In an effort to switch things up, I decided to go with an “audio post” today. I often write about Phish’s ambient styles, and ever-evolving use of sound and layered psychedelia, so today I put together a mix that brings you on an audio tour through 1998, 1999, and 2000. Instead of focusing on songs or jams, I put a lens on ambient improv, creating an 80-minute “Trip Through the Late ’90s.” The jams evolve from a section of ’98, to a section of ’99, and concludes with a section of music from 2000. I will post a setlist once I figure it out, as I made the mix on the fly and it’s getting late out here. See if you notice an evolution through the years, or just kick back and space out. Enjoy! (As usual, click the orange track title to download the mix.)
This show – Phish’s most recent October 12 offering – celebrates its fifteenth anniversary today. In only the fifth show of a 40+ gig tour, Phish boasted well-polished chops and masterful communication. A soaring second-song “Reba” led into this focused night of music that centered on the second set jams of “David Bowie” and “YEM,” and ” Harry Hood,” with “Bowie” taking the cake.
I: My Friend, My Friend, Reba, The Sloth, Poor Heart, Split Open and Melt, The Lizards, Guelah Papyrus, Julius, Sweet Adeline
II: Peaches en Regalia, David Bowie, Bouncing Around the Room, Scent of a Mule, You Enjoy Myself, Nellie Kane*, Foreplay/Long Time, Harry Hood, Sample in a Jar
In an effort to switch things up, I decided to go with an “audio post” today. I often write about Phish’s ambient styles, and ever-evolving use of sound and layered psychedelia, so today I put together a mix that brings you on an audio tour through 1998, 1999, and 2000. Instead of focusing on songs …
A tour that started in Vancouver exactly one month earlier, had traversed the nation moving down the west coast, across the south and back up the east coast. We had made it to Albany on October 9 for the final two-night stand of tour. Boasting many fine shows along the way, Phish returned to their home turf of the Northeast to close another tour in the friendly confines of “Knickerbocker” Arena. Fall ’99 saw Phish experiment with sound in a different direction, favoring abstract dissonance and amorphous spacescapes. Following a trend that began during summer, their jams became increasingly layered, veering from the groove and calm ambient playing of ’98 to more aggressive, distortion-based textures and artistic sound sculptures. Phish displayed these trends in droves this night on this next-to-last night in Albany.
Albany ’99 Pollock
The first set had its own space-excursion, as a straight-forward “Ghost” grew outwards in scope, then seamlessly merged into a primordial soup that suggested “My Left Toe.” In the middle of the first set, Phish set their controls for the heart of the sun, morphing from a fast-paced rock-groove into a slower arrhythmic pattern that suggested a voyage to the other side. Page layered walls of sound that supported the jam, while Fishman flowed with all sorts of polyrhythms. A magnificent showcase of one of the band’s current foci, they wasted no time merging with the infinite. Deep into space exploration, Trey looped one pattern while adding others; Fish played a shimmering ever-shifting beat; Page’s favored sound over melody; and Mike blended his notes in a non-linear pattern. The band took a high dive into celestial sludge before emerging with the heavy opening of “Free,” back in the era when “Free” was still a legitimate piece of improv. The thick groove showcased Trey’s classic “millennial” style, moving from searing sheets of resounding terror into growling leads. With the end of tour within reach, Phish rejected complacency in favor of cerebral creativity – good to the last drop.
Fall ’99 (Unknown)
Phish stepped back into the cosmic realm at the beginning of the second set, combining “Limb By Limb” and “2001” into 35 minutes of millennial madness. Slaughtering the typically complex “Limb” jam with super-glued communication. Just before the band collectively peaked, they descended from their melodic heights into a darker, rhythmic milieu. Fish kept the polyrhythms flying at lightning speed, as Trey and Mike’s dark interplay led the band down the road less traveled. Creating an abstract sonic brew, Phish embarked on a distinctly ’99-esque segment of improv that the band absolutely annihilated – you can hear the response from the crowd on tape. Effortlessly re-merging with “Limb’s” cathartic theme, the band – and specifically Trey – smashed the peak of the jam to smithereens, leaving approximately 17,500 jaws firmly lying on the arena floor.
Fall ’99 (Unknown)
Trey joined Fish’s ending drum solo, and as the song formally ended, Trey continued his pattern over a blanket-like ambiance that the rest of the band instantly created. Oozing back into a quiet jam that suggesting “Limb’s” rhythmic structure, Phish began to build a spacescape whose intensity and stature grew with each passing moment. Entering a gorgeous plane, Fishman faded his drum beat in, the lights came up, and the arena lifted off into the tour’s last “2001.” Leaving the laid back grooves in the summer amphitheatres, this version took off with a faster pace and an enhanced zest. After joining the dance party with a series of choppy funk licks and leads, and once the the band locked into some full-on grooves, Trey left his axe behind, hopping onto his mini keyboard. He immediately complemented Page’s Rhodes with staccato patterns he might play on guitar. Mike and Fish pulsated consistently, never coming apart, providing the adhesive for the top-layer experiments.
Trying all his tricks, Trey used his keyboard proficiently and enhanced the groove with an array of sounds and effects. But once the band passed through the song’s first theme, he stuck to his guitar. Mike’s super-sized bass patterns dominated the second half of the piece, as Trey and Page wrapped slick melodies around them. Thumping throughout the arena, his diverse lines led the band away from clap-able rhythms into alternate grooves during this “2001” marathon that lasted almost 20 minutes.
Segueing into “Disease,” Phish’s space-camp ended for the evening, as they closed the show with the energetic anthem followed by “Simple” and “Loving Cup.” But our galactic treks in both sets comprised the enduring memories from this night in Albany ten years ago.
This is the typically darker and more exploratory first night of Phish’s two-night finale to Fall ’99. Getting to some spaced-out jams, the band showcased their abstract millennial sound that grew throughout the tour. A great setlist with great playing – good stuff all around.
I: Punch You In the Eye, Wilson, Guyute, Ghost > My Left Toe > Free, Sparkle, Possum
II: Limb By Limb > Also Sprach Zarathustra*> Down with Disease > Wading in the Velvet Sea, Simple, Loving Cup
E: Slave to the Traffic Light
*Trey on keys for part of jam
Source: Unknown
A tour that started in Vancouver exactly one month earlier, had traversed the nation moving down the west coast, across the south and back up the east coast. We had made it to Albany on October 9 for the final two-night stand of tour. Boasting many fine shows along the way, Phish returned to their …
This week, two awe-inspiring video clips from Big Cypress surfaced, unannounced, on the band’s Festival 8 The8tre, signifying the first- ever public footage from Phish’s New Years blowout almost ten years ago. While rumors have circulated about both a return to the festival site and the release of an elusive DVD box set chronicling the weekend, these two clips may lend some credence to the latter . One would expect the band to recognize the ten-year anniversary of their career defining concerts, and with Miami a lock for New Years, the multi-disc box set may be just the way to do it.
Midnight (Unk.)
When I first saw the links in an email, I clicked on the first only to see my favorite segment of the all-night show unfold right in front of me. With no visual memory of the jam stemming from the “After Midnight Reprise,” a jam imprinted in my memory, the intimate quality of the video was quite the experience. This piece of improv, coming in the wee hours of the new millennium, was/is/and will always be my favorite musical moment of the night- and there are plenty of reasons why. But after listening to it constantly for a decade, it was a beautiful synchronicity for the first piece of Cypress video that I ever saw was this jam.
The sheer connectedness of the band as they clicked into the downtempo groove has always amazed me, and to watch their expressions and body language as they- as one- move through each change and measure is priceless. The quality of the video is as warm as the music being played; an intimate portrait Phish’s emotional interplay on their sacred night-long quest. The music of that night took on a different, more patient, quality that conveyed the magnitude of the occasion, and this feel is clearly illustrated by both of these videos. To watch Cypress in widescreen video ten-years later is completely surreal; a far cry from our spot of power behind the speaker towers in the open Florida field .
It Begins… (R.Mayer)
The second video is the tail end of the “Piper” jam into the entirety of “Free.” The mechanical grooves and liquid textures ooze off the screen as the memories flood your cortex. Deep in the set, bordering on morning, Phish was knee deep in swamp funk in the middle of the Everglades- could life have been any better? The joy of the band members, as they are living the experience of a lifetime, is quite evident as you can clearly see each gesture and connection. When you consider how engaging this footage is, one could imagine getting lost for hours feeding disc after disc into the player. But if organized correctly, it could turn into also turn into quite the party… if they release the box set.
Without having any knowledge other than these videos, I can’t see why they won’t. Virtually every Phish fan in the world would gobble this product up at $100 a clip- and with a nice accompanying booklet, this could be the ultimate Phish souvenir. If these video leaks are any indication, we just might be ringing in 2010 with a memento from the dawn of the decade.
“After Midnight Reprise”
“…Piper > Free”
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Phish Thoughts Audio Archive:
In an effort to create a comprehensive archive of every show posted on this site, some volunteers-Paul, Marshall, Jason, and Steve- have worked hard and transferred all the shows over to Megaupload, a server with a much better deal for me. I have met with my design and programming team and we have great ideas for a state of the art audio archive with separate pages for each year and each show- with setlists, source details, and a short write-up, like the ones found on the “Download of the Day.” We will be creating a easily navigable database of unlimited free downloads forever! This will be a high-quality archive of all the shows from this site, with quality that would blow away the “spreadsheet” and most other mp3-based sites. All in 320 kbps mp3 format. Stay tuned!
Rewiiiiind! Today we take it back two decades to the first of October in ’89 when Phish was still an emerging regional phenomenon. Playing bars and colleges, the band was in their formative years, but already boasting a large catalog of originals. This old school nugget holds plenty of treats, including “Fluffhead” broken up into its many sections and interspersed throughout the show, and the debut of “Reba.” In addition, this is the first show in which the band used “Hold Your Head Up,” a song Fishman absolutely hated, to introduce / torment him, and the rest is history. Check it out…
I: Alumni Blues, McGrupp and the Watchful Hosemasters > Who Do We Do > Golgi Apparatus, Harry Hood > The Chase, Wilson, Foam, Ya Mar, Oh Kee Pa Ceremony > Suzy Greenberg, Run Like an Antelope
II: AC/DC Bag, My Sweet One, Reba*, Dinner and a Movie > Bundle of Joy > Possum, You Enjoy Myself, HYHU**> If I Only Had a Brain > HYHU, Contact, Split Open and Melt, Lizards
E: Highway to Hell
*debut (with additional verse and instrumental section) **First time used as taunt/intro for Fishman
Source: SBD
This week, two awe-inspiring video clips from Big Cypress surfaced, unannounced, on the band’s Festival 8 The8tre, signifying the first- ever public footage from Phish’s New Years blowout almost ten years ago. While rumors have circulated about both a return to the festival site and the release of an elusive DVD box set chronicling the …
Here we have Phish’s memorable two-night stand from Shoreline at the beginning of Fall ’99; the second being Phil Lesh’s extended sit in with the band. The “Sand” and the “Piper” that preceded his entrance were the musical highlights of the night. Other highlights from 9.17 include the first set “Ghost,” and the one-two punch of “Peaches,” “Moma.” Look out for 9.16’s “Stash” and “Antelope”- both first set scorchers. With four strong sets strewn with spectacular moments, Phish treated the Bay Area right.
I: Ya Mar, Chalk Dust Torture, Farmhouse, First Tube, Carini, Dirt, Vultures, Sparkle, On Your Way Down, Beauty of my Dreams, Stash, Train Song, Billy Breathes, Run Like an Antelope
II: Also Sprach Zarathustra > Mike’s Song > I Am Hydrogen > Weekapaug Groove, Mountains in the Mist, Limb by Limb, Prince Caspian, Julius
I: Mozambique, Guyute, Ghost, Lawn Boy, Peaches en Regalia, The Moma Dance, Water in the Sky, When the Circus Comes, Get Back on the Train, David Bowie, The Squirming Coil
II: Runaway Jim, Sand, Piper, Roggae, You Enjoy Myself*# > Bass Duet*, Wolfman’s Brother*^ > Cold Rain and Snow*^
E: Viola Lee Blues*$
*With Phil Lesh on bass. #With Lesh on trampolines. ^With Lesh on vocals. $With Warren Haynes on guitar.
Source: Schoeps mics (no other info known as of 9/24/99) -> 44.1 KHz
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VIDEOS OF THE WEEKEND:
“Cold Rain and Snow” w/ Phil 9.17.99
DOWNLOADS OF THE WEEKEND: Here we have Phish’s memorable two-night stand from Shoreline at the beginning of Fall ’99; the second being Phil Lesh’s extended sit in with the band. The “Sand” and the “Piper” that preceded his entrance were the musical highlights of the night. Other highlights from 9.17 include the first set “Ghost,” …
Once the Phil and Friends shows established a relationship, both personally and musically between Phil and Trey, the Phish and Dead communities began to blend together. Led by the musical model that had wowed everyone for three nights, the two cultures- a generation apart- began to grow closer. Everything seemed cool now; there was much less ill will between the bands’ followings; the scenes began to intermingle and lines became blurred. The musicians themselves formed relationships, as members of Phish and The Dead went on to collaborate on future projects.
9.17.99 Shoreline (J.Blakesburg)
Later the same year, when Phish passed through Shoreline for two nights on their fall tour, they returned the invitation. Inviting Phil to sit in for much of the second set of 9.17, the two scenes fused in a more Phish-centric way. As Phil came out for “YEM,” Brad brought out a third trampoline! In the ultimate gesture of Phisy approval, Phil bounced up and down with Trey and Mike during the tramps part of the jam. To the giddy delight of all involved, this guest sit-in carried more meaning than any before. Morphing into a bass duet with Mike out of “YEM”, Phil stuck around for “Wolfman’s,” and a poignant cover of The Dead’s “Cold Rain and Snow.” For the encore, they brought Phil back and Warren Haynes and played an extensive “Viola Lee Blues.” At this point, Phish and The Dead had grown closer than ever.
In their penultimate show before their hiatus, also at Shoreline, Phish invited Bob Weir to the stage for a three-song encore of “El Paso,” “Chalk Dust,” and “West LA Fadeaway.” Though not as musically impressive as Lesh’s stint with Phish, Weir’s sit-in carried as much symbolic weight as anything.
Mike, Joe Russo, Phil, & Trey (jrushingmail)
Once Phish broke up in 2004 and Trey toured with the much-maligned 70 Volt Parade for 2005, he began popping up with Phil in 2006. Teaming up with Mike, drummer Joe Russo, and piano visionary Marco Benevento, Trey toured with the horribly-monikered GRAB as a co-bill with Phil and Friends during the summer of ’06. This tour was a legitimate merging of the Phish and the Dead scenes as each band drew from their respective fan bases, most who stayed to watch both acts. Although GRAB hit some grooves and played fun shows, the greatest parts of these evenings were when Trey came out with Phil and Friends and played Dead music. Sometimes it was for a song or two, and sometimes, like Camden (6.30), Hartford (7.3), Jones Beach (7.7), and Scranton (7.11), it was for the entire second set. These sets were the high points of the entire tour, and I’m pretty sure Phil would agree. One of the highlights of this run of sit-ins was the sublime second set at Camden, where the entire band was tapped in. (Just look at Phil’s face as Trey rips apart St. Stephen in the video below!) Trey elevated the play of Phil’s band to another level each time he took the stage, and it were these sets that I continued to listen to when the summer ended.
Phil & Trey @ Vegoose 10.29.06 (Spector1)
Trey also sat in with Phil and Friends at Halloween’s Vegoose Festival in Las Vegas in ’06, not only for the festival set, but for an entire two-set late night gig as well. Earlier in the year, before GRAB/Phil tour, Phil joined GRAB onstage at Bonnaroo for a rendition of “Casey Jones.” Gradually, it seemed like playing with Phil was Trey’s new favorite stage. He got to improvise freely over Dead classics, standing in for Jerry, while sprinkling in songs from his own catalog. He was loving it, and the fans were too- Phil didn’t have too many friends with the guitar prowess of Trey. But less than two months after Vegoose, on December 15th, Trey was arrested and sequestered to Whitehall, NY and its surroundings.
The Rhythm Devils w/ Mike @ Vegoose (Dan B.)
Taken out of the scene for a while, Trey’s next big appearance was actually with Phil and Friends at the nearby, hence legal, Glens Falls Civic Center on 10.20.07. At his stop in Glens Falls, Phil was actually granted the symbolic power of being mayor of Glens Falls for the day. And as his “power” was granted, Phil said, “As my first act as honorary mayor, it is my intention to pardon Trey Anastasio,” voicing his support for his friend. Trey was welcomed by Phil back to the stage that night, sitting in with Phil and Friends for two sets of Dead music, while adding “Shine” and “Plasma.” Phil had Trey’s back, as he was no stranger to addiction, and it was with his friendship and backing that Trey returned to the stage for the first show since his arrest.
“Serial Pod”
Beyond Trey and Phil’s relationship, Mike also got in on the Phish / Dead collaborations. In fall 2006, Mike played a series of shows with Mickey Hart and Billy Kreutzmann’s “Rhythm Devils,” with Steve Kimock on guitar, including a slot at Vegoose. And yet another collaboration between the two bands was “Serial Pod,” a project between Mike, Trey, and Billy in 2005. Nevertheless, all of these sit-ins and hybrid projects were sparked by those three epic nights at The Warfield. Going where no one dared go before, Trey, Page, Phil, Kimock, and Molo fused past and current counter-culture; the circle was now complete.
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Trey’s solo in “St. Stephen”w/ Phil and Friends – 6.30.06, Camden, NJ (!!)
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DOWNLOAD OF THE DAY:
4.17.99 Phil & Friends @ The Warfield < LINK
4.17.99 Phil & Friends @ The Warfield < TORRENT LINK
I: Dark Star > It’s Up to You, Days Between > Dark Star (first verse) > My Favorite Things, Mississippi Half-Step, Birdsong
II: Terrapin Station > Down with Disease > Dark Star (second verse) > Friend of the Devil, Casey Jones, Morning Dew, Goin Down The Road Feelin Bad* > And We Bid You Goodnight
E: Box of Rain
Once the Phil and Friends shows established a relationship, both personally and musically between Phil and Trey, the Phish and Dead communities began to blend together. Led by the musical model that had wowed everyone for three nights, the two cultures- a generation apart- began to grow closer. Everything seemed cool now; there was much …
