Howdy yall!

Matty in Austin here to pile on to Carroteye's trenchant analysis of the world's longest Soul Planet and last night's Tweezer. As we all adjust to the dawning of the 4.0 sound, some clear patterns are emerging. Deep octave synth guitar echoes; long atonally dark passages over the top of driving rhythms; a penchant for going loooooong but skipping a blissful peak; a full commitment to GOTF and Lonely Trip material. And in my opinion, some slightly troubling harmony (Cactus) and vocal cadence issues (we are looking at you Big Red) that may be a bit more enhanced by some vocal mixing trouble as my ears have heard it both in the venues and on the LivePhish releases.

It's exciting to witness something altogether new, even if all of it just isn't your bag, baby.

All of that said, what the 8/31 Soul Planet had in sheer length the 9/1 Tweezer has in communication, musical ideation and execution. Driven particularly by Fish, who doubles up the beat at 11ish minutes and pushes the band toward a loop fed jam which collapses on itself, meanders for a bit and resurrects into a monster bliss peak - the first 27 minutes (!) is classic 3.0 with some of Trey's newish octave effects sprinkled on top. The peak then dissolves into a 4.0 avant garde soup of off time loops, atonal octave wiggles and rolling toms that somehow catches the scent of collective reality and slowly slides into Miss You.

While the 8 /31 Soul Planet seems born of the 2021 sound, this Tweezer is a perfect bridge between 3.0 and 4.0 - thrilling, daring and at times challenging. But all Phish.

Onward to Dick's! Be safe and take care of each other out there.

Matty in Austin
121 shows and millions of unimportant opinions