PH Rhythm section.

Phish Live Shows
#1

Something that I think got lost amidst the fray of Phish winding down 2.0 was the maturation of Fishman and Mike.

As Trey’s quality of play decreased for whatever reasons, it understandibly dragged the quality of the whole band down as only the lead guitarist can do. The guitar, along with piano, gives the jam a voice as opposed to a spine provided by the rhythm section. If the melodies of a jam are way off then having a great rhythm section ripping can get overlooked.

That’s exactly what I think happened. Even though nearly every fan of Phish would point to something non-PH as their favorite era, I think Fish and Mike are hands down better PH than any other time.

I think Fish and Mike have gotten consistently better year to year with pretty much no ups and downs, just a steady rise. They seem to have such great mastery of every song they play. Listening to them stack up and tear down rhythms, feeding off each other is bliss in my book.

This is definately not a knock on their playing up until 2000, I just think they kept getting better and better, and continue to do so.
I’ve seen Mike quite a bit with his band the last year or so and I think he has taken even another step up in talent.

Just want to know what everyone’s thoughts are…

There are monstrous cactus bombs on the horizon…

#2

Hmmmmm… Never really noticed this i will have to listen more closely from now on!

#3

God, yeah.

Page too, you know … maybe I’m mistaken, but I think the same can be said of Page.

#4

You can always rely on Page.

#5

Yea i agree about Page too, but I’m a drummer so I usually focus on the bass-drum interplay a lot more than Page’s playing.

#6

Kind of an eeire Page Picture btw…

#7

I’ll agree with Mike, Fishman I disagree with. His playing gets the job done always, but that isn’t what Fishman is about, he’s about going above and beyond. But Mike throws down post hiatus for sure.

#8

I agree with posternutbag’s original post, especially with Mike. Mike was post-hiatus MVP by far. His playing blows my mind.

I feel like Fish may have lost a bit of the passion for it in the later years. Even though he was still solid, there may have been a tad more energy to his kit in '97 and '98.

#9

Good point Hank … but I think he maybe wasn’t as free to kick arse as Mike was, being the backbone to a messed up unit. Maybe he was disinterested for other reasons though. Either way Fish wasn’t particularly creative (by Fish standards anyway) from what I remember hearing of PH.

#10

Yea I guess I would have to agree that Fish wasn’t as creative PH as he was other era’s. But PH he always just seemed extremely polished to me. Maybe it was an inspiration factor, or getting discouraged on some particularly rough Trey nights, who knows.

I definately think he was more talented PH though, whether that makes his playing better or worse is up for debate…

#11

PAGE WAS THE MVP OF THE HAMPTON RUN!!!

#12

^I second that Jasper.

Page was absolutely on fire all weekend, from Fluffhead to Tweeprise he was nailing everything.

#13

^ Can’t argue with that there…PAGE IS ROCK GOD