SOUNDTRACK: PHISH-Niagara Falls (2013).
This three-CD live album contains the complete concert from on December 7, 1995, at the Niagara Falls Convention Center in Niagara Falls, New York.
This concert is a “universally recognized high point for Phish.” There’s a few big jams and some classic favorites. But they also start with an unusual song. “The Old Home Place” is a folky, countryish fun opening. It’s quite expected, but it segues right into “The Curtain” (not “The Curtain With”), a groovy jam with a cool keyboard intro. The sons segues into a rocking “AC/DC Bag” which has a long solo (the song is 9 minutes long) and a lengthy piano ending.
“Demand” is a short song, not played too often. It sounds nice here and segues into a great version “Rift.” The 12-minute “Slave to the Traffic Light” is a little slower-paced than usual, but there’s some beautiful soloing. The extended “Guyue” works well with the bouncy “Bouncing Around the Room.” And that short song is nice bookended by another jam in a rollicking “Possum.” Everything gets really quiet for a few minutes before the guys do an a capella “Hello My Baby.” It’s a little quiet but not as bad as some of the other ones. I will never understand why people need to yell loudly when a band does something quietly.
Set two opens with an audience chess move and a 17 minute “Split Open and Melt.” It has a groovy jam and a tease of “In a Gadda da Vida” before turning choppy and angular and going into some darker grooves. It slows down to almost a stop before turning toward the end. That workup leads to a mellow “Strange Design,” a very pretty version that pairs well with “Taste,” a fun song that Fish takes some vocals on (his voice sounding rough like usual).
“Reba” is one of the faster versions of the song–so fast that they seem to trip themselves up in the middle of the second verse. The first part of the solo is insanely fast including the drums. But the middle jam is much more mellow. As the song comes to an end, the keyboards get a little spooky with intermittent drum thumps before seguing into a rocking “Julius.”
Things settle down for the funny “Sleeping Monkey” Fish sings the high-pitched vocals and apparently gets a bug in his mouth (cough cough pbblt). They jump to a very fast “Sparkle.” The ending “laughing laughing fall apart” is really really fast. This leads to a 17 minute “Mike’s Song” that has one of my favorite jam section from phish—a full band jam, a funky 70s keyboard section, a big grooving section, and then a slowing down to guitar arpeggios which leads to trippy spacey keyboards. That morphs into a wild piano section which ultimately segues into a 13 minute “Weekapaug Groove.”
The set ends with an a cappella “Amazing Grace” (that is nicely loud–two a capella songs in one show?). The encore is “Uncle Pen,” a song I don’t really know (by Bill Monroe). It’s done in a rollicking honky-tonk style.
The disc contains a bonus soundcheck of “Poor Heart.” It is almost comically slow. Not essential but always interesting to hear them do soundcheck and see what they play around with—including what they soundcheck and then don’t play in the show. The set is a fantastic live representation.
[READ: June 25, 2017] “Lamb to the Slaughter”
I have read many of Dahl’s children’s stories. But after reading this I realized that I have clearly not read enough of his adult stories.
The idea behind this is so familiar that I have to wonder if I have read or seen a version of it not realizing it was created by Dahl.
The set up of this story is great. And, what’s better is that I found it really annoying at first only to be surprised by the twist. Mary Maloney is a happy suburban fifties housewife. Its gross. She waits for her husband to come home, serves him a drink, waits to talk to him until he has finished his drink and basically feels a sense of completeness once he gets home. Gross, right?
Mary’s husband is a police detective. He come s home that day and is a bit more brutish than normal. He drinks his drink much faster than usual. He tells Mary to sit down and be quiet a few times. And as much as she tries to make him feel better–by offering to cook him a meal rather than going out to diner–he just gets more angry with her.
And then finally he tells her what’s got him so upset. (more…)
