Miner’s Mailbag
8.22.12 – Starlight Theatre (Ryan MacNeil)
Today I am trying a new format for a post that I hope will become a weekly feature on Phish Thoughts. Yesterday evening, via Twitter (@mrminer), I put a call out for any Phish-related questions. I would then select some to answer for today’s post…and voila! I think it’s a cool way to keep a pulse on what the community is thinking about and a great way to interact on a more personal level in more than 140 characters. I will try to answer all the other questions via Twitter. I hope you enjoy, and I welcome any constructive feedback.
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@phantastic99 Do you feel the long layoffs after summer will hurt phish next summer?
I think Phish proved in Worcester this year that no amount of time off can truly “hurt” them if they practice and prepare for tour, so I suppose the answer to your question is no. But, with such extended time off (if things repeat themselves), I do feel there is a certain amount of “resetting” that naturally happens. It’s no longer like the late ‘90s where the band’s improvisational style directly builds upon itself from one tour to another. It’s more of a catch all—or catch anything—scene these days. For example, during Leg One the band was pushing plinko jams and in Leg Two they were virtually non-existent; everything was coming up blissful. I think that the band is capable of playing in so many different styles at this point, that it is far more about how they are feeling on any given night than what has happened, musically, in preceding shows or tours. Another example, Page was majestically integrating the Theremin into the best jams of Leg Two of 2011, only to bust it out once this year as a joke during Star Lake’s “Scent.” So to wrap back around to your question, I don’t think time off can hurt the band, but it would be fascinating to see where a fall tour that built off such an amazing summer would go to right now. But that’s not where Phish is at these days. With kids in school and families in full force, the band has adjusted their schedule accordingly.
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@deadareus Audience vs. sbd… What’s your personal preference and why?
Great question, and the eternal audiophile debate. I think that the crispiest, most ideal audience tape will always sound better than a soundboard. But there are so many variables in that audience tape coming out perfectly, that 9 times out of 10 I prefer the current soundboards. It’s a different experience though. Listening to an audience tape is listening to how the room sounded that night; it is an authentic, aural reproduction of the show. It will capture aspects of Phish’s sound that the soundboards can’t. But at the same time, soundboards allow one to hear the detail of the music with far more clarity—hence their advantage—though they can sometimes sound flat. I think LivePhish has their mix fairly dialed in at this point, and that’s what’s on my iPod at all times. With the immediacy of the soundboards these days, everything has changed in the listening game. Without a DAT to pop in immediately like back in the day, I know I’m not gonna’ wait for tapers to post torrents to re-listen to the show. We’re spoiled, but it is what it is.
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@WDurgin Does the music suffer when they webcast? #phishtroll
Haven’t you heard? After Leg Two, the theory has shifted: the music suffers when they don’t webcast!
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@likeanantelope December 95 or May 1977. Which was a better month of music? #phishandthedead #toughquestions
December 1995 by a country mile, but I’m kinda biased. With December ’95, we are talking about one of the peak months of music ever produced by Phish. There are hearty takeaways from each and every show in this month which, in many respects, was a stylistic culmination of the band’s entire career. My favorite era of Dead music is the early ‘70s—specifically the one drummer era of ’72 and ’73—when the jams were far more wide open and psychedelic. Everyone always touts ’77 Dead, but I always found those tapes to be far less intriguing than their earlier ones.
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@alicht What are your top 5 shows of 2012 thus far?
1) 8/31 Dick’s, 2) 8/19 Bill Graham, 3) 9/1 Dick’s, 4) 8/15 Long Beach, 5) Tie: 8/28 St. Louis and 6/7 Worcester; Runners Up: 6/15 AC, 9/2 Dick’s
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@AceMcCready68 With the band stretching songs past 20 minutes do you think the 4 song second set will happen in the next year?
No. I don’t think they have the stamina or the drugs to jam four songs in a row for fifteen plus minutes. We can only hope. About the stamina that is.
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@seif69 I would like to see you talk about the (non)religious themes in songs like Bug, Lifeboy, Sand, etc. #phish
Clearly, Trey and Tom have exposed an agnostic, if not atheist, bent in these tunes. (“I will choose my own religion…” “You don’t get a refund if you overpray”) With anti-establishment themes like these, the band is subliminally luring their fans away from organized society into a cult of rock and roll idolatry where loyalists spend $75 dollars for ticket, $20 for parking and $50 dollars for a poster every night. When these lemmings are doped up on psychedelics, their fragile minds are suspectible to delicate, lyrical manipulation, as in the instances that you have referenced. (Also see: “Time for the Meatstick, Bury the Meatstick, Time for the Meatstick” and “Please her with a tweezer.”) Most Phish fans are so caught up in hypnotic dance that these messages integrate with their brainwaves on a frequency that is undetectable to the human psyche. These altered brainwaves seduce their followers away from their families and into lives of on-tour debauchery. “It doesn’t matter.” Get it?
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@benerickson922 How would the introduction of new original material impact future shows/tours?
Shit. I was hoping it would have impacted shows already. But so far, so good. Ya’ gotta believe if the guys plan on playing for a while, and all signs seem to point that way, that they will cut a new record. That’s what bands do, right? It’s been the longest gap of Phish’s career without producing a new album, and would hope that changes soon. How would it impact shows? It would provide spice and variety while keeping things on the up and up! It’s time to add another signature jam or three to this era to go with “Light” and “Golden Age.” Expect most fans to bitch about any new material for the first tour, and then begin to come around slowly as usual.
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Jam of the Day:
“Down With Disease” 8.17 II, SF
The most far-reaching jam of BGCA outside of night three.
[audio:http://phishthoughts.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/2.01-Down-With-Disease.mp3,http://phishthoughts.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/2.02-Birds-of-a-Feather-1.mp3] Tags: 2012, Culture
I hear ya, PG.
Yet that is what I was paying back east to get quality since I wasn’t tapped into that network since I didn’t know a lot of folks. Get back out here amongst friends and it’s back down to $20 for much better product.
Then I read an article in this sunday’s Oregonian newspaper about a southern Oregon medical lady that was shipping elbows to Boston and making $4K more than she was here. I probably supported her indirectly.
What’s crazy is the article said she made more thank $100K in six months from shipping and the feds let her go with probation.
To Butter’s point the implementation of policies is whacked as even the feds are deciding on case-by-case basis how to interpret and implement the law.
I would just like to say that if Machine Gun Trey wants to come out to play again some time soon that’d be a-ok by me.
this post brought to you by the 11.18.96 Simple Jam
::now back to your regularly scheduled medical mary convo::
I trust my friends to make me dinner too. Dude’s selling tacos out of an unlicensed roach coach here in Austin is not the same.
You have good folks PG. That is a rarity I think for 99% of America. You know your growers. That is a rarity for 99% of America.
I’ve always been the type where “I know who made this” goes really really far in my book for anything I consume.
IRIE
a friend flies with 4 once a month to the midwest.. checks 2. carries 2. he makes about $2K a lb. does very well untaxed
SFO flights are big bizness right now.
If you’ve ever been popped for possession then you’ve paid your lifetime’s tax for personal consumption. If you haven’t, well I’ve got three or four of you covered :-/
On second thought saying MM is a drug may not be the best phrasing -someday it may well be classified / regulated like alcoholic beverages; or else remain more under the purview of bureaucratic divisions that also regulate pharmaceutical products
@sumo
thanks for noticing my love letter. thought it may have gotten the tl;dr treatment by most 😥
I don’t smoke anything that I don’t know what got put into it. Salt based chems suck. I started growing to provide my family members who are allergic to most juice used something they could stomach. I do laugh about vegan bane though.
It is a joke in cali per county. Some are 6 plants while others are no limit. I’ve also had friends that have followed the law to the spec, only to have camp fly in inthemiddle of the night to chop their bitches while their neighbors have million dollar views (two story plants) that don’t get touched. In some ways I’d like to see the feds payed enough that they sack up and actually go at the cartels and gangs.
I’m gonna get achieved now and take the dog to the lake.
In the past year I’ve seen at least 3-4 articles in MA about peeps getting busted for receiving substantial quantities of herb in the mail
advil is a drug
06.24.00 Lakewood Tweezer (substitution)10.01.00 Desert Sky Piper>Guy Forget
09.29.99 Pyramid 2001
08.02.03 IT Waves
08.15.12 LBC RnR
06.03.11 Pine Knob Disease
09.02.12 Dick’s Sand
12.07.99 Quad C Halley’s
09.19.99 Portland Gin
08.15.98 Lemonwheel Gumbo>Sanity
07.09.99 MPP Free>WTU?
11.18.96 Memphis Simple
08.07.10 Greek Light
06.10.11 Camden Curtain (With)
auburn maze. yeah. 3.0 mazes blow.
T3, best posting all day! It was so good it made me feel all weird & tingly like a good love letter should
oooh, you’re knocking em down, mia!
I’m on the Light Jam now
I wish sugar was classified as a drug
and I like your substitution too. I actually was looking for the Lakewood Tweez to start and didn’t have it on the work CPU so I went with the Ghost instead. whaddyaknow
where’s g711?
apparently, his favorite swill is considered the <a href="http://hotlineoncall.nationaljournal.com/archives/2012/09/the-politics-of-3.php"most bipartisan beer in 'merica*
*clearly, only macrobrews were surveyed, but a fun little chart nonetheless
ugh. I hate html errors.
try working with perl
Good for him. I would be paranoid as all hell.
Especially since in that same article they highlighted another guy who got caught for speeding eastward in Oregon. When pulled over he identified himself as a medical card holder and that he was carrying. The Oregon State Trooper just gave him a citation for speeding and let him on his way.
However, he then radioed to his “friends” in the Idaho State Police who were waiting for him at the border, clocked him going 2 mph over the speed limit, and then discovered 75 lbs.
Going back to your friend he better hope that TSA isn’t noting his checked bag and calling ahead to the authorities in the midwest.
They’re always watching.
Anyone know exactly how the laws work with shipping MJ? Anyone can ship anybody anything without that receiver having any knowledge of whats in that package. How do you prove the receiver had intent?
They’re always watching.
here included
Gotta close that shit T3.
Yeah, I think the Greek Light is getting a substitution too. Probably with Alpine Light.
feds process is to wait 24hrs after a know delivery to let receiver open the package. Opening it helps make their case.
“I wish sugar was classified as a drug”
Move to NYC, it’s coming soon. I wish nothing was classified as a drug. Let me go about my business please.