AUSTIN RECAP: FEEL THE TEXAS HEAT
On Tuesday night Phish’s performed their first gig at the 14,000-capacity Austin 360 Amphitheater. It was their twenty-third show in Texas, with the first on 10/25/90 at The Showbar in Houston, and most recently on 10/8/10 at the Austin City Limits festival. Great performances litter the Texas roster, including the famed Bomb Factory show on 5/7/94 and the two-step at the Starplex Amphitheater in Dallas on 7/25/97 and Austin’s South Park Meadows on 7/26/97. Nobody was expecting cool breezes for this late July Texas show, and the 8:34pm start time saw the band and fans doing their best to manage a sweltering 95°F.
Photo © Austin 360 Ampitheater
Phish’s fans are rightly noted for being devoted, obsessive, and, at times, overly critical of the band’s performances. In the “3.0” era, much fan angst has been focused on the quality of performances in the first set. This critique boils down to songs being played in an interchangeable, uninspired and often sloppy manner. The mantra that “anything can happen at a Phish show” is belied by many modern day first set performances, where the only real variation is the degree songs they’ve been playing for ten, twenty, even thirty years are botched. Sometimes this stock criticism is unfair, reactionary, and entitled. Other times, it is spot on… it’s like a different band is the warm-up act, but with the same lineup as Phish. The first set from Austin falls squarely in the latter category; it was far below average, even for the modest standards of a modern Phish first set.
“Party Time” opened the festivities in a casual, almost serene manner. “Free” brought the tempo up a little but was marred by Trey having difficulty recalling the song’s pesky details, followed by a “Halley’s Comet” that seemed to wilt under the oppressive heat. Even “Wolfman’s Brother” – often the bright spot in otherwise listless first sets – couldn’t harness any heat. “Possum” was respectable, and if one was forced to pick a first set highlight this would be as good as any. A sequence of short standards included “Lawn Boy,” “Bouncing Around the Room” (a difficult song for Trey despite its seeming simplicity was punctuated at the end by him stepping on a wrong pedal, scrEECH!) and “Water in the Sky.”
Photo © Austin 360 Ampitheater
“Dirt” was a minor bust-out, having been last played on 10/25/13 in Worcester, a 58-show gap that was the longest in the song's eighteen-year history. After “Devotion to a Dream” they offered Mike’s “Sugar Shack,” a mystifying call given Trey's historic difficulties with the song and the fact he was genuinely struggling on guitar, with predictable results. “Run Like an Antelope” has saved plenty of lackluster sets in its day, but there would be no heroics on this night until after the break. All that said, no big deal, right? Everyone has a bad day at the office; precious few, however, turn those around as fast, decisively, and often as Phish.
Photo © @tweeprise
After a relatively short break, they did exactly that, busting out of the gates with a fiery “46 Days.” The vibe established in this “46 Days” was night-and-day from the first set, the band displaying fresh and powerful confidence. The show being webcast, desks started flipping across America when they slipped into “The Dogs” from last Halloween’s Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House set. Another smooth segue back into “46 Days” witnessed the second half of the sandwich taking a decidedly more open, flowing and airy approach, setting the stage for “Piper.” While not quite containing the “slow build” of old, the intro was slow-ish, before building into an up-tempo early pace. The early stages of the “Piper” jam is vintage Fishman, drive-pounding Phish’s engine room, with Trey gliding above, before taking charge with his bandmates in close supportive pursuit. After a bit of a tempo downshift, Trey briefly hinted at “Lizards” before settling on “Ghost.” “Ghost” featured more great Fishman fills coming out of the “composed” section. “Ghost” was awesome – patient, sailing into a bright major key, with a tempo kick into the bliss zone and hints of “Runaway Jim” toward the end. If you are looking for the highlight reel CliffNotes for this gig, the opening half-hour of the second set is money.
Photo © @tweeprise
The new Anastasio/Marshall ballad “Shade” – with its opening a dead ringer for the Dead’s “Standing on the Moon” – made its second appearance, after its debut at the tour opener in Bend. While unusually placed between two slower songs, don’t sleep on the excellent “Gotta Jibboo” that featured Trey offering much more focused leads than are often found in this groove-based vehicle. “Waiting All Night” was performed in back-to-back shows, squandering much hope for fourth quarter momentum. The apparently self-referential “Blaze On” will likely be a fixture in the rotation; Trey clearly loves performing this song. A vocal segment of the fanbase clamours for Dead songs to enter Phish’s rotation, and in "Blaze On" you get three for the price of one (“Not Fade Away,” “Liberty” and “Women Are Smarter”)! “Wading In the Velvet Sea” gave Page another turn in the spotlight before giving way to “David Bowie.” “Bowie” offered a truncated intro, a reasonably solid composed section, and solid jam sequence with CK5 unloading the kitchen sink of psychedelia on his favorite song.
Photo © @tweeprise
“Suzy Greenberg” took us down the home stretch, with Trey finding another vehicle for the deployment of his Mutron pedal (the ‘77 “Dancing in the Street” effect). A Neurologist in Austin!? Austin scooped up the Forum’s hanging “Tweezer Reprise,” and a “Loving Cup” encore closed the books on this first leg of the 2015 Texas Two-Step.
Wednesday’s gig takes us up north on I-35 and brings us back indoors to the Verizon Theatre at Grand Prairie; tickets are still available if you find yourself in the area, and the show will also be webcast via LivePhish. We’ll be back here with more coverage tomorrow.
LE poster by Conor Nolan. Edition of 675. 18x24
Phish Summer 2015 – Setlists & Recaps
07/21/15 Setlist – Recap – Bend 1
07/22/15 Setlist – Recap – Bend 2
07/24/15 Setlist – Recap, Recap2 – Shoreline
07/25/15 Setlist – Recap – LA Forum
07/28/15 Setlist – Recap – Austin
07/29/15 Setlist – Recap – Grand Prarie
07/31/15 Setlist – Recap – Atlanta 1
08/01/15 Setlist – Recap – Atlanta 2
08/02/15 Setlist – Recap – Tuscaloosa
08/04/15 Setlist – Recap – Nashville
08/05/15 Setlist – Recap – Kansas City
08/07/15 Setlist – Recap – Blossom
08/08/15 Setlist – Recap – Alpine 1
08/09/15 Setlist – Recap – Apline 2
08/11/15 Setlist – Recap – Mann 1
08/12/15 Setlist – Recap – Mann 2
08/14/15 Setlist – Recap – Raleigh
08/15/15 Setlist – Recap – Merriweather 1
08/16/15 Setlist – Recap – Merriweather 2
08/21/15 Setlist – Recap – Magnaball 1
08/22/15 Setlist – Recap – Magnaball 2
08/23/15 Setlist – Recap – Magnaball 3
09/04/15 Setlist – Recap – Dick's 1
09/05/15 Setlist – Recap – Dick's 2
09/06/15 Setlist – Recap – Dick's 3
Comments
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Phish.net
The Mockingbird Foundation
Tonight will be better.
Never skip a show.. But if it's like 100 out, you might want to think about it at least a little
They play shows like this in every tour, everyone gets up in arms, and then they play a much better show and it's more or less forgotten. Can't agree that 46 Days -> The Dogs -> 46 Days isn't inspired, though.
I: Tube* -> No Man's-> Weekapaug*-> PYITE, Mike's Song*-> Scabbard-> Taste, Divided Sky
II: Weigh> Timber*-> Simple-> I Am Hydrogen> Chalkdust-> McGrupps-> Chalkdust
E: Contact, Meatstick
* unfinished
i missed the first set of austin because i underestimated LA traffic issues, but enjoyed aspects of the second set cloud touring with friends. phish played good songs well, but that doesn't seem to be enough. when you get a taste of magic like this past shoreline and forum concerts, you want it all the time and with every comcert, but in reality, it is impossible.
on that note - i can't stop listening to LA forum night - ohh my gosh goodness that night was amazing.
looking forward to the cloud tour tonight with dallas.
it is a beautiful song. really really nice. "sail on sail on"- i keep hearing "set on settled" but it is enjoyable to mishear and imagine other meanings with lyrics sometimes.
nice review mr zerbo.
I think Phish has raised the entirety of their game a few notches and by the time this tours over we'll all be super happy little Phans.
Thanks again for the recap, keep em' coming!
I almost don't buy the heat excuse, I fondly recall the Deer Creek 6/28/12 show where the temp was 104 and 100% humid. The crowd staggered in and we were treated to a Curtain With, FYF, Pebbles, Weigh, etc. quite a *hot* set in extraordinary heat, a Tweezer back to back (Blossom before) for the "freezer" comment, followed by the Tela "cool winds" and a bust out "Cool it Down". The boys can bring it in the heat!
Cheers to a good indoor show tonight, regardless.
Ghost
Reba
A Song I Heard the Ocean Sing
Tela
Energy
Farmhouse
Undermind
Llama (or fulfill Lushington?)
Divided Sky
Esther
Also Zach Tharathustra (2001)
David Bowie
However, I just had to post to say we are LUCKY fans that our band kicks any other band's ass, even on an off night. And there were steaks of inspired playing to be found in this setlist.
Amazing show though.
Damn me for not reading the entire quote!
Presently, with Page - er, Iron Man - hamming it up regularly, Lawn Boy is a redundancy. Whatever charm is once possessed has gone the way of Fish's Elivs 'cape.' It's the equivalent of Henrietta back in the day; which the band deliberately moved away from, in an attempt to focus more on form than fun - without, of course, eliminating the fun.
The time may have come to close the lounge and put a bit more shine into the Sugar Shack - just a tremendous tune, always welcome (no matter the flubs) as it sets the right mental tone.
Aside from that, the first set 'was.' The catalog is so vast now, that clunkers are going to emerge, based upon song selection alone. Halley's in this era is simply as it used to be, before it became something different. Toss in a newish ballad, an older ballad, an ancient Bouncing, and there you have it.
Set Two suffers from more of the same. Some of the old simply doesn't mesh well with the new. 46 Dogs is cool, but Piper, like Halley's, is back to what it was before it became what it was; this can sound disappointing - especially as it still holds the same post 97 set placement. (On the other hand, Twist, which has also reverted to form, can really be pretty and interesting, especially early in the first). Velvet will always polarize; I like it - and I like where they play it - but it certainly loses some resonance when placed near a promising Shade and a misplaced Waiting.
Still fun to see, and I love the tone and the energy.
If I could put myself in Treys shoes and I was really just feeling gross because of the travel and the heat, I'm not sure what I'd do
Coming from my personal POV, I'd be like "let's run through a couple left field song choices. Maybe we can't create a transdimensional wormhole on stage during Light tonight, but people always appreciate a rarity even if it's relatively sloppy"
Replace 5 random songs with 5 weird random songs or random placements even if they aren't songs you're particularly fond of, and things brighten up considerably.
I: party time, round room, halleys> Suzy, Devotion> Possum, Weigh, Bouncing, Water, Dirt, Sugar shack, antelope
II: 46 Days Dogs 46 days> Piper> Ghost> Shade> Drowned> Waiting> Blaze On, if I Could> Loving Cup, Bowie> Tweeprise
E: Wolfmans
Saying that this first set was far below average was overstating things by a lot. We can argue over the degree to which he deviated from the expected norm, but I am not aware of anyone who was at this show who felt that anything about it was below average.
The whole review, while recognizing the legitimate highlights of the show, was encapsulated in negativity that, in my opinion, was not deserved of this show. I don't blame people for thinking that this review looked down on this show because the language used makes it pretty clear.
[Kareem gets angry]
Joey: And he says that lots of times, you don't even run down court. And that you don't really try... except during the playoffs.
Roger Murdock: [breaking character] The hell I don't! LISTEN, KID! I've been hearing that crap ever since I was at UCLA. I'm out there busting my buns every night! Tell your old man to drag Walton and Lanier up and down the court for 48 minutes!
Damn good Party!(hence the opener) Our bus and group had several first and second timers, and everyone had the time of their life! It was fun leaving the show watching everyone hugging and high-fiving with smiles from ear to ear!
Just glad to see Phish and sleep in our own beds.