[Prologue]
After a most satisfactory reunion show, Phish took a day off
to recover and travel to Virginia for a very rare post-NYE three show run at
the venue perhaps most associated with them, Hampton Coliseum. Indeed, I wonder
if some fans and/or the band saw these shows as the “real” reunion. The big
pressure was off, the press attention was over (apparently some news outlets
really thought Tom Hanks appeared on NYE), and it was time to have the
first—for lack of a better term—normal show.
[Set One]
Chalk Dust Torture- You know, this is one of those
utilitarian songs in Phish’s catalogue that they use as everything but a
ballad: it can open a show or set, it can close a show or set, it can be a jam
vehicle, it can be a setup for a great segue, it can help the energy level come
up or go down…As it happens on this night, it’s a jam vehicle! Now, this wasn’t
the first true jammed out, type II version of ‘Chalk Dust Torture’ but it does
give us another dose of Phish finding their footing in group improvisation
again. It’s a standard version until about 4:18 when you can start to feel they
might be doing something a bit different. After returning to somewhat standard
jam fare, around 5:00 there’s a big cheer from the audience—not sure what
that’s about. At 5:22 Page starts playing some oblique piano notes, dancing in
and out of the rest of the band, and Trey responds at 6:00 with guitar groans
and noise as Mike starts to play some warped rhythmic lines. The band again
tease going into type II and at 7:22 Trey steps back from the jam almost
entirely for a few seconds—probably fiddling with pedals. Ah, yep, there’s the
pitch shifter pedal. Mike is playing mostly as texture in the background here;
Page jumps on the clavinet. By 9:00 they still haven’t hit upon something that
everyone engages with, they start to feel like they’re all going in different
directions and not in a fun way. At 9:53 we suddenly get quiet and ambient, as
though a fog suddenly settled over the crowd and stage. Trey continues to play
with his effects pedals and puts down a couple subtle loops. I think this
‘Chalk Dust Torture’ jam is one of those exemplars of the notion that just
because a jam is long doesn’t mean it’s good. It’s also another time you can
see them pushing to discover the 2.0 jam style; around 11:57 they almost get
somewhere before Trey at 12:18 brings us suddenly back to the standard CDT ‘big
rock jam’ ending. All in all it was an interesting jam and show opener but
unlike NYE’s ‘Piper’, this one never really gels into something enjoyable and
memorable.
Bathtub Gin- Setlists I see online say there’s a > segue
into this from ‘CDT’ but that’s a bald-faced lie. Pedantic, I know, but it had
to be said. ANYWAY. I guess we aren’t fucking around if they’re following an
exploratory ‘CDT’ show opener with ‘Bathtub Gin.’ It’s worth noting that the
unfairly derided Hampton ’04 show opens with a ‘CDT’/’Gin’ jammed out one-two
punch show opener as well. I’m assuming it has to be intentional and something
I never noticed until I listened to this show. ANYWAY! Who doesn’t love
‘Bathtub Gin’? It never disappoints and it’s never not one of the big
jams of the night. It’s like when you hear a ‘Tweezer’ or ‘Ghost’ start up,
it’s always like, oh fuck yes, here we GO! This ‘Gin’ starts off in
typical upbeat, Trey swirling guitar lines-led style. Around 6:00 he steps back
briefly as Page hits upon a pretty little filigree melodic lines. At 6:36 we
get some funky, chunky sounds from Trey and Mike and Fishman keep the engine
powered in the background. Page on funky organ at 7:08ish and it’s starting to
feel like ’97 in Hampton Coliseum. 8:05 shows us why Mike is so damn good, with
an amazing funky lead line. It starts to feel like they’re maybe jamming on a
song or quoting something but I can’t tell what, if anything. Mike is still
going strong at 10:00 while the rest of the band continues a fairly standard
type I ‘Gin’ jam. Nothing wrong with that, though. It’s about the journey, not
the destination, when it comes to ‘Gin’ and actual gin. Around 10:55 Trey plays
around with the main ‘Gin’ melody, perhaps leading to an end to the song, but
it turns out to be one of those ‘resetting’ revisits of the song’s melody or
chorus to get the jam going in another direction. At 12:00 almost exactly,
spiraling Trey guitar uplifting lines like he loves to do in the ’bliss’ jams
of a ‘Ghost’ or ‘Weekapaug Groove.’ Around 13:00 Trey starts to really catch
fire and play slide guitar-sounding lines with a chorus pedal or something
going on and off as he jams. We enjoy this vibe for a few minutes until they
break back into ‘Gin’ and bring it to a close. All in all, a decent if somewhat
standard issue ‘Gin.’ It gets the job done but you wouldn’t serve it to your
friends as your best stock.
It's Ice- Trey cracks a joke about the NYE Tom Hanks
incident before the song begins. It’s pretty amusing but his clumsy playing of
this song’s intro isn’t amusing. One of my unfortunate memories of the 2.0 era
is how sometimes it feels like he either just stops playing or only plays the
‘easier’ parts of a song while the rest of the band have to make up for him.
And it’s really a shame because I love ‘It’s Ice’—it’s one of those Phish songs
that they seem to play just often enough that people know it but still rarely
enough that nobody gets sick of it. Well, thankfully, Trey eventually recovers
his skills after a few minutes. At 5:00ish we get the spacey/ambient section
that is often a bit type II-y around the edges, though I’d have preferred it go
on longer and not end with a jarring snare drum hit. A standard, somewhat short
‘It’s Ice’ that wasn’t particularly well played in the first few minutes. Hmmmph.
Back On The Train- Were I a fan going to shows in the ’03
era, I would’ve been looking forward to further performances of this song,
since it seems like such a natural jam vehicle but has only occasionally been
so. This version starts off with a loose, jammy intro until Trey counts off and
they lock in to the groove. Big cheers at the first “took me a long time to get
back on the train” lyric, as you might imagine. Trey’s solo around 2:15 is
prime 2.0 wonkiness. His guitar tone is muffled and distorted, he seems to
stumble at what he’s playing a couple times…it kind of sounds cool and it kind
of doesn’t at the same time. Around 4:45 we start to head into a direction that
brings to mind the beloved 6/14/00 and 2/28/03 versions, patient and mid-tempo
grooves with Trey, Page, and Mike interweaving in a top flight type I jam. At
just over 11 minutes this version is definitely a jammy one, though I have to
say it’s still bested by the two I mentioned a bit ago. But it’s a case of
those being 5s and this one by comparison is more like a 4. All of that said,
I’m happy with how jam heavy this first set is so far. Even if none of them are
among the best of all time or for the year even, the jams have been flowing
steadily.
Round Room- They need to play this song more, god damnit.
It’s such a fun song in and of itself, and I’m already going to bring up the
fan-fucking-tastic 2/16/03 jammed out version, thankyouverymuch, and I’m
really looking forward to seeing what they do with it in the 3.0/4.0 eras. Also
I didn’t think about this until just now, but I think it says a lot that their
new album was named after this Mike song. I’m trying to think if any of the
others were named after a song by him? Feels like Trey and the guys were being
really respectful of him as a fellow artist. Anyway, it’s well played and Page
does a pretty good job reproducing the weird keyboard sounds at the end from
the album version. Kinda like with ‘Fee’, which sometimes has a bright/calm
melodic jam at the end, this one has that feel but with more spacey sounds from
Trey and Page. Feels like they’re experimenting with how they want to end this
one because Page keeps blasting away with different synth/keyboard sounds until
they just all stop. Gotta say, a pretty cool version altogether even if 2/16/03
is my current GOAT.
The Horse- Can I yet again shock you with an opinion? I
don’t really understand why this song and ‘Silent In The Morning’ are
separated. “But it means they can potentially perform something else in
between, or out of order!” you cry. Well, they could still do that, they’ve
done it before with single songs. I know, it’s hugely unimportant but it’s
always bugged me for some reason. Not much to say here. It’s well played.
Silent In The Morning- It’s well played. Crowd cheers and
Page smiles as he sings “just last year!” I have to give the band credit, the
vocals are well done. See, not all 2.0 era Phish has off-vocals or badly
played composed sections. What I will say, though, is….again, I don’t think
Trey’s new guitar tone works super well with the ballads. It’s too raspy and
distorted sounding through some of ‘Silent’. Just a personal preference,
though.
Stash- ‘Round Room’ through ‘Silent’ was a nicely played
comedown after the jams. This takes us back to jam territory. I was a little
nervous about hearing a 2.0 ‘Stash’ though I yet again have to give the band
credit: I think they mostly nailed this one. Before I get to the jam I have to
say, it was around this time in the set I thought “huh this must be the closer,
this set is starting to feel a bit long.” Turns out set one of this show is a
potent hour and a half, which is longer than any of the NYE sets by at least 20
minutes. And with a band like Phish, whether it’s in a good or bad way for you,
dear individual, you really do feel when a set starts to get long.
ANYWAY back to the jam. Some excellent type I ‘Stash’ jamming early on; around
6:44 Trey starts an amazing bit of guitar work. I’ll always say for the guy
during 2.0, he may slop it up in the composed sections but his improvising
abilities rarely wavered. I love how out of control really great ‘Stash’ type I
jams can feel, with time and rhythm playing havoc with my ears, and this one
adds in a dash of Trey effects pedal goodness. If I pay attention to certain
times of the 2.0 era I can clearly hear the Kevin Shields/My Bloody Valentine
influence that Trey has talked about. Much like the NYE ‘David Bowie’ this one
doesn’t reinvent the wheel but is a satisfying ‘standard’ version. I always
hope for a ‘Manteca’ with my ‘Stash’ but this time the crab was firmly not
in my shoemouth.
Water In The Sky- Even on the LivePhish app version of this
official release, there’s an audible fadeout/fade-in between ‘Stash’ and this
song. I don’t really know why unless someone uploaded a 3 CD version of this
show or something? ANYWAY I like this song. It’s refreshing and light, like
drinking a wheat beer outside on a Summer afternoon.
Character Zero- I don’t know why it is but when I listened
to this show for my initial blind listen not looking at the setlist, I thought
they had just played this on NYE. But nope, they couldn’t have, they
never do repeats. And they certainly wouldn’t repeat the same song also in the
same slot, as a set closer. OH WAIT NO THEY FUCKING DID. I don’t even dislike
this song but god damn that’s just lazy. Like did they forget they had played
it last time, and it was in the same slot? Are they fucked up on drugs or
trolling us? Am I overthinking this? I dunno. But I’ll be honest, if I was a
fan at the time, I’d have been pissing and moaning about it to everybody at
setbreak. It’s so hard to care about this song unless you’re really drunk or
you haven’t heard it in awhile. It bores the piss out of me if it’s not a
non-standard version. Actually, you know what? I’m putting a “fuck this song”
sign up for now and will refuse to talk about this song in future shows with
more than a sentence or a shrug. This is my own personal ‘Prince Caspian’ for
the foreseeable future.
Set one of this show is sure something. It’s long,
front-loaded with mostly jams. It has some flubby/bad playing at times. It ends
with a repeat song from NYE, a song that sucks for me for now. But, overally,
in pure musical terms this set was the best so far in 2.0. Some great
playing and promising potential jams on the horizon, if it’s anything to go by.
[Setbreak]
I was struggling to think of what to write about for this
one because I haven’t been focused on too much other than random YouTube
content and Phish. Furthermore, a couple of the movies I watched for the first
time were so excellent I want to possibly write a longform piece about them,
someday, instead of the short blurbs I usually do for the setbreaks. Lucky for
me a song randomly popped into my head on the drive to work today and I was
reminded of an album I haven’t listened to in what feels like a decade, Casino
Vs. Japan’s Go Hawaii. This record was introduced to me by someone I’m
no longer friends with (long story, but aren’t they always?) based on my
obsession with the first two Boards Of Canada albums. It’s totally in that
wheelhouse, down to the oddly unnerving child vocal samples. Still, it’s a
great little ambient-ish IDM album in the BoC style, and the opening track
‘Theme’ is a banger.
[Set Two]
46 Days- I was excited they played this song so early in the
2.0 run. It’s one of the songs that both band and audience really connect with,
and when they do jam it out, it goes some interesting places. But it’s also the
kind of song that can just be 7 to 9 minutes and serve as a rocking type I jam
that Trey can go nuts on. Imagine my surprise when the very first version
played goes for it! Jam starts in earnest around 8:12. Bit of a preview of the
2.0 ambient jamming style for a few seconds until Trey starts playing some twirling
leads and the band is poised to go with him. For a few minutes we float in
place, a spacey psychedelic jam complete with gooey Page keyboard sounds and
Mike’s deep but foggy bass bubbling up and down in the background. Trey noodles
around with some repetitive guitar phrases, unsure of what he really wants to
do At 12:55 Fishman becomes more active and spurs the band forward, the tempo
increasing a bit at a time. By 13:30 we’re cooking back into a rock jam, with
Page taking lead on organ as Trey comps along on guitar. Mike is the secret
weapon, keeping on the beat with Fishman but responding subtly to Page and
Trey, too. Around 14:26 I start to think we’re about to segue into ‘Birds Of A
Feather’ though instead Phish continue to hasten the pace and Trey coats his
guitar in dirty, raw effects sounds. We keep chugging along on this distorted
funky rock jam with Mike and Page taking the reins as Trey’s guitar continues
to self-destruct. Round about 19:00 it starts to become clear we’re headed
somewhere, whether it’s a segue into another song or the band bringing up the
energy to finish the song. Around 19:47 excellent Fishman and Page interplay.
Soon Trey is playing some big obvious chords as if trying to signal something
to the band. They must sense what I’m not getting because the sort-of-segue
into the next song, where everyone else stops playing and Trey starts up
‘Simple’, doesn’t sound as clumsy as I probably just made it out to be.
Simple- This song just gets better with time in terms of
jamming vehicle. This performance though…Well, there’s a roughness to this
performance that feels more like “we haven’t practiced this much recently” than
it does the usual 2.0 sloppiness. Around 2:55 Page fucks up the lyrics, or
maybe they all do, I can’t tell. It’s a mess. But at least musically they
performed the song well! Around 7:10 we start to realize we may be getting a
jam and not just the usual ending. Well, I guess it's more like an extended
coda to ‘Simple’ than true jam. I hesitate to even label it a type I jam since
it’s just a longer version of the 90s endings to this song. The crowd cheers
for some reason around 9:09, not really sure why because it’s a pretty mundane
ending to a ‘Simple’. Around 9:35 Mike starts to get spacey with his bass and
Trey has laid down a few guitar loops. Well, maybe we are getting a jam after
all! Just as I’m starting to get excited for a space/ambient jam Trey breaks
into the next song. It’s a full -> segue but it’s just on this side
of the line.
My Friend, My Friend- Of all the songs I thought I’d like
hearing best in 2.0 with Trey’s new guitar tone, this song was high up on the
list. Couldn’t you just hear a long 2.0 style jam on this song, dark and a bit
abstract and psychedelic? Anyway, it’s a well-played standard version of ‘My
Friend, My Friend.’ Until Trey flubs around 2:28, that is. Eh, that’s ok, it’s
otherwise well played. I will say it feels as though this version is short
compared to others I’ve heard. Maybe it’s just because the last one I would’ve
heard was the jammed out one from a show on the Summer or Fall ’23 tours. Well,
we got a MIFE ending at least!
Limb By Limb- Another obvious fadeout/fade-in between the
last track and this one. ‘Limb By Limb’ I mostly like but eh…it reminds me of
‘Taste’ where it feels like a song the band really labored over to get it
right, and I appreciate the rhythmic complexity of it and all…but much like
‘Taste’, at least in my listening experience with Phish, it never turned out to
be the jam vehicle it felt intended/destined to become. Both songs rarely segue
into or out of other songs, so on top of also not being jam vehicles they
always feel a bit isolated from the rest of the set. That said, they play this
just infrequently enough that if I heard it live I’d be digging the hell out of
it. Hell, I’ll even say it: this song is like a better ‘Taste’ in some ways.
Anyway, they actually do a great job playing it, and while the jam section is
nothing to write home about, it’s still a fun time. Trey has a ball playing
out-of-time with the rest of the band during the early part of the jam, and
Mike and Page continue to give you plenty to love if your attention goes their
way during any part of the jam. Reminds me a bit of the first set’s ‘Back On
The Train’: a solid performance even if it is mostly unremarkable.
Thunderhead- I love how loose and noodly this debut
performance is. The playing is a little rough here or there in the composed part
but nothing as noticeable as some of the earlier ones. I’ve always wondered why
they don’t play this song that often, it looks like they’ve only played it once
since 2003. So another song that really defines the 2.0 era when you hear it.
Run Like An Antelope- Something about Trey felt way off
during this song. It takes him awhile to really get cooking during the jam
portion, too. But when he does finally catch fire it’s quality Machine Gun Trey
with 2.0 guitar tones.
Cavern- I was dreading this one given 2.0 Trey’s penchant
for forgetting lyrics. And of course he flubs several lines and laughs it off.
OK, haha, it’s funny once in awhile but by this point of 2.0 this has already
happened too many times. All I ask is some kind of jam to make it up to us but
of course this isn’t that kind of show so we get a standard ‘Cavern’ ending.
Mexican Cousin- While I can still enjoy this song
ironically, it’s kind of always been cringey otherwise. Looks like they
resisted temptation and have only played it once in Mexico. Given Trey’s drug
and alcohol addictions this song hasn’t aged well. And playing this throwaway as
an encore really sucked the air out of the room. Especially as a one song encore.
I get that set one went long so they probably were up against the venue’s
curfew or something but eh…why not save ‘Cavern’ as part of the encore? ‘Antelope’
would’ve been a fine set closer.
Set two and the encore….hmm, well the encore sucked, let’s
get that out of the way since we just talked about it anyway. As for set two, I
thought it was mostly good to great—there was some shaky playing and flubbed
lyrics, but there was mostly a feeling of fun and the band pushing themselves
to play new songs and go down some exploratory jam moments. 2.0 still hasn’t
had its first thoroughly great set or overall show but the post-NYE buzz is
growing.
[Final Verdict]
When I look at the setlist and the length of some of the
jams, I want to give this show a 4 out of 5. Yet in my heart of hearts I know
this show is a 3 out of 5 because it’s a textbook case of “the setlist and song
lengths don’t tell the full story.” While there were more and deeper jams than
the NYE show largely featured, I found this show less satisfying overall
because the 2.0 jamming was still being developed and it seems obvious to these
ears that they’re learning how to improvise as a group again.
[Highlights]
Set One: A few decent jams, ‘Round Room’ debut
Set Two: A couple decent jams, ‘Thunderhead’ debut
