8-5-09 - Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, CA
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please review the show, not the other reviews....
from Scott Silton
date Fri, Aug 7, 2009 at 6:59 PM
subject Phish Show Review 8/5/09 Shoreline Amphitheater, Mountain View CA
Hi Dan, here's a submission. regards, Scott
---
This review of 8/5/09 Shoreline is based on attending the show in person
and listening to the show off the FLAC from livephish all the way through
once and select tracks 2 or 3 times.
Even though I live within a couple miles of the venue, we had a trying
time getting into the concert, with traffic tickets and broken down cars
and broken glasses and all, but once parked in the lot the vibe was
friendly and mellow. There were just a few small-time vendors, and while
there were plenty of people on some kind of mini-tour there were also many
thousands of locals coming after work and going straight into the show.
There were thousands of lawn tickets available, eventually pushing the
market price to 0. I eventually tried to find someone to miracle, and
failed. Yeech. Thankfully I also held seats in sec. 102, making the net
cost tolerable. It is bizarre for a show to be that sold out that quickly
and then have thousands of extras on hand. I�m not going to analyze that
in detail now, but the ticketing system was just not good this year.
Anyway�
The show opened with Golgi Apparatus, a fun song, and an appropriate
opener given the aforementioned ticket situation. There is a minor Trey
flub.
Halley�s Comet � upbeat, super-fun set placement, with Mike already in the
zone, making every measure count through the vocal repetition phase.
Chalkdust � fired right up after Halley�s, the crowd is grooving hard
through the verses of this forward-leaning rendition. Then the jam
featured a moody little detour before popping back into the bright finale.
Great version.
Divided Sky � there was some conversation on stage before Divided began.
There were several such pauses during the show and that made me think the
setlist might have been pretty live, too. Anyway, Divided is a brilliant
song you can�t complain about in any setlist IMO. This version had a
couple measures of garbled guitar mess but otherwise clicked, just soaring
through the melody-jam part at the end.
Circus � there�s nothing wrong with this performance, but this is
forgettable filler to me. Bleah. I�d rather hear a new cover than some
of these mediocre old ones.
Time Turns Elastic � this is a nearly impeccable version (just a tiny
hiccup around 6:18) and a set highlight even though I appear to be the
only one who thinks so. While there is one bridge between sections that
feels really forced, overall this I find TTE to be a very pretty
composition reminiscent of old Genesis meets Weather Report Suite sort of
Dead. The light show was exceptionally tight in this song as well. I
assume that Chris Kuroda is still manning the light board because the
lights were fantastic all night. Now, I think I prefer this as a first
set song even though I like it about as much as Guyute, which is more
versatile, even though Guyute has more forced-sounding transitions than
Time Turns Elastic. Guyute is also more fun and punchy. TTE is a looong
tune -- and one that won�t survive more than a minor playing error. This
version is not quite perfect, but it is very impressive. I like the less
Trey-centric aspects of this song as ballast during a rocking set such as
this one.
Ya Mar � not my favorite phish cover for whatever reason, but I have
learned that when it doubt, it is best to get over my fantasy setlist
thing and simply key on Mike, as he keeps me fully entertained until the
next tune comes around. Admittedly, Ya Mar fit the hokey sing-a-long
vibe established by the first 3 songs in the set. It fit the set.
The next song did not: Stealing Time from the Faulty Plan. This was
another new tune, played well. I�d much rather hear this than say 46
Days, but it isn�t setting my world on fire. This and the Bowie closer
brought some darknes to an otherwise happy-go-lucky, exuberant setlist,
which hit its peak with the Suzie Greenberg. Page�s solo was so smoking
that Fish remarked on it in his neurotic muttering bit before the final
chorus ��nuerologist� I liked that Piano solo, Page, I really did.
Aiiiiiiyah!� This more or less went straightaway into the Bowie hi-hat,
although the hi-hat section was a little more drawn out than usual.
Fishman wasn�t ready when Trey scratched to fire up the opening riff,
which caused a minor band flub, but the complex composed stuff before and
after the UB40 section was really tight. The build up to the end run
didn�t dawdle and had some neat whole-band interplay, pretty typical
through the rise, with the finale itself a blast as usual. Once I again I
bow down to the superiority of the light show here.
So the 1st set was very up and alive, mostly happy, mostly tight with
several excellent solos. The crowd was pretty well into it. None of
these songs are in my top 10 favorite songs to begin with (Bowie is close)
but the set had a spirit to it that is hard to resist. That spirit
continues through the 2nd set, with Backwards Down the Number Line a
perfect extension of the singing and glow. This is just a great little
gem of a song, maybe my favorite of all the new material, and the solo
segment is gorgeous.
Mike�s bass starts groaning right after the end of Number Line. Yay!
This show is now blazing. En Fuego. This Disease starts out rocking the
house, peaks around 6:00, eases back a bit, then re-builds to 7:30. From
there it funkifies itself into a whole-band improvisation featuring Page
on his distinctively squawky synthesizer (the Clavinet?) before devolving
after the 12:00 mark into something much more spacy including something
that sounds like an off-key variant of Dave�s Energy Guide at 13:15.
Somewhere in all this, I turned to Todd and said �wow! This is fabulous!�
It holds up on tape. By 15:00 the Disease is re-heated to the verge of
rage, where it simmers under control for a while and picks up a
complementary riff before going under water, a passage of music that
recalls Jimi�s 1983� (A Merman I Should Turn to Be). Trey finally ends it
by moving on with Limb by Limb after a total of 20 minutes of DwD.
The turn to LxL is the only thing that isn�t interesting about this
Disease. I would put this into the top 6 or 7 DwD ever, in the tier just
below Clifford Ball, Big Cypress, and Kent St. And the LxL itself is just
awesomely good. I�m not in love with the setlist placement but this yet
another great version, brilliant work by Trey and Jon that doesn�t wear
out its welcome.
Oh! Sweet Nuttin� OH MY GOODNESS. Beautiful. Beautiful. Page kills the
vocal . I was at the premier and only other performance at 10/31/98
Vegas. This is my favorite tune on the original VU record, and is just a
perfect Phish tune. I was totally mesmerized by this at the show, and I�m
mesmerized listening to it here at home. Not just a bust-out, but a huge
musical highlight.
Cities: I actually called the Cities before the show. I was struck by how
many cover songs were recent tour highlights, and it occurred to me that
we might be due. This version is fine and dandy with a good segue into
Maze.
I�m a Maze magnet, and not that much a Maze fan, especially not in the 2nd
set. This was yet another smoking high-energy blast of a song. Page
doesn�t exit gracefully from his solo, creating a little hiccup; Trey�s is
much better, until the very end, when he doesn�t hit the high note and
then fumbles through to the ending sequence, which is my favorite part by
far, musically and because it means something new is coming.
Mikes! Great. Whew. While semi-predictable given the Red Rocks
rotation, this one is better than that or the 2003 Shoreline Mike�s-Groove
despite the guitar flub at the beginning of the final sequence in Mike�s
itself.
Simple � in concert, I�m pretty sure there was a conference before they
started Simple. The splice apparent in the download does improve this
overall Groove by making the Simple seem more planned as an immediate jump
after Mike�s. Simple itself is another beauty of guitar/bass interplay.
Trey and Mike light it up.
Jon pauses a breath before getting Weekapaug together. The Mike solo is
superb. This version is pretty short but intense.
I checked the time at encore break: 11:08. I thought Shoreline curfew was
11? Whatever it was, the show ended up at a solid 3 hours, which has all
of a sudden become typical, a great feature of the reunified Phish.
Let Me Lie � ewww. Not for me. Cringe-worthy, like Strange Design. I
actually think the show would be better if the encore was just �Bold as
Love.�
Bold as Love � Page shines again. Nice finish. This song fits Phish
well, but I�ve heard it enough times for it not to be as special.
The show, as a whole, is very appealing, and the 2nd set is equal to the
better Red Rocks sets. There are few songs I�m personally less psyched
for sprinkled around, but the overall level of energy and performance make
this a worthy show. It has nice consistency, good variety, and one
brilliant piece of improv along with several other highs. I would
recommend obtaining this show or at least set II. B+
from [email protected]
date Sun, Aug 9, 2009 at 1:53 PM
subject Shoreline 08/05/09 review
Hey there Dan.......attached is my Shoreline review. Hope all is well.
Mike
Opened with a solid Golgi>Haley's which was pretty tame as was the
Chalkdust that followed. I think think the first 3 songs were no more
than 20min. Things grooved on with a predictable Divided Sky (isn't
mid-1st set pretty standard for this one?) which was enhanced by an old
school plane which did laps around the venue for about
20-25min.........pretty cool! Circus mellowed everyone out (in a good
way) as did the now epic Time Turns Elastic. I like this song. It's got
3 segments which winds up nicely with a short Trey solo. Yamar was next
and it got EVERYONE dancing in the lawn. Stealing Time is another good
new song. I like the bite on Trey's guitar on this one. Not much of a
Suzie fan as they've been playing it a lot lately, but the Bowie that
closed the 1st set was killer. First set was about 85min.........NICE!
Set II was the goods....Number Line is an OK song in my opinion. Disease
was the highlight of the show. This song moved thru many different
grooves and I really liked the ambient section which segued into Limb.
Great transistion out of space. Sweet Nuthin (Lou Reed) was an absolute
shock........Saw this in Vegas in '98 and really liked it tonight. I
guess Page repeated a few lyrics but who cares. I say play more off
Loaded and less Rock & Roll. To finish the show with 5 raging songs makes
this my favorite show of the tour ( I saw 8 shows). Cities, Maze, Mike's,
Simple and Weekapaug is a solid 45min of insane jams. Kind of shocked
they didn't squeeze Hydrogen in there, but oh well. Double encore of Let
Me Lie>Axis sent me to the parking lot a very happy man.
Christopher Losiewski < [email protected] >
date Thu, Aug 6, 2009 at 12:20 PM
subject 8/05/09 Shoreline Review
As I sit here listening to last night's show I feel compelled to write a
review of the Shoreline happenings. I've been seeing Phish since Summer
94' and have caught them every tour since. Caught the Deer Creek show this
summer as well. So here it goes...
Set I: Golgi Apparatus, Halley's Comet, Chalk Dust Torture, The Divided
Sky, When the Circus Comes, Time Turns Elastic, Ya Mar, Stealing Time From
The Faulty Plan, Suzy Greenberg, David Bowie
Thought the boys came out a little flat in the early parts. Was center
Lawn pretty close to the front. Shoreline is a gigantic space to fill and
the sound needed to be louder. Golgi is a classic tune and one that rarely
gets played out the gates, so it was unique seeing it as an opener. There
was an old "B-52 Bomber" doing fly-bys from Golgi through Divided Sky
which made things interesting. My buddy is sort of new to Phish was in
shock by this. "Is this part of the show he asked?" Not really sure but
fun none the less. Standard Halley's...Chalkdust had a nice little
psychedelic spot in the middle. (Side note: I was lucky enough to catch
the Ann Arbor, MI Fall 94' show with the smokin Chalkdust on "A Live One."
Needless to say this one fails to compare) Divided Sky was well played but
failed to really grab the place. Circus was a waste of space/time...very
flat/short. TTE is long as everyone and their mother has commented. My
buddy seemed to like it so maybe it has charm for the newer Phish fan? I
feel the song could be shortened to 5 min easily and still have the
desired effect. Trey did flex the end parts. Ya Mar was big...great Mike
tune...funky for sure. Stealing time is another new/arena rock type
song...again Trey nails the end. Suzy was inspired. Page had some nice
piano jams, which Fishman nicely commented during his narrative. Bowie,
one of my alltime favs, was well played and a nice end to the first set.
(Side note #2: Get the Bowie from 11/14/94 Devos Hall...mind fuck for
sure)
Set II: Backwards Down the Number Line, Down With Disease > Limb By Limb,
Oh Sweet Nothin', Cities > Maze, Mike's Song > Simple, Weekapaug Groove
E: Let Me Lie, Bold As Love
Set 2 opened with probably my favorite new song BDTNL. I really feel this
song is the best Phish nod to the Grateful Dead. Trey's guitar work is
very Garcia like. The solo was very well played and really got the place
jumping like nothing in the first set. DWD was the center piece jam of the
show. Having listened to almost every show from Phish 3.0, this jam stands
out as one of the best so far. Jamming...psychedelic...focused...fierce.
Really gives me hope for the future. It was during this jam that I finally
committed in my mind to attending the Halloween festival. The sharpest I
have heard the band as a whole in a long time. LxL is always a beauty. I
am a drummer, so any Fishman song is gold. Trey had some nice work in here
as well. Band nailed the end. Much better than the Deer Creek version I
saw in June. I knew immediately it was "Oh' Sweet Nothin'" when they
started. I am a huge VU fan and have always enjoyed their version of Rock
n Roll. Page flubbed some lyrics and the song went a little long, but is a
great piece for Phish to continue playing. The Bay Area crowd really
enjoyed this, well played/placed for sure. My buddy's favorite band is the
Talking Heads, so he flipped when Cities started. I was bummed Crosseyed
was played at RR since I was really hoping to catch it at Shoreline.
Totally forgot that Phish covers Cities, so I was also stoked. Again,
perfectly played/placed song. Living in SF is a gift that I enjoy
everyday. A song like Cities just meshes with that feeling. Ya know what I
mean? I totally knew Maze was coming tonight and once Cities got weird I
knew it was next. FLAWLESS transition people! Maze rocked for sure. trey
sort of flubbed the end part where he hits the high notes to end, but
still well received. Filled the space/air. At this point I was expecting a
ballad or something slow but no...Mike's! Not the face melting Mike's of
old but still very well played, including the ending part that usually
goes into Hydrogen. Not tonight however as Simple was up. I saw it coming
as you could see trey yell "Simple!" to Mike prior. A standard Simple but
very clean. Weekapaug got anyone who was not dancing already moving.
Probably the cleanest Mike's suite in the 3.0 era.
Encore was a mix of good/bad. I really don't get "Let Me Lie." It's one of
those songs that makes Phish way too cheesy. Hated it at Deer Creek when
it killed the smokin' 2nd set and still hated it at Shoreline. Seriously,
I could punch myself in the eye during this song. However, "Bold As Love"
was a rocker and blew the roof off Shoreline.
All in all...a really good show! Certainly has re-established my
faith/love for this band. I will be in Indio and looking forward to the
surprises that await. Hoping they do something classic Southern
California/LA as their album costume. Eagles? Beach Boys? Until then...
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