Heavy Things

[kidsmoke]

Phish doesn't seem to get a lot of love here, and I don't give them a tremendous amount of my time. I saw them once, with 200 people in a cafe in Portland Me in '89, the year their first album came out. They blew my mind. By the time i had the time and money to see them again (15 years of child raising and working) they were a superstar arena band, and that holds very little appeal to me, so I've never been back. Now I've got a nephew who's into them, and he went to see them Tuesday night, sent me this you tube link from a guy a few rows in back of him.

Gotta say, Trey's licks are tight, economical fun, but what I'd forgotten, from all these years seeing bands in taverns and clubs, is what a great light show is like. Good Gawd, watch this for the lights alone over the 2nd half of the song, after Trey's solo.

tune is called Heavy Things. Given the year I've had, it's got a good line. Talks about "heavy things falling down on me"...

"and when I tried
to step a-side,
I moved to where they'd hoped I'd be"

I resonate with that remark. Check it out.

From two days ago...

 

[R_of_G]

Gotta say, Trey's licks are tight, economical fun, but what I'd forgotten, from all these years seeing bands in taverns and clubs, is what a great light show is like. Good Gawd, watch this for the lights alone over the 2nd half of the song, after Trey's solo.

I saw them many times from 92-2004. I love their music though listen very little these days. Lighting director Chris Kuroda was always my favorite aspect of every show I got to see. He's as much a part of the band as any of the four musicians. Nobody does what he does with lights in such perfect unison with the band. It's one thing to do that with a band that plays a similar setlist with the songs almost always presented the same way. It's another to do it for a band who prides themselves on mixing up the setlist from night to night and large portions of their play driven by improvisation. Kuroda never falters in jamming right along. I remember very vividly what he did with the lights for almost every minute of the New Year's 1999-2000 eight hour set until he yielded to the sunrise to light the final songs. This time of year always makes me think of Phish as I attended many New Year's Eve shows in my time following them.

BTW, I did start a thread awhile back posting many more live videos.

 

[kidsmoke]

I saw them many times from 92-2004. I love their music though listen very little these days. ..........

BTW, I did start a thread awhile back posting many more live videos.

Doesn't surprise me, you seem to have pretty good taste, 'specially for a Jets fan.

missed that thread for sure. Always felt Anastasio gets written off a bit for being a jam band guy, but I think these guys write well, play well, really try to keep growing. And like most jam bands, I think a big part of the appeal is that they come across as fans of the music, that they get off on a tune as much as anybody.

So what's with Trey's voice? Is this just road fatigue, or is he losing some range?

 

[hubberjub]

I will admit to being a big fan. I saw them probably 10 times from 1996-2004 and have seen them twice in the last two years. The only (famous) band that I've seen more is ABB. Trey is a great guitarist and he is sounding better than ever. It's amazing what cleaning up will do for you. It is too bad that people can't get past the "jam band" thing. There are a lot of great rock bands that suffer because of the stigma.

 

[R_of_G]

I The only (famous) band that I've seen more is ABB.

Same here, thanks to many Beacon shows as I mentioned in the thread about ABB at the Beacon in 20011.

It is too bad that people can't get past the "jam band" thing. There are a lot of great rock bands that suffer because of the stigma.

Absolutely. Though Phish is a band that uses a lot of improvisation, the best jams I've ever heard came out of songs that had heavily composed sections which relied on the four members of the bands to play often intricate parts before the jamming would emerge on its own. These jams were always better for me than the songs that were a couple of verses, a chorus or two, and then Trey solos for ten minutes.

A lot of bands unfortunately get tagged as "jam bands" because a lot of the people that listen to and follow jam bands are into a variety of music. I often laugh at some things that are categorized as "jam bands" but then again, I often laugh at most attempts to label music.

And to Tio's question about Trey's voice, there were always a few shows in a tour where Trey's range was limited. Often it meant more songs for Page to sing, which was always appreciated by me.

 

[Eric]

I've never been to any shows, but there was a period where I was pretty into Phish. I'm probably not a real fan, however, since Farmhouse might be my favorite album -- I get the feeling that's seen as too radio-ready by most of the Phish heads.

 

[R_of_G]

I've never been to any shows, but there was a period where I was pretty into Phish. I'm probably not a real fan, however, since Farmhouse might be my favorite album -- I get the feeling that's seen as too radio-ready by most of the Phish heads.

I can only speak for myself, but I found Farmhouse too overproduced and in many cases I didn't like the presentations of the songs themselves. It's not that I don't enjoy studio production across the board as Rift is still my favorite of their albums and has plenty of production value to it. However, most of the songs on Rift are still arranged very much like they are when played live.

I'm not saying I needed "Sand" to be the 25 minutes or so it normally is live, but it deserved better than a rushed overproduced song stripped of the funk of the live version and with some of Tom Marshall's best lyrics delivered through horrible vocal filters rather than Trey's normal voice.

I guess the best I can say about Farmhouse is that most of those songs are songs I would enjoy hearing them play at a show. Also, "Vultures" should have been on the album as it was the best song of that batch, but I'm glad it wasn't because they'd probably have played it some other way that made it less cool.