1st SONG AT HAMPTON

Phish Live Shows
#161

“I feel the feeling I forgot…” Free opener. But I think a brand new song is likely, also.

I love the ideas someone mentioned of Foreplay>Long Time and Destiny. Although, I missed it when they finally brought back Destiny, so to finally hear it as the opener for these shows… well, I’m just not sure my Poor Heart could take it!!

One thing’s for sure: whatever they play, I’ll be ecstatic. It used to be that there were always songs I didn’t want to hear, either b/c I’d seen 'em so much or b/c I just didn’t like them much or whatever. But now it’s a different story. They could fill a show with all of my least favorites and I would be in heaven, just because I’d be hearing Phish again.

#162

destiny unbound?

#163

I’m calling a dustoff of LUSHINGTON.

#164

I’ve always thought it would be The Curtain.

What if they just came out and played “With”.

#165

jam-> Tube -> YEM…i called it

#166

Y’all seem to have mentioned all the good ones, but I wanna chime in anyways, just because I’m freaking out so hard about Saturday, that I need to “blow off some fucking steam”, to quote Trey.

I remember the PIPER from MSG NYE 02. The crowd was so loud you couldn’t tell what they were playing right away. Hampton is going to be twice as loud.
Whatever they start off with, it will be something that they won’t mind us screaming beserkly over for the first minute or two. So it’ll be something with a nice extended intro.
Not YEM. That will be second. :wink:

I’ve been thinkin about what fits the criteria, and there’s a bunch that could work and knock our socks off right away.
First and foremost, Also Sprach Zarathustra, good ole 2001.
Those lights. The way it hits the peak and BLAM!!! there is PHISH bathed in the white spotlights - the absolute FIERCE.
Kill the house lights, fill the stage with smoke, have them lead onstage with flashlights (no one sees then until the peak), they make trippy noise, and then Fishman slams into the beat and all hell breaks loose.
I guarantee brains will EXPLODE if they do that.

Down with Disease is also one of those “come out and make a lot of noise first” songs and they love that song, and know we love that song and that JAM ever since NYE 93. But the more I think about it, DWD is more likely to be the second set opener on Friday rather than the first set opener.

For an unlikely choice, I really agreed with Mr.Miner’s Phish Thoughts blog where he suggested UNDERMIND. Lyrically, it fits beautifully, and it’s a song they could just groove on while everyone wigged out for a few minutes before settling into. It reminded me of when we tried to predict the Millenium song. MEATSTICK was the absolute LAST song on my mind for that, and the way they did it with the hotdog was priceless.

I would like to see them make up for the disaster of the CURTAIN WITH, but its a song that I think they’ll wanna make sure we’re all listening instead of shouting our brains out when they play.
They could also slam into it with such classics as Chalkdust or Llama.

But I know them, and whatever it is they do, it will be carefully thought out.
Each song for each night will be selected and well rehearsed. I’ll bet that they already have a song list and are practicing on their own free time to get ready for rehearsals after the new year. They know very well what happened at Coventry and these Hampton shows are gonna be the “make-up” shows. And that means say goodbye to the roof of the Mothership, because within minutes of them taking the stage, it will be gone.

#167

^ That is a great post. Great ideas from everyone else too.

I am thinking about this too much. Like you mentioned, Fone, Trey has all his own ideas about song choices and the flow of a show. He is a pretty emotional musical genius kind if guy, so this return of Phish has to be something that he is taking pretty seriously. He can look back on the original hiatus and return and eventual breakup and see what went wrong. Throw in the recovery from a hard drug problem, and he’s got a lot on his mind. I think that as a human growing older he was caught up in all that goes with the advancement of age, plus he was the guitarist for fucking Phish and had been for most of his life. I think he was having a hard time growing older and still doing the same thing he had always been doing. Who was he as a musician? Could he exist outside of Phish? Would people still like his music if it wasn’t as a part of Phish? He was feeling all of this long ago, and he branched out with some side projects. Then Big Cypress. Whoa. Insane. I think he regards it as the best Phish because for him it was the culmination of his life up to that point. (The first time he learned anything about music. The first time he picked up a guitar. The first time he played in a band. The first time he wrote music. The time he spent in Europe with Fishman. The time he spent in a little cabin with his dog writing The Curtain. The first time he played with the other three. And so on through years and years.) 85,000 people traveled from all over to spend New Year’s Eve 1999 with him and his band. They played ALL night. I can understand how he would wonder about where to go from there. So shortly after he was able to let go…at least for awhile. When he brought it all back for 2003 and 2004 I think that he wasn’t completely sure. (12-31-02 didn’t seem right…he didn’t say much…) It didn’t take long until the wheels fell off again and he just couldn’t do it anymore.

Now I think he might feel like he has something to talk to us about. (Not in a Harpua kind of way. I think he wants to really say some things for real. No dream he just had. No keyword. Just Trey to us.) I don’t know where he is as far as what songs he wants to play. Does he see his past as something that he doesn’t relate to as an older musician? Originally he talked about not wanting to become a nostalgia act, but now he wants to play YEM very much. I think that some songs are part of the past. It happened all throughout the years of Phish. What songs those are only Trey knows. I wonder if he is even sure. Where do bustouts come from? I also think that he is proud of all his music since Phish and the other guys’ music too. I have no idea how much of that he sees in the future of Phish though.

As far as the first song at Hampton…hhhmmm. Does he look back on the past 20 years as all leading up to and into this point? (A segue of sorts.) Or does he see this as a new beginning? I think he has thought this all through (and completed rehab) and he is comfortable with where he has been and is ready and excited for the future. He has rediscovered the bond betweeen him and Mike and Page and Jon as friends and musicians and as Phish. I would think that over time it became apparent to him that not being a part of living and breathing Phish was something that just wasn’t ever going to be OK. I don’t know if he feels he has something to make up for because of Coventry and the sour end of Phish in 2004. Wasn’t The Curtain With played in the wrong key? Maybe he wants to open with that to do it right and close the door on Coventry…like you mentioned, BigB. (There has always been a feeling of continuity with Phish…playing songs a show later if they were somhow omitted. Maybe Trey just feels it strongly.) But some of you make good points about the crowd being so loud and drowning out the opening. Trey would know that. I think he’s really putting everything into this three-day Hampton Phish-stravaganza. So maybe open with some jamming until the noise goes down a little and then strongly go right into a song. A new song? Old song? I don’t know. Then some talking to get it all straight. Then the sky is the limit. I trust Trey. I trust the other guys. They are practicing. They probably have been practicing and talking for awhile. They don’t owe me Fluffhead or anything else. I am just thrilled that they are back. Welcome back, Trey, Mike, Page, and Jon. I missed you.

EDIT: I have been thinking about all this and trying to figure it all out. I forgot that pretty much all of these same ideas are in The Phish Companion (pages 9-12.) And it’s all in their own words.

#168

i like this idea
or With>Rift
or With>Rift>Curtain
i don’t think they would but it would be a cool combo

#169

Fluffhead…100% Guarantee

#170

I think it would be a little cooler if they encore with Fluffhead on Sunday night

#171

^^^^^good points, ghost

#172

3…2…1…LIFT OFF!!!

[flash=350,287]http://www.youtube.com/v/rx4I1XkR9Z0&hl=en&fs=1[/flash]

#173

it came to me in a dream… walls of the cave

#174

^-> R&R? ;D

#175

That’d be kind of redundant…

I’d rather hear a “Swamp Music -> Possum” opener.

#176

PYITE would fucking rip the roof off. That or a Weekapaug>simple>hamptonjam>Mikes…

#177

15-20% of the songs will be new ones for Phish (solo material or new stuff), not 70 or 80, Glenn.

count on that.

#178

Don’t know about Friday. Birds… Wilson… Chalkdust…? Now I am calling TMWSIY > Gamehenge>TMWSIY for Saturday! Fluffhead is Sunday, and there will be no summer tour.

#179

now lawnboy dont sayy no summer tour

but seeing them perform TMWSIY in its entirety…would be theee shit

#180

“No tour” is mean to say and no I don’t have tix on Ebay. I agree that we are “owed” some sweet rarities. Anything less would be a minor disapointment. I hope they rehearse the shit out of Junta. SANITY ENCORE!!! This is fun.