8-1-99 -- Fuji Rock Festival, Naeba, Niigata, Japan

 
Date: Mon, 2 Aug 1999 00:21:14 -0500
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Review submission
 
I said Goddamnnnn!!!!!

Date: Sun, 8 Aug 1999 08:21:54 -0700 (PDT)
From: Jaime Lee [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: 8/1/99 Fuji Fest Review


Sorry took so long to post my review for the final night at the Fields
of Heaven!  Well, here it is :

8/1/99 Fields Of Heaven 7:00 pm

WEll, as a whole, this night was probably the best of three in my
opinion.  But, I still stand firm that the best set of the three nights
was 7/31/99 Set II.

1st Set

The evening began with a standard version of Cities with no in-depth
jam, however served its purpose.  Moma Dance was phat with a nice
chunky funk feel.  Divided Sky was certainly a dream.  Trey decided to
hesitate for about 1:05 until playing that note that we all wait for
impatiently.   S.O.A.M. was a must listen for all. NObody can ever
complain with an Antelope set closer especially in the first set.

2nd Set

I had the opportunity of relistening to this set the other night so the
music is pretty fresh in my head.  Well, Possum>Tweezer...mindblowing.
Tweezer had this jam which words cannot describe and Trey was
manipulating his guitar with that backwards effect that he used quite
often during the Fuji Fest.  Sounded quite confusing, but somehow came
together harmonically.  This ingenious form then blended into a Llama
which blew smoke out of my ears.  Page, lifted his ego from the stool
he sat on and expressed himself on the organ...Phat melodies.  Had
enough yet...no this then sunk into Mike's which ripped my skull out.
Thought they were gonna take it into Simple and then thought...."NO,
they played it last night...hehehe."  Mikes was taken into a Pseudo-H20
where Page and Trey layered some ambient jams on top of Fish and Mike's
H20 rhythm...and then...oh yes, Trey busted the H20 jam out..which was
pretty much on point.  Weekapaug had the entire field hoppin including
the vendors and even children.  I swear, the towering cedar trees must
have been as mesmerized as I was.   Wedge...always a nice one to
hear...Lizards proclaimed one of my most phavorite quotes, "The trick
was to surrender to the phlow."  Y.E.M.  was a phatty throw down to end
this chunky set with trampolines and all.  Well, the encore could have
been a little better...but I can't complain after what I witnessed this
weekend.  I think they also had time constraints as well.  Reprise as
usual, energetic and fulfilling, pretty much was a great summary to a
phabulous weekend in the Asian forests.  I really hope that they do
this again in the future... probably the most amazing venue I've seen
Phish play at out of the 50 shows I've been to.  Hope everyone
considers going to the fest next year even if Phish decides not to
partake.  Thanx to Andy for posting this and to the dedicated phans
around the world for listening to my babble.

Sincerely,

-Jaime Lee

Date: Sat, 7 Aug 1999 00:46:00 -0400
From: steve [email protected]
To: "'[email protected]'" [email protected]
Subject: Fuji review
 
I left Thur am, picked up the 747 in chicago, with the boys on the plane
and their entourage sleeping in the  economy section.  not a crowded
flight.  Shook page's hand, but they all seemed tired.  Went through
customs with the group, and fishman was wearing a tattered old dirty shirt
put out by some texas bar.  he was also wearing the cowboy hat.  he was
behind us in line, the rest in front of yes.  talked a little to fishman,
but i hate to bother people.
 
everyone made it by the drug sniffing dogs with no problem.
 
We still lacked our room at neaba, but the conceirge at our hotel got us a
room in tower 4.  glorius.  We talked to a young native couple on the train
platform on the way up, who spoke no english, but instructed us to follow
them.  when we told them we were from us, they said, ahh, phishheads.  Page
was in tower 4 as well, and i ran into him a couple times.  saw none of the
others at the prince.
 
entire setup is what festivals should be.  you could bring anything in,
except bottles, but noone seemed anal on the search.  i got my 35 mm and
got some nice shots on night 2.  you could set up umbrellas and chairs, ect
on the back part of the green stage pawn.  bottled water and coke was $2.00
or so, native beer $3, so we weren't being ripped off.  very good vibe.
 some of our promotors should take lessons.  you might actually be able to
make more $$$ killing the crowd with kindness.
 
Green stage, day one.
 
band before them was cranking, and i thought chalkdust would be a good
introduction.  apparently so did the band. and the crowd approved.   I've
never been crazy about guyute, and it was standard.  when did trey start
adding the evil exorcist distortion to his voice?  Wolfman was ok, but lost
the crowd.  place went wild duting pyite, apparently a universal tune.
 
Couple of security guards who looked to be from a local us army base (were
big guys, spoke english, wore fatigues - much better security than rent a
pigs- these guys formed security at the shows.  apparently the japanese
security, looking as small and feminine as the ones that guarded the prince
looked, were not felt to be enough deterent.  these guys were).  anyhow,
one motions to the other, pinches his nose and then makes the universal
sign for toke a joint - you know it.
 
Thinks got better at the field of heaven. very small this was the best
venue i have and will likely see phish at.  Red rocks, was nice, but we
estimated about 300-500 at night one, and it thinned out from there.
 others are overestimating night one.  night 2 and 3 we got up to 1000 or
so.  a lot more westerners got in sat.  Kent mac was too crowded, although
it had the intimacy.  too many at sugarbush and fox theatre.  I shared the
crowd barrier up front with some other english speakers from hong kong.
 only a few decks going.  hope tapes get out.  whole thing was video taped
with four fixed cameras and one roamer.
 
set one, standard, well jammed.  funky bitch was played at a much slower
tempo, and did not work for me, but at least we got something different.
 set 2, highlight was bike.  bike was a crowd request, and fish balked cuz
no sweeper. his guitar work was nice.  he played it like we discovered how
to play the instrument, and then started milking it.  almost like bugs
bunny would do, showing off once he learned how to handle the jet, but
without the climatic crashing into the ground part.  Julius was, like funky
bitch, played at a slower tempo.  note:  fish wore a black white print
dress, a assume japanese, but back to the old one for set 2.
 
night 2, set 1 was short, with train being the high point.  this one is a
keeper and has room to grow.  set 2 was the killer.  just try to get the
tapes.  encore, no monks, just one tibetan that played with trey at
carnigie hall.  first he talked about tibet problems too long (sorry, but
it was too long.  people were loosing interest, and in rude america there
would have been yelling.)  I could see one of the crew laughing and
wondered why.  he must have seen fishman with the sweeper.  tibitan played
an instrument which made a whale sort of sound, and fishman started working
a sweeper from the prince hotel.  very funny.  b/r was fine, simple was
nice.
 
night 3, set 1.  Cities was very short, almost like an album cut.  no jam,
and i was disappointed.  rest of set raged.  they knew the wilson chant (as
they did the stash clap), no one screamed during the divided sky silence
(that don't happen anymore, do it?), bouncin was bouncin, then it ended for
me.  My wife wanted to see zz top, so i headed back to green stage.  i
hoped to catch end of strummer (i did) then zz top and their 1 hour set,
then run back for last 45 minutes of phish.  well, allow be to vent:
 
zztop, like the true "professionals" they were, must have pushed the
closing japanese band out of the way, then made us sit and wait 60 minutes
while they tested each micophone, like it had to be jsut right.  you know
 the lame exercise:  some guy walks up, says check mike one, check mike
one, then walks off stage.  five minutes later, he appears to test mike 2,
then drums, the guitar, i guess to build the anticipation.  It did not
work, even on the japanese.  when i saw these guys in vegas in the early
90's they had tons of gimmicks and a nice presentation of the hits, and it
kept my interest.  this did not.  they felt they had to announce the title
of each song before they played it.  they butched jesus left chicago.  i
missed what looks like a good closing set.  the things we do for love
(wait, wasn't that an old tune?)

Date: Mon, 2 Aug 1999 03:33:43 -0700 (PDT)
From: Blane Harvey 
To: [email protected]
Subject: Fuji Fest
 
Sick! Sick! Sick!
 
The whole weekend was absolutely fantastic.  Best
single-venue stand I've ever seen.  Small energized
audience, and a gorgeous venue. This is how I'd
imagine Amy's Farm might have been.  I won't do the
song by song thing now, cause I desperately need
sleep.  But, I thought I'd get some news about it up
on the web.
 
The audience was crazy.  I was curious about it before
going and was pleasantly surprised when I got there.
The Japanese heads were totally psyched (first show
for most of them) and were really getting down.
 
Here were my personal musical highlights from the
weekend:
 
Day 1, Green Stage:
TASTE (nicely jammed out and really tight. I saw lots
of people who had no idea who Phish was getting down
to this one. Page was really on top of it.)
 
Day 1, FOH:
FUNKY BITCH (best version I've ever heard live)
GHOST (the jam at the end will blow your mind)
BIKE (Seeing Fishman from the front row jamming on
Trey's guitar for about 3 minutes is unforgettable. He
was having a blast and actually hit the right notes a
few times:)
JIM (REALLY nicely jammed out)
 
Day 2, FOH:
THE ENTIRE SECOND SET: Maybe the best set I've ever
seen. 2001>Bowie was about 40 min. Caspian(usually
hate it) raged as did Fluffhead.  The encore was
mind-blowing too. *** A small correction to what's
posted in the setlists from this night.  THere was
only one monk (Nawang Khachog was his name)  he played
the Tibetian long horn (kind of like a digeridoo) and
a digeridoo as well. He also chanted. He and fishman
played together (Fish on vacuum). You REALLY have to
hear this!!!!!!!! It lasted around 10 minutes (if I
remember right) and then as the rest of the band came
on he switched to his flute for B&R. So there wasn't
any extra singing on B&R, but some really nice flute
fills. It was kind of like the Hamza El Din  setup
from the Dead's 'From Egypt with Love' shows in '78
(Ollin Arageed>Fire).  THis was CLASSIC stuff guys!
Totally intense.
Simple was also really nice, with Trey using that
'backwards' guitar effect (Like Hendrix used) for his
long, long solo.
 
Day 3, FOH:
 
Set 1: Really nice MOMA Dance (very tight), gorgeous
Divided Sky (fitting after we ALMOST got some rain),
tight SO&M and a nice Antalope.  I thought the song
selection in this set was just about perfect. Even
Poor Heart and Bouncin' were fun for all the Japanese
who haven't had a chance to get tired of them. THis
set was 1:33 min. I think.
 
Set 2: Again, THE WHOLE DAMN THING! I'll have to
listen to the tapes again to decide which Set 2 I
liked better (right now I'm thinking Day 2's), but
this was MONSTROUS. Tweezer's segue into Llama was
smooth as silk, Mike'sHydroGroove was SOOOOO sweet. I
flipped out on the Weekapaug. EVERYONE was dancing.
The food and goods vendors were dancing while they
served beer. You could see the cooks from the little
restaurants coming out and dancing with their aprons
on...  Seeing a little 5 0r 6 year old dancing her ass
off with her dad was really touching. That was my
personal favorite moment of the night.
The YEM was solid and the vocal jam was really
influenced by the chanting monk from the night before.
Mike was doing a damn fine imitation of the low drone.
Nice.
 
Well that's all I'll write for now. You could really
spend a day trying to describe what this scene was
like and not really get it accross, but whatever...  I
gotta sleep.
 
One last note, regarding tapes.  There were only about
8 decks running in total (3 westerners, I think).
There was one main rig that almost everyone was
running off (AT4050's).  THe Green stage set had no
taper's section, but several people taped with stealth
mics. There are a few nice copies of that that I've
heard. Anyway, point is, there are tapes coming, but
please be patient. THis might be slow (especially
green stage, first day).  It's not like tour where
there are 300 decks going.
 
Also, for a look at what the people at the show were
like, check out the 'Audience' section of the Fuji
website. It's really cool.
 
Peace
Blane


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