VEGAS3 RECAP - UNDEFEATED SINCE 1983
For mms, "It is better to be small, colorful, sexy, careless, and peaceful, like the flowers..." -Tom Robbins, Jitterbug Perfume
I went to the MGM Sports Book before the show. I had a question. An important one. "What is the largest sum of money I can bet on Phish winning the show tonight?" The attendant's raised eyebrows hinted that I was onto something, perhaps, that the other patrons knew not, "Sir, we don't bet on Cirque du Soleil here - that's only legal inside the confines of Circus Circus." I'll play your game, you rogue, thought your author, and off to Circus Circus I went, fistfuls of cash at the ready. This was a sure bet. I just knew it. This is what seperates Phish fans from the more "amateur" gambler: we know that we are always playing with house money; we know the odds are always weighted in our favor, after all, Phish remains undefeated since 1983.
VEGAS2 RECAP: BLAZE ON INTO ROCK
[we'd like to thank guest recapper Brian Brinkman, @howard_roark / @sufferingjuke and @_beyondthepond on Twitter, for sharing what went down last night for the blog - ed.]
Perhaps there are no Phish dates more closely aligned than November 1 and January 1. Both have received scant performances - 5 for 11/1, 3 for 1/1 - and both follow the two most celebrated holidays in the Phish calendar: Halloween & New Year’s Eve, respectfully. Yet the similarities all but end there. While New Year’s Day has been treated as a moment for pause and reflection before moving onwards and into a new year, November 1 has historically allowed the band a moment to collect the new sounds and ideas they’d been secretly brewing up over the last few months, and share them freely with the entire fanbase. One needs only to think of the stunning “Light” from 11/1/09 that displayed the band’s renewed trust and dedication to their own creative future, or the regal peak of “Twist” from 11/1/13 that seemed to signal their elation over debuting an entire album’s worth of new material the previous night, or the “Light -> Dogs -> Lengthwise” from 11/1/14 that contained all the raucous energy and zany Phish nonsense from the previous night’s Chilling Thrilling set to hear how fascinating this night can be and how important it is to their annual development.
It was with all this in mind that I settled into the MGM Grand Garden Arena for my 70th Phish show, first in November, and 5th in Sin City. Following the bizarre mind-fuck that was the Kasvot Växt set - seriously, they crafted an entire non-band’s history to throw their fanbase off and live debut their 3rd new album in 5 years - I had a feeling the band was going to approach November 1, 2018 with an outsized portion of creativity and stress-free jamming. For the most part, I was correct.
VEGAS1: YOU WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER WHERE YOU WERE
[we'd like to thank Suzy Barros, @SuzyDrano (Twitter), for recapping last night's Halloween show - ed.]
Having heard the rumor that Fishman had been spotted wearing a T-shirt by an obscure-ish (but real) band called “The Residents” and having seen a screen-shot of a text with him and someone else alluding to the fact last night's cover would be an obscure album from 1981, I knew it could be a remote possibility, being Phish and all, but it still seemed a bit far-fetched. So many other (slightly) more plausible rumors were being floated and when the anticipation had reached an absolute fever pitch and doors opened we got our first glimpses of the Phishbill. The album would be i rokk by the band Kasvot Växt. An aside here - I was at the Wingsuit Halloween show when speculation was super high for The Allman Brothers Band's Eat A Peach, which I was mega excited about. I sat in my seat and read the Phishbill and immediately started laughing. I don’t know if it’s intentional, but the Phishbills are written in the most bizarre, stilted way where everything about it, especially the quotes from the band, made it seem like a total joke. Which is the exact same vibe that I got from THIS Phishbill, making it more likely to me that it may in fact be true. Also, I was sober this time around, and reading the Phishbill a few times before the show started, it did seem pretty plausible??
Anyway, speculation and rumors and much internet sleuthing were all happening in a major way, but it all finally came to an end as the lights went down and we went into the first “extremely uneven” set of the night. I love a fast opener like ‘“Buried Alive” (nice call Russ); it’s got the ability to whip the crowd into a frenzy right from the get-go. "Buried" has always conveyed this dissonant sense of chaotic unpredictability to me, and this version didn’t disappoint.
FROM THE TAPERS' SECTION: PART 3 (10/31/98)
For the third edition (or fifth, depending on how you count them) of From the Tapers' Section, I've chosen Halloween, 1998. Yes, today is the 20th anniversary of this show – Phish's first multi-night Las Vegas run, and their first Las Vegas Halloween show. It seemed fitting to share this show today, with the high anticipation of what will be their fourth Vegas Halloween show in the past two decades. But beyond the obvious historical significance of this show, I had been wanting to use this show in the FTTS series for some time now simply because the sound quality of this particular tape is unbelievably good. About a year ago, I wanted to hear the "Wolfman’s Brother" from this show as an AUD; searching through quick snippets of each circulating recording, this tape stood out as a cut above the rest. Since first hearing this source, I kept coming back to it, stunned by its quality – it is quite possibly my favorite sounding 1.0 tape. So, while this show is both famous and infamous for various reasons, my decision to select this recording for FTTS3 was more about the merits of the tape and less about the music contained within.That isn’t to shortchange the music – there were plenty of musical highlights inside and outside of the Velvet Underground Loaded "musical costume."
CHICAGO3 RECAP: ANGER, HE SMILES TOWERING
[We would like to thank Rob Mitchum for recapping last night's show. -Ed.]
Recapping the show before Halloween is a sucker’s bet. The narrative of any fall tour with a costume set capper inevitably becomes defined by whatever Phish chooses to do with that holiday show. Like a well-constructed mystery novel, once you know the twist ending, it’s rewarding to go back and spot the clues you missed your first time through. But any speculation about the 31st I make today will almost certainly have an expiration date of, oh, 72 hours or so.
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MYSTERY JAM MONDAY PART 349
Welcome to the 349th edition of Phish.Net's Mystery Jam Monday, the final and most difficult single clipper of October. The winner will receive an MP3 download code courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. To win, be the first person to identify the song and date of the mystery clip. Each person gets one guess to start – if no one answers correctly in the first 24 hours, a hint will be posted. After the hint, everyone gets one more guess before Wednesday at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET. Have fun!
Hint: I guess you could say this clip was chosen in homage to Fall Tour having some great first set jams.
Answer: WinRAR! This week, the guessing crew wandered deep into the woods of this cruel joke of an MJM, but only @MikeThong was able to fight his way out thanks to his trusty golf cart. This week, he hits the trifecta by identifying the clip as from the waning moments of the twisted 11/29/98 "Limb by Limb" -> "Catapult" -> "Kung" sequence, played during the first set of the last night of Fall Tour '98 – Twenty Years Later indeed. Stop by Monday, because I ain't givin' no goddamn Loch Ness Monster a LivePhish code for MJM350!
CHICAGO2 RECAP: SATURDAY NIGHT'S ALRIGHT FOR NO MAN'S
Five years ago on October 27, 2013, Lou Reed died at the age of 71, depriving the world of one of its greatest poets and bonafide Rock and Roll Animals, not to mention a huge inspiration on one Ernest J. Anastasio III. I first learned about this at a burger joint in Wethersfield, CT en route to the Phish show in Hartford that evening, and proceeded to confuse my companions by openly weeping into my iPhone. Phish proceeded to open that Hartford show with an 11 minute version of the Velvet Underground classic “Rock and Roll,” followed by a rare Trey request for a moment of silence for ‘one of the greatest songwriters who ever lived.’ The rest of that concert would live up to Lou’s challenge, as did most of Fall 2013. Now five years removed from that very date, how would Phish respond on a Saturday night in Chicago?
CHICAGO1 RECAP: FRIDAY IS THE NEW SUNDAY
[We'd like to thank Nick Williams, user @TwiceBitten, for recapping last night's show. -Ed.]
They say you should never miss a Sunday show, and while I wholeheartedly agree that you should miss as little Phish as possible, I think in recent years I’ve come to realize that Friday has been delivering at an equally high level as the Lord’s Day. I’d say we should leave Tuesday out of this just in case anyone reading decides to start going to weekday Phish shows when they should be at work or school or whatever. Come to think of it, seems to me that this band plays pretty darn well on any day that ends in "day." Feel free to click the links above to make the determination for yourself. Can there really be only one and where does that leave us anyway? In a relatively-old-school, all-blue, wooden-ceilinged venue just outside of Chicago on Friday 10/26/18 it would seem.
Would Phish continue the T.G.I.F. trend by delivering an all-out banger? Would Phish’s first run of indoor Chicago shows in seven years be enough of a spark to blow the whole fireworks factory sky high? Would it be one of those shows that satisfies the whole fan base, from the rail riders who waited all day just to give Trey a very special note, to the wooks on the back of the floor who just want to spin and flail with as few impedances as possible?
BEYOND THE POND PODCAST: ALBANY, HAMPTON, AND HALLOWEEN HINTS
Beyond the Pond is a bi-weekly podcast in which Brian Brinkman (@sufferingjuke) and David Goldstein (@daveg924) use the music of Phish as a gateway to introduce the listener to many other bands, the vast majority of which are not jambands. An episode generally begins with a deep dive into a designated portion of Phish improvisation, and then can spin off to any variety of musical themes and other acts, the overarching purpose being introducing the listener to as many new and different bands as possible.
NASHVILLE2 RECAP: BETTER RUN THROUGH THE JUNGLE
[phish.net would like to thank Alaina Stamatis (@farmhose) for this recap -ed]
Back in 2016 I was hanging out in the park next to Ascend Amphitheater during the day before the Phish show. It seemed like the only place in Nashville where you could charge your phone and buy weed from a homeless person. I met someone named Fish Taco (F-I-S-H T-A-C-O tattooed on his knuckles) who promised to find us some grass. As we waited long hours with him for his dusty connection to arrive, I became skeptical of anything he had to say. He bragged that beautiful women buy him fifths of whiskey and cuddle in hammocks with him, and I struggled to mask my disbelief.
“Man, you should have been here at 7 this morning,” Fish Taco announced. “This big tour bus drove through the park, pulled up right over there. And Bob Weir poked his head out the window and said, ‘Hey, kid!’”
The weed, the whiskey, the women had all seemed fabricated. But deep down I knew that if anybody was going to call Fish Taco a “kid,” it would be Bob Weir. And as we all know, Fish Taco rewarded my faith in him with a surprise appearance from Bobby that night!
NASHVILLE1 RECAP: MIKE'S GROOOOVE!!
[we'd like to thank Nick Lowe, @rockinhorn, for recapping last night's show from Nashville - ed.]
As far as outdoor venues Phish performs at, Ascend Amphitheater lives near the top of the list. The size and intimacy here bring a special feeling to everyone in attendance, and certainly create an excited anticipation as to what the band is going to blow our minds with in such a small setting. Ascend has quickly gained a lot of attention in Phishdom since the storied 2015 return of “Mike’s 2nd Jam” and the 2016 guest appearance of Bob Weir. For obvious reasons, Nashville shows seem to elevate the possibility of guest artists joining the band. Or at least in the minds of us phans. There was a bit of pre-show chatter about Vince Gill having just finished some tour dates with The Eagles. “Maybe he’ll show up to play some Eagles tunes?” To those comments I could only think one thought. “I’ve had a rough night, man, and I hate the f#@&ing Eagles, man!”
The air was crisp, and the vibe was super excited on a gorgeous fall evening in Nashville. The earlier ticket time threw some of us for a bit of a loop. This on top of a long wait to get through security (metal detectors) created a little more pre-show anxiety than normal. Though, once inside, it was immediately apparent why this venue is so special to those who have experienced it firsthand. The feeling of sitting in the band’s lap is shared by all in attendance, whether in reserved seats or lawn.
The house lights went down at 7:36 p.m. and the beloved foursome hit the stage exploding with excited energy, Trey with his familiar ear-to-ear smile. Without any hesitation they laid into “Tweezer Reprise” and the audience erupted. Much anticipation revolved around this since it was left on the table from Hampton. Would they play “Reprise” at all?
ROCK BOTTOM CHICAGO FUNDRAISER FOR MOCKINGBIRD
Rock Bottom Chicago is once again fundraising for Mockingbird, this time in connection with this weekend's Rosemont shows:
HAMPTON3 RECAP: MORE? YES.
There are two ways you can view Phish shows—through the experiences, and through the music as it exists as an artifact after the show. As Phish fans, we go to shows to collect experiences, to have good times with our friends and family, and of course, to see great music. Sometimes, we go and we realize that the experience was great, but that the music doesn’t hold up quite as well later. Sometimes, the opposite is true. And sometimes, both things align and the Phish world is in a state of satisfaction and bliss. Hampton 3 was one of those nights.
MYSTERY JAM MONDAY PART 348
Welcome to the 348th edition of Phish.Net's Mystery Jam Monday, the fourth of five October single-clip MJMs. The winner will receive an MP3 download code courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. To win, be the first person to identify the song and date of the mystery clip. Each person gets one guess to start – if no one answers correctly in the first 24 hours, a hint will be posted. After the hint, everyone gets one more guess before Wednesday at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET. Have fun!
Note: No n00b head start this week, so don't dawdle!
Answer: Despite digging into the often-untreaded waters of early 1.0, our blog's challenge was no match for the ears of @experiencechuck! He made mincemeat of our selection - the 6/4/09 Ghost, and for his efforts he has received a LivePhish.com download code. Stay tuned for next week - despite being a single clipper, it'll still be a hardest-of-the-month challenge, so get your ears prepped for a toughie!
HAMPTON N2: FROM FLUFF TO FLUFF
Only one other large indoor venue stacks up against the Hampton Coliseum in terms of relevance to the band’s history through the years. From their first stop there in 1995, Phish has crafted an awesome reputation for greatness within the round room off the Hampton Roads. It was no fluke that the band chose the space for their return in 2009, and from the moment it was announced, this run has been seen as an important destination event for many fans, the third straight three night stand coming five years after their last visit.
Actually, while we’re using numbers... on the second night of their tenth year at The Mothership (the endearing nickname fans have given Hampton Coliseum, due to its resemblance of the spaceship from "Close Encounters of the Third Kind"), Phish performed their twentieth concert in the hallowed space. The numerological unlikelihood that this would be also be the 20th day of the 10th month of this year is surely just insignificant and coincidental. However, we Phish fans are certainly a very superstitious lot.
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