Jan 28, 2013

2009-06-09 Asheville Civic Center

Well, coming right after my early contender for show of 2009, 6/9 was never going to emerge from Camden's shadow...but it still ended up being a better show than most of 3.0 before it (sans Camden, of course). I was surprised, and pleased to find that this was a surprisingly consistent show, and topped by the third of three excellent "Ghost"s since Hampton.

Considering it's an early version, the "KDF" that opens this show is punchier than it has any right to be. This momentum carries right through the first few songs and into a "Stash" that doesn't rewrite the rulebook by any means, but features a lot of nice tension-and-release action that resolves eventually into "Dog-Faced Boy." Afterward, Trey shares that he wrote the song based off of snooping around in Fish's journal when they were roommates, and that two more songs came from the same source: "Gumbo" and "Tube." The band proceeds to play both back-to-back. This is a fun, gimmicky first-set segment, and the mini-jam in "Tube" is actually top-tier stuff.
Fish closes his "journal segment" with an acapella version of "Lengthwise" that features some great audience assistance, even on the SBD. Back in serious-land, the band rips apart "Divided Sky," for an exceptional version, and then raps up the set with a Mike cover ("When the Cactus is in Bloom") and "Axis." All in all, it's a set that holds together better than it has any right to.

The second set opens with a brief but fiery "Number Line" that ends suddenly, then restarts in the form of a weird ambient jam (it's possible that the song doesn't actually stop here, but someone was still playing softly and I just didn't have the volume up high enough). The ambient passage quickly and smoothly transitions into "Ghost," and we're off on a space-funk rocket ride for the third time already in 3.0. The first few minutes of this jam are of the wacky, abstract variety (as per my notes: "Oh, yikes...this Ghost is on fucking droooogs"), but then things quickly take a turn toward Peak City and Trey keeps the song there for way longer than should actually be effective. Somehow, though, 6-7 minutes of this shredding is not too much, as the rest of the band builds on the back of Trey's hose-down. Think the Prague '98 "Ghost," but less "once in a lifetime" and more "2-3 times per tour." Same style, less genius, but ultimately a highlight of the tour so far. And someone has a video!
After the "Ghost" ends, the rest of the set plays out much like the back end of set one: weird song choices, strange flow, but rather than sinking, the whole thing floats on the band's energy. "FEFY" is one of my favorite Phish ballads, and it oozes out of the end of "Ghost" beautifully here. Halley's is always welcome as well, and this one starts to actually take off into a pretty interesting jamspace for a minute or so after the song proper ends, but then...MAZE'D.
I don't normally get down on "ripcording" the way a lot of Phish fans do; I'm a fan of just as many 2-3 minute jams as I am 20-30 minute ones, and I think a balance of the two is best (unless we're talking '97 of course). Generally, I think that if the band aborts a jam, it's probably for good reason...they're probably out of ideas and want to move on. That's usually fine. Here, though, I actually yelped out loud at how suddenly the promise of a slowly unfolding "Halley's" jam turned into "Maze" in an instant. This was especially galling considering that "Maze" is one of the few Phish songs that I don't like that much. But, honestly, this version ain't bad. It features extra-clever work on the organ by Page, layered above some staccato chording from Trey and it builds to a good (if somewhat whale-y) peak. None of the rest of the songs on the setlist are barnburners by nature, but the boys do a number on each one (even "Golgi"!) and again, the back half of a set which shouldn't have really worked that well comes off as satisfying.

It's no Camden, but come for the "Number Line" > "Ghost" and stay for (pretty much all) the rest.

Note: I'm not sure if they've actually improved, or I've finally just hit an EQ goldmine, but the last few SBDs (Camden and Asheville) sound a lot better than the previous muddy, distant-sounding atrocities that I complained about awhile back.

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