And now a music history lesson brought to you by Phish at Red Rocks
It's about 8 am. I slept a good 5 or 6 hours because i can sleep through pretty much anything. Unfortunately, this means that I'm wide awake and everyone else is sleeping their buzzes off.
So. A random-ass post. Especially written with those of us in mind who did *not* grow up with the Grateful Dead and are generally unfamiliar with the jam-scene, so-to-speak.
What is the jam-scene? Glad you asked. I don't really know.
My best guess if that most of the jam influences and tactics for *playing* oringinate in the tradition of Bluegrass. In Bluegrass, everyone plays the beginning of a piece, and if there are lyrics then everone plays the verses the same while the singer sings the lines. However, in the middle... and more contemporarily in the bridge... of the song, the band assembled does something they call taking a turn. The fiddler (for example) takes a turn: stands forward and ROCKS THE FUCK OUT while everone plays the basic notes of the song for a couple of bars. And then the guy on Banjo takes a turn and does the same. And then the guitarist, etc.
The first band (that I'm aware of) to be classified as a "jam band" (even though all the rockers ion the 60's and 70's were improvoising during live performances) was the infamous The Grateful Dead. If you've never listened to The Grateful Dead, you may be surprised that their music is very folky with its roots almost certainly in the Bluegrass "taking a turn" that I mentioned earlier. I know I was suprised when I first heard them. i immediately classified them as a 60's-70's folk revival band.A lot of people assume of even adhere to the idea that Phish is the "Next Dead", but that's just not very accurate. Phish is almost never folky. They tend to ROCK a lot harder than the Dead ever did... and their roots appear to be more in the Rolling Stones sort of improvisation, rather than the Bluegress "taking a turn". Also, they're a little more psychadelic in their choices of lyric. Not as spazzed out as the MARVELOUS and scrumptious WEEN.
but they do have a lot of nonsense songs about tweezers, making meat from toxic waste, a guy that lives in your head and makes your body walk, talk and blink, mice that can't drive in the snow, hands made of mangos, meatsticks that shock your brain, being paid late for Spock's Brain, and a FUCK-TON of songs about dogs. Dogs pooping. Dogs running away. Dogs stealing stuff from you. Dogs coming with you on a journey.
I'm not kidding about the dogs poop song. It's actually called "Dog Log".
That being said, I guess I could say that some of their best songs aren't very lyrics-heavy. It's the music that propells these pieces. The song about Tweezers, .
or another one called Harry Hood are excelent examples. I've tried for years to make those make sense with some kind of narrative. It is not possible. You could NOT film a music video with any kind of visual narrative to most of these songs. But the riffs are incredible. People go for the music, not a story.
The first non-geology conversation that I ever had with Marty (then my instructor at Portland Community College) definitely mentioned Phish. Hell, it may have been about Phish. Our first sail to Hawai'i was cut to a specific length because we had plane tickets bringing us back home in time to see Phish. Since dating Marty, I've seen 17 Phish shows (I actually have tickets to 4 more...) and I've seen them in (I think) 6 different states. Because of Phish I am the Supreme-Ultimate-Master of the "fly out Friday night, cross the entire friggin' country, see a show or 2 and then fly ALL the way back by early Monday morning" trip.
I had heard a lot of anecdotes and stories about the band and the 'cool stuff they did' way before ever seeing them. They used to do all sorts of creative things: invent dances for their songs that they'd teach their fans, open their set with whatever the first song they heard on the radio that morning was (including a Smells Like Teen Spirit that i heard was awful, but it's still cool that they played it), set up a 'musical code' with their hard-core fans... whenever a certain riff was played, the audiance (or, those that were in on it) would do a specified action. For example: they'd sneak in a riff from the Simpsons Theme in a long jam... and the audiance was supposed to yell, "D'oh!" On several recordings, you can hear this phenomenon. And then my favorite story... just because it appeals so massively to the Music Theorist in me... each member of the band got a giant beach ball and threw it into the audiance. And whatever the audiance did with their particular ball they would have to *interperet* musically. So, if the ball went up, You'd play notes going up and so forth. Very rad.
Well... they had this "haitus" that started in 2000 and went to... I don't recall. Nort too long before I saw them in 2003. So, probably 2000 to 2002. And *apparently* they just haven't been "the same". The music's good (tho, as they get older, the songs inevitably get cheezier. I could wrtie a fucking thesis about THAT phenomenon especially in rock and popular music) but the "differentness" is gone.
When they announced in 2004 that they were breaking up, our whole team got on a plane and followed Phish for their last tour: Coventry, Vermont.
Coventry was all kinds of a nightmare, first of all, for literally more reasons than it makes sense to post... for instance their guitarist, Trey, who --rumor has it-- was the one breaking up the band, was completely obliterated by his heroin habit during that tour. He was a mess and he was talking like an elitist asshole all while writing some of the worst music I've ever heard.
the tour was great fun for me primarlily because I got to hang out with Marty's Very awesome group of friends... have adventures and share jokes. Some of the music was good,too.... but for me, having only *seen* Phish for a grand total of 1 year, the music scene became kind of predictable. For instance, there's this game Marty and the others play where they make bets on "what songs Phish is gonna play this tour" and whoever gets the most guesses right wins the money. When I was told the rules included picking 20 songs that Phish would play, I snorted and said,"That's easy. Pick the last 20 songs Phish has played!" Everyone scoffed at that comment, but by the end of tour everyione realized that I was totally right. Besides, over the course of 7 (I think?) shows, they played one of their songs, Piper, a grand total of 5 times. Now, to a normal band this may not be that big a deal. But Phish has hundreds and hundreds of originals and covers in their repetiore. This isn't the Smells Like Teen Spirit, one-time-play that I'm talking about either. Songs that they have covered and covered and perfected in the past. Back in the 90's, you could see 20 shows in a row with very few repeats. But the Phish I saw was not that Phish. And --unlike my companions-- I didn't have 90's Phish to compare what I saw against. I saw a pretty good band that played the same songs over and over. They didn't play with bouncyballs in the audience or riff part of the Simpson's theme anymore. They were just a band. A good band. But pretty normal.
The final 3 shows at a festival on an obscure farm in Coventry, Vermont were absolutely disasterous. It POURED that week, turning this farm into a mud pit that cars, busses, trucks, people and small buildings were *sinking* into. Mike (the bassist... my favorite. I dunno why... but here's a good reason:
Many people turned around and went home.
Many of us entered music history. We parked our rented cars on the side of the road and hiked 10 miles uphill in the mud to the campground. People left little signs in their abandoned car windows that said things like, "We're Phucked! See you at Coventry!" There was definitly a sense of community. A pilgrammage. Mecca was ahead.
Except it was hell-- for reasons already stated, and more. I was kind of relieved when it was all over. I even remember thinking, "I'll get my boyfriend all to myself, now!" and "maybe now we can take a vacation (other than every-other-Christmas) that's not because of Phish!"
Trey said the he needed a break from the music scene because he had such a drug problem. So he broke Phish up. He turned right around an continued to tour with various other musicians--most notably Dave Matthews... who's music has been referred to as "mating call of the single male hippy"--and certainly continued on junk. This pissed off Jon Fishman (the drummer), who --reportedly--sold his drum kit, gave up music and started a dairy farm. No shit. The bassist and pianist (Paige) live a clouple miles from one another and played Chess on Thursdays.
And then Trey got busted for a very serious DUI and a shit-ton of drugs on 12/15 2006.
He found his 'higher power'. Mended the error of his ways. Gave up junk. Started praying.
Trey even told Rolling Stone that he's "give his left nut to play with those guys again." Those guys were listening. They even convincced Fishman to buy a new drumkit and start practacing.
Phish had returned.
Red Rocks in Colorado: 12 years ago was the last time Phish played this GORGEUOS venue (pictures to follow when I get home next week!) Here's a live cam of the theatre to get an idea.
www.redrocksonline.com/pages/media/webcam.html
The venue holds less than 10,000 people. That may seem like plenty for a band that doesn't have a single radio hit... but these guys just sold out a 25,000 amphitheatre. From what people have told me, this is like the Grateful Dead before they released Touch of Grey (THEIR radio hit) and if Phish ever produces anything that becomes popular, it will make the demand for this band absolutely epic. They will have to play football stadiums.
12 years ago, there were so many people who wanted to get into that show that didn't have tickets that there was rioting and storming-of-the-gates. The town was totally overwhelmed by disgruntled hippies that could not get into the venue. I wasn't there and haven't reseached it, but I do know that the scene was so bad that the town banned Phish from Playing the Red Rocks for 10 years.
When the 10 years was up, Phish had been dissolved. No one thought to renew the ban. 2 years later, Phish is back in action and they sceduled 4 shows at Red Rocks. Its a miracle that Marty,Bobo, Jaime and I even here, really. I don't remember the last price listed for a set of tickets to the shows on Stub Hub. It was literally like 30,000 dollars. I'll get the accurate number and fix this entry later.
I expected a similar scene this year and braced myself... but the cops have gotten smarter or the fans have lost their attitude (depending on who you ask) and it has been hassle-free. There are lots of folks walking the parking lot with their fingers on the air (which is the international symbol for "I need a ticket" and was started on Grateful Dead tour. It's referred to as "Looking for my miracle") but nothing extreme.
I made the same mistake this trip as I did on my honeymoon. I packed light for hot-as-balls weather. And it has rained. POURED, in fact. I come back to the hotel every night so far freezing my ass off. And as the only girl on this tour (which is cool) no one is EVER as cold as me and they roll down the windows at midnight while we'reall sitting in wet clothes.... WTF?
Whatever. My fault for packing for 50 degrees on a Denver night when I was sitting in 103 degrees in Oregon. I couldn't make myself pack thermals. Just looking at them made me faint.
Phish since the return: I have to say that I'm impressed. Some people scoff at "Phish 3.0" becaus the jams aren't as long or because they're playing new songs that no one likes (except for me, because I'm a Music Theory JUNKIE. Check out this piece of prog-rock called Time Turns Elastic on their MySpacewww.myspace.com/phish . Trey wrote it for orchestra--whose version is tear-invoking. The band still needs to interperet it for 4-piece band a little better... but I love it so much i don't care how it sounds now. If you don'tlike the beginning much, I guarentee you'll love the end. KInda like Stairway to Heaven--it gets you at the end and you wonder how it snuck up on you.).
I have actually heard *songs* that they rarely play. I have heard them play oldies that they dug up from the 90's. They also have rocked out pretty hard... especially yesterday when we were all getting absolutley freezing soaked, 1 mile or so in the air at nealy midnight. I'm not sure if they felt like they owed it to us or what, but it was greatly appreciated. I'm excited about where Phish is going and how they'll evolve into themselves.
That being said... its taken me some 6 years to realize it.... but I'm coming to terms with the fact that I don't like Jam music that much. I get distracted and bored too easily during the long-drawn out JAMS that most people get into it FOR. Marty and I have already come to an agreement about not buying me any more tickets to see moe. or Government Mule or Umphrey's McGee (other jam bands that he sometimes goes to see). I've got enough music theory in me to understand that these guys are talented musicians.... But for some reason, I just can't appreciate them.
I've always liked Phish. And I'm a HUGE Ween devotee. But Marty tells me that neither Phish or Ween are really 'jam bands' even though many of their fans will classify them as such and the musicians do just that... they jam. They don't play their songs to the note. Back in the 60's and 70's... no one thought to call the prolonged Jimi Hendrix guitar solos or the drawn-out Jim Morrison intonations or Pink Floyd's long, spacy musical bridges anything in particular. But something changed by the time the Grateful Dead came around. And since then... there's been music and there's been JAM music. I haven't a CLUE as to why.
Next year Marty said we have one vacation and it's gonna soak up all our budget. I'm thinking of doing some summer theatre. And I'm --again-- a little relieved that I won't be up 7-12 nights next year in the freezing cold, hoping that the show ends soon but feeling bad for hoping such a thing, inevitably hungry in a room full of people who seem to never eat on tour--a consistant and extremely frustrating phenomenon and in general feeling fucking old. Turns out I suck at partying. Some of these guys are twice my age with kids and they out party me. I'm always the first to feel sick (I've developed chronic heartburn this trip. WTF?) and the first to get hungry or thirsty. and the very first to fall asleep.
Its better if I stay at home. Even though that fact pisses the hell out of me
So. A random-ass post. Especially written with those of us in mind who did *not* grow up with the Grateful Dead and are generally unfamiliar with the jam-scene, so-to-speak.
What is the jam-scene? Glad you asked. I don't really know.
My best guess if that most of the jam influences and tactics for *playing* oringinate in the tradition of Bluegrass. In Bluegrass, everyone plays the beginning of a piece, and if there are lyrics then everone plays the verses the same while the singer sings the lines. However, in the middle... and more contemporarily in the bridge... of the song, the band assembled does something they call taking a turn. The fiddler (for example) takes a turn: stands forward and ROCKS THE FUCK OUT while everone plays the basic notes of the song for a couple of bars. And then the guy on Banjo takes a turn and does the same. And then the guitarist, etc.
The first band (that I'm aware of) to be classified as a "jam band" (even though all the rockers ion the 60's and 70's were improvoising during live performances) was the infamous The Grateful Dead. If you've never listened to The Grateful Dead, you may be surprised that their music is very folky with its roots almost certainly in the Bluegrass "taking a turn" that I mentioned earlier. I know I was suprised when I first heard them. i immediately classified them as a 60's-70's folk revival band.A lot of people assume of even adhere to the idea that Phish is the "Next Dead", but that's just not very accurate. Phish is almost never folky. They tend to ROCK a lot harder than the Dead ever did... and their roots appear to be more in the Rolling Stones sort of improvisation, rather than the Bluegress "taking a turn". Also, they're a little more psychadelic in their choices of lyric. Not as spazzed out as the MARVELOUS and scrumptious WEEN.
Click to viewbut they do have a lot of nonsense songs about tweezers, making meat from toxic waste, a guy that lives in your head and makes your body walk, talk and blink, mice that can't drive in the snow, hands made of mangos, meatsticks that shock your brain, being paid late for Spock's Brain, and a FUCK-TON of songs about dogs. Dogs pooping. Dogs running away. Dogs stealing stuff from you. Dogs coming with you on a journey.
I'm not kidding about the dogs poop song. It's actually called "Dog Log".
That being said, I guess I could say that some of their best songs aren't very lyrics-heavy. It's the music that propells these pieces. The song about Tweezers, .
or another one called Harry Hood are excelent examples. I've tried for years to make those make sense with some kind of narrative. It is not possible. You could NOT film a music video with any kind of visual narrative to most of these songs. But the riffs are incredible. People go for the music, not a story.
The first non-geology conversation that I ever had with Marty (then my instructor at Portland Community College) definitely mentioned Phish. Hell, it may have been about Phish. Our first sail to Hawai'i was cut to a specific length because we had plane tickets bringing us back home in time to see Phish. Since dating Marty, I've seen 17 Phish shows (I actually have tickets to 4 more...) and I've seen them in (I think) 6 different states. Because of Phish I am the Supreme-Ultimate-Master of the "fly out Friday night, cross the entire friggin' country, see a show or 2 and then fly ALL the way back by early Monday morning" trip.
I had heard a lot of anecdotes and stories about the band and the 'cool stuff they did' way before ever seeing them. They used to do all sorts of creative things: invent dances for their songs that they'd teach their fans, open their set with whatever the first song they heard on the radio that morning was (including a Smells Like Teen Spirit that i heard was awful, but it's still cool that they played it), set up a 'musical code' with their hard-core fans... whenever a certain riff was played, the audiance (or, those that were in on it) would do a specified action. For example: they'd sneak in a riff from the Simpsons Theme in a long jam... and the audiance was supposed to yell, "D'oh!" On several recordings, you can hear this phenomenon. And then my favorite story... just because it appeals so massively to the Music Theorist in me... each member of the band got a giant beach ball and threw it into the audiance. And whatever the audiance did with their particular ball they would have to *interperet* musically. So, if the ball went up, You'd play notes going up and so forth. Very rad.
Well... they had this "haitus" that started in 2000 and went to... I don't recall. Nort too long before I saw them in 2003. So, probably 2000 to 2002. And *apparently* they just haven't been "the same". The music's good (tho, as they get older, the songs inevitably get cheezier. I could wrtie a fucking thesis about THAT phenomenon especially in rock and popular music) but the "differentness" is gone.
When they announced in 2004 that they were breaking up, our whole team got on a plane and followed Phish for their last tour: Coventry, Vermont.
Coventry was all kinds of a nightmare, first of all, for literally more reasons than it makes sense to post... for instance their guitarist, Trey, who --rumor has it-- was the one breaking up the band, was completely obliterated by his heroin habit during that tour. He was a mess and he was talking like an elitist asshole all while writing some of the worst music I've ever heard.
the tour was great fun for me primarlily because I got to hang out with Marty's Very awesome group of friends... have adventures and share jokes. Some of the music was good,too.... but for me, having only *seen* Phish for a grand total of 1 year, the music scene became kind of predictable. For instance, there's this game Marty and the others play where they make bets on "what songs Phish is gonna play this tour" and whoever gets the most guesses right wins the money. When I was told the rules included picking 20 songs that Phish would play, I snorted and said,"That's easy. Pick the last 20 songs Phish has played!" Everyone scoffed at that comment, but by the end of tour everyione realized that I was totally right. Besides, over the course of 7 (I think?) shows, they played one of their songs, Piper, a grand total of 5 times. Now, to a normal band this may not be that big a deal. But Phish has hundreds and hundreds of originals and covers in their repetiore. This isn't the Smells Like Teen Spirit, one-time-play that I'm talking about either. Songs that they have covered and covered and perfected in the past. Back in the 90's, you could see 20 shows in a row with very few repeats. But the Phish I saw was not that Phish. And --unlike my companions-- I didn't have 90's Phish to compare what I saw against. I saw a pretty good band that played the same songs over and over. They didn't play with bouncyballs in the audience or riff part of the Simpson's theme anymore. They were just a band. A good band. But pretty normal.
The final 3 shows at a festival on an obscure farm in Coventry, Vermont were absolutely disasterous. It POURED that week, turning this farm into a mud pit that cars, busses, trucks, people and small buildings were *sinking* into. Mike (the bassist... my favorite. I dunno why... but here's a good reason:
You can watch this video on www.livejournal.com
Many people turned around and went home.
Many of us entered music history. We parked our rented cars on the side of the road and hiked 10 miles uphill in the mud to the campground. People left little signs in their abandoned car windows that said things like, "We're Phucked! See you at Coventry!" There was definitly a sense of community. A pilgrammage. Mecca was ahead.
Except it was hell-- for reasons already stated, and more. I was kind of relieved when it was all over. I even remember thinking, "I'll get my boyfriend all to myself, now!" and "maybe now we can take a vacation (other than every-other-Christmas) that's not because of Phish!"
Trey said the he needed a break from the music scene because he had such a drug problem. So he broke Phish up. He turned right around an continued to tour with various other musicians--most notably Dave Matthews... who's music has been referred to as "mating call of the single male hippy"--and certainly continued on junk. This pissed off Jon Fishman (the drummer), who --reportedly--sold his drum kit, gave up music and started a dairy farm. No shit. The bassist and pianist (Paige) live a clouple miles from one another and played Chess on Thursdays.
And then Trey got busted for a very serious DUI and a shit-ton of drugs on 12/15 2006.
He found his 'higher power'. Mended the error of his ways. Gave up junk. Started praying.
Trey even told Rolling Stone that he's "give his left nut to play with those guys again." Those guys were listening. They even convincced Fishman to buy a new drumkit and start practacing.
Phish had returned.
Red Rocks in Colorado: 12 years ago was the last time Phish played this GORGEUOS venue (pictures to follow when I get home next week!) Here's a live cam of the theatre to get an idea.
www.redrocksonline.com/pages/media/webcam.html
The venue holds less than 10,000 people. That may seem like plenty for a band that doesn't have a single radio hit... but these guys just sold out a 25,000 amphitheatre. From what people have told me, this is like the Grateful Dead before they released Touch of Grey (THEIR radio hit) and if Phish ever produces anything that becomes popular, it will make the demand for this band absolutely epic. They will have to play football stadiums.
12 years ago, there were so many people who wanted to get into that show that didn't have tickets that there was rioting and storming-of-the-gates. The town was totally overwhelmed by disgruntled hippies that could not get into the venue. I wasn't there and haven't reseached it, but I do know that the scene was so bad that the town banned Phish from Playing the Red Rocks for 10 years.
When the 10 years was up, Phish had been dissolved. No one thought to renew the ban. 2 years later, Phish is back in action and they sceduled 4 shows at Red Rocks. Its a miracle that Marty,Bobo, Jaime and I even here, really. I don't remember the last price listed for a set of tickets to the shows on Stub Hub. It was literally like 30,000 dollars. I'll get the accurate number and fix this entry later.
I expected a similar scene this year and braced myself... but the cops have gotten smarter or the fans have lost their attitude (depending on who you ask) and it has been hassle-free. There are lots of folks walking the parking lot with their fingers on the air (which is the international symbol for "I need a ticket" and was started on Grateful Dead tour. It's referred to as "Looking for my miracle") but nothing extreme.
I made the same mistake this trip as I did on my honeymoon. I packed light for hot-as-balls weather. And it has rained. POURED, in fact. I come back to the hotel every night so far freezing my ass off. And as the only girl on this tour (which is cool) no one is EVER as cold as me and they roll down the windows at midnight while we'reall sitting in wet clothes.... WTF?
Whatever. My fault for packing for 50 degrees on a Denver night when I was sitting in 103 degrees in Oregon. I couldn't make myself pack thermals. Just looking at them made me faint.
Phish since the return: I have to say that I'm impressed. Some people scoff at "Phish 3.0" becaus the jams aren't as long or because they're playing new songs that no one likes (except for me, because I'm a Music Theory JUNKIE. Check out this piece of prog-rock called Time Turns Elastic on their MySpacewww.myspace.com/phish . Trey wrote it for orchestra--whose version is tear-invoking. The band still needs to interperet it for 4-piece band a little better... but I love it so much i don't care how it sounds now. If you don'tlike the beginning much, I guarentee you'll love the end. KInda like Stairway to Heaven--it gets you at the end and you wonder how it snuck up on you.).
I have actually heard *songs* that they rarely play. I have heard them play oldies that they dug up from the 90's. They also have rocked out pretty hard... especially yesterday when we were all getting absolutley freezing soaked, 1 mile or so in the air at nealy midnight. I'm not sure if they felt like they owed it to us or what, but it was greatly appreciated. I'm excited about where Phish is going and how they'll evolve into themselves.
That being said... its taken me some 6 years to realize it.... but I'm coming to terms with the fact that I don't like Jam music that much. I get distracted and bored too easily during the long-drawn out JAMS that most people get into it FOR. Marty and I have already come to an agreement about not buying me any more tickets to see moe. or Government Mule or Umphrey's McGee (other jam bands that he sometimes goes to see). I've got enough music theory in me to understand that these guys are talented musicians.... But for some reason, I just can't appreciate them.
I've always liked Phish. And I'm a HUGE Ween devotee. But Marty tells me that neither Phish or Ween are really 'jam bands' even though many of their fans will classify them as such and the musicians do just that... they jam. They don't play their songs to the note. Back in the 60's and 70's... no one thought to call the prolonged Jimi Hendrix guitar solos or the drawn-out Jim Morrison intonations or Pink Floyd's long, spacy musical bridges anything in particular. But something changed by the time the Grateful Dead came around. And since then... there's been music and there's been JAM music. I haven't a CLUE as to why.
Next year Marty said we have one vacation and it's gonna soak up all our budget. I'm thinking of doing some summer theatre. And I'm --again-- a little relieved that I won't be up 7-12 nights next year in the freezing cold, hoping that the show ends soon but feeling bad for hoping such a thing, inevitably hungry in a room full of people who seem to never eat on tour--a consistant and extremely frustrating phenomenon and in general feeling fucking old. Turns out I suck at partying. Some of these guys are twice my age with kids and they out party me. I'm always the first to feel sick (I've developed chronic heartburn this trip. WTF?) and the first to get hungry or thirsty. and the very first to fall asleep.
Its better if I stay at home. Even though that fact pisses the hell out of me