My “Go To” Jam
Hampton (M. Yates)
Everyone has a go-to jam. It fits any mood you could ever be in, and you’ve listened to it several hundred times in your life. It is the first piece of music you want to hear when you are glowing after a show, ready to conquer the world. It is the first piece of music you want to listen to after a hard day at work. It is the only piece of music you could never possibly get sick of, even if played on a loop in your head forever. It is that analog tape you played to death, that CD you never lost, and now it is forever stored on your computer, iPod, and several other devices. It is part of you; you feel like what you hear- it just all fits. For me, there is only one answer to this scenario- the “Tweezer” from Auburn Hills ’97.
For twenty-two minutes in 1997, Phish actualized a dream turned memory that would last forever. With the musical path of nasty funk leading into searing psychedelia, Phish created one of the lasting highlights of the late ’90s. Opening the second set in Detroit, the band toyed with the opening of the song before an extended drum roll, a la “Possum,” dropped into the opening. A version that contained many unique improvisational brushes throughout its composed section got downright nasty the moment the jam opened.
Hampton (T.Caine)
Leading with a tweaked keyboard line, Page was soon overtaken by the brontosaurus bass lines of Gordon. Methodically leading the band into the grooves, Mike took the lead, while Trey hopped atop his pattern with crack-like rhythm licks. This jam took place at a time, specifically a weekend, where Phish was flying through the stratosphere seemingly on auto pilot; tearing every night to shreds with focused abandon. When Phish gets into grooves like the one they were in, everything seems composed, like there is a master plan behind in all. Maybe Phish didn’t compose it, but the higher powers did, and they were just the messengers. Either way, what happened this night was certainly touched by the divine.
The funk was as thick as ever, dripping from the rafters of The Palace like vines of a prehistoric era. The band was so precise, they sounded like a machine. Cohesive and imaginative, Phish threw down a groove session that holds up to any of that famed fall. So polished and nuanced, their “funk” had become an entity all its own, as there was really no word to describe their massive musical textures. It was larger than life, and in Detroit that night, every note filled the arena with purpose and meaning. The band members played off of each other flawlessly, channeling the Spaulding burgers Michael once dropped against the Pistons in the very same building.
Churning and crunching along, the dinosaur grooves ate up the arena. The band was absolutely crushing it, speaking fluently to one another, while nailing stops along the way. As the raw funk concluded, Page laid down some insane clav lines that opened up a new section of grooves with enhanced layers and textures. After looping some effects, the way in which Trey joined in was stunning. With an interpretation of one of his classic melodies, adopted to the increasingly futuristic milieu, his notes resonated deeply as he gently entered the mix.
Hampton (A.Kuroda)
Before the band took it out to another galaxy, they sat into one more funk groove, climaxing in a classic ’97 guitar-scratching, stop and start section. But directly following this, Trey played a lead melody that galloped the music outwards into the cosmos. As the band joined this celestial path, Trey opened up the universe with one gorgeous lick- and if you know this jam even slightly, you know the one I mean. Within a few minutes we had time traveled from the Mesozoic era to outer space.
From here the music became poetry. Taking an awing path of psychedelic exploration, the band visited a transcendent plane that we dream about. Over-taking every atom of energy in the building, the music transformed into a seething dungeon of the unknown. Taking a turn for the dark and dramatic, the ensuing improv was one of the most powerful passages of music I have ever witnessed. Phish explored the deepest of places and never once missed a beat. The band put on a display that no other four humans on earth could even approach.
Hampton (J.Volkhausen)
As this colossal segment peaked, the band emerged from the eerie swamps of the mind with another groove!? Whoa! Before we could even process what was happening, we found ourselves smack in the middle of “Tweezer > Izabella,” a term that would live on forever in Phish lore. The ensuing “Izabella” would produce the most full-on dance rhythms ever heard from the song, and the band would go on to create one of the greatest sets of the late ’90s.
I could listen to that “Tweezer” forever, and once started, it’s hard to stop before the end of the set because the band never did. But in those twenty-two minutes Phish took us on a journey of a lifetime. In a timeless moment that might as well have lasted twenty-two days, Phish bore their soul while touching ours in a spiritual exchange that defines the very ethos of what this is all about.
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What is your “go to ” jam? Respond in Comments!
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DOWNLOAD OF THE DAY:
4.1.86 Hunt’s “Festival of Fools,” Burlington, VT < TORRENT LINK
Phish circa 1986 (The Phish Book)
Let’s rewind 23 years to April Fools day 1986. Phish was still playing covers around Burlington, and writing songs that would become classics. Highlighting this April Fool’s Day show was the second set opening prank of “Help > Slip > Bag,” as well as early versions of “Harry Hood” “You Enjoy Myself,” “Icculus,” and “McGrupp.” Enjoy this slice of comedic history as we enter April, or in other words, one month closer to June.
I: Quinn the Eskimo, Have Mercy > Harry Hood > Dave’s Energy Guide, The Pendulum, Jam*, Icculus, You Enjoy Myself
II: Help on the Way > Slipknot! > AC/DC Bag, McGrupp and the Watchful Hosemasters, Alumni Blues, Dear Mrs. Reagan, Not Fade Away^
*With Zenzile, a poet from South Africa who may have been a student at Goddard College. ^Featured members of The Joneses, with whom Phish alternated sets.
Tags: 1997, Jams
sniggle, look around on this site in the miner’s picks for april 92 and you will be pleasantly surprised
YEM from Red Rocks 06.11.94
Epic jam.
this joyous MOOZIK thing we speak of….does it have anything to do with scalper bots and the ticketmaster cabal and bad management and fixed lotteries and secondary outlets?
no? good. just checking.
@ dyda (and Miner and Alexander)…
thanks again for the full downloads list. Any tips on how best to search for particular shows? Plugging a date into the search doesn’t always lead me directly to where I want.
@Bandito – I heart the Lemonwheel jam as well. There’s a great story about the DGreg FOB of that – I forget what friend of his was wearing the hat with the mikes during the ambient jam but at some point in the middle Phish just “dialed him in” as Derek put it, his eyes pinned and he went straight over backwards like a falling tree. They caught him before he went down and straightened him up…every time I listen to it I try to hear the point when that happens but music’s so damn floaty….
@DC I just changed my mind. You’re right. I went back and re-listened. The Phish version doesn’t sound that much like some of the later MLB jams but it’s definitely modelled on the classic ’73-74 arrangement. It totally is a MLB jam – or half of one – it doesn’t have the change in it that the Dead did, MLB typically shifts back and forth several times. But no doubt about it.
Here’s a nice, not perfect but good MLB jam from one of the best Dead shows of all time:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dt1vOabW0I8&fmt=18
The funny thing is, the original song, Your Mind Has Left Your Body, and any of the various forms of the “MLB” jam the Dead did, are not that similar. Jerry played with the PERRO crowd who recorded YMHLYB and certainly knew the song, but the first appearances of MLB jam by the dead are prior to the release of that album…I’m not really convinced there is a direct relationship between them. Maybe subconscious?
IMO YMHLYB isn’t a great song though it has some beautiful Jerry pedal steel guitar on it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbTBasAaFpA&flip=1
Miner -I love this site. It has become the first thing I check out every morning. Keep up the good work!
Jay- Totally agree with you on the 6/28/00 Gin. I actually listened to that on the way to work this morning and it ended just as I pulled into the parking lot. A real rocker. I’ve been in a great mood all day because of it!
the big cypress “tweezer” has a pretty cool “MLB” themed jam on it….always dug that version.
Julius Umass 93
My mind leaves my body at 4:20
I could never get stuff off of B-tree before, but now that miner showed us how to do the Torrent thing, now i can. Sweet.
I can’t wait to burn a cd and listen to that in my car again.
Thanx Old Dude. And Miner for the tech side.
well maybe, says 11 hours left for download
@sniggle, torrents only run super quick when a ton of people are on them, which usually means first couple days after they go up. if there’s just a couple seeders it can take awhile, but come on, it’s still like magic.
Plus if one or 2 seeders randomly get back online your 11 hours could drop to 1 or 2
be nice and leave your torrents in uploads until you get AT LEAST 1.0 share ratio, 2.0 or more is desirable. ;o)
Yes, folks-,please keep your torrent window open for most of the day- this is how it works, other people are getting the music for you for free instead of Amazon for $…thanks so much!
Woostah Gin
Nassau Tweezer > SSP
SOAM 7-2-97
DWD 8-6-96
8-28-93 Fluffhead Antelope YEM
Ball Jim
3-31-93 Reba, Hood
Coil 12-31-92
10-31-98 Weekapaug
12-31-95 Weekapaug
10-31-95 YEM
Real Gin
Gin 7-20-98
Ghost 7-19-98
Mikes > Paug 7-17-98
Tweezer > Cali Love 7-15-98
8-3-97 Twist > JJLC, Limb
Moby Dick set
I could go on…
Check out the funny: http://jambands.com/News.phtml?newsfile=redesign_news409.html#4-1-76
working from home today, just went to the bathroom and noticed my girl bought some new hand soap from Target. The scent: Morning Dew
she doen’t know dead song names, although she loves JG, so that’s funny and pretty sweet.
eventually you will want to DL an old 3 gig torrent no one else wants and it will kill your share ratio. Hedge your torrent karma by building huge share ratio up front. If you jump on popular torrents and keep them up for a few days you can easily build 5.0 or 10.0 + ratio which will keep you in the black when you pull something obscure later.
Plus its the right thing to do. Torrents are cool because they work better the cooler the downloaders are. Karma made literal, and the payoff is music.
lol @ jambands.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gu0Q7lLYssQ
so sad
10-31-94 Reba..it just has FLOW..yet to hear a better version, IMO. 9-29-99 Jiboo>2001>DWD…first show, particularly like the Jiboo jam and the 2001 intro
Must give props to that 6.28.00 Gin also… just discovered it not too long ago but it is truly a classic. It builds waves upon waves of pure energy! Check out the soundboard version on this site from the From The Archives show from last august…
@Mr. Completely
AMEN! Torrents are truly a blessing based on sharing… went to see Jeff Tweedy last week in Burlington and found the show up already on etree! You gotta love this technology for the music addict…
the Holmdel Gin AUD is way better than the SBD. Crowd was unbelievable and the SBD doesn’t do it justice. definitely one of the highest energy moments for me of any show i’ve seen.
11-17-97 speaks for itself maybe my fav tweezer, ghost, yem. Just straight fire phunk throughout. I am sure we all heard this one but if you are a newb, you must hear this show. This is what phish is all about. available at http://www.phishows.com
go nuts kids:
http://bleedingsenses.wordpress.com/2009/04/01/secret-phish-show-at-the-fox-boulder-ticket-giveaway/
@guyforget
Yeah man! We talked about it before i think and I must seek an audience copy of that show to hear it in all it’s glory… Love the 11/9/98 Gin also… Really a mind-opener for me!
^agreed gills. this show just absolutely kills. handsdown, my favorite show ever. unreal.
aud is always better than sbd, i think.
but then, i’m fond of hissy analog cassette sound.