20 Years ago today : the debut of First Tube

by Yome NetSan 17. April 2018

 

Trey Anastasio - "8 Foot Fluorescent Tubes"

SET 1: First Tube [1], Sand[1], Mozambique[1], Mr. Meat Man, Naturally To Blame > Wighat, Silicone Fairy[1], Last Tube[1] >Higher Ground

SET 2: Tore Up, MagillaSunnyStir It UpCrossroadsCome On (Part One)Soul Power Jam > Pass the PeasDrums

[1] Debut.
This performance included costumed dancers, theatrics that included people being hoisted by cables, artists displaying various props (including Mike Gordon placing cactus props on stage), and innovative lighting that featured large fluorescent tubes. The second set was a looser jam session and included guest appearances from Dave Grippo on saxophones, James Harvey on trombone, Bobby Hackney on vocals, and Fish on drums. This show marked the debut of First Tube, Sand, Mozambique, and Last Tube. While not billed as a Trey Anastasio performance, with Russ and Tony it represents the public debut of the core TAB touring ensemble.  
 
Sources : Phish.net and Phish.com

Read the book(s)

by Yome NetSan 28. August 2016

This summer has been a quiet one. I haven't got the chance to start listening to Phish's tour before it ended neither the several vinyl records I bought since April. But I've read quite a lot and some of the books I dove into have been related to our band.

 

Fare Thee Well

After finally buying the huge Fare Thee Well 12 CD / 7 BluRay "Complete" box (still missing the Santa Clara shows, where the lyrics "Fare Thee Well" have been sung), I added to my shelves the accompagning book.

It's a beautiful coffee-table kind of book with a lot of beautiful pictures. Seriously, the production of the concerts and the talent of the photographers have done wonders. I received it in the morning of the day I flew to my vacation in Morocco, so I have left to dive deeper in those lights.

 

This has all been wonderful

 

I also bought a book I've been willing to read for a long time : David ''Zzyzx'' Steinberg's "This has all been wonderful". Everybody know for sure Zzyzx's website for Phish statistics but not as many know that the guy wrote a book about his summer 1994 tour, "the year Phish became Phish".

The book isn't very long but I haven't begun it yet. I hope it will immerge me in the 94 scene with description of the lot and the fans more than the actual music. We'll see...

 

Continue reading...

Reviews from Ireland

by Daniel 15. August 2016

Here comes a new challenger !

 
As an ardent reader and fellow European phan, I noticed that there hasn't been much content posted as of late and I offered to post some stuff, keep the train rolling.
 
I'm a phan from Waterford in the south east in Ireland and I got into Phish early 2014 from an offhand mention from an online music critic, which fascinated me, so I listened to the PYITE/Sloth opener from the NYE '95 show. It completely blew me away and was simply the greatest music I had ever heard. Since then, I've been completely hooked, buying every Phish CD, vinyl, shirt, hoodie and webcast I can afford.
 
Sadly I haven't been to a gig yet. I was going to go to MagnaBall, but I had to refund my tix because my ride couldn't get off work. I was especially annoyed that I couldn't go when I watched the webcasts, that Gin was just brilliant, and the Drive In Jam was incredible. I tried going to Dick's this year, but again plans fell through and I had to sell the tickets.
 
This year, I've done reviews of most shows since The Gorge in the comment sections of Phish.net for their respective shows and here are those of the first two San Francisco ones...

Let's spin !

by Yome NetSan 4. December 2015

After a great Fare The Well and a spectacular Summer tour, the end of the year sounded a little too quite. But that was before I received lots of good LPs to spin...

 

New Year's Eve 1995:
Live At Madison Square Garden

 

Originaly released on 3 CD in 2005, Phish's New Year's Eve 1995 show made its way again to independent record stores on 6 LPs during the Record Store Day on 18th april 2015. This huge boxset is limited to 4500 copies and costs an arm. Of course, no store in France had it and it popped pretty quickly on eBay. Due to its already hish-sky price, scalpers can't charge much more but I've been reluctant to buy one of them over here. I waited several month to see if it would appear on Dry Goods but in september, I've been told by my contact at Phish Inc. that it won't be sold there. Thanksfully, this person managed to got me one of the remaning copies and sold it to me ! I finally received it on the 20th november, around the same time as the other vinyls bellow. But surprisingly, it ended on the Phish merchandise site on 3th december ! Grab it while you can !

The boxset is rather simple but quite nice. With six 12" discs, it's huge and, of course, heavy. It's also my first and only 6 LPs boxset. My second biggest one is David Gilmour's Live in Gdansk with 5 LPs.
All pictures and texts are taken from the original CD boxset but re-arranged on six sleeves and a leaflet. A download card is also included and, if you're lucky (if you're the first one actually), you can use mine : just find it on the pictures. One strange thing : the image used by Phish in february to hint at this release (a green square with the words "Side K : you Enjoy Myself"), isn't part of the boxset at all. Actually, the only green things on it are the tittle's letters and side numbers on the outside of the box.

I haven't got the chance to isolate myself for more than three and a half hours yet to proper listen to the music. I haven't listened to the show for many year actually as I haven't been impressed the first time I heard it. Maybe my expectations were too high knowing that Rolling Stone Magazine named it one of the "Greatest Concerts of the '90s", or maybe I wasn't in a good mood...

 Continue reading...

Fare Thee Well in Europe

by Yome NetSan 10. June 2015

I'm sure you already aware that Phish's Trey Anastasio will play the five final shows of the Grateful Dead in Santa Clara and Chicago between June 27th and July 5th.

My friend Gilles from Switzerland is trying to go to the Chicago shows.

The three last shows will be webcast but apparently, the MLB stream will not be available in Europe.
They will also be broadcast in a lot of cinemas in the United States.

 

But for us in Europe, the very last show (on the 5th) will be shown in selected cinemas all over Europe on the 6th night ! Holger will attend one of the many events in Berlin.

What seems to be the complete list of cinemas can be found here. As of now, there will be 11 events in France (most by Kinepolis) and one in Switzerland but unfortunatly none anywhere near Lyon where I live...

I would love to see this in a cinema and party the night with other fans. I hope more theatres will be added to the list but the time is short.
Please make it happen !

The work of Chris Kuroda

by Yome NetSan 9. December 2014

Here are two videos showcasing the awesome work of Chris Kuroda, Phish's lighting designer. Of course, full credits goes to the band, Chris and the original tapers.

 

Phish Lighting : A look at the Pre-visualization of a song

The first one aired at setbreak, during the November 2nd webcast. I'm very surprised it hadn't surfaced before tonight like the 11/1 setbreak video about the relation of Ben & Jerry's and the Whaterwheel Foundation.

 

Chris Kuroda destroying Tweezer Reprise Chula Vista 10/25/14

The second one is a simple picture-in-picture I made from a video of Chris Kuroda at work and a view of the stage. It was during Tweezer Reprise at Chula Vista this fall (10/25/14).

 

1 Year Ago : 03.11.2013 Last day

by Yome NetSan 3. November 2014

I woke up at 8.30.

Or so I thought.

Gilles had sent me an email during the night to remind me that there was a time change today.
It was actually 7.30 !

I went back to bed for a welcomed extra hour...

When I woke up for good,  my goal was to fit all that I've bought to my luggage and I achieved it quite easily.

After checking out, I took the bus to the city. 

I had a few Souvenirs to buy, like a train toy for my son that I found at Toy'R Us.

 

I still had two hours until my appointment with Gilles so I went back to the Boardwalk.

I bought some Atlantic City T-shirts and a mug for my brother.

Then I just walked on the beach reflecting on the few days I've live here, living my dream. I ate a slice of pizza and took a coffee with more donuts. I quickly met Kevin from last evening bus, totally by chance.

Continue reading...

1 Year Ago : 02.11.2013 Bus, luck, concert, bad luck and end

by Yome NetSan 3. November 2014

We were back at our hotel in the middle of the afternoon so I've been able to rest a little more. I took the bus at 6.20PM while several other obvious Phish fans ordered a cab.

During this ride, I witnessed another thing that couldn't happen in France. At the bus stop, I began talking with this young man, Kevin, and we quickly found out we were both heading at the same place. He asked me what I like in America. I answered that I love how welcoming people are. Talking like that with a stranger is quite rare, at least in my experience. 

He had an appointment at a bar and asked me if I knew where it was. I wasn't sure and started to tell him what I knew. We were seated at the front of the bus and the driver heard our conversation. He naturally begun to explain him where the bar were from the bus stop. As he opened the door and we were going out, several people from way back inside the bus yelled at Kevin to show him the direction ! 
As the bus went away, I turn to Kevin and said : "That's the thing I love in America. This kind of spontaneous help never happens in France !"

Before entering the Boardwalk Hall,  I went to the band's hotel to leave my present. The person had a hard time understanding who it was for,  even if I told him the exact name.

As I was entering the venue, my unprecedented luck stroke me again. Between the first person who scanned my ticket and the security check, I found on the floor an un-used golden wristband. Yes, one of those thing given to the holders of GA floor tickets ! I stashed it in my pocket without further ado.

Once inside, I took the time to eat a hot dog with French fries and bought two onesie for relatives' upcoming babies at the Waterwheel Foundation table.

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1 Year Ago : 02.11.2013 More shopping

by Yome NetSan 2. November 2014

Still the same routine : woke up at 8.30, bath,  breakfast.

I emailed Gilles to set an appointment at 11.30 in town, in front of Tanger Outlet
But before our shopping adventure, I had to go back to Game Stop.

Remember I had reserved 2 limited edition controllers for the Wii U and for this, I had to subscribe to the Game Stop card ? Of course, I had explained to the seller that I was living in France and I didn't want to sign up for something that I could not use. The card costed $16 and he explained me that it would "pay itself" because of a discount I'd have on the Wii Remote. 
So I double checked what I had to pay on my second visit and even with another game that I added, there wasn't any discount. As I supposed, I should had bought a lot more things to have one. 
It wasn't the same person at the cashier but he was very understanding and refund me the price of card.

The rest of the day has been more shopping with Gilles at Tanger Outlet, BAM! (where I found Daft Punk and Grateful Dead vinyls, a Tetris card game and a Lego book) and at a nearby mall (where I bought Game Boy games, a Zelda book and a Pink Floyd vinyl).

During the ride, we passed by a highway toll where the price was $0.75... exact change. We both run into sereval of these "Exact Change" signs since when arrived in the USA. When I took the bus in Atlantic City, I had to have the exact change to pay. The highway toll didn't even had another exit in case you did not have exactly 75 cents ! It looks like we should always have a bag full of quarters with us !

Gilles also showed me the "food court". There isn't things like that in France where tables and chairs are shared between several fast food vendors around. A very cool concept where you can eat different things with your friends at the same table.

1 Year Ago : 01.11.2013 Second show in Atlantic City

by Yome NetSan 1. November 2014

After more sleep, I was on the Boardwalk at 5.45.

They had a discount at Dunkin' Donuts so I bought 6 donuts for $3 but, as we say in French, "my eyes were bigger than my stomach". It was way too much for me and I couldn't eat them all.

A policeman call me out as I passed him to ask me if he could have one. He was joking but he was very surprised when I said "Sure! Help yourself" while opening the box in front of him. He thought I was joking too but as I was dead serious, he finally took one.

I gave 2 more to fans in the line. In the chat that followed, the guy told me, after he learned where I came from, "France? Never heard of it !".

Finally, as I couldn't enter the Boardwalk Hall with the last one, I had to trash the box at the security check, after telling the security guy to eat it. I hope someone finally took it.

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