Ch-ch-ch-changes

I bet you thought that was a Bowie reference.

As you might have noticed, the blog has changed dramatically in terms of appearance and functionality. I woke up this morning and saw that I still haven't received the specifics of my first assignment for my new employer, and so I decided to use the three-hour window of free time that had suddenly opened to Do Stuff To The Blog To Make It Better. Hopefully it worked. Here are the probably-painfully-obvious-but-important changes:

1. There is an actual picture of Phish playing a concert in the background of the blog, instead of that shitty stock photo I had up before. Blogger still, mystifyingly, requires that all background images be under 300k in size while suggesting that you upload an image that is at least 1800 x 1600. So I shrunk down a massive photo and then compressed it until it was 299k in size. So it's a little grainy, but Google is silly and I couldn't make a better-resolution background because SAD.

2. I changed the template and color scheme of the entire blog. Now it's blue and grey instead of that eye-watering red/orange/white combination I had going before. Also, the "Dynamic" template is gone, as most of the options it provided looked like total unnavigable shit. Instead, I've chosen to make this blog look and work suspiciously like my other blog.

3. Now there's an easy-to-find list on the sidebar that helps you read by tour, just above the archive of all of my posts thus far.

4. Maybe most importantly, there's now a list of "Favorite Sources" in the sidebar. In most posts thus far, I've been including Phish.net links, and YouTube videos where possible. The sources list doesn't include all the channels I've used videos from, but it does list a few of the best and most comprehensive. As there aren't a lot of videos from '09 to choose from (and many that do exist have embedding turned off, or were cut up oddly because of YouTube's old 10-minute limit), I've also started using PhishTracks links to stream songs I want readers to be able to hear ASAP, so there's a link to there as well. Basically, I wanted to give credit to the people whose work I've been resharing, and this list seemed like the best way to accomplish that.

And now, since I've already posted "Changes," I feel like I'd be remiss if I didn't include "Wolfman" also:

Which of course then makes it mandatory to include this, as well:

See? Everything eventually leads back to Phish.

2009-10-30 Festival 8 I

So after a bit of real-life traveling, I got back into town a few days ago, ran a half-marathon (like we do), and then last night finally got a chance to sit down and block out the drudgery of doing some web design by listening to the first night of Festival 8 for the first time. I made the mistake of reading its generally negative Phish.net reviews before listening, and so I was prepared to add the first "workmanlike show" to my Fall '09 Tour Rundown List. In reality, though, while there's not a lot to recommend in this show's first set-and-a-half, there are a few high-quality jams toward the end and a slow-burning "Hood" that makes the second set at least worth a listen.

I suppose starting off the festival with "Party Time" was an apropos decision, and at the time it was probably a fun Phish moment for those in attendance. On tape, this version is a flub-filled disaster, and though Trey and Mike (!) tack on decent solos at the end, this is clearly the band stumbling out of the gate. "Chalkdust" is a nice recovery, though: not only is it a fiery version, it features a somewhat atypical jam. It's nothing like, say, the IT "Chalkdust," of course, but there's some mode-shifting (I think) throughout that makes it a little darker and more interesting than any other version so far in 3.0.

The next few songs are nice choices for setlist flow, but nothing else worth mentioning happens until the "Stash," which again serves as a great first-set jamming launchpad as it has for most of the year. Where the jam in "Stash" has lately generally tended toward the tension-and-release side of things with a huge, sloppy side order of whale pedal, this version manages to mingle tension and bliss jamming pretty interestingly and is definitely worth a listen.

The rest of the first set, though, is really not. It's a pretty standard series of straight-up songs, played...umm...straight-up. I really like "Beauty of a Broken Heart," and this is one of the more flub-less version they've played thus far, but otherwise, there's nothing here that you haven't heard before. The set-closing combo of a slow, muted "Ocelot" and a particularly messy "TTE" definitely left a bad taste in my mouth. I'd love to see more of the jamming style that features in the last few minutes of the "Stash," though. Maybe that'll happen later on in the fall?

Anyway, second set starts off with a rocky by energetic "PYITE," which makes the first of many great second-set segues into "Disease." The "Disease" clocks in at 13:00, but it definitely doesn't make the best of that stretch of time. Up until the last two or three minutes, in fact, it's a Trey wankfest, and while it's not a bad one (he slams some great blues-rock riffs into the fucking ground), it's just average-great Phish. The last two minutes fade into some interesting ambient territory, for sure, but it fades quickly into "Caspian." Again, here, the segue is excellent, but the results are underwhelming. "Caspian" is very heavy on the whale, to less-than-stellar results. Fortunately, it fades into a great little outro jam led by Page and Mike, which transforms into another great segue, this time into "Wolfman's." And, finally, shit starts to get real.

The "Wolfman's" jam begins, interestingly, with Page on his piano, leading the charge, rather than the funk we've become accustomed to. Trey stays out of the jam, chording around in the background for the most part, until 8:30, when everything comes apart (in the best way). The guys bring back that abstract soundscape they teased earlier in "Disease," but here it's way weirder, and way better. There's about three minutes of this wonderfully rhythmless, abstract shit before "Piper" fades in organically from the morass of sound that's built up. It's wonderful, and on top of that, "Piper" ain't half bad, either.

Before the lyrics come in, Page plays the "Piper" piano riff a few times with a weird 80s synth tone (still leftover from the ambient jam), which is a nice touch. Once the jam takes off in earnest, the band goes straight back to space, before eventually landing for a few minutes of what I labeled in my notes as "transdimensional elevator music." This two-song sandwich is one of my favorite soundscapes of the year so far, right up there with the Red Rocks "Boogie On," the Gorge "Sally," and a few others I'm sure that I'm forgetting.

And then there's "Joy."

We get a heavy dose of Page on the "Bowie," too, and while this isn't necessarily top-shelf material, it's solid enough that it doesn't smudge the shine of the "Wolfman's" > "Piper" pairing. "Hood" is a long, slow, 15 minute build to a rather muted peak, but the fist-pumping "Golgi" that follows provides the punch its end is lacking.

All in all, there're a few standout moments in this show, but the only really consistently quality section is the second half of the second set. The "Stash" is one of my favorites (if not my favorite) so far, and the "Wolfman's" > "Piper" pair is representative of the best kind of '09 jamming. You could safely listen to those alone, though, and not be afraid that you're missing anything.

Exile is next!

Late Summer '09 Wrap-Up

So, just like I did at the end of Leg One, I'm doing a wrap-up post for Leg Two that includes a brief, few-sentence write-up for each show and a list of that show's highlights. Almost exclusively, this list focuses on the interesting improvisational moments of each show, not because I'm entirely about the space jams, but because if I was to highlight every single noteworthy moment from each show, including each and every extra-hot Type I jam, this list would contain something like 1/3rd of all the songs played in summer of '09, which sort of defeats the point of a best-of, doesn't it?

Anyway, here's the list, with a few extra fun songs thrown in since this leg was quite a bit shorter than the previous leg.

7/30: Better than pretty much any Leg One show, except maybe Camden. Highlights include "Stash," "Ghost" > "Wolfman's."

7/31: Quite possibly the best front-to-back show of the summer for me. Gorge I would be the only other contender that's probably better than Camden or Alpine. "Melt," "Drowned" > "Crosseyed," "Tweezer" > "Number Line" > "Fluffhead" -> "Piper" -> "A Day in the Life." Yep. Pretty much the entire second set.

8/1: Great show by Leg One standards, but pales in comparison to Red Rocks I and II. "The Curtain With," "Rock and Roll" > "Disease."

8/2: Weakest show of the run, but really only because of a Bill Kreutzmann sit-in that goes awry. The jamming is actually quite good and if Bill's ham-handed drumming doesn't bother you, then this will be an obvious improvement over night 3. The "Boogie On" is best-of-summer stuff, too. "Reba," "Boogie On," "Seven Below."

8/5: Really uneven show in terms of energy and flow. In the context of Leg Two, you wouldn't be missing much if you skipped it. Decently spooky "Disease" and quirky "Cities" > "Maze" pairing.

8/7: Gets off to a slow start, but the interesting jamming starts in the middle of the first set, and stays consistently interesting through the rest of the show. Minus the "warm up" songs, this would probably be the best full show of the summer, for my money. With them, it's probably second to Red Rocks II. "Stash," "Sally" > "Cavern," "Light" -> "Taste," "Hood."

8/8: Doesn't stand up overall to the previous night, but the song-based parts of the show are stronger, and there's a monstrous "Rock and Roll." "Antelope" is also interesting-good in a year of solid "Antelope"s.

8/11: Another "saggy" show after the great Gorge run. A lot of energy, but the setlist doesn't really cohere and in this case "energy" often seems to mean "flubbing." Also, little to no improvisation to note. The only legitimate "meh" show of Leg Two.

8/13: "Workmanlike," as I described a few shows in Leg One. It holds together better than 8/11, but there still isn't much here to sink your teeth into. "Drowned" > "Caspian."

8/14: Easily the best show since the Gorge, but heavier on Gamehendge fun and old-school antics than any real improv. "Forbin's" > "Mockingbird," "Stash," "Piper," "Ghost" > "Psycho Killer" -> "Catapult" -> "Icculus."

8/15: Workmanlike, well-played show except for "46 Days," which is one of the standout jams of the summer.

8/16: Victory lap show, mostly. Really fun, high-energy, mostly song-based playing that's a good cap for a long tour but isn't really that satisfying on its own. "Number Line" > "Twenty Years Later."

I'm out of town for a few days doing business-y, professional stuff this week, but I'm hoping to dive into fall starting with Festival 8 this weekend. Exile on Main Street is one of my all-time favorite albums, and somehow I've just never sat down and listened to this entire set before. So this should be a blast...

2009-08-16 SPAC

Well, here we are. The end of summer tour '09. As I was at the end of Leg One, I'm a little surprised that I've made it this far. When I started this project, it was to try to get a sense of Phish's evolution throughout 3.0 as a whole, to try to reconcile the amazing shows I've seen live and the few I've heard on tape with the general internet-whining that frames 3.0 as a total embarrassment and waste of time for "real" Phish fans.

I don't really want to spend an entire blog post at this point arguing for the relevance of 3.0 or even '09 in particular, but I'll just quickly say that I've had as much fun listening to this tour as I've ever had listening to any other Phish tour, and as far as I'm concerned, that's the only metric that really counts. This shit is great, and as I've never listened to any of fall or winter '09 before, I'm absolutely stoked to follow the band later into the year. '09 so far has been much more weird and experimental than I expected, and when the experiments flop, in general the band's playing on non-jammed songs has actually been more solid than it typically was anywhere between, say, '95 and '04.

With all that in mind, I'll say that SPAC is a fitting tour closer for a tour that, as far as I'm concerned, was much better than any of us likely expected in early June '09. It doesn't feature a lot in the way of improv, but it's got some fun antics, a good mix of old and new songs, and an energy that makes it clear that this is a victory lap for the band that we last saw at Coventry before this all got (re)started.

We get a surprise "Llama" opener, but it seems like it's as much a surprise for the band as it is for the crowd; Troy falls off a cliff early and things never really recover. It's like a bust out that shouldn't have been busted out. "Moma" is a great redeemer, though: it's a song that the band pretty much always seems to nail, and Trey especially attacks this version with great relish. The energy carries over into a surprisingly early "Guyute," which melts into a lovely ballad bust-out in the form of "Anything But Me." Page gets a great legit piano solo here, and infuses a bit of lately-rare jazz into the night. "Cars Trucks "Buses" has a bit of stop/start fun in it, but the remainder of the middle of the first set is pretty pedestrian up until a "Possum" that's unexpectedly Page-led.

The guys continue stringing together another marathon first set with an "Ocelot" that features a bit more shredding than Trey usually includes in the usually loping jam section, and things end on a high note with a well-played "Antelope" (which still isn't anywhere near the upper echelon of excellent "Antelope"s already played this year).

"Number Line" is the night's go-to second-set monster jam. It jumps off the rails at about 10:00, heading immediately into a tail-chasing guitar jam of the type that was such a big part of some of the wilder jams in the Red Rocks run. Page takes the lead with some spacey organ madness at 12:00 while Trey recedes to the background, chopping out some nearly atonal, sinister-sounding chords. The bottom falls out in a good way around 16:00, paving the way for a few minutes of abstract madness of the best kind, and setting up a slow, patient segue into "20 Years," which features a whale-y Trey jam that falls flat and goes for way too long.

"Halley's" > "Rock and Roll" is another great pairing, with the ">" between the songs being less of a transition and more of a stop-on-a-dime direction change executed by all four band members at once. It's a great moment, and the "Rock and Roll" itself ain't bad, either. It stays pretty standard type 1 until the final minute (9:00) or so, though, and then enters a similar space as the end of the "Number Line" jam just long enough for a dissolve into "Harpua."

The "Harpua" kicks off the "victory lap" part of the show in earnest: there's a fun narration, Fish singing the shit out of "I Kissed a Girl" by Katy Perry, "HYHU" heading into some more "Harpua," and then a fluid "YEM" (because what else do you play as the last song of your comeback tour?).

The fun continues through the encore, which features "Grind," the only Joy tune to not be played live yet, "I Been Around," and a surprise "Highway To Hell."

The "Number Line" hangs with some of the better jams of Leg Two, but there's not a whole lot else in this show that stands out when compared to the earlier shows in the leg. It's by no means a bust, like, say, Shoreline or Toyota Park. It's a nice wrap-up, and the effortlessness with which the band bounces from song-based playing, to improvising, to pulling 90s-Phish-like hijinks one last time strengthens the case for the relevance of 3.0 while leaving some room for more growth later in the year.

2009-08-15 Merriweather Post Pavilion

Well, this one was a pleasant surprise. I went into it after reading a bunch of nasty reviews on Phish.net, and so I wasn't expecting much, so maybe that's why I was happily surprised. It's a very song-based show, and so I can understand how you might dislike this show if, say, it was the only show of the tour you managed to catch and you were hoping for something a little deeper, but as one show in a leg that's already featured a surplus of standout jams, it's hard to fault MPP for being mostly by-the-book, especially when the one time the show goes off-script it lands in what's easily one of the best (if not the very best) jam of 3.0 so far.

If you have any inclination toward song-based sets at all, this first set is a delight. Otherwise, it's going to leave you feeling flat. For me and my lowered expectations, it was a great mix of new songs ("Crowd Control," "KDF," "Faulty Plan"), rare songs ("Party Time," "Ha Ha Ha," "Esther") and Page songs ("Beauty of a Broken Heart" and "Strange Design"). It's a little weird (and maybe purposeful?) how none of these songs even hint at going deep, though. Maybe the boys are tired of stretching out in the first set, as they've been doing it a lot lately? Even "Foam," "KDF," and "Tube" are light on what are normally already small amounts of improv. It's certainly strange at this point in a pretty amazing run, but, like I said, if you like the occasional song-based first set, this one's solid in terms of pacing and song choice.

The second set leads off with a fiery "Tweezer" that stays pretty well within its usual confines but has a little bit of extra bounce to it. Around the 10:00 mark, it seems like the song's about to break into some new territory, but maybe things were just falling apart, because Trey makes a decent segue into "Taste," and it's a version that keeps the momentum from "Tweezer" going. Even the "Alaska" that follows is a bit swingier than usual. The "Let Me Lie" comes along. "Let Me Lie" and "TTE" in the same show? Does Phish actually enjoy the sound of jaded vets whining? Anyway, this setlist faux pas should be forgiven because the "46 Days" that follows is an absolute monster. It takes a turn into ambient territory right away, at about the 5:00 mark, and the next 5 or so minutes is some of my favorite Phish (and quite possibly my absolute favorite Phish) in 3.0 so far. It's really hard to describe exactly what goes on in those magical five minutes, so I'd recommend you just go listen for yourself, since there appear to be a massive shortage of YouTube videos from this show.

The set wraps up with a standard "Oh! Sweet Nuthin'!" and an average-great "Hood," and then there's the obligatory (but always satisfying) "GTBT" > "Tweeprise" finish.

Anybody who professes to like Phish should check out the "46 Days" here, but I maintain that the rest of the show doesn't deserve the bad rap it seems to get. If you like songs as much (or even almost as much) as you like jams, the first set is a master class in how to pace a song-based show (save for the "TTE"), and the "Tweezer" > "Taste" is offers a solid 20 minutes of danceable rock.

2009-08-14 Comcast Theatre

As we wind down Leg Two, it's really turning out to be a sort of winding-down (at least so far): things started off mega-hot in Red Rocks, continued to peak at the Gorge, but everything since has been not quite as good (while still managing to be largely better than all but a handful of Leg One shows, admittedly). Comcast manages to be the best show since the Gorge by virtue of its well-roundedness; however, the one thing that keeps it from being a truly excellent Phish show in the vein of, say, Camden or Gorge I is a lack of any deep improvisation to speak of.

Let's get this out of the way first: in the way of much of Leg Two, the first set is easily the best of the two. "Punch You in the Eye" is played with great momentum, and it rolls right into a "Bag" > "NICU" that features a great Trey solo (in "Bag"). Then we get some more old-school setlist choices that, in retrospect, should have clued me in to the fact that this was going to be a well-played but non-improv show. "Forbin's" > "Mockingbird" is gorgeously played, and there's a nice, early-90s-sounding melodic jam in "Mockingbird" that I salivated over a little bit.

"Birds" is next, and it takes a left turn right away, leading into some weird, whale-y territory for Trey, a bit of minimal soloing that's supported by Mike underneath. The move from this into "Lawn Boy" is somehow made to seem natural (I'm realizing more and more how important pacing is in first set song placement), and then the improvisational highlight of the show comes up in "Stash." Like "Birds" before it, things get interesting almost right away here as the jam kicks off, with a sinister tone and some tension-y playing from Trey that eventually transitions into a droning section at 11:00, which Page sprinkles some melodic piano over. This jam doesn't necessarily stand up to any of the juggernauts of Leg Two in terms of quality, but it's easily the most cohesive piece of the night.

And excellently played and excellently paced first set ends up with a well-placed "I Didn't Know" with vacuum antics, then another take on Mike's "Middle of the Road," and finally a down-and-dirty "Zero."

It seems like the boys originally wanted the second set to be improv-heavy, but none of the jams seemed to really cohere around anything interesting. They start off with "Disease," which stays firmly in type 1 territory until the 9:00 mark, when it switches to the standard funk-strumming springboard they've been using to start really jamming from for a lot of Leg Two, now. They just sort of circle the runway for awhile in this mode, though, never really finding anything to land on until 11:00, when things open up briefly into a mini-bliss jam. The "official" Phish.net setlist notes a "'Reba' jam" here, but I'm just not hearing it. Nothing really coalesces and Trey finally blessedly ripcords the thing into a standard "Wilson."

"Wilson" features an ambient-noise segue into a surprisingly rock-and-roll "Slave," which has a much more drawn out peak than most recent versions, then we move on to "Piper," which seems to be the second attempt of the set to build a really interesting soundscape. It works a bit better than "Disease" did, but not by much. At about the 4:00 mark, the band switches into that funk-strumming springboard again (the same one they just used in "Disease") seemingly trying to get something interesting started. At 7:30, Trey finds an interesting, minimalistic soloing space inside of Fishman's fast-but-light drumming, but abandons it way too soon, opting instead for a few more minutes of standard soloing action before the final minute of the song, which actually features a really interesting, percussion-less (as far as I could tell) abstract space constructed primarily of Page's crawling organ work and Mike's sinister-as-hell bass tone. This is another one of those jams where I feel like it has enough interesting moments that it's likely a highlight on someone's list, especially with the weird, abstract close, but for me it sounded more like the band just casting around trying to find a good idea an mostly failing for about 12 of the song's 13 minutes.

They come out of the abstract space, though, with a perfect Page-led segue into "Water in the Sky," a strange second set choice. Then there's a 10-minute "Ghost," but this "Ghost" is just type 1 shredding action, and really just serves as a springboard for a great segue into "Psycho Killer." "Psycho Killer" features a "jam" section that's basically just abstract electronic noise from what sounds like Trey's pedal board, and this leads to some antics in which Trey seemingly tries to get the crowd to dance to this incredibly undanceable music, and then begins singing the lyrics to "Catapult" over the noise. This moves next into an "Icculus" that has Trey jokingly berating the crowd for never reading books anymore because they're obsessed with electronics and explaining how he was alive for the creation of "Pong," which prompts a callback to the noise loop shenanigans ("This is what 'Pong' sounded like"). To close out the set, there's a short(ish) but smooth and fast "YEM" that includes the "Pong" "jam" in the vocal section.

You can see most of this run of songs starting here, but you'll have to click into YouTube directly to find parts 2 and 3 of the video, for some reason:

All in all, it seems like the guys just couldn't get on the same page when it came to extended jamming for this show; however, it features a really well-paced first set with some excellent song choices and a great few minutes in the "Stash" jam. The second set is better off when they give up on the long jams and just settle into the antics (everything after the segue into "Psycho Killer" is just good old Phishy fun), and the running joke with the "Pong" sound effects is consistently funny and clever. This seems like it would have been a great show to be at, and though the effect is a little lost over the tape, it's still a good time, if you're into fun antics and good song selection, and don't absolutely need a show to "go deep" to enjoy it.

2009-08-13 Darien Lake

Well, Darien Lake is a slight improvement over the lackluster Toyota Park show, though not by much. Rather than just being generally stilted and unsatisfying, it manages to evoke similarities to many of the Leg One shows I described as "average" or "workmanlike": it's a decently-played rock and roll show with one early-second-set marquee jam that dabbles in funk and abstract spaces for a few minutes.

We start off with "Sample," which is weird, because this was just played at Toyota Park. This version's got a bit more "oomph" and a bit less "oops" to it, but that's all there really is to say about it. Next is a well-played "Dinner and Movie" that's great for the novelty value alone, and it's followed by another 11-minute "Wolfman's" that stays in the standard and somewhat-satisfying type 1 funk pocket the entire time. Things finally get rolling with a flaming-hot "Possum" that does what "Possum" does best (i.e. encourage first-set ass-shaking).

The "Farmhouse" that follows is actually more than a novelty setlist call: Trey's solo manages to be both interestingly melodic and fiery at the same time, making this one of the better "Farmhouse"s I've heard in awhile. Setlist weirdness continues with pedestrian takes on "Brian and Robert" and "Sugar Shack." How much you like this part of the set probably depends on how much you like these songs in general. I love all three, so the often-flat mid-first-set part of the show could have been a lot worse, as far as I'm concerned.

Near the end of the set, we get two monsters: "Bowie" and "Gin." The "Gin" is pretty standard Trey-rock fare, but the "Bowie" really grabbed me. The band hasn't done much interesting with this song yet in 3.0, and honestly, they don't start being interesting here; however, this is a really solidly played and then jammed "Bowie" that hits all the right notes (literally) at all the right points and closes with an extremely satisfying climax. In some ways, I guess that makes it the very definition of "workmanlike," but I was fist-pumping at my desk by the end. Definitely the set highlight.

The set closes with a nice shout-out to the then-recently-passed Les Paul from Trey, and a bit of "How High the Moon" > "Golgi."

The second set follows the blueprint of a lot of later 3.0 second sets: one obvious jam-monster followed by a bunch of songs that (in theory at least) are loud, uplifting, dramatic, and seemingly meant to leave the crowd satisfied. This is pretty boring, in my opinion, but we do get a decent "Drowned" jam out of it this time.

Things are pretty straightforward until about 5:00 into the "Darien Jam," when the whole band transitions on a dime into some "Birds"-like funk space. This only lasts for about a minute or two, though, before Trey and Page start to do some more of the interesting abstract almost-clashing action that we saw previously in the Toyota Park "Number Line." While this is going on, Fish and Gordon are creating an absolutely sinister rhythm space underneath. The jam closes with a slow build up into a bliss-rock section, ultimately recalling the trajectory of a lot of the funk > space > bliss long jams of Leg One.

There's a neat transition into "Prince Caspian" next, and the "Caspian" is awesomely similar to the "Farmhouse": simultaneously very melodically creative and precise, and yet rocking at the same time. I don't know what Trey is doing with his ballad-song-soloing during this show, but I wish it happened more often.

Everything from the "Rift" to the "Antelope" is pretty standard fare, unfortunately. The "Antelope" is especially high-energy, but it's definitely not in the same category with some of the better "Antelope"s of the tour so far, and in fact there have been better ones even this week.

Things continue in a predictable vein, honestly, through the rest of the show, though the energy gets notched up a bit for the last few songs. "Suzy" features some great Mike and Page interplay and "Fluffhead" has a shredtastic peak, but aside from that and the novelty value of the "Joy" and "First Tube" closer, there's not really anything to write home (or on this blog) about.

The setlist for Comcast looks suitably wacky, though. Looking forward to seeing things get a little weirder.

2009-08-11 Toyota Park

Considering that this show comes after two barn-burning runs in a row (Red Rocks and the Gorge) and then a two-day break, my expectations were pretty low. Generally, lots of good shows + a long break = a lackluster show, and though one of the many things I love about Phish is that they can occasionally surprise you and buck this trend...this show is not one of those times. Toytoa Park is the first all-around disappointing show of Leg Two. Well, I suppose it had to happen sometime.

First off, it might just be my ears (or my speakers), but this SBD recording sounds like shit compared to the Gorge shows. I don't know why that would be the case, but it bugged me throughout, and no amount of EQing seemed to really un-muddy it. So that certainly didn't help. However, it also doesn't help that the vast majority of this show is made up of decently- but uninterestingly-played songs that never seem to cohere into any larger picture.

We start off with an energetic "KDF" that actually slays right out of the gate. Trey leads the boys right up to a monstrous peak and one song in, the sky's the limit. Then, though, we jump to "Sample," which rarely, if ever, has managed to reach its previous heights here in 3.0. This is more of the same, with Trey playing around with all sorts of effects to little effect (ha!) rather than just fucking rocking out for a few minutes. I don't know why he's so unable to just muster some satisfying rock licks on this song, like, basically ever. He can certainly do it with lots of other songs and has been doing it all summer...

Anyway, "Ocelot" is next, and it's a particularly yawn-y version. It's followed by "Paul and Silas," which is guess is neat for the novelty value, but at this point all the promise of the opening number has been squandered and I'm just bored. Fortunately, "Ocelot" is followed by "Windy City," which still isn't a rocker by any means, but is one of my favorite 3.0 songs. This version doesn't do anything interesting, really, but I'm satisfied by just hearing it.

The highlight of the show is probably "The Curtain With," which follows "Windy City." It's only the song's second time out since Coventry, and it's played beautifully all the way through. The jam section is minimal, but appropriate, and the "With" is always a joy to hear. There's nothing unique about the version, and it likely won't make my Leg Two highlight reel for that reason, but it's the best part of this show. So now you know it only gets worse.

There are some interesting song choices for the rest of the set ("Train Song," "Gumbo") and the "Heavy Things" is fast and features some high-speed Trey noodling reminiscent of the old days, but it ends too fast and drops into "TTE," about which nothing more really needs to be said (I'll say again: I love this song as a composition, but it just falls flat for me live). In a leg that's had some notably great first sets, this one just drags, and it might well be the single worst set of the run so far. Again, there's nothing terrible about, it's just sort of there. But after Red Rocks and the Gorge, that doesn't seem like it should be enough anymore.

The second set starts with a long "Number Line," but it's all type 1 jamming until about the 11:00 mark, where Trey and Page start in with some "wonky 70s space-age tones" (as I wrote in my notes) that play almost-but-not-quite-arrhythmically against one another. It's a really neat soundscape, but it only runs for about two minutes before a sudden "Carini" turn. The "Carini" itself is about as standard as it gets, and the majority of the "jam" is actually just song-ending-style feedback for about two minutes before we launch into "Jibboo."

Typically, I'd be totally jazzed about a show with both "Heavy Things" and "Jibboo," but in this case, the "Things" is too short to develop and the "Jibboo" runs too long on the same idea before moving into "Theme." Trey pretty obviously tries to do something different with the build-up in this "Theme" (or maybe he just gets lost?), but it doesn't work at all. As a result, the peak falls really flat. Fortunately, the following "Wilson" > "2001" pairing is high energy and features probably the most interesting playing of the show: a weird Trey mini-solo in "Wilson" and then another satisfyingly funk-chunky 2009 "2001."

To wind up, "Chalkdust" is standard fare, "Hood" features some more botched Trey experimentation that involves some attempts tension-and-release-type jamming (which just seems weird to me in a modern "Hood"), and "Coil" is sloppy as all hell.

"Loving Cup" is a nice opener, but nothing you haven't heard before.

This actually would have been a show that I would have enjoyed earlier in the summer, and might have ranked it above some of the more average shows from Leg One; however, with 6 of the 8 shows so far in Leg Two being to varying degrees in the "Best of Summer" category, this one just doesn't cut it.

Incidentally...

...I do realize that this blog looks like shit. I'm hoping to fancy it up a bit sometime in the next few weeks, but for now I'm just focusing on delivering the text and video in as uncomplicated a format as possible.

Hoping to listen to 8/11 Toyota Park tomorrow. Apparently it's the debut of "Windy City"!

2009-08-08 Gorge II

So, the second night of the Gorge run is a solid show, for sure. However, following on the heels of the mostly-spectacular Red Rocks run and a possible best-of-tour candidate in Gorge I, it's a bit of a letdown. But not much of one.

The "Mango" opener is much appreciated. It's well-played, and the harmonies (something which seems to often suffer in 3.0) are spot-on. There's also an excellent little Page solo with Trey doing some nice chording work during. "Chalkdust" is a great, rock-y followup (as usual), but while "Middle of the Road" is a great Mike-centered surprise, Trey sort of drops the ball on the soloing.

Anytime you get "Tweezer" in the four spot, you know the guys are trying to get something serious started. This version is worth a listen, though I have to say that in a year full of amazing "Tweezer"s this one isn't anywhere near my favorite. The jam starts off with some guitar loops, of all things, followed by some of the minimalist funk that's been popular through late June and early August. Fishman then pushes the band forward with a more driving beat, and Trey responds with the fuzz. The last few minutes abandon any semblance of improvisation, though, and just feature TreyShredzz (TM) all the way through, and then the song just suddenly ends. Like I said, not a bad version by any means, but not as satisfying as some of the Leg One versions (or the Hampton version!).

Fortunately, "Driver" is next, which is one of my favorite "cool down" songs. "20 Years Later" is a great song, but it's a weird follow-up to "Driver," and this version is just sloppy as all hell. Fortunately, at this low-energy point there's still about an hour left in the first set (this might be the longest first set ever). The energy kicks back in with a "Ya Mar" that features some great interplay between Mike-thumping and Trey's high-neck noodling action, and then there's an excellently-played "It's Ice" with some extra spaciness in the middle for good measure.

Here's my actually-self-made video of part of "It's Ice":

Next, there's an 11-minute "Wolfman's" featuring some standard summer funk-rock that seems destined to end the set...but nope, we're still going. "Character Zero" is actually quite good, and Trey's guitar tone at the beginning is so dirty and distorted that it almost wanders into Frampton-talking-guitar territory, which is at least interesting to hear if nothing else. Then there's the "Antelope." In a summer where "Antelope" has just been flat-out rocked out of the park on many occasions, this one stands out in quality by being just as exciting, but in different ways. There's a lot of back-and-forth and brilliant little telepathy moments in the intro, and the early part of the jam is dominated by Trey's surprisingly melodic and restrained soloing. Then, just for good measure, the last few minutes launch into that ridiculous shredding that has characterized most "Antelope"s so far this year. Then the first set is finally over. Just by virtue of it being so fucking massive, I'd say that there's a good moment or two for everyone here in this set. It sags a bit in the middle, but the last few songs patch things up nicely. In fact, if you're a big fan of "Tweezer" and/or "Antelope," you could probably make an argument for this being the second show in a row where the first set trumps the second set. It sort of depends on how you feel about a 23-minute "Rock and Roll," though.

Here's a video I shot during "Wolfman's":

Phish apparently loves "Rock and Roll" in the Gorge. This version is nowhere near on par with the 2011 version in terms of quality, but it's actually quite a bit longer. Up until about the 10:00 mark, it's all type 1 shredding, but then the bottom drops out, and Page's clav and Trey's guitar play back and forth for a few minutes over a spacey background. Next, Trey brings out the whale pedal (to good effect) while everyone else works on building funk textures in the background. At about 18:00, we return to standard-ish rock, with Mike, surprisingly, leading everyone to the peak of the song and then back into the vocal refrain. Overall, this is the rare 23-minute jam where I left feeling neither bored/annoyed or particularly blissful. It's good and all, and good enough to justify the 23-minute run-time (unlike a lot of, say, 2.0 long jams), but it's also not necessarily in the top 10 (or even maybe like top 25) of the year. Take that as you will.

The rest of the second set features a lot of standard versions of songs with interesting little moments built into them. For example, "Makisupa Policeman," which is played pretty much like it usually is, except for the fact that Mike and Trey trade instruments partway through. Then there are standard versions of "Alaska" and "The Wedge," followed by a pretty standard "YEM" that suddenly spotlights Mike playing a sinister, spacey bass near the end of the jam while Trey noodles "Hedwig's Theme" from Harry Potter underneath him before Mike just bursts into flames and starts ripping off an excellent solo. Similarly, "Number Line" is plain old "Number Line" right up until the end of the jam, where Trey busts out the whale again to great effect and then leads the band in a neat segue into "Piper" while everyone else keeps playing "Number Line" briefly under the "Piper" riff. "Piper," also, is pretty straightforward in terms of the jam, but Trey's and Page's tones are much more distorted than usual, so the effect is a jam that's pretty average in terms of playing, but that sounds a lot weirder than usual. "Good Times Bad Times" > "Tweeprise" is just a ridiculously good run-closer; there's not really anything else to say about that.

One more self-indulgent link:

Overall, I definitely didn't appreciate these shows as much as I could have in the context of the entire comeback back when I saw them live. However, on relisten, while the second night pales in comparison to the first, the two shows together stand up to any two shows from the Red Rocks run, and it's safe to say that Phish left the Gorge in '09 playing better than they'd played at any point since the comeback began. I've actually never heard any more '09 Phish after the Gorge before, so I'm excited to finish out this run and get in to fall tour. What the hell ever happened to fall tours, anyway?!  Can we get some more of those someday? Like this fall, maybe?

2009-08-07 Gorge I

I have to admit up front that it's hard for me to be objective here because this was my first ever Phish show. That said, it's easily one of the better shows of the year, even compared to the first few nights of the Red Rocks run, which I absolutely loved.

The boys started off with "Disease," which is a great opener, though at the time I rolled my eyes a bit. Before 8/7/2009, "Disease" had been one of my least favorite Phish songs, and it seemed ironically appropriate that they would start the first show I'd ever seen, after nearly 7 years of waiting, with it. However, by the end of the composed segment I was completely taken by the energy of the crowd and was jumping and whooping along, and it's one of my favorite concert memories; also, now "Disease" is one of my favorite jam vehicles. Memories aside, though, this version is a pretty straightforward Type 1 jam all the way through, with a smooth transition back into the song proper before the end.

"Disease" was followed by "Ocelot," which is, in my humble opinion, one of the least interesting songs in the band's live repertoire. This version is better than most, though, as it's (as I wrote in my notes) "slow and slutty." I was happy to hear "Pebbles and Marbles" next, though Trey seems to be just playing placeholder chords throughout, and with Page low in the mix (at least on my recording), the song sounds remarkably hollow. It's not a bad version, but it just sounds empty compared to the fuller studio version. As you likely know by now, "Possum" is a song that I continue to love, despite the fact that it seems to be popular to poo-poo it nowadays. This version features some really nice back-and-forth action between Trey and Page, and a particularly peak-y peak.

"Sleep" and "Destiny Unbound" were both nice surprises, one obviously a little nicer than the other, but neither one does anything other than you'd expect it to do, while "Stash" features a nice, extremely abstract jam in the vein of some of the better jams of the Leg One. Trey has a bit of trouble with the composed part of the song, but if you stick around for the jam, it's worth the wait. The centerpiece of the first set (and likely the whole show, oddly enough) is the "Sally" > "Cavern" combo. "Sally" is solidly played, then features a great impromptu vocal jam outro that morphs into a longer jam with a few movements to it. Overall, it's Phish doing something longish and interesting with ambient space. I wrote this (incoherently but exuberantly) in my notes: "great robotic guitar tone from trey going back into the jam, then an ambient washout...but they keep playing instead of changing songs. this is seriously some weird space shit. fishman comes into the space with a marching beat. this is so good." The transition to "Cavern" is solid, and while "Cavern" itself is nothing special, it's a great, sloppy, energetic close to a great first set that features some solid playing in its first half and some high-quality improv in its second. And actually, the "Sally" is one of my favorite pieces so far of all of 3.0...definitely worth a listen or two.

We get an energetic "Moma" to start set two, and then a long "Light." Much like the "Stash" in set one, this one starts rough but then extends into some quality type 1 jamming. This "Light" is actually one of my favorite Phish moments that I've witnessed live because of the Hood-like jam (with vocals!) that occurs suddenly in the closing few minutes. The entire band turns on a dime to suddenly enter a blissful soundscape that sounds a lot like the ending of "Hood," and then they actually play "Hood" in full later on in the set! Great moment, and perfect for the setting of the Gorge. Not the best ever "Light" by and means, but worth a listen for the "Hood" jam, for sure. It ends with a great segue into "Taste," but it ends up being a pretty standard version.

After, we get a standard "Fluffhead" and "Joy," but then like many of the better shows so far of 3.0, the late-set improv kicks in with an 18 minute "Gin" that covers a lot of rock-style movements before settling (near the end) on some interesting Trey picking with Mike thumping along underneath. The last few minutes of this jam comprise one of the more interesting soundscapes the band has created thus far all summer, but you have to wade through a decent but mostly uninteresting 15 or so minutes to get there. What follows is a really, really spacious and slow "Hood." As I wrote in my notes "nobody's in a hurry here," and the song's much better for it. There isn't much better than a long, extended bliss jam like "Hood" for the Gorge, and then band apparently agreed so much that they came back with a "Slave" closer. Between the "Light" > mini-"Hood," 17-minute legit "Hood," and the "Slave" encore, if you like bliss jams, this show is right up your alley. Even if you don't the "Sally" from the first set is quite possibly the best single jam of the tour so far. Either way, this is a great first show for a patient Phish fan. I'm a lucky guy.