In light of the recent blurb about the Rolling Stone interview with Trey (http://www.jambands.com/news/2011/06/24/trey-anastasio-new-phish-album-less-touring-in-2012) and Gordo's recent phone message - the number to the message line is out there in cyber space - I've decided to take some time from my Super Ball IX preview to say a few words about both (preview hitting newsstands by Sunday June 26th...sorry I keep changing the dates, I'm probably as bad a procrastinator as you are).
Mike's latest phone message responds to some questions asked by phans. I think he responds to two questions before being cut off, but both questions could easily be morphed into one singular question of the same theme:
WHY DON'T YOU GUYS JAM ANYMORE, AND IS IT BECAUSE YOU'RE NOT FUCKED UP?
Am I wrong Phish geeks? That's basically what was asked. Before I put in my two cents regarding his response (don't worry, my blog dialogue will make Mike's responses obvious if you haven't heard the message), let me clarify my own complaints about the band, which can be read in the previous few blogs, specifically - and only, really - the review of the "Mason-Dixon Line Run".
My criticisms were:
1. Lack of Type-I/Type-II jamming on certain songs, and abrupt ending of jams that seemed to be taking off (usually seemed to be Trey's doing)
2. Repeats - clear enough.
3. Timing/placement of abruptly ended jams and/or timing/placement of repeats. I'm not talking about the length of a song, I'm talking about the timing of a, say, sick Bowie jam in a certain set - whether repeated or not - or the placement of said song/jam.
While I complained about a "lack of jamming", I should have been more specific. The jams, for the most part, were incredible. Let's just use BDTNL as an example: At the end of the day many of us would look at a 17-minute BDTNL and say "Wow, they jammed that one" whether we heard it or not; a similar but opposite response would follow a 7 minute BDTNL. Yet, the 7-minute BDTNL may have SHREDDED the 17-minute version. In other words, we have to actually listen to these shows - sober - to make a sound decision. It's about the the song, the progression, and the jam - the Type-I/Type-II - and not necessarily the length, although in many cases length can equate to leaving song boundaries. Mike's right - Phish DID jam A LOT of their tunes the First Leg. But it's also a question of reaching that Type-I/Type-II status. Remember the Halley's Comet from Bethel? Not necessarily long, but Miguel Cocineros called it a "funk space demon", and he stays sober for these shows! The days of 20-minute jams are over...or are they? Some of the second sets of ST11:1 were ENTIRE SEGUES. If they weren't literally, then some were literally a few measly seconds from being full segues. How is that not jamming? Well, sometimes those "jams" or segues included the most oddly-placed boner-beaters. More on that later.
But in the meantime, let's not forget the PNC Tweezer > No Quarter that lasted 23 minutes. Maybe you forgot that the DTE DWD > Fluffhead WAS OVER 42 MINUTES. Cuyahoga had a debut of launchpad Steam that > Piper > Lizards and lasted over 25 minutes. Cincinnati OPENED with a AC/DC > PYITE > Gin > Taste that lasted 35+ minutes. Our hometown show, the one we bitched about for days, featured a Second Set opener of Back On The Train > Rock 'n' Roll > Mansfield J-A-M > Mango that lasted over 35 minutes! What were we complaining about??? Maybe this was a good example, no matter how poor. One could argue - AT THAT MOMENT - that the sick segue featured two songs that had already been played twice and three times in six previous shows: Back On The Train and Rock 'n' Roll. So at that moment the boys had played one song 3x in seven shows and another twice already - to start a set. Since everything we know of IN THE WORLD IS BASED ON PERCEPTION, is it so hard to understand why someone might freak out a little...at that rate it seemed you'd hear back On The Train eight times by the end of the leg. But it didn't end up like that - but the perception of that night still lingered, and perhaps lingers, which is one small example of a potential gripe about the music. Now considering the songs they did "overplay" - BDTNL, Possum, Bowie, Antelope, Hood, etc. - it's even easier to understand this perception, however misguided.
Darien Lake was the sight of jamming EXPLOITATION as the band ripped off a Golden Age > Mike's > FEFY > Weekapaug was over 33 minutes. The band LITERALLY TOOK A 10 SECOND BREAK then played What's The Use > Theme > BDTNL > 2001 > Hood that lasted over 43 minutes. So the band was less than 10 seconds from ripping a 76 minute straight set. Possible bitch? Another Mike's? Another BDTNL? Another Hood? Trust me, you DID NOT HEAR ME BITCH ABOUT THESE REPEATS, NOT COMING OUT OF THOSE SPACE JAMS. When they pop off like that they can play Bouncin' > Farmhouse > Possum until my ears bleed. Camden was mild, but Merriweather 1 rocked out a Rock 'n' Roll > Columbia Jam > Albuquerque > Piper > Wading > 2001 > STFTFP > Suzy THAT WAS OVER 50 FUCKING MINUTES! A potential bitch here? Not too many besides Suzy (sorry Suzy phans, we all hate one, don't we???) Things continued the next night at Merriweather 2 with 36+ minutes of Crosseyed And Painless > Steam > Light > Wedge. It's getting harder to justify the little bitching I even did with every song I write down. It's always nice to go back and reread...
Alpharetta 1? Carini > Sand > DWD > Maze = 38 minutes. Alpharetta 2? Mound > Mayhem > Mound > Tweezer > Julius > Slave = 2 hours and 32 minutes. Ok, so almost an hour was Mayhem - the ridiculous storm that raged through- and Tweezer was horribly cut for Julius, and the last two songs played like set enders...BUT DUDE, really? That's still ridiculous. Charlotte set this bomb off: BDTNL > Rock 'n' Roll > Charlotte Jam > Ghost > Free > Reba. I know no one was complaining about that, but it was over 50 minutes! Raleigh launched a Twist > Rift > Caspian > Esther that lasted 34+ minutes. And Portsmouth might have been the best: Crosseyed > Walls > Slave > Fluffhead > Sand > Sneakin' Salley > Light > BDTNL for 78 minutes. 78 FUCKING MINUTES!!! So, what the hell were we complaining about? And by we I mean the die-hard Phish community. For the most part we were wrong, as seen vividly from the most recent example.
Since my jam section took so long, I'll keep the next two sections short. Very short. By just the statistics seen in the polls review section (see the blog below from 6/22) one can see that Possum, the most played song of ST11:1, was right on par with the % played from the previous two years; I'm willing to bet that those statistics pan out over even longer timescales. In other words, Phish isn't really overplaying songs...yet. If they play Possum six more times in the remaining 15 shows (40%), this year would win as the year they played Possum the most of any of the previous three years ('09-'10-'11)...BY ONLY 1%!!! I'd rather not eat more crow with my repeat accusations. If they play songs like Possum, Antelope, Hood, Bowie, and BDTNL (which I have NO problem with being a new tune), then MAYBE we'll be venturing into uncharted waters...but not yet.
So that leaves us to my last gripe, as little as it may have been: the timing. This is literally the ONE thing that could be legitimately complained about, and even these moments have their reasons. For example, the Tweezer in Alpharetta being cut short for Julius. The fact that every time shit got murky they seemed to go into Bowie. The fact that it seemed like every set ended with Antelope...how about an Antelope opener? Even after a rocking Portsmouth show they END with Suzy...why? Again? Even if they blasted out a Golgi - perfectly appropriate song and equally received by the crowd - it would have been better. Imagine the boys screaming "I saw you...with a Super Ball ticket in your hand...I saw you..." It would have been mayhem. But they chose Suzy. Things like that. It's not necessarily the songs per se, but the TIMING. If it wasn't Antelope as an ender it was Hood or Suzy...SEEMINGLY GUARANTEED. Timing AND repeats...the two combined are perceived as disaster. Again, we're talking about PERCEPTION. So for all the bitching it seems Phish is innocent. Dark, deep jams get cut? No shit, Trey struggled with drugs. You try doing something that DIRECTLY reminds you of a dark time in your life. Single songs don't last an hour? No shit, you ever play a bass that hard for 60 minutes? You ever try it as a 46-year-old? Exactly. Now try drumming for that long as a tiny, lazy 46-year-old man. Get the picture? Now add all of that to the fact that many of us bitching hit ALMOST EVERY SINGLE SHOW. What do we expect?
So Mike was dead-on with his answers as heard on his phone line. He said "I thought we jammed a lot...in fact, I was surprised at how much we jammed." Touche Cacto, in the end so are we. You guys laid it down and I speak for everyone when I say we're sorry for any bitching. A few "duds" in 18 shows is nothing to complain about, as we can see from the recap, and there weren't too many dud moments, let alone shows. But we do need more Type-I shit, and we're begging for some Type-II shit. Now a quick mention of Trey's admission in a recent Rolling Stone interview that Phish would tour much less in 2012: What the fuck do you expect? They have to raise their families someday. Three of four band members have relatively new kids or are expecting them soon. You have to look at this realistically. Like Mike said, it's not 1993 or 1994. No more four song sets (maybe). No more 60 minute stand-alone songs (probably). No more 100 show years (ever). Get used to it and be glad about one thing: It's not 2004-2009. When you think about it that way, what's to complain about? Having said all that, see you at Super Ball IX!
- Trigger Treinta Uno
Trigger31.com
Thanks to Mike's hotline for the inspiration and to Colonel Phortin for turning me onto the Rolling Stone interview. See you all at SBIX and stay tuned for the review coming Sunday June 26th!
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