Miner’s Mailbag V
6.25.10 Camden, NJ (Graham Lucas)
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@EdCochran18: Can you address the cultures of different venues?
This is one of the weirdest factors of going on tour—by far. Because you are (usually) in a different state every night, the first thing that comes into play are state laws. Last summer, for example, when tour jumped from California into the south and then back to Colorado, the culture was like day and night. Weed and other drugs are seen so differently from state to state in the US, its hard to believe we are still in the same country sometimes, (see OKC.) Thus the first thing to verse yourself on is the laws of where you are and how seriously they have it out for hippies. But then the venues, themselves, can be extremely laid back or tight. For example, at Bill Graham Civic the ushers patrolled to make sure you were smoking weed and not cigarettes (this is a fact), while at Merriweather, there are teen-aged girls, backed by an urban security SWAT team, making sure your feet don’t cross painted lines on the aisles in the pavilion, less they kick you onto the lawn (also a fact.) Sometimes security takes themselves way to seriously (Jones Beach) while others they encourage you to have fun (Hampton.) It’s pretty crazy to bounce from venue to venue and have to adjust to a new set of norms on a nightly basis when all you’re trying to do is dance and feel good, but—alas—that’s why Jedi training is a huge asset on Phish tour.
Chillest Venues: The Gorge, Hampton, Dick’s
Tightest Venues: Merriweather Post, Jones Beach, Virginia Beach
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@Teddier: Five years into the future-what are Phish doing to keep their interest fresh and will their music change much by then?
Five years! Wow. Phish has only played four years in this era and we are jumping five more ahead. I’ll be completely honest and say that Phish 2017 may or may not exist. While I certainly hope so, five more years is a long time for these guys to keep going. For some reason, I don’t see Phish following the Grateful Dead model of play until you drop. I suppose nothing stands in their way of playing five years and beyond except a desire to move on. If they are still playing in five years, I sure hope the band has a couple more albums under their belt and we are hearing a hell of a lot of new material! Improvisationally, however, the sky is the limit. As long as these four guys are committed to each other, I am confident they will crank out high quality jams. Any stylistic conjecture would be sheer speculation of which I wouldn’t even know where to start. If Phish has one thing going for them, their fans will never lose interest no matter what they do. Tour wise, let me take a wild guess—maybe summer tour and a new years run?
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@Matthewgerber79: Do you ever see Mikes Song or YEM ever returning to their former improv glory, or has that ship sailed along with Halley’s?
Interestingly, all it takes is Trey’s will and either of these songs can snap back into form on any given night. But for whatever reason, I don’t see it happening. “YEM” doesn’t feel like as huge of a loss as “Mike’s,” which has gone from a top three jam vehicle for the second half of the ‘90s to a recycled guitar build. But at least “Mike’s” is over in eight minutes these days, while “YEM” still has nearly ten minutes of composition and five minutes of a vocal jam, leaving the song with negligible payoff on any given night. Everyone has been focusing on the rarity of “YEM” over the past two years as if it’s a bad thing, but if the band is only gonna step into four minutes of generic funk, my preference is to leave it on the shelf. There’s no need to kill so much of a set with the theatrics that are “YEM.” It’s unquestionably one of Phish’s greatest songs, but they’ve played it so much over their career, it seems like they no longer know how to make it interesting.
Here are some personal favorites in no particular order and without racking my brain:
Bliss:
“My Left Toe” 7.21.99, Star Lake
“Reba” 7.6.94, Montreal
“Harry Hood” 12.28.10, Worcester
“Bathtub Gin” 8.17.97, Great Went
“Bathtub Gin” 9.12.99, Portland Meadows
Groove:
“Sand > Quadraphonic Toppling” 12.31.99, Big Cypress
“Ghost” 5.22.00, Radio City
“Bathtub Gin” 7.29.98, Riverport
“Roses Are Free” 4.3.98, Nassau
“Mike’s Song” 12.31.95, MSG
Shred:
“Tweezer” 12.2.95, New Haven, CT
“Piper” 7.18.99, Oswego
“Antelope” 10.24.95, Madison, WI
“Drowned > Rock and Roll” 6.29.2000, PNC
“Antelope” 12.9.94, La Mesa, AZ
Space/Weird:
“Drowned” 9.14.00, Darien Lake
“Wolfman’s Brother” 10.31.98, Vegas
“David Bowie” 12.29.94, Providence
“Disease > Free” 6.26.95, SPAC
“Reba > Walk Away” 10.29.98, Los Angeles
Tags: Culture, Mailbag
Our boys look, dare I say it?, cool.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151505079222589&set=p.10151505079222589&type=1&ref=nf
Power!!!!
Miner – thank you for posting that Landover 95 Free. damn where did Free go?
MrP with electrons!
Go Palmer!
nice one, Palmer. ahead of schedule, right? In any case, congratulations. Enjoy the powah.
Landover Free was powerful live. need to spin that one again.
Good news. Impressive how much they can get done in so little time.
Evening peeps. Here is some stats from my company regarding the storm restoration efforts: This is a huge undertaking. Rebuilding a system that has been wiped out. Rebuilding a system that was built for 50-70mph wind standard.
Currently there are approximately 10,000 people supporting the restoration effort, including over 5,200 high-voltage and tree trim crews working on the electric system. More than 1,100 additional restoration crews are expected to arrive today.
A portion of yesterday’s crews and those who are coming today have been airlifted by the National Guard from as far away as California, Washington state and Arizona.
The goal is to restore power to more than 700,000 customers by the end of today. And by Wednesday, November 7, we expect to restore power to 90% of all customers whose homes and business can safely accept power.
One More PSA
To find out how you can also help, please see below for a list of organizations that are actively providing food, shelter and supplies to the victims of Superstorm Sandy:
How to help Sandy victims
Red Cross: To donate, visit http://www.redcross.org, call 800-Red-Cross or text the word “Redcross” to 90999 to make a $10 donation. Nearly 100 Red Cross blood drives were canceled because of Sandy, so blood supplies are low in the areas affected the most. The Red Cross asks that those who can donate to schedule an appointment to give blood. The New York Blood Center is urging people to donate blood for those in the New York/New Jersey area. To donate, call 800-933-2566 or visit http://www.nybloodcenter.org.
The Salvation Army has dozens of mobile feeding units and shelters along the East Coast that are working to serve thousands in the most heavily hit areas. Visit http://www.salvationarmyusa.org to donate.
Feeding America has thousands of pounds of emergency food, water and supplies in the disaster zone that it is working to distribute to the storm’s victims. To donate, visit http://www.feedingamerica.org or call 800-910-5524.
AmeriCares is providing medicine and other supplies to people affected by Hurricane Sandy. To donate, visit http://www.americares.org.
World Vision is distributing flood clean-up kits, personal hygiene items and emergency food kits to people hit by the hurricane. To donate, visit http://www.worldvision.org.
Save the Children is also working to provide relief to families and their children. Visit http://www.savethechildren.org to donate.
I am the dread at the mantrol.
happy sunday night, kids!
Keep up the good work halcyon
ISO 28th anywhere. Have 30th to trade
went to a little birthday hang for a friend . . . several ipas and a little scotch . . . damn, i’m good
but whoa . . . when you start talking about “safely accept power” being a contingency, you know we’re talking about time. tree fell on my house five years ago and the first question was . . . is this house safe to accept power again?
Glad to see plams got his power, and thanks for the inside scoop Halcy. I’m not affected, but its nice to hear a personal word from the inside.
Hope you folks had a good weekend. Operation in-laws was a success. FiL flew home today, MiL played the “I’m staying for ten days now” card. She’s cool though, no biggie.
Word of advise, dot get between G-Ma and her first G-Baby.
damn, weekends and evenings around here are lame . . . may have to get up with a faceplant page to get the more immediate gratitude that i’m apparently craving. shit.
pig, posted a brushfire show from early 2012 on page 8 or so . . . etree and i’m seeding. it’s got the futbol reggae!
wow. Picked up an iPhone 5 for the missus today. Just gave it the ‘ol speedtest.net check and we’re getting 23d/8u. That’s twice my home setup.
Nice phoammer, I’ll check that tomorrow.
Just poured a second 2XIPA from Southern Tier. Not my favorite. Wish I could move on to a few fingers of Makers, maintaining relative sobriety for the time being though.
we’re getting iPhone 5s soon
BEK thought I was talking about her being lame and boring. Oh damn this is going to be a hard sell considering how much time I spend on here.
nice, pig. double ipa and relative sobriety in same sentence. sobriety is state of mind . . . not what, how much or how often. . . imho.
Ah Shit, posted some stuff on the wrong thread. too tired to to move.
25 minute GRAB jam is pretty sick after the first 3 or 4 minutes. Check it.
nat geo has a show on about preppers for doomsday. scary people, serious problems.
next sunday at 7, show on guy who jumped from space
GRAB jam? Was thinking how I needed to research these shows a bit more. Another 20xx tour I was around for/aware of but had my focus elsewhere.
Mornin Brah’s