BigBlueTarp.US: Bethel Woods Center for the Arts Fansite

May 27, 28, 29, 2010

Phish

3.0 days of peace, love and music

On Friday night, Bethel Woods Center for the Arts was the host to jam legends Phish’s summer tour. Let’s start with two interesting facts leading up to the concerts. Phish has never performed at Bethel Woods before, which made their three night stand shocking, to say the least. Secondly, Bethel Woods has yet to host a band for more then a one night stand. If you are a Phish “phan”, you also know that we are three years into the band performing since they reunited in 2009, and you also probably know that this tour was announced with the fine print of “following the summer, the band has no touring plans for the remainder of the year.” This to a Phish fan means a lot, as they normally plan to tour in the fall, Halloween and New Years Eve.

For most people, Friday night would be the first time that most concertgoers would get to hear Phish for their 2011 Summer Tour. Luckily, about ten people including myself, got to experience a musical journey on Thursday night that some would explain as magical or mystifying. At around 6pm, I happened to drive out to Bethel just to see what the scene was like. On my way, I pulled onto 17b right behind a tour bus. Since I was headed that way, I figured I would find out if the bus was headed to Bethel Woods or to Yasgur’s Farm. Just my luck, it went to Bethel Woods. At this time I drove over to the monument that pays homage to the original Woodstock Music & Arts Festival. When I got there, about five other people were taking pictures with the monument and after twenty minutes, the six of us heard a guitar blear over the field where Woodstock took place almost 42 years before. Phish was doing their sound check which lasted what seemed to be more then an hour. It was so peaceful that you could feel Mike Gordon’s smooth bass lines vibrating the hallowed ground we sat on. As word got out, a few more people showed up. You could tell that even before playing one show of their 2011 tour, Phish was in the zone. We got to hear about four or five songs, including a song that we were pretty sure we never heard before.

My expectations for the weekend were set very high after listening to the sound check. Friday night started in a very unexpected away, smoothly. None of the traffic jams and mass issues that everyone was worried about in the last few months leading up to the show seemed to be an issue. If you had a chance to enjoy the parking lots you got to see one of the greatest spectacles in the music industry, thousands of fans, living their way of life by selling goods and food to try and get a ticket to the next show. When the band finally took the stage almost an hour after the scheduled time, there was a huge uproar from the fans and the band started to play one of the fan favorites Tweezer. The band sounded very tight and close throughout their first set as they have since their return. Highlights of the first night included a cover of the James Gang classic, Walk Away. It was a very straight forward rock cover, very similar to the original which is not a normal thing for Phish to do. One of the coolest songs to see Phish play live is Bouncing Around the Room, as the lyrics speak of an echo bouncing around the room and the band does this perfectly with all four members echoing each other with perfect spacing. To close out the first set, Phish paid homage to Woodstock by playing Bold As Love, a Jimi Hendrix cover which was not performed at Woodstock.

The second set was somewhat mediocre from what I was expecting after the first set. The biggest highlights came after a cover of the Talking Heads song Cross-eyed and Painless. After Cross-eyed and Painless, the crowd was treated to hearing the beautiful notes coming from Page’s keys, which any Phish fan would know all to well. Wading in the Velvet Sea, with its smooth lyrics and precise melodic playing, tamed the dancing crowd to just listening and singing along. Possum brought the crowd back to its energized state, with 15,000 people yelling the chorus, which mainly consist of the word Possum. After the show, you went back to the world of the Phish fan, with the smell of sausage and peppers being cooked and the sound of “whip its” being inflated and popping in the parking lot.

Night Two started with a traffic jam, a problem that was not found Friday night. I ended up being dropped off about a mile from the gates and walked to the venue. As I was walking in, I noticed one drastic change from the night before, a beefed up security force that included state police on horseback. The larger then life crowds piled up in front of the gates, a site that was also not present at the previous show. The first set of the second night was similar to the second set of the night before, not living up to the expectations I had. The songs were great song choices but the feeling was not there, although the crowd was a lot bigger and more energized then the night before.

Set two was by far the best set of all three nights; there was energy throughout the whole venue that Bethel Woods has not seen from any other artist or crowd to date. It began with a fifteen minute version of Down With Disease that got the crowd moving right away after the set break. The next song was Free, which was the major start of the glow stick wars. There were bursts of colors shooting through the air on precise notes and on the lyric “Free”, a site that I am sure a Phish show virgin was amazed by. This shows the crowd’s love of interaction with the band, as they know the perfect note to send these neon fireworks into the sky to add a unique light show of their own. It is a captivating and thrilling experience that the average concertgoer does not get the privilege to experience. A few songs after Free was Makisupa Policeman, which was a very playful and innovative version that made it hard for Trey and Page to hold their laughter during the beginning of the song. The band went around each member and gave the crowd an idea of what was in their house, including Trey watching his favorite show “House”. When the band got to bass player Mike Gordon’s “house”, he laid down a smooth but echoing bass line that shook the lawn underneath us. Makisupa Policeman segued into fan favorite, Harry Hood, which left the crowd yelling out the name of the song along with the band. The set closed out with two more fan favorites, Caravan and David Bowie. For the encore of night two, the band played a cover of A Day In The Life by the Beatles. As one of the songs that all Beatles fans know the crowd sang along throughout the whole tune to the point where all I could hear was fans. It was also a chance for non-Phish fans to feel included as they sang along with a familiar song.

Going into night three, I wasn’t sure what to expect, as night one was pretty calm but the energy from night two was overwhelming. It was almost as if night one was a warm up for night two. Night two was incredible with its improvised jams and grooves. Night three ended up being more for the newer fans, as these were all the songs I was told to listen to when I first started listening to Phish. AC/DC Bag was the first song of night three and is a song dating back to the early years of Phish, as it was part of Trey Anastasio’s senior study in college. The next songs were old time fan favorites, Sample in a Jar and Rift. Suzy Greenberg which was half way through the first set is always full of fun, as the lyrics mainly consist of yelling Suzy’s name. To close out the first set, the band plunged into the groove 46 Days which would segue into Twenty Years Later and be followed up by a Lynyrd Skynyrd cover. Run Like an Antelope was the last song of the first set and Antelope is always a powerful jam that the band can take in many directions. With its lack of lyrics, improvising is king for this song.

Set two started with the thumping bass of Mike’s Song which segued into Simple and monster jam Weekapaug Groove. Meatstick was up next. It is such an interesting song, and even has its own dance which to my surprise a lot of people in the crowd did, including my own mother who is not a Phish fan. The most noticeable issue of the band’s perfomance occurred at the end of Meatstick when Trey jumped into the next song Fluffhead. I don’t know if it was just his excitement, but he started the next song, as the other three members were closing out Meatstick. The set closed out with a very mellow version of Joy, but was brought back to life with very powerful versions of 2001 and Light. Slave to the Traffic Light finished off the set in a twelve minute jam that allowed you to lost in the music and lights of the song. For the encore, the band played one of my favorite covers, Loving Cup by The Rolling Stones. The band truly shines on this song with Trey and Page on lyrics. It works perfectly. To close out the bands three night stand at Bethel Woods they performed a song called Tweezer Reprise. It is usually played sometimes after Tweezer, which was the song to open the three nights. It was an incredible way to go full circle as the same song started the three day set and ended with it.

In recent years, a lot of people said that this is a new version of Phish, normally referred to as Phish 3.0, and a lot of the older fans miss the days of old Phish. However, with the performances we saw this weekend, especially Saturday, I think we might be headed into a direction of 4.0, a mix of the improvised jams of the old and the more precise playing of recent years. No matter what way the band goes, all I know is Bethel Woods needs to pursue bringing them back many times in the years to come.



May 27, 28, 29, 2010 Phish 3.0 days of peace, love and music On Friday night, Bethel Woods Center for the Arts was the host to jam legends Phish’s summer tour. Let’s start with two interesting facts leading up to the concerts. Phish has never performed at Bethel Woods before, which made their three night stand shocking, to say the least. Secondly, Bethel Woods has yet to host a band for more then a one night stand. If you are a Phish “phan”, you also know that we are three years into the band performing since they reunited in 2009, and you also probably know that this tour was announced with the fine print of “following the summer, the band has no touring plans for the remainder of the year.” This to a Phish fan means a lot, as they normally plan to tour in the fall, Halloween and New Years Eve. For most people, Friday night would be the first time that most concertgoers would get to hear Phish for their 2011 Summer Tour. Luckily, about ten people including myself, got to experience a musical journey on Thursday night that some would explain as magical or mystifying. At around 6pm, I happened to drive out to Bethel just to see what the scene was like. On my way, I pulled onto 17b right behind a tour bus. Since I was headed that way, I figured I would find out if the bus was headed to Bethel Woods or to Yasgur’s Farm. Just my luck, it went to Bethel Woods. At this time I drove over to the monument that pays homage to the original Woodstock Music & Arts Festival. When I got there, about five other people were taking pictures with the monument and after twenty minutes, the six of us heard a guitar blear over the field where Woodstock took place almost 42 years before. Phish was doing their sound check which lasted what seemed to be more then an hour. It was so peaceful that you could feel Mike Gordon’s smooth bass lines vibrating the hallowed ground we sat on. As word got out, a few more people showed up. You could tell that even before playing one show of their 2011 tour, Phish was in the zone. We got to hear about four or five songs, including a song that we were pretty sure we never heard before. My expectations for the weekend were set very high after listening to the sound check. Friday night started in a very unexpected away, smoothly. None of the traffic jams and mass issues that everyone was worried about in the last few months leading up to the show seemed to be an issue. If you had a chance to enjoy the parking lots you got to see one of the greatest spectacles in the music industry, thousands of fans, living their way of life by selling goods and food to try and get a ticket to the next show. When the band finally took the stage almost an hour after the scheduled time, there was a huge uproar from the fans and the band started to play one of the fan favorites Tweezer. The band sounded very tight and close throughout their first set as they have since their return. Highlights of the first night included a cover of the James Gang classic, Walk Away. It was a very straight forward rock cover, very similar to the original which is not a normal thing for Phish to do. One of the coolest songs to see Phish play live is Bouncing Around the Room, as the lyrics speak of an echo bouncing around the room and the band does this perfectly with all four members echoing each other with perfect spacing. To close out the first set, Phish paid homage to Woodstock by playing Bold As Love, a Jimi Hendrix cover which was not performed at Woodstock. The second set was somewhat mediocre from what I was expecting after the first set. The biggest highlights came after a cover of the Talking Heads song Cross-eyed and Painless. After Cross-eyed and Painless, the crowd was treated to hearing the beautiful notes coming from Page’s keys, which any Phish fan would know all to well. Wading in the Velvet Sea, with its smooth lyrics and precise melodic playing, tamed the dancing crowd to just listening and singing along. Possum brought the crowd back to its energized state, with 15,000 people yelling the chorus, which mainly consist of the word Possum. After the show, you went back to the world of the Phish fan, with the smell of sausage and peppers being cooked and the sound of “whip its” being inflated and popping in the parking lot. Night Two started with a traffic jam, a problem that was not found Friday night. I ended up being dropped off about a mile from the gates and walked to the venue. As I was walking in, I noticed one drastic change from the night before, a beefed up security force that included state police on horseback. The larger then life crowds piled up in front of the gates, a site that was also not present at the previous show. The first set of the second night was similar to the second set of the night before, not living up to the expectations I had. The songs were great song choices but the feeling was not there, although the crowd was a lot bigger and more energized then the night before. Set two was by far the best set of all three nights; there was energy throughout the whole venue that Bethel Woods has not seen from any other artist or crowd to date. It began with a fifteen minute version of Down With Disease that got the crowd moving right away after the set break. The next song was Free, which was the major start of the glow stick wars. There were bursts of colors shooting through the air on precise notes and on the lyric “Free”, a site that I am sure a Phish show virgin was amazed by. This shows the crowd’s love of interaction with the band, as they know the perfect note to send these neon fireworks into the sky to add a unique light show of their own. It is a captivating and thrilling experience that the average concertgoer does not get the privilege to experience. A few songs after Free was Makisupa Policeman, which was a very playful and innovative version that made it hard for Trey and Page to hold their laughter during the beginning of the song. The band went around each member and gave the crowd an idea of what was in their house, including Trey watching his favorite show “House”. When the band got to bass player Mike Gordon’s “house”, he laid down a smooth but echoing bass line that shook the lawn underneath us. Makisupa Policeman segued into fan favorite, Harry Hood, which left the crowd yelling out the name of the song along with the band. The set closed out with two more fan favorites, Caravan and David Bowie. For the encore of night two, the band played a cover of A Day In The Life by the Beatles. As one of the songs that all Beatles fans know the crowd sang along throughout the whole tune to the point where all I could hear was fans. It was also a chance for non-Phish fans to feel included as they sang along with a familiar song. Going into night three, I wasn’t sure what to expect, as night one was pretty calm but the energy from night two was overwhelming. It was almost as if night one was a warm up for night two. Night two was incredible with its improvised jams and grooves. Night three ended up being more for the newer fans, as these were all the songs I was told to listen to when I first started listening to Phish. AC/DC Bag was the first song of night three and is a song dating back to the early years of Phish, as it was part of Trey Anastasio’s senior study in college. The next songs were old time fan favorites, Sample in a Jar and Rift. Suzy Greenberg which was half way through the first set is always full of fun, as the lyrics mainly consist of yelling Suzy’s name. To close out the first set, the band plunged into the groove 46 Days which would segue into Twenty Years Later and be followed up by a Lynyrd Skynyrd cover. Run Like an Antelope was the last song of the first set and Antelope is always a powerful jam that the band can take in many directions. With its lack of lyrics, improvising is king for this song. Set two started with the thumping bass of Mike’s Song which segued into Simple and monster jam Weekapaug Groove. Meatstick was up next. It is such an interesting song, and even has its own dance which to my surprise a lot of people in the crowd did, including my own mother who is not a Phish fan. The most noticeable issue of the band’s perfomance occurred at the end of Meatstick when Trey jumped into the next song Fluffhead. I don’t know if it was just his excitement, but he started the next song, as the other three members were closing out Meatstick. The set closed out with a very mellow version of Joy, but was brought back to life with very powerful versions of 2001 and Light. Slave to the Traffic Light finished off the set in a twelve minute jam that allowed you to lost in the music and lights of the song. For the encore, the band played one of my favorite covers, Loving Cup by The Rolling Stones. The band truly shines on this song with Trey and Page on lyrics. It works perfectly. To close out the bands three night stand at Bethel Woods they performed a song called Tweezer Reprise. It is usually played sometimes after Tweezer, which was the song to open the three nights. It was an incredible way to go full circle as the same song started the three day set and ended with it. In recent years, a lot of people said that this is a new version of Phish, normally referred to as Phish 3.0, and a lot of the older fans miss the days of old Phish. However, with the performances we saw this weekend, especially Saturday, I think we might be headed into a direction of 4.0, a mix of the improvised jams of the old and the more precise playing of recent years. No matter what way the band goes, all I know is Bethel Woods needs to pursue bringing them back many times in the years to come.