The Phish Thread

[KristianJ]

Hehe...you'll try anything, won't ya, buddy? I'm sure they'll grow on me eventually though.

 

[ps139]

They inevitable do. Remember, I hated them with a Passion for a goor year and a half. Now look at me!!!

 

[twosteppin]

Hmmm...let's see...number of Dave Matthews Band CD's owned: 8...number of Phish CD's owned: 1...my friend, you have a fair way to go...

Kristian, your DMB collection is bigger than mine!! lol
My Phish count~ 3 Cds (counting A Live one as 1 CD)
Trey ~ 1

Before Bill's Phish Brainwashing techniques
Phish count~ 1
Trey ~0

 

[Arwen Undomiel]

You can count me among the converted! Before ps139 brainwashing: 0 Phish CDs owned.
After ps139 brainwashing: 3 Phish CDs owned.

My Matthews count remains unchanged from pre-CF: DMB - 3, Dave - 1

 

[twosteppin]

Arwen,once I am done brainwashing you into a Browns fan, I will work on your Dave collection

 

[ps139]

My Phish count~ 3 Cds (counting A Live one as 1 CD)
Trey ~ 1

Before Bill's Phish Brainwashing techniques
Phish count~ 1
Trey ~0

You can count me among the converted! Before ps139 brainwashing: 0 Phish CDs owned.
After ps139 brainwashing: 3 Phish CDs owned.

*in Mr. Burns voice:

Excellent

 

[ps139]

Which CDs do you all have?
You both have Undermind I think. And Amy I think you also have Lawnboy and A Live One, and Seis de Mayo, I remember that.
Arwen which others do you have? Billy Breathes and ???

DMBfan (Bryce) has Billy Breathes & Undermind and I also sent him like 5 shows. I'm sending him Coventry tomorrow.
And KJ has Billy Breathes now.

Excellent.

 

[nadroj1985]

It's funny... I don't really care to buy Phish's studio albums at all, although I might pick up Junta or A Picture of Nectar at some point. I'm a heck of a lot more interested in hearing their live shows. That's all I own right now; two live shows, A Live One, and Live Phish vol. 16.

 

[twosteppin]

It's funny... I don't really care to buy Phish's studio albums at all, although I might pick up Junta or A Picture of Nectar at some point. I'm a heck of a lot more interested in hearing their live shows. That's all I own right now; two live shows, A Live One, and Live Phish vol. 16.

a live one is great. I always listened to disc one. Everytime I went to listen to disc two, i changed my mind. I lost disc one on vacation a few months ago and now I'm finally listening to disc two. lol. Thank God I put the full cd in my itunes folder before I lost it.

 

[ps139]

It's funny... I don't really care to buy Phish's studio albums at all, although I might pick up Junta or A Picture of Nectar at some point. I'm a heck of a lot more interested in hearing their live shows. That's all I own right now; two live shows, A Live One, and Live Phish vol. 16.

Me neither Jordan. I only have 4 Phish studio albums, and one is on the extended borrowing plan from my friend. Some album versions I cannot even listen to. Like Chalkdust Torture for example, or Mound. I cant tolerate hearing the studio versions that sound like garbage compared to the live versions. Part of this is because these songs were new at the time of the album. In some live shows, they've had 10 years to perfect these songs. Also, Phish's true genius comes out onstage, where they can be totally spontaneous and improvisational.

Some songs like Esther, If I Could I Would, and about half of Billy Breathes sound best on the studio version. But those are the rarities. Some of their best songs, like Harry Hood, Punch you in the Eye, Mike's Song, I am Hydrogen, Lizards, Tela, Weekapaug Groove, Tube etc have never been released on a studio album.
I own around 10 of the live releases, plus I have about 5 or 6 burned shows. When you want to know Phish, thats where its at. Although jumping right into the live stuff might be a bit too much for some people's ears. Unless you know the skeletal structure of the songs on the album, some of what they do live will make no sense to you.

Jordan when you want another LivePhish, go for Vol. # 2, 5, 7, or 12. IMO those are the 4 best. And I think the best single disc is Disc 1 of # 12.

How do you like Phish's VU covers? Did they do a good job? I have no idea as I've not heard the VU originals.

 

[nadroj1985]

a live one is great. I always listened to disc one. Everytime I went to listen to disc two, i changed my mind. I lost disc one on vacation a few months ago and now I'm finally listening to disc two. lol. Thank God I put the full cd in my itunes folder before I lost it.

Hahaha, yeah that is a good thing. Disc one is probably the better one, since my two favorite Phish songs are on there (Stash and YEM). But 2's great, too, particularly Harry Hood and Simple. The keyboard solo in The Squirming Coil is great, too.

 

[nadroj1985]

Me neither Jordan. I only have 4 Phish studio albums, and one is on the extended borrowing plan from my friend. Some album versions I cannot even listen to. Like Chalkdust Torture for example, or Mound. I cant tolerate hearing the studio versions that sound like garbage compared to the live versions. Part of this is because these songs were new at the time of the album. In some live shows, they've had 10 years to perfect these songs. Also, Phish's true genius comes out onstage, where they can be totally spontaneous and improvisational.

Some songs like Esther, If I Could I Would, and about half of Billy Breathes sound best on the studio version. But those are the rarities. Some of their best songs, like Harry Hood, Punch you in the Eye, Mike's Song, I am Hydrogen, Lizards, Tela, Weekapaug Groove, Tube etc have never been released on a studio album.
I own around 10 of the live releases, plus I have about 5 or 6 burned shows. When you want to know Phish, thats where its at. Although jumping right into the live stuff might be a bit too much for some people's ears. Unless you know the skeletal structure of the songs on the album, some of what they do live will make no sense to you.

I pretty much agree with all that

Jordan when you want another LivePhish, go for Vol. # 2, 5, 7, or 12. IMO those are the 4 best. And I think the best single disc is Disc 1 of # 12.

Ah, thanks for the recommendations. I'll look up the setlists on allmusic sometime and see which ones look good. I particularly want to find one with versions of The Divided Sky, Reba, David Bowie, and Fluffhead, since I've heard these are good ones but I haven't heard a version of them yet.

How do you like Phish's VU covers? Did they do a good job? I have no idea as I've not heard the VU originals.

I like the cover, actually, although I'm probably not judging as harshly because I'm not really a big fan of the VU album they cover. But the covers are a bit hit-or miss. Some are great (Sweet Jane and Cool it Down come to mind) while others are not so hot. It's more for Phish fans than VU fans, but very interesting nonetheless.

 

[ps139]

Hahaha, yeah that is a good thing. Disc one is probably the better one, since my two favorite Phish songs are on there (Stash and YEM). But 2's great, too, particularly Harry Hood and Simple. The keyboard solo in The Squirming Coil is great, too.

I am partial to Disc 2 as its the one that converted me ...Although I've never been a big fan of Tweezer.

 

[ps139]

Ah, thanks for the recommendations. I'll look up the setlists on allmusic sometime and see which ones look good. I particularly want to find one with versions of The Divided Sky, Reba, David Bowie, and Fluffhead, since I've heard these are good ones but I haven't heard a version of them yet.

Check
http://cds.livephish.com/

Click on "text version" and a big screen pops up with all of the setlists for every CD, and some audio samples of certain songs .

 

[twosteppin]

Hahaha, yeah that is a good thing. Disc one is probably the better one, since my two favorite Phish songs are on there (Stash and YEM). But 2's great, too, particularly Harry Hood and Simple. The keyboard solo in The Squirming Coil is great, too.

yeah. Harry Hood is my fav song from disc two. although, i really like wilson. the keyboard is lovely in squirming Coil, definently on my "bedtime" playlist. lol

 

[Arwen Undomiel]

Arwen,once I am done brainwashing you into a Browns fan, I will work on your Dave collection

Not a chance, sister!

Which CDs do you all have?

Actually, I have Junta, Billy Breathes and Farmhouse. And I've been checking out some live tracks so I need to get me a live CD now.

 

[nadroj1985]

I am partial to Disc 2 as its the one that converted me ...Although I've never been a big fan of Tweezer.

Yeah, that Tweezer on Disc 2 is really way too long. It's really hard to pull off 30 minutes of jamming without getting boring, and that song is a good example of why. I think Phish is better in the 8-15 minute range, personally.

 

[ps139]

Yeah, that Tweezer on Disc 2 is really way too long. It's really hard to pull off 30 minutes of jamming without getting boring, and that song is a good example of why. I think Phish is better in the 8-15 minute range, personally.

My reasons for disliking Tweezer is really the melody. I kind of get bored with it. Of all Tweezers though, my favorite is the one on a Live One. This one part they get into in the middle... its just so cool. Too bad I can't hum it online here .
I think Phish is better in the 20-25 min range, because some songs, if you play them without jamming, are 10-20 mins long. I look at them like classical pieces, with improv thrown in the mix. Long scripted parts, then go wild, then come back to the end, or jam into another song. Of course some songs are 4 chords total, those jams are probably better around 8-15 minutes. Well I guess it really depends what song you're talking about . There have been some amazing 20-25 minute YEMs, Hoods, Antelopes etc. But if they ever played Farmhouse for 25 minutes, it might be time for a bathroom break, a stop at the concession stand, you get the idea

 

[ps139]

Yeah, that Tweezer on Disc 2 is really way too long. It's really hard to pull off 30 minutes of jamming without getting boring, and that song is a good example of why. I think Phish is better in the 8-15 minute range, personally.

Something else I just thought of, that Trey talks about a lot, and is common ina lot of Phish jams. There are going to be parts of a 30 minute song that are like "ehhh ok" when taken by themselves. But in the context of the song, they are really a buildup to the climax. When you improvise like that, you have to take some risks, poke around here and there, and you're inevitable going to play something boring for a few minutes. But that only makes the great part of the jam better. That Tweezer is an example of that. There are some really boring moments, but it seems to go somewhere, they dont know where they're going but eventually it gets to this crazy circus-like tune, which is just so cool, and they couldnt have just picked up their instruments and played it, they needed to get deep into the song and feel it out. The feeling it out part isnt always fantastic, but its usually worth it in the end.
One of the reasons I did not like the 2nd set of the most recent Camden show was that whenever the climax was going to happen, they'd either end the song, or slow down again....but never satisfy the ear. Phish will tease and tease and tease and tease until youre blue in the face but they always build it up to something worthwhile. At Camden they didnt seem to be doing that. I think their minds were nervous about Coventry. And I think it was mostly Trey. He is really the leader, when he is on, the band is on, and when he is off....if he doesn't drop out, everyone knows it and the jam isnt so hot.

 

[nadroj1985]

Well I guess it really depends what song you're talking about . There have been some amazing 20-25 minute YEMs, Hoods, Antelopes etc. But if they ever played Farmhouse for 25 minutes, it might be time for a bathroom break, a stop at the concession stand, you get the idea

Probably true. I love A Live One's YEM, which goes a bit over 20 minutes. I'm really inexperienced with Phish's music, anyway, so I'm not as much in a position to speak about it as a whole.