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

[Giveaway] Double combo ! Ventura + Star Lake

by Yome NetSan 14. June 2013

The new Phish live CD boxset called Ventura came earlier thanks to Phish Inc. and it is ready to go to YOUR house !

But it might come with a friend : Star Lake 98 dvd !

For a chance to win, comment this post with the answer of this question : "Where did Phish tour during summers 1997 and 1998 for the last time to date ?"

You can Tweet this to maximize your chance :

Giveaway of the new #Phish 6 CD boxset Ventura on http://www.bouncingaroundeuroom.eu @YomeNetSan

Don't forget to include the link to your tweet in your comment.

The winner will be randomly choosen among comments and tweets made between now and Friday 21th June 13:00 (France time). If the winner wants only one of the two prices or if he choose to let someone else win, I'll pick up a second winner for the remaining prize !

This contest is open to european residents only.

All new 6-CD box set featuring two complete live shows, recorded July 30, 1997 and July 20, 1998 at Ventura County Fairgrounds in Ventura, California, a general admission dirt racetrack between the Pacific Coast Highway and Surfers Point Park. Bits of the each show's Soundchecks are included at the end of both shows.

The new box set was fully remixed from the band's multitrack masters and mastered for release. July 30, 1997 was Phish's first Ventura stop since Trey learned to surf nearby in 1993. The show featured a number of must-hear performances including a bass-driven, syncopated "Wolfman's Brother" > "Chalk Dust Torture", a deep and spacey "Stash" and "Character Zero" in Set I. A "Free" > "David Bowie" > "Cities" > "David Bowie" combination dominated the show's second half with some of the summer's biggest jams. 

On July 20, 1998 Phish again encountered Ventura's breezy oceanside. Ventura '98 was characterized by some new songs and some bustouts. The first set included a "Bathtub Gin" opener, a new arrangement of "Water In The Sky", the swinging funk of "The Moma Dance" and a "Split Open And Melt" Set I closer. Set II exploded with a bass-and-drums-fueled "Drowned" > "Makisupa Policeman" pairing that utilized Page's synth stylings to seamlessly blend rock and reggae. "Maze" led to a perfectly placed "Sea And Sand". 

[Giveaway Results] Star Lake 98 DVD

by Yome NetSan 7. December 2012

Last week, I launch a simple contest to win 2 Phish dvd Star Lake 98.

The answer to the question was quite simple : The summer tour 98 was nicknammed "Summer of covers" because the band played a brand new and unique cover each night.

You were 4 to post the correct answer in the comments here. 2 more dvd were given on my french website Gamusik with the exact same question but there was no answer at all ! So instead of choosing 2 winners among the 4 who entered here, I declare everyone's a winner ! So Robert, Dan, Maui and Marko, you'll get an email from me soon.

Meanwhile, I watched the concert last sunday and it was a pleasure to seen my 3 years old son dancing to the music ! But I must admit he was better impressed by the cover art of the boxset. He thought the bridges was for trains and he tried to put the disc in the player on his own... The disc ended stuck really deep inside the player and I had to open it completely to get it back ! Hopefully the dvd wasn't broken and he really enjoyed the menu with the cars on the bridges !

Oh yeah, the show is great with a 35 minutes Runaway Jim and a marvelous Reba ! The video quality is better than you would expect from a VHS source and it's really band focused with very few full stage view.

I hope you winners will enjoy this dvd !

 

[Unboxing and Giveaway] Star Lake 98 listening party

by Yome NetSan 30. November 2012

The new Phish dvd release is in the house ! Star Lake 98 came earlier than my regular order thanks to Beth from Phish Inc.

I'll have what might be the first listening party in Europe this weekend at home !

And like it's now an habit, I have 2 of them to give here and 2 more on my other French music and gaming webiste Gamusik.

Feel free to enter on both !

For a chance to win, comment this post with the answer of this question : "How was nicknamed the Phish Summer tour 1998 and why ?"

You can Tweet this to maximize your chance :

Unboxing and Giveaway of the new #Phish dvd Star Lake 98 on http://www.bouncingaroundeuroom.eu @YomeNetSan

Don't forget to include the link to your tweet in your comment.

The winner will be randomly choosen among comments and tweets made between now and Friday 7th December 13:00 (France time). This contest is open to european residents only.

On August 11, 1998 Phish played at Star Lake Amphitheatre in Burgettstown, Pennsylvania. This was their second visit to Star Lake of seven to-date starting in 1997 and including 2003, 2009 and 2012 shows previously released at LivePhish.com.

The Star Lake 98 show was the 20th of summer to showcase the loose, experimental vibe of a tour that began in Europe and jumped to the United States enroute to the summer’s ending Lemonwheel festival. The introduction of a never-before-played cover each night earned the tour the nickname “summer of covers” from fans and Star Lake’s contribution was a Trench Town Rock opener. Star Lake also saw the return of Time Loves A Hero which was played for the first time in a decade and segued out of a sultry Wolfman’s Brother. Julius, an extended Fee outro (during which hip Pittsburghians clapped along on the 2 and 4) and deep renditions of Maze and Reba set the stage for set II. The second set featured a super-swinging, ethereal Runaway Jim that foreshadowed 2011’s Storage Jam and an unusual pairing of Meat > Limb By Limb. Local flavor of the Commonwealth was provided by Bittersweet Motel (the title of the Phish documentary recorded during Europe ’98 dates) and Wilson, King of Prussia.

Star Lake 98 is the only full show available as video from summer 1998. The 2-DVD set was created from archival VHS videotapes of the 3-camera lawn screen feed. The audio was mixed from multi-track masters in stereo PCM and 5.1 surround. It will be released on DVD and digital audio download December 11 on JEMP Records.

Phish's Archivist, Kevin Shapiro

The Virtual Band

by Yome NetSan 23. March 2010

I heard this expression when livephish.com released the Headphone Jam during de 2004/2009 break. The idea was that Phish would become a virtual band, not performing live but gathering on some occasion to record hour long free form jam. They would still be "broken up" but still playing in a way. I thought it was a good alternative at a time when reunion wasn't even hoped.

But from my point of view, Phish has always been a virtual band. I discovered them in 1997 with a studio album dating back from 1988. As i've never heard about them, I thought they were disbanded for long. Then I became aware that they were still playing lot of shows and starts following them on the Internet.

My computer has always been, and still is, my only link with the band. Browsing several websites and blogs about the band and fans, downloading audience or soundboard recordings of almost every show, watching, at first very poor and then very good quality, videos is a everyday occupation.
I remember watching songs' name appearing in setlists. At one time, some where only names as I haven't listened to them yet. I discovered Mike's Song, for example, with Slip Stitch and Pass.

Internet is also the almost exclusive way to buy Phish related material, although I managed in 1999 and 2000 to buy somes albums at my local store in France. This was possible, I think, because the band toured sporadicly in Europe and Japan from 97 to 2000, so their releases were better distributed outside the US. So I bought a lot of Phish albums, live releases, boxsets, dvds, books, goodies, promo cds. All of that gave me a rather complete view of the band, their music and their career, but in a virtual way. There hasn't been any physical connexion because everything went thought the computer.

Oh wait, There's one ! I managed to buy the Green Sparow, Mike Gordon's last studio album, with a signed booklet. The signed booklet was added to the package along with a regular sealed CD. I understand that it's a lot easier for every one (including Mike) to have a pill of single booklets signed without having to open a cd, pull out the booklet, sign it, pull back it inside and then send it.

Phish is the only active band that have a big impact on me that I've never seen live in concert. In fact, Phish is the artist entity that had the most impact on me for my whole life. Bigger than Michael Jackson back in the 90's, who is the artist that woke up my musical tastes (and I got to see him live in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1997).
The only other band for which I would travel the globe to see live is Pink Floyd. Another dream that I will never live for obvious reasons.

I felt very broken in 2004 when I knew about the break up, again by checking my emails. I cried when I read the news and I cried again on august 16th morning when I woke up and read the setlist and reports on the Internet.
I feel almost as broken up since I took the decision last week not to go to the USA this summer. I always fear that a break up (or worst) can happen any time and that I will never see them, althought the musical and health situation for the band is very different now than in 2004. I'd never listened to the Las Vegas 2004 run since this week, and I'm glade to enjoy the music I heared in 2009.
By the way, 2009 is the only year during which I listened to every single show played by Phish, at worst 2 days after it was played. In 2004, I listened to all of the summer tour but out of order and in the following month, without regularity. I started in January to listen to every 2002/2003 shows and even if it's not 1994 or 1998, I'm enjoying it very much.

By the way, what if all that music was fake ?

I thought about it from the very beginning when I didn't really know the songs and where to find shows. I happened to download concerts from other band (Cousin Fungus, String Cheese IncidentDave Matthews Band, Greateful Dead, or other jam bands) without noticing at first it wasn't Phish. I even end up burning CDs and labelling CDs as Phish by mistake. At the end of the day, I was still enjoying all this new music, whatever the band was playing.
The idea came then that, even if Phish wasn't really playing this music, I wouldn't care as long as I'm enjoying what I listen to. I mean Phish's music could be computer generated, the band could fake playing on stage (like lips-synch with instruments), all of their improvised moment could be writen in advance. Sure I'd be pissed to have been fooled but, man the music is fucking good ! That's why I enjoy live DJ sets like Daft Punk's Alive 2007. Everything is written and planed but the music is fun.

That's what's important after all : music.
Phish can still be a virtual band playing (or faking) in a far away country, I don't care as long as I can listen every day of my life to new music from them.

Let me introduce myself

by Holger 10. December 2009

Yome was so kind to let me blog on his site.

Let me introduce myself shortly before I start to post stories about my Phish travels and experiences. My name is Holger and I am a German Phish phan who lives in Berlin since 2003.

My sister was hosting a kid from Massechusetts as part of a youth exchange back in the mid 90s. He had some Phish records in his CD collection incl. “Hoist” and “A Live One” as far as I remember. I was interested but not blown away immediately to admit. 1-2 years later I was reading the German music magazine “Musicexpress” and my attention was caught by the record of the month article – “Billy Breathes”. I almost forgot about Phish since I first heard them but I gave them a second chance. The album was gorgeous.

Only a couple of month later I saw that they play a show in Munich which was about 150 miles away from my parent’s house. I decided to drive down with a friend. The show changed my life. In the same summer they played only 60 miles away from my parents home in Nuremberg. I bought tickets for me and my friends.Later my sister and me also won 2 tickets in a competition by our local news paper because we were the only people who took part. So we brought two more friends. The show was amazing. Only one year later another Europe tour was announced. This time Germany was left out but Prague was only 130 miles away. This was my best show so far. Unfortunately we did not stay overnight – big mistake because it was the last time they came to Europe since then. Who could foresee this?


In 1999 I was very close to book a trip to Big Cypress after I got mailing with the announcement but in December ’99 I felt in love with my girlfriend so I didn’t want to leave her alone over our first NYE. Years went by and as a student I had absolutely no money to follow Phish in the US while Europe was constantly left out of their touring plans (maybe due to the increasing drug issues of Trey which could easily cause trouble if you travel accross different countries). In 2002 I got my first real job and in 2003 my girlfriend and me were flying to the gigs in East Rutherford (with special guest B.B.King) and Worcester and also to Miami for 2 out of 4 shows of the NYE run. In 2004 we attended 2 of the Las Vegas shows. We never did this for Phish alone but always planned a road trip around it with classic sight-seeing stuff. I had some of the best times of my life on these travels.

When Phish broke up I was shocked and very sad. Once the first reunion rumors came up my fanatism was back on track. I tried hard to get tickets for Hampton through the lottery and on Livenation but failed. I retried for the summer tour and had tickets in the basket but the site crashed several times. Don’t ask me how but as I wanted to see Phish again so badly I somehow manged to get tickets for Deer Creek / Noblesville and both Alpine Valley shows. The trip was only 4 days – fly in, fly out (Berlin-Amsterdam-Detroit-Chicaco + drive to Indianapolis). I was all alone and came just to see Phish. Crazy? Life saving! The shows and people I met on the trip ("Hi" to Matt & Justin!) were worth every Euro and Dollar. People around me thought this could heal my hunger but the complete opposite was the case. A total relapse: I am more addicted than ever. “Joy” is a great album and tomorrow morning I will drive to customs to finally get my box set.

In a little more then 2 weeks my girlfriend (still the same after 10 years of tolerating my passion) and me will fly to Miami to see all 4 shows of the NYE run 2009. We got lower section tickets on ticketmaster (I might tell you the whole drama of buying them in a different post) so I have no doubt that the shows will be mind blowing. I plan to blog about the trip to keep you updated. We will see what 2010 and the future brings for us Phish phans - hopefully some Europe shows after then 12 years of abstinence…

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/treyanastasio/sets/72157622845648589/

 

Some phishy european links...

by Yome NetSan 29. September 2009

TMIPH (This Month in Phish History)


Misc


More from even furthur

An acoustic radio show in a promo CD (1998-11-03)

by Yome NetSan 25. September 2009

I wanted to keep this one for a latter post about my collection but the announcement yesterday that Phish will play a full acoustic set during Festival 8 made me dust off this CD earlier.

This is a 1 track promo CD edited by Electra Records showcasing an acoustic radio show Phish did on the 3rd November 1998 in Boulder, CO. The radio is KBCO and the show is part of the "Live in Studio C" serie.

The first link with Festival 8 is that it's an acoustic set. The songs played (Driver, Wading in the Velvet Sea, Possum and Roggae) are perfect for this outfit. It's also funny to see that they choose thoose songs so that each band member can sing : Trey on Driver, Page on Vevet Sea, Mike on Possum and Fish (with the 3 others) on Roggae.

The second link takes place during the interviews between songs. The show is recorded right after the 1998 Halloween show, where the band covered the Velvet Underground's album Loaded, and a show at the E Centre in West Valley City, where they covered Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon ! As they say during the interview, the surprise for the next day show in Denver is that they will not cover an entier album !

Several FM sources have been circulated since 1998 and I remember heavily listening to the show when I was a student in Valence. But db.etree.org doesn't list the Promo CD source. I got this CD quite easily on eBay, like most of my Promo CD I'll present latter, but I can't remember when. There was a time when I bought many many CD on eBay and didn't track what I received and when.

So here is this show in mp3 320kbs direct download or Flac Torrent.

11-03-98 KBCO (97.3 FM) Studios, Boulder, CO

01 Intro
02 Driver
03 Interview
04 Wading in the Velvet Sea
05 Interview
06 Possum
07 Interview
08 Roggae
09 Outro

Acoustic.
Played between 4:30 pm and 5:00 pm for KBCO's "Studio C" series, where musicians coming to the Denver area are interviewed and perform live on the radio.

Source : Electra Records Promo CD
Promo CD > WAV > Tracking with Creative Wave Studio > Flac

While we're at it, the Facebook group about Festival 8 has released a bunch of photos of the Empire Polo Club where the festival will take place.

Let's start with the obvious ones

by Yome NetSan 22. September 2009

I'm a collector. That means when I like something, I can't help but collecting everything about it. My collections span from video games (Nintendo, WipEout, Castlevania...) to Coffee mugs, Michael Jackson and of course Phish.

I will use this little journal to showcase my Phish collection and I'll start with what I started with : the studio CDs.

I discovered Phish during summer holidays in Long Island, on the 12th July 1997. I traveled from France to USA with my best friend/sister and her own sister. During my stay, I listened to a lot of new music like Bob Marley, Les Miserables or Jimmy Buffet along with what I used to listen a lot at the time like k's Choice or the Smashing Pumpkins. I also met several fine peoples and eventualy went to a party one night in a friend's home. At some point, a guy put a song that instantly catched my ears. It had a nice groove and funny melody. After the song, they switched CDs so I could borrow the showcase organiser. Man ! Even the disc is nice to look at ! I was Junta, disc 1. I asked which song as just been played. It was Fee and I was hooked.
Some days latter (16th July to be precise), I bought the double CD and stepped onto the Phish World (I've already told this little story on my other french web site).

When I came back to France, I realised that Phish was really famous in the US but completly unknown here, so finding new CD wasn't really easy. I wasn't into file downloading yet and didn't know the taping policy of the band. I didn't even noticed they had just did 2 tours in Europe, the last european show in Spain played just the day before I heard Fee for the first time ! My only fix was my only CD.

Near Christmas 1997, I found in a shop in Geneva, Switzerland, another double CD : A Live One (not in the picture as it's a live album). I then discovered the improvisation side of Phish. I listened furiously.
The following albums I got was Rift and Hoist that my brother's girlfriend brought back for me from her USA trip during summer 1998. 

At this time, one can wonder why I didn't catch a show during Phish's Europe summer tour in 1998. There are several reasons. Beeing a student, I wasn't very rich as so couldn't go too far away for a concert. The 9 european shows this summer were in Denmark, Czech Republic and Spain. That beeing said, I also met the woman of my life this summer so my mind wasn't into going to a concert (at least without her as we went to the Paleo Festival to see k's Choice). That's the way I missed the last european Phish shows.

During my studies in Valence, France (not to be confused with Valence, Spain), while discovering at last the magic of mp3 downloading, I encountered The Story of the Ghost and Farmhouse in the local Fnac shop. Several years later, I surprisely got The Siket Disc and Billy Breathes for two consecutive christmas. My parents found them in the same (and now closed) Geneva shop where I found A Live One several years before.

Once I got free to buy stuffs from Dry Goods (aka once I earned enough money with my job), I complete my collection with The White Tape and Round Room. I guess I got Lawn Boy and A Picture of Nectar this way as I don't remember how I got them...

My last Phish studio album was of course Undermind which I pre-ordered as soon as I could and received on the 18th June 2004 (as seen here and here). I listened to it at full power in my living room, while drinking a honey flavored beer.

Soon, my collection will grow bigger with Joy as I ordered the regularvinyl and Box editions from Dry Goods and I hope to received them by the end of October.




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