7-12-03 - The Gorge, George, WA

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Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2004 19:36:33 -0700 From: eric tipton Subject: Phish 7/12/03 review from Phish.net: 7/12/03 - Gorge Amphitheatre - George, Washington Set 1: Taste, Mexican Cousin, Stash, NICU, Heavy Things, Mock Song*, Army of One**, Maze Set 2: Piper, Two Versions of Me*, Tweezer***, Dogs Stole Things, Water in the Sky, Ghost, David Bowie Encore: Frankenstein, Tweezer Reprise * debut; ** first time played by Phish, Vida Blue original; *** ? The trek from Shoreline was oh so worth it. Quite the scenic drive from NorCal. We finally made it to on-site camping around 2am on 7/12. There were still lots of John Mayer/Counting crows patrons in the campgrounds and those that were still awake seemed to be plenty intoxicated. I have never seen so many people aside from a DMB show that seemed to be getting drunk for the first time in their lives. Yee haw. Within five minutes of pulling into a spot and exiting the car, LMSYEM found a little friend from the John Mayer contingent. Please feel free to ask him about his newfound "friend." LOL!!!! Atta boy Lee, we are all real proud of you son! Tony/Malcolm: why the hell did we not get a pic?! We camped w/ a plethora of phookers: leonard, marshy1243, junkbondking, jasongladys, along4theride plus the 4 of us. It was great to finally meet and party w/ Gladys (already met Rebecca last year, so good to see you again). All I can tell you is Klingons can fucking party. So junkbondking (and I think Leonard and Melissa too) went in real early and reserved a sweet spot for all of us on the terraces (thanks dudes and dudette). Tons of room to dance and get down. Many thanks for saving that you guys. What can I say? the Gorge is a spiritual place to see a show. I had been here before for the Phish '99 run. However I made the trek by myself and it just wasn't the same as being w/ a big group of friends. To the Gorge gang: this is the best experience I have had since we had our whole college "family" together at Deer Creek in 97. Everything just felt right. Soun d Cheesy? Yup. But that is the truth. Anywho, onto the show. First set: Taste: Interesting selection as the opener, I think this may well have been the first time I've seen this tune open a show. Solid version though I think Chula's is a bit better. Mexican Cousin: Good spot for it (i.e. not an encore). Smiles all around. Stash: Like Phoenix, a good Stash but nothing mind blowing here. Love Stash this early in the first set. NICU: Sweet! [blockquote] Nice evening at home that I dread even more [/blockquote] Woo hoo! No place I'd rather be than the Gorge! Heavy Things: If they are going to play it, this is the place for it - mid first set. Mock Song: Concert debut. Army of One: Phish debut, Vida Blue tune. Nice vocals by Page but not a big fan of this tune. Maze: Too dang long for my tastes. This one meandered, lost momentum and didn't have the blitzkrieg ending that I am used to. Still a good set closer, I was wondering when they would play Maze this tour. Setbreak: First set highlights: Hmmm, they were few and far between. A fun set but nothing crazy or groundbreaking. I would say no songs in the first set grabbed me. My highlight was boogeying w/ a bunch of cool people and watching the sun go down on this amazing venue. Second set: Piper: Ah the boys mean business now! Excellent opener and a nice reward for the people that traveled from near and wide. Very good Piper that did not quite match the Shoreline Piper yet still very good in it's own right. Two versions of Me: Concert debut. Very nice new song, I instantly loved the harmonizing vocals and lyrics. This would turn out to be my favorite of the new songs behind Scents. Tweezer: Now we are talking! Excellent choice after what had just preceded it. Like Chula, another relatively short, succint and to the point Tweezer. I really thought I heard some Free teases in here but no mention on Phish.net. No boring spacey jams, just the 4 fellas bringing some heat. Nice Tweezer! I have this seguing into Dogs Stole Things, Phish.net does not. Bah! > Dogs Stole Things: Man did I ever think they were going to bust out a Jesus Left Chicago here. Both intros are relatively similiar but I was a little suprised to hear Dogs emerge (not sure if I have ever seen this in a second set before). No worries, the segue I thought was sweet - very tight. I must say this is the best Dogs I have heard, be it live or on tape. Trey was just smoking on this one - damn! I was a bit in awe when this one was over so I wasn't to bummed w/ the next selection. Water in the Sky: wierd placement. Standard I thought. Ghost: Ladies and Gentleman please buckle your seatbelts. No loop intro to this Ghost. This one starts quietly as do all Ghost's w/out the delay intro and I think it caught a lot of people off guard. Crowd goes nuts as they figure it out. This Ghost is just friggin' crazy people. 18-19 minutes of no let up whatsoever. No space, no ambience. Just 4 guys up on stage doing what they know best, shredding like madmen. This Ghost will surely go down in the books as one of the best. Pure Phish at their collective best here. Bowie: Wow! Take no prisoners attitude by the band here. Like the Phoenix Bowie, nothing w/in it seems to crazy. The composed intro to the song sure was alot more tight than the botched AZ version I will tell you that much. Strong Bowie to close out on hell of a second set. This set would end up being my favorite of the 4 Washington sets, no doubt in my mind. Encore: Frankenstein: Hell yeah! No let up at all. I love this cover and what they do w/ it. This one was definitely torqueing on my reality helmet. Tweezer Reprise: Everyone knew it was coming and welcomed the opening notes to it. Nice and subdued glow stick war upfront. That's right, no one whipped any at the stage or soundboard or taper's section. The west coast knows what's up! Second set highlights: Piper, Tweezer>Dogs Stole, GHOST. The Ghost was one of the better versions I have seen. Sick. Nice show and had a wonderful time w/ good friends. The best part? We got to do it all over again the next day! Woo hoo! It was nice meeting clearerphish I believe before first set (or was it the next day?). These things tend to run together for me but very nice meeting you Patrick. The next day I met many a phooker - review tomorrow. Edit - I give this show a 7 on the Tipton-o-meter. peace, et
Date: Sat, 19 Jul 2003 01:11:42 -0700 (PDT) From: Ryan Ainsworth Subject: 7-12-03 Gorge Amp. FIrst off...The Gorge has to be the best place to see a concert. The venue and weather couldn't have been better....the show...   Taste...not the explosive opener everyone was hoping for but the jam turned pretty good in the end   Mex. Cousin...not a big fan of this song but kind of a cool song to hear live   Stash...yes!!   Trey and Page kind of took over this jam and it turned pretty vicious.   NICU...my first time hearing this..I love any song that Mike sings in   Heavy Things....this jam turned really good with Mike thumping along hard the whole time...I love the ending to this song too.   Mock Song...I'm not a big fan of the slow stuff off "Round Room" but it's nice to hear it live   Army Of One...I had no clue what this was...good vocals from Page.   Maze...the sunset during this song was unbelievable....from this song on, the rest of the weekend was sick....very, very funky Maze...great set ender   Set II Piper...great song to open a set with...Trey was kind of in his own world a lot of the second set...and the other three just kind of rode along   2 Versions Of Me....very cool song...I really like the lyrics to this...hope they play it more in the future.   Tweezer...this version was pretty standard at first then Fishman picked up the pace and the jam turned pretty funky.   Dogs Stole...I've always liked this song and was excited to hear it live.   Water...incredible!!  this was probably the longest and best version of Water that I've heard....not sure on the time but they jammed it out...great playing by Page.   Ghost....I kind of knew we'd hear a Ghost this weekend because they hadn't played it yet, and it didn't dissapoint...very funky Ghost..Mike was laying down some sick bass lines.   >Bowie...wow! I really wasn't expecting this Bowie...the jam was pretty standard with the ending getting really fast paced...and the lights kept up with the pace...Kuroda is a genius.   Encore: Frankenstein>Tweezer Reprise.....I love Frankenstein as an encore and the Tweezer Reprise was a good way to end the night.   The first set started out kind of slow but they really caught fire during the Maze and never let up the rest of the night.
Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 22:59:27 -0800 From: Alan Tenenbaum Subject: 7-12-03 - The Gorge, George, WA   1st time at the Gorgeous Gorge and catching a show on the West coast and all I can say is WOW. To tell you the truth, I've never been a phan of the outdoor summer shows primarily because I don't dig 1st sets in the sun minus the phull Kuroda kick. But this venue makes the 1st set a blast to be part of! Songs like Mexican Cousin/NICU/Heavy Things were more than a pleasure to groove too as I faced the beautiful scenery. 1st set highlight was the Maze that derailed from its course into Type II territory that was mindbending. I tell ya, my friend and I heard some Dave's Energy Guide teases coming out of this and it seemed to be the Type II Theme thrown around throughout the 2nd set (and which had been confirmed in my mind with the David Bowie set closer)! 2nd set was all good! Even the Dogs Stole Things (which had a nice segue if I recall) was rockin'! The highlight no doubt was the dank GHOST with deep funk, and type II madness.
Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 17:27:15 -0500 From: Jeff frawley Subject: 7/12/03 review 7/12/03 Gorge Amphitheatre George, Washington This couldn't have been a more pleasurable weekend! Incredible weather, great venue of course, and a scene that I found to be- in contrast to the February shows I saw- relaxed, friendly, and more about the Phish show than the different types of Molly going around (not that there wasn't still a ridiculous amount of drug talk). To the show: I usually like song-by-song reviews of shows, but to be quite honest, the first set of the first night featured few songs truly worth reviewing…kind of a surprise considering the venue the band was playing at. Strangely, Taste opened and was a great way to get things going. Other than that, there were two jams to speak of: Stash and Maze. The Stash I found to be enjoyable, but I saw many die-hard Stash fans shrugging their shoulders in indifference at set break. Too bad…I thought it was just spacey enough at some points and just rocking enough by the end…short, though. I guess Army of One is worth mentioning at least. Vida Blue tune, so obviously featured some nice Page vocals, but was bluesy and slow, and if I remember, kind of corny lyric-wise. Then there was the Maze! Great, long, intense Maze, with a never-ending string of peaks, followed by distortion, followed by more peaks to blast us into set break. The floor was going nuts! Incredible pink sunset right above the landscape as the boys left for break. As I said, the majority of the meat of this set was slow and not really worth hearing, but if you for some reason seek out the set, listen to the Maze (and maybe the Stash) over and over! Set 2: In contrast to the 1st set, this one was chalk-full of great selections and long jams…and oh yeah- GHOST!!! Piper- Very shocking, considering it had just appeared two shows ago. Trey started it up right away, and in terms of the lyric section, the shortest Piper I've ever heard. They got right to the jam, and it really took off. Some very heavy chording by Trey- reminiscent of the heavier, Trey-lead rock jamming I found to be typical of the Feb. tour. This jam was fast, loud, and seemed to get more and more so until they died down at almost 16 minutes. Good way to start the set off; kind of floated into Two Versions of Me- While it felt like the energy completely left at the start of this debut, I enjoyed this tune from start to finish. I really liked the chorus and lyric outro, some soulful singing by Trey. I wish I remembered a bit more about the jam…I thought it was beautiful yet very powerful at the same time…kind of like Scents and Subtle Sounds jam. Good lights, good follow-up to a heavy Piper. Tweezer- I went nuts…had yet to see it since the break, and I've been listening to a shitload of Tweezers lately, really wanting to hear it at the Gorge. This one was fantastic, much much funkier and more focused than the Tweezers they've played since being back (very pleasing considering that most of the Tweezers I've been listening to are '97 ones). Right at the start of the jam, Trey threw down some riffs that indicated a loud, funky version. The sound got heavier and the riffs more repetitive as the jam developed, and soon enough, we no longer had a dark funk jam, but an explosive, driving, beat led by Trey's descending blues riffs. The jam got quite intense, but quickly dropped into a steady pace, almost hinting at a Walk Away (much of this jam reminded me of the Alpine 2000 Tweezer, which of course went into WA), and then the tempo slowed to a 12 bar blues pace, and they masterfully key-changed into Dogs Stole- great transition, with little more than a slight head-turn from Trey to Mike!! The place went nuts. It had been a while, so glad to hear this one. Water in the Sky- Not the best placement, but a great jam in this one. As far as I know, the 7/10/99 H2O in the Sky is the only one to go anywhere really, and this one blew that version out of the water. Very crisp builds by Trey and fun piano work by Page…about an eight minute version, kept the intensity, but we knew we needed something more open-ended. Ghost- Thank you thank you thank you!! Again, the new Ghosts' intros rise up without warning and without loops, and I love how it takes about 5 full seconds for the crowd to realize the song's emergence, and then explode. They still can't get the re-intro (right before going into the jam) down and on the same beat, but oh well. This jam was mind-blowing! Started like the other 2 Ghosts since the break…rather straight ahead slightly faster, but this one definitely had a little more funk and swagger to it. I was enjoying it, and then started to realize the jam was really building to a climax; pretty soon, we were submerged in a screeching, full-fledged rock jam with Trey laying some ear-piercing licks over very strange synthesizer effects from Page. The tempo kept getting faster and the lights crazier and the solos higher until the whole amphitheatre felt like it was going to explode. Maybe the greatest peak I've ever heard in a Ghost, at least in terms of sheer energy and intensity (both band and crowd), and the boys kept pushing it higher and louder! After about 17 minutes, they came back down to the Ghost funk and ended the song…jaw-dropping jam and maybe the best thing I've heard them do since the hiatus. I heard some comments that it was sloppy, but I thought they kept it together even during the most ridiculous peaks, and that they crafted an unbelievable, machine-like sound out of the momentum. Bowie- Just glad we got another song after the Ghost. Not an incredible Bowie by any means…rather short and unfocused, but the lights and the visible energy of the crowd after the Ghost made this Bowie seem pretty good. Encore: Frankenstein- Fun encore, probably the first good one I've actually witnessed in some time…high energy maintained. Tweeprise- Rather short Tweeprise, but they were just going nuts…especially Trey. A mini-glow ring war on the floor, one of the few appropriate and functional ones I've ever seen, really added to close the show with a bang. Overall, a good show fueled by a very good second set…maybe the best set since they've been back, but I'm hesitant to say that because it could just be the Gorge talking. If there wasn't a show the next night, I might have been pissed that the 1st set was so blah. But man that Ghost…
Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 22:04:53 -0700 From: nathan Subject: 7-12-03 Gorge Review Very interesting show.  This was my first time at the Gorge so I wasn’t sure what to expect as far as the venue is concerned.  Great place to see a show.  The sound was amazing and the crowd was very cool, not invading each others space etc. Anyways, on with the music: First set: Rather then going song by song I’ll just give some highlights.  Trey seemed to be off in his own world at times during the first set in particular and even some in the second set.  He also seemed at a loss for notes at times.  Not to say I didn’t enjoy his playing, cause I really did, it was just weird.  “First Mock Song”  live was decent.  Not a song that evokes a lot of excitement, but “Its Just A Mock Song”.  Page showed off his vocal finesse in the debut of “Army of One”.  Wasn’t a crowd pleaser per say but is a well written song.  Maze was just SICK.  I've never heard a Maze quite like this one.  During Page’s build up, trey was throwing out all sorts of trippy weird counter points and interacting with Page.  Very Cool.  When it was Trey’s turn, things turned weird again.  It almost made it to a crescendo when Trey brought it back down and directed it into an unseen corridor of the Maze.  Eventually they made there way back into the build up, but never reached a huge crescendo.  Interesting first set.  Second Set: Started off right away into some high energy with “Piper”. Things once again got weird in a Phishy way before morphing into a new Trey song called “Two Versions of Me”.  This thought provoking song started off a bit loose, with the four locking up a bit later in, and turning it into quite a pretty song.  I enjoyed it.  Interesting note: at one point Trey turns around and says something to Jon.  Mike looks at Jon as if to ask “what did Trey want?” and then Jon shrugs as if to say “the hell if I know”.  It struck me as quite humorous.  Then into Tweezer.  Funky and fun with some interesting places as usual, which morphed into “Dog Stole Things”.  Then “Water in the Sky”.  Very tight.  I love this song.  Then “Ghost” Yea.  I love this funky song and so did the entire crowd.  Got dark and weird, not as funky as usual but altogether a fun listen.  Now what… Bowie.  YES what a way to end the set.  The tension and release crescendo was awesome as usual, with Trey really pushing the limits.  Encore: I knew there had to be a “Tweezer Reprise” but what first.  BAM. They hit us hard with the opening riffs of “Frankenstein”.  By far my favorite Phish cover.  They played it perfect as usual before going into a very powerful “Tweezer Reprise. “  The crowd was just going nuts with glow sticks flying and all.  What a way to end an amazing second set. All in all I liked the second set more then the first. I really love Trey’s new tone through his Fender combos.  Very raw.  He did seem to be in his own world a lot during the show, but this often brought the music into some interesting places.  Definitely worth getting a copy of.  Nateful
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