Phish C/D

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"

not in love with trey's songs so far. also think what made fuego so strong was they wrote it together, and big boat is the opposite of that

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osU2Cgf7RFA

YES! MORE ELECTRO PHISH!

yo "petrichor" is so good

"Petrichor" is great, really love that one.

i guess i've been liveblogging my reaction to big boat but it is yet another phish record that suffers from every song being in a different style. and another phish record that suffers from being very long. most of trey's songs sound intended for tab. everyone's really writing outside of the band's sound, again in contrast to fuego, which was dialed into phish's ambiguously-defined phishness, sort of floating free between its touchstones of progressive, classic, and indie rock. i'd rate it at about the level of undermind, and the records feel very similar to me

all right, since i'm about to embark on a 13-show suite, i'm gonna break up the chronological flow of this project and listen to sigma oasis next

three tracks in sigma oasis strikes me as a much better version of round room, like they finally got that relaxed rehearsal soundcheck phish vibe imported into the studio, but it doesn't sound faltering or half-formed

Yeah I love Sigma Oasis and I've found it held up. At first it was tied up with very specific early pandemic memories for me, since they did that whole live streaming the whole album thing. But I picked it up when it was officially released later and still loved it. Definitely my favorite since Billy Breathes.

"evening song" is one of the best anastasio/marshall songs since ghost, really lovely

and when i first heard "steam" in a set it struck me as v ghost and i'm glad they leaned into that on the studio version... and then it leads into a great jam!!!

otm

The only thing I still don't like about live "Steam" is that the hissing effects are always way louder than necessary.

haha "thread" is fucking metal

i love that an album with two very willfully uplifting/don't give up songs on it ends on the note of "YOU'RE ALONE"

all right here is the official ranking of every phish studio album

the story of the ghost
billy breathes
sigma oasis
rift
junta
fuego
hoist
lawn boy
round room
farmhouse
joy
undermind
big boat
a picture of nectar

i guess, as a credit to how underrated phish are in the studio, the only albums i'm probably not going to listen to again are the bottom four

Definitely on board with your top three, but to take a stab myself..

The Story of the Ghost
Sigma Oasis
Billy Breathes
Fuego
Rift
Farmhouse
Junta
Lawn Boy
Hoist
A Picture of Nectar
Round Room
Joy
Big Boat
Undermind

feel like ppl who love sigma oasis would also love ghosts of the forest, which i'm just checking out now

It me. Loved the GOTF album, wish I could have caught one of those shows.

Curse you, Brad. Following this thread has caused me to revisit the band, beyond my previous self-defined comfort zone of Rift + early epics (YEM, Bowie, Divided Sky, Run Like an Antelope, etc.). It's very much been baby steps, as opposed to going all-in like you're doing. I've confirmed that I still hate Gotta Jibboo with a blinding passion. But last night I discovered a newer song that I really like: More.

By coincidence, my sister was back at our parents' house this week, cleaning out her childhood room (which serves mostly as a general storage area nowadays). She came upon an old box of Phish tapes and asked if I wanted her to dispose of them while she was there. "Stay your hand!" I cried, and now have added cassette deck to my thrift store shopping list.

(the curse being "may you continue to find happiness and satisfaction in your love of music and inspire others to do the same")

wow i’m so happy for you. tapes!!!!

today i am embarking on the baker’s dozen

and also today i am taking a bus to atlantic city

^^Underrated Springsteen lyric.

Man I only ever had a handful of actual Phish tapes back in the day because a) I always had friends with killer tapes I could borrow and, b) my dive into phandom coincided with being on a University campus with great internet so I was earlier on the train of downloading and burning shows to CD. I still dream of stumbling on a huge stash of Phish or Dead tapes somewhere in a flea market or something.

i'm so blown away by ghosts of the forest lol

the floyd vibes are so good and don't remind me directly of any floyd i've heard (unlike parts of "fuego," for instance)

today’s the day

y’all i know you’ve covered this already but the baker’s dozen is fucking crazy (i’m on show 3)