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!
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