This show will spend eternity in the shadow of 11/28, justifiably so I guess, but it's got a few treats on offer. Bag/Maze is a great way to start a show, Timber and Light are solid, and Golden Age is a fine launching pad for some Phish experimentation (let's hope the boys bring it around some other time). The Piper > Tomorrow jam is the show highlight, but the Caspian/Hood pairing is also excellent, particularly Trey's dazzling solo on Caspian (check out those Jerryesque triplets). This has been a good year for Hood - cf. the 85% successful Jones Beach experiment and the gorgeous synthesis at Festival 8 - and this version deserves its Set II hot seat. 'Boilerplate' isn't the right word for music this passionate, nor is 'consistent' accurate. How about 'Ladies and gentlemen we are *still* floating in space'? Sometimes you see (or become) a supernova, as on the following night; but roaming the spaceways with friends is plenty fine too.

11/27/09 was an strange show, but a very satisfying one. Both sets opened strong, sputtered in the middle but finished with mindblowing runs of songs. The setlists contained a mix of oddball tunes and classics.

Set 1 turned the energy way up early. After a classic but well delivered bag the band went into a maze that blew the effing roof off the place. After an extended solo this Maze went into a strange, wash of noise space jam before climaxing. It reminded me of The Worcester '03 Maze and it was a good one. With the energy already at fever pitch, the band decided to slow things down, too early in the show for my liking. The run from Driver to Two Versions of Me was well played, Gumbo was short but featured a sweet bluesy piano solo from Page, and It's Ice was nailed (and only my 2nd in about 25 shows), but overall this stretch made the Bag/Maze opening feel like a distant memory and made me question the direction of the show, especially with them playing Two Versions, one of the absolute worst offenders of the Phish 2.0 era.

The band must have felt the same way, because they raged the end of the set. While Timber ->Limb, Cavern -> Light might not look great on paper, each version was stellar. Timber featured an extended dark groove while Limb, a song that I usually find a bore, soared through an extended jam that brought that crowd back to its early set heights. Cavern is always a little disappointing in that despite being a classic it signals the end of the set, except the band busted right into the power chords of Light. Light seemed to combine Timber's dark groove with Limb's euphoria and it absolutely raged, deconstructing into a 3 minute space jam before returning back to the song for a final round of "the light is growing brighter now."

Set 2 followed set 1's pattern. My Friend was dark and heavy, and the TV on the Radio cover (nice to see Phish giving a contemporary band a nod) had a nice disco funk feel to it. On Your Way town was well played by all, but was another energy killer, and Fluffhead, while well recieved, was badly flubbed. Page missed an organ solo cue and Trey flubbed 3 different seciotns. At some point you could tell the band got pissed at themselves because the last 5 minutes were the heaviest, angriest Fluffhead I ever heard. The energy was nice, but man was the delivery botched.

Piper had a nice, high energy groove but I don't love the new, fast opening. I preferred the '99-'00 Pipers that started quietly and built to the fever energy. The jam of Piper was excellent, and Tomorrow's song was a quirky, enjoyable jam that has some potential given the song's overall lack of structure. Caspien was Caspien. Sometimes I love it, sometimes I feel like "eh."

Late-middle set 2 and I'm kind of questioning this set's direction again (like set 1). Man did they step it up. As soon as Fish laid down the opening drumroll of Hood the place erupted. The opening of Hood had some filthy, deep bass notes. I still don't know if it was Mike's bass or Page's synth, but it was fucking sweet. The Mr. Minor seciton of Hood was nailed and the jam was beautiful. I felt good about this Hood. Suzy blew the roof off the sucker and again returned the energy to a peak, at the end of Suzy I saw Trey say "1 more" to Page, and I lost my shit when that 1 more was Coil. One of the songs that made my love Phish to begin with, the band walked off stage as Page played his solo and returned at the end. Trey says "we went off for the encore and wondered, Page, where've you been?" Contrived? Yes. But perfectly delivered. I Been Around was the perfect closer after Coil. The Fire encore dissaponted me at first but man they ripped into this one. It prefectly recaptured the energy of the end of the 2nd set.

I thought this was a killer show! I hadn't seen the band live since 1998 and what a comeback I had. This set list seemed to pick up right where I left the boys those 10 long years ago.

From the killer opener to the rocking encore of "Fire" this show just oozed energy. The crowd had a killer vibe to it and its seemed like the band fed off of it. Some of my personal highlights were bouncin (just a fun song and always cool to hear everyone sing along) and really the entire 2nd set. That was one of the best versions of Fluffhead I've ever heard. Then going from Harry to Suzy, to Coli was a killer trio and how about Paige lighting it up at the end of Coli and the rest of the band took their encore break.

I really just don't know what to even say about this show. It was just a great one. My buddies who I went with last night are their for tonight also....I hope they have a good show, but going to be tough to top this one!

Hope to catch the guys at MSG.

11-27 soundcheck (as was confirmed by the Waterwheel table)

Too Much of Everything, On Your Way Down

I thought this show was awesome at the time. But the livephish sbds for this show have become a fixture in my music listening rotation. From It's Ice to the end of set I rages. I even love the slower ballad 'Two Versions' great tune imho. But the Timber > Limb and Light are absolutely sick. Set II is all about Golden Age. Piper > Tomorrow's was nice too and I love the rage at the end of the Fluff. I also love the segue between Bag and Maze. Trey does this thing where he hits a percussive note that is repeated through effects, and somehow that morphs into the opening rhythm of Maze. It's only a brief bit of sonic wizardry, but shee, that's the kinda stuff you'll ONLY hear phish play. Brilliant. Hella good show. Way underrated.

This show smoked! Page was on fire (see Coil, Suzi, Maze) , Trey & Mike blistered Fluffhead (Mike's bass runs in the early composed sections were tight!), Fishman nailed Limb, entire second set was brilliant! I felt total cohesiveness all night. Albany crowd completely screamed Suzi lyrics....soooo much fun to be in that crowd!
Set 1 opened hard, then coasted smoothly and nostalgically ( I kept hearing A Live One all night!) into the sick finish of Ice, Timber cavern Light....ok, I'm biased as this was my only Fall show, but I left completely blown away!!!

After two summer shows and this fall outing, all I can say is how thrilled I am with the state of this band. So thrilled to have Phish back where they belong.
Peace!

Don’t get on the bus.

Once I started seeing bands like the Grateful Dead and Phish on a fairly regular basis the odd and angular travelling roadshow that inevitably follows the scene around from arena parking lot to arena parking lot gradually became somewhat normalized. I started being able to discern the many helpful, smiling faces that beam from every corner of the culture from the genuine freaks and weirdos and soon became able to spot and avoid sketchy lot rats from a fair distance away. It was early in this Shakedown training that I started noticing the bus.

The bus is hard to miss; it’s actually two busses one on top of the other that have been sculpted and welded into a single vaulted and very flashy mondo-bus. I can’t remember when I first saw it but it’s probably been there since my first show, undoubtedly parked on the fringe of each parking lot blending into all the other sights so strange and wonderful back then. But once I started to gain some familiarity with the scene the bus began to stand out.

The bus is conspicuous enough: brown paint, silver chrome, and cleverly contoured with bubble windows all art deco cool. When the bus finally caught my eye it really caught my eye, but there seemed to be something fishy about it.

Early on I found myself right outside of the bus after a show somewhere. There were a few young people hanging around near the open door who were obviously part of the bus entourage, and inside I could see someone way up high, sitting at a table and mundanely working on some paperwork or some sort of task. Up close the bus loses absolutely none of its charm. It’s a beautiful piece of machinery with curves like a ’50’s Cadillac. I mean the thing is stunning. The car-guy in me was dying to see inside but my Spidey-senses told me otherwise. I soon moved on.

It was immediately clear to me that the bus had some sort of cultish thing going on. The night that I got close I found out they had a motto, and it was a creepy one: We’ll Drive You Home. I forget if I saw this motto on some literature or if it was printed on the bus itself, but either way it seemed pretty clear that they were preying on young, lost post-psychedlic souls who would probably be getting a redefinition of the word “home” thrust upon them.

Occasionally the bus would come up in late-night post-show conversations and a few second or third-hand stories would trickle out about somebody’s friend or sister or whomever who ended up on the bus for months or years or both. You’d hear tales of kids dropping contact with their legit family or even birthing children into the bus cult…scary stuff, and not very fun at all.

And then on November 27th, 2009, as I was walking through the lot heading in to the first of a two-night stand of Phish at Albany's Knickerbocker Arena I saw two of the heady, quasi-doubledecker cultmachines parked nose-to-front. There were two of them?!?!?

First off, it was a nifty little spectacle. Cult or not, the bus, or rather: "busses", were quite beautiful - when I become a billionaire magnate and can afford adequate parking I might just get myself one - and seeing two of these creations face-to-face tickled both my obsessive-symmetry bone and my admiration for well-sculpted motorized vehicles.

Secondly, discovering that there was more than one bus suggested that this wasn’t just a small, grassroots gathering of the brainwashed, this was an organization. This was exactly the sort of coordinated and well-financed cult that keeps parents awake at night worrying and wondering why they ever let their innocent and impressional son or daughter go away for the weekend to see some weird band with their strange, odd-smelling friends.

And seeing those two busses together suddenly made all of those late-night horror stories about the bus-people ring true.

Don’t get on the bus. These cultish weirdos give regular old fun-loving neo-hippie weirdos like me a bad name.

Oh, the show was great. Maze, Fluffhead, Harry Hood, and how can you go wrong with a My Friend, My Friend second set opener? You can’t. And don’t get on the bus.

https://toddmanout.com/

I stick by this show! Black Friday, everyone was rested from thanksgiving with the band returning to Albany the vibe was in the air. & when they took the stage early just after 8 with the Bag Maze mash up the arena was ready for another mind blowing show in Albany. Along with Bag & Maze 2 versions of me & a killer light closer were set 1 highlights for this phan. Set 2 front to back was fire so it was fitting that on Jimi's birthday they play it for the encore. It felt like the 90's all over again in there.

I've said it before & I'll say it again I really wish they'd release an Albany CD/DVD Boxset from these 2 nights at Albany. Preferably Night 1 with Night 2 highlights 7 below into ghost along with that Julius. Something about Albany brings the best out of the band & Phans alike. People come from far & wide cause they know the Phish is gonna rip the roof off everytime they play there. & it's long past time the band & their people shared this experience with the rest of the world with a CD/DVD Boxset release.

Loved the show! They had a good mix of new and old.. I especially like the MY Friend into Golden Age (which is a pretty good new song)
I'm not the biggest fan of Fire but it always gets the crowd pumped up so i'll take it!
Overall a great time, Albany is one of my fav places to see phish!

(This is a review of Light only)

2009-11-27, Albany NY

Light, Number 6*

Placement: Closer, 1st Set
Preceded by: Cavern

Anytime a set continues beyond a version of Cavern is a good thing. After the band hits the stinger, everyone was ready to head for the aisles. Trey had other plans and quickly shifted into the opening chords for Light before the notes of Cavern faded. A real nice treat.

Jam begins at 3:10. Trey lingers with the rest of the band in the structure of the opening solo for the next minute or so. Between 4:30 and 5:00 Mike and Trey begin to increase the pace of the notes and while still in the main jam Trey and Mike have some nice interplay, but nothing that shifts direction.

At 5:50 Trey heads directly back into the chorus. At 6:20 Page moves down the scale into the beginnings of some dissonant notes and Trey follows suit building echoes and feedback for a wall of sound. Fish lightly taps the cymbals and around 7:00 Trey adds a screeching echo as Page moves onto the organ until there's nothing left but noise. At 8:20 Fish pick backs up the main drum beat under everything for a very cool effect. At 9:04 the band fades to only a single loop to be cut off before the band leaves the stage.

Overall a version that is finished but feels totally unfinished in a completely odd way. Setbreak killed this one and ultimately I wish they had saved the song for second set. The dissonance at the end is a very cool moment once Fish picks back up the beat.

Average, considering the timing.

* was in attendance

This was the first time I have seen Phish since 2000! During their "break" I got married, had 3 kids and opened a coffee house. I owe part of this success to them because if they didn't stop touring I probably wouldn't have accomplished so much! Anyway I had a blast. I went to the show with 3 of my employees/friends who have only seen them twice compared to my 75 times and it was great to see them appreciating their talent and having as much fun as me. The only reason I knew Golden Age was a TV on the Radio cover was because of my friend Sal who is 25, 10 years younger than me. My over all review is that "the boys still got it" and I hope to see them more if my family lets me. The only bad point of the night is that I fell in the bathroom, killed my elbow and missed the last 4 songs because I was in so much pain. Oh it's great getting old. At least I got to see my "Cavern"!