Unpopular Phish Opinions!

[susep]

OK - 97 - everyone talks about the phunk. For me, it's not the phunk at all. I like BEK, Ghost, etc, but for me phall 97 is all about the space and exploration.

I agree, I like how they fused space and other improv w/ the funk.  In a lot of ways they used the funk as a release/tension or tension/release mechanism.  I started listening to the European '97 Summer Tour segment but quickly got turned off by the redunant linear nature of some of their improv.

By the Fall of '97 they had gotten a better handle on combining elements of improv.

[jedifunk]

yes, see:
- 12/11 drowned
- 12/6 tweezer
- 11/22 halleys
- 11/21 ER, ac/dc
- 11/14 twist

some top shelf, non-funk (well they all have some funk at some point), space/groove/exploratory improv

[jam>]

Unpopular Phish opinion: Loving Cup was a great song that they would throw into the end of a subpar second set to try to save the show- too little too late.

[susep]

Unpopular Phish opinion: Loving Cup was a great song that they would throw into the end of a subpar second set to try to save the show- too little too late.

maybe but the Went version from 16Aug.97 was a perfect capstone to day one, they rip it up bigtime :mrgreen:

Other then a few shows per se, in 1993 Phish was ultimately mediocre improvisationally speaking compared to where they ended up going in '94-95.

[fauxpaxfauxreal]

OK - 97 - everyone talks about the phunk. For me, it's not the phunk at all. I like BEK, Ghost, etc, but for me phall 97 is all about the space and exploration.

Yes!  And also there is a TON of hardcore rage jams!  (See the Gin from 11/23 and the Character Zero from 11/26).

As far as the funk is concerned it's ALL ABOUT T-U-B-E.

[susep]

To me the representative Fall tour funk-athon was Tweezer: 17Nov.(opener w/ nice stop/start outro, 21Nov.( into BEK), 26Nov.(opening with some super funk), and 6Dec.(one for the highlight reels :-D).

Tweezer continued to morph w/ more grooves and coloring in '98: 4April, 9July, 15July, 19July, 1Aug., 30Oct., 14Nov., 31Dec. 

'99 was again another breakthrough year...

[Gumbo72203]

I had a bunch more that i thought of while i was working this weekend, but i completely forgot all of them.  That green shit does that to you.  But anyway, i absolutely LOVE the song "Billy Breathes"  i think its so beautiful.  I just remember reading somewhere on Livephish.com, it may have been the Vegas '04 show reviews, where someone was telling a story of the band starting up Billy Breathes, and the person started screaming, and then somebody in front of them turned around and said "Shut up, this song sucks"   

[Hicks]

12/31/98 is a better show than 12/31/95.  :-o

[jedifunk]

agreed!  12/31/98 rules face!

[jonyem]

Right on, so we can expect a 10 year anniversary edition of the Vault for New Year's '08?
(Be right cool if this were a regular thing, but that's a whole 'nother post).

[susep]

Right on, so we can expect a 10 year anniversary edition of the Vault for New Year's '08?
(Be right cool if this were a regular thing, but that's a whole 'nother post).

I'm thinking that might be the general trend, this year we'll see a slew of '96 stuff> Red Rocks complete, maybe Clifford Ball complete, all of Fall tour and NYE runs on SBD.  I've said this many times already but Phish needs to release whole tours, at least thos pre-hiatus :wink:

[Itsnotanexperience]

12/31/98 is a better show than 12/31/95.  :-o

all i gotta say is - WOW!!!!    I admire your balls, ikki (btw - did you have any
luck tracking down my album?)

I'll have to bust out the 12/31/98 show and take a re-listen!!

[Hicks]

12/31/98 is a better show than 12/31/95.  :-o

all i gotta say is - WOW!!!!    I admire your balls, ikki

If I only had a nickel for everytime I've heard that!   :wink: :|

[birdman]

12/31/98 is a better show than 12/31/95.  :-o

SMITE

Just Kidding.... :evil:

[susep]

12/31/98 is a better show than 12/31/95.  :-o

As much as I love the '98 Run, 31Dec.95 takes 31Dec.98 bigtime.  The Mike's alone from '95 esp. where the tune segues into a beautifully haunting jam led by Trey's howling loop effect takes '98.  I loved cranking this one at this years Wanee, I think the Southern Heads aren't into Phish as much as NE'ers.
The only true highlight of 31Dec.98 is Antelope(w/ 2 min Siket Jam)imo.