Page sat in with Mike’s new band on Friday night, August 15th, for four songs, totaling almost an hour at Waterfront Park in Phish’s hometown of Burlington, VT. (You can listen and download below.) The extended sit-in featured a tight seventeen minute jam out of the blues-rock, “Traveled Too Far,” a song on which both Page and Trey appear on Mike’s album. The jam showcased not only Page, but Mike’s whole band who engage in some pretty intense playing. They also performed a playfully improvised version of the upbeat Gordon tune, “Voices,” which allowed Page to take some solos and loosen up a bit. With guitarist Scott Murawski and Gordon, the three join in some very cool musical exchange in this jam. The bluegrass/honky-tonk song “Walls of Time” follows, and Page’s sit-in ends with a bit of Phishy foreshadowing with an roots-based version of “Makisupa Policeman.” Mike’s band plays this really well, in an authentic island-sounding way, and Mike and Page play some very smooth dub in the short jam. I’m not sure who comes on stage, but they rip a feeststyle over the second verse! This is fresh rendition of a song that I thought got pretty dull with Phish. All in all, the show is really good and worth a listen. It gives you a sense of what Mike- the busiest member of Phish- is doing these days. And The Page sit in is great. Half of Phish is half of Phish, any way you slice it.
