Shows. Seems like ages ago. Seems like I'm still there. I keep asking silly questions, like "Did they _really_ play Viola Lee Blues?" I keep having to pinch myself. I had to during the show. It wasn't easy. It was pure ecstacy.
Phish, Shoreline Amphitheater, 1999. Like most Phish shows, I have a running dialogue with myself, about the shows, about the crowd, about how Mike's technique just keeps improving and he's slapping rather high notes, highlighting the beauty of a six-string Modulus bass... all these and more, and then of course the second the show is over, the various essays I've written leave the mental banks. Perhaps it's living wholly in the moment, perhaps I've decimated the parts of my brain devoted to memory storage. Who knows, if you had been there, I wouldn't need to write, you'd just know. Look at the sparkly-eyed folks sitting around you when the house lights come up. None of you can use words, none of you even want to try, but by whatever gesture or lack thereof, whole volumes are emanated between you because you just had an amazing out of body experience or otherwise transcendental journey.
These shows held particularly special meaning for me, as I celebrated my quarter-century birthday on Friday. And what better birthday gift to have than Phish? Well, the extra special frosting.. read on!
09/16/99 Shoreline Amphitheatre - Mountain View, California
Soundcheck: New Tune (?), Wading in the Velvet Sea (x3), It's Ice
I (1:45): Ya Mar, Chalk Dust Torture, Farmhouse, First Tube, Carini,
Dirt, Vultures, Sparkle, On Your Way Down, Beauty of my Dreams,
Stash, Trainsong, Billy Breathes, Run Like an Antelope
II: Also Sprach Zarathustra > Mike's Song > I Am Hydrogen > Weekapaug
Groove, Mountains in the Mist, Limb by Limb, Prince Caspian, Julius
E (II+E 1:30): Misty Mountain Hop*
* - with Warren Haynes (Gov't Mule, formerly Allman Brothers)
One of the greatest birthday gifts I received was from Jesse, my partner-in-musical-crime (hardly a crime committed, despite our conspiracy to subvert the status quo with mind-melting riffs and jams) was a collection of incredible live recordings. The Phil and Phriends shows from April with Page and Trey - burned onto CD! Tapes of SCI with the horns of Tiny Universe, a great moe. show, Grateful Dead unlabeled outtakes from 1973, and Phish from July 4 in Atlanta. So, the first thing I do when we load into my car on the way out of Berkeley is pop in the first set of Atlanta, to try and glean a little bit of the magick my two Sweeties, Pat and Andrew, got to bear witness in the flesh. So I'm getting all hyper now as we fly down 880 for Ya Mar. Well, take a look, my Birthday Run of Shows opener!
What an amazing show. Lots of Billy Breathes material, including the well- polished vocals of Mike on Trainsong, which wasn't overly crafty but just simple and sweet. First Tube was a treat to hear for the first time, had a rather familiar sound, definitely got everyone dancing and interested in the fruits of Trey's solo touring. Antelope was siiiiiiiick as usual, and a great way to close a *FOURTEEN SONG* first set!
I can't even begin with the second set, so get the tapes. The 2001 opener was accompanied by a nice light show, and I must add, the whole run was one big crazy light show - I kept marveling at how their lighting array has evolved over the years, and the skill with which Chris makes them come alive. He truly is a member of the band, would have to be to coordinate changing gels and light patterns in crystal- clear timing with the band's changes not only in music but mood.
I've always wanted to hear Ya Mar and Limb by Limb in the same show! Hot damn! Julius was a predictable show closer, and while the energy built up and washed over in traditional Phish phashion, I thought it was kind of a weak closer. Not comparable to tomorrow night's closers!
Speaking of...:
09/17/99 Shoreline Amphitheatre - Mountain View, California
I: Free Thought, Guyute, Ghost, Lawn Boy, Peaches en Regalia, Moma
Dance, Water in the Sky, When the Circus Comes, Get Back on the
Train, David Bowie, The Squirming Coil
II: Runaway Jim, Sand, Piper -> Jam, Roggae, You Enjoy Myself* > Bass
Duet*, Wolfman's Brother > Cold Rain and Snow**
E: Viola Lee Blues***
* - with Phil Lesh on bass (and trampoline on "You Enjoy Myself")
** - with Phil Lesh on bass and vocals
*** - with Phil Lesh on bass and Warren Haynes on guitar
Musical moment: I'm listening to 7/4 Atlanta, and I just wet myself when I hear great song transitions - here it's Story of the Ghost into a heart-warming Slave to the Traffic Light. Back to the rambling...
The first set ended with a song I haven't heard in awhile, Squirming Coil. By the end, Page had me so emotionally flying that I completely forgot what song this had come out of, that everyone else had left the stage, and hell, where I was for the evening.
Knowing in advance that Phil Lesh would be playing with them last night might have taken away some of the magic of the surprise, the realization that, holy shit, that's Phil down there! But the _moment_ of his arrival could not be predicted. The encore? Surely not. They're doing Wolfman's Brother, we just know they are. But predating that, Phil arrives during You Enjoy Myself, after Phish has already set the stage for some bizarre and crafty jams. A peek through the binoculars reveals stage crew bringing out not the usual two trampolines, but a third to be bounced upon by an undoubted guest. Phil plugs in and climbs on, but doesn't keep the rhythm of the other two, perhaps because his guitar strap isn't holding things right. Anyway, he disappears to play with his sound setup, which was only mildly disappointing even to Phish (Mike kept checking out Phil's actions as he leaped in his clockwise pursuit of the mad funk bass).
I don't know much of what to say about the ensuing Phil/Mike jams, other than get the tapes, the music speaks for itself. They stayed crisp and in sync, really playing well off each other, coming into and out of each other's musical phrasings with grace.. while stylistically a bit different they complemented each other in a way that sometimes left them a two-man band.. the richness that poured out of them was stunningly beautiful.
While Wolfman's Brother might have been somewhat predictable, given that Phil played this independently of Phish at Mountain Aire, I believe it was, we still clamored for it all day long, and could hardly wait until the moment arrived. It did, they stole our faces, and in turn gave us all the gift of a musical evolution, a momentary lapse of division between the excellent musicians on this "jam band" scene today, during which that music took an evolutionary quantum leap into something new that I hope we'll find repeated across the board. Phil truly is the torch-bearer, not just for the Grateful Dead but for every band playing music today. His cross-breeding efforts have tickled the minds of thousands with their brilliant success.
Cold Rain and Snow was a winner, and who could have fathomed even a year ago that Grateful Dead would meet Phish, with Phil bearing the torch and carrying the vocal lead while the overall structure smelled like Phish? Not I, said me. Or HOW ABOUT that Viola Lee Blues? Warren Haynes joined and fit right in the groove, trading the spotlight with Trey, while Phil traded with Mike.. ah anyway get the tapes it's worth your time and energy to do so.
The discussion waxes and wanes on the connections between the Grateful Dead. The popular literature does so often, perhaps because the Dead were familiar to a much wider audience, and the attempt is made to try and elicit similar qualities in Phish. Now I'm not referring to the "Dead were better" "Jerry whips Trey's ass" blather. As we saw last night, the music of Phish and the Dead are quite compatible, and one might even go so far as to explore musical influences or similarities in particular jams. But their music is altogether different. I think that the aforementioned hosing phenomenon, the energy dynamic that sweeps between audience, band, the universe, and back again, creating an atmosphere that can only be described through the experience of being washed in it... has a very similar taste between the two bands, and reflects more of the metaphysical and transpersonal nature of the concert experience than anything about the band as a separate entity. Indeed, there is no separation here, and this is/was oft reflected in interviews with band members. Perhaps this explains the cross-over in the fan base. Each band has its own brilliant, complex, trance-inducing way of taking us into the vortex of our own unity.
I don't know what else to say. Can somebody pinch me? I'm still dreaming. Did my birthday come and go? Who cares, the music stays. I'm sure there are plenty of reviews and critiques of these shows on the Net by now, perhaps giving more insight into the technical prowess of the band and the nuances of Phil's style as meshed with Phish. Read them; I can't begin to scratch the surface - a lot went on here folks, more than any of us yet realize. And likely more than the musicians themselves realize. Perhaps there's an essay up on the dawning of the new millenium as related to the dawning of a new musical age. However we want to think about it now, we can't use our minds to leap into the bright future of this musical scene. What is before us is the chance to be present, to be witnesses and participants, to be fully in our bodies and hop on-board for the long, strange, and wondrous trip.
Shaggy
shaggy@yak.net
9/18/99
Berkeley, CA