^ No. Come on. Go off about Farmhouse.
I’d love to hear Bill’s beef w/Farmhouse, as well as his top five Phish albums.
I love Round Room, and I think for me, it’s three-way-tied with Farmhouse & Story of the Ghost for fifth place. I think it goes: Junta & Lawn Boy tied for first, Nectar & Rift tied for second, none of their albums in third or fourth place, Farmhouse/SOTG/RR fifth, hoist sixth and seventh, and Billy Breathes 8 thru 10. Siket Disc is number zero.
Both RR and Farmhouse were released at very interesting points in my life.
Farmhouse was released at the tail end of my senior year in HS - a point where I was just getting ready to start a new, exciting, unexplored chapter of my life.
RR was released just as I started to figure out who I was in college - both as a student and a human being.
So I will admit to having this sentimental, nostalgic attachment to both albums, and that may skew my POV when praising them.
That is also why I probably like HCA more than the average fan.
I gotta bust that out again. I was so psyched to finally get HCA, like five or six years after it came out. Then I only listened to it a few times.
I liked how interesting the setlists are; they were kind of freaky looking at the time. They’d found yet more interesting ways to change up the setlists. I also think they’re “period” setlists - they smack of '98 Phish, and that’s just a plain ole cool thing about how Phish changed from year to year. You can practically identify what year a given show is from, based only on the setlist.
I love disc six … with the Mango Song and the Sabatoge.
I remember finding the Cavern annoying, but I’ve got a beef with live Caverns anyway. The studio Cavern is just slow enough to swing really really hard, and so I wish it weren’t so rushed on stage. And the horns aren’t doin it for me on Cavern … add to that, Trey’s laughing during a lot of his singing. It’s a song I’ve always really dug, but I always feel like they miss the whole point of it on stage somehow.
Outside of that isolated complaint, I can only fault it for being on THAT side of the line that separates tight Phish from sloppy Phish. I estimate that line falls somewhere around summer 1998, but I’m sure there are differences of opinion.
Otherwise I like that the jams aren’t insanely long on HCA … lots of straight ahead tunes. GREAT packaging, undeniably an overall cool album.
^Oh, ahem … I mean uh … go Round Room!
Who would win in a fight between RR and Farmhouse?
I think Farmhouse would win the fight, but if I could attend, I’d be wearing my Round Room tee-shirt.
All of them. This is my least favorite album. I like a few of the songs but they are terrible studio recordings. I’d prefer a live version of any of these songs to the studio version.
Not a huge fan of Friday. It’s not terrible, but I don’t think the live versions are all that interesting. I really don’t understand the Mexican Cousin hate, though. That’s always a fun one live.