From the peanut gallery : Phish @ Camden (6/8/2009)

What is it about Jersey that makes you feel icky? The venue actually didn’t seem as gross as i remember it. Maybe because I stayed along the waterfront and didn’t linger long at night (and didn’t see any splatters of fresh blood this time around).

The climate was as pleasant as could be, it was just hot enough that the cool breeze was refreshing, but not hot enough to make Alicia sick, that’s a very small window, and wonderfully enough, it worked out that way.

Set One

* Chalk Dust Torture
* Fee
* Wolfman’s Brother
* Guyute
* My Sweet One
* 46 Days
* The Lizards
* The Wedge
* Strange Design
* Tube
* First Tube

Set Two

* Sand
* Suzy Greenberg
* Limb By Limb
* The Horse >
* Silent in the Morning
* Sugar Shack
* Character Zero >
* Tweezer

Encore

* Joy
* Bouncing Around The Room
* Run Like An Antelope >
* Tweezer Reprise

The setlist on paper ranks at about a 7/10 for me. I was pleased that we weren’t inundated with new songs, as much as I enjoy new stuff, I like my comfort songs. I would have probably been OK w/ Ocelot or Kill Devil Falls (even tho it’s a Moesha clone, I liked Moesha). I was on the fence about Time Turns Elastic being played, I thought for sure it was coming and would have to dig in for a 20 minute piece, but I suppose I would like to hear it live on one of the remaining shows of the tour. A lot of pre-break-up break-outs here in the first set. Seven of the 11 first set songs have not been played on this tour (or Hampton 09) making them songs haven heard in 5-6 years. The second set was the opposite w/ Sand being the only pre-break-up break-out.

On to my review, please keep in mind, I have not at this time gone back and listened to it objectively, these were my opinions at the time, I may have a different perspective when I go back and listen to the tapes.

Set 1:

Chalkdust – Anyone who knows me knows that this is the way I want a show started, ripping rock and roll with a great intro riff to get the show moving from the first bars. The solo seemed, not necessarily standard, but did not melt my face which occasionally does happen during the best chalkdusts. Perhaps it’s position as the opener, kinda like in baseball the leadoff hitter, just needs to setup the show, and it did so wonderfully.

Fee – Whhaaat! So awesome, last time played 7/29/03. So a huge breakout song here. I said I wasn’t going to try and be the annoying guy that calls out all the songs early and get mad geeky about the whole thing, but on the first drum hits I instinctively yelled out ‘FEE!’, because its awesome. Trey flubbing the lyrics to half the second verse was also awesome, he took it in stride and bantered briefly about it, I’ll have to listen to the tape, I couldn’t hear what he said. Nice jam out of Fee which is typically a standard scripted song.

Wolfman’s – Not always the biggest wolfman’s fan, but a very good jam in this one. I give it the ‘Song most likely to be mediocre, but actually kicked an unexpected amount of ass’ award.

Guyute – Another scripted song, so unfortunately the best you can hope for is a perfectly executed Guyute. Which it was, but not too much to comment on here.

My Sweet One – I like this song, it cute, quaint, short, sounded standard to me.

46 Days – This one is good, I guess. I don’t know why I get bored w/ it sometimes. It shows off the bands chops, but the structure of the song itself is limiting. It’s essentially a B / E blues-rock vamp that never does too much exploration. But a good song w/ a good jam and this one fit the mold.

Lizards – I normally love this song, I dunno if I just wasn’t feeling it or something. It started great and I got pretty stoked when I realized what was being played but Trey had issues w/ the lyrics and worse, it felt like trey was hesitant navigating the jam. A weak Lizards, IMO.

The Wedge – I call this as an opener every other show just because I know its lurking out there. Really good tune, Complex drum pattern and a sing-a-long verse and chorus. Fun stuff glad they brought it back and I feel lucky that I could be there to catch it.

Strange Design – A slower page song, I sat this one out. not that it wasn’t good but felt it would be a good time to recoup some energy. It’s Strange Design.

Tube – It started w/ some banter about request, I love me some banter. Then they bust into Tube. Balls out crazy. I give this the ‘Groove of the Night’ award. The jam was a high energy funky rave jam. Sick, sick, sick groove. Trey provided the perfect passing notes and just enough tension in the perfect spots to keep the energy up.

First Tube – I love me a build-up jam. And this was well executed, It’s position as set closer is a favorable one. The Trey noise loop was noticeably louder than usual, almost obnoxious, but I think that added to the fun and buildup pretty well, no complaints, I love me a first tube.

Set 2

Sand – Started like a typical Sand, but quickly it gained consciousness and self awareness and evolved into a whole new form. Great to see some true improvisation going on w/ Phish 3.0. You may have heard Sand before but you haven’t heard this one. +10 for a some killer on-the-fly jamming but a minor deduction for not coming back into the Sand hook, which would have sent the crowd into a frenzy, and they were so primed to drop back in, missed a golden opportunity.

Suzy Greenburg – This caught me off guard, I like when they blast right into this from another jam, the intro is so in-your-face that it really keeps a crowd going more than from a dead start. Suzie’s like second gear on a car, workes really well coming out of a wound out first gear but not so much from a dead stop. threw me off and don’t really recall anything special from suzy. Suzy is a bitch anyways.

Limb x Limb – I sat for this one too, I’ve seen a lot of limb x limb’s in my day so i’m kinda jaded. It didn’t help that every time they sang ‘waalllll’, the loud guy next to me sang ‘waalllll’ a half-note flat, he may as well have been flatulating.

Horse > Silent – Pretty Scripted, well executed. Love this combo. *golf-clap*

Sugar Shack – First Time Played, I knew immediately this was mike’s doing, it’s quirky and fun much like mike’s other compositions. Funky, syncopated riff with a contrasting melodic vocal, It sounds like it shouldn’t work, but it’s a very intriguing cacophony of sound. Great new tune.

Character 0 – I don’t know why I don’t like this song, It may be because its usually the set closer, and I don’t want the send to end. The jam never seems to vary too much. Trey also goes into guitar wanker mode with his wah-wah.

Tweezer – Nice surprise cuz i thought Char0 would have closed the set. However, is was not impressed w/ the jam from tweezer, stayed very static for a while then fizzled out. I’m sure anyone w/ more than a few tweezer under their belts have seen better tweezers than this.

Big Fat Encore

Joy – First time played, a slower song, standard chord progression, kinda weak compositionally, solos were underdeveloped. Alicia said the lyrics had some depressing undertones, ill have to give it another listen, that’ll probably be it.

Bouncin – I just want take a minute to say that I am not a fan of the attitude of a lot of the holier-than-thou kids that say if you like bouncin your a noob and you shouldn’t like bouncin’. It’s gotten to a point that even the noobs know that liking bouncin may get some ‘phans’ to look down their nose upon you. And its become so cliche that even saying ‘bouncin sucks’ makes me wonder if your just saying it because for some reason your supposed to not like it or you actually don’t like it for a valid reason. The old-shoolers hated it because they played the crap out of it between 90 and 94, so if its your first show and you say bouncin sucks, i just don’t get it. Back to the review: Bouncin Sucks.

Run Like an Antelope – We started heading out after Bouncin’, cuz 3 song encores are kinda rare and I knew there was a tweeprise coming too, so when i heard them bust into antelope while navigating the treacherous dancing moat, I was a little disappointed as I am a big fan of antelopes in general. We listened to it for a good bit from just outside the lawn, sounded good, but it was kinda muffled from our position and I figured it would sound better on the bootleg. Looking forward to hearing it.

Tweeprise – I expected it and usually love it, but at this time I was thoroughly enjoying a traffic free escape from jersey.

I get kinda critical when I review stuff, and may give the impression that I did not enjoy myself thoroughly, but any live phish show is balls out sick and it’s always a great time, no better place to be when phish is in your town hands down. Thanks to all the good friends at Camden, thanks to security who didn’t really pat me down that well, and thanks to phish for putting on another great experience.

* a note on bouncin – I like bouncin, its a good head bobbin’ tune and its only ever like 3-4 minutes long. I only said it sucked in the review for comedic value.