NYE 2003 Stash -- let's have some opinions

I can't believe how little attention the set II opening stash from NYE 2003 has received.  I find the spacy middle section to be absolutely gorgeous and far more purposeful than your general ambience.  furthermore, the smooth movement back into more grounded playing is simply exquisite, as is the entrance back into the stash jam.  to complete it all, it closes in a very powerful stash fashion (but features a HUGE release on a LOW note as opposed to the too typical high note releases).

this stash is never mentioned when people talk about the best post-hiatus jam, but i think it is better than all the usual candidates (although the nassau tweezer gives it a run for it's money depending on my mood).

there are certain phish jams that sound as if they were truly composed, note for note with complete purpose in mind.  this stash is one of them.  the whole jam seems to know where it's going and by the end it all seems to have come so full-circle and be a true hole (unlike a lot of great phish jams that kind of move from place to place until finally seguing into something else or fizzling out or just ending.... like that nassau tweezer.  that thing touches on so many musical landscapes it is amazing.  but each one doesn't necessarily sound like it inevitably came out of what came before it like the stash jam does).

anyway, i just need to hear some opinions on this version because it never seems to get talked about.

[mattstick]

I think it's epic.

There is a lot of great stuff from 12/31/03:

Mike's Song > I Am Hydrogen > Weekapaug Groove
You Enjoy Myself
First Tube > Tube - (the subtle (maybe not-so-subtle) Auld Lang Syne teases in First Tube still give me shivers)
Stash
Seven Below
Chalkdust Torture > Slave > Chalkdust Torture
Reba (yes, I said it - after the composed section this is an awsome Reba)

I definitely agree that the Stash goes places most don't - it reminds me of surfing or riding waves or something.  Very textured, less thematic than some of the more "hyped" post-hiatus jams, but Page really adds that creative texturing.

"epic" -- i called my brother after the set and that's the exact word i used to describe it.

and i definitely agree with you on the reba.  obviously the composed section fell apart, but i think i read somewhere that something went wrong with trey's monitor during that section which was very responsible for how bad it was.  but the breakdown to where it is just trey and then the build back up makes this one of my favorite versions.  aside from just being powerful, it's actually more different than your general reba.

i also thought the antelope was pretty hot as well.  NYE was easily my favorite of the 4 night run (i saw them all) but the more novel setlist of 12/30 seems to garner more attention.  oh well.

[ucusty]

alot of people consider post hiatus phish not to be legit...  it was legit, however it was never the same once they came back. unable to capture the magic or something

"alot of people consider post hiatus phish not to be legit... it was legit, however it was never the same once they came back. unable to capture the magic or something"

i'm not exactly sure how that fits into this thread... and while it surely was never the same (i don't know that i'd think of it as a degree of legitimacy, however), there just as surely were moments and jams that, for a brief while, were as deeply phish as anything pre-hiatus.  i think this stash is one of them... at least i can lose myself in it as deeply as i can in the earlier greats.

[crnl4bn]

I like the melodies from mars section...

[jam>]

Of course the stash was great. I always thought that one of the mellower passages was an aborted attempt to go into Slave (which occured later in the set).

[guyforget]

I love this Stash.  There is one moment where I swear it should have just started Whats the Use a la the 11/28/03 Ghost.

The First Tube owns this show though.  Those Auld Lang Syne teases, as Matt said, give me shivers.  I really cant listen to another First Tube anymore.

[Itsnotanexperience]

great stash for sure............

as for people believing ph phish to be less than legit - all i can say
is - whatever...............i will go to my grave arguing w/ whoever wants
to argue, that ph phish featured some of the PHINEST jamming of their
career...........i'm not even going to list the gems from post-hiatus, but
there are PLENTY - and anybody who cannot hear why a 6/26/04 piper, or
a 7/9/03 gin, or a 2/28/03 tweezer is as good, if not better, than much of
the PH stuff, is tone deaf.

peace

[primus-d]

alot of people consider post hiatus phish not to be legit...  it was legit, however it was never the same once they came back. unable to capture the magic or something

i don't know about being unable to capture the magic (granted its really a matter of opinion)...

SPAC 04...  6/19 - piper... best ever?  6/20 - twist, YEM (pretty sick)
Alpine 04... 6/26 - BORW > alpine valley jam... taste that funk!

just three small snippets post-hiatus that qualify as pretty serious magic (at least in my books).

ok, i'll concede 6/26 was my last show, so perhaps a little sentimentality creeping in, but still...