06/17 - Verizon Wireless Amp - Charlotte, NC - Post-Show Discussion and Review

[fauxpaxfauxreal]

Weren't you the one campaigning how his band turned full on nostaglia a week ago?

Shit is nostalgia as hell.  But it was nostalgia worth seeing.

[JPhishman]

I wanna find out what happened to WTU? after he went to the bathroom post Mike's Groove in the first set and also would love to know how McGrupp, Sophist and GoodAboutHood fared during the show.

Personally.

The entire show is worth listening to from beginning to end.  I couldn't have picked a cooler show to see for my one timer this summer.

I raged the show with Qop, and wife plus my buddies Nick and Jared.  We were in the pav towards the middle.  I had a blast.  I did a little bit of sass and had a few beers inside the venue.  I'd say I raged Raleigh way harder than Charlotte.  For a period of time, Scott, George, and George's woman were also with us.  This bitch made us smoke her up in the first set to avoid her calling the usher over and booting us from her seats.  That was weak, but whatever. 
Highlights were the RnR > Ghost for me.  I thought it was a solid show.  Nothing epic, nothing horrible either.  I thought they made huge improvements from Charlotte to Portsmouth versus how they played in Alpharetta. 

We drove up Thursday evening/early Friday morning.  We passed the venue at 3am on Friday.  My buddy Beka has a place two minutes from the venue, so we chilled out all day and had some nice pre-show drinking going on.  Highlights include an intense debate with Scott about "jamming" which cleared all the pussy out of the room faster than a '92 appearance.

:hereitisyousentimentalbastard


If I've seen it once I've seen it a thousand times.....

[sophist]

I wanna find out what happened to WTU? after he went to the bathroom post Mike's Groove in the first set and also would love to know how McGrupp, Sophist and GoodAboutHood fared during the show.

Personally.

The entire show is worth listening to from beginning to end.  I couldn't have picked a cooler show to see for my one timer this summer.

I raged the show with Qop, and wife plus my buddies Nick and Jared.  We were in the pav towards the middle.  I had a blast.  I did a little bit of sass and had a few beers inside the venue.  I'd say I raged Raleigh way harder than Charlotte.  For a period of time, Scott, George, and George's woman were also with us.  This bitch made us smoke her up in the first set to avoid her calling the usher over and booting us from her seats.  That was weak, but whatever. 
Highlights were the RnR > Ghost for me.  I thought it was a solid show.  Nothing epic, nothing horrible either.  I thought they made huge improvements from Charlotte to Portsmouth versus how they played in Alpharetta. 

We drove up Thursday evening/early Friday morning.  We passed the venue at 3am on Friday.  My buddy Beka has a place two minutes from the venue, so we chilled out all day and had some nice pre-show drinking going on.  Highlights include an intense debate with Scott about "jamming" which cleared all the pussy out of the room faster than a '92 appearance.

:hereitisyousentimentalbastard


If I've seen it once I've seen it a thousand times.....

What's even funnier is that one of girls said something like, "the ass and titties are leaving the room" and we were oblivious to it. 

[WhatstheUse?]

I enjoyed the hell out of that intense debate.  Discussing music gets me off far more than those ass and titties would have!

[emay]

THis reba is awesome!

[mistercharlie]

Soundcheck Footage!
http://phishvidcollection.blogspot.com/2011/06/charlotte-61711-souncheck-footage.html

With the first 10 second clip I was wondering why even bother... then I realized that was just the first of many!

I thought the same thing.


Thanks for the link, Deuce!

[kellerb]

I enjoyed the hell out of that intense debate.  Discussing music gets me off far more than those ass and titties would have!

So the girls left the room and *then* you guys masturbated?

[Gumbo72203]

But do you want to know what pisses me off even more is the fact that you don't jam anymore, it's like, I would be happy if you would at least attempt some type II jamming in your shows, because then maybe you might re-find your way into some nicer deep exploration, and the other thing I want to point out is that playing 7 minute and 44 second Ghost's like the one at PNC is completely unacceptable...

I must disagree with you.  First, the 7:44 Ghost actually has some fucking INCREDIBLE improv and jamming in it; Trey plays a modulation early on that is pure 98/99 goodness, and Page lays it down spectacularly with some great piano filling and Rhodes lines.  Its pretty fucking annoying, though, because right when it could take flight into the way high regions, Trey is all like DURRRRPPPPP NUmBARRR LyNEEEE HURRRHURRRRR. 


And then with the Rock and Roll -> Ghost, I was actually truly impressed with the playing.  However, certain things annoyed me. 

First, regarding RnR:  the jam was okay, and then fizzled into a cool ambient space jam with Trey thematically playing with the +2 octave whammy pedal setting.  Fish had no idea what to do here, so he kind of just dropped out.  However, Trey then finds this GREAT theme that he develops, and it actually coalesces into a distinct compositional segment, but Fish just like... doesn't catch on fast enough, and when he does come in with a beat, its what he dropped out with earlier, and then Trey figures out the vibrato pedal exists, and its all over from there.  Its about 4-5 minutes in, when Trey starts playing this descending thing...  ***cues video***  http://blog.phish.net/1308487112/61711-jam-ghost-official-vid

Okay, its at just exactly 4:20 when he figures out the idea, and then it goes from there with Page switching over to piano.  But here Fish keeps the double-time RnR jam beat going, when I feel it is SCREAMING for a half-time thing kind of like what plays in the start of the Curtain With jam, during the Rift part, before it gets double-time in the main jam. 


Okay, now this Ghost:  Page should have taken over with more of his space-envelope shit during the intro.  But the jam....  this is where its weird.  Because again, early on, there is a good modulation effort lead by Mike, at 12:40 of the video.  Trey and Page can't seem to figure out how to solidly latch onto it, and it goes away; it was *almost* locked, but Trey played a wrong note/'out' note and soured it.  Trey comes up with a neat thing at 14:00, but then brings the "out" playing and kind of kills it.  The band manages one up-shift, with Trey landing on a chord but then his out-playing kind of fizzles stuff.  But THEN, at 15:15, Trey eventually finds this fucking INCREDIBLE lick that he then repeats and builds on, which the rest of the band can't seem to completely latch onto.  He furthers the idea more, with Page and Mike finally figuring it out, but then after a couple segments of measures, Trey then abandons it for more "out" playing.  It fishes around for a while, and then somehow manages to find its way to a decent rock peak ending bit via Trey leading an ascending theme at 16:27 that actually builds its way up to the peak very nicely. 

So, I think this is a good Ghost.  Far from the best, but thats not the point.  Its got good things to offer, and Trey actually patiently lets the final ascending scale-climb go until the right moment.  His "peak" licks could have been more inspired and whatnot, but he gets into the groove at 18:04 of the video with a triplet lick that builds to a pre-bend release on the 1 for a peak, but which ends.  The outro jam is pretty neat with Page dancing on the organ and leading to a very cool, chill Pay Jorgan session. 

This also shows something that I think we have mainly missed, is that the band is pushing onward after the main "peak" event with jams; they aren't slamming into something else, and are letting the music dissolve and flow into the next thing.  Typically, before, once the audience began applauding, it was time to forse a horce and clang into Number Line, which does happen still, but far more less than it had been done before. 

This jam had several good segments, but Trey ruined most of them with trying to insert his "out" playing stuff he likes a lot lately.

[VDB]

Should I be surprised that I like this R&R > Ghost combo more than Gumbo did? I feel like I should be surprised.

Anyway, I actually love this sequence. I think it's pretty spectacular. The R&R jam drops into some nice, subdued, delicate territory without actually dropping the beat or all sense of melody, as often happens in "post-rawk" 3.0 jams. This alone would make it praiseworthy, but the quality of the music is itself quite good.

The entrance into Ghost is slow and methodical. No forcing here. Some nice "weird" touches from Mike during the intro. Nice major-key interplay. Nice piano swells from Page as the jam begins its ascent. Thematic leads from Trey as discussed above. Even the rapid-strum peak has some actual structure and melodic thought underneath it. Then a bit of an outro solo on the other side of the peak.

One of the most impressive things, as Gumbo highlighted, was the post-peak portion of the jam (or more precisely, that there was one at all). And it wasn't just aimless noise either. Nice chunky/funky work from P&T. In earlier times, Phish would regularly put on a clinic in how to methodically build, annihilate, and responsibly deconstruct a jam. I'm not necessarily putting this up with some of the all-time such exercises, but it was great to see/hear this approach again.

I haven't yet decided if I like this Ghost more than the NYE version. On the one hand, MSG's probably had more impressive, developed and coherent thematic playing, but Charlotte was more complete in terms of all of the pieces being there. And the content itself was no slouch either.

[sophist]

Should I be surprised that I like this R&R > Ghost combo more than Gumbo did? I feel like I should be surprised.

Anyway, I actually love this sequence. I think it's pretty spectacular. The R&R jam drops into some nice, subdued, delicate territory without actually dropping the beat or all sense of melody, as often happens in "post-rawk" 3.0 jams. This alone would make it praiseworthy, but the quality of the music is itself quite good.

The entrance into Ghost is slow and methodical. No forcing here. Some nice "weird" touches from Mike during the intro. Nice major-key interplay. Nice piano swells from Page as the jam begins its ascent. Thematic leads from Trey as discussed above. Even the rapid-strum peak has some actual structure and melodic thought underneath it. Then a bit of an outro solo on the other side of the peak.

One of the most impressive things, as Gumbo highlighted, was the post-peak portion of the jam (or more precisely, that there was one at all). And it wasn't just aimless noise either. Nice chunky/funky work from P&T. In earlier times, Phish would regularly put on a clinic in how to methodically build, annihilate, and responsibly deconstruct a jam. I'm not necessarily putting this up with some of the all-time such exercises, but it was great to see/hear this approach again.

I haven't yet decided if I like this Ghost more than the NYE version. On the one hand, MSG's probably had more impressive, developed and coherent thematic playing, but Charlotte was more complete in terms of all of the pieces being there. And the content itself was no slouch either.

Having been at both, I think the NYE Ghost is better.  It peaked way harder than this one in my opinion. 

[emay]

Should I be surprised that I like this R&R > Ghost combo more than Gumbo did? I feel like I should be surprised.

Anyway, I actually love this sequence. I think it's pretty spectacular. The R&R jam drops into some nice, subdued, delicate territory without actually dropping the beat or all sense of melody, as often happens in "post-rawk" 3.0 jams. This alone would make it praiseworthy, but the quality of the music is itself quite good.

The entrance into Ghost is slow and methodical. No forcing here. Some nice "weird" touches from Mike during the intro. Nice major-key interplay. Nice piano swells from Page as the jam begins its ascent. Thematic leads from Trey as discussed above. Even the rapid-strum peak has some actual structure and melodic thought underneath it. Then a bit of an outro solo on the other side of the peak.

One of the most impressive things, as Gumbo highlighted, was the post-peak portion of the jam (or more precisely, that there was one at all). And it wasn't just aimless noise either. Nice chunky/funky work from P&T. In earlier times, Phish would regularly put on a clinic in how to methodically build, annihilate, and responsibly deconstruct a jam. I'm not necessarily putting this up with some of the all-time such exercises, but it was great to see/hear this approach again.

I haven't yet decided if I like this Ghost more than the NYE version. On the one hand, MSG's probably had more impressive, developed and coherent thematic playing, but Charlotte was more complete in terms of all of the pieces being there. And the content itself was no slouch either.

Having been at both, I think the NYE Ghost is better.  It peaked way harder than this one in my opinion.

I agree, the NYE ghost was a more blissful, high energy peak. This one is more a jumbled shreddage-blinko jam.

[VDB]

I'm with y'all on the superiority of the NYE peak. The Charlotte version scores more points in other departments, and I haven't fully decided how I weigh all those various parts. I really do love the NYE Ghost, however. It is the ( . )( . )

[UncleEbinezer]

It is the ( . )( . )

[WhatstheUse?]

The NYE Ghost is probably better than anything played this summer. (except the Storage Jam.... and maybe Detroit DWD)

[runawayjimbo]

The NYE Ghost is probably better than anything played this summer. (except the Storage Jam.... and maybe Detroit DWD)

No love for the Portsmouth Sand?