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Apart from two stops for increased schooling, I’ve lived my complete life in New York State. Which means I’ve an advanced relationship with the State of New Jersey. Sure, I settle for that there are lovely sections of New Jersey — the lakes and mountains within the North of the State, the breathtaking scenes alongside the Delaware River within the West of the State, and naturally the various great seashores on the state-long Atlantic coast.
However with that magnificence comes some ugliness. Every of the main cities alongside the coast have commercialized boardwalks, and whereas the music of artists like The Drifters, Bobby Rydell, and Bruce Springsteen have glorified life alongside the Shore, the boardwalks are largely simply depressingly seedy. What is especially miserable about Atlantic Metropolis specifically is {that a} hundred ft north of the boardwalk throughout all the expanse of the city is even worse. Positive, there are casinos — America’s most blatant and unabashed grift — however there are additionally numerous empty shops, vacant heaps, and misplaced souls.
The arrival of the touring circus that’s Phish tour took this carnie environment to a complete different degree. This was not only a tradition conflict, however a multi-layered appropriation of a socially and morally bankrupt metropolis by an uncontrolled bacchanalia that sucked the final vestige of satisfaction from the city. Once I left Friday night time’s present and walked again to my unhappy motel, I traversed a balloon orgy — a unending row of nitrous tanks the place the underbelly of native criminals fed an insatiable suburban youth with the hiss of an addictive however terribly fleeting excessive. These scenes performed out earlier than midnight, however I’m instructed that the hiss of evil lasted at the least till 3:30 am.
I don’t have any cause to know if Phish themselves know any of this. They very clearly ought to know as a result of prefer it or not, their title and fame are tied to those occasions. However the unhappy confluence of a decaying scene and a band on the high of their sport is just not misplaced amongst these of us who’re there for the music. This isn’t the late-era Nineteen Nineties Grateful Useless, whose decline as a band in some ways paralleled the disintegration of the “scene”. What’s coming from the Phish stage are constantly wonderful performances, and that’s a part of what makes so infuriating the dangerously cavalier conduct of those that are going to smash this for all of us.
It was towards this darkish backdrop that Phish took the stage on Friday night time and proceeded to reference New Jersey and the seashore setting from be aware one and all through. The present opening “Vehicles Vehicles and Buses” is each a Phish tune and the much less traveled proper three lanes of the cut up NJ Turnpike between exits 6 and 15. The set closing “Sand” was in all places, together with caught to everybody by the tip of the night time. In between, the band performed some of the stable first units of the tour, highlighted by a bouncy and pushed “Blaze On”. The second set was equally robust, with a notable Trey solo in “Possum” and the always-welcome Hood. However the spotlight of the night for me was definitely the thirty-five minutes of “Tweezer > Bathtub Gin”. At 22 minutes, this Tweezer wasn’t an extended because the model from earlier within the tour, however the jams have been all exact and centered. This could be the most effective single tune performed this Summer season by this band.
The oasis of chunky jams now over, the trek from the Missouri Avenue Exit One off the seashore to quieter confines was each bodily troublesome and psychically draining. Whereas it was unattainable to keep away from the utter anarchy of the overrun Boardwalk, there was all the time Saturday to hope for some measure of redemption.
I recorded this set with the Neumann hypercards from a really advantageous location on the soundboard cage, shielded from the ocean wind by the tent (together with some further customized “windcutter” screens). The dwell combine was sublimely good and loud sufficient to rise above the group din. The ensuing recording is great and exceeds any expectations tempered by this troublesome taping location. I’ll be taking part in this one loud for a very long time to return, and I hope you do too. Take pleasure in!
Obtain the Full Present [MP3] / [FLAC]
Stream Tweezer > Bathtub Gin:
Phish
2021-08-13
The Seashore
Atlantic Metropolis NJ
Digital Grasp Recording
Tapers Part at Soundboard
Neumann KM-150 Hypers > Sound Units 744t > 24bit 48kHz wav > Soundforge (put up manufacturing) > CDWave 1.95 (monitoring) > TLH > flac (320 MP3 and tagging through Foobar)
Recorded and Produced by nyctaper
Setlist:
Set 1 [Total Time 1:04:29]
01 Vehicles Vehicles Buses
02 AC DC Bag
03 Blaze On
04 Wolfman’s Brother
05 I Didn’t Know
06 Funky Bitch
07 Rift
08 Sand
Set 2 [Total Time 1:30:40]
09 Tweezer
10 Bathtub Gin
11 The whole lot’s Proper
12 Possum
13 Additionally Sprach Zarathustra
14 Rise Come Collectively
15 Harry Hood
16 Extra
17 [encore break]
18 Loving Cup
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