Superballin’
Unofficial SBIX Print (Masthay)
Sun has risen on day two of Superball, and day one was divine. To be back on the grounds of the Phish festival with the band at the top of its came felt like the days of lore. The sky was a bit bluer as the clouds floated above and the music was a bit slowed down as it blanketed the intimate concert ground. From note one Phish dropped a power-packed and poignant opening night of a festival that people will be talking about for time to come—the time when a full-powered band and their grand summer tradition came back together in the new era.
As it stands, I have little Internet access on site as I chase down friends with Droids to use their phones as a wifi hotspot. Combined with this spotty web access and the 24 hour nature of the festival, I’ll speak to you on the other side. Or when I catch up with a Droid again…
I: Possum, Peaches en Regalia, The Moma Dance, Torn and Frayed, NICU, Bathtub Gin, Life on Mars?, My Friend, My Friend, Wolfman’s Brother, Roses Are Free, Funky Bitch, Quinn the Eskimo
II: Jam > Crosseyed and Painless -> Chalk Dust Torture, Sand, The Wedge, Mike’s Song > Simple > Bug, The Horse > Silent in the Morning, Weekapaug Groove, Joy, Character Zero
E: Show of Life
*****
SBIX Mini Print (Masthay)
*****
SB IX Mini Print (Masthay)
*****
A bit more…Without having listened back, the band anchored the first set with huge versions of their classic pieces—“Moma Dance,” “Wolfman’s,” and “Bathtub Gin”—while pulling out several rarities, taboot. A scorching and cleaned-up “Peaches” came at the beginning of the set, while an out-of-the-blue “Life On Mars?” was delivered in the middle, before a jammed-out and exclamatory “Quinn the Eskimo” sent things to setbreak in high style.
The second set featured more exploratory playing from the band—peaking in a utterly sublime “Simple”—channeling the mysteries of the universe through the speaker towers of Watkins Glen. After a shredding “Crosseyed” jam, the band dropped onto an ambient path that wound a slow and enchanting route into “Chalk Dust.” This juxtaposition of styles, from shredding to abstract to shredding, kept things interesting before a way laid-back “Sand” provided a shining mid-set highlight filled with festival-sized dance grooves. A monster “Mike’s Groove”— centered around “Simple’s” cosmic trek—dominated the second half of the set, and just when it felt like “YEM” might close the set, out popped out a crunching “Character Zero.” An enthralling version of “Show of Life—and perhaps the most extensive to date—provided an indelible stamp of catharsis to a very poignant night of Phish.
The festival is back and better than ever. Love every minute of IT, folks! See you at 3pm!
Tags: Festivals, Summer 2011
I’ll come clean right now
Had to pass up numerous prerolls because my head was already full.
Sorry AW
@alf
Great hanging with you all weekend. Real fun
Storage shed is meant for headphones with the volume cranked loud!
Spaced out where I was driving on my way home from work last night
Going to see where the Tower Jam takes me on my way home tonight
word jtran. was fun watching the bla’s get comfortable at their first festival as well.
me too jtran
I have a bad habit of puffin when I’m spun. I love that shit. that OG is what heaven tastes like when I’m lifted.
That was it.
26:15 on the SBDs. Mike reprises the theme he starts at 19 minutes (with authority) and puts a capper on an unreal seven minutes of psychedelia.
Considering how much of a blur Saturday was for me, my memory of that exact moment is insanely clear.
Simple from night 1 is another Psych masterpiece. working my way through from the night one in order. Moma Dance had some extra flare in there. Haven’t heard a Moma like that since Coney Island ’04. Wolfmans ripped, Torn and Frayed!!! Best Quinn ever, maybe. They destroyed that version to close out the set.
Haha alf
The bla’s
From 6th place in the 5k to a head of L (for the first time) at night
Respect
Trying to clean up all the shows I have in iTunes and I’m realizing that I probably have at least 80 to 100 (out of 400 on my HD) that I have not listened to (other than a quick spin of a track or two).
There just isn’t enough time.
How was that Pinball Lounge? That looks pretty sweet, especially if your all spun out post show. Anyone hit that?
note perfect Peaches too
sick ass funky wolfman’s. great version.
pretty clean life on mars
nice 1st set to get things goin.
Not that anyone cares, but I’m at home alone right now so you guys are the only ones listening….
Being the OCD that I am, I’m going through every show, making sure song spellings are all consistent and making sure that all the songs are numbered correctly and divided into sets (set I becomes CD1, set II becomes CD2, encore becomes CD3, etc.) Most torrents are just numbered sequentially so it’s not always clear where the set break is, and I like to be able to zero in on the second set if that’s what I want.
anyway … thanks for listening … more later
going back through all these old shows’ sets I’m reminded that in the early and mid 90s it was rare to get a Set II that wasn’t interrupted by something (TMWSIY, HYHU, BBFCFM, Big Ball Jam, rotation jam, mid-set a capella, etc). There weren’t that many second sets that simply went > > >, they few that did stand out.
No need to apologize Jtran. I’ve tapped out by halftime a number of times being near some of the peeps on this board. specially Hershey.
@NT
I am a thousand percent the same way. If you aren’t aware of this trick already (I used to do shit like this the hard way until I figured it out): you can highlight a bunch of songs in iTunes and then edit particular parts of their info simultaneously. I.E., search for “Divided Sky,” which gives you all of the versions including those listed as “The Divided Sky,” right-click>Get Info…, enter “Divided Sky” for the name, voila. All labeled correctly. Same goes for disc #s, etc.
I have a feeling that I’m being Captain Obvious here, but better safe than sorry.
In the moment, Storage Jam absolutely paralyzed me where I stood. All I could do was stand, look around, and absorb it all like a sponge.
The re-listen is rodgering my mind all over again. Wish I had a decent pair of ‘phones…
@palmer
We went in there post-show on Sunday. It was pretty cool, better mound to meatstick than expected. Basically just a tent that had real sick lights and happened to be a dance club.
Now if they had actual pinball I couldn’t tell you
^^ add to the above – acoustic min-stage set during set II
I know I’m biased, but the first 4 songs of SBIX are great on replay and they’re not even remotely the best of the fest
Torn n Frayed was such a incredible treat, but then I could say that about most of sbix
also finally spun the soundcheck and Bethel Waves soundcheck (wowza, indeed Trey’s safe space)
knew we were in for a treat as soon as our crew walked up from N. Dakota to sit on the grass and listen to that amazing soundcheck jamming
I so miss that incredible festi sound system…..sigh….
^they did
Did I have a few bloody mary’s and play some free pinball around lunchtime on Saturday? Absolutely!
@ duke – I do know some of those tricks and employ as many as I can (ctrl and shift buttons help), but I haven’t tried the one of changing multiple songs from different albums – I thought it didn’t give me the song name option on the “info” box, but maybe I just missed it. anyway … thanks!
Yeah, Pinball Lounge was sick. My buddy Liggy set up and ran the lights for that joint.
Since I’m sure I missed out this past weekend
Waves soundcheck, wow
Another $$$$ jam
Damn, If my kids didn’t start school the next tuesday, i could probably talk the wife into those Colo shows… stupid kids always getting in the way of me seeing Phish.. i kid, i kid.