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Last night, when I was packing my CDs I made the bold choice of bringing LivePhish 9 along. This show dates from 8/26/89 at the Townshend Family Park in Townshend Vermont. Something which I would normally regard as too old to really be good, but good enough to be in a collection (although not really bad but historically justified like some 84/85 stuff that I have kicking around). I'd only listened to this LP once before, as part of a marathon and shelved it because it's 89. There’s some improv, but not much interesting jamming. I also can't stand the sound of page's crappy synth-piano, and trey seems to have gone out of his way to dial in a similar tone. While I like the idea of a single group sound for the four headed monster i wish Page were able to find a better voice for his keys. I'm not sure if it's a problem with technology or finances, it doesn't matter regardless. Unfortunately, the only way to make a guitar sound like a real piano is midi - and that's cheating - so the single sound four-headed monster was killed by innovation.

I'm a lot more interested in the improv on this show with this listen. They are screwing around in profoundly interesting ways. They aren't long exploratory jams... musically it sounds like they are trying to pull a page from Zappa's playbook and see who can keep a straight face longest while they play the craziest things they can think of. I particularly appreciated Trey working the Foam theme into the Charlie Parker cover "Donna Lee". He fit that lick right over the bass line. The subsequent Funky Bitch was rife with La Grange teases and allusions, right down to arranging the vocals in a La Grange-esque fashion. BTW, this Bowie jam is the most progressive thing that I've heard yet. Dehydrated Bangor tweezer - just add 5 years.

For the purposes of calibration, I should also note that I listened to Dave Matthew’s Before these Crowded Streets in the morning and enjoyed it more than I remembered.

Background Music Phish 8/26/89 - Foam, David Bowie

4:06 PM - Also, Trey says Marco Esquandolas countless times in Antelope, making for the longest Marco Esquandolas segment that I have heard (note: I consider the IT antelope to have skipped the Marco Esquandolas segment)
posted by Ben at 3:34 PM