockers to a close.
Setlist…
Set 1: Punch You In the Eye > Runaway Jim, Ocelot > Reba, I Didn’t Know, The Curtain > Peaches en Regalia > Mound > Sample in a Jar, The Sloth, Camel Walk, Possum > Quinn the Eskimo
Set 2: Chalk Dust Torture -> Frankie Says -> Undermind -> Sand -> Walk Away, Limb By Limb >Julius > Also Sprach Zarathustra, You Enjoy Myself
Encore: Shine a Light
Notes: Before the vacuum solo in I Didn’t Know, Trey introduced Fish as “The John Coltrane of the vacuum cleaner.”
[via Phish.net]
Another jammed out version of Chalk Dust Torture kicked off the second set and segued into the first Frankie Says since December 28, 2010 – the 212th distinct song Phish has played this year if you count Curtain separately from Curtain With. A pretty, flowing Frankie Says jam dissolved into Undermind, the only song from the album of the same name performed this leg outside of Crowd Control. While Undermind didn’t get “the treatment” it featured a Trey-led segue into what our friend Pauly at Coventry Blog called a “thermonuclear” Sand. The transitions weren’t finished as out of the end of Sand came Phish’s always scorching cover of Walk Away.
Limb By Limb isn’t a song that the quartet frequently uses as a jam vehicle, but they did tonight. Anastasio didn’t seem to have any interest in playing his standard solo and led his band mates on a lengthy excursion. By the seven-minute mark all four members of Phish were far removed from the typical Limb By Limb structure. Trey took the ball and ran with it during the “Type II” jam as he weaved one intense, machine-gun riff into another which made for one of the best versions of the song ever. Stop reading this recap, download the Limb By Limb, listen to it and then come back…we’ll wait. You wouldn’t usually consider Julius a “cool down song,” but after that Limb By Limb the jazzy Julius solo offered a bit of a breather. You Enjoy Myself gave Anastasio another shot at glory and he delivered a fiery solo that sort of fizzled into the bass-and-drum segment. And with a Shine A Light encore, Phish brought a fantastic show, that will best be remembered for its Limb By Limb, to a close. Who would’ve thunk it? The tour continues tomorrow night with the first Phish show ever in Oklahoma.
Here’s The Skinny from Phish’s return to St. Louis…
- Venue Capacity / Attendance / Type: 10,600 / 9,700 (Estimate) / Indoor Basketball Arena
- Previous Shows at Venue: Phish has never played this venue before.
- Number Of Songs / Length – First Set: 13 / 8:11PM – 9:41PM (90 Minutes)
- Number Of Songs / Length – Second Set & Encore: 10 / 10:08PM – 11:41 (93 Minutes)
- Total Number of Songs / Covers / Originals: 23 / 5 / 18
- Biggest Bustout: Frankie Says – 70 Shows [LTP - 12/28/2010]
- Average Song Vintage: 1992
- Debuts: N/A
- Weather: 84° and Clear at Show Time
- Wardrobe: Trey – White, Green and Aqua Blue Checkered Long-Sleeve Button-Down Shirt and Jeans / Mike – Grey Long-Sleeve Button-Down Shirt and Jeans / Page – Navy Blue Short-Sleeve Button-Down Shirt and Jeans / Fish – Dress
- Average Song Gap: 10.91
- The Spread: Junta – 1, Lawn Boy – 1, Picture of Nectar – 1, Rift – 1, Hoist – 2, Story of the Ghost – 2, Farmhouse – 1, Undermind – 1, Joy – 1, Misc. – 7, Covers – 5,
- Longest LivePhish Track / Shortest LivePhish Track: You Enjoy Myself (20:06) / Peaches En Regalia (3:22)
- Audio: Live Phish
Poster…
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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As always very well writen and thank u for the Skinny much apprecaited.
best remembered for its unusual first set AND second set generally. need me some 1st set love on this one for song choice alone!
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK I’m still pissed about Atlanta.
Im a 53 year old hippy. My 1st Phish concert and Im hooked. The ticket for the show was given to me by a female friend. Her son passed away in June and she found the tickets while going through his personal belongings. We sold the extras, arrived on the scene to a warm, cordial generous crowd. I felt so home, so at ease. Thank you Phish phans. A spiritual recharge to my batteries. Omgosh. Peace, Joseph, Springfield ILL
Thank you to Joseph from Springfield for dropping that great story to all of us that read Hidden Track.
It serves as a reminder to many tour jaded vets how personal, moving and well, as Jospeh said, “A spiritual recharge to my batteries” One (and/or someone’s first) Phish show can be.
Another reminder why we all strive to Keep the scene clean and sirene!
Cheers for more stories like Springfield Joe’s.
~goff
Joeseph cpngrats welcome to phish. scotty once again great review LXL was insane thanks again
Incredible show. Thank you Phish. Thank you Hoodstream. Thank you ScottyB.
All of this is spot on with one exception… it’s St. Louis University, not University of St. Louis… there IS a diference!
This place was definitely more crowded than 9k….I saw maybe 100 empty seats. Venue was chaos, but awesome! Amazing show
Rock heavy and jam light. A wear your earplugs show. The Limb x Limb was the only Type II jam exception. Every other “jam” was Type I and ultimately built up to a screaming guitar solo and drum pounding. I can’t remember a jam that discovered a new dance groove the whole show. The reviews lapping on the praise for this show overlook that very little “new” was discovered here. Compared to 2009 at the Fox, I can see why a lot of people are happy. But compared to Riverport 8/6/1997 http://phish.net/setlists/?d=1997-08-06 or Riverport 7/29/1998 http://phish.net/setlists/?d=1998-07-29, can anyone really say this was a better show? Other than the Limb x Limb, it wasn’t all that different from 8/15/1996 http://phish.net/setlists/?d=1996-11-15. To claim this show and BGSF III were some of the best in decades – as some have (I’m looking at you Mr. Miner) – is ridiculous. This show would have been middle of the pack in 1997 or 1998. Solid but not mind-blowing by any means.