Tucked away amidst a two-hour first set on Saturday at Hampton was one of the dark horse jams of the weekend.  With marathon setlists each night, some moments were inevitably lost in the extended fray- especially “Split Open and Melt.”  Representing the first real jam of the evening, the band took a daring ride down an abstract ally, creating a seething piece of music that was reminiscent of the band’s full on experimentation in ’94.  Leaving groove behind, the band attacked this jam vigorously, previewing the more open-ended excursions of the second set.

Contributing to the early ’90s vibe that defined this first set- and the entire weekend- “Split Open” was the first piece of the night that really got the show going.  Immediately firing up the crowd, the band sat into the introductory grooves of the song.  As they approached the pre-jam break, that rush of anticipation grew tangible, knowing we were about to live the first “Split” in five years.  As we plunged below the water line, between beams to the gloom room, we were soon covered with seaweed and slime- and then it was time to melt.

Starting the jam at a brisk pace, the band wasted no time getting into the thick of things, characteristic of most all the shorter jams at Hampton.  Delving into the dense musical canvas, the band almost immediately guided the jam out into more abstract territory.  With Fishman playing a complex and grooveless beat, the other members began adding their interpretations of this experimental plane.  Trey focused primarily on wailing tonality and searing walls of sound, bringing the improv ever deeper with his work.  Mike played a continuous bassline that followed the jagged contours of the jam, while Page added blocked piano chords that anchored the far off jam to the song.

As the band got involved in twisting improv, one could have been fooled into thinking they were listening to a version from the mid-nineties.  Trey progressed into his dirtiest tone, playing more distinct phrases, as Fish worked over his cymbals like it was the last time he would ever play them.  Following this maddening path, the band came to a dissonant peak before pushing onwards through the sonic sludge.  At this point, Mike began pounding out a heavier, repetitive line, inviting the band to return to the song’s structure.  Within a minute, they had congealed and completed  “Split,” but the brevity of the jam certainly took nothing away from its quality.  A menacing portrait of the band’s 3.Old-school sound that painted the Hampton shows, this jam was a quick reminder of Phish’s ability to take a jam very far out in no time, and speed back to earth like a fiery comet.

As illustrated by this “Split,” the beauty of Hampton was that it was only the beginning.  Primarily, the band played concise, to the point jams as they got their sea legs back again.  Come mid-summer, shows will assume quite a different landscape.  And by the time summer ends, Hampton will exist as a mystical memory of the weekend when it all started to come back together again.

LISTEN TO 3.7’s “SPLIT” NOW!

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PHISH TO RECORD IN APRIL:

In a very candid Rolling Stone article, Phish gave writer, David Fricke, further insight into their upcoming studio plans.  Very exciting was the fact that Phish already has 20 new songs and is prepared to start work on their next album in April.  Teaming up with Steve Lillywhite (Billy Breathes) again, look for a cohesive effort that moves beyond their previous albums.  Trey supported this assertion, saying, “I’m not convinced we’ve made a great record yet.”  Yes, the passion is back!  The article also gives you a look into the band’s dynamic during the break up and over the Hampton weekend.  Although the article is not online, someone scanned it in.  The three pages are below, click on the links and then click on the page to zoom in.  It’s a great read!

As each show in Hampton grew in musical stature and improvisational meat, Phish finally let loose during the last set of the run.  Starting off the culminating set with their first truly exploratory excursion of chapter three, it was only fitting that this jam grew from one of Phish’s most popular anthems, “Down With Disease.”  While the band had wet their improvisational toes during the previous night’s second set, this time they would dive right in.  Taking over twenty minutes to explore their musical musings, Phish created their first free-flowing jam of 2009.

It was only a matter of time before they busted out the big welcome-home “Disease,” and once the last set had arrived, it was a virtual shoo-in for the set opener.  As the defining bass turbulence signaled the onset of the song, you had the feeling that this would be the most extensive trip yet.  “On [our] way” back to the land where Phish frolic freely, the band carried us with a blistering composed section of “Disease”- one of the Phishiest pieces of music out there.  As the acid-rock rhythms guided the refreshing melodic path, both Trey and Page complemented each other, leading the band through a triumphant return of one of their favorite songs.

The jam began to move away from its structure as it continued to pick up steam.  Trey began offering some choppy licks as Mike and Page began steering away from the song’s melody.  Fishman caught on immediately and switched beats into a more amorphous, rolling pattern.  All the band members came together here, offering shorter-almost staccato phrases- that combine to create a sublime meandering journey.  Trey and Mike played off each other’s lines, lending a more spiritual and soul-searching quality to the jam, as Page colored the canvas with electro-washes.  Trey’s melodies really took center-stage here; while he may have been in the background of some other weekend’s jams, he most certainly emerged at the forefront of this one, guiding us through the dark forests of our mind with guitar licks of discovery and exuberance.  Like the Pied Piper, Trey led us into Hampton’s deepest segment of improv, as the band followed him down an increasingly ambient path of mystery and exaltation.

As we glimpsed the first light out of the forest, the music transformed into a spacescape, sounding like the onset of the first “Disease > 2001” ever played.  The two-song combo seemed like the perfect entrance into the revelatory plane of Phish 3.0, and while the band built up effects to this nature, Fish sped up a beat that could have easily brought liftoff.  Yet, as the audience’s eyes gleamed wide for this potential combo, Fish kicked it up a notch with a far more aggressive beat and the band hopped onto his tempo, creating scorching improv, but leaving any possibility of a “2001” segue until later in the set.

As the music came to a natural ending, the band never returned to “Disease,” but came out of their experiment with the opening of “Seven Below.”  Much like the “Limb by Limb” provided melodic closure for Saturday night’s “Rock And Roll” jam, “Seven Below” gave the same arrival for the band’s Sunday night journey.  The beautiful Round Room staple of 2.0 carried us into a piano-led jam in which Page set the melodic framework.  Trey and Mike picked up on his ideas and began adding solo lines of their own, each of them flowing around each other brilliantly.  Trey’s playing in this section was some of his most precise and uplifting of the night, as the jam took on a cathartic energy of its own following the deep introspective nature of “Disease.”

A compact amalgamation of harmony and melody, “Seven Below” capped the set’s diverse opening adventure in high-style.  Spanning the spectrum of human feeling, Phish’s path brought us from the celebratory composed “Disease” jam into darker, open-ended improv that reached the greatest depths of the weekend, through some building ambient soundscapes and into a pool of refreshing melodic release- classic Phish.

While the band spent most of the weekend showing off their practiced chops and relearned songs by running through a huge part of their catalog, this segment of the last set sent the message, “Yes, we can still melt your minds.”  Merely scratching the improvisational surface of what will take place this summer, Phish gave us the first preview of the beautiful abyss we all seek to swim circles in come June.

Seven Below” NOW! (Roll over links and press play)

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Hampton – Photo : Brian Ferguson