A look at the Saturday night show

Last night, Phish kicked off the southern portion of its summer tour with the first of two shows at Alpharetta, GA’s Verizon Wireless Amphitheater. The band offered fans the opportunity to watch along from home by offering a live pay per view webcast through Livephish.com.

Once again, the band chose the opener from a growing number of signs scattered across the front rows of the audience. Last night, the classic “Dinner and a Movie” was selected as Trey Anastasio turned to the crowd and said “Yes. Yes!” in agreement. Later in the set, the band dusted off bluegrass cover “Ginseng Sullivan” for the first time in 50 shows. Highlight moments came during late set versions of “Bathtub Gin” and a high energy take on Traffic’s “Light Up or Leave Me Alone.”

The second set opened up with the fourth “Carini” of the tour before segueing somewhat abruptly into “Sand.” Following a brief jam loaded with guitar acrobatics from Anastasio, the band then moved into the improvisational highlight of the set with the combination of “Down with Disease” into “Maze.” The remainder of the show was less adventurous, but featured a non-stop segment with seamless segues between “Meatstick,” “Also Sprach Zarathustra,” “Bug,” “A Day in the Life,” and “Run Like an Antelope.” For the encore, the band closed out the show with a cover of “Quinn the Eskimo.”

Phish returns to the venue tonight for its second sold-out show.

Here is the setlist drawn from our Box Scores section

Phish
Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre at Encore Park, Alpharetta, GA

Set I: Dinner and a Movie, The Moma Dance > Possum, Cities > Fluffhead, Ocelot, Ginseng Sullivan, Kill Devil Falls > Bathtub Gin, Light Up Or Leave Me Alone > Cavern

Set II: Carini > Sand > Down with Disease* > Maze, Meatstick > Also Sprach Zarathustra > Bug > A Day in the Life > Run Like an Antelope

Enc: Quinn the Eskimo

Notes: *Unfinished

Source: Phish.net