Best Jam: Seven Below > Story of the Ghost.  Clocking in at just under 50 minutes, The Story of the Seven Ghosts Below was far and away the most exploratory jam of the tour.  The jam opened the second set of the final night in Albany and traversed many distinct jam sections with varying textures.  Honorable Mentions: Light, Piper

Best Eats: This coveted award goes to Wolf's Biergarten.  If you are ever around the Albany area do yourself a favor and stop in.  The place is far from fancy; long picnic-style tables, peanut shells all around.  But the German beer and food are authentic and delicious. Honorable Mention: Franklin's Tower

Biggest Breakout: Uncle Pen.  This track has not been heard since 2000 (129 shows).  Honorable Mention: Two Versions of Me (65 shows)

Best Debut: Golden Age.  This 'TV on the Radio' cover got all phished up for it's debut in Albany.  A very danceable track w/ potential for huge jams.  We all can hope that this stays in the rotation.  Honorable Mention: Tomorrow's Song

Best Beverage: My bag of Franzia Merlot.  Hey, don't mock my bag wine!  Honorable Mention: Some expensive Strawberry beer that came in a tiny glass

Shoutouts - Andy who gave us copies of his Section 1 Floors.  Security for letting us in with... Gatorade!  The cabby that picked us up on a street named after a dead president.  Green Man.  The city of philadelphia for getting TTE'd so Albany wouldn't have to.

Do yourself a favor and check out Zombieland. This movie breathes some fresh air and style into a typically uninspired genre. A perfect amount of gore and humor wraps a sweet creamy filling to make a well rounded donut... erm movie. Even if the main character is a poor man's Michael Cera, Woody Harrelson is so good in this. There are some cliche zombie moments in this but it's just done so well and the cameo appearence is brilliant.

I highly recommend this one!

The weather was hot and the air was still but this is what we come to expect from mid august at Merriweather. We stubbed our good friend into the pavillion just as the roar of the crowd heralded the band's arrival on stage for the second to last show of the tour.

Set One

* Crowd Control
* Kill Devil Falls
* The Sloth
* Beauty Of A Broken Heart
* Axilla I
* Foam
* Esther
* Ha Ha Ha
* Party Time
* Tube
* Stealing Time From The Faulty Plan
* Strange Design
* Time Turns Elastic

Set 2

* Tweezer ~>
* Taste
* Alaska
* Let Me Lie
* 46 Days
* Oh! Sweet Nuthin'
* Harry Hood

Encore

* Good Times, Bad Times
* Tweezer Reprise

The setlist on paper is a 4/10. Wow, that's surprising to me. For this rating, I basically just look at the song title and give a knee-jerk yes/no on whether or not I'd like to see this song then divide by the total number of songs played. I'm not sure if I've ever seen a lower number as far as set list strength. Overall, we saw a number of breakouts in a very strange and heavy first set. I can't say that it was great. Set two and the encore caught a nice groove and went a long way towards redeeming this show as a whole.

Set One:

Crowd Control - I love this song... on the album. I like this song live and I really think if they worked on the live version (only the fifth time played) it could be a powerhouse.

Kill Devil Falls - Another great new tune, not really exploring new ground in this standard rocker but a great showcase of skill and a great vehicle to energize the crowd. A good selection in a good position (Set two, song 2)

The Sloth - A real treat for the Phish historian. Very nicely played, especially for not being seen in over six years. Trey's dirty tone and vocals really set the mood.

Beauty of a Broken Heart - Something a little more rhythmic in comparison to the sloth, but really does not grab me in any significant way.

Axilla I - At this point I am beginning to question this set, they seem to be all over the place and not really able to settle into any cohesive piece. In my opinion Axilla needs to be set up, and Beauty of a Broken Heart didn't do it. High energy and very well played but I was distracted trying to figure out the rhyme and reason behind this first set.

Foam - It seemed like trey was really struggling through this one, granted it's a very complex jam and he got it together towards the end allowing us to see another great example of Phish's eclectic reptoire.

Esther - Woo Hoo, love Esther.

Ha Ha Ha Ha - Phish is weird... This show is weirder...

Party Time - A Fishman original, apparently. A real fun tune that I expect to get a lot more play. I love that they play two fishman tunes in a row and all the lyrics between the both of them are "Ha", "Party" and "Time".

Tube - Something tells me that this wasn't the best tube of the tour (Camden?). But this definately is one of my favorite songs of the tour. Some real funky lines on a trippy sonic texture.

Stealing Time From The Faulty Plan - A slow heavy-handed rocker. Can't say I'm the biggest fan.

Strange Design - Stock version.

Time Turns Elastic - The musician in me appreciates this song, the party-boy in me doesnt want 20 minuets of elaborate composion to disrupt the flow of set. It does eventually get pretty crowd friendly towards the last section and I must admit I was pretty into it by the end.

So ends set one. How weird is that. Read through the first set setlist aloud and tell me how all over the map they were musically. Aside from Crowd Control / Kill Devil Falls, I don't see how this set list works in that arrangement

Set two

Tweezer - a.k.a. 'We're sorry about that first set'. So glad they picked a can't miss song like tweezer. Well played but nothing notable about this tweezer.

Taste - I dunno how this will hold up to other tastes but I was really digging this. Everyone sounded really tight. Probably the best taste that I can recall.

Alaska - Of the Trey solo songs Phish could have picked to incorporate into the rotation, I wouldn't have picked Alaska (Push on till the Day, please).

Let Me Lie - @!#$

46 Days - This is the jam of the night for me. the 46 days weaved seamlessly in and out of many distinct textures. They really showed off their improvisational talents in this jam. So good.

Oh! Sweet Nuthin' - Another Page tune. A nice way to calm the house down after the monster 46 Days jam.

Harry Hood - The Hoods of this tour have been amazing and constantly getting better, we'll call it the Usain Bolt of the tour. A perennial favorite, this Hood was worthy of being the final hood of an anzing summer tour that featured many unique and great Hoods.

Encore:

Good Times, Bad Times - This is how you end a show, a rippin rendition of Zepplins GTBT. Page is sick on vocals and the band is as tight as it gets.

Tweezer Reprise - Nicely done, always expected and always loved.

I hate to sound ungrateful but I think I have to give this a 6/10. Set two had some highlights but overall the show really pales in comparison to Hartford (previous night) and Saratoga (following night). An off performance will not tarnish my memories of this night tho, for a phish show is more than just the music, its about friends, old and new... and coffee... with a kick!

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.

In a nutshell: good!

I was actually really pleased w/ this album for what it was. Seventeen years have passed since the Use Your Illusion albums. I expected the general 'sound' of the album to differ and it did and in a good way. Some may argue that point, but, bottom line is it would have been really hard to keep the classic G'n'R sound for many reasons, including band member changes and the evolving state of metal / hard rock. I think it would have been a mistake to even attempt to emulate the 'old' sound. It would have drew too many unfair comparisons to iconic singles release by the early G'n'R.

The album as a whole is actually a pretty impressive showcase of songwriting prowess and production quality. The songs on this album show a wide variety of styles; ballads, blues, traditional rock, modern rock, etc. I think that you would be hard up to find someone who absolutely hates EVERY song on the album unless you don't like Axl's voice, which is probably the only constant on all these tracks. As for Axl's voice, I think it held up pretty well (or post-production vocal enhancements were executed perfectly). Axl has found a nice balance of being a lyricist and an instrument. There are some impressive vocal acrobatics on this album. For example, a vocal melody that seamlessly transitions into guitar feedback in a way that complements the track. The overall sound definitely has a lot of modern rock elements, done to good effect, but at its heart you always are reminded that it is still G'n'R. I should also note that many of the songs are pretty complex, and if you pay attention it can take you on a mini musical journey at times. Also those Buckethead riffs and solo's will grab any listener's attention.

A couple gripes, but not to say these detracted from the album. The production value is so high on this album you really lose the feel that the older G'n'R albums had that was a little more raw and unrehearsed. It also seemed that the songs we less 'hooky', no real memorable riffs that I can recall. Maybe that will change if i listen to the album a couple more times. The album as whole did not seem cohesive, moving from one songs musical idea to another without any sense of flow.

But all in all a good effort. Was it worth 17 years and $13 million? Sure why not, its not my time and money. Will I play it over and over again on my iPod? No, but I don't really do that with any album. I listened, I appreciated, I blogged and now I'm done.

Delicious!

I must have skipped class the day that we were supposed to give a book report on this, because it seems like everyone else on the planet has read this in school.

Written in 1949, the story takes place in the mid-eighties, The fictional Oceania is a totalitarian regime that seems to have successfully controlled the populace in such a way that its inhabitants have no sense of reality other than what is dictated by the state or 'Big Brother'. The story is seen through the protagonist, Winston Smith, who is sort of the 'everyman' kinda guy who struggles with his own personal reality which is in conflict with the one the party is trying to force upon him. Things end up going pretty badly for Winston and after a stay in the Ministry of Love ends up changing his views on what reality is and is not.

While I found this book very visceral and gripping, the story itself is extremely dense and complex. Orwell is relentless in his descriptions of this totalitarian state. You can really feel the intensity at some points, but on some occasions I felt it may have been too wordy, too many descriptions of the same themes. I think this book does a great job at invoking a primal feeling like hate and compassion for the characters in this novel. I am also impressed how some stories can be timeless in its nature, this is one of them. While some elements seem dated, the underlying story plays towards everyone's fear of losing inherent base freedoms.

Due to it's popularity, this book has become quite ingrained in modern culture, I must assume that I have become quite callous to the notion of 'Big Brother' entities, 'Orwellian' themes, etc. I certainly believe that had I read this book in the early fifties, I would have grabbed a baseball bat, ran to my bedroom, made a mattress fort, and donned a tin-foil hat and stayed there until I was reassured that two plus two still equaled four.

I think its interesting that even though things aren't nearly as bleak as the conditions of Oceania circa 1984. Our sense of freedom is still all relative to what we can compare it too. Torture and mind control still exists whether we want to recognise it or not even in our modern state (see MKUltra and torture practices during modern war times). Organizations still intend to shape and alter history for their benefit (who controls the media? Censorship?). Human rights are a fickle thing (suspension of Habeas Corpus? Patriot Act?). Very thought provoking and relevant even in this day and age so for that I give Eric Blair (a.k.a. Geroge Orwell) mighty round of proppz.

I was happy to finally get a copy of TAGWL. After being a long time fan of the original 'I Heard They Suck Live', I had high hopes for the new live album. The 12 year span between the two albums definitely show a maturing of musicality, onstage showmanship, and lyrical content, but just as amazing is the band's ability to stay light-hearted, bumorous, and tremendously energetic for a band of forty somethings that have been playing for over 2 decades together.

The album shows a mix of both old and new songs ranging from political to satirical to just plain absurd. The albums holds up a great tempo so that listening to the whole album in one sitting does not seem like a chore, in fact, I was quite surprised how quickly the album, coming in at just shy of an hour, went by.

IMO, the best part of this album tho, is not the music but the banter that takes place between the songs. There more than a few times throughout the album that I laughed out loud.

Anywhoo, if you like the punk genre, I don't think you would be disappointed w/ this album. I also believe that even if you aren't familiar w/ the NOFX catalog, you will still enjoy it.

On a related note, NOFX recently did a 'reality' sort of show, I'd call it more of a documentary, that was actually quite good. It aired on the FUSE network, it was called NOFX: Backstage Passport, which chronicled a world tour of seedy clubs in seedy places around the world.

Hmm, what can I say about this book. I heard of it on NPR on one of my drives from work. It's about a vampire. If I say any more the coolness factor of the book begins to drop. It's clearly written for the teen schoolgirl in all of us. Girl starts at a new school in a small town in Washington, sits next to a vampire in science class, forbidden love, etc. etc. I guess it got interesting when she became hunted but by that time I had to endure too many descriptions of Edwards smooth stone skin, gorgeous physique, and irresistible crooked smile to really care at that point. So, unless your between the ages of 14 to 16, skip this one, or at least wait for the movie coming out in late November.

On a sort of related note, I'm trying out True Blood, a vampire series on HBO from the maker of Six Feet Under, it's got potential, and the vampire lead does have some mighty smooth skin...