Review: Phish in Hartford, Night One
Phish began the heart of summer tour, four nights in a row in the Northeast, hitting the stage on a cool early summer night in Hartford with a classic Punch You In The Eye opener, and in hindsight the choice set the tone for the rest of the show: a nice show with no huge surprises, a few inconsistencies and some smoldering highlights.
Page was sounding particularly good on the piano here, as he would throughout the whole night, but everyone had ample chances to shine right from the start. Fishman offered up surprisingly dense drumming while a slow, lumbering Ocelot lazily lurked through the forest by night (this song seems so comfortable and warm now, not as peppy and bright as it did this time last year). Mike was slapping hard and bumping the low end on an excellent, welcome Dinner and a Movie, and carried the beginning of the jam on the following Stash to a low, still space. The movement there began to stretch and push at the boundaries, Page’s piano darting above Trey’s reserved lead which was buried in the core of the sound. But eventually the guitar grew louder and began to dominate, pulling the whole jam with it like some sonic groundswell erupting into hectic madness that literally skidded into the finale–the whole improv was really a single uphill movement.
Esther (complete with a Sing a Random Note secret language tease to which no one responded, and had less to do with the old gag than the enormous circus tent set up down the street) was another treat hearkening back to Phish’s early days, sugary rainbow pop lights coloring the stage while Esther and the puppet were adrift, and shifting to foggy purples as they fell earthward again. The truly stand out moment of the set, though, was Walk Away. Something about Hartford on a summer weeknight begs for classic rock, and the James Gang cover was immediately bristling with energy, Trey shredding in his best form. But when it seemed like the zenith was at hand, he kept pushing the music higher and higher, running over a whole series of ever greater peaks and sending the crowd into wild fits.
READ ON for more on Dan’s thoughts on Hartford…
A playful Divided Sky served as the center of the set. It wasn’t spotless, but it had an extra long pause that ended with Trey all smiles, nodding at the waves of cheers and chants, and some cool half-mirroring interplay between Trey and Page late in the song. So much of discussion (if we can call the gushing of opinions on the internet a discussion) in the early days of the tour has focused on whether Trey is playing too precisely on the compositions and not wailing enough, although there is that whole contingent who feel like he’s “whaling” too much. But in reality it’s a balance of these things: he seems to be playing nice and clean most of the time, keeping the songs at the forefront being the core strength of Phish 3.0, and thus far this summer anyway, appreciating the rest of the band, interacting with intention and leaving room for the whole group to make the sound. And of course he’s tearing it up lightning fast from time to time too.
The set ended with goofier material, Mike’s Sugar Shack and Trey’s Alaska, although the latter tune moved beyond its borders with an improv that started out echoing the earlier Ocelot and then bubbled into a big, fun summer jam. Picking up on that same energy, the band returned after set break for an organ-drenched, grooving Party Time, but shifted gears for the meat of the night: Down With Disease > Sand.
DWD, along with Ghost, gets the prize for consistently carrying the music to the most interesting and engaging places in the last year, and this one held true to form. The song itself was a charge at full blast, with different colored strobe lights on stage now, now in the audience. Fishman was again at the forefront, tearing out a powerhouse barrage, and moments later when Trey and Kuroda wrenched the song sideways, the drummer and a Clav toting Page drove off in a new direction entirely to set up a fast, frantic, noodly jam that pounced on the one over and over. A still bigger percussive explosion capped off the section, and the music that made gestures at melting into second set spaciness instead groaned into Sand, catching the crowd off guard. Mike found plenty of room to tease and toy as he drove the dense dance, his band mates slowly building up the canyon walls from below. Eventually Trey started to yell out in the night, casting about but not trying to carry the song, and instead of reaching for an apex, strummed the intro to Horse, creating an awkward mash up segue.
The following Guyute also seemed weirdly disjointed, lacking in smoothness at the changes, but the band regained its footing with an especially beautiful Farmhouse. The song opened to a quiet, natural jam that just eased out effortlessly to make something nothing short of gorgeous. The newly forged late second set ballad spot (SITM, Waste, Velvet Sea, Joy, and now Farmhouse) is a welcome addition to the map of an evening, and especially when it’s followed by a dark, red Mike’s Song, the band plowing through at full force, and then floating effortlessly into I Am Hydrogen. The Weekapaug Groove was similar to the Stash from the first set in that it was essentially one idea taking its time to take shape. Trey kept the music grounded, tweaking with the edges and working out lines before launching into a blazing flight that scorched the stage.
Certainly the Walk Away, Stash, Alaska, and DWD > Sand all count as highlights to greater or lesser degrees, but the last twenty five minutes of the show seemed particularly potent to me, hitting all the right notes and looking in from all the right angles, a really excellent introduction to what the rest of the weekend will likely hold. And as if to accentuate the point, Phish returned to the stage for my new favorite encore choice, Shine a Light, sending the crowd out with a blissful wish in its collective mind. So glad that’s the tune that’s stuck around from Halloween.
06/17/2010 The Comcast Theatre
Set 1: Punch You In the Eye, Ocelot, Dinner and a Movie, Stash, Esther, Walk Away, The Divided Sky, When the Circus Comes, Sugar Shack, Alaska > Golgi Apparatus
Set 2: Party Time > Down with Disease -> Sand -> The Horse > Silent in the Morning, Guyute, Farmhouse, Mike’s Song > I Am Hydrogen > Weekapaug Groove
Encore: Shine a Light
