7-31-99 -- Fuji Rock Festival, Naeba, Niigata, Japan

Date: Wed, 4 Aug 1999 06:59:51 -0700 (PDT)
From: Jaime Lee [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Phish @ Naeba Mountain, Niigata, Japan

7/31/99 Field of Heaven 7:00 pm

Arguably the best night of the three!  I consistently was requesting
Spock's Brain simply because I could actually shout something and the
band could hear me but obviously it was unsuccesful, well maybe next
time. Here's my highlights :

1st set

My Friend opener....sweetness....as I shoveled some stirr fried
vegetable rice into my mouth.  Limb by Limb rocked!  Funk jam
emphasized in the infamous Free.  And of course, Sparkle left the
phans' heads spinning even at intermission.

At intermission the band decided to go check out Rage Against the
Machine at the Green Stage. So, Intermission ended up being something
like 40 minutes or so.

2nd set

Oh man, where do I begin!  2001 which took about 6-7 minutes for Fish
to kick in the bass and snare.  Vivid, colorful, and glorifying it
was...which segued into a very short Fishman highhat ride into
Bowie...getting right to the point!!!  Bowie was hot, but honestly
contained a few flubs, but that was quite alright because they
certainly made up for it, they always do, well most of the time.  Well,
I was waiting for Wading to end which then went into Caspian.  And let
me tell all the Caspian haters that this is one you must hear!!! A
fatty jam which doesn't usually happen to this extent!!! By the way,
the tapes will be coming soon...3 rigs were running which included AT
4050's, Schoeps, and Sennheisers for the last night.  All of the
westerners patched out of the AT 4050s which will probably be the ones
circulating in the states sometime in the future.  Anyhow,  Fluffhead
was pretty damn fluffy and flawless.  I'm talking note for note even
throughout Fluffs Travels...a must listen to for phans who adore the
tune, which is most.  The encore was incredible, dramatic in the
beginning while Tibetan monk Newang Chechang (something like that)
talked about the crisis in Tibet while a Japanese translator talked in
between.  A correction, Phish.net says Tibetan monk chant...it was not
a chant and there was only one monk.  Fishman then came out and
performed a vacuum solo with Newang on a long horn.  This was probably
the most strangest form of musical communication I ever saw and heard.
IT followed by the band coming out and performing Brian and Robert with
Newang on a wooden flute.  Well, Simple ended the evening and let me
tell that I am not a huge simple fan especially when it segues out of
Mikes. However, Simple was far from simple...the jam was the shit and
on point...thats all I can say for now.

Well gotta go for now, certainly don't want to forget the third night
which I will submit tommorow...thanx for reading and remember always
surrender to the phlow!!!!

-Jaime

Date: Mon, 2 Aug 99 19:09:02 +0900
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: 7.31.99
 
By far, The Field of Heaven at the Fuji Rock Festival is the best venue I've
ever had the pleasure of seeing a phish show at, much less 3 in a row.  
It's basically a circular field that could probably hold 5,000, but I don't
think I ever saw more than 2,000 at any one time.  Booths selling nice Thai
cuisine, organic beer, organic coffee, hemp products and more, lined the
back of the field along with a very trippy trance tent in the midst of a
creatively designed space-out zone.  All of this is surrounded by a dense
forest of towering pines and beautful mountains.  There's also a frigid,
sparkling river about 100 yards behind the field that was ideal for beating
the heat over the scorching hot weekend.  The field is a good 20 minute walk
from the green stage where most of the big acts played, and also where the
hordes of people congregated.  There is a smaller "white stage" and a groovy
food zone accompanied by a large trance area, ideal for napping and other
mellow activities between the Green stage and the Field of Heaven.  The
isolation of the field gave us the option of chilling in a relaxed
environment with great music all day, every day, or for those interested, it
was easy to go sample a nice variety of music throughout the festival site.
 
As for Phish, it was 3 amazing days of music, as far as I'm concerned.  The
Green Stage set was watched by a lot of people, many of whom seemed confused
by this band, whose genre (whatever that may be) is not well represented in
Japan.  Whether they realized it or not, they witnessed a nice, tight,
rockin' set.  All 3 nights at the field were well played, but for me, the
best night was Saturday.
 
The My Friend opener was relatively light and a nice start.  Golgi was a
pure energy explosion.  It was my first time to hear Get Back on the
Train...it's cool...nice groove.  Free was beautiful...it was becoming clear
that the band had a lot more energy than the night before.  Roggae was well
placed.  Even Sparkle just felt good.  The Japanese heads create such a nice
atmosphere, as they get into everything that the band belts out, and I
didn't feel much thing.  The vibe at the field was just so positive that it
drowned out the few negative people that somehow ended up in the wrong
place.  It felt like the old days.  Apparently, Trey likened it to Amy's
Farm, and the whole band just seemed stoked to be there.  They could often
be seen milling about, and they were very approachable.  The set finished
with an explosive Character Zero, which seemed to indicate that something
massive was on it's way.  Trey apologized for the long set break the night
before (over an hour) and promised to be back in 15-20 minutes.
 
So half an hour later, the spacey tones of 2001 filled the air as everyone
found their spots.  Getting up close was no problem; it was even possible to
get to the rail at any point during the shows.  The intro was mystical and
one of the longer I've heard as it melted into a truly sick 2001 which in
turn, led to David Bowie.  For me, this was the highlight of the
weekend...just about as good as they get.  By the time it had finished, we
were probably 40 minutes into the set.  The crowd looked exhilirated if not
slightly spent, so the Velvet Sea that followed was warmly welcomed...it was
indescribable bliss.  As Prince Caspian started up, I felt a little
disappointed, but I soon found elements in this song that I never knew
existed, and as it built and built and built, I realized that we were
witnessing something special.  Fluffhead confirmed it; it was perfect.  As
the Fluff drew to a close, Trey said something like, "thanks, see you
tomorrow", but then they started building up that final jam again, and went
off on it for maybe a minute, and then treated the frenzied crowd to an
incredible Squirming Coil.
 
For the encore, we had about 45 minutes before the curfew, so we thought we
might get 3 or 4 songs.  Well, we got something like that, but it was
nothing anyone could've called.  First, Trey introduced his friend, Nawang
Kachong (spelling?), a Tibetan monk.  He spoke to us about the plight of his
people, and his message was touching and serious;  everyone should hear it.  
The crowd was unbelievably quiet during his 10 minute talk.  He then did
some chanting and played a traditional instrument, which is something like a
didjer-doo (spelling?).  He created some montrous, gutteral, bellowing tones
that gripped my soul until I was mesmerized.  Fishman then joined him,
sporting a cowboy hat, with his vacuum (the night before, he told us that
the vacuum hadn't made it but he had one now).  The collective sound they
conjured up was like some very powerful, cosmically connected engine that
was much more natural than mechanical.  It was sick.  The band then came out
and did a very fitting Brian and Robert with Nawang playing flute.  Nawang
left and then they laid down a huge Simple.  Enough said...fantasic show!
 
Jason

Date: Thu, 5 Aug 1999 06:00:27 -0600 (MDT)
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Fuji fest review
 
Just wanted to let everyone know that fuji was the kindest shows I have ever
seen.The japenese heads(which were alot)were the nicest people I have ever
been to shows with. The kidz who came from the states and around the world
wre truly there for the music,it was all about love and happyness.Please
excuse the mistakes, I have not yet gone to bed after getting home from
japan. I just had to drop a line and let you know how good it really was
thanks again.
                                    your friend, George Spater(G!MONEY)
GEORGE ALEXANDER SPATER

click here to return to the 1999 reviews page


hits (many)