Though I did not attend any of the shows of the second leg of summer
tour (which took the band through the south, midwest and west coast), I
did listen to every single show.
Many other fans have offered their dissertations on the individual shows
and song performances, but I want to offer my summation of the whole
thing in one shot, expanding on an observation I made at the beginning
of the first leg, back in June.
It seems like so long ago that I was at Bader Field in Atlantic City
celebrating the beginning of Phish's 2012 summer tour. Through the
excitement of dissecting those three shows in this blog, I mentioned
that Phish has been relying on older material and noted that they may be
seen as the nostalgia act that Trey Anastasio feared in 2004 (leading
to his termination of the band). I also said that this was not a bad
thing as long as their playing continues to evolve as it has.
Phish has debuted only a handful of new original songs since their last
album 'Joy' was released in September of 2009. Of those, some made one
appearance and disappeared (does anyone else remember "Dr. Gabel"? I
loved that song!) or shown up on solo albums (Trey's "Pigtail" which,
admittedly, is much, much better with his band). Some seemed like they
had some legs ("Halfway to the Moon", "My Problem Right There" and the
New Year's Eve show-stopping "Steam"), played through 2010 and 2011. But
only one ("Show of Life") gets continued play.
In addition, 2009 and 2010 were teeming with new covers, some one-offs
("In the Aeroplane Over the Sea" and "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover"), and
one that has become a jamtastic standard ("Golden Age").
This year has so far not only brought no new original songs, but no new
covers either. Do not get me wrong, the clear motif of the first half of
summer was to bust out covers they have not played in years, even
decades ("Skin It Back", "Happiness Is a Warm Gun", "La Grange", "Head
Held High"), and I absolutely loved it. And Fish's "tucking" theme was a
great running gag. Those shows were all the more special as a result.
Still, I have hungered for some new music so I was relying on the jams
to bring it. Phish has a way of making the old new again by bringing new
melodies, sounds, and vibes to the jams. The first half of the tour
showed promise with some songs stretching out in new ways. A 2012 sound
began to take shape in the first half, but my impression of the second
leg was that it was simply more of the same.
Or even less of it, because the bust-outs stopped coming and the
"tucking" was given a bit of a rest. Sure, there was the awesomeness of
every "Crosseyed and Painless", "Rock and Roll" and "Light" - each
reaching and pushing and pulling in glorious jamming directions. Aside
from those, though, not much stood out.
You may say I am being too picky, that this diminishes the consistently
high-quality of playing by the band; or that I am one of those old fans
from the 1990s that wants a return to the 20-minute monster jams in
five-song sets with insane segues. (OK, I do miss those, but that is
not the point).
But I see this as a testament to how amazing they have been. Up until
now, I had been holding the 3.0 era to much lower standards, that have
been raised with each subsequent tour. In 2009, I wanted Phish to just
sound like Phish again. In 2010, I wanted to get through a show without
hearing flubs. In 2011, I wanted to start hearing more songs and more
consistent playing.
They have done all this so well, meeting and exceeding every
expectation. Phish sounds better than ever; flubs are as rare as they
were in the 1990s; "Steam" became the NYE highlight and "Show of Life"
became an encore staple; and the cover song bust-outs have been
unbelievable.
But what happens now? Until the three-night end-of-tour stand at Dick's
Sporting Goods Arena, not much did. But oh, how they they brought their
A-game to Commerce City, Colorado...
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