, attached to 2004-08-11

Review by nichobert

nichobert It's a Divided Sky from August 2004. Draw your own conclusions on how that one's going to go.

The snare drum solo and drop into the funk in Suzy is awesome, seems like Trey is teasing Heavy Things for a minute in there. Suzy has probably the shortest version of the "Suzy Reprise Jam" that popped up a few times in the 1.0 era. It's a nice knotty groove, Mike's DWD effects kind of creep into his playing for a little bit before the jam drops out and the DWD intro starts.

The DWD jam is basically all of a piece, rhythmic yet spacey, some nice piano from Page providing the gravitational well at the center of it and Mike & Trey circling it with dramatic minimalism. The descent into Caspian is fucking gorgeous. Another reviewer characterized this 3 song sequence as a cheap crowd pleaser, but it defied convention at every (ok, the first two at least) turn. Plus I'm pretty sure that by the year 2004 we should have stopped pretending that the shows were filled with 14 year old kids who only wanted to see Bouncing and Sparkle and the other massive radio hits.

I love when Phish doesn't finish the "Big Finish" songs. Bowie, Hood, Antelope, Slave, whatever. Leave that crescendo hanging and try something different. Phish's decision to bail on the Antelope peak and just get a little weirder was a good one. There are good moments in this, especially after the Peak That Wasn't, and the -> and 2001 itself is nice and clean. Just nothing too special despite the uniqueness on paper. I can see why someone would like this 2001 a lot, if they're not into the loops and whatnot.

Second sets highlights are Waves- soaring Type I.5 improv, beautiful stuff with shades of mystery- & the Timber with the double-drum solo. FWIW, The Ghost from 7/25/97 starts with a double drum duo also doesn't it? C'est la vie.


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