Phish C/D

IT (documentary plus 8/2/03 and 8/3/03): these aren't the tightest or most perfect phish shows ever, but there's no question in my mind that this is the best music they've played in the span of time i've covered in this project so far; i could just be talking about the tower jam here but the actual sets are dense and overflowing jungles of sound themselves, only hinted at by the clips i've been posting itt, cf. the underwater pulsings of the "waves" jam are enjoined in a narrative between the (dissociated and strange) "discern" that precedes it and the (relatively normal in a "we've decided to land on earth" way) "david bowie" that follows. i have a few qualms—for instance set 3 of 8/2/03 is nearly perfect until they decide to play "spread it 'round," but even then they invert the good hippie vibes in the small jam it leads into, which is like a terrifying photonegative of the song; and set one of 8/3 takes forever to get going, and only wakes up during the massive "chalk dust" jam

but i think i have an idea of what distinguishes '03 phish, if not 2.0 in general, which is that it's the dreamiest they've ever gotten. set two of 8/3 speaks to my point, i think, from "ghost" to "mountains in the mist" to "pebbles and marbles," each of which is like advancing further and further through a fog-shrouded reality. the doc helped reinforce this, as it gives you a sense of the kind of immersive alternate reality they built here, from the temporary structures that constituted the "sunken city" to their decision to play an hour of totally improvised psych rock in a decommissioned airport control tower

i think i might be getting a distorted and overly-rosy impression of 2.0 because i'm only listening to the great stuff? i have considered listening to their "final" '04 shows at coventry bc legend suggests they are not good or fun, but i don't think i really have time for it, as i'm seeing phish in less than two weeks(?????!!!!!) and i'd like to get through as much of 3.0 as i can before then

btw pls recommend me 3.0 shows, i have no compass for any of it

Man 3.0 is so hard to recommend, to be honest. It's so wildly all over the place in terms of quality and ideas.

Off the top of my head, I'd def suggest checking out the full Baker's Dozen run from 7/21/17 to 8/6/17. Tons of great jams and interesting covers and tangents. Honestly, the spirit of those shows is the closest I've felt to the more "playful" old Phish (if that makes sense). Lots of other great individual shows. I like the Kasvot Vaxt Halloween show (10/31/18) and the epic "Tweezer" show from 12/30/19. Mostly more recent stuff, I'll have to think on this a little.

lol i was afraid someone was going to recommend me every baker's dozen show

Haha, sorry. I could probably whittle it down for you, I just found the high points (of which there are many!) to be so spread out. It's not was easy as naming 2 or 3 specific shows.

it's totally cool, i'm actually excited to listen to all of them, it's just... so much lol

+1 for Baker's Dozen. I'm not actually too familiar with 3.0 generally, but the Baker's Dozen was what got me back into Phish after mostly ignoring them for like a decade. That run of shows is just an incredible achievement in so many ways, and every show I've heard from it is loads of fun with quality jams, 7/25/17 being the clear standout imo

Also 7/14/19 is really great. Set 1 is packed with rare bust-outs, and set 2 has a "Ruby Waves" with one of the best jams I've ever heard

Yeah 7/14/19 is probably a good call, but tbh I just go back to the "Ruby Waves" and haven't heard the full show since right after.

this is all very good thanks y'all! i've figured out a few early '10s shows to investigate just from livephish comments, can already tell i'm gonna spend minimal time in '09/'10 from reading the setlists

Probably safe to avoid those years for sure. 2013 was when I really got back on board, 6/30/12 was my first Phish show in person since 1.0. It wasn't great, but I was shocked to see them covering "Golden Age" at that point. The following year at SPAC was when I really fell back in love with them again.

Was any of the IT festival ever released in a format other than DVD?

both dates are on livephish and include the soundcheck and the tower jam

https://www.livephish.com/browse/music/0,294/Phish-mp3-flac-download-8-2-2003-It-Loring-Air-Force-Base--Limestone-ME
https://www.livephish.com/browse/music/0,295/Phish-mp3-flac-download-8-3-2003-It-Loring-Air-Force-Base--Limestone-ME

11/28/03: it's the 20th anniversary of phish! this show is mad underrated, the first set is flawless and full of surprises, from "ghost" bleeding into "what's the use" to the abnormally fast and gnarly "ac/dc bag." trey's voice is starting to give but he's playing really hard, like he's basically shredding like prince through the whole show, and it makes "sample in the jar" an unusual set two highlight. then they play two undermind songs in a row and the show only sorta recovers with the "mike's groove." think i have a sense of what's coming down the line

one thing i'd like to say before i get into '04 is that '03 is fishman's best year. he was always the best musician in the band but his playing is just perceivably even better somehow on the '03 shows i've heard

he was always the best musician in the band

whoa, you can't just drop this bomb without elucidating! I'm not a musician but it does seem to me this is a band without a weak link in the proficiency department. That said, I don't necessarily hear Fish as a cut above the other guys. Then again, I haven't been bingeing like you have!

i wasn't necessarily a true believer before this project but fishman is legit one of the best drummers to ever play the instrument

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZwRQ6bsm_k

ok i spoiled myself a little and watched this

holy shit

Right? The wooks can call this 4.0 all they want if we get tasty jams like this.

undermind: i find this album very confusing. i think the approach must've been white album-esque, every song presenting a different angle of the band, but that's ultimately why it reminds me so much of a picture of nectar (which, ugh) while also sounding broadly kind of like an album a mid-'00s indie rock band released during their country phase? i really feel that during "the connection," immediately one of my favorite phish studio songs. "a song i heard the ocean sing" is not only an obvious jam vehicle but sounds formed itself out of a jam which is a very good thing and i can't wait to hear it in sets. "scents and subtle sounds" is a pretty cool song, i really loved it during IT and the studio version... is a studio version. but "secret smile"'s string-soup production doesn't work and is at odds with the sound of the rest of the record. idk. album does not make any sense to me as a follow-up to round room or as a phish album experience

headphones jam: i had to write the above about undermind really quickly so i could get into the profoundly emotional response i am having to the headphones jam. they recorded this before they started tracking undermind and somehow their congealed unconscious minds were still capable of producing something of near-tower jam quality. if you like phish that is totally disconnected from songcraft and instead wired into banks of smoking electronics this is your jam. atmospheric, funky, confident, moving from mode to mode like ocean waves gently collapsing into each other. a true follow-up to the siket disc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4kbsZOCf_U

who among you knew that i would be posting a video of the '04 saratoga "piper" well before i heard it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQgBcpEWZGU

i can't write sentences and that youtube video didn't embed so lol. amazing jam, though, if you haven't heard it it's 35 minutes of ... hard to describe

2.0 is 2.over!!!

6/19-6/20/04: both of these shows have faltering first sets and all-time second sets that are vast psychedelic continuums that happen to proceed from interconnected phish songs. 6/19 starts with a fine "reba," a fine "runaway jim," my least favorite phish earworm "nicu," and then finally starts massing into something huge and unrecognizable with "scents and subtle sounds" and a "wolfman’s brother" that kinda recalls the microfunk versions of early europe ’97. then they play "walls of the cave," a song that opens them up profoundly literally every time they play it, and the only jam in the first set that forecasts the second

which, "a song i heard the ocean sing" > "piper" is about as close as music gets to feeling endless, for me. not in the sense that it’s really long, it is, but more like how the horizon never ends, you can run toward it but you’ll never actually reach it, it just scrolls forever. that is this show’s "piper." my hatred of "gotta jiboo" does not translate to live versions, it always sounds amazing, i’ll just always wish someone had written lyrics. and the set descends from its peak rather literally with "limb by limb"

6/20, is, if anything, a more awkward first set and a more locked in second set, but i prefer the show all around tbh. every jam is like those staring-into-the-void moments during agharta. i don’t think i’ve heard them plunge so thoroughly into this sound since ’98, with the new threads of trey just shredding nonstop, cf. the massive "drowned" jam (best phish covers: 1. "roses are free" 2. "drowned"); and the ’03/’04 tendency to get quiet and contemplative until the music sort of sounds like four harmonized throbbing pulses. set two: a three song fugue, "seven below" > "ghost" > "twist," which may explore literally every dimension of phish, followed by a lovely "yem." a set like this is hard to process knowing they were going to break up in another month, as they sound totally engaged and like they’re still capable of surprising themselves… it’s just weird, i’m familiar the circumstances that cut off 2.0 just as it had achieved liftoff, and they register as much sadder to me when i’m listening to a show like this

goodbye phish 2.0!!! you are much better than the fans think, and ’03 is a year i’m going to explore a lot more in depth in the future

2.0:
- round room ✓
- the victor disc ✓
- 12/31/02 madison square garden, new york, ny ✓
- 2/28/03 nassau coliseum, uniondale, ny ✓
- IT (documentary + 8/2-8/3/03) ✓
- 11/28/03 nassau coliseum, uniondale, ny ✓
- undermind ✓
- headphones jam ✓
- 6/19/04 saratoga performing arts center, saratoga springs, ny ✓
- 6/20/04 saratoga performing arts center, saratoga springs, ny ✓

All this archival talk is great but are u watching the tour happening live right now

i watched the "tweezer" from 8/1

and i'll be seeing them in atlantic city, which is why i'm doing this crazy project

here’s what i got going for 3.0 so far:

- joy
- party time
- 11/28/09 times union center, albany, ny
- 10/30/10 atlantic city, nj

I listened to a Punch You in the Eye a few nights ago and I've been mulling over the purchase of a hacky sack.

joy: hilarious thing to me about this album, produced by steve lillywhite, is the opening sequence is identical to billy breathes: sorta soothing rocker > total rager > ballad. i also like this album much more than undermind, which... i think i like a lot of songs on undermind individually but hate them all together in that order. here the track order doesn't seem calculated to pull the floor out from under me on every song, and that's good. the lyrics have gotten cornier, somehow, but the songcraft behind them feels restored, confident yet relaxed. in other words i could see myself listening to this album on purpose. i think page's obligatory track destroys the mood unfortunately, and they would've done better to include something instead from...

party time: obv an outtakes collection, every song on joy feels interrelated and this instead seems to pick up every ragged end of the phish sound. my particular favorite is "if i told you," aka the dawning of electro phish

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpPIvLXV5e0

i also love "gone," for my money the best song trey's written since round room, completely at a loss as to why it isn't on joy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMEqtQeEVnU

my vote for "phish song i don't want to hear at a show ever again" is "nicu"

song i wanna hear at every phish show: "seven below"

- 10/30/10 atlantic city, nj

ok this show is off the map, glad i picked it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzZv6T0WS_4

a real highlight of that show is this "wolfman's brother"

Wow that show looks ridiculous on paper, like half of Led Zeppelin 2 plus Stairway to Heaven lol. How'd they do with that?

well it's known as the "tweezeppelin," so they slip in and out of "tweezer" and it keeps morphing into different zep riffs. they do consistently fuck up the zep songs, which dampens the effect a little imo

the '09-'11 shows were all really fun but also felt like very old 1.0 shows in a way: all business, if way more relaxed and grateful to just be here about it. a lot of people on livephish consider the 2012 dick's gigs as the resurfacing of exploratory phish, and having heard 8/31/12, aka the "fuck your face" show, it's hard to argue with them, cf. this "farmhouse" where they linger on the final note for 5 minutes and play all this ambient falling-through-space stuff around it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwPr_XV9G0k

ton of amazing jams at that show, not sure why i picked that one except that it was really unexpected

there's about 20 seconds toward the end of that where you couldn't be blamed for thinking they were going to go into Shine on You Crazy Diamond.

i haven’t been updating as rigorously about my 3.0 explorations as it’s really hard for me to pin down in words what’s going on. the first sets are largely not registering for me, the second sets are phenomenal and feel distinct from 1.0 and 2.0 in their playfulness? also might be listening to shows that are generally too close to halloween. here’s the list:

3.0:
- joy ✓
- party time ✓
- 11/28/09 times union center, albany, ny ✓
- 10/30/10 atlantic city, nj ✓
- 8/5/11 gorge amphitheatre, george, wa ✓
- 8/31/12 dick’s sporting goods park, commerce city, co ✓
- 11/1/13 boardwalk hall, atlantic city, nj ✓
- fuego ✓
- 7/27/14 merriweather post pavilion, columbia, md
- 8/12/15 the mann center for performing arts, philadelphia, pa
- big boat
- 9/4/16 dick’s sporting goods park, commerce city, co
- baker’s dozen
- 7/14/19 alpine valley music theatre, east troy, wi
- sigma oasis

i will be going back to listen to all the 2012 dick’s shows, seems like a special moment for them, if not quite on the level of the baker’s dozen. speaking of, the baker’s dozen is the finish line for this project; if i make it there, i win(?)

I get that as a logical ending point, but it's also amazing me that they are dropping so many bombs this summer. It's been as exciting to keep up with in a way it hasn't been since 1.0, for me anyway. Not to argue they're back at that peak at all, but it feels like we are getting "event" shows or mega jams 2 out of every 3 shows instead of once or twice a tour. I haven't yet heard Sunday night's massively divisive second set, looks messy on paper but supposedly they were having a blast.

I mean:

SET 2: Bathtub Gin > Waves -> Ghost > Sneakin' Sally Through the Alley -> Twenty Years Later -> Waste > Twist -> Makisupa Policeman > Twist -> Makisupa Policeman -> Twist, Most Events Aren't Planned > More > Bathtub Gin

Considering we've had a bunch of 6 or 7 song second sets this summer.

reading that setlist makes my head hurt in a good way

will def be catching up on this tour after my atlantic city show (assuming it happens, i have every digit on my body crossed)

I certainly hope you get to go! I was bummed they skipped Alpine this summer, but probably better for it since that would have required more travel and accommodations than I would have wanted. Rumors of more shows leading up to NYE but uh I'm not sure I'll be ready for an indoor Phish show even if they end up happening.

the song choice in that set reminds me of the second set of 11/1/13, the run of "twist" > "gotta jiboo" > "makisupa policeman." 11/1/13 is probably the funniest phish show i've ever heard, they keep yelling "KUSH" and "BUSH" during "makisupa policeman" in sped up and slowed down voices like they're part of a dub remix xp

fuego: ok yeah this album is so good that it's almost great. whereas joy is plagued by a few songs that just exist, all of these songs feel like they contribute to the overall purpose and mood of the album. even "wombat," which, i find it funny that phish fans hate this song bc i don't find it significantly more embarrassing than, say, "brother" or "meatstick," both of which it resembles. it may be the most quintessentially phish song on the album lol

"the line" is the best "pop" song they've ever written imo

Yeah I like Fuego quite a bit. That definitely is my most played studio album after Farmhouse, though I think Sigma Oasis might sneak up on that soon.

my sense is that the 2012 and 2016 runs at dick’s are v special and all the phish fans here would really enjoy them

idk how they measure up to the baker’s dozen but they are very much the twin peaks of 3.0 for me so far

my personal favorite show though is 7/13/14 randall's island, one of my favorite setlists they've ever put together

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUr-u89tmNY

i'm still making my way through big boat but this page song 1) is awesome 2) has gotta be the best phish studio recording i've heard since ghost

also color me extremely surprised that fishman could write a song as good and weird as "friends"