10/20 - Hampton Coliseum - Hampton, VA - Post-Show Discussion and Review

[Insert Beer]

Yeah TCOB was such a perfect call there and the segue so good, it was right where it needed to be. I had a big stupid grin on my face; so fun. At first it sounded like we were gonna get a Real Me. Love that song but for this moment I'm glad it was the BTO tune.

I heard Real Me for a second, then it was more like Bag, then TCOB and then  :rawk:

Damn dude, now I can't unhear Real Me. This gives me seriously blue balls...

[VA $l!m]

Not much paug time when you're having fun but we did have a couple meet ups occur

:-)

[cactusfan]

it's just whales fucking for half of that tweezer.

the back half is nice, though.

all told, a nice set. but also, all told, this isn't any better than the rest of '13. which even for 3.0 has been pretty subpar, epic tahoe tweezers notwithstanding.

[WhatstheUse?]

Tweezer didn't really do it for me.... like cactusfan just said.... it's mostly whale with a few highlights.

The last 4-5 minutes are nice and I DO give them credit for keeping it going, but Trey still seemed lost for a theme.

2001 was pretty nice for 3.0. = they did something with it.  Piper was a mess but the segue into Taking Car of Business was $.  Sand was also a mess, WTF is Trey doing?!?!

Still -- Wish I could have been there.  Hampton is a special place.

[gainesvillegreen]

Fuck. I should stop reading these threads before listening to the show.

[Undermind]

Fuck. I should stop reading these threads before listening to the show.

fyp

[gainesvillegreen]

Fuck. I should stop reading these threads before listening to the show.

fyp

Ha, there is some truth there. At a certain point, it becomes reading the tea leaves in the paug thread themselves which takes years to master (a degree of positive comment in this or that particular member versus panning by several others, etc, so on and so forth). Obviously, we are all our own experts in Phish, and on a certain level I could care fuck all what anyone on the paug thinks about this or that show - I'll be the judge as will you - but the paug can be the color of shades through which you listen to shows.

That is all I was getting at.

[Caravan2001]

it's just whales fucking for half of that tweezer.

the back half is nice, though.

all told, a nice set. but also, all told, this isn't any better than the rest of '13. which even for 3.0 has been pretty subpar, epic tahoe tweezers notwithstanding.

Yeah, I was really digging it during the simulcast but on playback it's whale city for the first several minutes.  It's got it's good points and I love a lot of parts of this set (and the night before) but the first part of the Tweez is all whaled-up. Golden Age is rough through the versus but is redeemed by the jam, so who cares.  Good show though and looking forward to hearing their progress over the next two weeks.  Hope they get their voices back, thems some hoarse motherfuckers.......

[Itsnotanexperience]

Fuck. I should stop reading these threads before listening to the show.

So true.....I totally forgot they were playing last weekend, am chilling on a business trip in Columbus, Ohio tonight, close a huge deal, get back to my room, remember they played Hampton and pull up Livephish to check timings, see some interesting looking Ghost and Tweezer times, open up the 'paug and BOOM - hate filled attacks on my favorite band of the past 20 years.   Don't you fuckers have anything better to do then rip on the phish??

Seriously though - this band does just enough to keep us coming back hoping for what - improvement over the past 2 or 3 years?   I don't know.  I honestly hoped I would open up the PSD threads and finally see joyous consensus just ONCE....and it never happens.    I keep waiting for Sophist to say, "holy shit.   they've been practicing." <- never happens.

And this is why I forget when they have upcoming shows.

[Gumbo72203]

Fuck. I should stop reading these threads before listening to the show.

So true.....I totally forgot they were playing last weekend, am chilling on a business trip in Columbus, Ohio tonight, close a huge deal, get back to my room, remember they played Hampton and pull up Livephish to check timings, see some interesting looking Ghost and Tweezer times, open up the 'paug and BOOM - hate filled attacks on my favorite band of the past 20 years.   Don't you fuckers have anything better to do then rip on the phish??

Seriously though - this band does just enough to keep us coming back hoping for what - improvement over the past 2 or 3 years?   I don't know.  I honestly hoped I would open up the PSD threads and finally see joyous consensus just ONCE....and it never happens.    I keep waiting for Sophist to say, "holy shit.   they've been practicing." <- never happens.

And this is why I forget when they have upcoming shows.

I think this is a huge improvement.  a 23 minute Tweezer and a 19 minute Ghost mean fucking business.  Especially the Saturday Ghost; Trey royally fucked up the first peak attempt when the 3 guys around him gelled, and then they broke it back down, and built it back up for some redemption.


This Tweezer is fucking WEIRD.  I listened to it last night as I lay in bed, and couldn't help but think of how CRUSHING Mike and Fish were.  That groove somewhere in the middle is just so....  PSYCHEDELIC.  Its SO weird!!!  Its SO awesome though!  Fucking gnarly-ass indoors Phish. 


I'm half-worried about Trey, though.  It became painfully obvious during the start of the Carini jam: Page, Mike, and Fish are fucking DESTROYING the grooves, and Trey....  man, he just has no idea what to do.  I feel so bad for the guy.  This Tweezer has a lot of that, until Trey tweaks out with his whammy pedal and makes that whirrrrrrvvvving screechy thing, which is AWESOME, but i feel like he gets there after realizing that he just can't cut it by "soloing" over the other guys anymore.

The same thing happened in Ghost.  The real peak didn't happen until Trey turned on his delay and did that cycling loop thing like the Dicks 12 Sand and the end of the Dicks 12 Chalkdust have. 

[Gumbo72203]

Also, this Tweezer is example A of the whale WORKING.  Listen to all that space!!!  Trey is playing slow licks, and yeah, the 2nd theme he tries working isn't as good as the first, but.... this is how to use it IF he must use it.  Man listen to Page and Mike!!!! 

These grooves are huge!!  So interlocking!  Mike and Page are playing off each other probably the best I've heard so far in 3.0. 

There are a few hoarse whale licks, for sure, but.... by 9:17 things turn murky and wet.  Fishman is on the ride cymbal, and all is right in the world.  Lets get weird, fuckers. 


Modify:  EVIL march at 10:46.  Hell fucking YEAH.  Here we go!

[Lifeboy]

Fuck. I should stop reading these threads before listening to the show.

So true.....I totally forgot they were playing last weekend, am chilling on a business trip in Columbus, Ohio tonight, close a huge deal, get back to my room, remember they played Hampton and pull up Livephish to check timings, see some interesting looking Ghost and Tweezer times, open up the 'paug and BOOM - hate filled attacks on my favorite band of the past 20 years.   Don't you fuckers have anything better to do then rip on the phish??

Seriously though - this band does just enough to keep us coming back hoping for what - improvement over the past 2 or 3 years?   I don't know.  I honestly hoped I would open up the PSD threads and finally see joyous consensus just ONCE....and it never happens.    I keep waiting for Sophist to say, "holy shit.   they've been practicing." <- never happens.

And this is why I forget when they have upcoming shows.

I GUARANTEE you that when the do actually start practicing, and actually play a good show start to finish, Sophist will be the first to say something and acknowledge it.

It really sucks that I have to cross my fingers to get ONE good jam per show. Hoping for a good complete show is just unrealistic to me now. Hate to say it, but it's the truth.

[zimbra]

Fuck. I should stop reading these threads before listening to the show.

So true.....I totally forgot they were playing last weekend, am chilling on a business trip in Columbus, Ohio tonight, close a huge deal, get back to my room, remember they played Hampton and pull up Livephish to check timings, see some interesting looking Ghost and Tweezer times, open up the 'paug and BOOM - hate filled attacks on my favorite band of the past 20 years.   Don't you fuckers have anything better to do then rip on the phish??

Seriously though - this band does just enough to keep us coming back hoping for what - improvement over the past 2 or 3 years?   I don't know.  I honestly hoped I would open up the PSD threads and finally see joyous consensus just ONCE....and it never happens.    I keep waiting for Sophist to say, "holy shit.   they've been practicing." <- never happens.

And this is why I forget when they have upcoming shows.

I GUARANTEE you that when the do actually start practicing, and actually play a good show start to finish, Sophist will be the first to say something and acknowledge it.

It really sucks that I have to cross my fingers to get ONE good jam per show. Hoping for a good complete show is just unrealistic to me now. Hate to say it, but it's the truth.

I have accepted this reality within the last year as well.  That being said, I just finished downloading some FLACs of the last night of Hampton and I'm excited to check out set #2.  Looks great on paper, IMO.

[nab]

I enjoyed the hell out first 2/3 of this second set; on the webcast and re-listen, without permission from anyone, and slept just fine. 

Might even do it again tomorrow. 

[Gumbo72203]

It really sucks that I have to cross my fingers to get ONE good jam per show. Hoping for a good complete show is just unrealistic to me now. Hate to say it, but it's the truth.

I have accepted this reality within the last year as well.  That being said, I just finished downloading some FLACs of the last night of Hampton and I'm excited to check out set #2.  Looks great on paper, IMO.

10/20/13 set 2 might be the most solid fucking set of 3.0.  This shit is the goods straight through.  Even Sand, which is whale'd out to all hell, works.  And OMG THIS SLAVE!!!!!!  Dynamics!!!!  wow!!!!  New rhythms!!!

I just re-listened for a 2nd straight time, and this set is 3.0-perfect straight to back.  The segue into 2001 could have been a little more juicy for my tastes, but its still at least a little noisy.  I felt it would have been more epic had there been more tension/noise/loops built up before the drop into the beat.


Sand....  showcases where the whale can work, IMO.  Listen to what the band is doing, and how they are playing.  Page becomes the "page turner" for the music, the one who plays the cadences and progressions that keep the music moving forward and building tension and excitement.  In this capacity, Trey is then freed up to add wails of sonic disgust and brush strokes of razor blades against a chalk board; the whale is ugly, and he knows it.  This is where it works perfectly.  Mike and Fish dominate the low end, and Page hooks up against them both to play the progression and move the story forward, and Trey adds the ugly tension.  It works quite well in this mode, I think.  Shrieky, twisted, discordant groove. 


This Slave is fucking great, though.  Wow.  Way to go guys. 


Also noted from a 2nd listen:  Golden Age and Phish's newfound groove.  Something is different with these guys this tour....  their grooves are fucking electric and perfectly-apportioned.  By that I mean, they are lock-stepping with each other in the correct Fall-'97-of-ways, where say....  Fish will be doing a beat that covers 8 beats.  Mike plays a thought that goes for 5, which Page compliments with the perfect 3 beat ending.  Trey will then be interlocked with Fish to add rhythm.  I don't know quite how to explain it in words, but when you hear the 4 of them connecting, the groove kind of "expands" and becomes greater than the sum of its parts.  They are finishing each others' musical thoughts, and the group becomes the "riff", if you will.

This is something that I have not heard at all during 3.0.  Most of the great jams have been a musical "stacking", where the ideas are layered directly on top of each other.  By that I mean each person plays ideas that are equally long, or evenly divisible:  Fish does a 16 beat "thought", that Page and Trey each layer successive 8 beat phrases over top, while Mike plays a steady 4 beat pattern underneith the whole time, if that makes sense. 

There is a push-and-pull now.  The Tweezer jam has the clearest example of what I'm talking about during the 14-16 minute segment. 

Also needing to be noted: Fishman has been playing his ass off!  Listen to his kick drum.  He's throwing in crazy pick-up beats and lots of flourishes with his feet.  Its fucking great.  Page is the other massive MVP, because his musical ideas have been so clear and concrete, its pretty amazing.  I haven't heard him ever play this clearly before, and by clearly I mean the translation of his musical ideas.  His thoughts are complete, perfectly placed, complimentary, progressive (in that it moves the music forward) and just plain cool.

Listen to his outro solo during Piper.  The shit is balls-in.


Not to fade away from Trey, I have to say that Trey HAS made strides of improvement.  He's playing more shreddy stuff (at least for 3.0's definition of shred).  That, and he's framing his ideas in a more rhythmically clear way.  This is allowing the band to lock into those expansive grooves I was talking about early.  Like in the Tweezer, and ESPECIALLY in the Golden Age.  He's doing it with his solos and his rhythm work.  Piper has the best example of him doing this with a solo that I can think of right now.  Early on in the jam, he locks into this theme/lick that he repeats, and the band is able to build off of it so well.  The main point, is that he is playing FAR less directionless noodly stuff. 


We have good Phish here guys!  They're doing things!