Phish @ Great Woods (Comcast Center), June 7
Phish returned to the venue formerly known as Great Woods – now the Comcast Center – for the 15th time this evening as the quartet’s summer tour continued in Mansfield, MA. Starting on July 21, 1992, a show where Phish opened for Santana, the venue has been a regular stop for the band outside of 1996 – 1998 and 2003.
The band opened up this evening’s show with only the fifth Llama since they reunited in Hampton. Possum reared its head for the fourth time in the tour’s nine performances thus far and didn’t reach the heights of the much buzzed about Blossom version according to Phish.net’s Scott Marks. Later in the set, Instant Karma! saw its first action since the quartet debuted the John Lennon cover on June 12, 2010 in Cuyahoga Falls, OH.
Great Woods shows are known for their one-timer covers such as Rita Clarke’s Lit O Bit in 2010, Tuesday’s Gone by Lynyrd Skynyrd and the only electric take on Boston’s Foreplay/Long Time in 1999 as well as a fun take on The Modern Lovers’ Roadrunner in 2000. This time around Al Green’s Rhymes, a song the Mike Gordon Band has performed 15 times between 2008 and 2011, got the call with Gordon handling vocals. Phish closed out the opening stanza with Divided Sky and the Joy staple Stealing Time From The Faulty Plan.
For the second set, Phish came out with Back On The Train and once again used the second slot for a song that provides an improvisational springboard with Rock and Roll filling the role this time around. Wyman noticed “distinct segmentation like [the Down With Disease] from Friday” while adding “[I] can’t compare, but very impressed.” The first Mango Song of the year followed and started a string of three 2011 debuts that also included Bug and Pebbles and Marbles. Fans hoping for another extended Halley’s Comet were disappointed as Phish quickly transitioned into Meatstick. The Run Like An Antelope closer featured Meatstick, Bug and Divided Sky teases before the group encored with a curfew-busting Suzy Greenberg.
HT’s Eric Wyman will provide a full review tomorrow, but in the meantime, READ ON for tonight’s setlist and The Skinny…
Bonnaroo Week continues on HT with a look at a song from LCD Soundsystem’s much buzzed ‘roo ’10 late-night set. Thanks to the official Bonnaroo channel on YouTube, we get
Phish @ Riverbend Music Center, June 5
Returning to Cincinnati’s Riverbend Music Center for the first time in over ten years, the band continued pushing limits, retesting recently played favorites and treating the crowd with tour debuts of rare fan favorites. Sunday’s Cincinnati show maintained the broader organizational theme of the recent tour with a more upbeat first set and more extended, darker psychedelic jamming in the second.
[All photos by Andrew Bender]
Phish opened with a solid AC/DC Bag that led straight into Punch You in the Eye, a song that Page always shines on in the song’s second half. As with the Hood > Have Mercy > Hood sandwich the night before, a number of fans were transported back in time the by the classic combo. Despite the sweltering June evening, the opening notes of Bathtub Gin was met with hoots and laughter as the invasive plinking of Page’s keys fueled the audience’s smiley, sweaty silliness. A somewhat short, albeit very tight, version of Bathtub was followed by Taste which brought out the best of everyone in its masterfully intense frenetic jam as extra flourishes of snare-cymbal and keys were answered by odd triplets from Trey while Gordon’s steadying yet mesmerizing bass lines walked the others around the jam. After Taste’s intense climax, the mellifluous sounds of a rare Lawn Boy gave the sweating crowd a welcome break. “Mike’s bass on Lawn Boy always gets me,” commented Biff the Whoopie Cushion and bass player for Florida’s New Gravity.
- Phish @ Riverbend: Setlist & The Skinny
READ ON for more on Sunday night’s Phish show…
Widespread Panic fans may be worried about the status of the band past 2011 after numerous members of the group mentioned an “indefinite hiatus” following their 25th anniversary celebrations this
We keep our eyes peeled for new tour dates announcements each week and compile them on Tuesdays for this handy column… Since debuting in August of 2007, Nickelodeon’s Yo Gabba
Paul Simon @ Webster Hall, June 6
Queens native Paul Simon played his first hometown “club gig” in quite some time last night at Manhattan’s Webster Hall and by the time his two hour-plus set was through, he had given the intimate crowd a taste of each period of his illustrious career as well as a guest spot from David Byrne that will be remembered as a highlight of 2011 for many in attendance.
Simon has never been one to just play the hits, but the soon-to-be 70-year-old performer also knows his crowd and doesn’t shy away from mixing in plenty of material from Graceland, his debut album and a few choice Simon & Garfunkel nuggets. Paul’s eight-piece band showed off their talent from the get go with an energetic take on Boy In The Bubble that would’ve got the crowd on the jammed-packed floor moving if it wasn’t “butts to nuts” down there. Webster Hall was packed to the gills for this Brooklyn Vegan-sponsored show.
Last month Simon released So Beautiful or So What, his first studio album since 2006 and in my mind his best effort since 1990’s Rhythm of the Saints. Paul offered just a handful of tunes from So Beautiful or So What scattered amongst the rest of the set in a way that never allowed a lull to develop. The playful Rewrite allowed Simon’s band of utility players to work their multi-instrumentalist magic on the many details found within the song. Nearly every member of the group filled multiple roles giving Simon so much flexibility in his live arrangements.
READ ON for more from last night’s Paul Simon show…
Psych-folk rockers Yellowbirds released a new music video for their third single The Reason. Directed and animated by Yellowbirds front man Sam Cohen, the video employs stop motion collage animation,
The back story of Brooklyn’s Turbine is a rather serendipitous one. When lead guitar player and vocalist Jeremy Hilliard moved to Manhattan from Virginia back in the late ’90s to study music and form a band, he happened to move in next door to guitarist and harmonica player Ryan Rightmire. The two musicians could literally hear each other playing music through the walls of their respective apartments, so ultimately they approached one another to jam. The pair quickly found that they shared a mutual affinity for jazz and Bob Dylan, particularly the stripped down singer/songwriter/harmonica tunes of his early career. So, they began writing tunes together and before long, they recorded their debut album as a duo in 2004.
Eventually, as the pair began exploring more improvisation and psychedelic channels, they decided to add a rhythm section and they found bassist Justin Kimmel, who literally showed up at their first audition. Shortly thereafter, Octavio Salman joined on drums, and the rest, as they say is history. Now, having two studio albums, a live release, and performances at Bonnaroo, Wakarusa, 10K Lakes, Gathering of the Vibes, and the Telluride Bluegrass Festival under their belts, the band hopes to take a big leap forward with their latest album, Blue Light City* (June 24th).
On the Feel of the Album
For the first time, the band worked closely with a professional producer in the studio setting with John Davis, who recorded The Black Keys’ Grammy winning song Tighten Up off their recent album, Brothers. Turbine felt that Davis’s gritty and psychedelic, yet modern approach was perfect for what they sought to accomplish on Blue Light City. “We had definitely never worked with a producer to this degree, and I think it’s by far the best our music has ever been presented,” Jeremy Hilliard explains. “John came to our rehearsals, so he knew the music going in, and he helped us with arrangements, the ordering of the songs, and some really key decisions to make the record sound like a whole. Take Eddy the Sea,” Hilliard continues, “the song itself is pretty rootsy, so you might think it should have some piano or something, but he chose to make it more ambient and psychedelic.”
Listen: Eddy the Sea
[audio:https://glidemag.wpengine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Eddy-the-Sea.mp3]READ ON for more about Turbine’s new album…
This album is for fans of Amos Lee, Robert Randolph and North Mississippi Allstars. Brooks Ritter’s, The War, has a southern rock and gospel feel, filled with elevating themes and a fresh sound that is good food for the soul.
Listening to Man Man’s music is taking a journey down a rabbit hole, observing a world that mirrors yours but is a little less predictable, a little less sane
