Bust Outs: A Mixed Bag of Nuggets

Anyway, this four show chunk of the fall tour exhibits some of the most raw, loose Phish out there. It’s fun and fresh and sloppy and happy and human all at once and the result is wildly entertaining. Provided below is my favorite tune from the bluegrass days, the festive sing-along, Dooley. Dooley is one of those songs just known as “Traditional,” but the Dillards, who also wrote Old Home Place, made it known. It also sticks in your head for about three days, so I apologize in advance.

There’s plenty of other highlights from the Mosier run, but this rendition of Butter Them Biscuits with Trey on fiddle is classic as is this monumental If I Could with Jeff plucking the chords on banjo while Trey assumes goosebump duties.

I used to think that no crowd cheer at any rock concert could ever rival the one when Phish played the first discernible chords of Terrapin Station at Virginia Beach. But then I recently listened to the 3/20/1986 Hampton Grateful Dead show and it goes off the charts (insert “it goes to 11” joke). After a pretty lackluster first set, Phil Bobby steps to his mic and proclaims, “Now were gonna prove that practice makes perfect” before launching into the first Box of Rain since 1973. That’s 777 shows if you’re keeping score – a lucky winner. The crowd erupts in a great moment.

Note: Be forewarned, there is a really unwelcome cut at the end of this song, but it’s the only one I could find.

After witnessing Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk dominate Sullivan Hall this past Thursday night, I hit the tubes to dig up some more goodness. What I found was this epic take on Sympathy for the Devil.

I also picked up Dumpstaphunk’s E.P. at the show and found it to be a very good funk record. Skerik appears on a couple of tracks and all of their songs really jam on the album. While there are a lot of good funk bands out there, these guys are great funk songwriters and I think they will be around for a very long time. I also really like their dedication in the E.P. It reads, “Dedicated to the memory of Joel Neville, Alice Daniels, & Ed Bradley; we know you are listening, we hope you are proud.” There’s no doubt about it, guys.

Finally, Tea Leaf Green summons up their inner Lebowski with a nice rendition of The Man in Me from their recent show in Chitown at the Park West. Trevor Garrod’s piano playing suits this song beautifully. David Lowery, who produced TLG’s recent album Raise Up the Tent, takes a noble crack at his best Bob Dylan voice before Trevor gets his back on lead vocals. There’s a nice pair of solos here as well, both on piano and guitar.