SOUNDTRACK: PHISH-Live in Brooklyn (2006).
Just over ten years ago I started this blog. And sometime in May of 2007 I wrote about this disc. Well, actually, I didn’t really write about it. Initially the “soundtrack” was just the record I was listening to that day. I didn’t really write about the music at all. The only thing I noted about this disc was that a 17 minute guitar solo is not such a good idea when you are sleepy.
So, now that I’ve often spent more words on the music than the stories, here’s a full review of this live album (their fifth “official” live record).
This show was performed on June 17, 2004–the opening night of what was promoted as the band’s final tour, before their 2004 breakup.
This show starts with “A Song I Heard the Ocean Sing.” It is a rocking opening although it sounds a bit flat. “Dinner and a Movie” is fun, an angular version with a perfectly jazzy end section. It segues into a great 13-minute version of “The Curtain With” and then a short, fast “Sample in a Jar.”
“The Moma Dance” has a lengthy intro before the song starts and then a long jam afterwards. It’s fifteen minutes long and then segues into an outstanding “Free.” There’s a particularly cool razzy funky bass solo. “Nothing” is a sweet song from Undermind, a nice mellow come down after Free and a good workout for Page on piano. It’s followed by “Maze.” This one sounds a little funny, but there’s some great soloing from Trey and Page. Trey’s solo starts trippy and then turns wild and really rocking. “Frankenstein” is not quite as faithful to the original as some earlier versions, but they’ve played it many times by this point.
Set 2 opens with the crowd chanting “It’s 1, 2, 3, strikes you’re out at the old ball game” and then it’s a 17 minute version of “46 Days.” It mostly a guitar solo that segues into a long version of “Possum,” although this “Possum” is rather slow, comparatively. The solo grooves along until it gets down to a quiet moment. Then there’s a short “Oh Kee Pah” that launches into a rollicking 18-minute “Suzy Greenberg” with a great jam in the middle. It segues into a super rocking “Axilla” and then segues into a groovy “2001.” The jam on that song lasts 9 minutes and it’s connected to an excellent “Birds of a Feather.”
They dedicate the insane “Kung” to the people at the US Open next door. They are going to sing it very loud so that the players can hear it. And after the runaway gold cart marathon, Trey says they’re going to slow things down with “Mike’s Song,” but its’ got a very fast jam in the middle. It does slow down to a mellow “I Am Hydrogen,” which segues into a romping “Weekapaug Groove.”
The encore is “Divided Sky.” There’s a 1:15 pause while Trey doesn’t play the next note before beginning the rest of the show. The crowd gets really restless. It’s pretty funny.
This entire concert was simulcast on over 100 movie theater screens around the country. The band was supposed to break up for good after this tour. But here it is 13 years later and they are playing better than ever.
[READ: March 27, 2017] “Down and Out in Paris and London”
This issue of Lucky Peach includes an excerpt from a book by George Orwell. Down and Out in Paris and London was the first full-length work by Orwell, published in 1933. It is a memoir in two parts on the theme of poverty in the two cities.
What does it have to do with food? Well, it was originally called “A Scullion’s Diary.” And this excerpt comes from around Chapter III where the narrator obtains a job as a plongeur (dishwasher) in the kitchen at “Hotel X.”
He explains that one of the few humane jobs in the kitchen was polishing silver and glasses–at least the waiters might treat you as something of an equal. Otherwise he was washing crockery–often for thirteen hours a day.
He marvels that the squalor of their kitchen–“we are in disgusting filth”–was only double doors away from the splendid dining room. He says “we slithered about in a compound of soapy water, lettuce leaves, torn paper, and trampled food.” (more…)
I Just Read About That... 