Sit back with your two eyes closed when you listen to “The 9th Cube.” You need only open your third eye, as Jimmy tried to in the Harpua Narration of 10/30/21, the night before the song’s debut:
“It’s a four, a square, a quadrangle, with six faces is a cube. A cube is floating before his eyes.…Suddenly, in a flash, the six-sided cube splits into nine. He sees nine cubes in front of him.”
The last of these Nine Cubes, the square of a perfect and prime 3 dangling in midair, will open the doors of perception, granting access to the ultimate alternate reality.
But only if you can first clear your mind!
By following the instructions of the previous song on the Get More Down by Sci-Fi Soldier album–the very message the Soldiers came to communicate with us humanoids–we have readied the blank space where our minds should be.
If you’re lost, it’s a good indication that your own mind finds itself preoccupied with somewhat less obscurantist trivialities, so plunge into the world of Sci-Fi Soldier and perceive the significance of “The 9th Cube.”
Fill your mind!
The Phishbill comic book from the Halloween show on 10/31/21 tells us that “at any given moment time can be frozen and nine possible realities can be viewed.”
These are the nine cubes and such is their power, each one being “a window to a possible reality.”
To summon these Nine Cubes, the Sci-Fi Soldiers layer and employ the many perception-enhancing tools around them. Their arsenal is broad: the tardigrades they’ve just collected, the energy field from their powerful Floating Aerial Neuro Technology Orientation Station–and later from P.A.N.T.O.S., their pocket-sized version of the same–as well as the teachings of their prophets, Kasvot Växt. And, of course, Clueless Wallob’s third eye, a tool the prophets also mastered.
So, how are the prophets connected to this? They sing of the Nine Cubes in “We Are Come to Outlive Our Brains.” That song’s history reminds us that this was the project name from their time in the Subterranean Arctic Neuro Technology Orientation Station. There, they labored to harness the power of the Nine Cubes to see and positively influence reality by perceiving the possible shapes it could take (warning: don’t get hit in your third eye when this author’s fan fiction starts spinning out of control).
But wait! These are the Nine Cubes, and we are discussing the 9th Cube. What, then, is the difference?
Semantically, we understand that the 9th Cube is but one of the Nine Cubes–the last, arguably. It seems to represent the reality that, as the final cube, is the one that occurred/is occurring/will occur.
When Phish had to cancel their traditional Madison Square Garden 2021 New Year’s Eve show due to concerns over the spread of COVID-19, that originally scheduled date in MSG existed as only one possible reality among the Nine Cubes.
So, even if intrepid saviors might travel back to try to change the once-believed-to-be immutable past, the 9th Cube is the last version of reality that we know to be true. This hotdog of certainty wrapped in a bun of doubt requires a deep drink from the cup of Pyrronian skepticism that Phish has been pouring over our heads for decades. “That’s a lot to un-think about!” Half Nelson declares.
Or as Kasvot Växt sings, “What a fool I was. What a fool I am. What a fool I’ll be.” After all, all I learn is always wrong.
“The 9th Cube” is pure instrumentation–as it very well should be. Not a single word disrupts its beauty and melody but the ones that should no longer be reverberating in our heads.
As of this writing, we’ve been treated to only two live performances of “The 9th Cube” even though its mellifluous composition and relevance might deserve a similar place in our sets (and hearts?) as other Phish instrumentals like “Magilla” or even “The Oh Kee Pa Ceremony.” With its harmonic mood, length, and structure, it could perform a comparable role in a post-COVID world–though it hasn’t yet and doesn’t seem primed to. While at once rhythmic, “The 9th Cube” nonetheless seems to trip along, bringing us and our now cleared minds through various dimensions of perception.
This audience video from the debut offers a taste of the experience:
After this journey, Trey’s guitar returns with increasing fervor to lasso our brains back to where we stand: the ninth and last reality, the only moment that exists–or so we un-think–before proceeding to the next song. In the world of Sci-Fi Solider, that is logically and structurally “The Inner Reaches of Outer.” However, in the singular other performance of “The 9th Cube” on 10/10/23, the song was the second of set one, using the opportunity to draw attendees deeper into their cleared mindspace, perceiving so much without the need for FANTOS, PANTOS, or Tardigrades–though I suspect rather a lot of third eyes.
I, for one, would be happy to hear “The 9th Cube” become the window to a new reality at many more shows to come.
Phish.net
The Mockingbird Foundation