This has been a truly awesome year for Phish. It’s marked a return to form for them. 2014 (and 2013) has really brought a wealth of fresh unpredictability to the air that just reeks of Phishiness. Anybody who was a skeptic after 10.31.13 would be hard pressed to bash on the creativity the new material has sparked. As with any collection of new material we take the good with the bad, but I just don’t see how anyone can argue against the heaping pile of treasures in 2014.

An incomplete list of 2014’s awesomeness:

-Harry Hood getting an adrenaline shot of inventiveness
-Chalkdust getting jammed big *consistently* for the first time in their career
-MPP 2
-Halloween
-More frequent jamming in the first set and “fourth quarter"
-The successful introduction of new material into show rotation

To me the brilliance of much of that list is so many of those things were so unexpected. Just as nobody saw the debut of new material coming on 10.31.13, I don’t think anybody ever expected another Roxy ’93-esque segue-fest, for there to be 8 big unfinished Chalk Dusts in a year, or a Halloween show so completely random and utterly awesome. The effort they’re making to continue to explore their work is obvious, and it’s paying off.

Coming on the heels of arguably two of the best “pranks” ever (the JEMP Truck Set and Chilling Thrilling Sounds) Phish really would have had their work cut out for them trying to top those last night. Fortunately, they knew this and instead opted to continue in Phish tradition with a simple, wacky, and seemingly meaningless little skit to kick off the new year and the final set. A set that contained an awesome Tweezer, a nice Simple > LxL followup to said Tweezer, and a perfectly placed Dogs to start things off. Perhaps some would have wanted the Simple or Limb to go all Hulk-smash on everything, but that seems a little greedy after that second set.

The second set has the goods. Ghost very nearly replicates the 3.0 hallmark from MSG ’10. It makes the same major key modulation, has a nice motivic and melodic build from Trey, and eventually finds itself back in minor. The peak of 12.31.10’s is better, but this one gets a solid 4 more minutes of exploration afterwords that is prettay prettaaaay good. Theme continues to come out of its shell as the band willingly takes it to type-II territory. And type-II territory effortless morph’s into Cities. And in turn, the jam out of Cities almost effortlessly makes it’s way into Chalk Dust. The Cities > Chalk Dust segue is reminiscent of Tweezer > Julius from SB1, though slightly less patient.

The obvious willingness to jam everything in this set almost persuades me to actually call all the little atypical improvisations “jams” instead of lumping the improvisations in with the preceding song. Everything from about halfway through Ghost until Chalk Dust seems much more like one big jam with some songs to keep it grounded than a few songs that got jammed consecutively. Once the “song proper” is over, Theme and Cities quickly and unapologetically drop back into type II like type II never even left it. It’s pretty sweet. The sweetest thing about the set though is that they played Martian Monster. Bringing Halloween’s material to the table is incredibly exciting and, even though it was clear they weren’t quite sure what to do with it, anybody who objects to a late-set dance party is crazy.

Reinvigorated 2014 Phish really knocked my socks off; last night followed suit. This is seriously such an awesome time to be a fan and I look forward to these next three shows to cap off such a triumphant year!

So what are we supposed to make of this show, a show currently sporting a rating that would wedge it firmly in Summer 2009 territory, yet a show also sporting 4 jam chart entries (two, as of this writing, given the coveted green treatment) and boasting a second set that was being touted as one of the sets of 2014 as the clock ran out on 2014? We can most likely agree that a) the first set featured mostly standard (whatever that means) song selection, with the only true highlights a typical-for-3.0 funk-rock hybrid in Wolfman's and a pitch-black ASIHTOS that apes the 10/27/14 -7 in its "explore the usual envelope quite nicely" MO. We can also most likely agree that the third set loses a bit of gas after LxL and enters crowd-pleasing mode, which is certainly no great loss, as NYE third sets are generally not as improv-laden as their second set brethren (12/31/95 III is an exception, not the rule). But then you've got the second set and a glorious Tweezer to account for, and (IMO) that should be enough to turn the tide on this show's reputation.

Let's go with the Tweezer first - the jam out of Tweezer proper is lovely and pushed forward by Trey (who owns this show, it needs to be said). Page goes to the organ 8/19/12 Light style as Fish starts taking things down volume-wise, then Page hits upon a nice repeating pattern on the piano as they go into major-key and start playing something reminiscent of Golden Age (or, possibly, Manteca). Trey starts his own beautiful chord pattern as the jam turns gorgeously melodic (and a bit Cities-esque), then the group builds to a pretty nice peak before puddling into a beautiful, twinkly close. I would say this bad boy is at least on the level of the 7/13/14 version (the best of 2014 that wasn't a segue-fest, to my ears), and a heck of a jam to ring in 2015.

The second set - man, what a sequence of music. After Birds kicks things off (not a bad spot for it, actually), Ghost quickly moves from a disco-y beat into a superb up-tempo groove that morphs into a triumphant piece of hose, as powerful to my ears as the great Holy Ghost, thanks both to Trey really going off and Fish holding things down expertly. The jam dies away into gauziness, and Mike and Fish start to lead back into the Ghost ending, but Trey has other ideas, and instead keeps on riffing, which leads the band to pick the tempo back up and burst into one last triumphant piece of hose. It's such an unexpected, thrilling moment, and one of those things that can hook you to this band for life.

Theme comes up next, and even the plain old Theme between-choruses jamming is infused with a little extra magic, before right out of the final verse the band hits on some semi-deranged funkiness, bring out the "woo"s in a surprise moment, and then blast into some seriously dirty business as Page goes to work on the clavinet and Fish really shows off what a damn good drummer he is. Cities starts getting teased pretty early in the jam, but the jam starts turning muscular and reminiscent of The Birds, which leads Page to start breaking out the samples, but Trey knows a good idea when he hears one and we get a perfect segue into Cities. And Cities shows that the band still wanted to play, moving from sharp staccato Trey playing into a low-key James Brown groove and blooming into a warm and lovely final jam. Trey starts hinting into CDT, and we get an oddly fast version, and (apparently realizing they still had time on the clock) Trey honors his promise in the Boston Globe and Martian Monster triumphantly closes the set (the roar of the crowd at hearing the Narrator says everything you need to know about 10/31/14 II's reputation). Add it all up, and you've got a set that lives up to NYE's sterling reputation.

Final thoughts: I dunno what to tell you - there's a lot of music you might never listen to more than once, and a good deal of music that you are going to want to listen to again and again and again, along with a second set that shows off everything that makes 3.0 so great. That sounds like a dang good show to me.

Happy New Year!

2014 was a big year for me as I got married and began a new chapter in my life. Last night in South Florida, Phish slammed the door shut on 2014 with one hell of a show.

I was running late to the show, but entered American Airlines Arena just after the band started “Sample in a Jar.” The set started off with some solid type 1 jamming in both “The Wedge” and “555.” It was definitely a sign of things to come.

“Wolfman’s Brother” is a song I would love to see open a second set. Phish appeared very comfortable on stage last night as they took “Wolfman’s” for a nice ride down Biscayne Blvd. with plenty of funk to go around. I thought the jam peaked a tad early, but like I said, the band was just skimming the surface of their jamming prowess for the night.

After a rusty take on “Train Song,” the band launched a very impressive set closing version of Undermind‘s “A Song I Heard the Ocean Sing.” Here we saw the band take a very patient approach to the set closing song. I feel that sometimes Trey squeezes in one more song at the end of a set and it sometimes gets rushed to close. Not this time. The jam developed nicely before Trey brought the song full circle and the set to a close.

During set break, I tracked down my friend Jessica who was working at one of the Waterwheel tables and caught up with her. Jess was the very person I met through my blog and we have seen many shows together over the years.

The second set was simply magical.

“Birds of a Feather > Ghost > Theme From the Bottom > Cities > Chalk Dust Torture, Martian Monster”

I won’t go into much because the music did the talking and it deserves multiple re-listens. But in essence we got a “Ghost” with two jams, a “Theme” with a sick funk interlude that went type 2, a really good “Cities” and the band blasted the audience off into 2015 with the first “Martian Monster” since Halloween.

A few minutes before midnight, the band returned to the stage to perform the gospel tune “Dem Bones” a cappella. It was a really cool tune that I hope stays in the a cappella rotation. The prank was pretty lame.

After the traditional “Auld Lang Syne” at the stroke of midnight, the band launched into the second Thrilling, Chilling Sounds of the night, “The Dogs.” That was followed up by a nice three song segment of “Tweezer > Simple > Limb by Limb.” The final set ended with a rocking “Julius.” Slightly after 1 AM, The band returned for a two song encore with “Tweezer Reprise” bringing night one to an end.

Phish set the bar pretty high last night, but with all of the NYE hoopla out of the way, let’s see how far the band will blast us into outer space over the next three nights. I’m hoping that my trip won’t be that short.

The true story of this show was the Wolfman's, the Tweezer and the epic second set.

Birds of a Feather starting things off high-energy, but it was just a warm-up for the real meat of the show - Ghost > Theme -> Cities with some nice The Birds "they attack" screams in between. This was the sequence of the show and, in this writers opinion, this one sequence of three songs trumped all of Fall '14 except the Las Vegas run. The jamming throughout all three songs was particularly dancy and it was relentless - providing about 40 minutes of consistently upbeat jamming, punctuated by a short but powerful Chalkdust before giving way to exclamation point of the set: the return of Martian Monster - which is now officially and gloriously thrown into the list of great set closers. Happily, it appears the Disney album voice overs are actually programmed into one of Page's keyboards, so it looks like the Halloween songs - at least a few of them - are here to stay.

The New Years gag was good fun but probably sits low amongst the all-time gags list and in hindsight, there was nothing that could top the special moment they created for last year's 30th anniversary stunt. They didn't try to top that, but instead just gave us something simple to smile about. After debuting an acapella Dem Bones - a delightfully fun song that we've all known from the age of two but never knew the name of the song or its origin - the band engaged in playful banter as Fishman's vacuum sucked in Fishman's lips. The band tried in vain, even calling out stage hands to help, to no avail - before Fishman went backstage. At that point, referencing the all-time great movie Spaceballs (and the Mega Maid), Mike suggested that the vacuum be switched from "suck to blow" - which lead to the rest of the band chanting it. The blow resulted in a Fishman being blown up, resulting in a giant inflatable Fishman balloon arising from behind the drum set and floating over the crowd - dropping for the countdown and releasing donut shaped balloons. The description probably took longer to type than the stunt itself took. As a bonus, you could see up blowup Fishman's dress (spoiler: blowup was not anatomically correct).

After Auld Lang Syne - The Dogs was given the supreme Phish honor of starting 2015, joining a storied list of fan favorites including Chalkdust, Jim, Tweeprise, and Fuego amongst others. It was short and powerful and a delight to those of us who prayed the songs were here to stay.

Tweezer followed with perhaps its best outing of the year (not sure which year it should count as, but definitely the best outing of 2014). The jam is extraordinary, and again - continued the dance party theme of the night. It was a jam that forced your body to move. Simple and Limb by Limb rounded out another solid sequence before things began to slow down. Around Bug, Trey's voice seemed to tire and grow weaker and the rest of the show kind of wound down from there. By the time we reached Golgi - his voice was all but shot - but he made it through before Tweezer Reprise took us home - a happy ending to a solid show that had moments of spectacular in it.

The first set was rather unremarkable - but the Wolfman's - an unsung hero of the 3.0 first set - managed yet again to steal the set. This magnificent version is yet another must hear for the 3.0 heavyweight.

This was a great webcast. I had it in the background while whooping my in-laws at Scrabble. It got my mother-in-law dancing even though she's never heard Phish before. First set was OK. Second post-Ghost was amazing. Theme was jammed out a bit and had a funky extra drum beat. Cool segues throughout the show. Kissed my wife and her family woke up her dad during ALS. Great to hear Martian Monster and The Dogs again. Psyched for tonight.

From the couch on both wednesday and saturday, I'll keep my observations brief: This show is underrated.
The first set had better playing than it is being given credit for. The wolfman's and ASIHTOS are both top notch first set songs. The jamming on these was very good, and both managed to have the energy you'd want. In terms of set 2, I think it's the best set of the run. Ghosts has a LOT to offer, including TWO fantastic peaks. There was machine gun playing AND full band jams in this set. Theme>Cities was almost perfect, and both featured cool jamming too.

And the third set had that Tweezer which is nothing to laugh at. The highlights from this show were fantastic, and even some of the mid-level playing of this show (wolfmans and ASIHTOS) I'd relisten to for sure.

I think that this show has the best standalone set of the run, and is getting unfairly bashed because the first few songs of the show (of the run) weren't very tight. The show overall had more winners than any other night, but it got watered down because of the three sets. If the wolfman's, ghost, ASIHTOS, theme>cities and Tweezer were in a wednesday night 2 set show any other time of year, I think we all would have lost our collective minds and called it one of the best of 2014 (now 2015). Just my $0.02

In a 3 set show it's more about finding the 50 minutes of amazing then judging the show entirely. This night provided that and more. Couch tour or in person (GA for myself) Ghost --> Tweezer was exceptional!

Keeping that in mind as the band continues to play for our enjoyment (and has been now for the better part of a half century) what more are you really asking for?

This show is the prime example of what a good/great night sounds like for a group of guys in their 50's who still try and create a unique experience every night for their fans. So why not enjoy/embrace the limited time we have left because common sense should tell you that in the grand scheme of what's left for phish, this trip is short.

The whole show seemed like the band was being super patient with every song. The first set delivered some fairly standard tunes. Trey was using a different guitar (other than the one with the ocelot on the head) and I thought it was treating him very well through the first couple of songs. I guess he thought differently and after a trip to funk city during the Wolman’s jam he switched to the ocelot. The sunburst body of this guitar looked a little different than the usual ocelot that has been used for the majority of 3.0. Does anyone know if there is a difference?

ASIHTOS was also a highlight of the first set and ended a solid set that lacked the flow and it felt like there was more time in between songs than normal.

For the second set Trey ditches the collared shirt for a more relaxed look and Mike comes out in a scarf which means its about to go down and just like NYE 2012 Birds of A Feather started off the second set followed by a monster Ghost. I have never liked BOAF as a second set opener, but this one worked as a nice warm up for a 3 song run that basically makes the show and should all be considered noteworthy jams. Ghost takes its time to find the groove and then Kuroda lights up the audience behind the stage to kick the place into second gear. And then, Trey heats up and kills the rest of the song. Ghost started lingering so Trey starts up Theme. I wasn’t thrilled when I heard Theme starting up and I still wasn’t until the vocal breakdown in the middle of the song. Early on in the song Trey started tapping a foot pedal that made a hand clapping sound and I thought that might be a good sign. Sure enough after the “From From Froms” he started tapping again and Mike shifts it into hyper drive. Trey keeps tapping, but now with a different sound that leads the band through a superb jam. Right at the end of the jam it seems that Page wants to start The Birds and gives us some “They Attack” at the exact same time that Trey starts Cities. Trey was already committed so Page could only tease a little more of the recent Halloween favorite before giving way to the Talking Heads cover. Once again I was not thrilled with this song selection (at first). I don’t think of Cities as one of the 2nd set heavy hitters, but this one worked perfectly. Beautiful, Slow, Soft, Amazing jam that could have been stretched a little more, but got stopped short by a song that has recently been known to hit legendary status. This CDT is far from legendary. Trey holds the last note at the very end and I thought we were going to get a DWD. Instead, we get a weird ending and then another long break. You knew the guys had to be talking about something awesome that was about to happen. Bob Marley? Nope, YOUR TRIP IS SHORT! And Martian Monster came full force with all the sound effects.. This is a great ending to an incredible set. I thought the song was about to call it quits a couple different times until it caught new life and jammed even harder. The spaceship blasted off and we still have another set to go.

Third set: Dem Bones was awesome and I hope it’s not a one timer. Mike took lead on this fun little ditty that lead to a not so impressive NYE stunt. They got to show off their acting skills during the vacuum cleaner gag and I’m sure they are having a tough time coming up with new things after all these years. They get back in their playing positions when Mike starts an echoing “SUCK TO BLOW” chant. Then it goes dark with a loud pop that could be quickly confused for a gunshot. That’s when the heartbeat starts. For a split second I was thinking Dark Side of the Moon?!? Nope. Just midnight and a great version of the classic NYE song that slowly starts off another 30 minutes of solid relisten material. The Dogs fiercely cuts off Auld Lang Syne to really get this set going. Personally, I thought this song worked better as the meat in a segue sandwich like the last time it was played in between Light and Lengthwise. However, I’m not going to complain. I will take this song any way they want to bring it. The Dogs fit perfectly into a Tweezer that should not be overlooked when naming top songs of the show. This version builds up as patient as all the other songs to nicely fit the premise of the whole show.

Simple and Limb by Limb round out a strong trio of songs that will definitely get a relisten. Not too many more highlights to write about. Overall, I thought this was an excellent show and I can’t wait to hear what the next three nights have in store.

December 31st, 2014 was my first New Years Eve in warm climes – Miami in this case – and I hope it won’t be my last. I’ve spent one Christmas in warm weather, again in Florida, and while that was a great holiday I wouldn’t want to do it that way every year. Christmas just screams silent, snowy nights with Jack Frost nipping at noses but New Years Eve? Not so much.

Of course m’lady and I were in town for Phish. We were staying at the ultra-high class Intercontinental Hotel just a short walk from the venue. We went to Versailles for lunch (though Versailles is pretty much the most famous Cuban restaurant outside of Cuba it’s still Cuban food, which just isn’t overly flavourful) and brought some treats from their adjoining bakery/sweet shop back to the hotel.

We made the rounds meeting up with friends as they landed in town and checked into their own rooms. This was a bit of an odd run, in that NYE was the first of the four-night run instead of the last but everyone was pretty much in agreement that it could only be a good thing: with the big show coming up first at least everyone would be well-rested for it.

We had arrived in Miami without tickets to any of the shows. It’s not that tickets had been hard to come by, just the opposite. There were so many signs pointing to soft ticket sales we decided to take our chances on finding cheap tickets in the lot, and we were right. In shorts and a t-shirt and with a can of beer in my hand I scored a pair of NYE Phish tickets (well, two singles) out front of the venue for $10 each in no time flat. I feel I overpaid, but was still quite pleased with my purchase.

Inside we were treated to three great sets of music. I think anyone who was in the room specifically to witness one of the band’s famous NYE gags in person might have been disappointed. Instead of Cirque du Soleil-like acrobats descending from the ceiling or driving onstage in golf carts and pelting balls into the audience we got an inflatable Fishman flying from the stage to the ceiling. The gag had the drummer playing a vacuum solo when the switch on the vacuum cleaner accidentally gets flicked from “suck” to “blow”. Though the plastic inflatable was probably forty feet tall it looked pretty underwhelming floating through the cavernous room.

As uninspired as the schtick was the music was great, and every great song that the band didn’t play just meant it was still on the table for one of the coming three shows. That’s one of the great things about seeing one of these no-repeat bands on a multi-night run. Every song is an event that won’t come again and is generally appreciated as such, and there’s no disappointment if you didn’t hear your favourite song. It’s becomes a delayed-gratification thing.

After the show it was such a great feeling to walk out of the venue in shorts and a t-shirt and continue the New Years Eve celebration outside on a lovely warm evening. That is something I could get used to in a hurry.

Take that Jack Frost.

http://www.toddmanout.com

Where to start? Well, sadly Set I is/was absolute garbage as far as song choices. Given the band's first set plowdown on 10/31 this was initially very disappointing. I won't even talk about it more because I hated it so much, but I actually stalked right outside during KDF. I never leave during a set but this was pissing me off so much. Absolute shit. Thank GOD that was all about to change.

Set II starts off with a short Birds. At this point, I'm like "goddammit, is this NYE or are they just gonna completely lay an egg?" Phish then proceeds to bring out the GOLDEN HOSE, starting with Ghost and persisting throughout the second set. While the Ghost was hot, it is the Birds jam at the end of Theme and the transition to/performance of Cities that really got people screaming for the first time that night. Martian Monster is not as monstrous as it's debut version but DAMN was it well received!! At this point I had basically lost my voice from screaming already, and this after not screaming once during Set I.

Set III started with the same energy with the Suck/Blow Gag > Dogs > Tweezer. And it was quite a Tweezer, which Trey did not ripchord until almost 17 minutes in, thank god. Best I've seen since 1.0. While well played, the rest of Set III is nothing too super insane, and a couple too many slow songs to be called a classic. But by the end, Phish had brought IT to the table, leaving us wanting more. Fortunately, we would get it, as there were three more nights to make up for that garbage Set I. Really good show overall but somewhat uneven and not necessarily a super classic as far as NYE shows go. It still gets a 4 because when it brought the heat, it really brought it. Onward to 2015!