Phish @ Hampton

[tot_Ou_tard]

Is anyone going to any of the shows?

Free mp3s available here (last night's show is there now). I haven't listened to any of it yet.

http://www.livephish.com/


03/06/09 setlist:



Fluffhead, Divided Sky, Chalk Dust Torture, Sample in a Jar, Stash, I Didn’t Know, Oh Kee Pah>Suzy Greenberg, FarmHouse, NICU, Horn, Rift, Train Song, Water in the Sky, Squirming Coil, David Bowie


Set 2: Backwards Down the # Line, TWEEZER, Taste, POSSUM, Theme From the Bottom, First Tube, HARRY HOOD, Waste, You Enjoy Myself


Encore: Grind, Bouncing Around the Room, LOVING CUP

[hubberjub]

I had a request in for tickets for the three Hampton shows but I couldn't get tickets. I hope to get tickets to one of the shows on the summer tour.

[R_of_G]

I wish I could get excited about it. This year makes 19 years since I started listening to Phish. I saw them for the first time in 1992 and many many times in the years since. I can't even begin to express how much it meant to me, but I'll be honest, they should have never come back from the first hiatus from 2000-2002. I went to the New Year's Eve 2002/2003 show which was the first show back from the hiatus. It was, without question, the worst I have ever heard that band sound.

At the time, I wrote it off as the expected result of a band that hadn't played together in two years and hadn't rehearsed at all for that show. That worked as an explanation until they embarked on their next tour and I began to hear those shows. The band that was once super-tight could no longer play the structured parts of their songs with any cohesion. I have many friends that can't tell a good show from a bad show and they all insisted "ok, so they're a bit sloppy but they still sound good when it gets to the jamming part." That was the problem for me. The "jamming part" for me was based upon nailing the structured parts to set up the jamming. Tension and release is pretty pointless without the tension. The more I heard, the more disappointing it got. For a band like Phish to be so sloppy so much of the time was inconceivable to me. I've heard them slip up here and there, but that was one song here and one song there, not the entirety of a set, or a show, or a tour. Yes, there were still good moments in the jamming parts, but they were becoming fewer and further between. Ultimately, it seemed to me that they had become their own tribute band.

I cannot comment on how they sound now until I actually hear the Hampton shows. I can tell from the setlist that I won't have to listen to much to render my decision. I have been obsessed with "Divided Sky" since I first heard it way back when and I have made a point of collecting any show where it was played (at last count I have upwards of 75% of all versions of it). I have analyzed and analyzed searching for my Holy Grail which is the best version of "Divided Sky" ever played. I can say without a doubt that the version played at the NYE 2002/2003 show was the single worst ever. It's like Trey forgot entirely how the melody line was played. I will be able to tell from the version played in Hampton which Phish is touring now.

Also, and I don't want to sound like a bitter Deadhead post 1987, but I got a little bit tired of dealing with the greater and greater influx of people who had no clue what Phish was all about but were there because a Phish show was the cool place to go to do drugs and party. With every new tour there were less and less people who were there for the music. When it began to affect the availability of tickets it pissed me off to no end. I know this particular complaint is not at all the fault of the band as my first one is, but it still made the live Phish experience much less pleasant and to me, live Phish was my equivalent of going to church.

Sorry if I sound overly bitter or jaded, but this band is something that meant so much to me for so long that it was hard to take when they began to just go through the motions. Like I said though, I cannot judge how they sound now until I hear them, so perhaps they are back to their old ways of rehearsing and reading each other's minds on stage. One can always hope. Either way, I shall always treasure my memories of Phish tour. They are some of the best memories of time spent with friends and especially with my younger brother whom I took to his first show when he was 13. something that is not what it once was.

[R_of_G]

Ok, now I have listened to it. Trey still can't remember how to play "Divided Sky" correctly. The timing is off on the beginning parts and when it comes to his soloing there are sour notes in just about every single run. Also, Trey seems to have no tone control whatsoever when it comes to feedback. Guys like Sonny Sharrock or Pete Cosey can play beautiful melodies utilizing all kinds of feedback but when Trey gets even the slightest bit the melody becomes a train wreck. It saddens me because it wasn't always like that.