@vriphish76 I think the current jamming style (extreme patience for the “treading water” go-nowhere jams) allow for short passages of breathtaking originality to emerge. The Mexico CDT is a snooze fest until 21:00, then it goes into several amazing mini jams. Fuego and DWD from Sphere were similar.
@jdp11 that's a deadass on point comparison. It takes a certain kind of fanatical love to even have the knowledge to critique a band as savagely as we do
@Stoneycase fwiw the webcasts had ZERO footage from low center angles and as cool as it was visually it was also frustrating bc it was obviously missing shots like this. A lot of those designs are clearly optimized for viewing along this axis
@mrcompletely I had to look up so much from the floor that it may have balanced my neck from years of looking down at my phone. It’s really a challenge for the “close your eyes and dance” folks. I kept wanting to take it all in but it’s not really my style to look at the lights. Warms my heart to read how much Trey appreciates the dance energy. My legs feel like they have ankle weights on today. We threw it down on that floor. The car wash is crazy on the clips I’ve seen. (1/2)
Why can’t we all agree that what #Phish is doing now is incredible at this stage of the game—defies all expectations for a 40yo band.
But it’s also fairly formulaic, the newer material is largely a big downgrade, and overall it’s not on the level it was when they were hungry and out to destroy the world.
It’s still the best show on earth. And that’s fucking amazing—especially when you look at how soft and squishy their play was from 2017-2020.
@chopaganda I haven't respun a note in audio only so I'll need to circle back. In general I agree about the songwriting (the fact that the new tunes get jammed isn't inherent to those songs, it's that trey is playing them in jam spots and trying to jam them to sell them to the crowd, which is fine by me) and am fifty fifty on the jams. There's a rich sophistication to the current style that I do hear as extremely unified and creative at its best. I'm still "peak Phish is 97-cypress" tho
@chopaganda but while I'm not ready to get into dissecting this run (or even mex/NYE, I've been listening to non Phish except when they're streaming) I feel like I'm one big step towards loving the jam style from where you are. I hear the point you're making and it's often right (and in non jam material there's no contest) but I do hear a lot of jam segments and occasional whole jams I think are at an all time level in creativity and execution. So not a hard disagree, more feathered back a bit
@chopaganda went in totally sober night one (a result of logistical snafu) then went California sober night two. Walking in last night I was wishing I had some shrooms; arrive at the seats and our rando seat neighbor broke me off a chunk of his PB&Boomers sandwich. An auspicious coincidence!
Loved S1 last night but S2 was pretty up and down. And overall last night just doesn’t have the firepower of N1
Visuals
N2
<big gap>
N1
Ranking the visuals from the couch is akin to ranking restaurant dishes from Instagram photos. Still, seemed like they used the Sphere better last night than N1. Given that these are planned shows, N1 wasn’t a learning experience. So assume N3 will be better than N2 and N4 > N3.
@mrcompletely@chris@Nolasox@chopaganda I honestly think they wanted to see if the Phans could handle it, or if it would be a massive psychedelic freak out. Training wheels… it was still incredible in person. Just a fraction of what they were capable of.