Live ones

by Yome NetSan 28. September 2009

I discovered Phish live with the bonus tracks from Junta. They where cool and funny (Icculus !!) or barly listenable (Union Federal). Anyway, when I found A Live One in the music store of the Pont de la Machine in Geneva (unfortunatly closed now), I made my parents buy it to me for Christmas without a question !

Of course, it was a life-changing experience.

I got Slip Stitch and Pass and Hampton Comes Alive from the same store in a span of maybe 2 years.

I remember listening to A Live One in front of my computer with my brother playing Final Fantasy VII by my side. Taken by the music, I used to "play the keyboard" and getting my brother upset.
I first listened to Slip Stitch and Pass in the train from Geneva to Valence, right after buying it with my birthday money. It stayed in my player for several month.
Hampton Comes Alive was also a really great experience. I listened to it a lot while playing Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 on my computer.

I bought the other boxset several years later, when they have been respectively released. Each time I could, I pre-ordered the release to grab the bonus CD that came with it. The Left Nuts CD was given with the Walnut Creek DVD.

As a side note, I must admit that I had some let down with some of the releases. While the packaging used to bee very cool (Hampton Comes Alive especially), the recent ones are very cheap-looking (Vegas 96 or At the Roxy). But more important, the sound quality is really bad in At the Roxy. The voices have a reverb effect that too annoying and just ruins the vibe ! Too bad as I was really waiting for this multi-show release.

Nevertheless, I have found memories of listening to it while making levels in Little Big Planet on my PS3. By the way, I have a project for several month to do some Phish-related levels. I could even mix that with a contest to make you win some rare Phish-related CDs, who knows...

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.

Planes again

by Yome NetSan 18. September 2009

Still planning over rumors...

I found that if I start from Geneva, I can fly to Duesseldorf for only 117,09€ with British Airways.
There is still a 1h stop-over in London (?!) but it's cheap and rather quick (4h in total).

After the Munich show, I'd have to go to Bern, Switzerland.
The cheapest flight would cost 300€+ so it's much too expensive. I think train would be the answer but it's more difficult to find time tables and price for train in Germany...

Rumored tour map

by Yome NetSan 28. August 2009

New Europe 2010 rumors

by Yome NetSan 27. August 2009

Now with dates !!

05/09/10 Dusseldorf, Germany. Burg-Wachter Castello
05/10/10 Munich, Germany. Zenith
05/12/10 Bern, Switzerland. Post Finance Arena
05/13/10 Milan, Italy. Milan Auditorium
05/15/10 Barcelona, Spain. The Palau de la Musica Catalana
05/17/10 Paris, France. Elysee Montmartre
05/18/10 Amsterdam, Netherlands. Vondelpark
05/19/10 Amsterdam, Netherlands. Vondelpark
05/21/10 London, United Kingdom. O2 Arena
05/22/10 London, United Kingdom. O2 Arena

There are 2 "sources" (or people spreading the rumor) for now :
http://welcometonow.wordpress.com/2009/08/22/phish-fall-tour-and-nye-2009/comment-page-1/#comment-142
http://www.phantasytour.com/bisco/boards_thread.cgi?threadID=2008921&page=1

This tour would be great for me as it's rather short and not too far away.
Althought the one-day Paris>Amsterdam should be a little too quick, it usually left 2 days to travel from away towns.
I'd gladly "visit" Barcelona and Amsterdam in may :)

 

[UPDATE] Don't get your hopes up it won't mean a thing...





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