Phish C/D

xp Lavator that Ghost from 5/22/00 is fantastic! I was at the previous night's show at Radio City, which I found kind of underwhelming at the time. Looks like I picked the wrong show of that run.

I was kind of disappointed by Farmhouse because it was such a sharp turn away from the deep funk of SOTG and Slip Stitch and Pass, but it's held up pretty well. If Phish has a "Workingman's Dead/American Beauty" I'd say it's Billy Breathes

I can see that, but I really feel like Farmhouse better fits the WD/AB mold because it was the one to break out with a wider audience. I think I caught "Free" once or twice on alt-rock radio back in the day, but "Heavy Things" and "Back on the Train" were inescapable on AAA stations when Farmhouse was released. That felt like the point where Phish was being most widely acknowledged by more mainstream radio at least.

But, yeah, Billy Breathes is most definitely the better album of the two.

livephish no. 8, a '99 show in camden, nj, is really solid throughout, contains the best "chalkdust torture" i've heard and probably the best "bathtub gin" (not normally one of my faves) too. second set is pretty immediately off the chain with a slow heavy "tweezer" that works itself into a really odd space and then a "birds of a feather" that fuckin' cooks which is what i really care about

my friend recommended this show to me by saying that the "chalkdust torture" turns into stereolab and she is not wrong

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xZMHQjRTSM

fucking amazing 18 minute "fluffhead" too my god

Yeah, that’s a great one! Sadly one of the many Live Phish sets I had that was destroyed by the mystery goo.

i enjoyed that show so much that i had to hear another summer '99 show, and the only other official release from that tour is 7/23/99 at the polaris ampitheatre in columbus, oh. starts off a little slow but the last thirty minutes of the surprisingly long first set are incredible, and then the second set is... def the best second set i've heard after my all-time favorite show (4/4/98). "ghost" > "free" alone is like floating. absolutely worth the $10 i paid for it on livephish dot com

goddamn i love "birds of a feather" so much

I love when Brad goes on a Phish kick! I’ve always loved a good “BOAF” jam.

Hey y'all, please check out this awesomeness. Depending how deep your Phish kicks have gone this song may not be as deeply embedded in your DNA as it is in mine, but this is a revelatory arrangement any way you slice it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtGTKE-RKTU

I haven't been able to check out any of the Beacon Jams shows, but def going to give that a watch later. Thanks for the reminder!

YEM one of the few Phish songs I still listen to. This version is exemplary.

Thanks, Lavator - beautiful, and then I was just was grinning like a goofball from 5 and a half minutes onwards - infectious joy! Looks like I'll be binging these shows over the weekend.

listening to live show and this band getting "funky" might be the worst thing in existence

Dud.

classic!!!!!

the funky era is the best one

the drummer is so bad at it

the drummer is probably the best musician in phish lol

well...

I mean, there are a lot of valid criticisms of Phish, but saying they are "bad musicians" just shows me that someone has no intention of negotiating with their music in good faith.

they are definitely an example of how good musician doesn't necessarily translate to good music

They are great musicians! They just have trouble with doing certain things that a lot of great musicians have. (xpost w josh)

The parts where they get more spacey and into out there jam territory are what they are good at (for me)

Okay, fair, I guess you weren't really suggesting they weren't, I just see that argument so often and it drives me crazy.

What show are you listening to UMS? some of their funkiness admittedly embarrassing. other times very good tho

so...selected semi at-random: LivePhish Vol 7 8/14/93 World Music Theatre

I saw em live once, and this confirms my basic feeling, I like the second half of longer songs or jams when they get more out there/jazz fusion/prog/spacey/pretty, just feel like i have to sit through a pretentious spin doctors song to get there

divided sky and split open and melt were the best for me so far

Ha, sounds like how I feel about Zappa, minus the Spin Doctors part. More the feeling of sitting through some truly awful moments to get to moments of brilliance/bliss.

To my mind Phish really didn't start digging into the "funk" sound until after '96-'97 when they started to stretch out stuff like "Wolfman's Brother" and "Ghost". Also, I've always felt that the Phish "funk" is a bit of a misnomer, because it really has very little to do with any traditional definition of what we think of as funk, like P-Funk or whatever.

I go back and forth on my Phish sympathies - the only constant being that I rarely feel like listening to them and when I do, it's not in large doses. But since this is on the topic of funk:

how's life wrote this on thread worst album covers ever: Primus -vs- Phish on board I Love Music on Mar 8, 2018

xps:

I was a Phish fan for about 7 years and what really broke them for me was when I went to check out some of the songs they had been covering. Especially Purple Rain. Can you imagine never having heard Purple Rain, only the jokey Phish cover, and then finding the Prince album on discount cassette one day and buying it just because what the hell? I had my fucking head blown off. It was like I had been lied to about the nature of music. Same for Sneaking Sally Through the Alley, Boogie On Reggae Woman, dozens more.

I mean, just

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kA_lcxxQaY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6IMshcg-ow

Phish were creative and adventurous improvisers in 1993 but hadn't yet learned to (or cared to be) consistently patient or subtle. I'd recommend checking out Live Phish Vol 11, 11/17/97 to hear some more adept funkiness. Granted it is still not conventional funkiness that is comparable to the Meters or P-Funk or whatever. It's very much its own thing. But look to the 1997-2000 era for considerably more tasteful funking. The latter half of that era is less funky but will yield greater returns in the spacey/pretty genre that you may enjoy more.

if you really want me to nerd out I could give plenty more specific recs

xps basically what j/v/c said!

and yeah i've never understood why Boogie on Reggae Woman is a fan favorite. SO FAR INFERIOR to Stevie. ugh that repetitive guitar chording. i guess it's a fun bass showcase

comments re Purple Rain otoh really not fair to Phish. criticize them if you will for choosing that song as one to mock but it's obviously not intended to be a "musical" cover, it's comedic

yeah if you have a recommend that's more on the jams/space/pretty etc i'm all ears

we just got to this song "esther" this spoken word over a looney tunes version of "alabama song" by the doors is getting on my last nerve

Classic af. I don't have the time or energy to write a coherent defense, but I WILL RETURN

ok we're out of the woods on esther now

i shouldn't be talking this much shit tbh

i guess phish is like my mom and christianity, she goes to a liberal, very social active church and i can def see how it affects her life in positive ways, in terms of comfort, community, service to others etc etc, but when i go to church with her on easter or xmas like i can't *believe* it the way she does, even if i appreciate it on a level

so...selected semi at-random: LivePhish Vol 7 8/14/93 World Music Theatre

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, February 11, 2021 9:29 AM (twenty-one minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

this isn’t even from the funk period!!!!!

the only livephish i truly rep for is 97-99. a live one is also a good record

ums - curious to know what you'd think of the half hour "Wolfman's Brother" from 11/19/97, I was in the audience for that one and it is essentially what converted me. It's filler on LivePhish 11, which I believe is on Spotify.

I'd also recommend the "Tweezer" from 12/30/19, a rather recent example of a killer deep dive jam that flips through multiple sections. I've spent a lot of time with that one.

and yeah i've never understood why Boogie on Reggae Woman is a fan favorite. SO FAR INFERIOR to Stevie. ugh that repetitive guitar chording. i guess it's a fun bass showcase

otm, particularly when I think "Roses Are Free" did a better job of mining a similar vein

xp Esther is gorgeous once they get past the "oom-pa-pa" part

lol i see this was covered

<3 when Brad talks Phish

divided sky and split open and melt were the best for me so far

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, February 11, 2021 9:32 AM (twenty minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

great songs!!!

i shared this video upthread, ums i think you will enjoy significantly more than what you're listening to:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MzLuQXUeh0

brad i don't know phish periods!

xp [X song] is gorgeous once they get past the [insert here] part

― J. Sam, Thursday, February 11, 2021 10:53 AM (four seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

variations on this thought is has come up a lot

okay "poor heart" fuck me

"funny country" songs are literally the worst thing in music

they have no respect for genre and believe they can do everything. country stuff one example. please steer clear of their reggae songs! to their credit they are self-deprecating about it all though. but i think in aggregate it's better for musicians with questionable taste but good ideas and skills to be fearless and produce a lot of crap because you get plenty of diamonds in the rough.

comments re Purple Rain otoh really not fair to Phish. criticize them if you will for choosing that song as one to mock but it's obviously not intended to be a "musical" cover, it's comedic

― Lavator Shemmelpennick, Thursday, February 11, 2021 11:47 AM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Yeah, Purple Rain is obviously different from some of their more straightforward covers. I mean, I get that it's a joke. But in the context of being a full-on Phishhead at the time who was pretty convinced that they were the apex of modern music, then "ironically" buying the album that the joke cover was on and hearing all these amazing, weird, tight, funky songs, and capping it off with a performance of the "joke" song that was full of emotion and nuance and passion and basically fireworks going off in my head. Then looking back at the joke cover and being like "this is what you guys choose to make fun of? This amazing thing you could never do?"

i mean funny country is by no means limited to them, green day's "dominated love slave" was one that always rankled.

will check out the 00 show you posted

"ghost" jams are what converted me, they always end up in this totally psychedelic hellspace, and "ghost"'s debut as a song in the set coincides with the dawning of their cowfunk period, i swear i didn't know any of this information a year ago ums lol