Red Mosquito

wease wrote:

Jammer XCI wrote:RE: The Soundgarden Live on I5 album, around the time it came out I also downloaded something called "Before the Doors" which was a bonus CD (I think?) of sound check live songs from the same tour. Not sure if anyone's interested in this, but it's pretty awesome. It has "Never the Machine Forever", "Room a Thousand Years Wide", a cover of The Doors and "Somewhere" on it.

It’s as good or better than the album.

Pre-order bonus CD: Before the Doors: Live on I-5

1. "No Attention" (Oakland sound check) 4:16
2. "Never the Machine Forever" (Oakland sound check) 3:32
3. "Waiting for the Sun" (Oakland sound check) 4:12
4. "Room a Thousand Years Wide" (Vancouver B.C. sound check) 3:38
5. "Somewhere" (Sacramento sound check)

Phish - Hampton/Winston-Salem, Part II: Hampton, VA 11/22/97

On to night 2, which seems like a big jump in quality on this show. The band is playing peak stuff here, and the lulls seem a little less pronounced as they jammed through Mike’s Song, a great Weekapaug Groove, the start of Harry Hood transitioning between rock and reggae is really good, Billy Breathes is really stunning and then working into an epic Frankenstein > Izabella - the dual covers being a fantastic close to set 1. The second set features a long Hailey’s Comet, a strong Tweezer, and a Run Like An Antelope finale that finishes really strong. The encore of Bouncing Around the Room and a Tweezer reprise is very good. This show is very highly rated by fans but I would say it’s the first set that really wins the day here.

The Essential Performance: Frankenstein > Izabella

Up Next: Part III

Jammer XCI wrote:RE: The Soundgarden Live on I5 album, around the time it came out I also downloaded something called "Before the Doors" which was a bonus CD (I think?) of sound check live songs from the same tour. Not sure if anyone's interested in this, but it's pretty awesome. It has "Never the Machine Forever", "Room a Thousand Years Wide", a cover of The Doors and "Somewhere" on it.

im interested!! never got the chance to listen to it

Phish - Hampton/Winston-Salem ‘97, Part III: Winston-Salem, NC 11/23/97

3 shows in 3 days and ultimately each better than the last. This one in particular is high energy start to finish. The cover of My Soul to start this kicks off the energy and funky nature of this show, Theme From the Bottom dove tails off that, Black-Eyed Katy is bouncier than the earlier version from the last show, Sparkle leads into Twist, followed by a rockin Stash, NICU, then a wonky Fluffhead before closing with a rocking Character Zero - spotless first set.

Set two features fewer songs but no less energy as a 31 minute Bathtub Gin never really loses focus for long, the Down With Disease, sped up, combined with Low Rider is fantastic. The encore of Bold As Love and then Julius is so so good. This is probably my favorite of the Phish shows I have sampled so far.

The Essential Performance: Down With Disease > Low Rider > Down With Disease

Up Next: Phish - LivePhish 12/07/97

oasisfan35 wrote:

wease wrote:

Jammer XCI wrote:RE: The Soundgarden Live on I5 album, around the time it came out I also downloaded something called "Before the Doors" which was a bonus CD (I think?) of sound check live songs from the same tour. Not sure if anyone's interested in this, but it's pretty awesome. It has "Never the Machine Forever", "Room a Thousand Years Wide", a cover of The Doors and "Somewhere" on it.

It’s as good or better than the album.

Pre-order bonus CD: Before the Doors: Live on I-5

1. "No Attention" (Oakland sound check) 4:16
2. "Never the Machine Forever" (Oakland sound check) 3:32
3. "Waiting for the Sun" (Oakland sound check) 4:12
4. "Room a Thousand Years Wide" (Vancouver B.C. sound check) 3:38
5. "Somewhere" (Sacramento sound check)

Anyone have a link for the bonus disc?

Phish - LivePhish 12/07/97

The Fall ‘97 continues with this shorter gem of a show from Dayton, OH. The first set here in particular is noteworthy, as they jump out the gates with AC/DC Bag into a cover of Talking Heads’ Psycho Killer. The run from It’s Ice > Swept Away > Steep > It’s Ice is really quite a good run. Then Theme From the Bottom is killer, and goes into Tube/ Dayton Jam, and all leads to an epic Slave to the Traffic Light to finish an amazing first set. The second set is also really great, with Timber, Wolfman’s Brother, and Boogie on Reggae Woman starting things off - a tremendous Guyute is the highlight to set 2 with Possum strongly closing out the set. The show closing cover of A Day in the Life is a really great way to finish off a succinct (2 hours and 20 mins) set.

The Essential Performance: Slave to the Traffic Light

Up Next: Phish - LivePhish 12/30/97 Madison Square Garden

Phew. This is a phucking lot of Phish.

Higgs wrote:Phew. This is a phucking lot of Phish.

It is. I am at the tail end of the first of three runs. The next starts pretty soon, but I will listen to a few other things in between. I always sensed that part of the reason I liked them but never hugely got into them was because I never immersed in their live work. So this is happening now, and I have to say I am enjoying this more than I have ever enjoyed this band before. As if a new understanding emerged from this.

It got me to listen to my first ever live Phish set, so there's that too.

Higgs wrote:It got me to listen to my first ever live Phish set, so there's that too.

I deliberately am focusing on this specific era, apparently the funky Phish era. I love a jam band, but I lose patience for their tendency to completely space out. The benefit of this era is they are more focused and the jams have a beginning, middle, and end. They swerve a little but mostly build into what the band makes it rather than 15 minutes of tinkering followed by an oh yeah we have a live audience. The band would move away from the Fall ‘97 sound apparently after the second run of shows I will do here. I don’t know enough to know whether they ever got back to this level of focus, but at least here, they are really hitting the right spot.

Phish - LivePhish 12/30/97 Madison Square Garden

This final selection from the Fall ‘97 tour is part of their 1997 New Year’s run at the Garden. This one is highly regarded by fans (2nd highest rated show on that list that was linked a page back), and it’s a beast out the gate. Sneaking Sally Through the Alley is an opening statement of energy and purpose for this band, and it gets followed by a massive Taste that features some incredible interchanges. Water in the Sky feels like a recovery song before launching into a guitar frenzy combo of Stash and Chalkdust Torture, and nearly 5 songs in you can tell why fans like this one so much. The first set closes with Beatles’ cover A Day in the Life that is spot on. Set 2 opens with a 30 minute yet focused AC/DC Bag, and a long Harpua with an extended spoken story by Trey that is completely nonsensical but is the excuse for them to bust out a cover of I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) in the middle. That then segues into a killer cover of Hendrix’s Izabella, a stretched out Harry Hood that melds into a seriously amazing version of My Soul, and the set is completed with a great version of Guyute.

Going well over time, the band decides to play a 4 song encore on top of all that so they can break midnight that is all killer: Carini > Black-Eyes Katy > revisiting Sneaking Sally Through the Alley > Frankenstein (an 11 minute version that breaks into some serious psychedelic jamming).

This I think is clearly the best show of the bunch so far.

The Essential Performance: Sneaking Sally Through the Alley > Taste

Up Next: Ominous Seapods - Matinee Idols

Ominous Seapods - Matinee Idols

I initially conceptualized this pick as a way to highlight a band, obscure as they were, that sort of acted as an immediate sonic descendent of Phish. Founded in the early to mid 90s in Plattsburgh, NY and hailing as a band in Albany, NY, these guys were important to me in that they were the first jam band I really got into as a college student. I saw them during a school related fall concert and was hooked from there. They still remain, 25+ years later as the longest show I have ever seen at a local bar (they played for 4.5 hours on the night of daylight savings in the fall since they had “an extra hour”). They were awesome to me them, though after their very talented lead guitarist left the band, I lost track of them and not too long later they were disbanded.

This live album from ‘98 showcases their real appeal, a midway between the goofiness and looseness of Phish, the southern rock guitar prowess of the Allman Brothers, and the Americana vibes of the Grateful Dead. A band of all trades that could bust into some killer bluegrass one moment and big rawk the next. Every song here has a purpose and a place, though none raise the bar so much as John Henry’s Hammer, an amazing amalgam of all this. Plus in finding this again, I also discovered the companion Late Show - Free Admission, which will come next.

The Essential Performance: John Henry’s Hammer

Up Next: Ominous Seapods - Late Show Free Admission

Ominous Seapods - Late Show Free Admission

On this companion release that I never knew about until yesterday, the band comes out to a wild introduction and then bashes right into some heavy stuff with Mr. Blood - also meant to serve as a sort of intro. Taste Sensation Overload is next, one of those songs I now remember I really liked live. After a Sally Simpson cover we delve into their song Some Days, and then a Jump for Joy cover that contains a huge jam in the middle that’s pretty epic. Great band. Miss these guys.

The Essential Performance: Jump for Joy

Up Next: Portishead - Roseland NYC Live

liebzz wrote:Up Next: Portishead - Roseland NYC Live

Portishead - Roseland NYC Live

Imagine yourself on the floor at Madison Square Garden, partaking in a particularly spirited show. The band is hot, and we’re blazing through an epic encore, massive arena anthem. The band blows out their instruments and yells “thank you, Goodnight!” They take their bows, and leave the stage. The house lights go on, the crew dissembles the stage, and as you exit, non-descriptive music plays on the stage, and the message to the fans is that you don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here. That latter moment is the vision I had listening to this live album. The Sunday night after a week’s vacation. The moment you realize the drugs are wearing off.

That said, I didn’t exactly hate it. The layering of instrumentation against the turntables is actually quite nice in many spots, and the closing Strangers I really liked.

The Essential Performance: Strangers

Up Next: Phish - LivePhish 04/02/98

On the Soundgarden album, I've come across the bonus download if anyone is interested. (Blow Up the Outside World)

Been listening quite a bit this week and to disagree somewhat with liebzz, for me it's a great album from start to finish. Not a bad performance on it imo. Outside of a few seconds at the start of some tracks the crowd noise sounds perfectly normal too. Those moments are definitely an odd choice but here we are...

Helter Skelter may actually be a highlight. It's an intro to Boot Camp in a sort of matching subdued, ironic style but everyone is actually playing the shit out of it in the low end. Typical Soundgarden sense of humour I guess

Phish - LivePhish 04/02/98

The start of the second run of Phish shows/live albums is the Islands Tour in 1998. While recording what would become The Story of the Ghost, Phish played 4 shows in 4 nights: 2 in Long Island and 2 in Rhode Island - all of these sets seemingly highly regarded amongst the fans.

Night 1 here is pretty fantastic, a very elastic band really seeming to have fun and explore further into this funky Phish era. Yet mixed into bouncy renditions of these songs are jazzy and psychedelic jams as well, so a bit of everything in this 2.5 hour set. It seems a bit like they were blasting through quickly at the start, and didn’t settle into a big jam until the epic Stash which has a few little moments of cooling off but is mostly a big guitar jam. That leads into a very loud and rocking The Horn, and then the slow down with Waste into the first set coda of Chalk Dust Torture, a killer performance as in any time they play it.

Set two is really phenomenal, with a long intro into Punch You in the Eye, Birds of a Feather, Wolfman’s Brother, Sneaking Sally Through the Alley, and a long psychedelic Twist highlighting. The Guyute encore is also fantastic as usual, a song they really know how to shapeshift on quite comfortably.

The Essential Performance: Stash

Up Next: Phish - LivePhish 04/03/98

Wack Portishead review. You crusty fuck, ya didn't get it.

Ello Sailor wrote:Wack Portishead review. You crusty fuck, ya didn't get it.

Did I miss the sipping on a fine scotch in a big oak chair in the library with dark rimmed glasses crowd, but cool cause there’s turntables vibe? Do I need dark form fitting clothing and an $8 latte to truly get it?

Damn, you really thought you were cooking there. Yikes.