08/25 - Lakewood Amphitheatre - Atlanta, GA - Post-Show Discussion and Review

[sophist]

Right. 

It was pretty stunning to see that affect on people.  It is what kills me with this band, how they have lost the ability to command the room, a skill they were the masters at for the longest time.  I just don't get it.

The crowd reaction to songs is very predictable at this point. I'm not one who sees or even listens to every show on the tour, but I notice it.

Without fail, the crowd falls silent when they start up Joy, Show of Life, Fuckerpants, Velvet Cheese, etc.

There is a brief cheer of 100% female voices when they start Bouncin' - and I do mean every time.

Crowd goes nuts when they start up Suzy.

These have never changed in 20 years.

I'm talking about WTU.  They silenced 20k with that.  That's uncanny. 

[PIE-GUY]

Right. 

It was pretty stunning to see that affect on people.  It is what kills me with this band, how they have lost the ability to command the room, a skill they were the masters at for the longest time.  I just don't get it.

The crowd reaction to songs is very predictable at this point. I'm not one who sees or even listens to every show on the tour, but I notice it.

Without fail, the crowd falls silent when they start up Joy, Show of Life, Fuckerpants, Velvet Cheese, etc.

There is a brief cheer of 100% female voices when they start Bouncin' - and I do mean every time.

Crowd goes nuts when they start up Suzy.

These have never changed in 20 years.

I'm talking about WTU.  They silenced 20k with that.  That's uncanny.

I've only seen it twice. Not sure what to make of that. Perhaps many newbs don't know it.

[rowjimmy]

Siket Disc should be required listening...

But it is not.

[Gumbo72203]

I'm talking about WTU.  They silenced 20k with that.  That's uncanny.

20,000 people failed at Phish.  Its depressing.  THAT, is the kind of thing I mean when I mention how the audience content has to impart some shit on the band.  I mean, at fucking Darien Lake in 2011, some kids next to me thought they were jamming.  And couldn't have given 2 shits anyway, because they kept talking about girls.

But boy oh boy, did they wake up when the band started Good Times Bad Times!!!!  Which was the first time I sat down all night.  Thats the shit that disenfranchises and jades the fuck out of me, personally.  You're at a Phish show, get the sickest of kickdowns, and don't give a shit until they play a Zeppelin cover.

Because, and I am not even exaggerating one tiny bit, when they started Good Times, one of the kids next to me said something to the effect of "Finally!!!  Now THIS is what I want to hear!"


I mean, sorry, but... going to a Phish show because the thing you want to hear most is a Zeppelin cover?  I actually almost hit him.  Not really but...  the disgust was probably the highest I'd ever experienced.

[UncleEbinezer]

Right. 

It was pretty stunning to see that affect on people.  It is what kills me with this band, how they have lost the ability to command the room, a skill they were the masters at for the longest time.  I just don't get it.

The crowd reaction to songs is very predictable at this point. I'm not one who sees or even listens to every show on the tour, but I notice it.

Without fail, the crowd falls silent when they start up Joy, Show of Life, Fuckerpants, Velvet Cheese, etc.

There is a brief cheer of 100% female voices when they start Bouncin' - and I do mean every time.

Crowd goes nuts when they start up Suzy.

These have never changed in 20 years.

I'm talking about WTU.  They silenced 20k with that.  That's uncanny.

I've only seen it twice. Not sure what to make of that. Perhaps many newbs don't know it.

I personally have never been a big fan. 

:ducks:

[Gumbo72203]

Honestly, I think part of the Whats The Use? appeal is that you don't have to be a big fan.  But, as a fan of Phish, you should know that, when getting it, you are being offered a glimpse of a different dimension; a dimension outside of Phish, but inextricably linked to Phish.

WTU comes from the nether world of anti-formality laws, inverse to the nominal justifications levied upon the intangible constructs that define a normally-applied thought process towards a thing such as "Song structure".  WTU? comes from the ooze.  It was born in the ooze, and lives in the ooze, an ooze antithetical to commercial performance.  The Siket Disc is the "I just took 9 grams of mushrooms and need to go talk to my guidance counselor" version of your 18 year old self, about to start college and needing to fill out some forms for your application letters.

Its not just the performed notes of Whats The Use? that matter.  Its the fact that Whats The Use? represents something wholly alien to 99.9999999% of the Phish crowd.  Something that only probably less than 100 people at any given show understand, and which the band is like "Hey, you...  peer into this wormhole for a second.  Do you get it?  DO YOU GET IT?"

[Itsnotanexperience]

WTU comes from the nether world of anti-formality laws, inverse to the nominal justifications levied upon the intangible constructs that define a normally-applied thought process towards a thing such as "Song structure". 

Dude!

Dude......

dude.