Mike’s band on this tour = best Phish side project ever.
True story.
^I agree with you there dude. Trey’s shows don’t let you truly see how awesome Trey is. Mike’s come much closer. He rips with this new band.
Ever? Hmm…
TAB in '02 was betta
Cactus is my absolute favorite and I cannot wait to see his solo band!
Might agree here… It was good! So was Page when he toured too though… 
Nah, Hank’s wrong. TAB tours are fun but still meh! Unless you’re at Alpine and John Medeski is sitting in. 
Trust me, Mike solo > Trey solo. 
(I’m so getting flamed for this)
You can’t beat the ten-piece. Sorry folks.
Not talkin’ shit on Mike’s solo project, though. I enjoyed what I saw at Rothbury in '08 a lot.
Sure you can, by playing interesting, creative, original music rather than insipid, derivative nonsense. 
That’s just me, though. The last TAB show I saw pretty much put me to sleep, whereas the Mike show I caught back in October was pure heat. Personal preference, as usual.
How about we call this apples and oranges? Then we’ll hold hands and sing a hymn.
Hahaha
Only if we can have s’mores around the campfire, too 
I believe one or all of the products that s’mores are made with may have peanut fragments and we just have too many allergies to take that risk. Sorry Jay! Singing will have to be it. Maybe some water. Even the hand holding thing is making me wary.
I’m just a horn section freak. I mean, Grippo anywhere makes us very happy, right? That, and Sammy Baptiste’s a fucking killer musician. Jeff Sipe’s one of the best drummers in the world, as well (in my opinion). Not to mention everyone else (like Russell Remington, I believe).
Tangent: Sipe’s a really cool guy, by the way. I’ve had a few conversations with him.
I played at a very small festival he was playing at this year, and he remembered me. I asked him if he saw the band that had just played, and told him how fucking amazing, out there, and how close they had come to being some of the best live music I had ever heard. I was so blown away at the jazz/steel drum/time signatures. Man I gotta stop with these run-on sentences. He said, " oh, you mean Jonathan Scales…" I said, “Yeah.!”
Later, I went up to Jonathan Scales (of the Jonathan Scales Fourtet, from Asheville [CHECK THEM OUT!!!], and asked him if I could buy an album (I rarely buy albums anymore). I asked him of the two albums he had with him which he recommended, and he ended up giving me both of them because I was so blown away. (I was blaring that shit in the Cincy lot and had a lot of heads turn and jaws drop/smile…you may have heard it already and don’t even know…muaahahahahahaaaa) I know, I know, I’m all about parentheses tonight(…).
I later realized that Jeff Coffin and Jeff Sipe played on most of one of the two JS albums! SO, basically, I tried to introduce Jeff Sipe to a band he had already recorded a whole album with!! Go figure…
He definitely is a really nice guy. If you guys ever get the chance to meet him, he seems like he’s not to “famous” to talk music with you.
I respect humble touring musicians. I’m sure it’s hard to be polite to everyone.
I also ran into him, Keller Williams, and Keith Moseley at my old stomping grounds, The World Grotto (Jawbone, I’m sure you remember the place). It was a WMD aftershow with Larry Keel and Natural Bridge. Keller was DRUNK. Keith was VERY down to Earth, striking an engaging conversation with me, and yelled, “See ya later, Little” when they left. That was really cool to me, because I’m a huge SCI fan.
I know being a musician/party animal in Knoxville, I have a lot of people come up to me asking me if I remember them, and I sometimes can’t remember names or even experiences with these people sometimes, and I always feel like an asshole, but that’s just how it goes, I suppose. Especially if you’re a drunk… Keith even remembered Oscar (the rediculous costume some of you have seen me wear at Phish/SCI/GRAB/Boombutywah shows)! He said, “OH, You’re that guy with the puppet hands!!!”
My friend, Chaise, asked Keller about a Butthole Surfers cover he had done earlier that night, and Keller said “YEAH! COUNTRY!” We all looked at each other like, “Huh?” and busted out laughing hard.
That was a really fun night. I literally almost knocked Keller over running down the stairs while I was sneaking in. (I don’t condone sneaking in to any shows anymore.) Unfortunately, the Grotto closed a few months ago. That was my Nectar’s. I played some of the most fun and populated shows of my life there. 
)
I’m gonna stop talking now.
(Thanks for listening…[ 
])
^ Epic read! 
And you guys gotta know that I like hyperbole… I’m not actually trying to be a dick. When I say TAB plays insipid, derivative nonsense, I’m exaggerating for effect. Just messin, y’know? Obviously I didn’t enjoy his TAB tours as much as I love Mike’s current band, and I don’t think Trey’s solo music is all that compelling, but I’m not gonna yell at you if you loved it. I’ll just gently ridicule you for awhile, that’s all. 
^Oh, I didn’t mean for that to sound like I was coming back at you for what you said. I knew you were messin’. I was just saying how weak in the knees horns make me, especially when everyone else is killer. Then, I got on a tangent about weird experiences with Sipe, Moseley, etc. That actually came out somewhat readable considering the state I was when I wrote it. hahaah!
I really enjoyed the show at Bonnaroo with 1st set orchestra 2nd set BIG band! Though, I was pretty young at the time, and was REALLY hoping for Phish to come out, it being their “last” tour and that I had never gotten to see them. So, I was a little dissapointed at first, until I heard the power of the band. I ended up really loving it, despite the exhaustion and monsoon-mud of the weekend. Never got to see that group again…
I would love to see them again. They played a spectacular Sultans of Swing.
^Yes they did! Love that song.
i hope mike plays some shows between now and the next phish tour. i really enjoyed the one show i got to see. he’s got a killer band!
Agreed. I’m hoping Spring 2010 brings another Mike album and tour.
Absolutely… I’d love to see him again, especially in another teeny venue like that. Mike just looked SO HAPPY up there with his band. Really not used to seeing him act so animated and expressive, it was almost weird.