One Day, Maybe Tuesday
One day, maybe Tuesday evening
I'm dancing with the trees all around
I'm riding in the back of a car w chachi and Sharon, I left lots of energy in the building last night, 5th show in 6 nights today.... might not be my best effort today. But I'll do my best.
Lots of people circled this date on the calendar for the potential of this show based on one of the best shows in phishtory 20 years ago.
Spent the day with a couple of celebrities in the phish world... Jim Pollock, Fzappa20 and of course McKenzie. Jim Pollock's 53rd was yesterday so there was a birthday party for him at this killer place called Pronto Buildbar... a bar w 3D technology, video games that shock you, an enormous crane game. Nice way to kick off the festivities.
It was a lot of fun hanging w fzappa most of the day for his one show of the year; a hometown show taboot. McKenzie was fzappa's handler and hype girl, taking pictures and helping handle the chompers. And there were quite a few chompers.
We made our way down to the venue where it was a really hot day...too bad it was just as hot in the venue.
It was freakin' awesome walking into such an iconic venue. I had goosebumps thinking that this was the same venue from 12/7/97...one of my favorite shows of all time. Start that jammy back up! The venue conjured up memories of the fall of 13 tour which seemed to take place in old, somewhat decrypted hockey arenas that all kind of looked the same. That was such an amazing tour.
All of these factors...including a last minute cancellation by a friend that seems to always miss the epic shows...led to something that can be dangerous at Phish: Expectations. I try to concentrate and not have too many expectations but much easier said then done.
Anyway let's get the show on the road - (speaking of expectations, I incorrectly predicted an AC/DC opener to pay homage).
Tuesday opener, seem to be playing a lot of TAB songs. They are going deep into the catalog, playing new phish songs. I again repeat my belief that there will be no repeats at the dozen.
Peaches out of nowhere with fzappa! That was awesome. But not so awesomely played. Part of expanding the catalog and playing songs that haven't been played much is they aren't going to be played perfectly. Nice to get a free next, such a beautiful song but trey wasn't quite there yet on the composed parts. The jam was great however. First real musical aha moment of the show for me.
Roggae is probably my favorite traditionally slow song (this list like many of my favorite ever phish lists is probably 5 deep). Well played, it's just such a beautiful song.
Sugar shack... I should probably exercise a typical mother's advice here re don't say anything if you don't have anything nice to say. However I didn't have a typical mother so she would encourage me to speak my mind and I will do so. That song sucks (notnquite as much as Yarmouth) and for whatever reason Trey can't hit the solo and the band can't link up during the song. Not to mention it's ability to kill any momentum. Moving on...
Maze was maze, always solid, better than average but not spectacular. Horn was horn, always more fun with a beautiful woman by your side. Then some weird Gordon song about everyone being crazy sometimes (especially Cactus). Funky changes. Has some ok moments. But it seemed really long and dragged on way too long. Song was also weird but so is our tiger stripe lipstick wearing bass player.
The set had a solid ending... the gordon is a freak sometimes tune transitioned nicely into a super solid 46 days. I dug this song hard. And the runaway jim was so great. It was also clearly a shout out to Pollock for his birthday. The band - especially page who had eyes on Jim the entire song - was looking at Jim, smiling and laughing with him. Just a really cool moment to bring the day full circle.
For me the second set had moments where I am reminded why I do this, why Phish truly are the best. Phish put on a masterful performance, they are the most professional performers af the top of their game, showing why they are the best band on the world. And it's not even close.
I was really "expecting" a Tweezer opener but that moment of disappointment quickly dissipated as they played a beautiful, amazing, danceable, mostly rock n roll (insert more awesome adjectives here) DWD. This jam was absolutely amazing. Another patient display by the band. Fish and gordon were laying down such a beautiful groove, trey had such precise and delicate guitar technique, Page adding really cool and funky sounds. Such an amazing and incredible jam. This jam will be in the discussion for top jams of the tour.
Mountains was a great comedown song off of that disease. Beautifully and delicately played. Another one of my favorite slow songs. I initially heard some Waves towards the end of disease so wasnt surprised to hear it after mountains. Two kind of slow songs back to back, They didn't seem to have many ideas and reasonably quickly decided to smoothly and slowly move into Ghost....
That Ghost -> wombat was redunkulous. I still can't believe how good it was. The start had a little different sound, fish having fun with tempo, and I was paying very close attention to the drop... and they stuck IT! That Ghost was great, they went out there, then it got really funky and sexy. This Ghost was turning me the fuck on. Thought I heard a few teases - maybe some Jim licks, was full on in it and dancing had hard as I could dance. Amazing moment. Wombat out of nowhere, more sexy music, more jamming. I can't help but always think about Atlantic City when the new album was kind of laying a dud in the arena. When the phish dropped into wombat we all felt a little better about things.
The final song of the set was a pretty standard Chalkdust. Nothing special, at that point I was so tired and checking the clock. I felt exhausted from having giving it all the entire show. Squirming coil finished it off, always beautiful and a nice way to end the show. I noticed when Trey started it up Mike and Gordon looked at each other quizzically, shrugged their shoulders, and played the song. Always a mellow, standard but enjoyable encore.
Another beautiful show on another beautiful day in an absolutely beautiful life. We just arrived in Pittsburgh, one more to go before the bakers dozen. Do we get the tweezer? Mikes, Mercury? Time will tell.
I'm dancing with the trees all around
I'm riding in the back of a car w chachi and Sharon, I left lots of energy in the building last night, 5th show in 6 nights today.... might not be my best effort today. But I'll do my best.
Lots of people circled this date on the calendar for the potential of this show based on one of the best shows in phishtory 20 years ago.
Spent the day with a couple of celebrities in the phish world... Jim Pollock, Fzappa20 and of course McKenzie. Jim Pollock's 53rd was yesterday so there was a birthday party for him at this killer place called Pronto Buildbar... a bar w 3D technology, video games that shock you, an enormous crane game. Nice way to kick off the festivities.
It was a lot of fun hanging w fzappa most of the day for his one show of the year; a hometown show taboot. McKenzie was fzappa's handler and hype girl, taking pictures and helping handle the chompers. And there were quite a few chompers.
We made our way down to the venue where it was a really hot day...too bad it was just as hot in the venue.
It was freakin' awesome walking into such an iconic venue. I had goosebumps thinking that this was the same venue from 12/7/97...one of my favorite shows of all time. Start that jammy back up! The venue conjured up memories of the fall of 13 tour which seemed to take place in old, somewhat decrypted hockey arenas that all kind of looked the same. That was such an amazing tour.
All of these factors...including a last minute cancellation by a friend that seems to always miss the epic shows...led to something that can be dangerous at Phish: Expectations. I try to concentrate and not have too many expectations but much easier said then done.
Anyway let's get the show on the road - (speaking of expectations, I incorrectly predicted an AC/DC opener to pay homage).
Tuesday opener, seem to be playing a lot of TAB songs. They are going deep into the catalog, playing new phish songs. I again repeat my belief that there will be no repeats at the dozen.
Peaches out of nowhere with fzappa! That was awesome. But not so awesomely played. Part of expanding the catalog and playing songs that haven't been played much is they aren't going to be played perfectly. Nice to get a free next, such a beautiful song but trey wasn't quite there yet on the composed parts. The jam was great however. First real musical aha moment of the show for me.
Roggae is probably my favorite traditionally slow song (this list like many of my favorite ever phish lists is probably 5 deep). Well played, it's just such a beautiful song.
Sugar shack... I should probably exercise a typical mother's advice here re don't say anything if you don't have anything nice to say. However I didn't have a typical mother so she would encourage me to speak my mind and I will do so. That song sucks (notnquite as much as Yarmouth) and for whatever reason Trey can't hit the solo and the band can't link up during the song. Not to mention it's ability to kill any momentum. Moving on...
Maze was maze, always solid, better than average but not spectacular. Horn was horn, always more fun with a beautiful woman by your side. Then some weird Gordon song about everyone being crazy sometimes (especially Cactus). Funky changes. Has some ok moments. But it seemed really long and dragged on way too long. Song was also weird but so is our tiger stripe lipstick wearing bass player.
The set had a solid ending... the gordon is a freak sometimes tune transitioned nicely into a super solid 46 days. I dug this song hard. And the runaway jim was so great. It was also clearly a shout out to Pollock for his birthday. The band - especially page who had eyes on Jim the entire song - was looking at Jim, smiling and laughing with him. Just a really cool moment to bring the day full circle.
For me the second set had moments where I am reminded why I do this, why Phish truly are the best. Phish put on a masterful performance, they are the most professional performers af the top of their game, showing why they are the best band on the world. And it's not even close.
I was really "expecting" a Tweezer opener but that moment of disappointment quickly dissipated as they played a beautiful, amazing, danceable, mostly rock n roll (insert more awesome adjectives here) DWD. This jam was absolutely amazing. Another patient display by the band. Fish and gordon were laying down such a beautiful groove, trey had such precise and delicate guitar technique, Page adding really cool and funky sounds. Such an amazing and incredible jam. This jam will be in the discussion for top jams of the tour.
Mountains was a great comedown song off of that disease. Beautifully and delicately played. Another one of my favorite slow songs. I initially heard some Waves towards the end of disease so wasnt surprised to hear it after mountains. Two kind of slow songs back to back, They didn't seem to have many ideas and reasonably quickly decided to smoothly and slowly move into Ghost....
That Ghost -> wombat was redunkulous. I still can't believe how good it was. The start had a little different sound, fish having fun with tempo, and I was paying very close attention to the drop... and they stuck IT! That Ghost was great, they went out there, then it got really funky and sexy. This Ghost was turning me the fuck on. Thought I heard a few teases - maybe some Jim licks, was full on in it and dancing had hard as I could dance. Amazing moment. Wombat out of nowhere, more sexy music, more jamming. I can't help but always think about Atlantic City when the new album was kind of laying a dud in the arena. When the phish dropped into wombat we all felt a little better about things.
The final song of the set was a pretty standard Chalkdust. Nothing special, at that point I was so tired and checking the clock. I felt exhausted from having giving it all the entire show. Squirming coil finished it off, always beautiful and a nice way to end the show. I noticed when Trey started it up Mike and Gordon looked at each other quizzically, shrugged their shoulders, and played the song. Always a mellow, standard but enjoyable encore.
Another beautiful show on another beautiful day in an absolutely beautiful life. We just arrived in Pittsburgh, one more to go before the bakers dozen. Do we get the tweezer? Mikes, Mercury? Time will tell.
#liveyourliphe
#collectmoments
#enjoyeverysandwich
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