Chilean Inspiration
10.12.10 - Broomfield, CO (Brooks Perry)
Seldom is global human drama reflected within the construct of a Phish show, but on October 12 in Broomfield, Colorado, this synchronicity was undeniable. While Phish performed their Rocky Mountain finale, one of the greatest human triumphs in recent memory unfolded in Copiapo, Chile. 33 miners who had been trapped 2300 feet under the earth for an unthinkable 69 days – stuck in a collapsed mine with little to eat or drink – were on the verge of rescue. Believed to be dead for over two weeks, the mind-boggling story of these Chilean miners captured the world’s attention while spreading awe and inspiration throughout the globe. Phish took notice and did some interpretive work throughout the course of a special evening.
Many fans were totally unaware of the events transpiring as Phish played their third show in Colorado, treating it as any other night on tour. I was one of those fans. But when learning what had occurred after the show and looking back at the setlist, I had to do a double take as the two events strangely overlapped. I first discovered the Chilean miracle while checking Phish.net’s setlist for the night. For some reason, they had notated when the first and second miners were rescued; I had no idea why. But when looking a little closer, Phish had thematically woven this unthinkable accomplishment directly into their show.
A Miner Is Rescued In Chile
Whether the band was informed of the miracle taking place in Chile or watching footage backstage, they must have consciously infused this story into their performance. A coincidence seems way too far-fetched in this instance. Closing the first set with a blowout, feel-good version of “46 Days” – a song explicitly referencing coal – the first clue was in place by setbreak. Though nobody had any idea. If you want to stretch this a little further, two of the three previous songs were “On Your Way Down” and “Heavy Things,” both titles that could easily be applied to the Chilean events. But after setbtreak, things became far more congruent.
During the break – to Phish’s knowledge or not – the first miner emerged from over two-months in the humid dungeon of the collapsed mine. And when the band opened the second set with a terrorizing “Carini > Bowie,” this musical passage, very conceivably, represented the miners’ extended flirtation with death. For over two weeks, the men didn’t knowing whether any officials knew of their fate or if anyone would attempt to rescue them. Faced with this ultimate unknown, each of the 33 miners trapped a half-mile underground lived on two spoonfuls of tuna, a sip of milk, a bite of crackers and a morsel of peaches. Every other day. When the outside world finally discovered them 17 days into their nightmare, the group still had some of their two-day emergency ration left, not knowing what would transpire.
10.12.10 - Broomfield (Brooks Perry)
Emerging from the set’s ominous opening combination, Phish immediately splashed into “Light,” their third consecutive jam vehicle. And when looking at the setlist in retrospect, this is where the congruency to the Chilean events moved beyond chance or coincidence. Symbolically, “Light” represented the hope of life and rescue for the miners as they made contact with the outside world 17 days into their ordeal. On this day, rescuers found the men miraculously alive with a drill hole the width of a grapefruit. This hole served as a lifeline to pass hydration gels, water and food, as well as bibles, letters from their families, and soccer videos to keep their spirits up.
Meanwhile, Phish took “Light” into new dimensions. Dropping the lyrical refrain from the initial jam, thus creating a completely open-ended piece of improvisation, the band redefined possibilities for the song. And Phish took aim for the stars. Building out of a delicate and cathartic opening, the band seamlessly migrated into an intergalactic groove experiment. This dense rhythmic excursion set the tone for autumn “Lights;” a completely new direction from the summer’s abstract excursions.
10.23.10 (D.Lavery)
Without ever bringing the lyrics back, Phish segued into “Theme From the Bottom,” a song whose connection to the Chilean miners destiny needs little explanation. With a focus on friendship down below, Phish was building a thematic set in front of our eyes that few, if any, caught at the time. Upon “Theme’s” denouement, Trey didn’t let the song end, transitioning into “Free” and following it up with a breath of air – “Joy.” When I looked back on this setlist later that night, knowing full well what had happened in Chile, the soundtrack to the global drama was hard to believe – “Light > Theme > Free, Joy” And if the intentional construction of the setlist wasn’t enough, the second miner actually was rescued during the three-song sequence “Theme > Free, Joy.”
Concluding the virtually non-stop opening portion of the second set, the Chilean-inspired theme came to a conclusion with this sequence. Sometimes Phish and life seem to coincide with mysterious harmony, but this time there seemed to be an obvious intentionality behind the overlap. Walking out this night, I felt Phish had dropped their best show of a very young tour. But little did I know the evening contained the soundtrack for a miracle a continent away.
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Jam of the Day:
“Rock and Roll > Carini” 10.21.10 II
One of the most impressive improvisational sequences of Fall Tour from The Dunk in Providence, Rhode Island.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
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DOWNLOAD OF THE DAY:
10.12.10 1st Bank Center, Broomfield, Colorado
FLAC torrent via etree, Mp3 Torrent, Megaupload < Links
Official Broomfield Poster
Here is the Chilean miner-inspired finale in Broomfield. The set-opening trio of “Carini > Bowie, Light” provided an early peak of tour, while foreshadowing three of Fall’s most significant jams. After a mellow interlude of “Bug” and “Summer of ’89,” a blissful “Split” punctuated a dark set of music in style.
I: Stealing Time From the Faulty Plan, Time Turns Elastic, Meat, The Divided Sky, Timber (Jerry), On Your Way Down, Heavy Things, Sugar Shack, 46 Days
II: Carini > David Bowie, Light > Theme From the Bottom > Free, Joy, Halfway to the Moon > Bug, Summer of ’89, Split Open and Melt
E: Meatstick
Source: FOB/DFC > Neumann ak40′s(NOS) > lc3 > km100 > Aerco mp2 @ 20db > Sd 702 @ 24/48 (Taper – gotfob)
Tags: 2010, Culture, Fall '10
msg Light from ’09 still holds up, in case anyone was interested.
@c0w, yes – “im with you now. Chaos precedes and begets order. That I can be on board with. ”
Word man. It’s such a fucking beautiful thing, too.
FWIW this is what the Tree of Life is about in Kabalistic metaphysics. Those old Hebrews had some insight. They saw the whole world in terms of the interplay between pure force, which is inherently chaotic, and form, which imposes order on the energies of creation. The Tree is a “map of reality” showing how the energies of creation are “stepped down” into more and more “real” forms until physical reality finally emerges.
As metaphysical, metaphorical symbol-systems go, it’s a pretty dope one.
and mr c, my last post doesn’t agree or disagree with your post. it sort of cuts it up a little bit, draws distinctions differently.
and i think you misread silly somewhat: he is saying that just because science tells us how to build atomic weapons, that doesn’t make it right. the questions of ‘right’ (or ‘should’, i.e. the normative), can’t be answered by science. these are socio-political and/or moral questions.
yeah I pimped that Light a bit earlier @palmer
it’s great
I should say, in the post above, that “time” was made as a way for humans to comprehend the fourth dimension. I feel like I may not have made too much sense in my last post. Sorry
I’m a sarcastic asshole fuck
But if you were to bet me a million that
Light
Theme from the bottom
Free
Joy
Was coincidence
I’m with miner on this one
Im here to dumb this convo down
CSCO down 10% after hours
Could get ugly tomorrow
must have rallied a bit @ bouncin, wasn’t it down 15% earlier.
@KWL
Yeah, I wasn’t trying to say “truth” I was trying to say “what does it do?”
You articulated it better.
@Mr. C
Im not saying anything about the “validity of the theory.” QM is “true” through a scientific process of “proving truth”. It’s a system just like anything else. And it describes a lot.
I agree with you about that. Im simply trying to explain reactions to it.
btw, got hold of Trey on line 1 (finally!).
Dude said it was completely unintentional.
He thought it was a cool coincidence, though.
“and i think you misread silly somewhat: he is saying that just because science tells us how to build atomic weapons, that doesn’t make it right. the questions of ‘right’ (or ‘should’, i.e. the normative), can’t be answered by science. these are socio-political and/or moral questions.”
Again, KWL, you said what I was trying to say.
Im SillyWilly, and I endorse this message.
I left at 530 east coast time
Markets felt tired last few days also
maybe i should wear the flat brim now?
Keep the $1 MM.
If it’s a coincidence, you gotta wear a sequined cape in honor of statistics.
@selector – “I’d be cool with a link.”
http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/27640
one example…you can look up more about the “Bell test experiments” if you are interested. That’s where the experimental work is being done on this question.
and I’m not agitated really….
I did feel you were perhaps not really hearing me there for a bit…but for the most part actually @selector I have been paying you the respect of speaking to you directly and without a bunch of PC caveats. you’re a full grown man with a strong mind and I’m treating you as such…when it comes to science sometimes you have to simply speak in a direct way.
that’s how scientists do it.
Yeah, KWL, you might be more deserving than me.
you’ll be a famous fan much quicker than me.
FWIW @BK some scientists now think that longstanding view of time as a “dimension” is totally wrong…but certainly that’s the mainstream view and it’s built into the equations of relativity, for instance, or so I understand it
“that’s how scientists do it.”
A t-shirt is waiting to be born.
He wasn’t caped at Halloween so he crept up on us civilian style
if you wear a cape most shows, would not wearing one for halloween constitute a costume?
QM is true because the widgets we make based on it work.
Your post to this internet message board only exists due to a huge stack of QM-based processes.
Astrology is also a system but you can’t run a computer on it.
I don’t get the meaning of putting “truth” in quotes when the only reason you can type the word, or the quotes, is because QM is true
and I don’t think @Selector ever said anything about the way QM is used being his problem with the idea of nondeterministic causality.
His objection is, I think, a common and totally understandable one: that the world doesn’t make any fucking sense when you think of it that way. It’s totally counterintuitive.
So thus my reaction to your post. I don’t think he doesn’t like the interpretation – he simply doesn’t think it’s true.
Which, FWIW, I find much more relevant. If nondeterminism turns out to be false, that’s fascinating!
The fact that it can be used for problematic ends is just another observation about human nature, and not really relevant to the thing itself. You can use fire to burn someone’s house down, or a fork to poke out someone’s eye.
“if you wear a cape most shows, would not wearing one for halloween constitute a costume?”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA wow astute observation
This afternoon’s conversation reminded me of this old post from Slate.com
Ladies and Gentleman, the poetry of Donald Rumsfeld
The Unknown
As we know,
There are known knowns.
There are things we know we know.
We also know
There are known unknowns.
That is to say
We know there are some things
We do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns,
The ones we don’t know
We don’t know.
—Feb. 12, 2002, Department of Defense news briefing
Glass Box
You know, it’s the old glass box at the—
At the gas station,
Where you’re using those little things
Trying to pick up the prize,
And you can’t find it.
It’s—
And it’s all these arms are going down in there,
And so you keep dropping it
And picking it up again and moving it,
But—
Some of you are probably too young to remember those—
Those glass boxes,
But—
But they used to have them
At all the gas stations
When I was a kid.
—Dec. 6, 2001, Department of Defense news briefing
A Confession
Once in a while,
I’m standing here, doing something.
And I think,
“What in the world am I doing here?”
It’s a big surprise.
—May 16, 2001, interview with the New York Times
Happenings
You’re going to be told lots of things.
You get told things every day that don’t happen.
It doesn’t seem to bother people, they don’t—
It’s printed in the press.
The world thinks all these things happen.
They never happened.
Everyone’s so eager to get the story
Before in fact the story’s there
That the world is constantly being fed
Things that haven’t happened.
All I can tell you is,
It hasn’t happened.
It’s going to happen.
—Feb. 28, 2003, Department of Defense briefing
The Digital Revolution
Oh my goodness gracious,
What you can buy off the Internet
In terms of overhead photography!
A trained ape can know an awful lot
Of what is going on in this world,
Just by punching on his mouse
For a relatively modest cost!
—June 9, 2001, following European trip
The Situation
Things will not be necessarily continuous.
The fact that they are something other than perfectly continuous
Ought not to be characterized as a pause.
There will be some things that people will see.
There will be some things that people won’t see.
And life goes on.
—Oct. 12, 2001, Department of Defense news briefing
Clarity
I think what you’ll find,
I think what you’ll find is,
Whatever it is we do substantively,
There will be near-perfect clarity
As to what it is.
And it will be known,
And it will be known to the Congress,
And it will be known to you,
Probably before we decide it,
But it will be known.
who?
Thanks, C. That link was helpful. Sorry to think you were agitated. Must have been misinterpreted on this end.
That link was cool definitely some science-speak in there I didn’t understand but it also appeared based on some of the language that this was not the definitive door-slam of determinism (to me at least). Reads like more of a super interesting result with controversial interpretations. Could be wrong. I’m no QM physicist.
Peace out.