On July 22, 1997, Phish performed the second show of their United States summer tour at Walnut Creek Amphitheatre in Raleigh, NC. During the show, a thunderstorm of biblical proportion passed directly over the venue letting loose a torrential downpour of rain, thunder and lightning that accentuated the electric nature of the event. The fearsome peaks of the storm synchronized with peaks of the music, blurring the lines between band and storm. The most sensible course of action was to cancel the gig for safety's sake, but instead the band played through the Appalachian tempest in a thrilling confluence of art and nature.
Phish's Walnut Creek DVD documents the collision between a force as imaginative and powerful as Phish in the summer of 1997 and the supreme forces of Creation. This show was a soaked-to-the-bone outing, but fortunately the recordings - captured from the multi-camera lawn feed and 5.1 audio - remained dry enough to provide the masters for the release, showcasing some of the most potent jamming and scintillating transitions of Phish's career.
By T Johnson
