Friday, 06/18/2010
The Comcast Theatre, Hartford, CT
Soundcheck: Sleep Again, Let Me Lie [Unconfirmed and Possibly Incomplete]
Set 1: Fee > Rift, Wolfman'sWolfman's Brother, Summer of '89[1], Foam, Possum > MomaThe Moma Dance > Julius, Reba[2], Cavern
Set 2: Halley'sHalley's Comet > Light -> Billy Breathes, Tweezer > ThemeTheme From the Bottom > HoodHarry Hood > Velvet SeaWading in the Velvet Sea, STFTFPStealing Time From the Faulty Plan
Encore: Sleeping Monkey[3] > TweepriseTweezer Reprise, TweepriseTweezer Reprise
[1] Debut.
[2] No whistling.
[3] Crowd sang part of the song.
Teases:
· Streets of Cairo tease in Possum
Average Song Gap: 10.2
Performers: Trey Anastasio, Page McConnell, Jon Fishman, Mike Gordon
Notes: This show contained the debut of Summer of '89. Possum contained a Streets of Cairo tease by Trey and Reba did not have the whistling ending. Sleeping Monkey was played for a fan who was holding up a sign for the song during the previous show. Trey later said "if the guy with the sign isn't here, everybody sing so he can hear it on the tape," leading to the crowd to sing part of the song. Trey said they were playing the second Tweezer Reprise because they didn't play one at Hershey Park.
Song Distribution:
3 A Picture of Nectar
2 Joy
2 The Story of the Ghost
2 Billy Breathes
2 Hoist
2 Junta
1 Rift
1 Lawn Boy
1 The Man Who Stepped into Yesterday
This show was part of the "2010 Early Summer Tour."
As for Summer of '89...y'know, it's a pretty song with an uplifting lyric, and the ending jam definitely gets somewhere, but it felt long on this night. (My friend Laurie was reduced to this: 'I'd rather hear "Let Me Lie."' Trust me when I say that such an admission could not have been easy for her, though I kinda like both songs.) Like Dr Gabel and Idea, I think Summer of '89 could come into its own. in time.
The second set is huge. Light gets deep, and the segue into Billy is gorgeous; this is the first *flawless* live performance of Billy I've heard. (I've yet to hear Phish surpass their delicate, layered studio version of this song.) In the anthemic two-chord Tweezer jam Trey shows just how much he can do with the much-derided 'whale call,' hopefully silencing his increasingly shrill critics. Tweezer melts into a face-melting Theme, an unexpected highlight: Trey played this tune like a man possessed, skipping over those pre-jam arpeggios to get right to the hose. Beautifully patient Harry Hood to follow. The rest is gravy, but when the band ended the second set with Stealing Time you knew they still had energy to spare - hence the ecstatic cock-rock encore. Twoprise!! That blowout tune is obviously important to Trey; certainly it's one of his purest nerd-god achievements, and offers the whole band a couple minutes of straightforward energetic release at show's end. They deserved it this night.
Seek out the Light > etc. > Hood immediately.
I'm at the point in my show-life where I've stopped nit-picking at flubbs and phuckups and revel in the joy of the experience and the sheer pleasure phish shows elicit from my usually grumpy-old-ass. And when shit like a Sleeping Monkey > Tweeprise > Tweeprise encore with the volume at 11 and trey doing his best Jimi Hendrix is utter silliness that brought an ear to ear grin to my face.
Thanks again boys for a real good time.
Light, Number 12*
Placement: 2nd song, 2nd Set
Preceded by: Halley's Comet
An abrupt end to Halley's Comet and the opening chords to Light begin. Jam begins at 2:53. Trey is heavy on the pitch shift for the first minute, alternating between firing and pitching. Around 4:30 Fish seems to signal the opportunity to slow the jam. Mike slowly follows down pace as Trey lingers in the murky tone established in the earlier portion. Page provides a deeper layer using the piano and a synthesizer together (see 6:50) to provide a contrast to Trey's general noodling. At 7:30 Trey goes through some quick progressions and settles in on a riff as Page moves completely to the synthesizer providing the beginnings of a wash. By 8:30 Fish and Mike have slowed considerably. At 9:00 Fish has faded into almost nothing and Page is into the heavy synthesizer wash, bending the notes up and down until they begin to spin. At 9:30 Trey has faded and only Page and Mike remain. At 9:52 the opening notes of Billy Breathes are heard in a beautiful transition.
Overall, a messy jam that has no focal point. Trey seems to play with his 2010 style throughout and never finds a riff or a groove to progress on. Page provides nice layering in the background.
Below average.
* was in attendance
they kept it goin w/Julius(i thought this would end the set) then we got Whammy'd w/a Reba and a Cavern to close the set.
Halleys started the set off nice,but like it has been going,it did not go anywhere.Just a plain Halleys,jumping into one of my favorire parts of the nite.Light->Billy Breaths,Loved it..Tweezer was rockin'Theme was Theme.a very enjoyable Hood and Velvet Sea and a BALLS TO THE WALL Stealing time brought the set to a close..
the encore was freakin'nuts w/Trey Jumping off his amps playing like a mad man..LOVED IT!!!
Now, of course, this tour has been completely overshadowed by the three that have followed it: Fall '10, Summer '11, and Summer '12. Each of which, in my opinion, have blown its preceding tour out of the water. ::fingers crossed this trend continues:: It's interesting, at the time, the band sounded reinvented and rejuvenated, but now, with the benefit(?) of hindsight, there is still quite a bit of easily identifiable rust. An innocuous miscue at the end of Julius nearly train wrecks the song and things generally still feel a little forced, like they're reaching for something that is just barely out of grasp. However, nostalgia and rust aside, listening back to these early Summer '10 shows is a lot of fun. There's a bunch of great music within this tour, rust notwithstanding.
That said, the first set is somewhat lackluster. Summer of '89 is a song that I just don't think fits well within the Phish canon. I appreciate the meaning and connection Trey has with it, but it sticks out like a sore thumb, especially given its length. Wolfman's, Foam, and Possum > Moma were my favorite parts of this set. The Reba is not particularly good, it just doesn't go anywhere and features some of Trey's much maligned "whale call". I actually didn't mind "the whale" call in the context of spacier jams, but in the middle of eighth note lines in Reba? No, thank you.
The second set is much better and features a great Light -> Billy Breathes (great in song pairing and segue, but the Light jam isn't particularly amazing), and Tweezer > Theme > Hood. The best part of the latter segment is the spacey jam in last four minutes of Tweezer. None of these jams are *that* great in retrospect, but this set flows really nicely and definitely has some solid moments. The encore is one of my favorites, and not only for infamous double Tweeprise. The Sleeping Monkey featuring some great Trey banter and audience singing is great too. The double Tweeprise is awesome too, of course.
This is in the upper echelon of shows from Leg I of Summer Tour 2010, and is definitely worth checking out, even if the band has far surpassed themselves by now.
set two came out with a great comet>light.
as soon as i heard the opening notes to tweezer I knew we would get a tweeprise. To start the encore trey made note of a great sleeping monkey sign from the night before and explained how they love the hear from the crowd what they want to hear. after the first tweeprise trey said that the band had heard rumblings that any tweezer must be encored with tweeprise so since there was no tweeprise in PA they would play it again and it was fucking epic! best encore ever!!!!
1st & 2nd sets didn't have much flow; there were some high points as well as some flubs and it just had an odd rythym.
Tweezer was the biggest jam of the night, but they dropped out into bland space just as it seemed they might take it to the next level.
Seeing Trey jumping around the stage during the 2nd tweezer reprise was pretty amazing, and an amazing way to bring the night to a close.
Battle of the Tweezer's ( Hershey -vs- Hartford )
Tweezer for Tweezer, Hartford takes it down...
Hershey just seemed to melt away, while Hartford is an Everlasting Gobstopper of goodness.
Dark Jam out of Tweezer (Sweet Emotion Tease ?) into A Kuroda Light Jam into Theme... Tasty !
The missing Tweezer Reprise from Hershey showed up X2...
After Tweprising for this evenings effort, Trey announced that Hershey never got one... So they played it again for Hershey !!!
The whole 2nd set was fatantastic. Halley's was its ripping short self and the Light was just fantastic and I really like the placement of Billy Breathes. But what really pushed this set to the next level was a way better than normal Theme and Hood. Haven't heard them take Theme that far out in awhile.
And I would be remissed not to mention that the Faulty Plan to close was crushing - what a great call from Phish, and Sleeping Monkey > Tweeprise was as classic as they come. Fun, raunchy, east-coast show
Fee: ****
Rift: ****
Wolfman's: *****
Summer of '89: **
Foam: ***
Possum: ****
Moma Dance: ****
Julius: ****
Reba: *****
Cavern: ****
Set 2:
Halley's: ***
Light: ****
Billy Breathes: ****
Tweezer: *****
Theme FT Bottom: ****
Hood: *****
Wading: ****
STFTFP: ****
Encore:
Sleeping Monkey: ****
Tweeprize: ****
Tweeprize: *****
Score: 85/105
Final Grade: A/A-
Notes: Double Tweeprize. You should really youtube this so you see the amazing energy that is poured into the second one. Up to this point, this was possibly the best show of the tour.
http://phish.net/discuss/?thread=1276849139
then the band OPENED with it.. now come on people, I am thinking that the band has to be reading us here, right ???? there is no way this could have been a coincidence, I have been to 4 shows in my life starting in 91 (with fest 8 being counted once)... I really don't know anything about the band, but am actually reading up and doing my homework, just so I can know what a song like fluff head is really about rather than my sick and twisted interpretation.... 3 nights at the Greek here I come !!!!!!
and please boys, if you are reading this... PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE save the Lamb Lies down on Broadway Halloween set for a So Cal location !!!
can I beg you hard enough on this ?????????
Main idea: Billy breathes performance and the context of its placement make it a superb hidden gem worth seeking out. Light jam is abstract messy/spacey and tweezer funk will blow your mind. The transitions and energy stay throughout theme and hood.
Got psyched for the Halley's set two opener, thinking positive improv thoughts, but then I remembered that this is 3.0 and not to get caught in that fantasy land. Disappointment averted! Light was still morphing into the dependable vehicle it is today, and this one alllmost got there. Not quite, but almost. Solid segue into Billy, and a grade A Billy it was. I didn't realize at the time how little stage time this song actually gets...I feel lucky to have seen it.
Tweezer was...okay. It was funky and very minimalist, even for this band, almost to the point that I couldn't take it anymore. Trey repeats a single little riff for much of the jam, and by the end it makes me antsy and annoyed. But the final 3 minutes or so are absolutely beautiful. They descend into spaceland...almost 2.0 sounding...and just vibrate and dwindle like the setting of the sun. Worth the wait, if you can handle Trey being painfully repetitive. Pensive, deep space gurgling and glacial drone await you, and the coda is exponentially better when heard in the context of the entire jam, rather than skipping right to it as I often do.
Absolute standout Theme follows, with Trey ripping it up in ways we perhaps have come to expect...but it was out of the blue, especially for a Theme, and totally worked. A much needed boost. Listen to it. I recall Hood being decent, and the set closed on a predictable note.
The encore...well! I enjoyed Monkey thoroughly, and loved the energy of Reprise live. But the second one was a surprise and even more energetic than the first, which I didn't think was possible. Again, one of those moments when you feel lucky to have witnessed it. Truly special.
To conclude, in the words of my fellow .netter Waxbanks: the show is "wonderfully inessential" - but well worth the listen.