Gotta comment on this observation:"“Waking Up Dead,” a Mike song with some tricky guitar lines, was an interesting call. I really like the song, but as with “Sugar Shack,” I’d prefer Phish not play this if Trey’s just going to fart through it. Does a disservice to the quality of the song for its guitar lines to be executed so unprofessionally. Trey can obviously master this killer song, he just needs to rehearse it. Mike, Page and Fish tried to salvage the version to be sure, but yikes. "
Like Icculus the reviewer, I try to understand why Trey writes out and arranges scores for symphonies, writes songs and helps mount Broadway musicals, learns entire albums to cover for musical costumes, keeps Zappa tunes fresh in his mind - and "shits music" to quote FIsh, but won't go to the trouble of learning his part when Mike writes a tune. Murawski can play the tunes that come out of Mike's brain, breathing life into the music and rocking out pretty hard - so it can be done. Why doesn't Trey put in the time and the brain power to elevate songs by Mike that are not "Mike's Song"??
I have watched Trey verbally berate Fishman onstage when he flubbed "Colonel Forbin " at Red Rocks in 1996, telling him in front of 9500 people that he "needs to rehearse" - and yet when Mike throws his tune "IDEA" into the set at Portsmouth in 2010, or "Waking Up Dead" last night, and any number of times "Sugar Shack " gets called - Trey fumbles through like he just got roofied. Which sucks for fans, kills the flow of the set, and ought to be an insult for Mike. I understand Trey's gifts of music, his endless curiosity and dedication to his effects pedals, his toys, his ambition to keep making great music. But help your brother out and learn a little bit about Mike's sense of music - he's a little off, a bit out there perhaps - but you made him learn the good (Guyute) and mediocre (Time Turns Elastic) stuff that vaults out of your musical mind - so show us all the courtesy of stepping up and learning how Mike's songs go!