[Prologue]
Given that Phish always referred to their plan as being on an
indefinite hiatus, and not a break or even a break from touring, I wonder what
fans were thinking during the short period between 10/7/00 and the band
announcing on 8/14/02 that they were back for a ‘reunion’ show to take place on
12/31/02. That’s well over a year, and most of the band were busy with
sideprojects/solo stuff so it seemed conceivable the hiatus may be a few years
or more. Once the announcement was made it soon felt like Phish were back to
life for good, and that hiatus wasn’t so bad after all, was it? They quickly
recorded the Round Room album in October; December 10th it
was released. That’s already a hell of a lot of Phish activity to feed on
already. Less than a week later they would be on Saturday Night Live (12/14/02)
and a bit later appear on The Late Show With David Letterman (12/19/02). By
then it was less than two weeks until the band were back on stage at Madison
Square Garden, their perennial New Year’s Eve home. (Well..not always…)
Few could have predicted that this reunited band would last
less time than they had just been gone, to the tune of 593 days of the
post-hiatus/2.0 era vs 815 days of the hiatus itself. Maybe it was the jinx of
not appearing at MSG for New Year’s Eve ’03? Who knows. It’s really wild to
think that fans had more time to grieve the band’s absence the first time they
were gone than they did to enjoy their presence the second time around before another,
much (much) longer break-up.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s briefly talk about
the Round Room album and jump into the show.
[Round Room Digression]
I know the production/mastering doesn’t hold up the best,
since these were originally not intended to be fully finished studio tracks but
rather sort of preliminary recordings to help rehearse for the NYE run of
shows. So, yeah, the album does have a strangely artificial/digital and low-bitrate
texture to it that’s hard to describe. The closest I can approximate is the
weird instrument bleed and harsh cut-off at 4:42 on ‘Pebbles and Marbles’: hear
how Fishman’s cymbals seem to bleed over into Trey’s vocals and then as soon as
Trey’s vocal is faded down the cymbal-wash-bleedover abruptly stops and it
sounds choppy and unfinished? There’s a few other times on the album issues
like this crop up.
Yet in spite of this problem I have to say I’ve always loved
how raw and ‘live in the studio’ the album does sound and feel; it’s almost
like they’re being picked up by a couple room microphones, giving the music a
true sense of space and natural room reverb. If I recall correctly, too,
outside of ‘Union Federal’, a bonus ‘live’ track from Junta, this is the
first studio album with full-on jams included—‘Seven Below’ and ’46 Days’ may
not break the ten minute mark but they ‘feel’ like live Phish instead of studio
Phish, if that makes sense. And ‘Waves’ is such a satisfying and epic journey
of a closer, almost like ‘Piper’ and ‘Prince Caspian’ had a baby. I was tickled
to see it got released on vinyl for the first time recently, I bet some of the
digital/not-intended-for-release-initially audio quality issues would be masked
by that format’s legendary/cliched “warm” sound.
[Set One]
Piper- I certainly wouldn’t have predicted this to be the
song they’d end the hiatus with but here we are. The hype and energy in the
building must’ve been insane there in person; it really comes across on the
recording how continuously excited and surprised the crowd was. This ‘Piper’
ends up being a lengthy one, as if they were trying to prove a point—"we
can still play, don’t worry!” On first listen this jam really surprised me and
gave me flashes of the high energy Trey-led shredding of the post-‘Suzy’ jam
from 9/14/00. While I think taken in isolation it’s a really good type I jam
it’s never going to be in my top ten versions for this reason. It’s more the
momentousness of the band choosing this as the first song back and jamming it
out so long that makes it a potential for others’ lists. Still, easily one of
the show’s highlights, in terms of what they played and what it represented.
Guyute- I think I’m in the minority on this one but I would
treat this song as a piss break song if I ever caught it live. It’s just always
been my least favorite of the proggy compositional songs and I feel like it
shows up on an oddly high percentage of official live releases. Anyway, my
grumbling aside, they mostly play this well. It isn’t as sharp as late 90s
versions but it’s tighter than some of the future 2.0 versions I recall being
painful. I’m happy it seems to have become a true rarity in modern times.
NICU- Perfect placement as a light comedown from the dense
‘Guyute.’ Trey sure enjoys yelling for Leo!
Horn- Good ballad placement for the most part. I’ve always
felt like this song and ‘Sample In A Jar’ are the sort of songs I see on a
setlist and I’m a little bummed but then when I experience them in the flow of
a set/show, they always get me. ‘Horn’ is underrated!
Wilson- Some shenanigans involving Page’s brother and clips
from the movie Castaway during this version. In person this was probably
funny and perplexing; at home if you only have the audio it’s just perplexing
unless you read the show notes. A fun version otherwise. Trey REALLY belts out
“can you still have fun?!” part like a madman.
Mound- The older I get the more I appreciate Mike as a
musician and a writer. It used to be I could take or leave ‘Mound’ but I was
surprised how much I popped when it showed up in this show. (I do a blind
listen of each show to start out). Not a perfectly tight version of ‘Mound’ but
Mike is on point here and throughout the show. Apparently it hadn’t been played
since 1996 so a huge bustout…but the biggest bustout of the year was yet to
come, just not until February. Wink wink, nudge nudge, touch nose.
The Squirming Coil- It’s so very Phish that on the studio
album this song is the first track but in most concert appearances it’s a set
closer. I love how it’s sort of a mix of prog rock song and a ballad. As ever,
Page is one of the most reliable soloists you’ll ever hear. No exaggeration, he
nails this solo every version I’ve ever heard.
David Bowie- This ‘Bowie’ starts off pretty quiet during the
spacey loop intro and it’s a bit abrupt compared to some ‘Bowie’ intros but eh,
what’re you gunna do? Given the reputation of 2.0 I was on high alert to detect
any flubs and I think they executed it pretty well. I have to grant that they
were on hiatus and as such can be given a reset on repeats but, like…they just
played ‘Bowie’ at the last show, 10/7/00. That said I think this one is better
overall….so I retract my complaint. Around 6:45 it sounds like Trey is teasing
‘Dave’s Energy Guide’ though I see nobody else mention this online so maybe I’m
hearing things. Around 8:30 another big tease of it, I could swear. They really
crush the ending of this ‘Bowie’, too—you can tell they really missed playing
together. No stage banter after the song, just straight into setbreak.
As the first set back after the hiatus, expectations were
likely very high and very flexible depending on how rusty the band turned out
to be after a couple songs. Trying to put myself in the shoes of a fan at the
time, I think this set would’ve mostly delivered, giving us a bit of everything
we love about the band other than segues or truly deep jams. Certain songs you
could tell were rehearsed better than others but overall I think it was a decent
opener for a three set show. Featuring no new songs, set one played to pleasing
the hardcore fans and giving us a bit of improv goodness in the ‘Piper’ opener
and ‘Bowie’ closer. It would be nice to get another couple jams, or even one
big type II experience, though I’m expecting not to see much of that until the
Winter tour proper in February ’03. NYE shows are generally more about the
spectacle and celebrating the previous year, and in this case we’re also
celebrating the return of the band, so it makes sense if that ends up being the
focus of all the New Year’s run of shows.
[Setbreak One]
I’ve been casting about trying out a couple games recently
but neither one truly hooked me. Figured I’d share my quick thoughts for both
of these setbreaks just in case it interests anyone.
Cosmic Star Heroine looks and feels like someone put Phantasy
Star IV and Chrono Trigger into a blender but for me the results are
nowhere near as good as that formula suggests. I really wanted to love this
game because I’ve been a fan of the Penny Arcade games the developer worked on
in the past, and I think the writing/dialogue is better than the average
retro-inspired RPG, yet I can’t shake the feeling that the gameplay depth comes
purely from if you play on the harder difficulty and get really fiddly tinkery
with the party build, equipment/skills, etc. In some games I enjoy this but in Cosmic
Star Heroine I feel it’s not fun, like at all. The aesthetics don’t help
the game’s case; the music is either ‘pretty good’ or ‘irritating and too
ambient’, and the overall design style of the characters, the world, and the
color palette choices mean it’s not only kind of ugly to look at but on the
world map and dungeon areas it can be hard to see where you can and can’t go.
Your mileage may vary. I gave it about seven hours and I was out.
[Set Two]
Waves- Ah, so here comes the new songs. I’m excited to hear
another jammed out set opener even if it does stick to the type I template of
the studio version until the final minute or two. This is the sort of
performance of a song that if you see it in person you really enjoy it and
immediately forget about it because just as the jam is entering type II
territory it goes into the next song instead. However, this mini-type II jam
provides a glimpse into Phish finding its new jam style. The use of effects and
instruments and the overall ‘feel’ of this jam is halfway between the ‘99/’00 loop
heavy ambient-groove style and what would come in ‘03/’04 with the dark,
spacey, abstract jams. This 2.0 jam style feels as nascent as could be here, as
if they’re throwing a lot of sounds at the wall and seeing what works together
before Trey kills it and begins the next song. Still…you can sense some attempt
to push into new territory and find a new way. Or ways.
Divided Sky- This is where I have to address Trey’s 2.0
guitar tone. Forgive me if I’ve said this before but I’m of mixed opinions,
since I think it sounds great with the new material of 2003 and 2004, studio
and otherwise, but with the older material which sometimes had more
delicate/quiet sections, it sounds too raw and with too much distortion and
‘attack’ to it. By contrast Mike’s bass is also different yet just as good as
the beloved ’97 to ’00 era; his tone still sounds full and bright and clear,
with a fat bottom end, but this time it’s also got more of a bounce and
borderline-vocal quality to it. Eh, maybe that’s all just me, though. Trey’s
tone doesn’t really ruin these kind of songs with pretty composed elements,
just not my preferred of his tones for them. The two minute pause is
interesting both for its duration and the sounds I vaguely hear—is it just me
or does anyone else hear what sounds like Page holding down an organ note for
awhile in there with a softened sound that is swallowed up in the crowd roar?
At any rate, I think this version is a good example of the ups and downs of 2.0
Phish. There’s a few obvious flubs by Trey in the post-pause section that take
me out of it, but in-person I’d have to imagine the ending jam/solo section
brought the house down because it is absolutely demolished by all four
men.
Lawn Boy- Perfect placement for this song! Felt for a second
like Page wasn’t sure if Mike was going to take the solo or not but he was
definitely feeling it when he got going. Modern fans will always think of the
Baker’s Dozen “is this still Lawn Boy?” jammed out version but for me I’ll
always think of the Slip, Stitch and Pass version.
Carini- Now here’s an older song that sounds better with
Trey’s new guitar tone…This is another of those songs that used to bug me
because I found it too nonsense/in-jokey and predictable but I’ve come around
to it. It helps that nowadays it’s graduated into a regular jam vehicle instead
of a rare one. Around 4:00 Mike gets a bit active leading the jam. Trey throws
on all kinds of swampy guitar effects as he and Page fill the foreground. Page
in particular seems to be trying out some of his new gear during this jam, and
simultaneously I’m noticing how Trey’s dominant “throw down some delay loops at
the start of every jam” phase from ’98 to ’00 has started to come to a
definitive end with this show. Around 7:15 Page starts to really cook on
piano—hard to pick out in the mix however—while Fishman starts to hit those
splash cymbals that to me always feel like he’s trying to get the attention of
the rest of the band to either change tempo or get back to the main ‘body’ of a
song. Like the ‘Piper’ and ‘Waves’ jams this didn’t go far out though I will
say I enjoyed it more on subsequent listens than I did my first blind listen.
Rift- Hoo boy this was a rough one. It sounds like at least
one or two guys are half a beat too early or late, and the vocals are top
flight speak-sing Trey. Say what you will about Trey doing professional vocal
training the last few years, I prefer the new approach over the sometimes
half-hearted stuff of 2.0. Anyway, Page plays a lovely solo like usual and they
get more in-sync as the song goes on but that ending is once again quite rough.
Trey sounds like he’s playing in the wrong key or something, and Fishman or
someone is rushing them a bit. They didn’t sound too rusty up til now so maybe
they just hadn’t practiced this one much if at all and someone called this in
the moment without consulting with the others.
Harry Hood- Another set, another two-in-a-row of songs that
usually end sets. Regardless, how can you complain about this song no matter
where it shows up? Phish obviously love it as much as we do and this version
gets a lively, active intro/reggae sequence including some gnarly new-sounding
guitar loops from Trey. It’s a minority opinion but I’ll address it now: I love
audiences singing “Hood!” back to the band. I know that’s not how the original
is “supposed” to sound but it’s weird to me when I hear early versions without
the call-and-response. At 5:00 Mike turns on a new synth-bass effect that we’ll
be hearing more of in the shows to come, and I will always love it. Otherwise,
yeah, what else to say? It’s a good ‘Hood.’ Everytime I hear one I’m like “holy
shit this version is fire!” and then the next one I get to I’m like “holy shit,
this version is amazing!” and then the next one…you get the idea. It’s a
never-fail song.
Character Zero- This song still has its haters but the era
of it feeling like it ended every other set for years in a row has long been
over. For me it’ll always be a mood dependent song. If I heard it live I’d
probably get into it in the moment. On Billy Breathes it always works
well for me. Listening to a show at home…eh, it depends. In this case it’s a
little of a softened blow because it feels like a bit of a bonus song after the
preceding ‘Hood.’ It sounds like Trey is playing the intro in the wrong key or
something, something is definitely off and it feels like nobody is
acknowledging it or correcting it. So maybe it’s just me? I dunno something
weird going on. Some of the vocals seem a bit off and mistimed. Perhaps like
‘Rift’ another case of not practicing it or not practicing it enough?
Overall set two is more up and down than the first. I did
appreciate the ‘Waves’ and ‘Carini’ jams, and most of the songs were played
with passion and fire, but there were some obvious flubs and some awkward
vocals sprinkled throughout to bring it down a notch or two. All that said,
it’s still overall an enjoyable set even if it does have a touch of “set one
part two” instead of the usual big moments/jams that we tend to associate with
set two. NYE shows are a different beast, being three sets, so we’ll see what
awaits later.
[Setbreak Two]
The other game I tried out was Dragon’s Dogma: Dark
Arisen. This was an experience that, for the first hour or two, I was
convinced I was going to love the game. It has just the right mixture of ideas
from other games and yet makes them all its own, and the janky-fun to
janky-aggravating scale was firmly toward the former than the latter. But about
five to seven hours in I began to experience more janky-aggravating things, and
I wasn’t loving how combat “felt”—and no, I wasn’t expecting it to be like Dark
Souls! Anyway, I got far enough to see what others were able to love about
it, but nowadays I just don’t have the patience to give a game more than 10
hours of my time if I’m not feeling at least a little hooked.
[Set Three]
Sample In A Jar- What a weird choice for a set opener! The
only thing I can think is somebody REALLY wanted to play it or they knew the
timing for the NYE Countdown gag was going to be off so they had to play
something short-ish to stall.
Seven Below- Another debut; happy to see right out of the
gate they were mixing in new material in logical places. After spending the
first two sets largely revisiting the past it was a good decision from a ‘shows
as a storytelling device’ to do the NYE gag with this song. You can read about
this gag online, but you’d have no clue anything was going on just from the
audio—other than some of the ‘dancers’ who were on stage continually popping
balloons through the next song or two. Anyway, this very first ‘Seven Below’ is
a pretty good type I jam. Perhaps playing it a bit safe here, this song would
definitely go on to be a jam vehicle in the not-too-distant future. It’s always
kind of been an unpopular opinion of mine that having these NYE gags during
songs kind of ruins the musical moment. In this instance it’s pretty clear if
they didn’t need to suddenly do the countdown they’d have kept the jam going.
Auld Lang Syne- You know, they should play this just once at
a non-NYE show just to fuck with people. Nothing else to say. Just as ‘Seven
Below’ abruptly did a non-full-segue into this song, it in turn does an abrupt
segue into…
Runaway Jim- I will preface this by saying I’m not too
familiar with other big jam versions of this song, but this was probably my
surprise of the night, beyond the jammed out ‘Piper’ show opener. Trey is
clearly amused by the ‘dancers’ popping balloons since he drops a few lyrics
here or there and chuckles audibly into the mic. Mike comes out strong early in
this version, and yet again demonstrates that, I’d argue, more than any other
member of the band his musicianship and overall confidence have taken another
step forward with post-hiatus/2.0 Phish. As Trey messes around with some drones
and his pedals Mike does this cool bubbling bassline that nobody else seems to
pick up on, but I dug. It almost feels as if Trey is trying to do something
along the lines of My Bloody Valentine with noisy guitar loops over each other.
It starts to suffocate the jam and Mike keeps trying to hold down the forward
movement and give us some kind of a melody to follow. Around 5:25 Trey finally
relents and the clouds clear; Fishman starts to vary the beat and we head into
type II weird jam territory for a bit. Fishman continues to play a lot of busy
fills and tumbles in the background as Page doggedly stays on piano to try to
center the jam. Around 7:30 Mike begins to insert himself again, adding a
bouncey groove to the somewhat aimless Trey and Page textures. The latter
finally switches to the clavinet or other keyboard around 8:20 and we get a bit
funkier. Around 8:53 Trey puts down a few classic ‘99/’00 guitar delay loops
and plays in the upper register with the pitch shifter pedal. Though this jam
has more active and melodic presence from Mike, it really starts to sound like
a classic ’00 space/ambient jam a la 6/14/00 at times. You can tell they’re
still getting a feel for a new jam style as the jam winds down and we slowly do
a full-on segue into…
Time Loves A Hero- This segment of Runaway Jim -> Time
Loves A Hero is a clear highlight of the set, and the show as a whole. No, it’s
not the tightest cover that Phish has done, but in the spirit of the moment and
the band doing a classic Phish-style “big jam into unexpected cover” moment,
it’s a fantastic, fun exemplar of the type. Some cool keyboard sounds from Page
at the end. There’s dead air for a minute or two; you can faintly hear the band
talking to each other on the LivePhish official tapes but I can’t make anything
out.
Taste- Given how long it took the band to figure out the
lyrics and arrangement for this song, I feel bad in saying that it’s one of
those songs that I love on the album but live it never sounds quite precise
enough and musically I find it sounds…labored over. This first 2.0 performance
is a bit loose in places though it does come across that the band are excited
to play this material for the first time in two years or more. I’m happy to be
proven wrong about this next notion, but some of my blah attitude toward
‘Taste’ is that, on the surface it sounds and feels like a big jam vehicle, but
I’ve never known it to be. At least all the 90s versions I’ve heard are the
same thing over and over, like ‘Theme From The Bottom’ but with polyrhythms. 2.0
represents a unique time for Phish in that they were starting fresh in some
ways, so they sometimes would take non-jam songs out for a ride. This ‘Taste’
isn’t really that, though in a couple moments it flirts with voyaging a bit
out-there. Around the 8:30 mark is the sort of Phish jamming that I’d be
digging if I was there seeing it live, dancing and going nuts with the crowd,
but on tape it gets boring by the time you’ve heard it once during a show
already, and will probably hear at least once more.
Strange Design- How can you not love a Page-sung ballad?
Dude is just the most consistent member of Phish in so many ways. Pretty good
set placement too. Give us a bit of a breather before a big rager of a set
closer.
Walls Of The Cave- Just planting this here: my first show,
10/11/23, had a set one closer of this song and I could swear I heard a clear
‘Dave’s Energy Guide’ quote from Trey at one point but I don’t see anyone else
saying this online. Want to make sure I remember when the time comes. Anyway!
Another new song debut. I’ve always liked this song though on Round Room
I feel its thunder is stolen by ‘Waves’ as the album closer. This song is
absolutely one that helps define the 2.0 era—you can tell the crowd is digging
it when they start clapping along in the intro. Despite what people seemed to
say online at the time, crowds responded well to the new material, at least if
the audience cheers and interaction from this show are anything to go by. Not
necessarily musically but this song fills the same spots songs like ‘Harry
Hood’ or ‘Slave To The Traffic Light’ do, often as set closers or
close-to-set-closers, non-ballads but with some pretty parts in the composed
intro sections. ‘Walls Of The Cave’ winds through a few sections before
catapulting itself into a big guitar rock jam, and we get the first of many
versions that stick to this template. Well, mostly this sticks to it. There is flirting
with a type II, non-standard version of this song from 10:00 to 16:30 but during
this jam section they either never fully commit to one idea for too long or they’re
all kind of pulling in different directions. Feels like the ‘Waves’ jam from
earlier, one of those “throw everything at the wall and see what sticks, switch
between different keyboards and effects pedals and textures/rhythms
arbitrarily” jams that doesn’t ever show up on lists of best versions. Anyway,
they bring it back around and close out the song with a reprise of the chorus.
Another good initial version that like the ‘Runaway Jim’ and ‘Seven Below’ jams
hints at potential but didn’t deliver all of the goods.
Wading In The Velvet Sea- Certainly wasn’t expecting this
for the encore and show closer. Really thought they’d play at least two songs,
and no serious ballad songs at the very least. Someone—Trey?—comes in too early
on vocals but quickly corrects himself. That said, hey, it’s another Page-sung
ballad. And even though Coventry has always cast a shadow over this song, I
will say that this performance was really well done and I won’t let Coventry
psyche me out so early in this process.
Set three and the encore, while not lighting the world on
fire, were quite enjoyable and mostly well played. During some of the jams
there are clear hints of what was to come in the future, even if the jam style
wasn’t quite formed yet. The Runaway Jim -> Time Loves A Hero is an early
2.0 highlight, and the ‘Walls Of The Cave’ debut surely hints at its potential
in the future, as both a set closer/show closer and a possible jam
vehicle—we’ll have to see on the latter, because at least in my memory it never
is one. But I digress.
[Final Verdict]
Though I had some criticisms here or there over the course
of the epic three set show, I mostly walked away from this show feeling good,
like I had a good time. It feels like a very NYE show, focusing on the
moment and having fun but not getting too deep into jams or rarities and
whatnot. I think NYE ’02 has a little bit of everything that people love about
Phish, and it is without question a historic show. For my final score, I’m
going with a 4 out of 5. To tip the scale I feel I needed either one of the jams
to truly have gone type II and gotten somewhere new or at least deep, or for
there to have been a few more segments like the Runaway Jim -> Time Loves A
Hero. All of that said, if I were a fan at the time, I’d have walked out of
this show feeling intensely optimistic about the future. Overall it’s a better
show than 10/7/00, I’ll say that much. If I was there in person as a fan after
waiting more than two years for Phish, I’m sure it’d be a 5 out of 5.
[Highlights]
Set One: ‘Piper’ jammed out opener, rare bustout ‘Mound’,
‘David Bowie’ set closer
Set Two: ‘Waves’ had a promising debut, pretty good ‘Carini’
Set Three: ‘Seven Below’ had good jam until cutoff by NYE gag, Runaway Jim -> Time Loves A Hero is an early 2.0 highlight, ‘Walls Of The Cave’ had promising debut.
