Tweezer review - 6-24-00 Atlanta

Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2001 01:28:36 -0700 (PDT)
From: Rob Sipsky [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: 6.24.00 Atlanta Tweezer in Review

Hope you dig this review. I loved every second of this jam at the show, 
and after searching for a review to read while listening, decided to 
fill in the missing document.
Enjoy!

6.24.00 -Lakewood Amphitheater, Atlanta, GA
Set I: Moma > Jim, Bouncin' > Tweezer, Strange Design, Cavern
Set II: BOAF, Bug, MSO, Antelope, Frankie, Carini, Coil -> Caspian
E: Guyute, Inlaw, Driver, Tweeprise


Tweezer follows the best Moma I've heard (until that moment, I was a 
disciple strictly of the 11.23.97 Winston Salem   Black-Eyed Katy)
This gives Moma a new fighting chance, if they ever tour again ;),
and A solid Jim, drops right on the tails of a standard Bouncin (>).

The Tweezer opening seems fairly standard, nice and funky as
prescribed by Dr. Funkenstein. Ebeneezer at 4:12, and 
the crowd plays it's part, screaming bloody murder over
the chaos that has erupted on stage.  Jam begins at 4:45 
with some sustained notes and Trey Loops at 5:00, followed 
by some tight slapping by none other than Mike-enstein. Lots
of Page on the Rhodes. There's no Trey and lots and lots 
of funky Mike and Fish.  Thank god 1997 happened, gave them
the funk! I am assuming from his silence that Trey was just
waiting for a groove, so that he could step to the keyboards 
to lay down some bizarre sounds. Yep. At 6:45 there are 
strange, non-tonal sound effects, washing over Mike and Fish - 
very angular/non-rhythmic and ... well, textural, or (dare 
I use the 1998 buzzword?) ambient. Interesting effect, just 
adding character to the jam that is already taking a new turn.

At 7:15 Mike holds a note and bam! -Both Page and Trey 
layer on some nice, soft chording - Page on the Rhodes, Trey 
just funky and rhythmic, allowing Page and Mike to do all the 
talking. Page is taking it slow and steady, changing colors 
of sound, occasionally adding some Moog here and there... this 
is all texture...Beautiful! Somehow, even at 9:00, although 
nothing noteworthy melodically has occurred, it's gotten 
slightly funkier, slightly deeper... the band is a complete, 
four-headed beast here.  At 9:20 there is activity on all 
parts, nothing standing out, just more and more density.  
Trey has added an octave effect and is playing some sort of 
ascending line at 9:45...  drops to a lower octave at 10:10 
and begins to solo in a repetitive but intriguing manner.  
Mike is adding some off-color notes to offset the "safe" 
playing that Trey is currently laying down.  !!  Page has 
moved to piano, and this jam is entering a more familiar 
territory, a jam-style with each member in a place we've 
heard before - Mike funking, Page chording and coloring, 
Trey leading, Fish driving...  but then, the moment I have 
personally been waiting for - A nebulous lock in motifs and 
keys, at 11:35, and as the tension builds, it begins to have 
rhythmic/melodic interplay between Mike and Trey similar 
(no tease) to the intro to Silent in the Morning!  Beautiful!
And Page shows his appreciation with a few well-placed notes 
on the clavinet.  You can almost feel the connections at this 
point in the jam- band/band, audience/band, audience/audience- 
12:15 ... Fish is placing hi-hat accents all over the place, 
changing the feel of the jam. Mike is in a higher octave, the 
whole jam and venue has taken off and assumed some sort of 
levitation!  13:35 something weird is going down - it's getting 
darker, more sinister, and more angular. Someone is going to look 
in that door in the movie that you SCREAM "don't open that door 
idiot!" The whole thing has changed - the beat has turned inside 
out and Trey begins to play melodically again.

The interesting point here, ladies and gentlemen, is that this 
is no longer the Phish that we met from A Live One. That band 
played a lot of follow-the leader.  THIS band plays "a lot...  :)  
No, what has happened here is a serious session of group interplay.
Each miniscule note is taken into account, and reacted to, such 
that these more recent improvisations morph much more slowly than, 
say the Tweezer on ALO.  But when something of this magnitude occurs, 
I can't help but laugh out loud just listening to how amazing this 
is!  It's all so very methodically planned, rather than the Chaos
(even if it wasn't it often sounded chaotic and angular, which isn't 
necessarily bad..) of many of the older jams. How lucky those of us 
were to see any of these shows! (Especially in light of the current 
"situation")

15:00 and we are nowhere near Tweezer.  Trey is laying down a 
nice funky melody, purposeful. In fact, the jam has gone from 
the previous, typical A minor Tweezer jam into a more sunny, 
Major sounding jam.  At 15:20 there is a rhythmic lock, and... 
you just know it's going to bust wide open.  Fish is on the ride 
cymbal (my favorite sound of his besides the woodblock) And at 
15:45 you can hear him begging to kick the jam into high gear, 
but he's holding out until the right moment. 
16:25 Trey lets out a series of Chords leading to yet a new 
section of the song. Mike fills tastefully. This sounds like the 
chord progression for a Tweeprise... but that's not until much 
later! (MUCH later)  But Mike plays fantastic lead bass underneath 
Trey's apparent teasing. 
Higher and higher the chords are soaring, lifting everyone into 
the summer sky... 18:15 and it's going to break. I already missed 
the switch into double time from Fish! They're just chugging along.. 
it quiets again at 18:35.  Mike is teasing Birds of a Feather at 18:55...
and as Trey lightly chords, Page is laying clavinet all over it, 
as Mike tweaks it farther and farther out.  It's a nice churning 
sonic stew, until even spacier things happen at 19:45.  Mike up high,
Trey down low with that octave effect, Page sustaining.  Fish pushing, 
pushing along, ride cymbal all the way. There is so much space (read: 
room) in this jam. 20 minutes and Trey is soling in a funkier-than-thou 
thick manner. 
21:00 Trey releases a very quiet flurry of notes.. and Mike starts 
taking initiative...  it's another swirl, all playing in a circle 
around each other... and Fish has dropped into a halftime feel again.  
There's some Phish space here, and Trey and Mike are talking back and 
forth at 22:00. Trey is releasing flurries of notes, and Fish is right 
with him, back to double time, and the energy in the amphitheater can 
be heard now. This is glorious!  Total raging jam, in the more recent 
ambient/funky sense - this isn't rock star Trey, it's insane Phish 
group-raging at 23:30! And it's quieting away again at 25:00. Is this 
near the end?  It's getting that winding-down feel now, and
... it's just fading out basically. The crowd OBVIOUSLY approves.



25:59 Total Time: If you have a copy of this, put aside half an hour 
with some headphones and just dig it. Mike goes apeshit the whole time, 
making it hard for me to even keep up with comments. 

If you DON'T have a copy of this...  Oh, I apologize. No one would make 
THAT mistake, silly me. Must hear Phish 2000.  If you want a rock star jam, 
look no further than the earlier Moma Dance > Runaway Jim combo, or the 
BOAF or Antelope in the 2nd set.  Although there are no real segues in this 
show, which is what I really enjoy hearing, this show is jammin all the way.  
Solid song selection, sick jamming, 4-song encore... need I go any further?
Check it out!


I know, I know, I wrote too much. 
Rob (see you at the moe.down?) Sipsky
 

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