Vacant Horizon

Listened to Brighter than Creations Dark last night. That is a great, great album. It is way too long though. Shonna's songs really slow it down as do one or two Hood songs. Cooly is on fire though. I have to say, I really miss Neff. His pedal steel and lead guitar additions were excellent. I also miss Shonna's bass playing. She really had that bottom thud that suits the band, but also you can hear the strings. It's not some drone. I've not been able to hear the new bassist at all on the last two albums and live. I do prefer a defined bass sound though.

You can't go wrong with any of his albums. They are all consistently great. My favorite is Man Under the Influence.

Yeah, these last two have been great.

Watching the first night of Magnaball. Pretty good. The band does very well sticking with the funky jam stuff rather than the more composed stuff. Trey isn't so concerned with visceral rock out solos as much as basic compelling solos only he can do. Dare I say, it's akin to Garcia who focused on playing melodies with emotion rather than 'crushing it' :-) I'm planning on going to one night in Atlanta. May go two. Hoping to get a cheaper lawn seat in the lot. That's what I've done the last few times. In addition, I'm also compelled to go back and listen to Big Boat again. Can it be tha

I was just hoping for some good songs. I'm long past hoping for a Rift. Fuego and Joy had some good tunes. Maybe I'll warm up to this. Dick's night 3 was great. Never bought a show until that one. Going to second night Atlanta.

Good points. They could easily make Phish an outlet for fun in their middle age contemplation of mortality. My hunch is that they're exhausted. I know I would be if I was still playing songs from my college band at this age. Really too bad about the album though. Adding horns and strings is never a good idea IMHO. Some of the tunes would've been better without it. BTW, I knew it was gonna be a rough ride by the first song. The singing? What's up with that? The album would've been a lot more fun if they'd done Mercury and Steam.

Yes, Big Boat is pretty bad. Slick production and forgettable, MOR songs. The horns and strings don't help either. I commend them for an attempt at a longer composed song at the end, but man what a let down. What happened to these dudes? Trey can write a mid tempo pop song in his sleep. They just keep coming. The album as a trick? Mmm.

It's called delusion and a complete misunderstanding of ideology. In addition, any sort of cogent, fact-based argument tends to entrench left of center views even more. My biggest concern is the fact that election politics are but a symptom of an economic/social system that requires such delusion. Why else would the majority of us actually work to pay our employers to live on this planet? It is unfathomable. Attention is focused on who's worse while no attention is used to actually think about this lunacy.

Even the solo version of storytone is awful. Wasn't he just a little embarrassed having those professional musicians playing that dreck? One of his issues these days is writing songs too high for his voice. LA is probably my favorite Neil tune. I love all the piano tunes on TFA too.

I've seen Autumn Defense several times and they are excellent. The best was the Circles tour. The bass player for that tour was an old acquaintance and I got to chat with John a bit. They played Big Star's You Can't Have me. Awesome!

Probably my favorite NY album. One of my all time favorites too.

thanks. i thought maybe it had to do with the different eras of phish. 1.0 etc. To me it seems that 1.0 was characterized by tension release jams of high energy and visceral response from the crowd. 2.0 and 3.0 is more basic solos and type 2 stuff rather than those old Trey smiling at the crowd as he raises the energy on Maze or DWD.

I really don't get the whole type I, II jam thing. Anyone?

Trunk Show hasn't been released on DVD. Would love to see that Trans solo doc. Not sure any of these will ever come out...it's Neil etc. So is TFA coming out on CD?

I think I'm just under 80. Seeing them so much in small venues in the early days just messed up any sort of count. BTW, last night's Dick's show was excellent. Nice mix of all versions of the band...1.0 etc. Definitely an x factor show. Was't planning on it, but might hit both Atlanta shows in the fall. Love fall tours.

I seriously have no idea how many times I've seen Phish. Never saw Red Rocks though.

This is great! Thanks for the link. I'm listening to those Dark Star mixes from 72.

did you circles around the sun? was curious how they came off. neal casal must've been exhausted!

Are you from Dayton? I've played there in several bands. They always seemed to cater to the more punk stuff. Not really sure what the Dayton sound was. I don't think GBV played there much or at all. Some good band through the years. Damn Damn!

I'd love to hear Arizona and Radio Cure live! I say Petty on the Great Wide Open tour. That one is up there. Lots of theatrics and at that point the set was hit after hit.

That 96 Deercreek Run was so fun. Many good memories of hanging with my best, best friends. Last time we all were together. I swear Trey came out that night, saw/felt the crowd and immediately changed the opener to Divided. Wasn't he wearing those golden pants? Awesome. Canal Street! Played and seen many, many bands there. Incidentally, Phish played there in 89. Could you imagine that? I saw David Nelson a few times with Buddy Cage. So great. That must have been epic. I can't even imagine seeing PF playing two of my favorited albums of all time!! Did they have back up singers

Probably the first night of any Grateful Dead run at a venue. Lots of those. Several Phish shows in the 90s where time stopped. Others: Neil Young-solo 1992 Jay Farrar-solo-2003 I think Yes-2002 Gillian Welch-2003 Pat Metheny Group-1997 Allman Brothers-1995 Crosby/Nash-1991 Neil Young 2010 Rush-2011 Journey/Def Leppard-2008?-seriously, so great Eagles-2003

Empire Burlesque is pretty good.

I predict I will love this album. I loved the Ratdog album. I wonder if Bob is playing the solo on the released track. Good production and definitely 'borrowing' a bit.

Campfire is a cool name. Love watching Bob solo. His playing is just out of this world.