Thursday 15th march 2012 @ 24:00

I have waited 15 years to see Mike Gordon and now I'm about to witness my second show in two days !

Playing the last concert of this second day at Jam in the Dam, Mike had the headlining spot tonight with a late night set starting at midnight. I hoped that, without any band after them, they would stretch their set a little but it lasted exactly 90 minutes.

Starting with Sugar Shack and Can't Stand Still, I felt confident to live-tweet the setlist, thanks to the free Wifi access inside the Melkweg. But I found myself lost as soon as they went through the first cover. No, I don't know every Beatles song... So I did my best and wouldn't even care if I didn't spell the titles right.

But my first goal was to enjoy the music anyway. Since the beginning of the festival, I felt rather lucky with the songs selection (Zelda by Lotus, Meat by Mike and Birds by Keller) and Mike made me another present with Funky Bitch ! I love that tune and Scott Murawsky's guitar was ripping and jamming !

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Thursday 15th march 2012 @ 22:00

moe. was the only band at Jam in the Dam that I knew only the name. I've never heard anything from them before this show, so I wasn't expecting anything.

They played a kind of south rock with pleinty of jams all over the place. In the middle of the stage, there was Rob Derhak, the great bassist who played with ease, like if it was his every day job... well.

I really liked the different styles of the two guitarists Al Schnier (on the right) and Chuck Garvey (on the left). Chuck was more on long, sliding and ringing notes whereas Al played a lot of fast notes. They really completed each other and they both took great solos.

On the back of the stage, there were a solid rythm duo with Vinnie Amico on drums and Jim Loughlin on percussion.

During their set, Keller Williams came on stage to sing and play the guitar. I'm rather fond of those sit in, even if I don't know the song at all !

I was very impressed by the whole show and once back in France I listened to the other Jam in the Dam concert they did (see below) and they are both great too !

Make it fly !

 

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Tursday 15th march 2012 @ 20:00

Keller Williams opend the second night at Jam in the Dam in the Max Hall. I didn't really know him as I've only heard some songs and the cover of Phish's Birds of a Feather video with moe.'s guitarist Al Schnier. So I knew that he was a one-man band but I haven't realized he was that good !

He mostly played an acoustic guitar and sing funny half-improvised lyrics. But he had a bass and an electric guitars on stands and he recorded loops on a sampler to play along. He also added drums with an electronic drum machine. With all those layers of sounds, he was able to jam with himself ! It was very impressive to see and to listen because that's not just a gimmick. He can actually play very well all these instruments !

And to my surprise, he did cover Birds at the end of his set ! Nice start !

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I'm taking a temporary break from Amsterdam to New York as I'm rather slow in writing and selecting pictures...

Brooklyn Sessions, the first studio album from Everyone Orchestra has been partialy fan-funded on KickStarter last december.

The ones who helped the project to be released have received their download links for the album and the bonus tracks yesterday. Matt Bulter, the band's leader, invited us to "share this album to listeners".

I hope you'll enjoy this great music as much as I do and that it will leads you to actually buy the CD when it comes out in may !

everyoneorchestra.com

 

[EDIT] Matt Bulter asked me not to share the album to listeners while it can't be actually bought online. The album will be release later in may on services like iTunes or Bandcamp.

Wednesday 14th march 2012 @ 23:45

After the first show with Mike Gordon in Europe since 1998, I decided to skip moe. to see Dark Star Orchestra playing the Grateful Dead in the other room. The last show of this first night in Jam in the Dam was a two sets affair and I arrived during the last song of the first one.

During set break I went front row and bumped into Stephen again. We stayed until the end of the second set and it was an amazing show once again. I don't know a lot of Grateful Dead songs but I can appreciate the good jams they played, even if I got a little distracted by the camera-stealing chick !

After these tiring day and evening, I was very pleased to be back at my hotel in less than 3 minutes. Everyone was asleep of course and I managed to slip in my bed without a sound.

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Wednesday 14th march 2012 @ 22:00

If you follow this blog, you should know that I've never been to a Phish concert although I've maybe listened to all of them. Of course, I've never been to a side-project show neither. That's why I decided a year ago to come at Jam in the Dam to see Mike Gordon. And at last, after so many years, the time had come !

While the crew was setting up the stage, we got plenty of time to look at Mike's bass and pedals. It was so strange to be less than 2 meters from his instrument after watching so much video for 15 years. And then, the man came.

In pure Phish/Mike tradition, he didn't say a word and started playing Horizon Line. I was right in front of the stage but wasn't realizing I had a Phish member in front of me, again less than 2 meters away. The stage was high (like up to my shoulders) and there wasn't any space between it and the crowd. So we could actually put our stuff, like my photo camera, on the stage !

The drawback was that even if the band was very close, it was so high that it seemed distant. It was a strange feeling, almost like watching yet another DVD. Actually, we were so close that we could hear the music coming right from each amp, but the vocals were unclear.

Anyway, we could greatly appreciate the show which was mind blowing. There were covers that I knew from past Mike recording and some I didn't. It later came to my knowledge that one of the songs, You Don’t Mess Around With Jim, was a first time for Mike's band. I also got to hear my first Phish song played live : Meat. Guitarist Scott Murawski was on fire all night and the two drumer/percussionist Todd Isler and Craig Myers completed each other perfectly. Don't Do It , sung by keybordist Tom Cleary, was also a great song and Dig Furthur Down is one of my favorite. But the jam that occurred during the Idea closer really set the bar high.

 

 

But it was too short. The show seemed to end as soon as it started. It took me several minutes to gather my mind again and this day will stick in my head for years.

 

Setlist :
Horizon Line >
Voices,
Sailin’ Shoes,
Emotional Railroad,
Meat,
You Don’t Mess Around With Jim*,
Dig Further Down,
Don’t Do It,
River Niger >
Idea

* First Time Played (Jim Croce cover)

 

 

Right on time, 2 recording of this show are available here :

• http://bt.etree.org/details.php?id=553765 (Scott Bernstein, Neumann TLM-170)
• http://bt.etree.org/details.php?id=553867 (Brad McMail, CA-14)

 

 

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Wednesday 14th march 2012 @ 20:00

I've known Lotus for about three years and I listened mostly to 2008 and 2009 shows, so I knew what to expect. I can't remember how I discovered them but I know what makes me listen to them the first time : a cover of The Legend of Zelda video game themes. As I am a video game fan and avid Zelda lover, I couldn't avoid this.

The band has a bass/sampler player in the middle (Jesse Miller), a guitarist on the right (Mike Rempel), a keyboard/guitar player on the left (Luke Miller), a drummer on the back left (Mike Greenfield) and a percutionist on the back right (Chuck Morris).

 

 

They had the difficult task to be the first act of this year Jam in the Dam and to wake up the crowd. And Waow! they rocked right from the start ! Their music isn't your typical jam rock stuff. Almost everything is played live but it sounds really electronic with some sampler sounds here and there. Mostly instrumental, the only vocals are from samples played my Luke or Mike. The guitar licks and solos were very well merged in the vibrating music.

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Earlier this week, I finally found a good deal on Groupon to book an hotel in Amsterdam for mid-march. Now I know where my family and I will sleep during Jam In The Dam !

I'll choose the flight next week between the one taking of from Lyon or from Geneva...

And then, the schedule will goes like this :

• 14 March
  • Lotus
  • Mike Gordon
  • moe.
• 15 March
  • Keller Williams (of if I don't like the first 30 minutes, Lotus)
  • Dark Star Orchestra (first 2 hours only)
  • Mike Gordon
• 16 March
  • Mike Gordon
  • Dark Star Orchestra
  • (end of) moe.

 

 

 

Later tonight, I'll be watching my first Phish concert live at it happens. Yes, I'll be in my living room, chatting with Holger, during the webcast of the New Year's Eve show at Madison Square Garden, New York.

Holger has been live-facebooking during the first 3 nights. You can seen what happened and follow us tonight on EU Phans, Phish Phans in Europe page on facebook.

 

See you tonight ?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last but not least, Phish has just released today an archival show from 20 years ago exactly !

31th December 1991, Worcester Memorial Auditorium, Worcester, MA.

Here is the official announcement followed by a last minute chrstmas gift.

Phish had a busy year in 1991, signing a record deal with Elektra Records and touring coast-to-coast for a total of more than 130 shows including a fourteen-show tour with a three-piece horn section and the first unofficial Phish festival at Amy’s Farm. That summer Phish also recorded their third studio album, "A Picture Of Nectar". White Crow Studios in Burlington, Vermont provided the backdrop for Nectar’s namesake with engineering duties covered by Kevin Halpin and Jon Altschiller. While Jon was still getting his start as an engineer, he was also a fan and was among the dozen-or-so tapers at The New Aud for the band's New Year's Eve concert. Thanks to his work on Nectar, Jon was allowed to set up his microphones inside the front-of-house position. He also managed to snag a then-rare soundboard patch from FOH engineer Paul Languedoc.

Fast forward to 2010 when Jon returned to work with Phish on the road as LivePhish.com remote engineer and the seeds were sown for the release of this classic show. Twenty years later, Jon combined his audience and soundboard DAT recordings to create the matrix for The New Aud release. Mastered by Fred Kevorkian, this unique source is a proper document of the show, combining the qualities of both sources and harnessing the electricity that characterized this special performance.

For your listening and sharing pleasure...please feel free to download and share (by stream, download or broadcast) the following track from this archival show:

Tweezer>McGrupp and the Watchful Hosemasters
https://rcpt.yousendit.com/1327822594/d06bfb7f7fd5866ba5c024d40fd5c35c

Setlist:
12/31/91 Worcester Memorial Auditorium (The New Aud), Worcester, MA

Set I
1. Possum (8:25)
2. Foam (8:11)
3. Sparkle (4:33)
4. Stash (9:00)
5. The Lizards (10:03)
6. Guelah Papyrus (5:46)
7. Divided Sky (12:42)
8. Esther > (9:49)
9. Llama (4:47)
10. Golgi Apparatus (4:56)

Set II
1. Brother (6:12)
2. Bouncing Around The Room (3:43)
3. Buried Alive > (2:28)
4. Auld Lang Syne > (0:52)
5. Runaway Jim (7:37)
6. The Landlady > (3:27)
7. Reba (11:30)
8. Cavern (4:53)
9. My Sweet One > (2:28)
10. Run Like An Antelope (10:35)

Set III
1. Wilson > (6:50)
2. The Squirming Coil > (7:33)
3. Tweezer > (13:13)
4. McGrupp And The Watchful Hosemasters > (8:10)
5. Mike’s Song > (7:42)
6. I Am Hydrogen > (3:04)
7. Weekapaug Groove (7:09)

Encore:
8. Minkin Appreciation (1:26)
9. Lawn Boy > (2:30)
10. Rocky Top > (2:36)
11. Tweezer Reprise (3:16)

 

What about the gift ? I have two livephish.com codes to download a free show of your choice. You can use it to download tonight NYE show, of the one from 20 years ago, or any show you want ! Just leave a message here with your new year's resolution and the two first will win.

 

Happy New Year !

Here are the results of the contest started last week to win the new Phish 7 CDs boxset Hampton Winston/Salem '97.

There has been 2 comments and only 1 tweet.

 

Here are the list of the people who entered the contest and the random number choosen by random.org

 

And the winner is... Stashrock48 !

 

Here is a video of Hally's Comet with the audio coming from the boxset.

Everyone Orchestra is a unusual band.

First of all, its structure is always changing. It's actually a kind of Super Band with each member coming from other bands and none of them is permanent. There are regulars like John Fishman (ring any bell ?) or Marco Benevento and new comers like Jennifer Hartswick (Trey Anastasio Band). it's really an orchestra for everyone to come and play. The only central axis is Matt Butler, leader and creator... whow doesn't play any instrument.

Everybody Orchestra's music can be defined as conducted improvisation. Indeed, Matt Butler conduct the band with gestures, jumps and boards where he writes words, feelings, moods to lead the music. Needless to say, each concert is different as there's no specific "song".

After 10 years of shows, Matt Butler wanred to make a studio album. But how could one make a studio recording of a concert-only, full improvisation, ever changing line-up act ? Simply by re-creating the same feeling in studio for a one of a kind recording : improvisation.

So he gathered the following line-up : Jon Fishman (Phish), Jeff Coffin (Dave Matthews Band), Al Schnier (moe.), Reed Mathis (Tea Leaf Green), Steve Kimock, Marco Benevento, Jennifer Hartswick (Trey Anastasio Band), Jamie Masefield (Jazz Mandolin Project) et Jans Ingber (The Motet). Session lasted two days and a preview of the result can be viewed bellow.

Now, in order to finish producing the album, a project has been set up on kickstarter.com to collect the needed 15.000$. Anyone can participate with any amount to help the cause and your credit card will be charge only if the goal is reached on January 6th 2012.
But it's more than just giving money. Depending on how much you gave, you'll receive a download of the album before it's released, a signed CD, all of that + bonus tracks, all of that + a signed poster or picture... It goes on to concert tickets, a meeting with the band or you nammed as producer of the album !
So even if you can't afford to have Matt Butler conduct your own band in your living room, it's like you pre-order the album while helping it happens ! It's open to everyone...

Anyway, have a listen to a preview of the session and let's participate here :
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/178370795/everyone-orchestra-first-studio-album-brooklyn-ses