April 2010

Having passed on Avatar and hearing mostly meh things about Alice in Wonderland, the last time I saw a 3D Movie in the theaters Dennis Quaid was chasing a giant shark and Darryl Strawberry was a lanky rookie. So I was a little unsure of what to expect from the Phish 3D preview on April 20 in Brooklyn. Since the music has been reviewed ad nauseum (and for the record – I am in the “the Exile set was amazing, the acoustic set was cool and the rest was pretty average” camp when it comes to the music played that weekend), here is a quick rundown of the things that I liked most about the movie and a couple of things I would have done differently.

• I like how far 3D glasses have come. Gone are the cardboard versions with one blue lens and one red lens that dig in painfully behind your ears. In its place is a version that more resembles a cheap pair of sunglasses bought at a drugstore. But after two hours, I will admit they gave me a headache.

• I liked the way that 90% of the footage in the film is concert footage. A few shots of the festival and the crowd are fine but overall, show me the band and the action on the stage. For the most part, this film does just that. The footage of the band, the horns and the backup singers jammed into the practice room is fantastic. I could have watched that all night.

• I liked the way the 3D allowed you to get a real feel for the spacing on the stage. When Page leans over his keyboard during the funktastic Undermind (which by the way is by far my favorite 2009 addition to the setlist rotation) and peers over at the other side of the stage, you get a real feel for how close he is to Trey and how far
  he is from Fishman. When the band is pulled in close for the acoustic set, you can feel it. When Fishman and Gordon are locked in and looking at each other, you feel like you are right there next to them.

READ ON for more of what Luke liked and didn’t like about Phish 3D…