The most thrilling moments for me last night were hearing Phish let quiet rule the stage. There 3 or 4 moments that were ripe for a ripchord by one of the boys but instead they allowed things to get quiet, sometimes down to one instrument, and then a new chunk of musical ooze would bubble up from the ether. It was crazy.
When Fish is loose on the skins, keeping the back beat with the kick drum and adding texture with the rest of the kit, is when Phish goes places. Polar opposite from Night2, which was all precision and no abandon.
What is it about the jams in this run that are so different than the great jams from Dicks? Here they seem to be spacious, troubled, frenetic and freakishly asymetrical.
At Dicks they ran the gamut from melodic and dagger sharp to syncopated and funky.
Such a vast and diverse chasm could only be achieved by Phish, doing what I think most of truly believe no other band on Earth could do right now. And in the space of only a few months!
Listening now to the troubled, wide open vistas of last nights Carini and the bottled nuclear energy, creeping vine Sand -> Ghost from Dicks one has to KNOW its Phish to really believe that its a single band making all that sweeping and ambitious noise. Its a wonder they dont fall flat on their faces at more shows.
And to have the ability and willingness to infuse version after version of songs like Hood and Slave with melodic vigor and crushing emotional dedication is a testament to love of not just music, but of life, that guides everything they do on stage.
1st Set Highlites - a jaunty and fun Divided Sky, another totally bitching Ocelot, which Trey took to some fun places very quickly and an Antelope with that didn't quit.
2nd Set - DWD, even though most of us knew it was coming and that it would most likely be big, it's a safe bet that none of us thought it would be the Disease that it is. It totters on its heels like a drunkard but never collapsed, it remained terse yet also expansive, it was like watching a David Lynch movie in church. I grinned like an idiot the whole time.
Carini, ah Carini. To get thrown down in the 3 hole of a 2nd set with such a storied history was pure balls. Sipowitz wearing a tie with a short sleeve shirt balls. Such a gambit risked the entire set but I doubt their was a head amongst us that wasn't pleased as punch when they did it!
Page throws down some dark low end, classical sounded keys, Trey picks up on the movement and its off to the races. The rest is history. Mike and Fish move from lead to support with unfair ease. Masters of their crafts just fucking the auditory gods of old.
Ok, on to the big show.
With Light, Ghost, Sand & YEM being near locks things will probably, somehow, get even stranger. Beyond the pale.
Have a safe and happy NYE!