When Phish left the stage of Madison Square Garden on the first of this year, fans would have scheduled a ticker tape parade for the following day if the city of New York would allow it. Reviews were glowing and opinions on their musical prowess were never higher, and rightfully so. The shows were well played and filled with highlights.
Fast forward to the end of May and, I'd imagine, many people were ready for amazing energy, but probably a series warm up performances. And while that held true, there were several standout moments that carried on the efforts last winter. Probably so numerous in fact, that many fans left Bethel, well...surprised.
On Friday evening, the opening notes of Tweezer were a much welcomed change to the Sample, AC/DC, Chalkdust openers of previous tours. As for the effort, in a second set it would be quickly dismissed but not in the leadoff spot. As the set began to build, standout versions began to appear. Beginning with Wolfman's and it's segue into Phish's strongest current cover, Walk Away. Since Hartford last year, the James Gang classic has been slayed each and every time. The Stash that followed, while good enough, did not match the efforts from late last year.
Kill Devil Falls however, was the first set highlight. In a version only paralleled by the one from Bonnarroo, the band took a chance by driving beyond the main theme into pure improv. Joy-era songs have a ridiculously bad reputation. Most people, I think, just kind of dislike them. Even Light, a song which I truly love, is a total piece of shit some nights and when that's the album's pedigree dog...it's kind of an ugly sign. Ocelot, Alaska, 20 Years Later, even Number Line, definitely have their detractors. But if Phish can play KDF like THIS, they can play off anything. That's a positive moment.
The second set continued the pace with an opening Carini, reportedly shouted for from the rail, to which Trey responded "what the fuck". And that's why he will always fucking kick ass, no matter the number of times he kills great direction for a shitty song. The fireworks really started with Boogie On Reggae Woman though. IN moment of pure improvisation, Trey led the band into a slowed down outro where the each band member played with a fluctuating tempo, creating the effect of a record being slowed through pressure. It was easily one of the most creative segues since Hartford 09 and its Icculus section. Coming out of this moment was a fantastic jam in the infrequently played Waves, through a shockingly well placed Caspian and then into Crosseyed and Painless. The Talking Heads cover is a fan favorite and the band always seems to play its ass off in it. This time was no exception, until the previously mentioned "Ripcord Trey" decided that they should segue into Velvet Sea as Fish varied the tempo in C+P ready to move to another jam segment. Frustrating, but forgivable. All in all, a fantastic opening show.
The following night, Phish continued their strong showing with a first set that rivals any first frame in recent memory. The set reached a fever pitch when the band launched into an extended jam out of Halley's Comet, a decision that quelled a lot of chatter from fans about the lack of attention it has gotten of late. While the jam was interesting, the Runaway Jim that followed was even better. In what has to be the standard bearer for the song in 3.0, the band built a beautiful a rhythmic texture quickly. Whether you call it a "staccato jam" or a "plinko jam", the device that Trey first experimented in the aforementioned Icculus jam in Hartford, it has become a staple of his improvisational tricks. One that has the opportunity to become quickly tired, but in Jim it was perfectly executed to provide an additional melodic layer as the bridged the jam an the outro together. Not to be outdone in the first set was the closing Bathtub Gin. With a great type I jam to open the song, the band suddenly changes gear into something of a Golden Age/Manteca mash-up. Fantastic moment, as Manteca has seemingly become the inside joke with the band. A flawless transition back into Gin was a perfect end to a fantastic set.
After the break positive efforts were put forth on both Down With Disease and Number Line, with DWD progressing into a calm exit point for Free and Number Line feeding into a truly fun version of Makisupa involving each member of the band playing with the keyword segment, the second set seemed to fizzle slightly. After the show, people were very quick to call this evening "the best show of 3.0". I wholeheartedly disagree. It can't be the best show (fwiw, 1/1/11 and 10/26/10 blow it away) when the previous night took more chances and had higher highs than anything in the second set on Saturday.
Given the amount that's already been written here, I can summarize the Bethel closer very succinctly. Tired, uninspired and completely forgettable. Quite possibly the most boring show in 2 years. When the second set contains a five minute Weekapaug, I'm moving on.
So where do we stand now? Probably right about where we expected, but in my mind the order of greatness was inverted from what I would have expected. The band seemed to push harder on Friday, play very tight on Saturday and mail it in on Sunday. But Jersey calls and we'll see what happens Tuesday evening. High hopes, no expectations.
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No mention of the Suzy on Sunday? Seriously? No mention of opening the 3 day event with tweezer and bookending it sunday with reprise? I mean it may have been obvious after they didnt play it friday but still....
I dont know man I wasn't at the NYE shows so maybe I really missed out there, but the boys were very impressive and tight for the opening of tour and the venue kicked ass. If you couldnt get into these shows, then I feel for you.
You can disagree based on energy and volume, but I feel strongly that while Mike's > Simple > Weekapaug may have been a blast, it was flat and non-eventful. Nothing in Mike's playing was any different than the best versions from the past year. But the overall version was 5 minutes and featured no inspiration.
Also, I wrote 850 words on all three days. Forgive me if I missed mentioning every single song.
But I digress, nice work Eric!
Eric's job was to be realistic, not just lather on the praise. I don't agree with everything he said, but I do agree that it's foolish to pretend that something like night 3 was worth of "best ever" anything. This is why it's a personal review.
Nice read Eric, thanks for posting.
My number one hope for this summer was that the band would start to step out of structure on a more regular basis, (once or twice a night, if that, was the norm for fall tour and the holiday run, even 1/1). Saturday fulfilled that hope in spades and has me incredibly fired up for the summer. There was just a lot more dark, psychedelic, abstract jamming on Friday and Saturday than we'd been seeing.
Unfortunately, I do agree that Sunday was an uneventful show from a jamming perspective, and flowed quite poorly. Here's to hoping that the risk taking of the first two nights represent the new norm for Phish this year.
True energy comes through on tape just as well. Listen to Fluffhead from Hampton, the Double Reprise from Hartford, Terrapin from 8/8/98. That's energy.
Let's say, for example, they play a 4.5, 4.5, 5.5, and then a perfect 10. Well you can find the "mean" of this by adding up the scores and dividing by 4. You get 6.125, and three-quarters of the shows fell below this mark!
ps I can't wait. These next few shows are gonna be happy fun time!
By your measure, ratings are totally subjective. You could assign all "10s" and have made no progress. If the idea is to compare the shows against one another, there are going to be 10/10 shows and 1/10 shows (or technically, 0/10).
Either way, the idea is that if there's a such thing as an average show, half the shows are better and half the shows are worse. Eric says *Sunday* was worse and ultimately non-notable. And, as expected, many people have short-term memory syndrome and always believe the last show was "epic", no matter what it was.
@otter I just disagree. If anything I usually note when I am in attendance as I think that skews my comments more.
The shows were great and I've been seeing shows since 93 bud so the context of experiences is there..
The problem with rating shows is that every single person has a different notion of where that 50th percentile lies. But then again I guess that things would be pretty boring otherwise.
That being said, to each his own and I certainly have been turned off to shows and music and bands that other people love. That is why they make fords and chevy's! we all have our preference, although maybe in this case subaru's and VW's is a better metaphor. I do like your writing though and please keep reviewing, I certainly do not want to create and disdain or animosity. We are, after all, all on the same team.
I didn't like the Tweezer MFMF transition. I really liked the KDF and thought the BDTNL was excellent. Also, if you can't hear 3rd night Bethel as being sub-par- good for you. Must be nice. This "rip-cord" Trey shit is bad. Not only is he ending songs when it is obvious the other 3 are ready to rock. He is often doing it in an awkward fashion. i love Phish. Tough love Phish
::ducks and runs::
Trey actually did a fantastic job at Bethel of being both a leader and a participant. C+P was the only time I felt he bailed, but it's a pretty callous criticism that jam was great.
http://phishthoughts.com/2011/05/30/basking-in-bethels-blowout/
P.S. Fwiw, sometimes I think on a strict musical level you can do a BETTER review of the show when you aren't there. If all you got to see live was night three and you dropped money on tix, gas, beer, food, and lodging, you're going to probably rate it higher mentally. Cognitive dissonance people...
Here is Mr Miner's Sunday review.
http://phishthoughts.com/2011/05/30/safe-on-sunday/
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My take on Sunday is that aside from the Simple jam, there wasn't much improvisation. It sounds _rushed_ like they wanted to play a bunch of songs, but didn't have enough time. I think this is the reason for the uneven Meatstick > /> Fluffhead. For my part, though, I really enjoyed the 2001 and Slave. Best ever - no, but that's not really the point. Maybe people just had their expectations too high after Saturday.
Peace from Florida,
Michael
There are a lot of great things in this review, but I don't think people should skip listening to Sunday because of what was written about it here. At LEAST give the Simple and Slave a listen.
I want to comment in on the improvisational style we're seeing, because I think (and my drummer agrees) that it's a little different from 09 and 10. Some have actually started calling it Phish 4.0. (Seriously, in the parking lot after 2nd night, that was going around). I wouldn't go that far, but I was calling it 3.2 before that. Either way, it seems to be an upgrade has taken place since I last saw the boys.
One thing I noticed is Trey seems to be getting bolder stepping out of key during jams (see the BDTNL jam for example) which is something they used to do more in the early-mid 90's, but never did quite as cleanly as this. The difference now is, they are staying locked into eachother, and getting back into key simultaneously, at the exact right moment, and making it all resolve properly. They are getting more consistent with this (extremely difficult) improvisational trick, and they are having a lot of fun with these jams.
I would like to have seen MORE daring improvisational exploration, but compared to what I saw in 09 an 10, what I saw saturday night was a major step in the right direction. I hope the trend continues as the tour progresses.
Technically, It appears that they are stepping up the tightness as well (listen to that Bowie!) while trying to maintain the freedom and keep things fresh. (Perfect execution alone is, well, boring). In their maturity, they are finally mastering some of the improv stuff they were TRYING to do (but not executing properly) back in the 90's. Well, the execution was DEFINITELY there at Bethel. They are older, so the energy and creativity is going to be a little harder to come by. But when it all comes together, look out! And I think it did a couple of times this weekend.
My biggest musical complaint is Trey couldn't seem to get his voice box warmed up. He was wavering and struggling to hold notes on Free, in particular. And I agree that some of those tunes felt like they were just going through the motions. That is a high crime as far as I'm concerned. I barely even remember that MFMF, I think they played it correctly, but... did they really play it?
As a musician, I think when you're younger, bolder, and more reckless, and you take more musical risks, the payoff can be immense when it works, but you're also more likely to just create awful noise. When you get older you start appreciating subtlety and 'the space between the notes' a little more. Their sound becomes more consistently good, accessible, and musically clean. But they also sacrifice some of the wild creativity that made them my favorite band in the 90s.
The good news from Bethel, for me anyways, is that I see this trend actually starting to reverse itself, and they seem to be reaching back for a little bit of that wildness and trying to fuse it in with their newer, more mature and subtle musical sensibilities. This manifests especially during jams on the newer material, which is why even though I don't think BDTNL is a particularly brilliant song, I'll always be happy to hear it at a show because I know the jam is likely to be sick nasty. That's what they want to play, and that's their direction right now. We're probably not going to get another 1200 BPM turbo-Llama like the one from Denison U '92, but the Phish of '92 could/would not have played that ridiculous BDTNL jam either. (Who knows, maybe).
Bottom line, I like where this is going and I want more. Go Phish Go! Don't be scared to fuck up a jam, play what's in your hearts and damn the consequences!
Just my stupid opinions.
And one more thing: Fish is on fire. Can't wait for Blossom and the rest of the tour (hitting 10 shows this summer OH YEAH)
Not at all. Great post! Thanks!
For me the highlights of Friday's first set included the scalding Wolfman's> Walk Away and a surprising Bold as Love closer. Personally, I thought it was pretty awesome listening to a Jimi tune on the Woodstock lawn. I'm a sucker for nostalgia. And yes, I realize that Axis was not part of Jimi's Woodstock setlist which is part of why it caught me off guard. I would have put money on a Fire encore one of the three nights instead.
As for the Sunday night show, it seems to be getting some unduly brutal reviews. I thought the second half of each set was super groovy and contained some interesting and well executed song selections: [Timber > Oh Kee Pa > Suzy > 46 Days > 20Y Later, Curtis Loew, Antelope] and [Meatstick > Fluffhead > Joy, 2001 > Light > Slave]. Each of those sections sounded way tighter and more unique than anything in the first set of the 5/31 show at PNC, which seems to have received far more positive feedback.
All in all I had an awesome weekend. I thought the boys sounded great, the crowd was kind, courteous and energetic, and the venue was absolutely fantastic. I hope it becomes a regular stop on Summer tour, especially if it means skipping Jonser Beach and the miserable fire hazard that is SPAC. Bethel Woods is probably my new favorite amphitheater in the northeast.
I did not mean to imply that Phish has not ALWAYS done this type of stuff, or at least tried. The foray into cacophony and back is a major pillar of the Phish sound. I guess what I meant to say is it's been somewhat lacking in 3.0... and now, not only is it now starting to creep its way back in, but it's being executed perhaps more carefully than back in the day. The musicianship is just so on point!
I loved the venue as well, I can't wait for another excuse to go back there, hopefully for another 3 night run in 2012!
See you all tomorrow @ Blossom
If you liked the show or if you didn't like the show, that's your opinion. Every person is at a different point in their Phanship and therefore may interpret a show different than another. It's silly and pointless to discuss who is right and wrong because there is no right or wrong. There is only the music and how you personally connect to it.
It is absurd to argue why one show is better than another because there is no uniform scale to compare them to. There is only your own personal scale. If you think these shows didn't measure up to other shows or if you thought they melted your face off then...guess what...you're both right.
Here is my take on the show: There's some good points, some bad points, but it all works out...
P.S. Dear Phish, thanks for coming back for another tour. (Can't be said enough.)