Tag: phish

music

'Cause I'm As Free As Bird Now…

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It figures that my first real post of this new year is not about a first but a last, a goodbye and a very public one at that. The Late Night TV Debacle of ’09 finally ended with Conan signing off last Friday night from his gig at “The Tonight Show” – something which he called the “greatest gig in all of television” which I find very hard to believe. I would choose doing “In the Papers” on NY1 before hosting “The Tonight Show” even though I hate waking up early. “In the Papers” – that is a great gig. But I digress.
I wound up watching the Conan finale purely by chance – when I finished up something on the old TiFaux I was dumped onto NBC. While I loved to follow the Late Night sniping and barbs through the press, I never cared enough to actually tune into any of the shows to hear the grenades that were being lobbed back and forth nightly. But, once I arrived lazily at “history” I thought I would stay and check out what happened.
Well, after a sort of funny exit interview was conducted by Steve Carell (though all Conan did was laugh the entire time), his Tom Hanks interview was pretty lame and I was about to turn off the tube and head to bed when I decided to just stick it out and see how it all ended. I’m really glad I did.
To quote the review of the show from Time.com:

And after all the acrimony, bad faith and low blows of the Tonight fiasco, he [Conan] closed, voice breaking, with a statement of unimpeachable class: “All I ask is one thing, and I’m asking this particularly of young people that watch: Please do not be cynical. I hate cynicism. For the record, it’s my least favorite quality. It doesn’t lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, I’m telling you, amazing things will happen.”

That bit left me feeling a little warm and fuzzy and then low and behold something truly amazing did happen. Let’s now go back to the Time.com review (emphasis in bold added by moi) for the description:

Conan called onstage Will Ferrell, in bell-bottoms and wig (with cowbell!), to lead a band including ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, Ben Harper, Beck and Ferrell’s own pregnant wife—plus Max Weinberg and the crew—in a full version of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Free Bird.” And in what must be a first in talk-show-host farewells, Conan—who’s wielded an axe numerous times on his shows—played himself off the air by ripping a guitar solo, to a balls-out Southern Rock power ballad about getting out of a relationship with no future.

You can watch a clip of the performance on the Huffington Post as it seems that NBC’s copyright attorneys have removed it from most of YouTube.
I must stop now and inform you of my love for all things “Free Bird” – both the highbrow and the lowbrow of it all. I love the song, the music, the lyrics, the flow and the way it builds. I love that it’s probably the best example of Southern Rock that exists in a single song. I love how the band has a two word name that is misspelled (like my favorite band).
I also love how people will shout out “Free Bird” during a break in a performance, no matter what type of performance they are attending. It could be a piano concerto, it could be a political speech, or it could be the “Bare Naked Ladies” concert I went to my freshman year in Binghamton’s West Gym. A guy was shouting “Free Bird!” at the end of each song from the start of the show. Finally, in the middle of the second set, the lead singer shouted into a microphone “If we play ‘Free Bird’ will you shut the fuck up?!” and when the man responded with a curdling “Yes!” BNL just launched into a pitch perfect cover that blew the doors off the gym. I have been waiting for something similar to happen at one of the shows I attend since. I have never been present for a “Free Bird” cover at a Phish show or any other shows and cannot wait for the day when I hear it once again because I love it, and this bird you cannot change.

music

A Phishy Countdown to Midnight

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I was lucky enough to ring in the New Year with Phish back on 12/31/02 when they played New York’s Madison Square Garden. This year, many of my phriends were down in sunny (and warm) Miami this past Thursday night to see Phish ring in the new decade. From the looks of the video below, it was a slamming good time.

If the video is not enough, photos of the show are available at fromtheroad.phish.com and audio recordings are available at LivePhish.com.

music

Possibly The Greatest Phish Song Ever

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Phish is back with a vengeance and their 3.0 incarnation is blowing the doors off every venue they play. They have over the past few months debuted a whole slew of new songs, starting first during their historic Hampton three show run back in March and then continuing during their recently concluded Summer tour.
As an aside, I was at the first Hampton show which I still have not written about on this blog but I can honestly say that it was such a transcendent experience that other than seeing Page and Plant live in London in 1998 – I actually saw them two nights in a row, first with 2,000 people at Shepherds Bush Empire and then the next night at a BBC studio with 200 people which is when I got to high five Jimmy Page – it was the best single concert I’ve ever attended (I preface “single” because I was at Woodstock ’94). When Phish opened the show with “Fluffhead,” a phan favorite that they never played during their 2.0 incarnation, everyone lost their shit the way that Oprah’s audience did when she gave them all a car. It was chaos and it was phantastic.
Okay, now back to the present. I’ve been lucky enough to see Phish 5 times (so far) in 2009 and while I am a huge phan of some of their new songs, like “Backwards Down the Number Line,” one song in particular, a Jon Fishman original called “Party Time” that was debuted at their Merriweather Post Pavilion show on 8/15 which I attended, is just so flat out amazing that it not only vaulted its way immediately into my top 5 all time list but it quite possibly could be the best Phish song ever.
Oh yes, I did really write that statement. “Chalk Dust Torture,” “The Mango Song,” “Harry Hood” and “Down With Disease” now have a new neighbor. Come waste your time with me? No thanks “Waste” – you are now in the sixth slot because I just checked my watch and it says that it’s party time!
I feel so honored to have been at the debut of “Party Time.” It is such a rarity to have been at the only occurrence of a Phish song but right now there is one and only one version of this song out there – from Merriweather Post Pavilion, period. Even “Backwards Down the Number Line” which I mentioned above they have played about 5 times already. While you can listen to over 100 different live versions of “Tweezer,” there is only one live version of “Party Time” and I cannot wait for the first 20 minute version to be busted out. Festival 8 is around the corner and I’m praying they open with a nice long version of it.
A fellow phan and phriend of mine said in an email to me that,

“It is a rare event when a new song is debuted and immediately accepted by the crowd. I can’t wait for it to be played again and get tighter. The energy and goofiness of the song mixed with the odd rhythms and almost impossible layering of parts that shouldn’t make sense, but somehow seem to gel perfectly is almost the definition of what I love about Phish.”

I couldn’t agree more. Don’t believe me or my phriend? Check out the video below and you’ll probably never need to ask what time it is again because it will be permanently “Party Time!” ‘Nuff said.

Video via Nib

movies

Back on the Train

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A few months ago, after singing about the movie insessently over the years (there is a lyric about it in the Beastie Boys song “Sureshot”) without having even seen it, I finally got to watch “The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3” and I really, really enjoyed the movie.
I just love NYC movies and gritty 70’s ones are especially fun. There haven’t been very many good remakes of 70’s movies though so I was on the fence about the new remake. But, after hearing some positive reviews, I decided to check out the NYT Pelham review and could not stop laughing about its closing thought:

“It has intense violence and frequent repetition of every true New Yorker’s favorite word.”

Hmmm, I wonder what that could ever be…
Even more fun was that I could easily watch the original on my PC using NetFlix’s online VOD service. Sure, movies on a 17″ LCD screen aren’t as good as 42″ LCD screen but there is something to be said about the word “instant.” I am really looking forward to when everything is instant – we are probably 5 years away from that.
Last, since I am just obsessed with Phish lately, here is Phish playing the title of this post “Back on the Train” from Hampton back in March

humor

Realy?!?

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One SNL bit that I find consistently funny is the “Really?!?” segment that Seth Meyers does from time to time on the Weekend Update portion of the show. When Amy Poehler was still in the scene, they partnered for a very funny one concerning Rod Blagojevich and while Seth is no Dennis Miller, he thankfully isn’t Colin Quinn either.
Seth Meyers has been growing on me as the “Weekend Update” anchor and part of it is his dead-on “Really?!?” bits. The best one by far was the one he did on Michael Phelps. When talking about how Kellogs is outraged by Phelph’s marijuana use, he says in retort “Every one of your [Kellogs] products sounds like a wish a Genie granted at a Phish concert.”
Check out the entire clip below and prepare to laugh:

I am super happy that Hulu is now around because I can post a clip like this and be fairly confident that years later it will still be there – unlike a lot of YouTube videos I post to this blog which “disappear” over time…

music

Rumors

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Yes, its the title of a famous Fleetwood Mac album. However, it could also describe some new I received from Jessie, who heard about it from a former coworker, who heard it from a friend who knows a guy….let’s just say I received this link to a board with this news at the bottom of the page:

“ATO_Records is apparently a credible PTer. I am not familiar with him, but the general consensus is that he posted information regarding the NYE ’95 CD and the Brooklyn ’04 DVD before any information was released, making him a reliable source. New information supplied by gordeaux shows that ato_records quite probably stands for According to Our Records, an independent record company started by Dave Matthews and some Coran Capshaw fellow, leading some to believe that ato_records is the latter.

Anyway, he posts that he has gotten a list of dates Phish has booked for 2006 at Madison Square Garden – October 28th and 29th. On top of that, rumors have been circulating (though the source is muddled) that Phish has scheduled Halloween 2006 at the Spectrum in Philly and a summer tour that same year. On top of that, a new record label, JEMP records (Jon Ernest Mike Page?) has surfaced on Phish.com and has ownership of the domain jemprecords.com. Couple that with the latest talk by Trey of “not ruling out playing with Mike, Page and Fish” and (supposedly, I know little of this) claiming that he is “working on logistics of a Phish comeback” (any more info on that would be appreciated) and this rumor fits very nicely with the rest of the info circulating as of late.

Also, many third hand “My friend who told me about the breakup before it happened” sources are apparently claiming that Phish is returning – I have two of those going myself, but as always, take those with a grain of salt.

More news: Madison Square Garden Oct 27 and 28 of 2006 is booked. The hold says “Dionsyian Productions and JEMP.” I assume its safe to assume that that has something to do with Phish. Talk about booking shows WAY in advance…

These are the reported Phish dates.

Camden July 24 and 25 (given to us by someone who works for Ron Delsener and said phish is booked for these two nights at the tweeter center in camden)

Festival in Maine (given to us yesterday by someone who claims they work forGreatnortheast Prod. and said permits are in the works)

MSG October 27 and 28 (given to us by ato records, a usually reliable source who told us about the dvd/cd releases as well as the may trey tour)

Halloween at the Spectrum (given to us by someone on the OKP boards who let us know about the breakup before it happened)

Also Hampton 10-23,24 and Providence after Philly

“Rumor is a pipe Blown by surmises, jealousies, conjectures, And of so easy and so plain a stop That the blunt monster with uncounted heads, The still-discordant wavering multitude, Can play upon it.” – William Shakespeare, from King Henry the Fourth, Part II (Rumor at induction)

ramblings

Pharewell

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I went four for five in my not so long goodbye
with a frown turned upside-down into a smile at the end
not on the soft velvety green of an upstate phairway
but on the gritty asphalt of my world capital
in the canyon of heroes is where my music stopped.
My run was bookended by skyscrapers
metal carcasses of the past
modern gleaming glass slabs of the present
between them a great north wood wrapped inside of traffic.
The music was a quick flowing stream of sonic love
rushing at breakneck speed into oblivion:
through a rain slick evening with glowstick sized drops it buzzed,
through a humid night that stuck you to your seat if you dared use it it thumped,
through a dark star-filled sky full of haves and have-nots it grooved,
through a clear blue sky that poured down on the concrete stalagmites it jammed,
through it all swirled the magical sounds of overflowing joy,
a wail of strings and keys and drums dancing with both structure and mayhem
and language fails to provide a better word than ‘smile’ which is a shame
for we all were well beyond ‘smiles.’
Encore! Encore! Then handshakes and rueful smiles,
a scattered goodbye made on a street corner and then nothing more,
except songs, pictures and memories to download to anyone
who wants to hear and see what once was.
I merely blinked and ten years had passed by.
Neon strobbed all around as I thought back to the mountains,
about the show I had seen two nights before,
about the cold walk back to the car with no light to guide us.
“I am significant!” screamed the dust spec into the night air,
“This is significant!” bellowed the waves from the stage
but an ancient kernel of truth, that this too shall pass,
kept haunting me, that it’s over,
this note is over, this song is over, this whole scene is over,
this whole era is over, is it the beginning of the end or the end of the beginning?
Where do I go from here but home? And then what?
Those thoughts had disappeared when I heard the Broadway reprieve news
One more time! A precious gift not to be squandered and it wasn’t
a reprieve that ended with a fitting “…Reprise”
an up-beat ending that left you amped, not a down-beat ending that left you sad
but after the fist pumping and clapping had ceased there was and is still sadness
it cannot be escaped, where there is loss, there is sadness.
“I hope we passed the audition” said the red one as he passed by the mic,
the last time I would hear his voice with those others beside him,
and I looked up past the fifty stories of brick and glass and steel,
saw the azure sky dotted with wisps of white and grinned.
We both passed the audition and we will both move on
and this too shall pass, but I will never forget.

ramblings

ada

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I’ve been reading a little, doing crosswords, studying a GMAT Review book and been going to movies and museums. I’ve also developed a paralyzing phobia over writing – I just can’t seem to write these days about anything. Not poetry. Not journals. Not short stories. Taking my writing class has actually made things worse believe it or not. I haven’t done one homework assignment and the piece I turned in to workshop I wrote months ago. I’m not sure why I can’t seem to write anything. I believe I have inherited Phish’s “Waste” as my mantra lately:

Don’t want to be an actor, pretending on the stage/

Don’t want to be writer, with my thoughts out on the page/

Don’t want to be a painter, ’cause everyone comes to look/

Don’t want to be anything, where my life’s an open book/

A dream it’s true/But I’d see it through/

If I could be/

Wasting my time, with you

Only problem is that I’m alone – the “with you” part makes no sense because I spend an awful amount of time by myself. I’m home all day by myself, I’m home all night by myself. So, I’m wasting away with myself (and my crossword puzzles).