Phish Fall Tour 2010 continued tonight at the 1st Bank Center in Broomfield, CO where the quartet just finished its second of three shows at the new venue outside of
We’re saddened to follow the news of Solomon Burke’s passing with word that keyboardist T. Lavitz passed away unexpectedly, in his sleep on the evening of October 7th. Lavitz first
Yesterday the world lost soul legend Solomon Burke, who died at the age of 70 shortly after arriving at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, where he was scheduled to play a concert.
A couple weeks back, a writer by the name of Aaron Leitko penned an endearing article for the Washington Post that posited the idea that indie rockers are embracing the jam scene in growing numbers and that “jamband” is no longer a dirty word. The article focused primarily on musicians, but also quoted none other than Rob Mitchum for comment – one of the quintessential critics at the mighty Pitchfork – who outed himself as a longtime Phish fan.
After keeping his phanhood under wraps for the early part of his near decade-long tenure at Pitchfork, Mitchum recently came out of the closet in a big way, committing his twitter feed as a channel to review every single Phish show from 1993 to present. A perfect candidate for our Writer’s Workshop column, we invited Rob to join us for our periodic segment to share his thoughts and stories about his career as a writer, the power of Pitchfork, and of course the Phish from Vermont.
Hidden Track: Might as well start at the beginning, how did you initially get the role at Pitchfork? Was that your first real music writing gig?
Rob Mitchum: I basically got the Pitchfork writing job by writing them hate mail. I was a poor lab tech living in very expensive Washington DC, and decided a good, free way to entertain myself at night was to start writing about music. I had written a few album and concert reviews for the Michigan Daily in college, but got busy with other collegiate activities and didn’t keep it up. Faced with a lot of free time (and having just read the Richard Meltzer anthology A Whore Just Like The Rest, which opened me up to entirely new ways of writing about music), I took it up again and wrote a couple practice reviews.
At the time (late 2001), there were probably a dozen different music websites I could have sent those “clips” to, but Pitchfork was my favorite, so I started there. Thinking (as many people do) that Pitchfork was made up of elitist assholes, I figured I needed to be an elitist asshole myself to get their attention, so I wrote an e-mail that basically said, “your reviews suck now, I can do better.” Ryan Schreiber, who at the time was the entire full-time staff of the site, wrote me back and said I was welcome to prove it by writing two reviews a week for him, for free. Then I had to grudgingly admit that I was actually a nice guy and very excited to write for them. My first review was the Royal Tenenbaums soundtrack, and nearly ten years later, here we are. READ ON for more of our chat with Rob Mitchum…
A few weeks back, Conor Oberst & The Felice Brothers teamed up for a California micro-tour leading up to their appearances at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival in San Francisco.
My Morning Jacket will make a late-night TV splash this week with two talk show appearances and a live webcast. The Southern Gentlemen will visit David Letterman on Tuesday and
The first show of a Phish tour always brings higher hopes than the band can deliver. They need time to warm up, to settle in, and find their groove. To think that the four horsemen can ride together perfectly every time is just absurd. But it feels good to start off on the right foot, to watch your horse fire out of the gate with saddle blazing. You just hope he keeps up that pace for the rest of the run. It’s possible that the ACL set was Phish’s time to get the kinks out. Their reportedly un-jammed set consisted of fan-favorites that could also be easily enjoyed by the indie folk who may have chosen Phish over the Strokes on Friday night. That’s, at least, what I was hoping.
[A Playlist Featuring 50 Minutes of Video From This Show]
As Phish entered stage left to a capacity house, all 6,500 tickets sold and resold (Tickethorse, unannounced, re-released a handful of tickets Sunday morning, allowing a few lucky hopefuls their shot into the show), the initial energy could hardly be topped. Seeing a band like Phish in a room as small as the 1st Bank Center, when you’re used to seeing them in 9,000-seat or larger venues, is a lucky change of pace. The interaction between band and audience is heightened, the sound is trapped in one place and reverberates in your ears and the energy takes you over. Also, the lack of humongous jumbo-trons flanking the sides of the stage provides for a more intimate experience. We are brought back to the days of old, when Phish shows seemed like family gatherings.
Chalkdust Torture tore through the speaker system, a great song to start a show with. It’s a song we know and love, a song guaranteed to get you singing (or screaming) along, and with Trey’s wailing guitar piercing the room, it’s a song that throws you right into the action. Ocelot, as always, was a bouncy and fun tune, but because it lacked the necessary power that the room needed, had to be followed by a song like It’s Ice, a song intended to bring the energy back up, but that may be a little too intricate to have tried to tackle so early. The outro harmonies on Bouncing Around The Room were nailed and Page’s keyboard solo led Funky Bitch right on through. The AC/DC Bag>NICU>Moma Dance>Horn hit its high point during Moma Dance, with Anastasio’s guitar screaming over Mike Gordon’s bass funk. Stash started a little sloppy, the transitions were a bit off and notes were missed, but the jam grew nicely. Golgi Apparatus, to close the set, sent us to the bathrooms looking forward to what was to come, thinking that perhaps now they had gotten all the kinks out.
READ ON for more of Jonathan’s thoughts on the tour opener…
Just for a moment, lean your head back, close your eyes and let the music do all the talking. When Slash, who needs no introduction, leaned over his guitar and started going into a low down slow burn guitar instrumental just prior to ripping into his trademark “Godfather” theme, it swept over your skin like warm sunshine in an erotic shower.
Chamber Music Society, co-produced by Ms. Spalding and Gil Goldstein, embodies a sense of wholeness as the tracks have a flowing connective nature to them. Deviating from a standard rhythm, Ms. Spalding twines multiple time signatures together on “Really Very Small” which features her free floating vocals and a reoccurring bass line complemented with a tangential piano riff.
