Phish kicked off their highly anticipated weekend run at the beautiful and serene Gorge Amphitheater last night. Expectations were high, the weather was beautiful, and the band really delivered quite a showing, setlist and playing-quality wise. Should be quite a weekend ahead, the Phish train just seems to keep picking up speed, show by show. Keep it comin’!
8/07/09
Phish
8/07/09
Gorge Ampitheater
George, WA
Set 1
Down With Disease
Ocelot
Pebbles And Marbles
Possum
Sleep
Destiny Unbound
Stash
Sneakin’ Sally Through The Alley
Cavern
Set 2
The Moma Dance >
Light >
Taste
Fluffhead
Joy
Bathtub Gin >
Harry Hood
Phish layed down another eclectic set last night featuring some tasty covers including the first 3.0 bust-out of ‘Oh Sweet Nuthin’ (Velvet Underground) and one of the only 3.0 ‘Cities’ (Talking Heads) and ‘Bold as Love’ (Hendrix) renditions taboot. The first set alternated between short rocking numbers like ‘Golgi’, ‘Chalkdust’, ‘Ya mar’ and ‘Suzy’ with longer and more complex tunes like ‘Divided Sky’, ‘Time Turns Elastic’, and ‘David Bowie’. Keeping true to form, the 2nd set really took off further into the jamosphere with explorations into ‘DWD’, ‘Maze’, and a dark Mike’s>Simple>Groove to close out the set. All in all, quite an evening in Cali, next stop: 2 nights at the beautiful Gorge amphitheater.
Phish ~08/5/09 ~ Shoreline Amphitheater ~Mountain View, CA
8/05/09
Set One
Golgi Apparatus
Halley’s Comet
Chalk Dust Torture
The Divided Sky
When the Circus Comes
Time Turns Elastic
Ya Mar
Stealing Time From The Faulty Plan
Suzy Greenberg
David Bowie
8/05/09
Set Two
Backwards Down the Number Line
Down With Disease >
Limb By Limb
Oh Sweet Nothin’
Cities >
Maze
Mike’s Song >
Simple
Weekapaug Groove
Set One
Roses Are Free
Wilson
NICU
Prince Caspian
Back On The Train
Reba
Grind
Beauty Of A Broken Heart
Sample In A Jar
Sugar Shack
Waste
Kill Devil Falls
Set Two
Boogie On Reggae Woman
You Enjoy Myself >
Undermind* >
Drums* >
Seven Below* >
2001* >
Waves* >
Character Zero*
Encore
Bittersweet Motel
Bouncing Around The Room
Slave To The Traffic Light
The phish roller-coaster continues as Trey and the boys continue their adventurous setlists and jam explorations. Saturday night’s Red Rocks show saw the first performance of ‘Mound’ since the 12/31/02 reunion show and man did they nail it. They also dropped the first ‘The Curtain (With)’ since it’s disastrous Coventry-closing performance where the band started the song in the wrong key and had to begin again. This version, on the other hand, is dead on. You can tell they are practiced and hungry to nail these songs – playing like they have something to prove.
As if that isn’t enough, the band also played the first ‘Esther’ since 9/30/00. They sandwiched a monster second set with a tasy Rock and Roll>DWD>Free opening sequence and a Harry Hood closer. All in all, quite an evening, who can even imagine what’s in store for night 4? If you haven’t already been doing so, check out live streams of the shows, as they happen, here!
Phish ~ 8/01/09 ~ Red Rocks Amphitheater ~ Morrison, CO
View from the stage - 8/1/09
Set 1: AC/DC Bag, The Curtain With, Mound, Gotta Jibboo, Guyute, PYITE, Tube, Alaska, Antelope
Set 2: Rock & Roll > Down with Disease > Free, Esther, Dirt, Harry Hood
Phish took to the rocks again last night for their 2nd of 4 nights at the historic ampitheater. They delivered a fun and eclectic show with a big 1-2 punch of The Who’s ‘Drowned’ and fan-favorite cover of the The Talking Heads ‘Crosseyed and Painless’ to open up the second set. The highlight of the show has to be the 2nd set jam sequence of Tweezer > BDTNL > Fluffhead > Piper> A Day In The Life. That right there, is the stuff that dreams are made of. Keep it coming’ boys!
View From The Top - 7/31/09
Phish ~ Red Rocks Amphitheater ~ Morrison, CO ~ 7/31/09
Set One
Runaway Jim
Chalk Dust Torture
Bathtub Gin
Time Turns Elastic
Lawn Boy
Water In The Sky
Stealing Time From The Faulty Plan
Split Open and Melt
Set Two
Drowned >
Crosseyed and Painless >
Joy
Tweezer >
Backwards Down The Number Line >
Fluffhead >
Piper >
A Day in the Life
Phish kicked things off with a bang last night at Red Rocks – offering up a monster show complete with jam anthems Divided Sky, Stash, Possum, Mike’s Groove, Ghost, and David Bowie. The band nodded to the beautiful surroundings and uninhibited sight lines with a fitting Divided Sky opener. The rest of the first set reads like a pretty standard first set of tour featuring staples like Horn, Moma Dance, The Wedge, and Horse/Silent. Overall, a well played set with Trey sounding practiced and ready to rip.
The second set, on the other hand, is a different story filled with massive jams and explorations as well as a Billy Breathes bustout that’s just about picture perfect. Overall, the band definitely seems to be playing in a more relaxed and jammy feel than the Hampton run or Summer Tour Leg 1 – something that has left the Phish community excited and salivating for what’s to come over the next 2 weeks.
Red Rocks - 7/30/09
Phish
7/30/09
Red Rocks Amphitheater
Morrison, CO
Set One:
The Divided Sky
Ocelot
The Wedge
Poor Heart
The Moma Dance
Horn
Stash
The Horse >
Silent In The Morning
Possum
Lights - 7/30/09
Set 2:
Mike’s Song >
I Am Hydrogen >
Weekapaug Groove
Ghost
Wolfman’s Brother
Limb By Limb
Billy Breathes
The Squirming Coil
David Bowie
As was reported yesterday over on Welcome To Now Twitter, a Hampton Inn right outside of Indio, CA mistakingly let the cat out of the bag when they prematurely began offering a ‘Phish Concert Package’ deal for Halloween weekend. While this may come as a suprise to all the custies who were putting their faith in the Phish.com map, it is certainly no surprise to us here at Welcome To Now who have been reporting that the fest will be in Indio for almost a month now. While I’ve also been told by my sources that a new promo video will drop today on Phish.com announcing the festival, what remains to be seen is when fall tour dates will be announced.
Hampton Inn Indio Screenshot - 7/21/09
The originally rumored fall tour dates have been called into question by recent news that Pearl Jam’s October 28th and 30th shows at the Spectrum will be the last shows before the venue is torn down. My sources tell me that the original dates hold true but that the Philly show may be moved over to the Wachovia Complex. Additionally, a 4 day NYE run in Miami seems all but certain with multiple sources confirming.
Ahhh, Friday afternoon – a time to relax, turn off, and let your mind surf the interwebs for endless entertainment or lack thereof. If you’re too lazy to see what’s out there, let me help you. Here’s a few noteworthy stories and goings on from the world of Jam today:
1. Warren Haynes: “I am a Jamband whore; and I couldn’t be happier.”
Warren
Well, he didn’t exactly use those words, but Warren said about as much in a Billboard article out today. The man is having his busiest year to date with big tours going on with The Dead (Spring Tour 2009), The Allman Brothers (Beacon Run and Summer/Fall tour w/ WSP), and his own Gov’t Mule project (touring on and off throughout the year). Warren also talks about the new Gov’t Mule album out soon and the solo disc he recorded this year with George Porter, Jr., Ivan Neville, Ian McLagan, Ron Holloway. Always a rumor monger, let me also point out that Warren says that “he’s confident the Dead is going to do some more”, especially with the group’s 45th anniversary in 2010. You may be a whore Warren, but we love you.
2. Animal Collective sample the Dead’s ‘Unbroken Chain’ in new track
Phil
News broke today via a Tweet that self-proclaimed Deadheads Animal Collective have been granted the rights to legally sample the Grateful Dead’s classic PhilZone Epic ‘Unbroken Chain’ in a new track the band is working on. You can listen to an unreleased version of the song here (Phil vocal loop comes in near the end).
3. Mike Gordon announces September tour; gets bad haircut
Mike
Mike announced today via a creepy video that he’ll be taking to the road in September with his solo band featuring shred-tastic Scott Murawski on guitar, Brooklyn drummer Todd Isler, keyboardist Tom Cleary, and percussionist Craig Myers. Let’s just hope he leaves that Joker costume from the video (see right) at home – that thing is down right scary.
4. Phish continue Halloween festival map mystery
The Map - 7/17/09
Phish blacked-out more states on their Halloween festival map today (see right). Only 13 states now remain including Texas, Florida, and Nevada. That said, all the real phans know that the festival is still doing down in Indio, CA. Expect the announcment to drop before the band’s upcoming Red Rocks dates and Summer Tour Leg 2, likely this Monday coming up.
With all the excitement brewing over the upcoming Halloween Phish festival, let’s take a look back to see why Halloween is such a special day in Phish lore. For the 1996 celebration, as has become tradition, Phish sandwiched a ‘muscial costume’ set (a full album covered front to back) in between 2 full-length original sets. That year, the band took on The Talking Heads classic album ‘Remain in Light’. This show is just a monster – the band brings out part of the Giant Country Horns for the 2nd and 3rd sets and, by the time the night ends, bust out YEM, DWD, Reba, Forbin’s/Mockingbird, Brother, 2001, Simple, and a fitting Frankenstein encore. Without further ado, enjoy!
Remain In Light Album Art
Phish ~ 10/31/96 ~ The Omni ~ Atlanta, GA
Set 1: Sanity, Highway to Hell, Down with Disease > You Enjoy Myself > Prince Caspian, Reba, Colonel Forbin’s Ascent > Fly Famous Mockingbird, Character Zero, The Star Spangled Banner*
Set 2: Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On), Crosseyed and Painless, The Great Curve, Once In A Lifetime, Houses in Motion, Seen and Not Seen, Listening Wind, Overload
Set 3: Brother**, Also Sprach Zarathustra** > Maze**, Simple** > Swept Away > Steep** >
Jesus Left Chicago***, Suzie Greenberg***, E: Frankenstein***
*Acapella. Second set with Dave Grippo (saxaphone), Gary Gazaway (trombone) and Karl Perazzo
(percussionist from Santana). **With Karl Perazzo. ***With Dave Grippo, Karl Perazzo, and Gary Gazaway.
Based on the most recent flash animation updates to the Phish.com map (see below), it would appear that the festival will not be taking place at the Coachella home of Empire Polo Fields in Indio, CA as was widely rumored including here on Welcome To Now.
Phish.com - 7/14/09
27 states have been ‘blacked-out’ so far, leaving mostly southwestern states in the mix. Alternate rumors points to Las Vegas, the home of the now extinct ‘Vegoose’ music festival or to Texas where the fest was originally rumored to be taking place. All that said, I’m sticking to my story, the fest will be in Indio – expect an announcment this upcoming Tuesday or, at the latest, before the 2nd leg of their summer tour kicks off. Either way, save the date!
Welcome To Now 