HAMPTON, VA
Well, you’re probably listening to tonight’s show right now so I don’t need to write a song-for-song review, you can judge for yourself. I said everything I possibly can say about life with Phish in last night’s article. So let’s get our thoughts out on the page with 10 miscellaneous observations I like to call Deep Phried Thoughts:
1. Question: What’s the fastest you ever had tapes of a show after a show? Believe it or not, I was actually able to look up this answer for myself by digging out my old, immaculately detailed tape-trading book that I hadn’t heard from in 8 years. Turns out it was 6 days. I got tapes of 7/12/99 Great Woods on 7/18/99. This was a monumental accomplishment. I had just befriended a taper and he totally hooked me up with the Gen1 tapes in less than a week. WOW. Tapers were SO critical to everything and their contribution to the existence of Phish cannot be overstated. But taping is going the way of the dinosaur. Now you can download soundboards the next morning for free (way to go, Phish!), which means only the most ardent listeners will be seeking a classic D-AUD recording. And if the band isn’t rendering taping obsolete, consider this: unless you’re one of the few tapers who can get the show posted to the internet within 12 hours of the final note, chances are your tapes are for nobody but yourself. Which is still a perfectly good reason to tape, but you get my drift. Friday night there may have been 50 tapers—tonight there were only about 15.
2. The past 5 years may have been slow for Phish, but they were apparently phenomenal for people in the business of lighting design. The rig looks better than ever. The concept they have with the extra light rigs in the ceiling shining on the giant hanging balloons is a homerun. The whole room looks great. I would buy a $25 ticket to watch the light rig without music. The old hexagon setup is gone, replaced by a 4-line attack of shine-that-thing-in-my-face glory. The bulk of the equipment are the familiar beams and cans, they haven’t strayed too far from what we’re used to. However, there are three types of lights that I’m quite certain are new: the “disco-balls” used on “Harry Hood” last night and “Lawn Boy” tonight are definitely new and are a great once-per-night bustout. There are narrow rectangular stationary strobes used sparingly on big hits. Finally, there are 10 of these interesting cans that are more like circular TV screens; they morph colors at the spot but shine no beam. Overall it’s just a brilliant show, the pics and vids should be incredible.
3. On that note . . . I understand that handheld lasers aren’t going to go away and that there will always be moronic Chris Kuroda wannabees out there, so I might as well get used to it and deal. But let me put it this way: If someone invented a handheld speaker that could blast music so loud it could cut through Phish’s sound system, would you bring one of these speakers into a show and blast noise at everybody while Phish was playing?
4. Did you ever walk out of a show after they debuted a song and everyone in postshow lot was trying to figure out what the name of it was? Did you walk out of 11/27/98 at Worcester Centrum trying to figure out what the heck that song was in the middle of the Chalkdust jam? (Mirror In The Bathroom.) During the song, you put your little piece of paper and pencil back in your pocket with a gaping hole in it, thinking, “Man, I wish my pocket knew the setlist and could write it down for me.” Well, now it does. I knew the title of “Beauty of A Broken Heart” with 100% certainty before the song was over, yet before the song was played, nobody had ever heard of it. Viva la 21st-century communications.
5. On that note . . . did you notice starting around 2002-2003 how the crowd was making much less noise when the band came on for second set and during the break before the encore? It’s because of the phones and cameras. Everyone gets dialed in during any break in the action and is plentifully distracted from the exhausting task of having to make noise. It might sound depressing, but I think it’s a worthy tradeoff . . . I love 21st-century media as much as anyone else. I personally observe a no-phone rule while Phish is onstage, but come setbreak, I burn it up checking photos and texting friends and so does more than half the crowd. Lighters are done for, screens reign forevermore. If you notice your crowd making less noise than you might remember from previous shows, this is probably why. So it goes.
6. Question: What’s the best and worst seat location at a GA arena show? I say best is at the far end of the arena from the stage, first few rows of seats. You don’t just watch the light show from there, you become Kuroda’s snack food for 4 hours. Ironically, I think the worst seats are very close to these, which is the back of the floor. If you’re that far back with no elevation, it has to be hard to see.
7. Absolutely cannot complain about the song selection the past two nights. They’ve picked up all the heavy hitters and classics they could so far. “Down With Disease,” “Bathtub Gin,” and “Wilson” are such mortal locks for tomorrow night that Vegas took them off the board entirely. I hope this doesn’t mean they’re becoming predictable. I certainly don’t think it does. 27 songs tonight and 28—count ‘em: 28!—songs last night. Someone look up when the last 28 song show was excluding festivals.
8. You really can’t complain if you’re in the shows. However, if there’s one thing you can be honestly critical about, the rust showed more tonight than last night. Granted, tonight’s show had many more good and great moments than tough ones, that’s really the most important thing. But we all know when they’re missing the mark, and tonight there were several instances. They fought through chunks of “Birds Of A Feather,” “Mike’s Song,” and “I Am Hydrogen.” This stuff used to bother me, but I’m more or less letting them off the hook for this round of shows. They sound phenomenal overall. Give them 3 more months of practice and a summer tour and I’ll start worrying about whether they nail every one of the 250,000 notes they’re responsible for a night.
9. The greatness of Hampton is primarily driven by the (lack of) security. Inside and outside, it’s more or less anything goes, perfect for the scene. A couple of things are cracked down on in the lots, but overall it’s as close to a phan’s paradise as an arena show can get. It’s going to be awfully strange going to Great Woods (Comcast Center) in Mansfield, MA in June and fearing for my life if I do anything other than make a beeline into the venue the second I step out of the car.
10. They finished 40 minutes earlier tonight than last night, despite starting only 10 minutes earlier. This has to be intentional; I just wonder what’s driving it. Speaking of which, how many oblivious heads will be negatively affected one way or another by not realizing that the clocks just moved ahead one hour? Oh wait, you mean it’s now 5am and not 4am? Boy man, I gotta get some rest!
Two down, one to go. Until tomorrow!
Seth Wolfman
3/7/09
Set One
01–Back On The Train
02–Runaway Jim
03–Brian & Robert
04–Split Open and Melt
05–Heavy Things
06–Punch You In The Eye
07–Gumbo
08–Reba
09–Mexican Cousin
10–It’s Ice
11–Halley’s Comet
12–Beauty of a Broken Heart
13–Guelah Papyrus
14–Lawn Boy
15–Run Like An AntelopeSet Two
16–Rock & Roll
17–Limb by Limb
18–Story of the Ghost
19–Piper
20–Birds of a Feather
21–Wolfman’s Brother
22–Prince Caspian
23–Mike’s Song
24–I am Hydrogen
25–Weekapaug Groove
26–Character ZeroEncore
27–A Day in the Life