Phish in Broomfield: The View from Suite 222

Phish has long considered Colorado to be their second home.  While their post-reunion tours of the past couple of years have mostly ignored the Western half of the country, we in the Mile High State have been fortunate to have multi-night stands at Red Rocks, Telluride and, just this past week, three nights at the brand new 1st Bank Center in Broomfield.  This new venue is small enough to provide an intimate atmosphere yet large enough for Phish to bring in their arena sized light show as well as the big rock sound they've developed so well over the years.  These three nights would see some awesome jams, heavy rock energy and a few surprises along the way.

The first night, 10/10/10, got underway with "Chalk Dust Torture," perhaps a predictable opener but still bringing a burst of energy into the room.  Strong versions of "The Moma Dance" and "Stash" highlighted a safe but well played first set.  Set 2 kicked off in fine form with a spectacular run of "Mike's Song," "Simple," "Ghost" and "Weekapaug Groove."  "Ghost" in particular went to a lot of interesting places and may just have been the best jam of all three shows.  Next the fun started with Trey Anastasio busting out his megaphone for the classic tune "Fee," the first song on Phish's debut album Junta.  A fun and funky rendition of "Makisupa Policeman" led to the debut performance of "My Problem Right There," a quirky little number that the crowd seemed to pick up on right away.  The ever-popular "Slave to the Traffic Light" was spot on and a rocking "Julius" closed the set.  The band returned for an encore of The Rolling Stones' "Loving Cup," an appropriate conclusion to a show dominated by strong versions of longtime favorites.

Show number two also began on a classic note with the pairing of "Runaway Jim" and "Foam," two songs that opened many a show in the early 90s.  While this set also focused on time-tested favorites, it did contain another debut song, Mike Gordon's funky "What Things Seem."  The set was highlighted by an amazing rendition of "Tweezer" that packed a ton of energy and innovation into its twelve minutes.  "Reba" built to a stunning climax and "Run Like an Antelope" ended the set with more hard rocking energy.  The run of shows was now half over and while everything played was excellent, the song selection and placement were fairly safe.

In the second set they started to throw a few curves, starting right off with a cover of the TV on the Radio song "Golden Age."  Phish played this once before, during the fall of 2009, and it's starting to become a big hit with the fans.  It's a great song to get everyone dancing and a great way to start a second set, similar to their covers of The Velvet Underground's "Rock and Roll" and The Who's "Drowned."  Many fans and I hope that this enters the regular song rotation.  The jam out of "Golden Age" led to a nice version of "Piper" and the funky "Camel Walk," a song that Anastasio performed acoustically when he appeared at Twist and Shout back in 2006.  The ballad "Wading in the Velvet Sea" gave everyone a chance to catch their breath before a spacey version of "Twist" and the beloved epic "Fluffhead."  The set closed with the lead track from last year's Joy album, "Backwards Down the Number Line."  The show ended as it began, with the familiar encore pairing of "Sleeping Monkey" and "Tweezer Reprise."  Another strong, well-played show left everyone in anticipation of what was in store for the final night.

Tuesday night's show, in sharp contrast to Sunday, found Phish taking numerous chances with song selection and placement.  Not every choice they made was successful, yet the positives far outweighed any missteps.  The first unusual choice was playing "Time Turns Elastic" as the second song of the night.  To say that this complex, composed piece has not been well received by the fans would be an understatement as the song has often met with outright hostility.  But the band may actually have found a solution by playing it so early in the show.  Now we could sit back and appreciate it for what it is without the flow of the show being greatly interrupted.  Everybody perked up again with the now rare appearance of the funky "Meat" followed by the always welcome favorite "Divided Sky."  Another first set highlight was the appearance of "On Your Way Down," a bluesy number by New Orleans master tunesmith Allen Toussaint.  The set closed with an awesome hard rocking rendition of "46 Days" that just kept getting heavier and heavier.

One of Phish's most overlooked traits is their ability to rock out with the best of them.  They certainly proved their kick-ass-rock-n-roll credentials with a loud and rocking "Carini," which opened set two right where the first set left off.  This segued nicely into another long time favorite, "David Bowie."  From this point on, Phish took a number of chances by playing a good amount of new material and foregoing some of the big songs most fans assumed they'd hear on the last night.  One pleasant surprise was the second ever appearance of "Halfway to the Moon," a new song by keyboardist Page McConnell.  This is a nice mid-tempo tune that could turn into a great jam song if they decide to take it in that direction.  "Bug" has always been a personal favorite of mine and this version got very intense toward the end.  Just past 11 o'clock when most fans were probably expecting "Harry Hood" or "You Enjoy Myself" to close out the show, Phish pulled out another curveball unleashing "Split Open and Melt."  This was solid all the way, first going into some unusual jam territory before hitting the slam-bang conclusion.  For the encore, the band acknowledged a fan-made sign requesting "The Meatstick," the song that launched a nationwide dance craze in 1999.  As they left the stage, they encouraged the crowd to keep singing the chorus, which everyone did till the house lights came on.  What a way to end a show.

Phish's tour now takes them back to the east coast.  They will conclude with a three-night stand in Atlantic City on Halloween weekend.  The band is sounding great right now and as the tour goes on, they look to get even better.


--Adam R.

Several Species Of Small Furry Thoughts - what a weekend!!!

So on Thursday we had our history-making Widespread Panic in-store. One might think that was enough excitement for one weekend. Not for me.

Friday - flew to Philadelphia where my college buddy Banky picked me up and took me to his great little seafood restaurant Seafood Unlimited. If you are ever in Philly check it out. That night we had a different kind of sea creature when we saw Phish in Camden, New Jersey. A very memorable show as it turned out. They opened with two songs they hadn’t played in years: “Alumni Blues” and “Letter To Jimmy Page.” They also broke out a cover of Joni Mitchell’s “Free Man In Paris” (the audience was silent and mystified - I don’t think hardly anyone knew what it was). During the second set they played an enormous version of “2001: A Space Odyssey” that contained a tribute to Michael Jackson (who died exactly a year earlier). They teased “Billie Jean” “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’” and “Thriller.” The crowd went bonkers when they went into “Thriller.” The other interesting, and somewhat upsetting development was the crowd actually booed the band when they played a new song they weren’t into (“1989”). This is entirely not cool in my opinion and sort of pissed me off. The band did an outstanding show and gets booed for one song??

Saturday - Banky and I take a bus to New York City (city of my birth) and meet up with my wife and daughter - Jill and Sarah. We go to The New York Historical Society and see the Grateful Dead exhibit. Go see it if you can! I wish it was a little bigger - but what you do get is totally memorable. Some of the highlights included Jerry and Bob’s guitars, the dummies from the “Touch Of Grey” video, heartfelt fan letters and gloriously decorated envelopes to the band, the handwritten schematics for “The Wall Of Sound,” and on and on. My favorite thing though was Dick Latvala’s notebooks with his handwritten notes about shows. What an uber-fan he was. Displayed are his notes on the Closing Of Winterland show, and he just gushes in clear longhand about how this was the greatest show and when people hear this the Dead will finally be recognized as… and so on and so forth. I found it incredibly touching. We bid adieu to Banky and we are off to the Picasso exhibit at The Metropolitan Museum Of Art. Not only is this museum one of the wonders of the world, the exhibit was mind-blowing. It followed Picasso chronologically, and there must have been six rooms full of stuff - sculptures, linoleum block prints, an entire room of sketchbooks, photos, films and, of course, hundreds of paintings. Picasso is one of those artistic figures whose achievement and influence are so immense and so hard to get your arms around that he almost doesn’t seem real. This exhibit both allowed one to gain a better understanding of the man (it was all below the waist for that guy) and reinforced that sense of disbelief at his greatness. Again, if you get to NYC - don’t miss this one. That night we had a classic NYC experience sitting at a table on the sidewalk on The Upper West Side eating spaghetti.

Sunday - My friend Rob comes into the city to meet me for lunch. Rob owns probably the best record store on the East Coast, Vintage Vinyl, and I always greatly value our conversations about, music, business and life in general. Like Twist and Shout, his store is hanging in there, doing in-store concerts, selling vinyl, appealing to collectors - same as us. We walked around the area known as The Bowery. When I was a boy, my father took me down there to illustrate the dangers of alcohol. It was the skids in those days -wall to wall bums. There are no bums in Manhattan any more. Since Rudy Guliani’s time The Bowery and all of Manhattan has been cleaned up. In many ways it saved the financial life of the city as a tourist destination, but in another way it stole a necessary element to the alchemy of the city. We ducked into CBGB’s - the club that spawned punk in America. It is now a “Rock and Roll Boutique” selling $1400 used leather jackets and used Styx albums for 40 bucks. It was a nice metaphor for the loss of soul in that part of the city. That night, we went to Fela, a musical stage show interpretation of the revolutionary African musician’s troubled times. I am not usually an appreciator of Broadway shows but this was a startlingly dynamic show, with a real live kick-ass band playing a credible version of Fela’s groundbreaking music. It also was extremely poignant, explaining the influence of his incredible mother (who deserves her own play) and his lifelong struggle with the government in his native Nigeria. It is an extraordinary tale of courage and music. I understand it might come to Denver. I highly recommend it if it does.

Monday - Jill and I sneak over to the Museum Of Natural History. I haven’t been there since I was a child, and it is still a completely magical place. It’s the museum from Night At The Museum and it brings out the child in anyone. That night we take our daughter and her boyfriend out for her birthday and say goodbye on a glistening New York street. It is thrilling, and unbearably hot and humid, and endlessly fascinating, and painfully expensive, and bursting with multi-cultural-hyper-sophisticated-poly-sexual life. It remains the most fascinating place I’ve ever been.

Tuesday - We are ready to return to Colorado. I can’t wait to get back to dry heat and clear sky and long views, and my store. When we get home the first things we see are a doe eating grass in front of our house and a red fox peacefully sleeping under a tree in the back. So very different than NYC, and yet, there’s no place like home. On Sunday Rob had asked me when I stopped feeling like a New Yorker. I thought for a minute and finally said, “You know, I think it was once I opened Twist and Shout, and actually became part of the fabric of our own great city, that I started proudly thinking of myself as a Coloradan.”

--Paul

Phish In Chicago

Just to put this review in perspective, I’ve only seen Phish once, and that was a free show at the Glenn Miller Ballroom in 1990. It was a snowy night and I doubt there were more than a hundred people there. I was into drums at the time, so I spent the whole show standing right by the drummer, watching him work. He was wearing a super hero costume complete with cape and goggles. He kept smiling and nodding at me. I’ll always remember it as one of my life’s supercool rock and roll moments, even though I honestly didn’t care too much for the band. I thought they were kind of goofy, and not exceptionally skilled or talented.

Flash forward 20 years. I’m up against the stage again, looking up at Jon Fishman’s drum kit, but now it’s a soccer stadium in Chicago filled with more than 20,000 Phish freaks for the start of a summer tour. The band takes the stage and whips up a few seconds of cosmic feedback before busting into “Down With Disease,” then “Wolfman’s Brother,” and then “Possum” — all great dance songs, all delivered with a mastery possessed by only the rarest of rock gods. I’ve listened to a lot of their recordings, live and studio, in the weeks and months leading up to the show, so I know they’ve improved considerably. But live I can really see why they’ve amassed such a loyal following, especially during “Possum,” the way they build and build a peak of sonic tension until the crowd’s about to explode, so when they finally break into the main riff whole place just goes crazy, everybody dancing, balloons, beach balls and glow sticks flying everywhere. It’s like they’ve developed a sixth sense of where the energy is in their audience and they can plug right into it and zap it up into a frenzy or mellow it out into a state of bliss, like they do later in the first set with the more ethereal passages in “Reba” and “Divided Sky.”

Speaking of the crowd, the main reason why I steered clear of Phish for so long was to avoid the whole psychedelic vagabond scene, which seemed to get more and more obnoxious throughout the 1990s. I’m happy to report, though, that this crowd at Toyota Park is pleasant to be around, convivial and neighborly, kind of like how I remember the Grateful Dead scene in the mid-80s, right before it got really crazy.

However, about midway through “Boogie On Reggae Woman,” I have a tense little run-in with Snow White. She squeezes in beside me in her blue dress and pig tails and grabs hold of the rail, saying to me, "I'm Snow White," as if this gives her some kind of privilege. Then she proceeds to wave the sign of the horns at the band. She's blitzed out of her gourd. I watch her out of the corner of my eye, kind of irked, kind of amused. But before I realize it, she's got both hands on the rail and I'm totally squeezed out of my spot against the stage. I think about it for a second and I'm like, Hell, no! I baked for two hours under carcinogenic star to get this space. So I work my elbow around her, like I'm Dennis Rodman or something, and I box her out. The security guard in front of us sees me do it and he gives me an approving nod and says, "Right on man." He's one of those strapping skinhead types, so I feel kind of macho, despite the fact that it's a pathetically drunk fairy tale character I've muscled out. Undaunted, she starts caressing my back. I turn to her and snap, "Don't touch me! I'm married!" And I hold up my hand to show her my ring. She apologizes profusely and she vanishes off into the crowd, leaving me with yet another great rock and roll moment to stash away in my archives.

Great as the first set was, it isn’t until the second set that I really get it. I hate to sound like a space cadet, but I have to confess that the first four songs — “Light,” “Maze,” Ghost,” and “Prince Caspian” — transport me far beyond the suburbs of Chicago. The first three are long improvisational vehicles, and the jam passages have a distinctly visual quality for me, partly because of the mesmerizing light show, but mostly because of way the band takes a pattern of rhythms and melody and gradually distorts it, pulling it into new shapes and spaces. It’s at once hypnotic and invigorating. And then, after about forty minutes of shape shifting and trippy lyrics, to emerge onto an anthemic, majestic sea with Prince Caspian. 40,000 hands waving in the air, not a white eye in the place. Man! Worth the 50 bucks. Worth the 500-mile drive. Worth getting molested by a sloppy-drunk Brothers Grimm character. When do I get to see them again?

I’ve heard a number of longtime Phish fans fret that the band’s best days might be behind them. I wasn’t there for the so-called glory days of the late 90s, so I can’t say for sure. But I get the sense that Phish is a band on the brink of something huge. A rock opera, perhaps, or an epic concept album with a corresponding run on Broadway (or, better yet, at the Uptown Theater in K.C.) and Blu-ray DVD. I might be wrong but I see hints of it in “Time Turns Elastic” (which, unfortunately, they didn’t play in Chicago) and in their tight, masterful control of time and space at a stadium concert on a hot, humid night. Their best, I think, is yet to come.

- Joe Miller

Phish - Day II

Different day, different weather, different vibe. Day two found Phish in an even more musically serious mood. With stormclouds threatening, they opened with a nostalgic trifecta of songs “Runaway Jim,” “Chalkdust Torture” and “Bathtub Gin” which put the crowd in the partying mood. The band and the weather then took a big left turn. The title track to Trey’s new solo album, “Time Turns Elastic” is dense, complicated and full of prog-rock twists and turns. Clocking in at almost 17 minutes the song got more and more intense, ending with another heroic guitar workout by Anastasio, while the sky started to spit, then drool, the pour. It rained with increasing strength throughout the remainder of the set, which ended with a spacey, almost scary “Split Open and Melt.”

The rain continued through the set break with increasing severity, finally letting up after about an hour. The crowd was definitely a bit dispirited and in need of some big musical energy. Phish, as usual, did not disappoint. Opening appropriately with a high-energy version of The Who’s “Drowned,” they jammed effortlessly into the Talking Heads’ “Crosseyed and Painless” which drove the crowd into a near frenzy. The energy dipped a little during the two new songs “Joy” and “Backwards Down The Number Line” which has a beautiful, melodic guitar figure at the end, and promises to be a winner in the future. Then, audience and band held their breath for an instant as the band launched into the rare and highly anticipated classic “Fluffhead.” One of their most complex and change-riddled songs, they pulled it off without a flaw. It was truly a reward for the faithful, the loving, the damp. The set ended with a great version of The Beatles’ “A Day In The Life” which they debuted at Red Rocks in 1996 and still has all the power and resonance it originally did. 

Soaked, but not satiated, we went home with nothing but tomorrow on our minds.

--Paul Epstein

Phish-Day I

A lot of emotional baggage got opened and the colorful contents of that baggage flew up into the air in a plume of pungent excitement when Phish walked onto the stage at Red Rocks for the first time in 14 years. The audience was noticeably older than the last time, indiciating that it is still the same folks following the band. They were a bit kinder and gentler too. Less in-your-facedness about the whole scene. Like the later-period Grateful Dead audiences however, the chemical enhancement has reached new and heroic proportions. It was a party, and like I said, when the band hit the stage it was pandemonium. The first set was solid, but didn’t catch fire until midway when a long, hynotic “Moma Dance” got the crowd really going. It was followed in short order by a pretty “Silent In The Morning” and crowd pleasing set enders “Stash” and “Possom.” Second set was another matter. The band came out firing on all cylinders and performed a solid 40 minutes of brilliance before stopping to take a breath. “Mike’s Song,” “I am Hydrogen,” “Weekapug Groove,” “Story Of The Ghost” and “Wolfman’s Brother” all proved to be perfect forums for Trey Anastasio’s tight, ballsy soloing. Clearly sober and totally focused he played as well as I’ve seen him play since their early 90’s heyday. The entire band seemed completely focused and serious about it all, but played with abandon. Frontmen Anastasio and Mike Gordon in particular impressed me. Page looked a little tired and drummer Fish also looked like he didn’t fully have his touring legs yet, but these are quibbles, the entire band performed admirably. Finishing the set with one of their hardest to perform songs “David Bowie” left the crowd screaming and the encore of The Stones’ “Loving Cup” was the cherry on the cake. A great opening night! Nothing wildly unexpected or experimental, just a solid, fully-packed can of Phish.

A few other things worth noting about the experience;
1) Not a drop of rain fell. Amazingly, it was a perfect Red Rocks night.
2) Lighting Designer Chris Kuroda remains, in my opinion, the fifth member of the band, and the most impressive artist in his field. His lights are spectacular, moody, exciting, subtle and over-the top all at the same time.
3) The show was as crowded as I’ve ever seen Red Rocks. Either a lot of people snuck in, or it was over sold. It wasn’t a problem though, because as stated the crowd was incredibly cool.
4) Parking was another issue. As part of the agreement with the town of Morrison, all Phish fans- those with and without tickets were given equal access to the park. I get it actually: to avoid a repeat of the problems of 1996 (which were totally media driven and over-stated) you corral all the Phish in one pond. Fine. BUT-the ticketless were allowed to grab all the real parking spaces and those who actually had paid for tickets found themselves in triple auxiliary secret hidden parking lots almost a half mile from the venue. That was totally insane and absolutely the wrong thing to do.
5) I COULDN’T BE MORE EXCITED ABOUT THE NEXT THREE NIGHTS!

The Digital Eye

Peter Tosh - The Ultimate Peter Tosh Experience
Wow, what an unexpected mind-blower. It was a thrill to see such an ambitious Peter Tosh project released at this late date - but that it is so beautifully packaged and so loaded with cool stuff you have never seen or heard made for one really great day off. I spent most of my day watching and listening to all three discs and reading the intelligently written booklet. Tosh was singular among Reggae stars. He had similar gifts of songwriting, singing and playing as his former partner Bob Marley, but was also armed with a far more militant and mystical set of beliefs. Tosh courted controversy and danger everywhere he went. Whether it was his unwavering commitment to equal rights for all Blacks and a return to Africa, or his very public advocacy and use of herb, or his calling on the carpet politicians, record producers and other scoundrels and thieves from the stages of the world, Tosh was an intense man living on the razor’s edge at all times.

Lavishly boxed, the contents include the full-length documentary called Stepping Razor-Red X. This movie, which has floated around in lesser quality for a number of years, is the definitive look at Peter Tosh, the man and the musician. Riveting concert footage is interspersed with interviews with Tosh and those who knew him. The movie’s life-affirming musical sequences are always tinged with darkness, for the shocking reality of Tosh’s murder at the hands of acquaintances has left a trail of sadness and conspiracy theory that lasts until today. Red X is compelling on every level, and will leave you running to your collection to put on Legalize It immediately. The second DVD is a collection of concert clips of Tosh at various stages in his career. If you never saw Peter Tosh it will be a revelation what an immense and charismatic man he was. Rail thin and way over 6 feet, he cut an imposing figure on stage. His shows were laced with challenge-filled raps to the audience (which could last for many minutes when he got on a roll). When the music plays though, he is totally engaged and engaging. You will see him menacingly wave a saber over his head, play his machine-gun shaped guitar, dance like a wild man, and calmly and brilliantly discuss his philosophy in interview segments with Wailers scholar Roger Steffens.

The final disc is a CD containing cross-section of rare and classic recordings by Tosh. There were a few things I didn’t have including some cool dub mixes, but it won’t take the place of owning the entire catalog of this important and beguiling artist. Watching these videos will remind you what an important artist he was.


Phish - The Clifford Ball
In the annals of music film history, one can point to very few examples of an actual turning point in history being captured at the moment it happens. Woodstock was big, Monterey of course. Gimme Shelter caught the moment the rarified air of the 1960’s went out of the balloon and the ideals of an entire generation lay there on the ground like so much crumpled rubber. Most often however, the process is more similar to a Ken Burns documentary. Directors find appropriate stills and footage from around the time to reconstruct what it must have been like. In the hands of a master this can be thrilling, but often the viewer finds himself thinking “I wish they had footage of the actual event.”

Phish’s two concerts in Plattsburgh, New York in 1996 which they called The Clifford Ball capture the exact moment when a home-grown Vermont jam band with a rabid cult following hit the big time. Put on Disc 1 and watch as the band walks on stage to a crowd twice as large as they had ever played before and see the thrilled awe on their faces as they and the audience recognize at the same moment “We made the big time!” It is palpable on screen as they launch into the first of six amazing sets of music that the band has crossed over from obscurity to fame and are the masters of their environment. Each set has its own special charms, and some of them - like the second set the second day - have some extraordinary jamming but it is that first set the first day when the band plays with such exuberance and awareness of the moment that I love best. The set-ending “David Bowie” is just as good as it gets. The band is on top of the world and the wonder of the moment is played across their faces throughout. Disc 7 contains a bunch of documentary material as well as the fabled “parking lot jam” with the band playing on a flat-bed truck that circles the campground at 4 in the morning. Like all the music played that weekend it is a cut above the norm and there is a unique ambience on stage and in the audience that makes this one unforgettable keepsake of one of THE great weekends of Phish.