Thursday 07/11/2013 by bl002e

PNC RECAP

Last night marked Phish’s tenth performance – eighth if you’re only counting headlining gigs – at the PNC Garden Bank State Arts Center. If there’s been an ongoing trend to the preshow atmosphere on the current tour thus far, it could be the blazingly hot, 1999 Summer Tour-esque weather. So being mindful of that theme, please try to keep what’s important (water), and know who’s your friend (hydration).

Alas, sometimes an excess of water is the problem, as we saw Tuesday night with Phish’s return to Canada being postponed due to the after-effects of flooding. Whether an intentional nod to a previous Phish show that rain threatened to undermine or just a fortunate coincidence, “Llama” took the leadoff spot. Because the song has been relegated to a once-or-twice-a-year rarity in the 3.0 era, it’s easy to forget what an effective show opener it is.

Three Hoist tracks followed: “Wolfman’s Brother,” “Sample In A Jar,” and “Julius.” Although nothing in particular stood out about the trio’s bookends, it’s a challenge not to enjoy competently-played versions. While in past eras each represented titans of the jam vehicle industry, the variance in performance of “Halley’s Comet” and “Bathtub Gin” in recent memory has barely registered. The latter found Trey and his pitch-shifter leading a brief, yet energetic jam, complete with two vampy rock-n-roll endings.

Lawn Boy” and “Ya Mar” continued the old-school setlist choices, preceding “Stealing Time From The Faulty Plan,” only one of two songs played last night that had not debuted in either the ‘80s or ‘90s. For all of the recent chatter about a new studio album on the horizon, it’s difficult to imagine its imminent release with such a dearth of new material over the last two years. “Theme From The Bottom” and “Suzy Greenberg” ultimately brought us to intermission. All in all, the set was representative of the preceding first sets of the tour – highly enjoyable, but ultimately forgettable.

On the other hand, the second set “Crosseyed And Painless” should not be soon forgotten. After the initial up-tempo part of the jam section, the playing grew sparser around the nine-minute mark (all timings here on out reference the Live Phish track). By ten minutes in, Trey and Page traded melodic phrases while Mike meatballed away. Patience is this jam’s strongest point, as the feeling of barely-contained, building energy permeated this next section. Still letting the jam grow organically, Trey’s playing gave off a “Gimme Some Lovin’” feel to it (11:41-12:01). Fishman ups the ante at 12:49 with a subtle change in rhythm that Trey soon picks up on. With Page hammering away on piano, Mike drops his full arsenal at 13:25. Ol’ GSAC is about to blow its top, but the virtues of patience win out yet again – at this point, the band is content to explore horizontally if not vertically. Around the fifteen-minute mark, once again a Fishman change in rhythm is quickly replied to by Trey, with riffing reminiscent of the 12/31/10 “(Holy) Ghost.” Within a minute, the pace again slowed to a simmer before sublimely finding its way to “Harry Hood.”

Throughout the beginning section of “Hood,” successfully attempting to imbue a sense of cohesion to the set, Trey played back a looping set of trills from the “Crosseyed” jam’s coda. This commendable “Hood” was succeeded by “Axilla,” ending with that same Trey loop that played over the transition to “Sand,” which contained perhaps the most controversial moment of the show. Akin to some songs played in the first set, the groove-driven “Sand” was typically, incredibly enjoyable, but did not feature much in terms of deep musical exploration. Perhaps sensing a dead-end and plotting an escape plan towards a more viable path, with the other band members still locked in said groove, Trey somewhat awkwardly jumped into the “Light.” It’s a bit jarring for sure, but this was not the abrupt ending of a can’t-miss jam, as “Sand” had already begun its wind-down.

At under twelve minutes, this compact “Light” featured all substance and no filler. Trey eventually abandoned his go-to pitch shifter for a ride on the wah, resulting in a collaborative section which, as a complement to its excellence, featured no one in particular in a lead role. The last minute featured the show’s fourth quarter theme, as Trey teased “Maria” from “West Side Story” (see the brilliant 12/31/95 “Weekapaug” and 8/11/98 “Jim” for previous “Maria” teasing).

Four frequently-employed set closers rounded out the set: “Good Times Bad Times,” “Slave To The Traffic Light,” “Rocky Top,” and “Cavern,” which ranged from notably above-average (“Good Times”) to slightly-unappealing (while pretty enough for its bulk, the slipshod ending to “Slave” was hard to ignore). More “Maria” teasing ensued in “Cavern” and the “Possum” encore.

Despite the unfortunate postponement of the Toronto show, momentum looks to be on Phish’s side five shows into the current tour. With their ability to connect in the way they did during “Crosseyed” and SPAC’s “Carini” this early on, the excitement for what’s to come in the following weeks is palpable.

If you liked this blog post, one way you could "like" it is to make a donation to The Mockingbird Foundation, the sponsor of Phish.net. Support music education for children, and you just might change the world.


Comments

, comment by bertoletdown
bertoletdown Great job, Brian.

The Crosseyed is pretty special.
, comment by fluffhead108
fluffhead108 Relistening to the Crosseyed now, and I am just having a love affair with what Mike is doing during the 9-12 minute mark. Gels *perfectly* with Trey and Page tickling the higher notes. Gorgeous.
, comment by HarborSeal
HarborSeal Great review -- but what's that Maria tease in the 12/31/95 'paug? Got a timing?
, comment by TwiceBitten
TwiceBitten STFTFP solo!!!
, comment by JughedJones
JughedJones This show kicked ass.

It's really a sign of things to come. Xeyed through Light was really special.
, comment by bl002e
, comment by TwiceBitten
TwiceBitten woah, that's my favorite riff in that Paug jam. Never knew it was from West Side Story
, comment by Aweiss716
Aweiss716 You echoed my sentiments exactly in this review. The Crosseyed really was the first time I felt that "hose" feeling in a while. A great sign of things to come for the summer.

Btw, I heard the soundcheck yesterday. They were rehearsing the same Mike song they soundchecked at SPAc 3. It is really really funky and they played it for 25+ minutes. 97 Ghost sounding funk jam-> reggae jam-> plinko-styled Light jam. Mike's falsetto vocals are awesome on this one. Be excited for when they bust this one out. Apparently the one at SPAC soundcheck went way out there. Guess at the name would be "Tongue tied"
, comment by TheEmu
TheEmu Wonderful job, Brian!
, comment by funkbeard
funkbeard I'm still partial to the BGCA3 Cross-eyed of last year, with increase of focus and nuance.

Last night's second set was pure Jersey, a sloppy M.S.G. substitute. The same sky-scraper groove, but just a little more sloppy, muddy, and noisy. Yet melodic, resonant, and huge! Good show, actually. Very different from the love fest that was SPAC.
, comment by lenuto46
lenuto46 This is a great review.
, comment by HarborSeal
, comment by johnnyd
johnnyd Very nice review. I really like the Wolfman's quite a bit.
"Average" Wolfmans and Themes have really been doing it for me lately.

/test
, comment by andrewrose
andrewrose Thought for sure we'd get Llama to open in Toronto, and figured C&P had good odds to start Set II. Guess we'll never know! Sounds like a nice jam.
, comment by Aweiss716
, comment by BigDudeInTheDoorway
BigDudeInTheDoorway This show kicked ass. Second set was great(as they seem to always be lately)but the 1st set rocked as well. High energy and right into wolfmans. I've become accustomed over the past few years to be impartial of 1st sets till the last song or 2, but I loved this first set. Obviously the second set was better, but when you start off like that...last nights show as a whole was definitely a winner.
Trey definitely jumped the gun into Light, I loved where that Sand was going. My only criticism aside from song selection sometimes, is that it seems as soon as they hit an epic groove and the crowd starts going nuts, they bail right away. Anyone agree?
Anyway sick show, sick Tour, sick xeyed!!

Need that Mikes And 2001 tomorrow!!!!
, comment by BigDudeInTheDoorway
BigDudeInTheDoorway And it's close but I think it actually is Maria. Good call though
, comment by tedp19
tedp19 no mention of the aborted halleys.... song didn't have a chance
, comment by Slave_to_the_Woodshop
Slave_to_the_Woodshop Great review. Anyone else think this was the Toronto setlist..
, comment by bl002e
bl002e @tedp19 said:
no mention of the aborted halleys.... song didn't have a chance
At this point, with only two of thirty-two 3.0 versions going past the usual cutoff point (Fox Theatre '09 and Bethel '11), it's hard to categorize it as aborted as much as it's just the standard way they're intent on playing it now.
, comment by Fitz2001
Fitz2001 Why does Suzy Greenberg always sound better in person than on CD?
, comment by FACTSAREUSELESS
FACTSAREUSELESS Short but nice review. I tend to agree with just about everything.
Thought the Crosseyed> Hood sequence was brilliant.

Thanks!
, comment by uctweezer
uctweezer @bl002e said:
@HarborSeal said:
Great review -- but what's that Maria tease in the 12/31/95 'paug? Got a timing?
6:17 through 6:47 here: http://www.phishtracks.com/shows/1995-12-31/weekapaug-groove />
Honestly, I'm not all too familiar with Maria, but I recognized it immediately as "that riff from the NYE '95 Paug that I guess must be a tease of some other song" at last night's show.
Just because I don't think many people know yet, I should mention that PhishTracks now supports YouTube-like time-linking. In the above example, you'd want:

http://www.phishtracks.com/shows/1995-12-31/weekapaug-groove?t=6m17s />
That is, append "?t=XmYs" after the URL (where X is the number of minutes and Y is the number of seconds -- you could also go ?t=377s for example) to link directly to a particular time.

Great review
@bl002e -- not to be a sycophant but you're one of the elite .netters in my book and I enjoy your posts and respect your opinion. I agree that what we've seen so far in the improvisation department bodes really well for the rest of the tour, despite a couple missed opportunities, some run-of-the-mill sections, and a little too much whammy for my tastes. That is to say, overall, this five show run to start tour has me completely fired up about BGCA next month (22 days left!). I'm not going to bring a "NO MORE WHAMMY" sign, but rather, will just put my faith in Trey and Phish to have everything sorted out come my hometown shows. And if not, I'm going to have a blast anyway!
, comment by bl002e
bl002e Thanks for the kind words, Pete -- and thanks for the tip on the PhishTracks time coding!
, comment by krlynch
krlynch Great review, possum deserves more credit!
, comment by chefbrett
chefbrett Great review. So nice to read a review where the author did not eat a bunch of drugs before sitting down to write. Although I am shocked that not a single song they played was either the best of 3.0 or a religious ride to the center of the sun.
, comment by pistilstamen
, comment by johnnyd
johnnyd :::further tests the wormhole:::
, comment by Blastoplast
Blastoplast Nice reads here! Fun to pour through some of these comments when searching for some good new Phish. I have been around Phish for a long long time...1991...and I still truly love this band and what they are doing...except one thing...

Perhaps anyone would care to comment on this (I only bring it up here because the review mentioned his pitch shifter): Trey's whammy pedal. (or pitch bendy thing...or pitch shifter...or whatever you want to call it.)

It absolutely destroys his normally rock solid intonation. So many attacks on his notes become weird bends that often never quite make it up to the in-tune note it sounds like he is going for. It goes all over the place. Flat, sharp, unfocused...all that. This is so prevalent in 3.0, but he has gone away from it more in the past couple years. Now it is back and all over the place. First night of SPAC, for example...ugh!

It is clear his chops aren't exactly what they used to be, but that isn't my concern. I'm not some disgruntled vet of the "old days," but the whammy pedal just ruins so much. The Divided Sky even had it at one of the SPAC shows which hasn't happened all that much in previous 3.0 Divided Sky versions, and the notes just had this super weird bendy attack. Sounds a bit like a young kid who hasn't figured out the jazz players don't just bend notes all over. I believe this bendy crap is the root of the term I have heard people using in 3.0, "whale calls." Is that right?

What's up with the bendy crap?!?! When he gets his foot off that pedal, everything sounds so much better. SO MUCH BETTER!

Having said that...I am so excited for Chicago! There have been some excellent moments this tour!
, comment by dhillz21
dhillz21 @Blastoplast....

I couldn't agree with you more on the whammy pedal. its down right awful, and after he used it excessively a few summers ago and stopped, i thought he had finally gotten the message. it really takes away from his solos and focus on direction. Here's to hoping it comes to an end soon!
, comment by AlbanyYEM
AlbanyYEM Using a standard whammy bar is more difficult to control pitch than just using normal bends with your left hand. It allows you to bend way beyond what your fingers could do so it takes some time to use it properly and subtly (think 80's rock solo for the opposite of this). But it still is 'manually' controlled depending on the amount of force you use with your right hand, so you can develop muscle memory feel for it after a while--your hand knows how much force results in how much a change in pitch and thus whether you're in turn or not.

I have to think that a pedal that replicates this effect would be incredibly more challenging to control in terms of pitch. Think of comparing the dexterity of your foot versus your hand. I think the "whammy" boils down to this:

a) he has to be aware that many of the notes are not "in tune" or at least not part of a scale that works for the key they are in.

b) either he's doing this with intent as part of an aesthetic choice or

c) he hasn't yet developed the 'foot control' necessary to get a feel for the 'correct' notes

If it's 'b,' then I have to wonder at the context. He's certainly not using this atonality in a jazz context. I don't mean jazz per se but as in just the pathos of jamming that allows for 'incorrect' notes. Using a pentatonic scale with wrong notes doesn't sound like a choice, it just sounds wrong. The whale as a challenge deep within a jam suggesting dissonance or hinting at a key change is t
, comment by AlbanyYEM
AlbanyYEM ARG! Stupid phone. Sorry.

totally different than playing off notes in a type I context like divided sky. Again, I think he must be aware of this and hence is getting a feel for using the pedal as a tool providing greater maneuverability between correct notes. Like anything else it just takes practice to perfect so I think he'll get his feel down eventually.

Sorry for length and typos, did not mean to hit 'comment' before I had a chance to proofread.
, comment by Johnnydoc76
Johnnydoc76 Nice review, Crosseyed was killer.
, comment by phunky58
phunky58 Hit it right on the head, Carini and Crosseyed are the top Jams of tour so far. all they gotta do now is let these jams breathe more (Holmdel sand) and things could get real real serious real fast. and imo I think it will happen and soon. btw Camden 2nd set was my fav set of tour so far. Also I believe if they kept that Sand going it would of developed into something real special. Light even could of went a bit further. Great 2nd set. Cannot wait until MPP I won't sleep well at all. Jimmy legs all night
, comment by Jake0712
Jake0712 @chefbrett said:
Great review. So nice to read a review where the author did not eat a bunch of drugs before sitting down to write. Although I am shocked that not a single song they played was either the best of 3.0 or a religious ride to the center of the sun.
Been to all 5 shows so far this tour, have to say SPAC Night 3 was hands down the best show up to date. Phish is playing very well these days...
, comment by FACTSAREUSELESS
FACTSAREUSELESS @AlbanyYEM said:
ARG! Stupid phone. Sorry.

totally different than playing off notes in a type I context like divided sky. Again, I think he must be aware of this and hence is getting a feel for using the pedal as a tool providing greater maneuverability between correct notes. Like anything else it just takes practice to perfect so I think he'll get his feel down eventually.

Sorry for length and typos, did not mean to hit 'comment' before I had a chance to proofread.
Thanks for the explanation of what's going on there. I didn't know any of that. I've listened to TAB frequently since last year and Trey seems to be on this mission towards some sound he's trying to achieve and (to my ears) hasn't gotten to yet. I've said it already in this forum that I think he's after something and it hasn't come together for him yet.
Again, great stuff. Thanks for sharing it.
, comment by mahimahi
mahimahi "All substance and no filler." That is what 3.0 is all about, and I do not think that is a bad thing 30 years in.
, comment by forbin1
forbin1 Great writeup...there's definitely some highlights to be found in this show..I really enjoyed the Wolfmans and Theme...could've sworn they were going into Ride Captain Ride..instead it went into Sand..
, comment by patper
patper Epic Thread Is Epic. I found the wormhole. You have entered the Twilight Zone.
, comment by AlbanyYEM
AlbanyYEM @FACTSAREUSELESS

Thanks man. I'm just theorizing here about Trey's intent and what's going on. The technical guitar stuff I believe is correct but I'm no expert on the pedal he uses.
, comment by FACTSAREUSELESS
FACTSAREUSELESS @AlbanyYEM said:
@FACTSAREUSELESS

Thanks man. I'm just theorizing here about Trey's intent and what's going on. The technical guitar stuff I believe is correct but I'm no expert on the pedal he uses.
Been thinking about it since Emu's review.....I prefer the distorted vamping Trey used in 2.0 to the pitch-shift thingy he's doing now. The problem with 2.0 was (in my view), Trey sacraficed clarity punctuation in favor of power and growl. So....if Trey's intention is to sort of marry the two concepts together with the whammy pedal, which is what I think he's attempting to do, then he seems to be falling short just a bit.

On the topic of effects, I thought his use of distortion and the loop was brilliant during Crosseyed & Painless, and also thought he played superbly during what I consider to be a far-above-average Harry Hood.

Just my thoughts.
, comment by mcgrupp81
You must be logged in to post a comment.


Phish.net

Phish.net is a non-commercial project run by Phish fans and for Phish fans under the auspices of the all-volunteer, non-profit Mockingbird Foundation.

This project serves to compile, preserve, and protect encyclopedic information about Phish and their music.

Credits | Terms Of Use | Legal | DMCA

© 1990-2024  The Mockingbird Foundation, Inc. | Hosted by Linode