read a review after the Vegas 04 shows and the writer said a few of the exact same things Trey said in his letter to us. ie: We don’t want to become caricatures of ourselves or, worse yet, a nostalgia act. I don’t remember who or where I read that, but I remembered seeing those words after Trey’s letter. I bet Trey read that article and it freaked him out and opened up that can of worms…
i’m pretty sure i snagged that 97 vegas show from etree recently…i might try and figure out how to re-seed it for yall, but probably won’t be able to…pm me if you’re still after it.
I was at the first Thomas & Mack Center gig in Nov 97 and it was GREAT! Stash was out of this world.
Here’s a classic flyer for this show:
I love the Bruce Lee… GREAT STUFF!
They really did destroy America that fall, too.
They sure did! They definetely brought the heat and funk.
“No one will be admitted during the last ten minutes due to the incredible ending”
That’s great.
what a fucking awesome poster. I did kinda remember them promoting the tour as Phish Destroys America. That was an extremely fitting motto, especially in hindsight.
I am listening to that show right now (11/13/97)…this is tight baby…First ever Black-Eyed Katy…second song in and they are bringing the funk hard…I don’t know that it destroyed america, but fuck if it didn’t blow some minds.
what a fucking kick ass poster. goddamn that is one fine piece of ass. i would hit it. i have to confess something: i want to be on it.
how was the twist from the second night???
I assume you mean the Vegas 04 run. I’ve read it was really good, like most of the post-hiatus Twist’s.
I talk about that twist all the time. I absolutely love it.
Anyway, back to the topic of this thread. I’ve been thinking about this lately, and I think both the Miami and Vegas runs may have played equal parts in causing Trey to come to his decision in May 2004. Vegas, because it OBVIOUSLY highlighted Trey’s drug problem, and just overall showed how much being the leader of such a large organization was wearing on him.
Miami is so much different than Vegas though. The quality of the shows and the energy of the band was so much better. I saw this run, and it was the best week of my life. Also, band members talked about how the Miami shows were some of their best ever. However, Trey, in an interview that was recently posted here somewhere, talked a lot about how post-hiatus (although I don’t think this is entirely true–they did play a lot of new songs, but they did rely on older tunes to “make” the show), they seemed to be playing the old songs more, and becoming stagnant.
In Miami, they played like four new songs, and most of them were slow tunes (anything but me, Friday).
I think Trey, looking back on this run, may have realized that his band could become a nostalgia act. They had a great time, and put on some great shows, but they relied mostly on older material.
I don’t know if this was just used as another excuse to cover up the real reason for the breakup (the drugs, bigness of it all), or if it really did play a large part in the decision of “ending” it. If that’s the case, when phish does come back, I would expect even less “songy” setlists, and more jamming and new songs. I bet less than half of the songs they play would be from before “Farmhouse”.
Anyway, I’m getting pretty speculative here…I’ll end this rant.
My problem with the whole “we got tired of playing the old songs” is that they should not have played them anymore. The Dead stopped playing Dark Star for a long time and when they brought it back, it wasn’t as good. Also, in 97, they dropped a few songs from rotation because they were sick of playing them, and it was one of their best years.
They could easily ‘replace’ songs like Harry Hood, Run Like An Antelope, Fluffhead, etc. with newer material. The fans would hate it, but we would get used to it. Besides the fact that Trey always said he got sick of Phish because the audience seemed to care more about WHAT they played than HOW they played it, which I totally agree with. The NYE03 run was great because there were many moments when older songs either were busted out or played in a completely new fashion.
My point is: I’d much rather see Phish play whatever they want and tour more than see them tour for two more years and play YEM and all the ‘old chestnuts’ night after night and get sick of it and quit again like they did post-hiatus.
I think they came back too soon(not for us,but for them).And as much as I would love to see a Phish show again,if they come back,they should be ready to be a working band.Practicing, talking about shows and what they want to do.I disagree with their mantra of “lets not talk about the music” and “not think about what we’re going to play”,its healthy to do that.It shows you’re passionate and that you care. And they have to practice,nobody is above practice.Not even this band.
+1
I’m above practice.
At what?
Uhm errr uhm…
::runs away::
no wait,come back.I want to know what this craft is that you mastered to the point of being above practice…mines the triangle.
Honestly??
Cunnilingus. Either my first girlfriend was just really easy to get off or I am just naturally good at pleasing the ladies tongue-wise.