LawnMemo

The Daily Ghost

The Daily Ghost #37 08/07/1998 Walnut Creek Amphitheater, Raleigh, NC

(@KernelForbin Remaster)

Background (Ghost Position: Set 1 – Song 8 of 10-Show Gap: 3)

Ghost is placed at the end of the first set.  Interesting placement as Ghost was preceded by Bittersweet Motel and followed by and Forbin>Mockingbird.

1998-08-07mo

Composed Section (0:00-4:25)

A crazy scream from someone leads to an answer from a Trey loop.  Gordon soon follows with his Ghost bass line and things are a go.  Nice slow pace which we have seen for the last couple of Ghosts.  The solo section is a nice continuation of the slow paced intro, with Page getting pretty funky.

The pause gets a real loud echo and is pretty long.  Yet again the drop is nothing pretty, but not the worst we have seen.

Blissful Groove (4:26-6:47)

Phish takes the slow paced intro right into the jam.  Fish has one of his slowest beats working.  Page starts to lead out a bit on the keys, then Mike follows with the slow paced Ghost intro bass line.

At the 5:00 mark Page starts to work away from the piano and works the keyboard.   Trey lets out a wacky whale call sound shortly after.   Page finds a beautiful tone that fuses with Mike’s deep sounding bass.  This is one awesome groove!  I am watching football with the sound off, and this Ghost turned way up, dancing in my seat!   That pace set by Fish gives everyone such room to work.

Trey works a bit of soloing into this deep grove but nothing too crazy.  Page works his way back to the piano at about the 6:00 mark.  I loved the previous minute when he was away from the piano but this is just as good.  At the 6:34 mark he plays some quick notes and then really starts to get into it.  Blissful playing from the entire band and my ears are seriously happy.

The beginning jam grooves from these summer 1998 Ghosts are just awesome.  Such balance and great interplay from the band.  They lock in early and are patient letting the jam flow naturally.  Some of my favorite stuff.

Building the Bliss (6:48-9:20)

At the 6:49 mark Trey starts to build around a lick, building up the jam. Page and Mike start to get funky around Trey.

At the 7:30 mark Trey finds another great lick that he repeats a couple of times, while Page really gets down on the piano behind him.  At the 8:00 minute mark, I think Trey stepped on a duck…What the heck was that?  Eeeeek.  That was like a Ghost drop in in the middle of this blissful jam.

Fish starts to pick things up at the 8:10 mark with a fill.  Fishman pushes the pace and then starts to increase his presence in this jam.  At the 8:48 mark Trey’s pitch gets much higher and you can feel the final part of the build is coming.

The Build Peak (9:20-14:05)

At the 9:20 mark Trey latches onto the lick that will create tension for this jam and lead us to the peak.  He repeats it a bunch of times while the other three members build around him.  At the 10:00 mark Trey changes his pitch and creates even more tension, while Fish pushes the tempo just a tad more.

What feels like it is going to build into a raging peak, instead creates it’s own peak section.  This lick that Trey has started to use, only grows in strength.  It builds measure by measure.  At 10:35 Page starts to come with some gorgeous melodies to compliment that rocking going on by the rest of the band.

At 10:41 you can hear Fish start to sing “I feel I never told you”.  It is very slight at first and gets louder as things build louder and louder….At the 11:15 mark things are on full blast.  At 11:33 Fish drops a fill and the air is let out just a bit…

Then at 12:02 Trey finally rips into a solo.  After 3+ minutes of repeating a lick, Big Red starts to rip a solo that takes over the final segment of this jam.  This is a very inspired solo from Trey.  The rest of the band is rocking as well, especially Mike.

At the 12:40 mark Page plays some chords on the organ and helps build the last bit of this peak…

At 13:08, the jam starts to fade away as Mike revisits his Ghost intro bass line.  Fish begins to sing again as the jam ends.

Final Thoughts

A different style Ghost, but one that I really like.  This Ghost moves very well and at times feels almost like a hood jam.  The great intro jam section and the way the peak comes about make this a cool Ghost.  Another check-mark in the good column for 1998.

Score: 8.6