The Red Hot Chili Peppers will release their 10th studio album 'I'm With You' on August 29, they have now confirmed. There had been speculation that the LP, which is
Phish’s only show at the Riverbend Music Center in Cincinnati took place on September 20, 2000 The band finally returned to the shed tonight after two strong performances on Friday and Saturday.
[Photo via TravelPod]
The first set featured a number of tour debuts including Taste, Lawn Boy, Reba and Fee as well as fan favorite Mound which was performed for only the fourth time since 1996. Bathtub Gin reappeared for the first time since a stellar version at Bethel and was of the “Type I” variety according to YEMblogger/Oh Kee Pah Blog author Justin Wendt.
Set two started with Carini followed by a Tweezer that provided the improvisational meat of the concert with its “dark funk” and elements of the staccato, “plinko” jamming style that have emerged of late. Who would’ve thought that nine shows into 2011 Crosseyed and Painless would be the most played cover of the year, but that’s indeed the case as a third 2011 rendition of the Talking Heads classic was dropped this evening. Heavy rotation stalwarts Light, Boogie On Reggae Woman, Julius and You Enjoy Myself closed out the second set, while Loving Cup and Tweezer Reprise served as the encore.
We’ll have a full review of Phish’s return to Riverbend and a full set of photos soon. READ ON for tonight’s setlist and The Skinny…
Having appeared at the festival a number of times since its start, Umphrey’s McGee earned themselves the post-Mule, late night Saturday slot at Mountain Jam 2011. The Chicago-based sextet welcomed
Phish @ DTE Energy Music Center – June 3
Words: Andrew Bender
Photos: Benjamin Slayter
On Friday night, Phish made a memorable debut appearance at the venue formerly known as Pine Knob. Stepping onto stage for a rare birthday show at 7:45 PM, bassist Mike Gordon smiled at the crowd through his sunglasses as the last rays of the sun still peaked over the top of the grassy hillside filled with enthusiastic fans. The crowd roared their approval as the band launched into Wolfman’s Brother, setting the tone early for the tour’s sixth show. An exemplary Funky Bitch followed as Trey’s guitar licks opened for the birthday boy to belt out the lead vocals and Page’s piano and organ work shone in the jam following the second verse. In what may be the first time since last year’s Hershey Park performance, Mike held the incredibly long opening note on the last verse for the duration – much to the crowds delight.
[All photos by Benjamin Slayter]
Following a solid Sample in a Jar, the opening notes of NICU brought the Friday night party back to full steam as Trey worked a ‘Happy Birthday, Cactus’ into the lyrics, and ended the song with guitar teases of Happy Birthday. The rare first set Mike’s Song that followed was a great treat and the first half belonged to Gordon who then opened up an enthusiastic but restrained jam with Fishman’s snare-cymbal combos driving things. The classic transition into I Am Hydrogen and Weekapaug Groove was truly timeless. Weekapaug’s intense, fast pace kept on for the jam with the entire band meshing well.
- Phish @ DTE Energy Music Center: Setlist & The Skinny
Then, Phish demonstrated their willingness to take requests as an errant beach ball bearing the Sharpied word “TELA” landed on stage, was thrown off, and landed back. The calendar rolled back even further as the sweet opening notes of Tela and Page’s vocal lead transitioned into the final hyperkinetic jam. A rocking Chalk Dust Torture followed that spoke even more of things to come in the second set as little fault could be found in any element of the performance while stretching the Chalk Dust jam out longer than in most recent performances.
READ ON for more about last night’s Phish show…
Phish @ Blossom Music Center, Cuyahoga Falls OH
Phish returned to Blossom Music Center in Cuyahoga Falls, OH this evening for their fifth-ever performance at the Cleveland-area shed. The band continued on the improv-heavy path they went down last night once again tonight, especially during the second set.
[Photo by Joe Ringus]
The first set saw the band dust off their cover of Little Feat’s Rocket In My Pocket from Waiting for Columbus for its initial post-Halloween performance. Mike Gordon sang that one as well as Fuck Your Face, which popped up for the first time since Augusta. Foam, Guelah Papyrus and Guyute also made their 2011 debuts during an opening stanza that ended with a Run Like An Antelope which Justin Wendt of Oh Kee Pah Blog feels was “slaughtered.” The Antelope closer featured a Streets of Cairo tease and featured Trey making shout outs to his band mates and LD Chris “Toph” Kuroda.
Birds of a Feather opened the second set and was followed by Possum – the song Phish has played most since Hampton. Yet, this wasn’t a typical Possum as the group screwed around with the tempo towards the end leading towards a “meltdown” similar to the version of Boogie On from Bethel. Out of what Wendt described as “dark ambience” came the first original debut of 2011 entitled Steam. The Anastasio/Tom Marshall-penned tune had, “some elements of 46 days to it but played much slower and [more] deliberately” according to YEMblogger Josh Korin. Unlike the terribly short six-minute Piper from three nights earlier in Holmdel, the version that emerged out of sound effects used for Steam was extended nicely with improv HT’s Wade Wilby described as a “really pretty ambient jam.” Piper transitioned into Lizards before the quartet laid into a take on Allen Toussaint’s Sneakin’ Sally Through The Alley that had “heavy psychedelic overtones” according to Wilby and was “the business” in Wendt’s mind.
Out of Sally came Harry Hood and smack dab in the middle of the usual Hood jam, Phish switched up the tempo and had keyboardist Page McConnell lead them into the rare Have Mercy before finishing the Harry Hood sandwich. Character Zero, another staple of the rotation that doesn’t vary very much from version to version, wasn’t a standard take as guitarist Trey Anastasio worked in numerous Smoke On The Water teases in both his solo and the ending. Not content to end the evening with a throwaway encore, Phish delivered Slave to the Traffic Light in the bonus frame.
READ ON for tonight’s setlist and The Skinny…
Phish @ DTE Energy Music Theatre, Clarkston MI
Phish bassist Mike Gordon celebrated his birthday last night in Clarkston, MI, where his band performed at the DTE Energy Music Theatre aka Pine Knob. Yesterday marked Phish’s first outdoor show in Michigan since 1994.
After filling the PNC setlist with short versions of usually lengthy tunes, Phish broke out of their shell in Clarkston by delivering a near 25-minute Down With Disease in which the band found a groove and rode it hard. We’ll have a full review of last night’s show and a photo set soon. READ ON for the setlist and The Skinny…
Last month it was announced that The Decemberists multi-instrumentalist Jenny Conlee had been diagnosed with breast cancer, which while caught early will force Conlee miss the band’s June dates during
Buffalo Springfield kicked off their first tour in 43 years on Wednesday at the Fox Theater in Oakland, CA. The band stuck to material from their three studio albums with the exception of Neil Young’s Rockin’ In The Free World.
[Photo via T.U.B.E.]
Here’s a look at a few videos from the tour opener…
Buffalo Springfield – Hot Dusty Roads
READ ON for more Buffalo Springfield videos…
The Avett Brothers @ State Theatre – June 2
Please welcome back Eric Wyman, a longtime friend of Hidden Track, to share his thoughts on last night’s Avett Brothers show…
The Avett Brothers have arrived in New England. Sure their most recent record I & Love & You was lauded by critics and the public. Sure they appeared on national television performing at the Grammys with Bob Dylan. Sure they’re now a highly billed act on the festival circuit. But being a band with southern roots and a similar fan base, I knew they had arrived in New England when the first song found the entire crowd singing.
Previous shows in New England have been fine, but on this night there was an increased energy from the crowd. Not as if they were there to check out a band they heard was good, or because they went with some friends, but rather because they were fans themselves.
The brothers really know how to compose a setlist that rides the peaks and valleys of their musical energy to the fullest. On this night they started with a four song throwdown of high energy songs – And It Spread, Paranoia in b Flat, the bluegrass standard Blue Ridge Mountain Blues and Colorshow. The latter found the entire crowd completely engaged, screaming the callbacks to the band at full force while cellist Joe Kwon changed a string broken string on the fly. Compare this with the combo of Swept Away and When I Drink and you have both ends of the North Carolina band’s spectrum. When I Drink found the brothers, alone on stage, under a single spotlight, sharing a microphone, an environment evoking one of their greatest strengths as an acoustic duo.
Set: And It Spread, Paranoia, Blue Ridge Mt Blues, Colorshow, Swept Away, When I Drink, Tin Man, January Wedding, Shame, Go to Sleep, Sally’s Lover, Ballad of Love and Hate, The Fall, Murder in the city, HFOD, Talk on Indolence, Kick Drum Heart, InLnU
Encore: Laundry Room, Down in the Valley (Scott and Seth)
[via AvettBrothers.com Forum]
READ ON for more of Eric’s take on The Avett Brothers…
After spending half of the night creating another two playlists, I abandoned them in the wee hours in lieu of riding the week-long wave that has been the opening on Phish’s 2011 Summer Tour (in which you can read my review here, along with ample other HT links/news).
So, allow me to present to you a playlist of some choice cuts from Phish’s past, in allowing yourself to get amped for the next set of shows in the Midwest this weekend. First up, we have a scorching Funky Bitch from a venue that holds so much in the Phish lore: The Worcester Centrum. Jumping right ahead to arguably the greatest version of Bathtub Gin from the Great Went in ’97, we reach an early peak with this one that makes my head, heart and soul explode into a zillion pieces of colorful confetti. Following this up with another festival cut, Torn and Frayed from Festival 8, this is another song that I feel gets props, but not the full love it deserves: and might be my favorite song off of the Stones cover album from Halloween ’09.
Jumping on to one of the versions of Sneakin’ Sally Through the Alley that 3.0 has run with, and my once-upon a time favorite tune, The Lizards, I feel we are off to a good mid-set vibe. Dipping twice into the magic of the Great Went, I return for another soaring tune in Harry Hood, in which the band jammed under the stars, sans lights and the birth of glowstick wars as we know them were created. (Don’t throw them at the band!)
READ ON for more on this week’s mix…
