From high up above the stage, slightly behind on Page's side (what we used to call bald-spot view before it became more than spot), I took in my sixth Dec. 30 Phish show.
When this "obstructed view" ticket showed up on Ticketmaster from out of the blue in early December, I jumped on it. This is why I check the Ticketmaster site every single day after a show sells out.
But Phish operates without a big backdrop (the audience often is the backdrop), so the view was not actually "obstructed". And because Phish knows there are lots of people behind the stage, the sound was perfect. Better, in fact, than lower level seats across the arena. I would rather be close, high and behind, than far, low and in front. I had that in 1998 and it sucked.
I arrived at the arena when the "Runaway Jim" opener began and you better believe I was dancing through the halls. I even enjoyed "Cities" while getting myself a brewski. At my seat for "Divided Sky" and "Back on the Train" I was enjoying the good vibes and tight playing.
The Blues Image gods smiled upon me, as they had in Philly in 1999 and Amherst in 2010, and I got to hear Phish play the excellent old tune "Ride Captain Ride". Understand that, according to Phish.net, they have only EVER played the song 16 times - that is, at one percent of all their shows - and only nine of those times were after 1993 when I started seeing Phish. Yet I somehow managed to see them do it three times. It was one of those times when the fact that they play the song tends to be way more huge the song itself. Like "Skin It Back" during the summer.
Speaking of summer, I became a bona fide fan of "Ocelot" in Atlantic City. I never disliked the tune, but I never expected that I would find it to be a set highlight. It was so at Bader Field and it was at MSG, no question.
"Ya Mar" needed nothing more than a cool groove and a hearty "Plaaaaaayyyy it, Leeeoooooo" to get me all hopped up; Trey's solo in "Horn" was played to perfection (I had heard him blow it too many times in the past); the insane "My Friend My Friend" buildup was loud and harsh and disturbing and completely awesome; and the set-closing "Run Like an Antelope" was relatively short but, coupled with Kuroda's big light show, it was a monster.
The first major show highlight was the second set-opening "Down with Disease". Bringing it down about seven minutes in, the band stayed loose but locked. With Page on the Rhodes, it was extra pretty. Suddenly at around 13 minutes, it changed keys and went somewhere else competely. I was very much reminded of 2.0-style jamming. Every minute thereafter for the next six, it kept morphing and morphing. It was like a new song per minute. Wild. And even though it had gone on for 19 minutes, they hit upon something in the last minute that I really wanted them to keep exploring; but just like the "Wolfman's Brother" two days before, they gave us just enough before pulling back.
I have never been much of a fan of "Twenty Years Later", but that closing section gets to be pretty cool. With "Carini" following, I was not too thrilled - it is another song that never did much for me. But what I had forgotten was that the "Carini" jams of late have been out of this world. This one was the best jams of the night. They broke it down after a few heavy minutes, and then Fish started this thumping beat with kick drum with toms. Before long, it was easy forget that it was ever "Carini" in the first place.
It would be hard to beat that. "Backwards Down the Number Line" was good and "Julius" torched the place with funky fire, but "Slave to the Traffic Light" may well have ripped the roof right off the joint with the enormous climax that set my hairs on end and tears to my eyes.
To bring out "Harry Hood" for the encore was daring because, really, how do you top that "Slave"? But I will be damned if it was not a quality version.
The encore ended with "Show of Life" and I will say this loud and proud: I LOVE THIS SONG. There is so much hate directed toward this excellent tune (I am looking at YOU, Phish.net!) and I can not figure out why? Because it is a ballad? Because it is a Dude of Life lyric? As the song says, "Don't ask me, 'cause I don't know." But I will tell you that I can not get enough of it. I think it is pretty and poignant and has a reliable I-IV coda. For my last Phish show of the year, I could not ask for anything more.
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