Nash Vegas Night One

Photo by Rene Huemer

Finks thoughts 10/23/18 Nashville night 1 

After college I moved to Nashville and was there from 96-00. Nashville is a pretty cool town, I enjoyed my time there. Was a young and dumb investment banker working way too hard, making way too much money and having way too much fun. It was a great time but a different Fink. I’m sure we all have grown and changed in 20 years, hopefully for the better. Anyway one of the things I really loved about Nashvegas (locals seriously called it that) was that it is a music town. As the home of country music, the music industry is huge there so the town is full of incredible musicians and people that know, respect and love music....all different kinds of music. As such it gets great shows at great venues and when bands play there the audience is extra attentive, quiet and respectful. They get it, music is church and I think the bands know that and feed off of that. That’s way too much of a lead up to this point: I feel most bands, including Phish, bring an extra gear and play with more purpose when in Nashville. They want to impress their peers and colleagues in a town they know lives and breathes music. Shit I just heard that Mike and Trey we’re out at Roberts (a famous honky tonk bar) this morning.

Anyway the band opens with tweeprise. I love that they can do that and change things up. In one of my groups we have been doing a pick 5 contest and debating if you can pick Tweezer and Tweeprise (Mike’s and Paug, alumni and letter, etc). I’m on the side that you should be allowed to take them both but seem to be in the minority. 

Party time in the 2 hole sounded good and the band settled in during the always comfortable for them to play Free. This was followed by some bluegrass (appropriate for both Nashville and my post stream Billy Strings concert - details below) and a lawn boy for our last venue with a lawn this year. 

Then we got the cool it down bust out. I actually thought the pre song chords sounded like breath and burning. I’ve been happy phish has been busting out songs again this tour. Summer didn’t really have any that I can remember, was *mellow mood the only one? Speaking of wanting to impress other musicians, I have this part fact part probably fiction story about the last cool it down (8/15/12 Long Beach). Dan Kanter, Justin Beiber’s guitar player/musical director, is a phan and brought the Beebs to his first show. They met the band and some of the band memeber’s kids at setbreak. Apparently the kids were really impressed w the beebs. All of that is pretty much fact. The part in my head is that I imagine phish got together after that and said fuck this, let’s show him (and our kids) how we do it and came out and crushed a 50 minute or so rock n roll -> ghost to open the second set. I heard one of the things beebs really loved about the phish show and why he went to dicks and some other shows after Long Beach was that he wasn’t bothered or harassed by the crowd, he was left alone and could do his thing. 

Theme and funky bitch up next, band sounded really good, playing with confidence but nothing earth shattering until the KDF> Wolfmans which was easily the highlight of the first set and a glimpse into what was to come. The always reliable Wolfmans was so dope and fun. Trey was playing with this fun beat and the band got into a pocket that reminded me of roller skating or skipping down the street. It was so fun, funky, danceable. Really great phish. 

Chomper anthem to close out another really solid first set. First sets are back baby!!! I can’t remember a 3.0 tour starting out with such a great run of solid first sets. But a question on our minds was would the second set be better than the first; one could easily argue that the last two nights in Hampton first set > second set. That question was answered definitively and with mucho gusto as phish put down the best set of music they have played all year. 

That Mikes was legendary! I’ve been using the term legendary a lot for this tour but it’s been special. The dark and evil themes have been prevalent all tour so it was going to be interesting to see how dark and evil they could go with a traditionally dark and evil song. Well the answer is dark and dank and dirty AS FUCK. That mikes was the bidness, appropriate that Ascend gets another big Mikes. Nashville was where a musician phan asked Trey why Mike’s didn’t have the second jam anymore. When trey asked what he was talking about the phan cues up a 1.0 version with the second jam and they bring the second jam back in Nasvhille that night. The second jam made one or two appearances after that but it all started out in Nashville. While that mikes didn’t have the second jam, it had an enormous first jam that became type 2 jam. So Mikes II, not Mikes 2. 

Buttery and proper “->” into Ghost (only 3rd mikes -> ghost ever) where the band got super spooky. Carver referred to it as Halloween music. Exactly. Dark and dirty and scary and evil and awesome. While they didn’t come back to the coda on Mikes, they continued a theme of finishing most of their songs this tour by finishing ghost. Post the spooky ghost (membah AC?), they moved into a slowed down version of everything’s right. After such dark and dirty playing, a light happy tune was in order. As far as the new tunes in the Allgood Brah suite go, everything’s right and SYSF are my two favorites. See Bangert for more info on AGB. On paper in a dark and dirty set, that’s too much AGB. In reality it wasn’t. They were played beautifully, with purpose and both jammed out. Phish is so fucking on this night it doesn’t matter what they play.  It’s also great that that 2 new songs fit so incredibly well into a classic set of phish music. Once again I noticed how on point the vocals have been this tour. Practiced, well rehearsed, in shape. The Halloween costume must have some interesting vocals and such. I have heard a theory that the costume is going to be a long jam but I’m not sure about that mostly because the vocals have been so good and sound practiced to me. 

Circus is a great slow down song and call for that moment. I like when they mix up the cool it down songs. Perhaps Mandy will finally get FEFY. 

A bit rough of a beginning to Paug, Trey took a break and Mike ended up leading a good chunk of that jam. He was laying it down, playing at different speeds and driving the jam. A rested up Trey eventually jumped on board and then made some music that literally gave me goosebumps. Beautiful version, beautiful set. 

Say what you want about Loving Cup but it’s a beautiful song and an great set closer. 

This fall tour has been night and day compared to summer. All of the components... a well oiled band, a costume that has led to a band that sounds like they have been practicing a lot, fall tour, CKs banana light rig, a hungry phan base, Trey feeling more comfortable with his new rig, Fishman working so hard at this craft, page and all of his new toys, Mike’s new platform making him feel taller and just seeming genuinely happier to be there...are in place to make this a legendary tour for the ages. Get your ass to Vegas. It’s going to be awesome. 

Post stream I went and saw Billy Strings. He’s a 26 year old jamgrass guitar virtuoso. I was blown away. He can shred that acoustic and his band was tight. Definitely check him out if you have the opportunity. 

I’m off for jury duty day 2. Looks like I might be put on a case. My main comment to the judge was that I’m out of here on 10/31. Why, asked the judge. Because I’m going to temple for Halloween weekend. Have a beautiful day eveyone! Free couch tour from Phish tonight! Thanks Yasu, your stream last night was amazing. Nice to have you back on tour. 

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