The first set starts with standard renditions of My Soul and Stealing Time From The Faulty Plan before the band starts the rarely played Vultures. Vultures is a favorite of mine, but I can’t remember the last time it was played without a noticeable miscue from the band and Utica’s rendition is no different. Wolfman’s Brother features a quick vocal jam and some improvisation before an abrupt segue into the Talking Heads’ Cities that includes a lyric change to reference cheap local beer.
Then the craziness begins. Guyute, inspired by a sign held by a fan that read “Guyutica” begins and serves as the theme for the rest of the set. Phish, being the jokesters that they sometimes are, tease Guyute multiple times throughout the set and some of the instances sound forced (the heavy metal section in Wilson) while others work flawlessly (the intro to Run Like An Antelope.) In the middle section of David Bowie, a mashup is essentially created from the intro to Wilson and lyrics from Guyute, this is extremely slick and well executed. The first set also features McGrupp And The Watchful Hosemasters, another rarity on the live stage, and the performance again begs the question: What good are these well-written rarities that don’t include a jam section, if the band consistently fumbles through them? The first set closes with a very interesting Run Like An Antelope serving as a set highlight in addition to the David Bowie.
In a second set beginning with tunes that I wished were either extended longer or better played, the Split Open and Melt > Have Mercy > Piper > Split Open and Melt delivers a fantastic section of music. When Phish drops into a reprise of the Birds of a Feather jam in the middle of Piper, this is “feeling it” defined. An energetic Slave to The Traffic Light and Good Times, Bad Times serve as a solid second set closer and encore.
A final thought, in the bonus material for the Clifford Ball DVD, you see Trey Anastasio carrying on about how to him a live concert DVD needs to showcase the craziness that goes in the crowd and he wants to see lots of crowd shots rather than the band constantly. The Utica DVD has none of this, probably the least amount of crowd shots in any Phish DVD.
Though Mike Gordon sings lead on Drowned and Page McConnell sings Tela, it’s a very Trey-heavy show. It is not a showcase of recent Phish material by any means with only one song from the entire show being written in the last ten years. Despite my harping on the imperfections, I do find Live In Utica to be an accurate representation of what Phish lays down on a nightly basis, except the extensive Guyute teases.
- Previously on HT: Giveaway – Phish Super Ball IX Tickets and Live in Utica Box Sets
10 Responses
Haven’t seen the DVD but your review was SOOO BORING! Take a stance, dude.
he does take a stance John. he’s over the band blowing the changes, despite Anastasio’s plead to the cameras in Bittersweet Motel where he says “no one comes to see us hit the changes.”
nice round up dave o.
Don’t dvd’s support different viewing angles? Would be great to have a version where you can just select that view of the lights and/or switch to any of the other camera views at will.
Anyways, can’t wait to see this!!
Where is the Blu Ray?
@Mark- maybe you didn’t look hard enough… You may find a couple surprises on the Utica DVD set.
The reference to the cheap local beer is in Cities, not Wolfman’s.
D’oh! Thanks Scott, corrected.
you can do multiple camera angles with blu-ray. still blows my mind that they’re not releasing anything on blu-ray yet. they’re filming in HD, yet we’re watching in SD. no sense at all. the audio improvements need not mention.
I myself as a fan will buy any offical dvd the band puts out. I don’t care about the setlist or what was played. I want all the video I can get. Should they do Blu-ray, hell yes. As for the angles or whatever. I don’t really care, I just want more video releases.
anyone that is a good observer will notice something at the end of guyute.. that’s all im gonna say!