I'm sure this will provide immense ammunition to their detractors, but I don't care. I've never seen people be so passionate about hating something you have to go out of your way to be exposed to. Anyway, if you're into the band, let's hear from you. If you're not, please just move along.
I like it okay. It's very different from most everything else they've done and kind of a bizarre way to end their career. It's more "pop-ish" than anything they've ever done. I really like: Scents & Subtle Sounds (Intro) The Connection A Song I Heard the Ocean Sing Maggie's Revenge Nothing Access Me Tomorrow's Song It's not that I don't like some of the other stuff, but it is some their weaker material. Maybe I just think that because they didn't play very much of it in concert and that's where these songs win people over. (For instance, I used to despise "Wolfman's Brother," but they've turned that into a fantastic song live by changing some stuff in it.) I know a lot of people started bashing on them with Hoist and everything after it for that matter, but I thought as their songs got more serious contentwise that they put out some really strong material. Billy Breathes is a fantastic album as is Story of the Ghost. Farmhouse is strong and I like Round Room a lot too although it's rough edges took a while to grow on me. Undermind came with a free DVD that I haven't even watched yet. I might do that before I go to bed tonight. Did you happen to catch the last show on the simulacast or were you lucky enough to go in person?
Watch the DVD, it's about how they recorded the CD and their house up in VT and just the whole being their last album, I liked it just cause I haven't seen much of Phish documentary outside of their on-tour stuff (did you catch the VH1 special with Dave Matthews in Africa? - only Trey), they did a wonderful "Bouncing Round the Room" with a leading Senegalese band. Only thing is, you may not like the DVD if you didn't really dig "Crowd Control," they play parts of it like 15 times trying to get it right. A couple friends of mine went they said it was unbelievable - it was a decent show, but the atmosphere was more special than ever before, and the whole time everyone was so thankful. I saw a couple newspaper reports that said the parking situation was terrible though - people trudged across mud for a mile to get to the concert. I'm hoping to watch once I get my broadband connection back in a week, maybe some of the trading sites will have it. Off the new album my favorites are Crowd Control and Nothing, but for studio material, I don't really mind a couple of the new popish sounding ones - Two Versions of Me is decent, and Page's Army of One is interesting. I also like Wolfman's Brother, favorite (dunno if this will mean something) is the one from Live 17, Portland, July 15 1998. Are they going to put out the last concert on CD/DVD or anything like that, you heard?
I don't dislike any of the album, I was just saying those listed are my favorites. I watched it in the theatre (although we missed the first set because the power was out due to the hurricane.) We met a guy there who got turned away from the show. Then he gets to the theatre and the power was out. He was too tired to stick around to see if it eventually came on...which it did and it was awesome. I'm originally from Alabama and APT (Alabama Public Televsion) showed it and a friend is sending me the tape of it this week. Can't wait to see the parts I missed. ...and of course you can download it cheaply from their site (all proceeds go to charity.) I've got the whole series, I will check that one out. I hate that they slowed down on those (or seemingly just stopped) once they kicked up livephish.com I'm sure they will. They're releasing last year's "IT" festival on DVD later in the fall. I don't think the whole thing, but a good chunk of it.
I know there are too, but I'm not going to advertise it because I want this thread to remain trouble free if possible. If I know somebody's into the band, I will tell them, but I'm not going to just stick it out there because there are a lot of haters on these boards.
It sickens me to know that I will never get to see them live again. My last show was less than stellar (Hampton). I still had a great time, but it was extremely bittersweet. I am of the opinion that they will play again. Maybe they wont tour, but I would not be surprised if five - ten years down the road, they hold another festival. Maybe even with some other acts, their side projects being amongst them. Similar to the Grateful Dead reunion at Alpine Valley. I am not a dead fan by any means but my wife is, so we went. There was a lot of great music to be had each day before the Dead came on. I literally laid down and went to sleep while they played.
Tell me about it. I never saw them after the "hiatus." They only dipped into the deep South a time or two (pretty much just multiple nights in Atlanta...excluding the Miami NYE shows and that's really far away too...over 800 miles from B'ham.) and those sold out within minutes everytime and I failed to win the mail order lottery. I know a lot of people will think I'm crazy, but I'm of the opinion that I hope they've hung it up for good. Any comeback will just reek of being a dinosaur act. I've found Trey's solo material to be incredibly entertaining and look forward to seeing TAB again live. Gordon's put out some good stuff too. The disc with Kottke was awesome as well as the Inside In album. Even the last Vida Blue album was really good. I hope Oysterhead takes another stab at things.
I think if they get together, rehearse, not be the only band in a festival and wait long enough, it could still be good. It could also suck. My guess is that Trey won't be willing to take that chance. Did anyone else see the Charlie Rose interview? Trey keeps saying that the whole band agrees with him, but I think Page and Fish were convinced by Trey more than anything and Mike would love for it to go on forever.
No, I didn't get to see those. Unfortunately, our local PBS affiliate didn't pick that up and I wasn't about to pay $30 for a VHS copy of an interview. I have a feeling they'd all love for it to go on forever besides Trey. He'll be the only one of the four that'll continue to have a stellar career probably. The other three will do cool projects no doubt, but they probably won't get the attention Trey does. When my wife & I were watching the last show, she kept talking about how it looked like Trey was comforting Mike a lot when they were walking on and off stage and I think she was right. It was also an astute observation on her part since she doesn't really pay too much attention to the band. She likes it if it's on, but she doesn't go out of her way to see it. I think she only saw the band once or twice compared to the 25 or so times I did. Strangely enough though, after Trey, Mike is the most interesting musically to me, so hopefully he'll keep on keepin' on. He seems like he's prone to depression though too (don't know why I think that, just get the impression) so hopefully he'll be okay through all of this.
I get the same impression for some reason. Did you notice in "Bittersweet Motel" when they were warming up with "Roses are Free" and Mike was leaning against the wall looking like a big stick in the mud? Also, on that hotline deal where you can call a number and he leaves a message, there were a few where he sounded terrible.
'AC/DC Bag' is one of my favorite songs, but I don't like the way they started slowing it down after a while. I liked it when they just played it at ridiculous speed.
Just listened to 8/26/89 at Townshend Family Park in Townshend, VT. They played Avenu Malcanu. I love it when they play that song. Nic, do you know of any other bands/artists that cover these traditional religious songs? BTW, I was just in Orlando. Looks like you guys got smacked around by that hurricane. Had some awesome wings at the Orlando Ale House on the OBT while enjoying Arsenal v Middlesborough. I'll probably be back down there soon. Maybe we will have a beer.
Not that I can think of right off the bat. Plenty of bluegrass bands have done albums of protestant hymns, but I can't think of anyone else that's taken on liturgical music (which I think "Alvenu Malcanu" is.) I saw Phish the show after Yitzhak Rabin got assasinated. They played "Avenu Malkanu" that night. I heard an Armenian opera singer do a CD of Armenian liturgical music that was gorgeous and that was kind of different as the Eastern churches don't see much of their stuff on the concert stage. What's OBT? I'm so new here, I don't even know what that is Yeah man, if you come back down here, please PM me in advance, it'd be great to grab a beer and meet you.
Ah, I just didn't recognize the abbreviation. Yeah, please do. There's a lot of BigSoccer folks coming through town and it'd be great to meet some more!
Nice to see a non-North American Phish fan. Since they hardly toured outside of the US & Canada, not too many folks outside those two countries know about them.
Just got nic's invite to this thread. Very cool stuff. I was at the last show in Camden, NJ. My buddies left staight from the show to go to Coventry. They got to within a few miles outside the venue by 8 AM on Friday. By 10 AM, they had moved a total of 500 feet. It was then that Mike came on the Bunny, and told everyone to go home. So, since I was at work, I got online and got those guys tickets to see the simulcast in Philly. They made it in time for the 2nd set. As for me, I'm glad that I didn't go, as it would have probably made me as bitter as they've been.
I met a guy at the simulcast down here in Orlando that got turned away. He came straight from the airport to the theatre and power was out because of hurricane Charley. Poor guy.
Thought I would share one of my favorite Phish memories from seven years ago. It was well described on Phish.net so I simply will do a cut and paste job It was pretty damn wild to see them do this.
For any of you that are interested in the technical aspects of the lighting rig: http://lightingdimensions.com/ar/lighting_phishing_grandma/index.htm http://lightingdimensions.com/ar/lighting_phish_stories/index.htm There is another article in the current issue of Lighting Dimensions that is a good read. As soon as it is available online, I will post it.
cool articles. thanks. I'm currently listening to the new Medeski, Martin & Wood. I mention that because Phish turned me on to them. They were one of only two bands I can ever remember opening for Phish in the last decade or so.