Vacant Horizon

^^^  Maybe. But I think it was more of addition by subtraction -- I'm looking at you, the former Mrs. Isbell. 

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.  

Bumping this because I'm hoping to see Alejandro for the first time this week in NOLA. Any suggestions for his best album(s) to listen to and/or pick up?

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 that bad?  :-)

Edit: I wish Trey would ramp up and actually play the solo in Rift.  That's the centerpiece of the whole damn song.

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.

Ezrin did Fuego too, and I enjoyed that. Trey has said Ezrin pushed them to go deeper, find out what makes them tick, etc. So it seems they ended up trying to make a meaningful album, which gets away from their strong suit, making meaningless music on which people can project or lose themselves. That's just part of the issue. Themes seem to be about mortality, relationships, spirituality, but they don't have anything interesting to say about it - just unintentionally goofy. 

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.

And people are upset about Clinton calling out some of Trump's supporters for their awful views?  This man has no respect for anyone.  But oh, Clinton hurt my feelings, cause she is condescending, so let's focus on that.  Jesus, I can't fathom what is going on here.   

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. 

Listened to a few recent releases of Neil's over the past week or two. "Storeytone" was darn near unlistenable. Rock/folk/whatever should never ever ever cross paths with an orchestra. Cripes, what a dog. "Earth" on the other hand is pretty darn good. I liked how he used the animal noises, especially the crow. My kids found it funny and cool; it perplexed my wife. "Love and Only Love" is quite the jam.

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 love these lists...I have to contribute (in no particular order):

 

Bon Iver - 4/11/2008, Madison, WI | Stage Door

Phish - 6/10/12, Manchester, TN | Bonnaroo [Passes, stage seating]

The Other Ones - 8/3/2002, East Troy WI | Alpine Valley

AC/DC - 3/5/1996, Milwaukee, WI | Bradley Center

Aerosmith - 8/5/1994, Milwaukee, WI | Marcus Ampitheatre [FIRST SHOW EVER]

Tom Petty / Pearl Jam - 6/29/2006, Milwaukee, WI | Marcus Ampitheatre

Foxy Shazam - 12/30/12, Chicago | Bottom Lounge

Autumn Defense - 2/21/2014, Chicago | Schubas

Bruce Hornsby - 8/12/2016, Eau Claire, WI | Eaux Claires Festival [played "The Way It Is" in its entirety]

Gov't Mule - 2/3/2010, Milwaukee, WI | The Rave

 

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!

Neil managed to reissue the lost LPs on vinyl without anyone noticing.  Now everyone can get On the Beach on LP.

 

LouieB

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

Best explained here, imo:

http://blog.phish.net/1311714510/revisiting-jamming-types

 

But the simplified version is here:

http://www.ohkeepahblog.com/2011/07/phish-jamming-types-101.html

 

Basically, Type I= standard jam , Type II delves outside a standard jam....

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.

http://www.glidemagazine.com/170229/phish-opens-slave-delivers-type-ii-crosseyed-dicks-saturday-sunday-show-recaps/

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?

Lost track at 50 in 1998. Over 100 for sure now. 

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.

Just passed my 20th anniversary of 5 consecutive nights at Red Rocks: Allmans first night, with Page sitting in, followed by 4 nights of Phish. Probably my peak concert streak.

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

I'm not a completist, don't need to hear every version of El Paso, etc. It's hard to find shortcuts to the Dead, so I love the various Grateful Dead related mixes you can find online. Here's a guy who really knows his stuff, and his tastes align with mine. He apparently had ongoing correspondence with Dick Latvala. Some really cool stuff here, and great commentary:

 

http://saveyourface.posthaven.com/

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

I watched a lot of it all weekend: Ween sets, Phish shows,  UM, MMJ, TTB, P&F, CRB, etc.

 

Besides Ween and Phish being on fire, I had never seen/listened to Tedeschi/Trucks and WHOA was I impressed. Also, very impressed with MMJ (who I barely know), and Gary Clark, Jr. 

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

I actually saw DNB at Canal St. a BUNCH of times, '98, '00, '01 (THREE TIMES!), '02, '03, and '05. They never went back. Sigh. I picked the third '01 show cause it was close to my birthday, and they did "Give Me Love" as a tribute to George (who had just passed).

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 Damn!

1). Wilco - June 24, 2011 @ Mass MOCA, Solid Sound Night 1

It POURED that night but I have never heard a set of Wilco songs than included the majority of my favorites like Hotel Arizona, Muzzle, Radio Cure, and One Wing.

 

2). Wilco - April 6, 2010 @ Orpheum, Boston

This show set a hard standard for how many songs and deep cuts I can expect to see at any show that it has almost ruined shows for me, what a wonderful night.

 

3). St. Vincent - February 27, 2014 @ House of Blues, Boston

 

4). honeyhoney - June 17, 2015 @ The Sinclair, Cambridge

 

5). Andrew Bird - May 6th, 2012 @ House of Blues. Boston

I'd love to hear Arizona and Radio Cure live!

I'm impressed by the shows people are listening. Lots of great taste. Lots of classic rock.

 

This is impossible so I'm just taking a crack at it and limit Wilco to 1 of the shows:

 

Wilco Vic Theater Kicking TV shows (all), but the best was the penultimate

Guns N' Roses 1/1/01 Vegas House of Blues (Axl's first show since 1993)

Tom Petty - Vic Theater 2003

Green Day - Vic Theater. Days before American Idiot release. Played the album straight through. 2004

Blind Melon at St Andrews Halls on Soup tour

Black Crowes at The Silo in Reading, PA on my 21st birthday (1999)

White Stripes/Brenden Benson at Auditorium Theater was cool

No Doubt at the Aragon in 2002

Rage Against the Machine Woodstock '99

Aerosmith Palace of Auburn Hills in 1999. End of the Nine Lives tour.

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.

Impossible task! But I'll try!

 

King Crimson - Vogue Theatre, Indy, April 1984

Grateful Dead - Sports Centre, Indy, 6/30/84

Black Sabbath/Blue Oyster Cult, MSA, Indy, October 1980

Frank Zappa - Vogue Theatre, Indy, August 1984

Allman Brothers, Deer Creek, August 1990

Bob Dylan, Alpine Valley, 6/18/88

Phish, Deer Creek, 8/13/96

David Nelson Band, Canal Street, Dayton, Dec 2001

String Cheese Incident/Phil Lesh & Friends, Deer Creek, 7/15/01

Santana/Jeff Beck, Deer Creek, August 1995

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.

Pink Floyd - Soldier Field (Animals/Wish you were here tour)

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 and Snowy White on guitar for that show?

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.