Musings On Our Muses
5.31.09 (mkdevo)
With another day of rest and relaxation, the Jones Beach show has gotten plenty of play on the tour iPod. After much review, my initial assessment holds true; the many high points of the night- “Timber,” “Cities,” “Reba,” “If I Could,” and “Harry Hood”- were incredibly high, while much of the second set was characterized by high-energy, yet relatively low-risk playing… No one can argue with “Mike’s Song” ever- it is part of the dark side of Phish- but it would be great to see the band dig into some true improv in the song. Post-’98, most “Mike’s” have fallen into the composed, guitar-solo jam structure, without a dive into the song’s deeper, exploratory second jam. I’m all about snarling Trey licks and uncompressed evil Phish grooves, but here’s to hoping that “Mike’s” gets the full treatment sometime soon…Not to harp, but the transitions between “Mike’s,” “Simple,” “Wolfman’s” and “Weekapaug” were noticeably forced and awkward, showing that there are still some kinks to work out. We have to remind ourselves that even though during some jams we are right back in the thick of things, it is still only the second show of a long summer.
5.31.09 (mkdevo)
But any thoughts of messy segues and composed jams were whole-heartedly erased by a paradigm-shifting “Harry Hood.” Taken in a completely new direction- morphing into ambient bliss- Phish opened up a plethora of possibilities for future “Hoods,” while more importantly, announced loudly and clearly that they are completely comfortable taking massive musical risks, and playing like there is no tomorrow. Incredibly exploratory, spiritual, and successful; it was as if the entire venue had a collective out-of-body experience during the jam- you could have heard a pin drop in there. The jaw-dropping musical result showed that the adventure-taking, cliff-diving band we loved so dearly is again coming to stage nightly.
5.31.09 (mkdevo)
Setlists are so interesting at this point, featuring many new songs interspersed with colossal versions of their heavy-hitting classics- it makes for an incredibly dynamic show experience… After a few listens, I am sure that “Stealing Time From the Faulty Plan” is going to be huge. With a sound that begs for psychedelic exploration, I can’t wait to hear it placed in the context of a second set… Another on the list of impressive debuts over the first two shows, Phish seems armed with songs aplenty, heightening anticipation for their July 29th album release… It could be the best one yet…I still can’t get enough of the Fenway “Tweezer > Light”- epic in every sense of the word- one of those timeless welcome to tour jams that we will be listening to for years to come.
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MIKE’S BIRTHDAY BASH
6.3.09 - City Winery
Although the band took the night off, Mike celebrated his birthday with a public party at City Winery downtown in New York City last night, performing two sets of music with Billy Kreutzmann and Scott Murawski. Consisting of mostly covers, the trio killed a quality show, improvising consistently as they ran through well-loved song after well-loved song. Before this all went down, rumors spread throughout the New York City area last night of a potential stealth Phish show at the same location. Yet when all was said and done, there was no Phish, but an intimate circle of fans that made their way downtown for a laid back night of music, food, and drink. The setlist to Mike’s “Birthday Bash” is below- (Incomplete)
Gordeaux, Kreutzmann, Murawski – 6.3.09 City Winery, NYC
I. Doin’ My Time, Eyes of the World > Cumberland Blues…
II: Peggy O, Tore Up Over You, Come Together > Skin it Back, US Blues, Express Yourself, Quinn the Eskimo, ?
Tags: 2009, Summer '09
Damn, both streams are dead.
that likely closed the set. maybe they’re saving battery for the encore.
what are we misssing ?????
^^heehee
Phish is back?!#!@ loud and clear
oh #$%^ that did not close the set! I just peeked at phish.com’s setlist… YEM definitely will close the set. [fingers crossed for stream to return]
Quick TTE tempo tonight. A bit faster than Fenway, certainly studio. Didn’t seem to extend it quite as long. I can’t get enought of that song. It gets better every listen.
more from yemblog: “trey is breaking yem. send help”
that’s a wrap, according to the yemblog.
Can’t wait to hear this one tomorrow.
need some help guys. i downloaded the 6/2 show from PHISHOWS.com, but each song is cut off from the neding, know where i could get a better copy?
also know where i can get a good copy of the 6/4 show?
Okay,
Now that is a sick setlist!!….very interesting…..
6/4 Set I torrent is up, hop on.
wwhere is the toreent at?
Camman, it’s here
http://phishthoughts.com/nospoilers/
thats not a tracked recordi ng though is it?
If you mean “each song has it’s own file”, no, it’s the whole set in one file. I DL them, slap ’em on to my iPod and listen at work.
Camman, head over to http://bt.etree.org/index.php?cat=5 for all phish torrents, including the latest shows.
Any particular reason why there’s 19 1/2 minutes of crowd chatter before the lights go down and the show starts on set 1? I mean, it’s kinda fun to hear about a dude going to Chinatown after the show, but still….
Can’t give enough props to Minor and his “crew” this automatic downloading of the shows as soon as they put it up is sick. Just got home from a midnight screening of “The Hangover” to sit and listen to the bliss that is The Divided Sky. Can’t give you enough Kudo’s Minor, Thanx The 2 M’s in suMMer stand for the one and only Mr. Minor.
Set II torrent didn’t work for me, had to go via sendspace…Ghost, Antelope is just sick!!!
19 minutes of crowd at the begining of set II also?
At the JB 1 show, how could someone request an unknown song??? (Kill Devil Falls) Was that a fake on Trey’s side?
It shocks my brain. Ohhhh Ohhhhh.
…It’s Mr. Miner. 🙂
I’m listening to last nights GHOST Jam… parts are very reminiscent of The Tower Jam that Page, on the IT DVD, regarded as being (at the time) a new, exciting, as-yet-unexplored realm for them… it was (and is) an epic’ly high point of IT and Phishdom for me… I’m hoping this is territory they continue to explore in ’09 form.
I think Ocelot and Kill Devil Falls have some real potential– Ocelot could turn into something along the route of Sneakin’ Sally (speaking of which…), and Kill Devil Falls has some dirtiness to be mined… I’m back on the train. For real. See you all in Camden!