05/28 - Bethel Center for the Arts - Bethel NY - Post-Show Discussion and Review

[Multibeast12]

The crowd starts to get loud when they get impatient.  When Waves starts to get into this weird ambient droning, they start cheering... the result?  Prince Caspian.

The PA sound is just plain bad.  It's loud and thin and digital.  I'm a big proponent of digital audio technology, but all those plug-ins with the digital board just tires out my eardrums.

Crowd wasn't impatient at the end of Waves. Bruins just won the Eastern conference finals at that moment. Saw A LOT of Bruins fans there. The guys in front of me who i became friends with were huge fans. and were glad they won.

[PIE-GUY]

The crowd starts to get loud when they get impatient.  When Waves starts to get into this weird ambient droning, they start cheering... the result?  Prince Caspian.

The PA sound is just plain bad.  It's loud and thin and digital.  I'm a big proponent of digital audio technology, but all those plug-ins with the digital board just tires out my eardrums.

I don't know enough about sound systems to comment, but I can hear the band really well all over the place. It's certainly better than it was in the early-to-mid-90's when I had trouble hearing Page and could almost never hear Mike. As for the tiredness of your eardrums, me too. Not sure that's any different from previous eras, though. It's 3+ hours of loud music.

[mattstick]

I would be very willing to discuss the pros and cons of digital plugins with the PA crew.  They probably know it's shit but it makes their job 10,000 times easier.

[mattstick]

Crowd wasn't impatient at the end of Waves. Bruins just won the Eastern conference finals at that moment. Saw A LOT of Bruins fans there. The guys in front of me who i became friends with were huge fans. and were glad they won.

Massholes ruin everything.

[Hicks]

The PA sound is much brighter/harsher in 3.0 than it ever was when Paul was running the board.

FACT.

[Multibeast12]

Crowd wasn't impatient at the end of Waves. Bruins just won the Eastern conference finals at that moment. Saw A LOT of Bruins fans there. The guys in front of me who i became friends with were huge fans. and were glad they won.

Massholes ruin everything.

Yup

[WhatstheUse?]

I thought the sound @ Bethel was very good when compared to many other sheds around the country.  I can hear the thin digital-ness though...

[PIE-GUY]

Crowd wasn't impatient at the end of Waves. Bruins just won the Eastern conference finals at that moment. Saw A LOT of Bruins fans there. The guys in front of me who i became friends with were huge fans. and were glad they won.

Massholes are massholes.

fyp?

[mattstick]

Listening fatigue is a symptom of digital music.

I'd suggest reading Greg Milner's "Perfecting Sound Forever" by Greg Milner, he gets into the science behind it.

[rowjimmy]

The PA sound is much brighter/harsher in 3.0 than it ever was when Paul was running the board.

FACT.

They probably don't use all of these sweet mic amps anymore.

(that's Mike Grace, the guy whose company made the amps.)

[fauxpaxfauxreal]

I'm surprised (sort of) to hear the sound inside sucked.  I thought the first two soundboards were two of the best sounding Phish soundboards EVER.  I was wondering how that compared to the actual sound inside.

[aphineday]

One thing I think is very important to note here. A lot of us (my self included at times) thought 3.0 was a "nostalgia act". These first sets of the summer definitely show forward progress from a band that many thought unable or unwilling.

They can still be a nostalgia act and play good shows.  If you think that 5/28 was some kind of "beacon of light" that proves Phish is capable of new transcendental things, you've really just overblown the fact that they played just one good show. 

My biggest complaint before was a lack of creativity.  The Bethel Woods shows had some creative playing.

Other things that suck about 3.0 are still there:
a rather harsh PA sound
the fans who just start screaming whenever a jam gets quiet or ambient
a lot scene that makes me want to skip the encore so I don't have to put up with it
abusive and distracting lights from Kuroda... a bigger rig is not better
an abundance of material from Joy
etc.

I wasn't claiming it was a "beacon of light" or a ground breaking performance. If that's how you took it, I apologize, as it's not at all what I meant.
I definitely see the points you are making about the crowd/lot scene. It's all a partnof the experience, but I definitely do my best to keep the music and scene separate.
Songs from Joy are just going to happen, until they release a new record, and then well get those. Just how it is. I'm not really happy with it either, but I do dig a few of these tracks.

[mattstick]

They have a separate mix for the SBD feed, which is paired with some mics jacked up at the mix position.  It's not that the sound is bad in the venue, it's loud, it's clear, but it's thin and digital and the longer you listen to it, the worse it seems to sound.

PA sound regardless, this was my favorite show since Red Rocks '09.

The NYE-style staccato jamming reared it's head a few times (Halley's, Gin, #Line), and the band was really locked into the groove during Runaway Jim.  Good placement out of Halley's too.

I loved the Makisupa, it reminded me of the "Bring the Dude" jam.  I think Mr. Minor wrote that we would all like to live at Page's house.  WTF was Fish thinking with his Makisupa "keyword"... corn?

[fauxpaxfauxreal]

I really really enjoyed the Makisupa as well.  Did Fish really say "corn"?  I thought he said "porn".

My favorite part about it was how Page ripped the final solo in Makisupa.  It was reminscent of the MMW w/ Trey version of Partido Alto from Albany '00. 

[PIE-GUY]

I'm surprised (sort of) to hear the sound inside sucked.  I thought the first two soundboards were two of the best sounding Phish soundboards EVER.  I was wondering how that compared to the actual sound inside.

I really don't think it's that bad. Everything is crystal clear... it's just not particularly warm and it gets pretty harsh if you are too close.