5-19-00 -- The Key Club, Los Angeles, CA

Date: Sat, 20 May 2000 10:49:00 -0700
From: The Colfax [email protected]
To: Daniel W. Schar [email protected]
Subject: Key Club Review
 
KEY CLUB REVIEW by the Merry Prankster Colfax
 
Wow. I'd sum up the whole experience with the single word, Joy.  When I was
at the Key Club a year ago seeing Disco Biscuits, my friend remarked
"wouldn't it be soooo cool to see Phish here?" I laughed pretty hard at him.
Then our dreams were a reality.
 
Key Club is a tiny little venue that holds between 500-650 downstairs.  It
has a balcony/dining area upstairs (somewhat similar to House of Blooze),
but that was reserved for VIPs.  The boys came out and did a soundcheck of
Funky Bitch and then My Soul.  It was nice to hear a Mike song, since we
knew we'd get a lot of Farmhouse in which he doesn't sing.  Trey was into
this far more than the others, but their performance for the most part
suggested that no matter when or where they play, they can just slip into a
groove and rock down.
 
The vibe inside was incredible.  A kid named Dennis McCarty handed out a
million of his homemade flyers. I'll try to get a copy to Dan at Phish.net
so he can post it.  It's really nice.  Some other kids outside handed out
discs of their favorite bootleg or just gave good vibes to those who didn't
have tickets, but in the end, everyone who showed up got to go inside.
KUDOS to the KEY CLUB and their staff who were super kind through this whole
process.
 
Supreme dorks Mark and Brian (well, one is MUCH worse than the other, but I
only know him as ''the bigger of the two'') came out and told some really
lame jokes and tried to poke some fun at us I think. We didn't care.  The
boys came out and started with a kicking JIBOO.  The radio cut to break
after the song and Trey started being a total goofball.  I think he was
showing off a little for the radio/industry peeps on just how silly we'll
be.  He was leading the crowd in a "rah rahing" of  his hands on each
shoulder and going "WOOO" on his right shoulder.  Mike and Fish were doing
this weird spacey jam during it and Trey remarked that they had just written
a WOO song.
 
Forgive me if this isn't totally in order as I took the morning opportunity
to get really dumb.  I think it was at this point that M&B came back to the
show with Birds of a Feather (the tease into the show).  Trey pretended like
he was playing it and he put the guitar thru his legs and was rocking out.
He was putting both hands over the guitar and playing it like a piano.  He
was totally all goofed up.  Someone gave Page a birthday gift and he seemed
to enjoy it even tho it looked like a big slab of fruitcake.  Someone
referred to Dave Letterman's comment about "this is Fish's song" and Fish
stood up with a HUGE smile.  Trey remarked that "we're not a band named
Mike."
 
They went into FIRST TUBE and Trey did his little two step shuffle that he
does during this.  Solid First Tube.  Trey got the crowd jumping up and down
and I took the opportunity to bend down to the floor and just feel the whole
building just totally shaking. I think M&B even remarked on this later.
While M&B figured out their shit, the boys just ranomly played MAGILLA.
What a rare treat.
 
Question and Answer stuff.  I don't remember them a whole lot, but for the
most part, they were all pretty intelligent, well-thought out questions -
unlike the idiot fans in Bittersweet Motel.  Why did Page shave off his
goat-tee? Fish said for his wife and Page said no, it was just time to. Trey
led us in a bullshit chant.  Are the boys enjoying the West Coast now that
they're seeing more and more of it? Some other questions I can't remember.
 
Then came a really good, nice jammed BUG.  More Q&A and then they rounded
out the radio show with HEAVY THINGS.  Straightforward.  THe radio show
ended and M&B said that Phish is now going to play 48 hours straight and
Trey piped in with "NAKED!!!"
 
They started with a really nice TWIST and then they were lost for a song to
play.  Someone in front of Trey piped up with what I can only assume was for
the hometown line.  TUBE!!! everyone went nuts during "A freeway in Los
Angeles."  They went into PIPER and I'm not sure what happened here.  Things
just started weird with this song and it started to get really muddy.  I
think Mike started daydreaming a little bit and suddenly he was lost.  He
turned around to look at Fish and Fish mouthed the bass line to him.  They
got it back together to make a wonderful transition to LLAMA.  Then they
closed with a really intimate sounding BRIAN & ROBERT.
 
Oh, I know one thing I forgot.  Someone asked Brad Sands (Road Manager) what
he thought of his job and he supposedly remarked that "there are some
roadies with bigger egos than the guys on stage."  The boys got a big kick
out of it and nodded and Brad raised his hand and waved.  Really funny
quote.  Everyone milled around waiting for an encore, but were eventually
shooed.
 
About 20 of us stayed, having heard thru an Electra connection that they
were doing another spot for a Denver and LA radio station (103.1 in LA
KABC? - which will air next week. check their website for details).  This
was incredible.  Only a handful of us and nearly everyone else was industry
(as opposed to any of us who may be industry, but are phans first).
 
After an hour's wait, they came back out.  Fishman was eating a piece of
pizza into the microphone and then he threw out his crust. what a spoiled
rockstar. hee hee.  They started with HEAVY THINGS and again, it was
straightforward.  I dig this song.  It's just a good straight summer poppy
song, but it's nice to hear and it's not that long.   THen they went into
GET BACK ON THE TRAIN.  THis song was incredible.  Cactus had like a 3
minute solo in it and with him having been pretty quiet all day I was diggin
it. He was slappin his bass so hard and it was just really, really
excellent.  The DJ for 103.1 came out periodically and asked some questions
that I don't remember much, but Trey and Fish were giving goofy answers like
they didn't even listen to the questions.  Trey has recently been remarking
about NAPSTER and it's so obvious that he's totally misinformed,  it's a
little embarassing.  I mean, someone probably just explained it to him wrong
and he trusted them.  I bet it's Brad.  He seems to like to cause
trouble -which is actually kind of cool, except when Trey looks dumb talking
about shit he doesn't really know about.  After the show, I heard a guy with
Phish even remark that "he needs to set Trey straight on this napster thing"
so maybe it'll get ironed out.  They closed out with FIRST TUBE and trey did
the two step shuffle again.  I asked him afterward what he called his two
step shuffle and he just laughed and asked if I liked it.  Said hi really
quick to everyone in the band, shook their hands and thanked them for coming
to LA.  They quickly went outside and hopped in a limo and headed for LAX.
I hope they tear the roof off of Radio City.
 
And now a little editorial comment:  There are a lot of phans bitching about
this whole Radio thing, well, that's all well and fine.  It'd be nice to
preserve a nice scene, but I know that I love Phish because they take
chances.  Not just musical chances, but they are constantly reaching out and
trying new things.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it sounds like "they're
pissing in our ears."  If this is something they want to try, who are we to
question their judgement?  I'd suggest that they've done things their way
for long enough that we should just sit back and trust them.  Besides,
they're still playing excellent music and that's what it's all about.  It's
comparable to when they play that really muddy, noisy crap in the middle of
say an antelope or fluffhead and just when you're like "I can't stand this
anymore" they bring it home and you're like "OH YEAH!!!!!"  Phish know what
they're doing.  Relax.  That's my take.  Colfax loves ya baby.

Date: Sat, 20 May 2000 11:13:17 -0700 (PDT)
From: Michael T. Hillson [email protected]
To: Daniel W. Schar [email protected]
Subject: Re: review of key club stuff, send it in..
 
let's see:  soundcheck at 8:10 am funky bitch and my soul super hot
versions ended 8:25 trey said he wanted us to break the bar tab record for
the key club
 
radio show:  9 am  short intro by the djs, then jiboo with some annoying
feedback during a good portion of the song
 
during the commercial breaks the audience was wondering what the band
would do, a short "jeopardy" theme jam had us waiting for the next tune.
when the birds promo came on trey began playing air guitar between his
legs and with his teeth, to make fun of the pre-recorded tune
 
1st tube had the place jumpin', then another break,  this time with a full
on magilla (my first).   a question and answer segment followed with a
stuff talking about the leterman appearance, page's goatee (lack thereof),
and some talk about 4:20 by the djs
 
bug was next, an excellent version.  another break with jamming and a
second q and a followed then heavy things ended the radio show at 10 am or
so
 
twist around began almost immediately after the djs left the stage and was
followed by an amazing tube (freeway in los angeles!!).  piper was not the
best piper ive ever heard but it segued directly into a funky llama, if
there is such a thing.  i mean mike was popping away like a madman!!!
 
brian and robert closed the set on a slow note and most of the crowd left
shortly thereafter.  i had gotten word from chowdah that phish were going
to do a second radio taping for kacd in l.a. and an affiliate in denver.
we hung around for 1 1/2 hours avoiding the security and lo and behold,
phish took the stage again .  questions and answers followed about phish
playing stadiums (they said if they ever play giants stadium they would
just fool themselves by thinking of it as giants performing music
auditorium
 or something like that.  trey talked about napster and the upcoming japan
run too.
 
for this taping there were around 25 people in attendance so it was really
special.  i have to give thanks to someone from elektra records who gave
us clearance to be there....forgot his name though- d'oh!
 
for this radio show they played heavy things, then more questions, then
back on the train ( an excellent version) and 1st tube.
 
the heavy things was better during the second take for some reason, just
my opinion.  anyway, after 1st tube was over the band was done and i
walked up to the stage to talk to trey.  i shook his hand and wished him
luck for radio city
 
that was it.  utterly the most intimate phish performance i have ever
seen. and it was all free!!!
 
thank you phish, hope they have a great japan and summer tour too.
 
mike hillson
"hillsgr00ve"
 
any questions?  email at [email protected] or [email protected]

Date: Sat, May 20 2000 14:01:44 GMT-0400
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: PHISH 5/19/00, 9:00 am, Key Club, Los Angeles]
 
 
>PHISH
>5/19/00
>9:00 - 10:30 a.m.
>Key Club
>Los Angeles
>
>Soundcheck:
>Funky Bitch
>My Soul
>
>Gotta Jibboo
>Jeopardy Theme (during commercial break)
>First Tube
>Magilla (during 2nd commercial break)
>Bug
>Heavy Things
>Twist
>Tube
>Piper
>Llama
>Brian & Robert
>
>This morning, I saw Phish play at the Key Club on the Sunset Strip in
>Hollywood as part of a live broadcast on the Mark & Brian show on KLOS in
>LA and numerous other stations throughout the West.  The Key Club only
>holds about 300-400 people, and the crowd was all full-on Phish phans.  They
>were scheduled to come on at 9:00 am, and they did a soundcheck at about
>8:15.  Trey said they were going to try to break the bar tab record set by
>April Wine.  They are right on with the shtick.  The soundcheck consisted
>of Funky Bitch and My Soul  They sounded fantastic during the soundcheck,
stretching it out a little during My Soul,
>and we just couldn't believe we were seeing Phish at 8:30 in the morning!
>
>They were officially introduced at 9 and launched into a great funky Gotta
>Jibboo off the new Farmhouse CD, which came out Tuesday, thus the
>promotional gig.  My favorite part about that silly review of Farmhouse in
>Rolling Stone in which they gave it 2 1/2 stars, one fewer than Hanson's
>new album received, was when they said, "Phish just isn't that funky."
> Clearly that buffoon has never heard them play live.  It was spectacularly
>awesome, in this reviewer's humble opinion.  It was Phishus Interruptus at
>the end of Jibboo, because they had to take a commercial break, during
>which they played the Jeopardy Theme, and Trey air-guitared to Birds of a
Feather,
with which they came back from commercial.  First Tube was next, nice
>and long and funky and groovy.  After the break that followed, Mark & Brian
>took some questions from the audience, including one who asked whether they
>felt dissed when David Letterman said Fishman was the bandleader, to which
>Trey responded, "Hey, the band's not called Mike".  One of the DJs asked
>Trey, what do you like better, recording or playing live (nice question);
>Trey just pointed to the audience with an "obviously" expression; they were
>clearly not into participating too much with Mark & Brian, who are nice
>enough guys but out of touch with the Phaithful.  Bug was next; what a
>beautiful song.  Sure, it's almost a cover of Oh Sweet Nothin' by the
>Velvet Underground but I wouldn't have known of that song but for Phish, so
>it doesn't matter to me.  Phish only got in 4 songs on the radio in an
>hour; after the 3rd commercial break, they played a lively Heavy Things,
>then launched into Twist as the radio guys signed off, and Twist had a nice
>long deep spacey jam in the middle that they had been saving 'til there
>weren't any time constraints.  Trey looked like he was taking a request from
a
group of
>phans up front, and they played Tube, which was awesome (I'm running out of
>superlatives), and a perfect choice with the "On a freeway/In Los Angeles"
>line being the only LA reference in a Phish lyric I'm aware of.  Next was a
nice
long hot version of Piper (OK, maybe not the longest, most energetic Piper
ever,
but hey, it was 10 in the morning!).  Then
>Llama, which got the crowd jumping around and going nuts, probably the best
>crowd reaction of any tune, understandable 'cause it was the oldest (?) and
>most beloved song in the set.  Brian & Robert was a soft closer, possibly a
>pun on the fact that they had just appeared on Mark & Brian?  This one is
>for you!  Yes indeed!  It felt more like midnight than 10:30 am when the
>show was over.  After they finished, nobody wanted to leave, because this
>performance was such a rare treat for Phish fans used to seeing them play
>the Enormodomes of the world.  What a special opportunity.  I am so glad I
>was there!  Thanks to Mark Sukenik for getting me the ticket!  You are the
>man!  PHISH RULES!


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