TTFT: A Big Jump—Summer ’09 Leg II
7.31.09—Red Rocks (Graham Lucas)
Come Leg Two of Summer ’09, Phish ditched their largely linear jams of June and started to explore again. Beginning at Red Rocks and carrying through The Gorge and beyond, the band seemed more confident taking risks on stage during August. Playing far more confidently than in June, Leg Two felt like a breath of fresh air, and many started to believe again. The jams below represent the best of Leg Two ’09.
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“Split Open and Melt” 7.31 II, Morrison, CO
This menacing mind-fuck provided the soundtrack to an oncoming storm. The interaction between the weather and the music was surreal. Check out the video!
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“Tweezer” Red Rocks 7.31 II, Morrison, CO
Grade A, certifiable Phish crack. At the time, this jam felt like the best thing since sliced bread.
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“Disease > Limb” 8.5 II, Mountain View, CA
The most exploratory “Disease” in a summer full of highlight versions.
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“Sneakin’ Sally” 8.7 I, George, WA
A left hook that the audience never saw coming, this “Sally” jam commenced the deeper magic on a mystical night at The Gorge.
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“Light -> Taste” 8.7 II, George, WA
At the time played, this was the most impressive version of “Light” the band had played.
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“Bathtub Gin > Hood” 8.7 II, George, WA
A second set “Gin”of the likes we are salivating for these days—and a serene and delicate “Hood” to cap off the set.
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“Rock and Roll” 8.8 II, George, WA
Though night one at The Gorge was—in my opinion—the show of 2009, this jam the following night vaulted to the top of the weekend.
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“Drowned” 8.13 II, Darien Center, NY
Back on the east coast, Phish kept the improvisational engines running, though to the tune of about once per show.
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“46 Days > Oh! Sweet Nuthin” 8.15 II, Columbia, MD
This dark horse jam amidst a crappy show at Merriweather is a stunning convergence of all four band members. Moving from murky psychedelia to glorified pastures of gold, this one is a keeper—even now.
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“Number Line > Twenty Years Later” 8.16 II, Saratoga Sp, NY
The band finished off the summer with a centerpiece sequence that highlighted two new songs, and when this tour ended, the entire community was pretty jacked on the Phish.
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Tags: 2009, Jams, TTFF
I’m on a boat.
“the shape needs to be spherical!”
Always.
If I tell myself it’s a lie, it’s that flying to Newark this June to see four goofy ass whites emit aural vibrations for 12 hours over three days doesn’t make a difference in stopping global warming because the plane is going to fly either way. And people are going to keep burning fossil fuels, etc.
But maybe all should be putting all my time and energy into my ides for how to change the system instead?
i almost went on a tangent here about how Hearst was convinced by his Dow Chem buds to use his media influence to demonize hemp by characterizing it as what brown immigrants and black jazz musicians use to get crazy and steal the white women so it could be replaced with plastic fiber. They even came up with a scary sounding foreign name for it:
iMarihuana!
But you all know knew all of that anyway, right? Good, quittin’ time here.
well, at least i can go to Trey and not worry about the Big East Tourney…fuckin A. We totally turned into lepers for the last 8 minuted of that game..
well, silly, as Mr C once said to me… I think you are asking the right questions.
agreed, good convo MiA.
I hate Hearst. Good reason to hate him more.
I got to say this though… I don’t think you have to be angry.
We took the best parenting class I have ever taken called Love and Logic. They frame everything as: your kids are just trying to learn. It takes a lot of anger of things like your kid stripping their clothes right as you are about to walk out the door for work. I tend to think the same for humanity and it brings me peace without accepting poor behavior. We are just trying to learn.
this is where things get dicey for me:
I’ve only become more and more radical the older I get.
The more public defenders offices I work in the angrier I become.
So, the question becomes, do I let myself become consumed by the passion?
Or, do I find some peace?
and this is where I resist various philosophies that places personal peace over action.
while peace is to be valued, there is beauty in the “roman candle exploding across the sky” as ol’ J.K. would say.
maybe I go crazy? There’s always more drugs to try…
I’ve been struggling with bits of this myself, silly.
Miner, got any good ideas on tickets for Trey in LA or is it pretty cut and dry?
I can see how the way I wrote that would make it seem like I meant that Europeans invented those things.
But, that’s not what I meant.
Europeans perfected the techno-industrial processes for large scale production of ships, gun powder, and steel.
Take British ships, for instance. Where did they get the lumber for those ships??
Ireland. A country that they colonized. That they stole. They pushed Irish farmers off their land and raped the forests for a fleet they used to dominate the world.
Another word for “being efficient at being greedy” is industrialism.
Here’s my problem with industrialism and what you just said, MiA.
How did cotton get turned into clothes??
How did shoes get manufactured on a large scale??
Cheap labor. Slavery. I’d rather wear a possum on my head than push indigenous populations off their land and then enslave them to make my warm jacket.
But, I’m weak, so I allow slavery to continue.
And it’s not like this has stopped. Like it’s somehow finished. Why has American manufacturing fled America?
Because we can pay foreign labor much less money. Because developing nations are not shy about whoring out labor in order to bring wealth into the country.
Take the situation in the US before the Civil War. One of the leading arguments made by the South against the industrial North went like this:
“Slavery might not be great, but it’s not as bad as your industry.
Look at our slaves, we take care of them, we invest in their health, we know that a healthy slave is more productive than a sick slave.
But, look at your laborers, they are not slaves but most of them are dead within a few years of beginning work. And you have no incentive to pay them well or ensure their safety because there are far more workers than you will ever need.”
Now, I’m not arguing that southern slavery was acceptable. But, one of the great failures of American history is our inability to recognize they way slavery became more subtle (and thus more dangerous for our inability to see it) after the war.
Slavery is necessary for capitalism and it is necessary for industry. Let’s not pretend that millions of laborers around the world working for pennies a day to bring us…Nike, Walmart, etc. etc aren’t slaves.
I shouldn’t have said hate. Sounds vicious. I’m not angry. I enjoy my dislike of Hearst.
My most dis-liked American historical figure is JP Morgan.
that guy sucked.
“People have been enslaving people since … there were people.”
^ or certainly before there were any crazy experimental/psychedelic Bowie intros!
This.
@silly
you mean europe didn’t colonize the rest of the planet because of guns, germs, steel, & some vaguely environmentally determinist arguments about domesticated animals?
(by ‘vaguely’ i mean…. extremely)
“Ireland. A country that they colonized. That they stole. They pushed Irish farmers off their land and raped the forests for a fleet they used to dominate the world.”
Woah. I mean, I dig that you’re pro-Irish and everything, but… when did Ireland become Ireland? I mean, the Vikings are now Irish. When they took the place over. Or do you have to be first generation Irish not to be an usurper? 500 AD?
I’ll try this…
Alright, a Doctor says “sure would be great to be able to kill pain, so I can operate on my patients and they won’t hurt themselves on my operating table. I can do procedures like remove someone’s appendix. Or remove a bad tooth. Or reset a bone.
So they invent opium substances. They invent the needle. They use that and figure out how to make anesthetics.
They did not create the heroin fiend. The person who will kill or rob from someone for money to get their next fix.
I’m not saying, in any way, that abusive people won’t abuse other people to get what they want.
So you’re saying, the Irish aren’t abusive, but the English are abusive?
Of course not. Irish are just as abusive as anybody. The Scottish the same.
So you’re saying, those with money, abuse those without money. So the people who are rich, abuse those that are poor?
I don’t think you can legislate that to be any different. Hell, women have been giving sex to men with money in exchange for security. So? That’s the world?
Are you saying that because we’ve created trillions of dollars of “stuff” that if we just spread it all out to everyone, and we all got $5000 to start the race, that this aggregation of money wouldn’t happen again?
Of course it would.
I don’t believe in abusing anybody. And I’m not apologizing for anyone who does that. But don’t say “The English are rapers, and destroyers” sort of stuff. I just think that’s about as bad as the film maker saying the guy with blue eyes was the good guy.
Yeah, people with money aren’t the most ethical. Taking away their money isn’t gonna make them ethical.
Be the change you want to see in the world. Just don’t be abusive and that’s a great start.
I just turned on Burning Spear’s Marcus Garvey, Alf, as a theme song for my writing.
figured Burning Spear might be on my side.
Ha. Turn on Fela Kuti and grab 30 wives. That might help too.
I do like these two PJ O’Rourke quotes from “Eat the Rich”
-Your money does not cause my poverty. Refusal to believe this is at the bottom of most bad economic thinking.
-When a government controls both the economic power of individuals and the coercive power of the state … This violates a fundamental rule of happy living: Never let the people with all the money and the people with all the guns be the same people.
“Ireland. A country that they colonized. That they stole. They pushed Irish farmers off their land and raped the forests for a fleet they used to dominate the world.”
The Irish should have shot at the British and defended themselves by developing good boats, guns and steel to kick their British asses so they wouldn’t steal their forests.
A good reason to have gunpowder and steel.
Yeah, I have a hard time imagining say, the Aztecs not going out and enslaving the world if they had beat us to the technological punch… It’s a human problem more than any specific cultural problem, or even just an animal problem.
Can humans develop a higher, even unnatural, state of moral consciousness faster than we can use our knowledge to destroy everything around us?
Maybe so maybe not
My fast typing skills are not good for the BB. I write too much too fast. Probably don’t think through all of it.
At least I use a lot of carriage returns.
G’nite.
By “us” I really meant to say “Europe”
hug it out, lads
I love Everybody.
Its a real pleasure to hear, or in this case read, a well thought out and respectful conversation held by intelligent people. Well done. Now everyone take a deep breath and hate the French.
Nothing personal SW, I’m an asshole, well, that’s a personal problem, but other than that, I have mad respect for everyone on the board. SW puts his chin out. I like that.
Mad love, peace out, and all that kissing the fingers in the shape of a V stuff.