Our continuing look at the outstanding musical exploits during Phish’s first leg of Summer Tour

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“Drowned” 5.31 II, Holmdel, NJ

In my humble opinion, the most overlooked piece of musical mastery to come from summer’s opening leg is PNC’s “Drowned.” These shows were sandwiched between Bethel and the Midwest, and since the second night turned into a TreyDHD-fest, PNC’s opening night has been largely glossed over. But the “Drowned” in the middle of the second set should be hailed as a seminal piece of 2011 improv. Foreshadowing the type of sonic exploration featured in Super Ball’s hallowed Storage Jam, Phish dove into the abyss during this piece with gorgeous interplay—a track that must be on any legitimate Leg One playlist.

After the song’s straightforward launch, Trey pulled up his searing solo as if pulling the reins of a horse, and the band slowed into a murky texture almost immediately. Phish morphed into a spacey groove that featured Mike out front and delicate interplay between the entire quartet. Page offered a large effect as the jam grew increasingly ambient, transforming into an exploration of harmony, sound and tonal color. Though the jam reached uber-abstract territory, the band’s cohesion never wavered (much like the late-night Storage Jam). Trey dotted the band’s sonic backdrop with soulful melodies in a stunning convergence of four minds. Transforming into heart-tugging soundscapes, this emotive space jam provided some of the most enchanting music of tour while plunging the depths of experimentation. Spilling into “Maze,” this combo lit-up the middle of PNC’s hugely underrated opener.

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“Bathtub Gin” 5.28 I, Bethel, NY

Phish punctuated the first set of Bethel’s Saturday night revelation with one of the show’s outstanding jams, “Bathtub Gin,” and this version was laced with something special from the get-go. Jumping directly into action as soon as the jam dropped, Mike’s chunky bass lines forged a path for Trey’s original melodies while Fish’s intricate beats—drenched with with stops and fills—guided the whole. As the piece began to blossom, Trey effortlessly tore off original licks amidst a slow and groovy milieu. From this juncture it became quite evident that the band’s communication was locked into the “On” position for the evening. Trey’s staccato licks pushed the band out of their comfort zone and the urged the jam into a more intense dimension. Gradually climbing into a cathartic peak of pure, top-shelf “Gin,” the band converged in masterful communication and musical annihilation. And this is where most versions of 3.0 have come to an end—but not at Bethel.

Following the peak, Trey immediately revved up a new sequence of uptempo grooves. Mike and Fish sculpted a speedy pocket that sounded very similar to “Golden Age,” but Phish soon uncovered their intentions. The band careened into a breakneck version of “Manteca” over these slamming rhythms and Mike began to pump furious, enveloped-filtered notes into the fiendishly addictive groove. And just like that, the band meshed back into “Bathtub Gin’s” theme with a tidal wave of energy, teasing “Manteca” all the way to the end of this spectacular set closer.

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“Wolfman’s -> Boogie On” 6.12 I, Columbia, MD

“Wolfman’s” is a song that saw Phish get more creative with it as the leg one continued, peaking with Super Ball’s sublime version. At Merriweather’s Sunday night show, Phish used the song as a vehicle for swanky grooves whose tempo moved a bit slower than usual. As the band was immersed in gooey textures, Mike played slowed-down bass lines that brought the music in a tangential direction. As the band reduced speed, Trey took the opportunity to introduce hints of ‘Boogie On’s” opening licks. And where the he might have obtrusively cut the jam off before, he patiently allowed the segue to develop into Stevie Wonder’s original. Usually, if “Wolfman’s” combines with “Boogie On,” “Wolfman’s will be the weighted half of the combo, but this night was different.

A song that generally does very little for the path of a show with generic funk grooves that—more often than not—go nowhere, this performance would be different. Instead of treading water in repetative, vanilla rhythms, Page initiated a full-on funk throwdown with a single, effected note in his clav solo. The band hopped on for the ride and took the cover into far more engaging territory. As Mike and Fish flipped the song’s rhythms inside out, Trey and Page began narrating a funkified tale over top. Laser-locked in this rhythmic exchange the band used “Boogie On” as a dose of mid-set adrenaline to satiate the groove junkies in the Columbia crowd.

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“Slave to the Traffic Light” 6.19 II, Portsmouth, VA

Coming as the mid-set resolution for a dark opening combo of “Crosseyed” and “Walls of the Cave,” Phish unveiled a stunning version of “Slave to the Traffic Light” in their tour closer. A placid opening featured a shimmering beat and quiet, yet very active, whole-band interplay. Mike’s bass lines stood out in this mellow plane as Trey built his solo atop of his contours. After playing many stellar “Slaves” throughout the summer’s opening leg, the final version of June absolutely took the cake with pure musical exultation . The soul and energy pouring through the band’s instruments was staggering, as the music was as refined as any you’ll ever hear. Trey featured an extended “fanning” section throughout the jam’s peak, adding a dramatic dimension to the mountaintop. And it was good.

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From Headcount.org: Trey Given Award By NADCP

Check out this powerful article about out favorite guitar player, his public support for drug courts on Capitol Hill and how he got, yet, another standing ovation!

Trey Anastasio headed to Washington, D.C. this week for a scheduled appearance at the National Association of Drug Court Professionals Conference. The event featured celebrity speakers like Martin Sheen and Matthew Perry but from what we hear, Trey stole the show. Read on…

Continuing our look at the many standout jams of June, here is part two in a multi-part series.

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“Sand” 6.19 II, Portsmouth, VA

In the middle of Phish’s final set of June, they dropped into a jam that had stood out all month—”Sand. Having shredded multiple versions throughout leg one, Phish showcased the improvisational centerpiece as a primary part of their tour closer, and boy did it shine. Leaping into the fray with delicate, yet forceful leads, Trey grabbed Mike’s attention and both guitarists began to work symbiotically. Tearing of jazzy lick after jazzy lick, Trey speckled the hard groove with well-phrased melodies that Gordon responded to creatively. But as the intensity  built, with all band members locked into the rhythmic excursion, the band took a step back from their cosmic climb to engage in some alternate interplay. As Phish took “Sand” on a tangential ride, Mike threw down heavy bass lines and Trey flowed like water while Page went clav-ing for dollars and Fishman held down a swanky rhythm. Entering uncharted territory, Phish was feeling IT and taking things were they were naturally moving. After getting into some crack-like, funk-jazz fusion, before anyone knew what was happening, the band had entered an infectious stop/start section of jamming that considerably juiced the Portsmouth crowd. And when the jam ended, Phish hadn’t had enough of their addictive groove as they jumped into a “Sand” reprise. Re-entering the same groove they had just left, the band had the audience in a full-out freak scene while chopping away some final dance rhythms.

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“Piper -> Lizards” 6.4 II, Cuyahoga Falls, OH

This summer’s “Pipers” have notably moved in variant directions, shying from the break-neck percussive grooves that have so often defined the jam in this era. No version from leg one better illustrates this welcome shift more than Blossom’s concise type-II adventure. Taking negligible time to move beyond Trey’s guitar solo and into original music, Phish settled onto a beautiful canvas. Combining in a melodic ball of light, all four band members reached an experimental plane right away—a perfect example of this summer’s creative intent and “to-the-point” improvisational style. Getting very creative very quickly, the guys used a succinct jam to explore their ideas before blending seamlessly into the only “Lizards” of tour.

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“ After Midnight” 5.31 II, Holmdel, NJ

“After Midnight” will always bring vibrant memories of Big Cypress, the afternoon before the main event, and—of course—the song’s sacred reprise out of “Drowned” in the middle of the night. Played only twice since the dawn of the new millennium (in Manchester on 11.26.10 and New York  on 12.31.10), neither version was used as a jam vehicle. But when Phish came out at PNC—hot off of Bethel’s smoking run—and opened the second set with the J.J. Cale cover, one got the sense that this version would contain a legitimate adventure. As the band tore into the song’s groovy textures with fire, they built up a considerable head of steam along the way. After bringing the lyrics back—the point where the song would usually wrap up—the band had other ideas. Building off the song’s rhythmic template, the guys started to improvise, slowly migrating from the piece’s foundation. Trey began altering his licks and Mike responded while, simultaneously, adhering to Fishman’s beat. Gradually, Phish moved further and further from the groove until Fishman and Mike switched up the pocket and the quartet entered a more enchanting passage. Trey repeated a cathartic melody over unique and outstanding rhythms churned out by Gordon and Fish. The band had once again found a musical field of dreams and converged in a gorgeous improvisational sequence. Moving in a more ambient direction as the piece progressed, with “After Midnight,” it became clear that the jamming on display at Bethel was hardly an aberration and that Phish 2011 had truly arrived.

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“Split Open and Melt” 6.18 II, Raleigh, NC

Toward the end of a bizarre second set in Raleigh—one that possessed great music but flowed like a pile of bricks—Phish unveiled the second “Split” of the summer. Coming like a psychedelic breath of air into a set that desperately needed one after “My Friend” and “Kill Devil Falls,” the opening beats of the song sparked immediate excitement. And by the time they came out on the other side, the band had pushed through a demented reality. Mike took control of the jam early with big, round bass lines that featured a patient tempo and fewer—perfectly placed—notes. The band’s first turn was for the sublime as they flipped the song into a major key, a move that brought a momentary dose of uplifting music. But the guys delved right back into the occult with abstract bass and guitar lines while Page comped dark piano chords in this increasingly menacing exploration. The band reached an abstract realm of “amoeba” jamming where eachmember pushed and pulled the music in variant directions without losing the cohesive whole. At this juncture the piece transformed into a mind-melting symphony and things would only get crazier from here. Mike and Fishman held a gooey rhythmic pattern as Trey and Page experimented over top—and then things got straight evil. Fish entered an almost tribal beat while Page added a dark, futuristic sound effect in a confluence of sinister sounds. Bringing the piece to a drone, ambient near-silence, Phish was amidst the most exploratory and surreal “Split” they had played in ages. As the band continued to bring the jam into more abstract territory, when it came time to build back into the song, it wasn’t so easy. As they struggled to get from the far-out musical places they had reached back to a seething build, the band hit the eject button and popped out of the attempt with a quick ending. After a ridiculously dark jam that brought the crowd into depths of lunacy, the ending was but a small blemish on an overall terrorizing ride.

Due to the copious amount of great music that came out of summer’s opening leg, one jam has been notably missing from many discussions of top-shelf highlights from June. After three-nights of fire in the Midwest, Phish returned to the east coast for a mid-week stop in Great Woods. Sandwiched between their Midwestern throwdown and a groovalicious night in Darien, its not surprising that Great Woods—a venue that should be renamed Mediocre Woods for this era—has been glossed over. Thought there wasn’t a lot of highlight material at Mansfield compared to other shows of June, but towards the beginning of the second set, Phish threw down a version of “Rock and Roll” that stands up to just about anything played over the entire tour.

Before the band had even launched from the song’s classic rock textures, creativity defined their interplay. As Trey annihilated his solo, his band mates were similarly crushing the piece—Page on piano and Mike dropping high-octane bass lines—in a showcase of torrid energy. And though the band was connected early on in this standout jam, things got far more interesting once they entered uncharted territory.

Flowing into a sparser musical texture, Mike took the lead with bold offerings as Page hopped up to his clav and Trey chopped atypical rhythms licks over a powerfully rolling beat. The band’s fluent communication translated right into this new sequence, and as they, collectively, slowed the jam down, the music grew more engaging by the moment. Once they reached a certain tempo, the guys quickly launched into abstract, melodic interplay as Trey wove his lines over Fish’s ultra-delicate breakbeats. If the band was locked to begin with, by this juncture they were Krazy-glued together and fully tapped into to the source. Trey entered his spiritual register, repeating a melody from the gods over an increasingly ambient backdrop. And as the band converged around Trey’s theme, they immersed the audience in bliss. Moving as a single entity, the Phish had reached a golden moment.

But the jam only stayed uplifting for so long. As Trey tore off one sinister lick, the entire piece took a turn for the dark side. Mike and Fishman formed an intricate unique pocket, as Fish continued his standout playing. Trey unleashed seething guitar lines over these rhythms and the band dove into a menacing experiment, considerably upping the intensity of the music. Page offered piano comps to this darkening passage as Trey just absolutely went to town. With the band adhered in a single-minded mission, each member brought eclectic and connected phrasings to an increasingly evil brew. This sequence jam blossomed into psychedelic monstrosity, and once it reached its peak, the band allowed their wall of sound and effect to gradually wash into a drone landscape. Removing the crowd from this sonic dungeon, Trey softy played the opening lick to “Mango Song,” bringing the dark into the light and resolving the band’s dip into the netherworld.

Because the show’s relative mediocrity, this experimental “Rock and Roll”—that built directly from Phish’s Midwestern mayhem—has been wrongfully slighted in post-tour playlists and analysis. Maybe you are familiar with this jam or perhaps you’re not, but either way, click play and let this dark-horse adventure take your mind for a spin.

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Jam of the Day:

“Light Up or Leave Me Alone” 6.14 I

A smoking highlight from the first night of Alpharetta’s two-night stand.