Photos & Review by Ryan Swerdlin
Phish stopped through Alpharetta for a two night run on their coast to coast summer tour this past Tuesday and Wednesday at Verizon Wireless Encore Park. The two night run, sandwiched in between playing Columbia, MD and a 3-night run this coming weekend in Chicago, proved not to be just another run of the mill performance by the quartet hailing from Vermont.
Throughout the performance the first evening, the audience was surprised to hear teases of Led Zeppelin’s “Heartbreaker”, even with a verse of the song performed mid second set after ripping through Velvet Underground’s “Rock and Roll”. Maybe the Trey, Page, Mike, and Jon noticed the Robert Plant posters floating around the venue for his performance tonight and found themselves inspired…who knows…all the crowd knew was that the show was rocking!
As it did the last time Phish graced Alpharetta’s Encore Park, the skies opened up the second night and rain poured down. Luckily it was not enough to stop the band nor the crowd from transforming the venue yet again into the “Phish Bowl” that it had become with the steady rain and the crowds energy back in 2011. The second set saw much more rain and many more great tunes. The Who’s “Drowned” was segued into “Water in the Sky” and followed by a new tune played just for the second time, “Energy”, all of which had the crowd and the band connected through the falling rain. It is obvious that the band has a great time playing Encore Park and the fans in Atlanta seem to enjoy it as a nice change of pace from last years performance at Aaron’s Amphitheater at Lakewood.
Set lists for both nights are below:
July 16th:
Set 1: Kill Devil Falls, Mound > Bathtub Gin, Army of One, Rift, Horn > Possum, Pebbles and Marbles, Ocelot > Cavern > Run Like an Antelope
Set 2: Rock and Roll > Heartbreaker > Makisupa Policeman > Chalk Dust Torture > Wilson > Tweezer > Silent in the Morning > Birds of a Feather, Joy > Harry Hood > Character Zero
Encore: A Day in the Life > Tweezer Reprise
July 17th:
Set 1: Runaway Jim > The Moma Dance, Funky Bitch, Divided Sky, Gumbo, Nellie Kane > Frost, Alaska, Guyute, Stealing Time from the Faulty Plan > Suzy Greenberg
Set 2: Punch You In the Eye > Drowned > Water in the Sky > Energy > Fluffhead > Piper > Fast Enough for You > 2001 > Mike’s Song > The Wedge > Weekapaug Groove
Encore: Quinn the Eskimo
