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The Daily Ghost

21 in 21 of 2017: #17 08/05/2017 Madison Square Garden, New York, NY – Baker’s Dozen N12 “Boston Cream” (Eamonn Kress, @i_shred_pow)

 

https://soundcloud.com/undermind1978/14-gotta-jibboo-2017-08-05-msg?in=undermind1978/sets/2017-08-05-msg

 

21 in 21 2017-08-05 – MSG #12 – Gotta Jibboo, Fuck Your Face, Sunshine of Your Feeling

Last summer I was fortunate enough to make the trip across the country to attend the last three nights of the Baker’s Dozen. I had been couch touring for the previous shows and like all of us, was so excited for these shows. I remember waking up on this morning/afternoon in Brooklyn and seeing that tonight was “Boston Cream Donut Night,” what a treat! I mean come on, we know they’re going to play some Cream and some Boston tonight, duhhhh!

Originally, I was just going to discuss “Fuck Your Face”, “Sunshine of Your Feeling”, but being that I have all the time in the world (currently sitting in a car driving across the desert of Wyoming) and this is 21 in 21 jams, I decided to add in “Gotta Jibboo” into the equation.

The smooth drop into “Jibboo”, starting with Fishman, yields an immediate reaction from the crowd prompting all of us to start groovin’.

At 2:15 just before the verse, Trey starts to exercise his tone a bit, foreshadowing the jam to come.  Again at 3:20, Trey starts messing with his loop and volume pedals and gets a nice reaction from the crowd. This sets the band up to fall into a nice jam space that Page and Fishman really start to drive.  While Mike holds down the “Jibboo” baseline, Trey swiftly glides into the mix serenading us all with blissful melodies. By 5 minutes in, we are locked in a patient jam space and the whole band is in sync.  At 5:40 Trey is still eager to play with his tone, at which point Page starts to jam along and outside of the “Jibboo” theme.  Around 7 minutes in Trey and Page are jamming back and forth, with Trey getting some sweet blues noodling in! Naturally, Mike and Fish are holding down the groove… and they are being so patient – this really exemplifies just how tight of a band they are. Hence, there is a big roar from the crowd at 7:45, Mike and Fish change up the jam a bit; reacting to this change, Page crushes the grand while Trey uses his loop pedal and layers in various beautiful melodies with his quintessential Baker’s Dozen tone. At 9 minutes in Trey finds a nice bouncy groove to play with as Page, Mike and Fishman hold down the jam, “Jibboo” style. This type I groove continues as “Jibboo” starts peaking.

Its at 10 minutes that I remember thinking: “this is still “Jibboo” and its ripping” – full band type I jamming and Trey gets that too as is evident from his shredding that follows. At 10:30 this “Jibboo” shows that it still has more to give and the crowd reacts, I am getting chills right now… Trey keeps on pushing this jam further and adding many more notes, woooo!!  Page and Fish do a fantastic job at complimenting Trey’s shredding, with Fish absolutely destroying his drum-kit and keeping the beat going strong. At 11:45 they are peaking hard, and then back to the outdo – wow, that was a good one!

What’s next? The pause here was a bit longer than normal and if I recall, there was some band member banter occurring during this time. After some time, the crowd gave a big roar… and then, RAWR!!!!! “FUCK YOUR FACE”! This song starts off so dark and heavy, I love it! The whole crowd is going nuts, Mike starts singing the verse and soon after Trey reminds us what a guitar can sound like when you plug it into the wall, thanks for that. Then the second verse, Trey’s tone is so nasty, then Mike tells us that this guitar will fuck your face, because it knows how to scream, woooo Trey wailing away

The drop out of this song is also wonderful and wraps it up nicely – not much jamming in this song, but holy hell does it make The Garden start going off the walls. Crowd energy is so high and we are pumped!

Another minute goes by and some more band banter, and I recall saying to my buddy something like “its gotta be something slow next” or something like that… Thankfully, as per usual, I was wrong.  WOOOOOO “Sunshine of Your Love”! Holy fuck, MSG was going apeshit, Page on vocals singing Clapton, so good! The whole band sounds amazing, they are the all time cover band. Then, at a minute in… WHAAAAAATT??

we’re now in Boston??! “It’s More than a Feeling”, yeah what in the world is happening, the room is spinning, Phish sounds SO good. We are then treated to some “Tales of Brave Ulysses” quotes from Fish and BOOM back to “Sunshine”, fuck yeah! Trey loves playing Clapton, and so naturally he teases is destroying these Clapton licks, and then… WOOO “Foreplay/Long Time” gets a huge reaction and the whole crowd is singing and going wild.  I’m getting chills again, never thought I’d see Phish play this, well any of these songs really. Damn Phish absolutely CRUSHES these songs!!! “Boston Cream” FOR THE WIN. And before you know it, the whole band is playing “White Room” on top of Foreplay/ Long Time, my brain cells are exploding. Of course we’re not done yet, more “Sunshine” has to get in there before the song winds down annnnnd then into “Foreplay” again… Just Wow. I cannot believe my ears. Before we can pull our faces off the ground and take in what has just gone down, Trey jokes that tomorrow’s donut theme is Kansas/Metallica night and that the whole Baker’s Dozen was just to do the “Boston Cream” gag, haha! Worth it!

Obviously, if you’re reading this, you already understand the significance and awe of this medley and more so how incredible a point in Phish’s history the Baker’s Dozen was. The way that “Sunshine of your Feeling” was executed displays how tight of a band Phish is and how much they truly enjoy playing together. The way the song’s changed between one another was unparalleled by anything that I’ve ever seen from a band, so on time, clever and well played.

The Baker’s Dozen was magical, there were so many jams, segues, teases and creativity – this night (as with all the others) is proof of that.