bmichael:
Phish - Let It Loose (Rolling Stones cover, 10/31/2009)
This is likely the finest moment of the set. Every once in a while Phish takes a cover and rather than owning it, they make it even more gorgeous than the original. This is one of those moments. Page is belting and just sounds amazing, this set was another MVP performance on his part. (muppetpants)
I’m right now listening to Live Phish 6/14/00. I’m already growing out my hair. I’m this close to saying fuck it, quit showering, and going on tour with the band.
I don’t get this, to be honest. The whole point of the stones is the grungy garage band sound…Keith’s guitar, Mick’s voice. This sounds terrible to me.
I have been down with Phish for a long time, but rarely listen to them anymore. I saw them in ‘95 for the first time (and many, many times thereafter until 1998ish) and thought they were the best thing ever. Was it the mushrooms talking then and ever time after that? maybe…almost any music is fucking awesome on mushrooms though. You can have a religious experience listening to Bach on mushrooms (true story..i have)
What I loved about Phish is the jams…the longer, the better. The weirder the better…I loved when they could get themselves all tied up in woerd knots and then pull themselves back out into a song. they are all so good at playing their instruments and with each other that when they are “on” doing their thing its truly amazing…and I’m sure concert goers get some of that still. But from the concerts I have heard lately…i don’t hear it so much. Their albums leave me emotionless. Their songs with lyrics have always left something to be desired for me. In ‘95 I liked them more than “similar” bands (is there sucha thing?) like the Grateful Dead. But over the past 15 years I have liked Phish less and the Dead more.
To be honest I was never a big fan of the Halloween thing either. Playing other people’s music isn’t their strong suit…even though its tough to pull off and they are one of the few that could even begin to do this. But it doesn’t hit me where it counts. However, give me mushrooms and put me int he crowd and I will probably have a different story to tell. But maybe not…even that got to be weird at some shows… the fucking cops and venue security started being too much of a pain and too stressful to really let loose and enjoy yourself.
Has anyone out there listened to them and seem the shows back then. How does it compare to now? I really don’t want to be one of those people that says “oh…the shows were so much better back in the day.” I can say the light shows have gotten much better from what I have seen, and that helps, but not enough if the music isn’t there.
Phish taught me how to love live music, but they are just a nostalgia act now playing greatest hits sets (except the Hartford show, the best show of their return tour). They broke my heart at Coventry and the whole fiasco with Trey’s Drug Abuse. That being said, we all need to remember that it isn’t 1995 (the band’s peak) anymore and have to accept the band for what they are and what they are doing today, in 2009. I for one won’t go out of my way to travel to see them, but I still love the atmosphere at their shows and respect what they have accomplished and that they were able to reel it all back in again for another tour. I just won’t be attending future shows with the mindset that my face will be melted off, musically that is.
