05/11/99 The 9:30 Club - Washington D.C.
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First things first.
Wow.
I can still hear Voodoo Child ringing in my ears. 9:30 Club was packed and the streets were lined with ticketless folks. Trey came out at about 8 and folks were ready to roll.
The opener "Get Back On the Train" was a nice upbeat opener, which I happen to dig quite a bit, and was followed by a nicely received "Farmhouse". Then 2 more new songs "Kissed By Mist" and "Snowflakes in The Sand" both of which are sweet little tunes. Trey explained that "Kissed..." was written for Julia Butterfly who has been living in a redwood tree in California to protest the logging of old growth forest. Pretty song but someone whispered to me "remember the teacher from Beavis and Butthead?" and, as Trey sang about the "woodland folk and forest creatures.." it was everything I could do not to laugh out loud. Not to diminish Trey, that cartoon hack would never play a song this good but, Damn, it sure was kinda funny.
"Snowflakes..." has good lyrics and some nice quick riffs in it and I'd like to see this developed with Phish in the future. Next was "Bathtub Gin" which was dedicated to Susannah Goodman who was in attendance. The audience sang the "faucet" portion of the song and Trey had the hugest grin as he played. This seemed louder than on the Murat Theater tapes but then, everything in 9:30 seems loud.
"Gin" gave way to "Sample..." and "Driver". Next Trey, as he prepared to sing "Mountains in the Mist" began talking about duologies and trilogies of songs and a trilogy of duologies and something rather hard to follow from memory. Get the tape and listen to it a few times to get that bit straight. Then Trey tells us that, in honor of the apparently impending "Drunken Mayhem" (Trey even lifted his cocktail and said "I'll drink to that") of a club show versus the theaters he had been playing he's decided not to play "Mountains..." and that he's gonna play a "real country song". He and Tom wrote this song (guessed to be named "You'll Know My Name") in response to all of the crap on the radio that passes for "real country". This was a beer swillin bootstomper.
On to the piano for a virtually flawless "Billy Breathes". He then introduces Tom Marshall who sings harmony on "Sleep" and a "world debut" the title of which was not given (guessed to be called "Blue and Shiny") but the harmonies were cool and they really appeared to enjoy themselves. With that the acoustic set ended.
Set 2 is a different story. I could not possibly break down the song-by-song details because it really seemed to me to be a few songs strung together with looong jams. "Gotta Jiboo" is fat. Funky and very jammy. This opener lasted a while and reprised itself after an excellent jam. "Will It Go Round In Circles" was a dancers delight and a real crowd pleaser. More great jamming with some cool lyrics which I'm dying to check out again on tape. Next "First Tube" kicked much ass. This set was definitely a Dancefest.
Back to song for a break with a nice "Ooh Child" that had folks singing along and spinning in the balcony. "Heavy Thing" seemed to me to coexist with "Sand" I did not distinguish between songs at the time... Then Drums.
Make no mistake, Russ Lawton is a good drummer. Real good. He and Trey were tightly bouncing beats off of one another and turning on a dime together for over ten minutes. everybody seemed to dig it. I danced my ass off through the whole thing.
"I Can See Clearly Now" was so sweet. A bit of grounding wire to keep this electric room from exploding. After which came the bomb. The groovy instrumental, Aqui Como Alla followed by... Voodoo Child. Straight from the center of the Earth to the fires of the sun, Trey burned a whole in my mind which still echoes 13 hours later. Russ and Tony provided (as they had all night) tight and dynamic rhythm beneath Trey who laid into the 'Doc and tore the building down. I didn't time it but I'd say is was long and luscious. After that, they had to stop.
Where else to go?
I'll tell you where. Encore with "Row Jimmy", that's where.
Trey's definitely got this one down. They all do. That swinging shuffle hasn't sounded as sweet to me (I missed The Warfield shows last month...) in a few years. This is one of my favorite songs and, despite one or two lyric flubs, it was great.
All grins after that. This was a great show, both in format and performance. It was nice to have the intimate acoustic set followed by a full on jamfest. And to see Trey in a club! Well, all I can really sum this up with is this: If you haven't seen Trey solo, Do. If you're reading this after the tour, get the tapes and don't miss out if and when it happens again. I won't.
Oh, and one more thing. A buddy of mine hung out with Trey & Brad and 6 or 7 of our friends in the downstairs bar after the show. Trey bought top shelf rounds of tequila for all of them. They were the only ones there and my buddy got his stub autographed. Lucky bastard!
©1999- JMH
About the Author jmh is a family man who is thankfull for beer, LPs, and extra guitar strings. Donations of any of these things or cash for their purchase will be happily accepted.