Because of a current discussion of 4/4/98, I went searching the net for some of my Phish posts of old, and found this one on a Google archive of the rec.music.phish newsgroup. Oddly enough, I posted it on 3/11/98, less than a month away from the Island Tour …
[size=150]Ryan Stroud, Reba, Metagroove, and Tongue[/size]
Regardless of the temperature, it’s nice to see the sun again.
I was flamed once on the rmp for publicly lauding Charlie Dirksen for his
knowledge of Phish’s music and intelligent reviews of the shows. I was
immediately taken aback by the comments which referred to my tongue being so
far up a certain part of Charlie’s anatomy. I attempted to look at myself in
the light of the criticism and examine why I had made the initial comments.
Prior to the post, I had entered into a round of exchanges directly with
Charlie about “disclaimers”, analytical reviews vice concert “experiences”, and
just his general take on the whole Phish phenomenon. From these exchanges, an
initial skeptical attitude toward what I viewed as a serious ego on his part,
dissipated into a firmer understanding of a very helpful and typically Phishy
friendly guy from San Francisco. The post I wrote was more a public apology
for my own shortsightedness.
I don’t really expect that what I’m about to say is going to be taken much the
same way, but I wanted to preface my remarks to say that my praise of Ryan
Stroud could really be laid upon most of you. I have seen more kindness and
positivism from this community in the past six months than I have seen in the
past six years, and I’m continually astounded by it. What drives me into this
fit of adulation for Ryan and the rest of you, is of course, the music. In
this specific case, Reba from 2-20-93 II.
In January, like most of the offers for B&P that I receive, Ryan emailed me
directly after reading one of my posts about the 12/29 MSG show. We had
connected several times before on different rmp topics, but this was his first
offer to spin for me. I had some marginal knowledge about him; a music student
at a school in Center City, Philadelphia, not yet twenty-one, and active enough
to organize a net gathering prior to the Philly shows in December. Being a
musician, he responded to some of my rmp requests to better understand the
technical details of Phish’s music. He was always happy to engage and explain
as best he could to this musical dummy.
I sent Ryan the two tapes and mailer for his offer of the 12/29 show, and about
two weeks ago he sent me back my tapes, plus what he called, a surprise. The
surprise turned out to be two extra tapes which he considered “special”
performances. One was 12/14/95 II Binghampton, and the other was the Atlanta
show I mentioned above. I had received at about the same time, several tapes
from other equally as wonderful people (Thanks Casey White, Dave Bristol and
Chris Bertolet), and among them the 12/2 and 12/3 shows which I had waited a
long time to hear. So pretty much, over the past couple of weeks, I hadn’t had
the chance to listen to Ryan’s “gifts”.
The 2-20-93 set II starts out Wilson, Reba, Tweezer. Now I don’t have a whole
lot of tapes, yet, and most of them are later than ‘93. When the Wilson
started, I was pretty much surprised by the “looseness” of the performance, but
surprised in a tremendously good way, to say the least. I almost didn’t
recognize the animated spirit that pervaded the execution of the song. I began
to experience that which I have only begun to read about in some of the
formalized writings about Phish. Last month I read the Phishing Manual, and
this past weekend, Marie picked up Go Phish for me. But reading about how the
band developed and evolved into what I experience now on stage, barely touches
on the energy and excitement of those earlier performances. The ‘93 Atlanta
performance isn’t all that early, but there was a quality in that show that
I’ve never heard before. And I’m even more impressed with these guys than
ever, and feel more and more like a latecomer, uninitiated interloper into a
longstanding intimate relationship between a group of musicians and a group of
music appreciators.
By the time Reba came on during the drive home on that dreaded Garden State
Parkway, I was awake, aware and anticipating anything and everything. And
within a very short time, I got it. Reba jumped off that tape and into my soul
with a life so different from what I had previously known as Reba. These guys
are truly in love with the music. You could hear it and sense it with every
note. Beneath the “known” notes and lyric of the song, they exuded their own
energy and excitement evident in the “under breath” exclamations as they
reveled in their own sounds. It seemed like they were in a self feeding frenzy
as they sensed their own energy, and responded to it by kicking it up another
notch. Truly, truly amazing musical mastery. The attitude carried over into
the “composed” beginning of Tweezer. Even the composed part took on another
life. There were lyrical exchanges going on as responses to the composed
lyrics. Incredible stuff.
I pulled up in front of my house and couldn’t turn off the engine until the end
of that side of the tape. I sat for nearly twenty minutes in my truck, in
absolute awe of a band, who I thought, I had a pretty good handle on. Silly
me. My eyes were opened a little wider to yet another aspect of what Phish is
about, and once again, I fall back upon my sword as I confess to not knowing
shit about anything that’s going on here. This is such powerful emotion in me
that it drives me back to this keyboard to scream to all of you, one more time,
how wonderful this tape made me feel.
And I have Ryan Stroud to thank for this.
He recognized something special in this show and from his own resources of time
and money, took what was something meaningful to him and gave it to me. Ryan,
I recognize your gift, and shared in your excitement of this performance. It
got me in touch with myself a little bit more, and touched me in ways that few
gifts have ever been able to. Your kindness will remain with me for a time too
long to measure. In a meager response to your kindness, let me provide the
following:
On Friday April 10 at 8pm at Laurie Wagman Hall on Broad Street in downtown
Philadelphia, Ryan’s band, Metagroove, will be doing a free concert. He and
his fellow band members have been together for over six months together, and
according to Ryan, their music is “umm…complex as hell, and highly
improvisational”. From what I understand, Patrick Donahue has been helping
Ryan promote the band around town. If you are in the Philadelphia area, and
want to hear a fellow Phish fan reach in and express his soul, all I can tell
you, that if he succeeds only slightly, you are bound for a wonderful
experience.
So thanks again, Ryan, for your gift. I can’t wait to hear the Binghampton
tape. I’m also planning on making the drive to Philly next month to hear your
sound. Thanks again to all of you, cause Ryan represents what is best about
you also. And if this sounds like my tongue is at it again, so be it. I’ll be
an AK for anyone who turns me on to great music and makes my life a little more
meaningful!
As usual,
bill
…i know a room of musical tunes,
some rhyme, some ching, most of them are clockwork.
let’s go into the other room and make them work.
- barrett
