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Archive for the ‘Led Zeppelin’ Category

Rachel Joyce–The Music Shop (2017)

Posted in Aretha Franklin, Billie Holiday, David Bowie, Frédéric Chopin, George Frideric Handel, Giuseppe Verdi, Issac Hayes, James Brown, Johann Sebastian Bach, Led Zeppelin, Ludwig van Beethoven, Miles Davis, Music, Musicians, Nick Drake, Rachel Joyce, Romance, Sex Pistols, The Beach Boys, The Troggs, Unlikable main character, Van Morrison on August 29, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: Spotify playlist: The Music Shop–Songs from and Inspired by the Rachel Joyce Novel (2017).

Penguin books has created a Spotify playlist based on the music mentioned in the story.

 There’s music by:

  • Aretha Franklin
  • David Bowie
  • Shalamar
  • Duke Ellington
  • Sex Pistols
  • Miles Davis
  • Led Zeppelin
  • Van Morrison
  • James Brown
  • Isaac Hayes
  • The Troggs
  • The Beach Boys
  • Billie Holiday
  • Nick Drake

and classical composers like

  • Bach
  • Chopin
  • Perotin
  • Beethoven
  • Verdi
  • Barber
  • Handel

[READ: August 2021] The Music Shop

I don’t remember how I heard about this book, but it was a fun fast read.

Set in 1988 It’s about a curmudgeon who owns a music shop (vinyl only) and how he falls in love.

Frank has a special gift: he can talk with you for a few minutes and figure out exactly what music you need to hear right now (on vinyl of course).  It’s not a lucrative gift, but the people who take advantage of it are beyond thrilled.

The first chapter is about a man who only listed to Chopin and how Frank turned him on to Aretha Franklin exactly when he needed her music.

Frank’s shop is in a cul de sac with a few other businesses.  None of them are thriving; most of them are doing almost okay.  Maud owns the tattoo shop and sort of has a thing for Frank (he is way too oblivious to realize it).   She is tough (a tattoo parlor owner after all) and has some of the best lines in the book (I love her).  There’s also Father Anthony, a priest who owns a religious icons shop.  He is cool and chill and likes to hang out in the record shop.  And there’s a mortician (actually twins) who share space in the cul de sac.

Frank has one employee, Kit, an excitable teenaged boy who is clumsy in many ways and provides for most of the honesty in the book. (more…)

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Phish: Summer Tour 2021 (Atlantic City Beach, Atlantic City, NJ, August 14, 2021) [night 2 of 3] [rescheduled from August 15, 2020]

Posted in Atlantic City, NJ, Bob Marley, Kasvot Växt, Led Zeppelin, Phish, The Who on August 14, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: August 14, 2021] Phish

Atlantic City is not a convenient location for me–2 hours at best.  And yet when Phish announced a three night residency on the back in 2020, I jumped at the tickets.  Unsurprisingly, the show was postponed to 2021.  I thought it might get postponed again as COVID cases started rising, but they plugged along and played an amazing three night miniseries.

I had intended to go Saturday and Sunday, then something came up and I considered switching my Saturday to Friday.  And while Saturday was great, Friday had several songs on my “gotta see live” list as well as a Fish vacuum solo!  I can’t believe they did that on the first night.

However, the second night proved to be pretty great.  If for no other reason than I got to stand in the Atlantic Ocean and watch Phish play.  There was a lifeguard who made sure people didn’t go out too deep (thankless job!) but I was at least knee deep from some of the show.  I was also quite far away from the 36,000 (!) people who apparently attended.

I’m guessing Phish fans are smart enough to get vaccinated (no proof was required at our show).  I masked up, but few others did. But as far as I can tell, it was not a superspreader event at all.  I did venture into the middle of the crowd a few times (masked and no where near the dense pit), but mostly I stayed in the water.

They started out with “Llama.”  “Llama” was a song I hadn’t seen live before, so auspicious start.  Then I realized they were playing it differently–a slow “Llama.”  It’s hard enough tryin to keep track of songs you need to hear without them playing different versions of the songs too.  I do love the fast “Llama,” but this slow version was groovy and very cool. (more…)

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Michael LaPointe–“Private Hands” (The Walrus, July/August 2021)

Posted in Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Coronavirus, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Men I Trust, Michael LaPointe, Museum of the Dandelion, Provenance, Quarantine, Short Story, The Walrus, Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts, Tiny Desk Concert on July 6, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: MEN I TRUST-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #224 (June 16, 2021).

I hadn’t heard of Men I Trust, one of the more interesting new band names out there, but I really like their sound.  It’s a kind of gentle synth pop that seems to flow so effortlessly from French-speaking singers (even when they sing in English).

Men I Trust was initially the duo of high school friends Dragos Chiriac (keyboards) and Jessy Caron (guitars), before adding vocalist Emma Proulx in 2015 and recording the group’s debut album, Headroom. (They expanded to a quintet for this performance, with Cedric Martel handling bass and Eric Maillet on drums.)

The band straddle the line between interesting indie rock and 70s soft rock.  In fact even the setting straddles that line.

From a rustic and retro-looking cabin on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River in Quebec, the band Men I Trust seized the essence of the Tiny Desk almost to a tee. The controlled, yet layered four-song set, bookended by tracks from 2019’s Oncle Jazz would almost certainly make for a plug-and-play situation had it been behind Bob Boilen’s desk.

“Show Me How” leans away from the soft rock with a pretty guitar intro and some nice bass work.  Proulx’s voice has that softness that lures you in.  The shift to the chorus is a really nice chord change too.

The band’s style sways between rubbery upbeat electro-pop and the muddy pace evident on last year’s “Lucky Sue,” but generally hits that sweet spot for anybody looking to be cradled and carried by a vibe-y groove

“Lucky Sue” opens with a wah-wah guitar intro that sounds like synth.  Caron also makes some really cool chords on his guitar–he gets some really interesting sounds from it.

 The song “Humming Man,” was its first official single as a trio and they never looked back from there.

“Humming Man” opens with thumping drums and a soft synth chord progression.  Again Caron play a wah wah filled riff but also gets some really interesting guitar sounds–almost like a reverse wall of chords that he stretches out to a lengthy solo for the end of the song.

I’m fascinated to read that

The overdubs and reverb on Emma’s vocals are stripped away here, leaving a deceptively endearing quality to her voice.

Her voice here isn’t full of reverb, but I can’t imagine doing much processing to her delicate voice.  “All Night” sounds very nice–whispery and inviting even if this song veers a little too far into soft rock territory.  Caron’s solo takes up more than half of this song, and I found myself missing Proulx’s voice by the end.

[READ: July 1, 2021] “Private Hands”

This month’s issue of The Walrus is the Summer Reading issue and features three pieces of fiction and three poems.

The fifth piece is a short story about provenance and ownership.

The narrator works as a (poorly) paid assistant to Harvey, a wealthy collector.  Harvey had made his money in pesticides and was worth about $200 million.  Harvey bought things with the intent of upselling them.  Disney merch always sold well.  But Harvey had a few things that were hard to sell, like Jimi Hendrix’ 1963 Fender Strat.

Paul was a buyer.  Harvey tried to sell him the Hendrix for $500,000 but he wasn’t biting.  Normally Harvey would haggle, but he had overpaid for this, and wouldn’t budge.

Harvey had a few other interesting items (a test pressing of Led Zeppelin III), but Paul really wanted guitars.  (more…)

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Richard Thompson (with Scott Timberg)–Beeswing: Losing My Way and Finding My Voice 1967-1975 (2021)

Posted in 14 Hour Technicolor Dream, Arthur Brown, Autobiographies, Books about music, Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Fairport Convention, Fotheringay, Graham Nash, Jethro Tull, Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon, Led Zeppelin, London England, Pink Floyd, Richard Thompson, Rolling Stone, Sandy Denny, Scott Timberg, Soft Machine, The Band, The Beatles, The Hollies, The Shadows, Traffic, Yoko Ono on July 1, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE SHADOWS-“Apache” (1960).

In 1960, Cliff Richard’s backing band released this instrumental that shot to the top of the British charts.  The song was named after the 1954 film Apache.

The band had a signature sound.  Hank Marvin used an echo box and a tremolo bar on his Fender guitar.  The melodic bass was by Jet Harris.  Percussion was by Tony Meehan and Cliff Richard, who played a Chinese drum at the beginning and end to provide an atmosphere of stereotypically Native American music.

It has been cited by a generation of guitarists as inspirational and is considered one of the most influential British rock 45s of the pre-Beatles era because of the appeal of “that kind of Hawaiian sounding lead guitar … plus the beat.”

The song is really catchy with a surf guitar/Western riff and the rumbling drums.  There’s a few parts which create some drama and forward motion.

[READ: June 29, 2021] Beeswing

I’ve been a fan of Richard Thompson since about 1993.  I’ve seen him live about ten times and I’ve listened to most of his earlier work (including most of his Fairport Convention stuff).

I don’t love all the Fairport material.  I likesome of it, but I never really got into it that much.  And, I never really thought about what it was like being in Fairport back in the late 60s.  So this autobiography was a strange thing for me.  Seemed like an obvious read and yet it’s about an era that I didn’t have a lot of interest in.

Which proved to be the perfect combination.

Richard starts the book in the early 1960s. I was a little concerned because I really didn’t like the opening page–the style concerned me.  But the idea that dust and fog were so pervasive in London that it cast a haze over everything was pretty interesting.  Especially when he says that explains the state of London artistry–soft and fuzzy because of the haze.

Then he moves on to himself.  His family was pretty traditional–his father was a policeman.  He was not interested in school and a normal career. (more…)

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Akhil Sharma–“Surrounded by Sleep” (New Yorker, December 10, 2001)

Posted in Akhil Sharma, Beck, George Harrison, José González, Led Zeppelin, Leonard Cohen, Marco Benevento, My Morning Jacket, New Yorker, Parenting, Religion, Short Story, The Knife, Violence on March 24, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: MARCO BENEVENTO-Me Not Me (2009).

This album (Benevento’s second) with the confusing title is actually a (mostly) covers album.  Marco takes some familiar (to me) and some unfamiliar (to me) songs and turns them into instrumental versions using piano (and more), bass (from Reed Mathis) and drums.

The first song is My Morning Jacket’s “Golden.”  The melody is instantly recognizable and bouncy and fun.  Matt Chamberlain provides drums, which are skittery and complicated but never loud. Until the end when the songs starts to float away with trippy synths and some wild drumming.

“Now They’re Writing Music” is an original piece that switches between synth and piano and features Chamberlain and Andrew Barr on drums.

“Seems So Long Ago, Nancy” is a Leonard Cohen song.  It’s produced as if it’s on an old scratchy record with echoing bass and drums over the scratchy piano.  Barr is on drums.

“Mephisto” is an original, a slow jazzy number with a hummable melody and Chamberlain on drums.

“Twin Killers” is a Deerhoof song.  Appropriately, it has some riotous drums (from Barr who is on the next two songs as well).  It’s longer than the original because it features a cacophonies middle section that is just insane.  But Benevento’s faithful reproduction of the melody line makes this really catchy.

“Call Home” is a pretty lullaby.  It’s an original with soft keys and a baby cooing.

“Heartbeats” is the Jose Gonzales/The Knife song.  The main low riff sounds like its on the bass and then Marco plays the familiar lead melody with all kinds of fuzz thrown over the song.

“Sing It Again” is a mellow song from Beck off of Mutations.  I don’t really know it that well but this version is very pretty and simple.

A highlight of the album is this really fun version of Led Zeppelin’s “Friends.”  It’s immediately recognizable and yet different somehow.  Its full of raucous paying from all three especially when Benevento ads the sinister synths near the end.  Chamberlain plays up a storm on the drums.

The final song is George Harrison’s “Run of the Mill.”  I don’t know the original, but this is a jazzy song with lot of piano runs from Marco and some restrained drumming from Chamberlain.

This is a pretty solid introduction to Benevento’s music, although his albums definitely get better once he starts writing his own songs with words.

[READ: March 14, 2021] “Surrounded by Sleep”

Ajay was ten years old.  His family lived in Queens (having moved from India two years earlier).  He and his older brother, Amam, were in Virginia visiting his aunt and uncle.  One morning Aman was swimming in the pool.  He dove in and hit his head on the cement bottom.  He was on the bottom of the pool for several minutes before anyone noticed.

His parents were not terribly religious, but as Amar lay in a coma in the hospital, his mother began to pray regularly.  She also prostrated herself and fasted.

At first Ajay thought “her attempts to sway God were not so different from Ajay’s performing somersaults to amuse his aunt.”  Then Ajay knelt before the altar and drew in the carpet an Om, a crucifix, a Star of David and the Superman logo.

When his mother saw him praying, she asked what he prayed for.  He told her for a 100 on his math test. His mother said “What if God said you can have he math grade but then Aman will have to be sick a little while longer? …   When I was sick as a girl, your Uncle walked seven times around the temple and asked God to let him fail his exams just as long as I got better.”

Ajay replied, quite rightly, “If I failed the math test and told you that story you’d slap me and ask what one has to do with the other.” (more…)

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The Exile Follies: Kristin Hersh, Grant Lee Phillips, John Doe (SOPAC, South Orange, NJ, February 8, 2020)

Posted in Gilmore Girls, Grant Lee Buffao, Grant Lee Phillips, Harry Dean Stanton, John Doe, Kristin Hersh, Led Zeppelin, SOPAC, South Orange, NJ, The Knitters, Throwing Muses, X on February 8, 2020| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: February 8, 2020] The Exile Follies

There are some musicians who I’ve often thought I’d like to see but who I wouldn’t really want to travel too far too see.  This trio of artists are each musicians that I loved back in the 90s but whom I’ve lost touch with since then.

I used to love Throwing Muses and I have her first two solo albums.  I often thought about going to her live, but I wasn’t sure if it was worth it if I didn’t know her new stuff.

Same with Grant Lee Phillips.  His song “Mockingbird” is one of my favorite songs of all time, but I don’t love all of his material, so I wouldn’t want to have gone for a whole show, I didn’t think.

And John Doe.  X is one of favorite bands from back in the day and seeing them live was amazing.  But I was never sure if I’d want to see just him because I don’t know much of his solo work.

So this tour with all three of them (and in a nearby venue) was perfect.

Kristin came out first.  She sat on a stool center stage and played her acoustic guitar. (more…)

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Starset (Theatre of Living Arts (TLA), Philadelphia, PA, October 24, 2019)

Posted in AC/DC, Cheesesteaks, Hyde, Ice Nine Kills, Led Zeppelin, Philadelphia, PA, Starset, Theatre of Living Arts on October 24, 2019| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 24, 2019] Starset

I had taken C. to a couple of live shows before and he had been to see Ice Nine Kills with his friends.  But this was my first time taking him to see a club concert.

This was going to be a long night too.  Four bands!  With the opening band going on at 7 and Starset ending around 11 (and it was a school night!).

C. has been a fan of Starset since their first album came out.  I had not heard of them and I’m not sure where he came upon them, but he really liked their debut Transmissions.

And I can say that now that I know more about them, they would have been a band that I would absolutely loved and been utterly obsessed with back in high school as well.  Their back story and concept is pretty intricate, so I won’t bother trying to do justice to it here.  Suffice it to say their albums are concept albums.

I also love that he didn’t like the second album, Vessels, as much because it was too poppy (not his words, but I think that’s what he meant).  When I had talked about getting tickets to them the last time (I think we’d just missed them come to the area, he said it was okay as he didn’t like that album that much).  But that the third album was back to the cool stuff again so he was pretty excited when I told him I’d gotten us tickets.

He wanted his friend to come along, but it being a school night and us not getting home until 12:30 made it impossible for his friend to come.  So it was just us. (more…)

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Alice Munro–“Child’s Play” (Harper’s, February 2007)

Posted in Alice Munro, Harper's, Jealousy, King Crimson, Lakes, Led Zeppelin, Relationships, Religion, Short Story, Summer, Summer Camp, Trey Anastasio, Violence on May 5, 2019| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: TREY ANASTASIO-One Man’s Trash (1998).

This is Trey Anastasio’s first solo album. It is a 30 minute collection of odds and ends (hence the title) and experimental pieces.  There are some kernels of real songs and some simple noise experiments (most of which are shorter).

The first three songs are kernels of songs.  “Happy Coffee Song” is a simple blues riff with a guitar solo and scatting lyrics.  “Quantegy” is three minutes long.  It’s got a bass line like Led Zeppelin’s The Lemon Song but with Trey just narrating about quantegy and materials with synths behind him.  “Mister Completely” sounds like a Phish song with intertwining lines and a catchy riff.

“A Good Stalk” is the first of the experimental noise tracks.  Feedback and backwards drum sounds make a 50 second soundscape that does indeed sound like a “A Good Stalk.”

“That Dream Machine” is a fast looping guitar pattern that sounds like it could be a King Crimson melody from the 80s.  “The Way I Feel” introduces a funky bass line (with cowbell).   “Rofa Beton” is almost three minutes of soft but fast echoing drum patterns.

“For Lew (My Bodyguard)” brings lyrics into the songs again.  This song is about two minutes long, primarily keyboard washes and synths that follow the vocal line for

‘Cause Satan is real on the fainting couch,
I can feel my curved back sink into the hot orange light;
Feels good against my arms.

Mustard walls surround me like soldiers face to face
At the Battle of Trenton.
I can feel my curved back sink into the chapel pew.
While Maurice stands guard outside, no one can defy me.
No one can get by me with Maurice standing guard outside.

‘Cause Satan is real on the fainting couch.
Satan is real inside me,
From my head down to my kidney bean.

Yup.

It’s followed by three way experimental pieces.  “At The Barbecue” is a kind of free jazz saxophone/trumpet experimental piece.  “Tree Spine” is similar to “Stalk” with pulsing deep sounds and what could be the sound of insects eating a tree.  “Here’s Mud In Your Eye” is a minute of splashing sounds–made by mouth?

“The Real Taste of Licorice” returns to proper songs with a lively three minute acoustic guitar piece.

“And Your Little Dog Too” is the longest piece at 4 minutes.  It’s echoing drums and sound effects with Trey yelling in the background.  It sounds like it is meant to be almost a savage dance.

“Jump Rope (fast version)” is thirty five seconds of meandering keyboards and what sounds like fast whipping loops (yes, like a jump rope).  “Jump Rope (slow version)” is not a slowed down version of the above.  In this one the looping sound is like a slow moving UFO.

“Kidney Bean” closes the album.  The phrase kidney bean appeared earlier (in “For Lew”).  The return is an elliptical 30 second song with the loud monotone recitation of “Now we’re talking kidney bean.”

There’s not a lot here for the casual listener.  Or even for big fans.  It’s the kind of thing that would be released for free if that was something that could have happened in 1998. I suspect people were kind of pissed to have paid money for this.

But it is kind of fun, if you like weird Phish nonsense.

[READ: May 1, 2019] “Child’s Play”

Alice Munro is a master of the short story.  This story is utterly fantastic.  They way it is written and the stunning ending are mind-blowing.

The story more or less begins with an introduction to Marlene and Charlene.  They were not twins as people might have guessed (from their names).  They were not even related.  But they were at camp together and they bonded over their similar names.  They bonded over their physical similarities and differences.  They bonded over the camp counselor they didn’t like (Arva, “she even had an unpleasant name”).

Camp was religious, but it was United Church of Canada, so there wasn’t much talk of religion, exactly.  Mostly it was talk of being nice.  But Marlene had a story of being not nice.

There was a girl in Marlene’s neighborhood named Verna.  She was described as her neighbor’s granddaughter, but there was no evidence of Verna’s mother.  Marlene had an aversion to her right from the start.  She told her mother that she hated Verna.

Her mother’s standard reaction was “The poor thing.”  Marlene’s didn’t think her mother liked Verna either rather it was  “a decision she had made to spite me, she pretended to be sorry for her”  She said “How can you blame a person for the was she was born?” (more…)

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Lauren Groff–Florida (2018)

Posted in #metoo, #timesup, American Short Fiction, Esquire, Five Points, Florida, Fragile Rock, Granta, Guy de Maupassant, Halloween, Homelessness, Lauren Groff, Led Zeppelin, Marriage Trouble, Parenting, Personal coincidences, Racism, Short Story, Snakes, Subtropics, SXSW, Thin Lizzy, Tin House, Tiny Desk Family Hour, William Bartram, World War II on March 22, 2019| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: FRAGILE ROCK-“Smile More” Tiny Desk Family Hour (March 12, 2019).

These next two shows were recorded at NPR’s SXSW Showcase.

The SXSW Music Festival is pleased to announce the first-ever Tiny Desk Family Hour showcase, an evening of music by artists who have played NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Concert, at Central Presbyterian Church on Tuesday, March 12 from 8-11pm.

It’s hard to talk seriously about Fragile Rock since they are a band of puppets.  Literally.

To say that Fragile Rock sent the evening hurtling sideways would be an understatement, as the band unleashed a torrent of faux-grim hilarity and chaos when it wasn’t urging the audience to shout out its prescribed antidepressants or berating fans for grinning along. (“We don’t appreciate your smiles,” seethed Brently Heilbron, in the persona of wounded frontpuppet Milo S. “You wouldn’t do that to Conor Oberst.”

And yet they are a good punk band and their lyrics have become even more pointed.  Especially this one.  They explain:

This is a song that Nick and I wrote reflecting on the #metoo and #timesup movements (that’s right lady in the back snapping your fingers you are correct).

This is a great punk blast and frankly it’s nice to hear a song sung by the female vocalists instead of the Fred Schneider-sounding male lead singer.

For “Smile More,” the spotlight shifted to Emily Cawood (performing as Briex Cocteau) and Megan Thornton (aka Nic Hole), who spent two minutes savaging the patriarchy. “Don’t tell me to smile more, don’t tell me what my mouth is for, from a man who started every war,” Thornton and her puppet shouted in unison. And, see, here’s the secret to Fragile Rock’s raucous, ridiculous charm: Subtract the puppets, the stage antics and the silliness of all, and you’re still left with some pretty damned good songs.

And nice succinct lyrics:

You could have had it all
You blew it didn’t you
I’m gonna watch you fall and
Never ever pity you
You’re purposeless
Your license is expired
Your services are no longer required

Your time has come and gone….time’s up!

All in two minutes.

[READ: March 14, 2019] Florida

When I started reading this book, I instantly remembered reading “Ghosts and Empties” in the New Yorker.  I assumed and was pleased that this was a full novel built out of that story.  Why?  Because nowhere on this book does it say that these are short stories.   Not on the cover, not on the front page, nor the back page.  It’s somewhere on the fly leaf, but since Groff also writes novels, it’s a bit of an oddity to not say “stories” somewhere on it.  I looked at the Table of Contents, obviously, but just assumed those where chapter headings.

I was exited to read the fuller story of the woman who walks at night.  And then I found out that the next “chapter” was a new story.  It turned out to be a fantastic story.  So that’s all good.  I don’t mind reading short stories at all, it was just a surprise.

It also turned out that I have read five of these short stores before (she is often printed in the New Yorker–the other stories were in different journals which I put in brackets after each title).

“Ghosts and Empties” (New Yorker, July 20, 2015)
I see now that I didn’t really enjoy this story the first time I read it (and yet it stayed with me all these years).  But I did enjoy it more this time (I still find it unsatisfying that the opening parental freakout part is never really addressed).  But basically this is a story in which woman walks around her neighborhood every night and observes things changing–for better or worse.  Old nuns dying, new houses being built, neighbors changing.  All in the heat of Florida. (more…)

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Mark Slouka–“August” (Harper’s, August 2006)

Posted in Death, Dogs, Harper's, Led Zeppelin, Mark Slouka, Marriage Trouble, palačinky , Phish, Vacation on August 2, 2018| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: PHISH-Live Bait Vol. 13 [Baker’s Dozen Edition] (2017).

Live Bait 13 was a special release to tie in with the Baker’s Dozen shows at Madison Square Garden.  It’s a little strange that 11 of the 13 songs are from MSG and not all of them, but whatever.  The MSG recordings date from 1994-2016, and the additional two songs are a relativity recent song from Chicago and a 1993 track from Pittsburgh.

The set starts with a 14 minute “The Wedge” (7/20/14 FirstMerit Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island, Chicago, IL).  It seems to be a little stiff and almost “formal” to start with although by around 9 minutes it loosens up and gets funky with some cool drum breaks.  By 11 minutes it turns into a loos jam of chords that sounds familiar like an other song, but I can’t place it.

The “Run Like An Antelope” is from 1993 (7/18/93 I.C. Light Amphitheater, Pittsburgh, PA) and it opens fun with woodblocks and a dramatically dissonant chord.  Trey launches into Led Zep’s “Heartbreaker” riff while the band keeps going.  The middle slows down and gets noisy before ending.

The rest of the tracks are from Madison Square Garden.

“Tube” (12/29/97) starts off quite angular and harsh but grows funky with a cool keyboard sound and solo from Page.   Moving back to (12/30/95) they play a spirited “It’s Ice” which segues into a rather mellow “Kung.”  Most of the nonsense from “Kung” is spoken, including the runaway gold cart marathon. But then they start screaming “Stand up!  STAND UP!”

I love that “It’s Ice” has the kind of vocals that are done in something of a round or a fugue.  It’s followed by “Piper” (12/30/11) that also has that kind of vocals in the round.  Its a nice pairing.  This version is pretty grooving and eventually gets really rocking.  Although the last five minutes are trippy and chill.

There’s a surprise (to me) “Icculus” from 2013. (12/31/13).  Trey has a lot of fun with the story of the helping friendly book.  He talks about how when they first started playing they had a message to impart.

Some of you are not getting the message and it’s pissing us off.  We’re here tonight in the middle of Madison Square Garden to give to the fucking message!  I’m looking around and I’m thinking a lot of you haven’t read the fucking book.  Up next is the fun segue of “Mike’s Song > Swept Away > Steep > Weekapaug Groove” from 1996 (10/22/96) is a large 20 minute block. There’s a good jam that lasts almost ten minutes before “Swept Away” comes in quietly for a minute. It stays quiet through “Sleep” until they launch onto the “Groove.”

The next song is from 2016 (12/30/16) , I think the most recent Live Bait.  “Light” sounds “mature” until the jam plays on for a while and its drifts all over the place until Fish pulls it back around 16 minutes to a wholly unexpected “Party Time.”

I love this version of “Carini” (12/28/98).  It is dark and angular with a really dark and moody jam.  At 8 minutes its gets kind of trippy but by 12 Page takes it into a dark place with synth sounds> Wolfman’s Brother (12/28/98 Madison Square Garden, New York, NY) 37:23

Ghost (12/31/10( is groovy with a half time solo while “Tweezer” (12/30/94) is fast and peppy for nearly the whole 20 minutes. The “Ebenezer” part comes at around 4 minutes with a lot of prolonged nonsense after the word.  “You Enjoy Myself (12/4/09) is a full 20 minutes as well and they seem to stretch it out with the second part coming at 3 minutes and the lyrics starting around 6 minutes in  there’s some great solos by Page and Trey as well.  There’s a funky watery bass solo around 17 minutes before the final vocal jam which is mostly a series of rising and falling yells until they grow quiet by the end.

“No Men In No Man’s Land” is a newer song and they play it nice–stretching it out with a grooving sound and jam.  By 10 minutes it chills down, but it picks up again by 11:30.  At 15 minutes it gets angular and dark and around 20 minutes they start the countdown to Auld Lang Syne.  They come out of ALS with a wonderful “Blaze On,” a fun welcome to the new year.

Nothing could prepare anyone for Phish playing a no repeat 13 night series, but this was certainly a fun reminder of the great shows they’ve played at MSG.

[READ: February 7, 2018] “August”

This story is a slice of life at a lake in August.

The family went to the lake for five seasons over he years.

The narrator says he primary memory is of his father reading intently.  He could read for hours without moving.  Sometimes he would pick up a drink and there was the possibility that he would not drink it before getting to the bottom of the page and then simply put it down, forgotten.

His mother would not read until she picked up a book and then would read intently for a couple of days and then seem to just give up.

It was the second season that his father shot the dog.  Yup, its one of those stories, but not as bad as all that. (more…)

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