Come one, come all! If you’ve been paying attention for the past couple years, you’ll have as good of a shot at this contest as anyone. Today’s main event is “Type II Trivia: 3.0 Style.” That’s right, all ten audio clips come from this era since Phish returned in 2009. Nobody can claim noobership in this contest, as most of you have all these jams stashed away in soundboard quality on your hard drives and iPods…but can you place them? You can earn a total of twenty points for this contest by naming the song and date (1 point each) of each two-minute audio clip. In the event of a tie, I will devise some sort of tiebreaker. Hopefully this contest will shine a light on some highlights and forgotten moments of the last two years. There are no repeats of songs. Please email your entries to me by 12 pm Pacific tonight to have a valid entry. The winner will be announced either tomorrow or Thursday and will have the choice of any piece of merch on-sale for $7.77 in Phish’s Dry Goods Seven Below Sale, including CDs, t-shirts and more. Good luck to all, and have fun!
This one goes out via reader request to a Phish Thoughts regular as a memento of his first show. Enjoy the band’s first-ever performance in Delaware from February ’93. As Garth once said, “Hey! We’re in Delaware.”
I: David Bowie, Bouncing Around the Room, Poor Heart, It’s Ice, Glide, Rift, Stash, Lawn Boy*, Maze, Golgi Apparatus
II: Runaway Jim, Wilson, Uncle Pen, Tweezer > The Lizards, Llama, You Enjoy Myself, Big Ball Jam > Hold Your Head Up > Lengthwise > Hold Your Head Up, The Squirming Coil, Cavern
E: Amazing Grace, Tweezer Reprise
*dedicated to Delaware & with guitar solo
Source: Unknown
Come one, come all! If you’ve been paying attention for the past couple years, you’ll have as good of a shot at this contest as anyone. Today’s main event is “Type II Trivia: 3.0 Style.” That’s right, all ten audio clips come from this era since Phish returned in 2009. Nobody can claim noobership in …
Let’s spotlight three more highlights from Fall Tour to take us into the holiday weekend. Enjoy the turkey, family, and football, and we’ll catch up on Monday!
Concluding a choppy but eventful second set of tour, Phish pulled everything together to close with a spectacular “Slave to the Traffic Light.” Bringing a sense of calm and exaltation over the room while preparing the audience for the next two nights, the band slowly ascended from a beat-less induction to a dizzying climax. As the jam dropped, the band took plenty of time to move from their initial sea of tranquility into music with a sense of forward motion. Riding a patient trip through terraces of hanging melodies, Trey led the band with transcendent phrasing – a sparkling thread sewing the piece together. The band locked together with Trey as he followed his heart to a fanning peak and beyond, sprouting divine melodies in a never-ending cascade of glory. Phish played a lot of awesome “Slaves” this year, and this version is certainly in the upper echelon.
Opening Broomfield’s second night’s second set with this threesome, Phish revived a one-time cover, thrashed through fall’s first “Piper” and made one of the slicker, most spontaneous transitions of tour. With Trey’s opening rhythm licks, the band brought the one-time cover of TV On the Radio’s “Golden Age.” The dancy interpretation of the indie pop-tronica track translated far more smoothly than Albany’s debut of ’09, super-charging the second half of the show. Taking the cathartic, groove-based jam for a legitimate ride, Phish provided a soulfully cleansing dance session to initiate the frame. Far smoother and more coherent that Albany’s version, “Golden Age” provided a show highlight while getting into slamming, piano led funk outside the song’s theme. Oozing to an ambient conclusion, Trey continued the up-tempo feel of the set’s beginning as he strummed the opening to “Piper.” Blasting their way through a furious passage, Phish introduced “Piper to Fall 2o1o with all four members locked in a space-aged chase. Growling through the outer rings of the solar system, the band settled into a sparser texture as many “Pipers” do. But instead of exploring this plane, Trey wove “Camel Walk’s” opening guitar lick into the high-speed play, and within seconds the band hopped on board, transforming the textures into gooey funk on the fly.
This combination at the end of Atlantic City’s first set got the party started for real. A rather uneventful show up to this point, Phish migrated from a powerful groove into dissonant guitar heroics. Instead of the robotic power-funk of The Greek “Cities,” the band crafted a more subtle and nuanced groove. Trey used delicate, accented licks to build out of the jam as Mike bounced bass-note basketballs around Boardwalk Hall. Exiting the composed progression, the band drifted into a more abstract feel, stretching the music outwards while Fishman held a divergent semblance of groove. Behind a psychedelic pattern far from “Cities,” Page built a wall of synthesized effects as Trey painted the drone canvas with short brushstrokes. Amidst this darkening palette, Trey kicked into “46 Days,” ending the frame with a fierce dose of super-sized arena rock.
This multi-tiered jam provided one of several highlights on a smoking night in South Carolina.
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Happy Thanksgiving 2010!
Let’s spotlight three more highlights from Fall Tour to take us into the holiday weekend. Enjoy the turkey, family, and football, and we’ll catch up on Monday! *** “Slave To The Traffic Light” – 10.10.10 II Broomfield, CO Concluding a choppy but eventful second set of tour, Phish pulled everything together to close with a …
As Fall Tour progressed, Phish’s improvisational confidence and polish increased and they infused creativity throughout their catalog. The band worked an intricacy into their playing, a complexity of communication emerged that pushed their music in original directions. Energetically diving into fresh takes on old songs, jams rarely became formulaic as Phish dialed in their musical assault of October. Looking back over the tour, many jams fit this billing, as the band forged more than a few novel excursions. Today, we look at two of these unique jams that illustrate the revitalized creativity of the quartet.
***
“Wolfman’s Brother” – 10.30 I Atlantic City, NJ
Phish magnified “Wolfman’s” throughout the fall, pushing the dynamic funk platform into jazzier conversations. While modern-era “Wolfman’s” had proved consistent from the get-go, rarely did they transcend the song’s syrupy, methodical rhythms. This fall, however, Phish began to improvise more earnestly with their once-cosmic launchpad. Sculpting diverging jams with varying rhythmic palettes in Utica and Amherst, “Wolfman’s” was – all of a sudden – more than eight minutes of predictable grooves. No version exemplified this more than the song’s final jaunt of fall during the first set of October 30 in Atlantic City.
10.29.10 (J.Weber)
On this night, Phish began to vocally improvise directly out of the song’s lyrics, blending their “collaborative scatting” with their instrumental patterns. Working their voices into the music as another layer of improvisation, the band cooperatively bounced the jam’s direction off their vocal layer and vice versa, in a total merging of ideas. When they finally dropped their voices out, they were left in a percussive labyrinth. All four band members offered short phrases in unison, twisting ideas into a four-way musical braid without any straight-forward grooving. Their improvisational style grew much more akin to jazz than a typical “Wolfman’s” as Fishman’s ever-changing beats and alternating downbeats stirred a complex rhythmic cauldron. Mike, in turn, played unique bass lines that stopped and started in concert with Fishman’s unconventional work. Trey threw in short, staccato lines that grew into angular leads without ever dominating the jam. Adding harder-edged effects amidst this bubbling mixture, he blended within the foursome instead of ever stepping out front. Page killed his clavinet in this piece, playing the keyboard with varying techniques throughout the entire jam, lending a crunchiness to the music. These elements combined to form a different type of “Wolfman’s” altogether – not groove-based at all, while still fully immersed in rhythmic conversation. In a piece drenched in originality, Phish went with the moment and came out on top. And to top off this stellar excursion, Trey got completely impatient and butchered a segue into “Undermind.”
***
“Tweezer” – 10.23 I Amherst, MA
10.23.10 – Amherst (Chris La Jaunie)
Phish took the spotlight off “Tweezer” this fall, dropping two first-setters in four total versions without taking any particularly deep (including one laced with a Zeppelin medley). A jam that once provided the supreme springboard into the universe has largely become a vehicle of groove since the band returned. But when Phish dropped another first-set version in Amherst, a differing experiment developed. Trey and Fishman kick-started this version with slick rhythmic interplay that engaged the band in unique grooving early on. But instead of taking this “Tweezer” on a consistently upwards path, Phish ceased the groove in favor of an ambient bridge into a different jam.
As Phish descended into this second sonic pool, they didn’t play within the grooves, but rather danced around them with a series of minimalist offerings. The band hinted at all-out dance patterns without ever dropping into the pocket, creating a differing musical dynamic. Trey gently wove a sublime melodic layer atop this unique musical plane, as Mike offered subtle rejoinders. The band responded with a melodic, smoother-than-usual feel as they eased their way towards more conventional “Tweezer” territory. But even as Phish re-merged with the song’s theme and moved into a peak section, Mike and Fish continued their complex cooperation, stopping and starting all the way to the the top of the jam. Trey openly growled his thoughts within this final section, sticking right with the band in the climax of this unique version. After the band reached the mountaintop, they employed the old-school “wind-down” ending for the second time of the tour, leaving the fresh piece as a stand-alone gem.
As Fall Tour progressed, Phish’s improvisational confidence and polish increased and they infused creativity throughout their catalog. The band worked an intricacy into their playing, a complexity of communication emerged that pushed their music in original directions. Energetically diving into fresh takes on old songs, jams rarely became formulaic as Phish dialed in their musical …
When Phish is truly clicking, the setlist fades away and the moments emerge. It no longer matters what songs the band is playing, because it becomes about the music in its purest form. Whether a jam or a simple verse, when Phish is raging, every measure is played with authority and meticulous care. A subconscious state emerges between the band and the audience, and the music takes over the room as if every note had been waiting their whole life for its exact moment to shine. Trey often references musicians being mere portals for music that already exists in the universe. All the musician has to do is allow the music to channel through him, and all the audience has to do is be open to receive IT. This metaphysical dynamic took form in those unforgettable jams, sets and shows that are burnt into our memory from ages ago; and this dynamic took place at Utica.
10.20.10 (M.Stein)
Following Phish’s first set, anything was possible when they surfaced for the second, but the details hardly mattered. This was a night that Phish could do no wrong – a show filled with the magic of yesteryear – inc which Phish flowed with that same subconscious interaction. But the spectacular nature of Utica lied in its implications for the immediately limitless future. People were so abuzz about the first set that the second half began in what seemed like no time at all. And to begin the frame, Phish knocked an opening sequence of “Drowned > Sand” out of the park. This entire sequence had an energy behind the music that almost forced one to be present in the moment. Hard to explain with mere words, this night possessed a single-minded feel – a unison between everyone in the intimate venue – that we were apart of something special. Phish’s fully opened their treasure chest for the first time during this era, allowing the light of present day to reflect off the gold of old. Thus when the band blew through “Sand’s” ending refrain on the way to “Theme,” it hardly seemed like a surprise; it was supposed to happen. It was one of those nights.
When Phish played through a stretch of songs that read “Theme,” “Axilla,” “Birds,” “Tela” in the middle of the second set, the show never lost momentum for a second. Yet on an average night, that same four-song stretch could derail more than a few second sets. But on evenings like this one, the standalone nature of these singles didn’t slow the show at all, not to mention a ripping “Birds” jam along the way. But when people spilled into the chilly Utica night after this paradigm-shifting concert, the talk of the town would be the “Split” sequence that stood on deck.
10.20.10 – Utica (Casey Boire)
Much like the musical jigsaw puzzle of the first set, this final segment of the show brought another twisting tale with the contours of old. Starting with “Split” the band took an ethereal path outwards into a plane of beauty, much in the vein of their previous version in Broomfield. But as the jam got quite abstract, Trey whispered the lyrics to “Have Mercy” over the sonic landscape. Singing almost two entire verses before the band settled into a gentle reggae groove, the song passed as an apprarition in the night. Once the lyrics ended, the band dripped out of the reggae groove and sculpted, perhaps, the most aurally stunning passage of tour. Coming together as if composed, Phish broke into sheet of sonic bliss, quickly transforming the gentle textures into defining spiritual moments on life’s eternal quest. When the band takes such a powerful and non-stop musical trip as they did in Utica, they are bound to break through to the other side at some point during the night. And this moment of transcendence blossomed out of “Have Mercy” in a shimmering pool tranquility. Elevating the soul of the room, this dreamscape awakened the sense of the eternal, connecting the past to the present, with an arrow to the future.
10.20.10 (M.Stein)
Coming out of this timeless experience, Phish rolled into “Piper,” a move that provided another wide-open canvas for to paint with their fluid psychedelia of the moment. Getting both nasty and intricate, the music took hold of the band’s instruments, infusing a cosmic knowledge into each and syncing them in a scorching palette of improvisation. Seamlessly arriving at a “Birds” reprise jam in the top-shelf “Piper,” Phish played like a band possessed. And when they dissolved “Birds” and descended, back into “Split’s” final build, the crowd erupted as Phish put a final slice of bread on the retro-style “Split Sandwich.” And to cap off a perfect night, a gorgeous “Slave to the Traffic Light.”
Sometimes Phish steps on stage and just fucking nails IT. Utica provided the first start-to-finish example of this phenomenon in the modern era, causing shock waves in the scene from coast to coast. “Have you heard Utica?” “Phish can still do this in 2010?” Of course they can. Phish has always been about pushing musical possibilities, and as the wave of Charleston and Augusta crested in Utica, the band redefined what those possibilities are for the here and now. The game-changers had changed the game once again, and as the circus left upstate New York for a weekend in New England, being part of Phish’s grand experiment felt as magical as ever.
When Phish is truly clicking, the setlist fades away and the moments emerge. It no longer matters what songs the band is playing, because it becomes about the music in its purest form. Whether a jam or a simple verse, when Phish is raging, every measure is played with authority and meticulous care. A subconscious …
A wide-eyed portly fellow burst out of a stall in the sweltering men’s bathroom at setbreak proclaiming, “Guyutica!” Smothering the already-suffocating room in laughter as he pushed through the crowd, the term struck everyone as clever, spontaneous wordplay to describe the wild set we just witnessed. Little did we know that a masked-man in the front section carried a sign boldly sporting the term that sparked, perhaps, the set of the tour thus far. And the lights hadn’t even dropped for the second set. Phish had just stepped offstage in a cloud of smoke after a snaking opening frame in a tiny room; and electricity filled the air. As if shot back to the mid-’90s, the band had just slammed the door of the first set with an “Antelope” that churned with sonic white-water of yesteryear. Fans were left removing musical shrapnel from their blown minds as the house lights brightened the humid climate of the dated AHL arena. Centered around the tour’s only “Guyute” – a tightly-wound and thrilling rendition – Phish built the first of two masterful sets that placed the past and the present on a collision course on a Wednesday night in central New York.
10.20.10 (J.Reed)
A two-song blues-rock warm up brought Phish to the brink of no return. Once they dove into “Vultures” with a tenacity of the bird, itself, Phish stepped into a show that fused the musical playfulness of old-school Phish with the on-point musicianship of the current band. And the results left the scene in a daze for a day and a half before Providence began. Moving from blues-rock into creative funk sculptures, the band followed up “Vultures” with a unique version of “Wolfman’s” that morphed through a spontaneous vocal jam into a series of creative rhythms anchored by Fishman’s divergent beats. Taking the piece on a varying course for the first time in ages, Phish set the musical tone of the show early. Infused with extra gusto, even towards the beginning of Utica it felt like something different had taken hold of the band. Smoothly hitting some rhythm licks and taking the band into “Cities,” Trey moved in concert with the rest of the band from the show’s onset of this show, rather than moving to the beat of his own drummer. But with the unveiling of “Guyute” that carried the tension and drama of old, the retro contour of the set began to take form.
10.20.10 Utica (Michael Stein)
While Fishman’s cymbals danced into the intro to “Bowie,” Trey continued to play “Guyute’s” triumphant lick with increasingly distorted phrasing, a seemingly innocent move at the time. But these teases sparked a theme for the rest of the set – self-referential integration of one song into another in with the spontaneity of lore. As “Bowie’s” jam dropped, Trey used the same “Guyute” line, phrased differently, to initiate the improvisation. Almost immediately, the band landed in the opening hits of “Wilson” and the crowd caught on just as quickly. In a call and response exercise, the crowd chanted “Wilson” to which Trey answered in Guyute-speak, “He’s bouncing like a new born elf.” Instead of dropping into “Wilson,” in earnest, the band made the far shrewder call of melting back into a delicate, full-on “Bowie” jam. Page’s piano leads wove with Trey’s melodies, pushing the piece in an ominous direction. Mike supported with harmonizing rhythm offerings that catalyzed a darker feel, and the band took off running in a powerful version of their revitalized classic. Passing through an additional “Wilson” tease on the way to a smashing final section, Phish had dropped a twisting tour highlight smack dab in the middle of the first set. And that wouldn’t even be their most impressive excursion of the half!
“Guyutica” (D. Vann via Phish)
The band immediately jumped on their own joke, dropping a “Guyute”- laced “Wilson” as soon as “Bowie” ended. Fully fusing the songs together, Trey jammed on “Guyute’s” lead melody throughout “Wilson’s” brief hard rock vamp. The band hadn’t dropped such tightly-wound musical humor in ages, and both their ability and willingness to do so spoke volumes on their current state of mind. Having as much fun crafting a set like this as the audience had eating it up, Phish took their old-school spirit – last year expressed through bust-outs and on-stage narratives – directly into musical pranks. As a nod to the retro-nature of the set, the band played the Gamehendge-related “McGrupp.” A far cleaner rendition than its counterparts of this era, the composition sparkled with the purity of Phish’s energy, a hallmark of their recent tour. Revving up “I Saw it Again,”the band took another elusive piece off the shelf in this now all-star frame. In another segment of musical gamesmanship, the band built the heavy textures of the song’s ending into a “Guyute”- laced ambient bridge into the set’s most dramatic piece – “Run Like An Antelope.”
In nothing short of a revelation, Phish dropped a version of “Antelope” that represented a improvisational microcosm this show – the fury and creativity of old fused with the mature approach and polished chops of the present day. Taking the usually one-dimensional piece on its most dynamic venture in memory, Phish decorated the jam with several nuanced psychedelic tangents, redefining the possibilities of modern “Antelopes,” let alone what is once again possible from the Vermont quartet entirely. Finishing with multiple teases of “Guyute” in “Antelope’s” final section, Phish proudly signed their collective John Hancock on the bottom line of this set.
As fans foraged through dense fog of the magical musical forest that had sprouted since the show began, the building took on a whole new feel. With the particle board peeling off the floor in a building of another era, Phish had brought us into a separate reality for the night – far from familiar, yet feeling just like home. Though it seemed like the show had peaked, setbreak had only just begun.
Here is the final download from Fall 2010, Charleston’s song-based opening show. Highlights came in the first set versions of “Bathtub Gin” and “Stash,” while a lite second set’s shining moment came in its opening “Disease.”
I: Punch You In the Eye, Possum, Bathtub Gin, Bill Bailey, Won’t You Please Come Home?*, Boogie On Reggae Woman, Destiny Unbound, Backwards Down the Number Line, Bouncing Around the Room, Stash, Joy, Buffalo Bill, Dog Faced Boy, Run Like an Antelope
II: Down with Disease > Prince Caspian > Twist, Roses Are Free, My Friend, My Friend, My Problem Right There, Tube, Mike’s Song > The Horse > Silent in the Morning, Mexican Cousin, Weekapaug Groove, Suzy Greenberg, Slave to the Traffic Light
A wide-eyed portly fellow burst out of a stall in the sweltering men’s bathroom at setbreak proclaiming, “Guyutica!” Smothering the already-suffocating room in laughter as he pushed through the crowd, the term struck everyone as clever, spontaneous wordplay to describe the wild set we just witnessed. Little did we know that a masked-man in the …
