LawnMemo

The Daily Ghost

The Daily Ghost #79 08/15/2004 Newport State Airport, Coventry, VT

(AUD Download @KernelForbin Remaster)

Background (Set: 2 of 2 – Song: 5 of 5 – Show Gap: 2)

At what was going to be the final Phish show ever, Ghost closes the second set.  Obviously the band felt Ghost was incredibly important song in their career to give it such a prominent placement.  The segue from Split Open and Melt is included.  It is rumored that Trey was heavily on drugs during this show.  It is hard to tell, it might always be a mystery…(That was complete sarcasm).

2004-08-15mo6

Composed Section (0:35-4:06)

As the murky abyss of Split Open and Melt fades out, Mike starts our transition to Ghost.  He starts things at the 0:35 mark, and Fish gets on beat at the 1:00 mark.  This is really the first time Mike starts things off from a segue.

Things are going along smoothly and everything starts off great until…

When Trey enters at 1:15, he misses completely.  I have no idea what he was even trying to do there.  Luckily Fish, picks up the slack.  At 1:29, Trey basically, STOPS singing.  Fishman finishes the verse.  This is ugly.  Really ugly.  I feel like I should have drugged myself silly until I could barely type for this review.  I thought better of it when I realized tomorrow is Thursday…

At 1:51, Trey tries to sing louder and his timing is completely wrong.  Just let Fish take this one Trey.  #Ouch.

The solo section gets some serious clav action from Page and then some funk thrown down from Mike.  That actually was pretty good.

Trey comes back singing loudly, and he and Fish are completely out of sync.  The band tries to get some notes in but it goes horribly wrong.  It sounds like Ghost may just stop.  The movement into the pause is so bad it is comical.

The pause is dead silent and much longer than normal.  The drop in…

Wooooo Last Ghost ever!!! I couldn’t be more excited…Wait…They just butchered the hell out of it.  Feel like this guy who lost his ice cream.  To say that drop in was ugly, would be an insult to the word ugly.  The massacre ends around the 4:06 mark, and we move into the jam.

Peaking quicker then ever! (4:07-8:03)

Trey sings much louder with his guitar than he did during the vocal section.  After some brief sectioned off measures the jam starts to find a groove pocket.

Mike has another extremely powerful tone working, and does some fine work. Trey moves out in front from the start, and does some pretty heavy soloing.  Page works the piano and Fish lays down a pretty upbeat rhythm.  The jam is pretty upbeat and well balanced.

Everyone is playing with a lot of intensity and bringing an equal contribution.  Around the 5:15 mark, as Trey starts to hold some notes longer, things get increasingly good.  Page takes advantage of the space Trey holds for him, and plays some fantastic melodies.  As the band holds some tension Trey lets thing so with an awesome note at 5:28.

The jam keeps the wonderful upbeat playing going.  Mike crushes a melody at 5:43, and then Fishman lays some monster fills at 5:55.  Trey starts to repeat some notes and Page comes in beautifully underneath him.  Then, more outstanding rhythms from Mike.  There is a lot of great things going in this jam!

As bad as that intro was this baby is smoking!  Trey starts repeating at the 6:03 mark, and things begin to build.  The band wasted little time getting to the good stuff!  Things continue to build and then….

Trey lets them go with a beautiful release at 6:48.  Page follows quickly with some gorgeous melodies.  A full Mike and Fish onslaught finishes up this peak that is less than 3 minutes into the jam.  Things waiver from rocking, to starting to break down for a couple measures.

At 7:30, Trey switches to a bigger, grittier tone and starts to hold some big notes.  Page moves to the organ and holds some notes as well.

At 8:04 Trey starts to play with more intensity and things begin to pick right back up…..

Prepare your table (8:05-13:15)

Just as things seemed like they were going to move downward, Fish picks things up and lays down a killer beat.  At the 8:19 mark, we find the new kick ass path to take.

A super uptempo beat, and Mike following along with a monster tone makes this section smoke.  By the 8:30 mark, as Trey repeats some notes, Page is hammering into this hotness.   Trey is pretty controlled while the other three are crushing along.

I am dancing along to this.  I love these upbeat smoking sections.  As Trey starts to build more tension at 9:07, it sounds like Mike could die of smoke inhalation.  Trey starts to work another rhythm at the 9:20 mark, and you can feel things are about to take off.

:Prepares Desk:

Trey starts hammering into that lick and then as Fish drops a fill at 9:30, Page holds some chords on the organ.  As he does, Trey comes in with a power lick, and this sucker moves even hotter.

Trey moves into some soloing as Fish lights the world on fire.  He is blasting everything in sight, and keeps pouring lighter fluid on this jam.  It sounds like Trey might try and take things down, but Fish is having no part of it.  At 10:30, he is playing with about 10 different arms.  He drives this forward and forces what comes next…

At 10:55 Trey starts to build some tension, then Page holds some organ chords and Fish blasts into the stratosphere.  HERE WE GOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! Release!!!!

At 11:17, Trey lets go and takes flight.  An incredible tone from him is followed by a touch of machine gun action.  Fish continues to disregard the laws of physics and humanity.   Man was that build and release hot!!! How did we go from that intro section to this!!! Incredible!!!

ALERT, ALERT, ALERT!!!!! THERE WERE GOOD JAMS AT COVENTRY!!!!

Trey starts to slow around the 12:00 mark, and some loops start to enter.  Fish keeps pushing and pushing, and Trey gets back on the gas at 12:25 mark with some scorching guitar work.

The jam starts to work its way down as Fish changes up the beat around the 12:30 mark.  Mike throws some cool tones into the jam on the way down.  Things get spacier and spacier.

That was one ass kicking section.

Ugly Space Ending (13:15-18:34)

Some moaning from Trey starts to come out at the 13:15 mark as the jam works further and further into space.  Fish is responsible for driving through this abyss, and most of the other band members have slowed to almost nothing.  Things continue to get weirder and weirder and become quite haunting by the 15:00 mark.

Fish has backed off and plays a light drum beat to contribute to the scariness.  Things stay in this horror movie and don’t go anywhere.  It just hangs around and nothing happens.  I love these sections in a lot of the Ghosts, but only when they do something.  This just meanders around a bit too long for my liking.

Finally at the 17:19 mark, Trey summons the Imperial Starfleet to make things a bit cooler.  It is just too little, too late though.  He screws around with some feedback until the jam completely dies.

That did not end well.  Trey says there will be one more set, and sounds like he could keel over at any point.

Final Thoughts

One of the more interesting versions for me.  The composed section is probably the worst of all time.  The ending is boring and does nothing.  The middle of this Ghost is fantastic though.  It is an outstanding jam that peaks strongly twice.  There is some fantastic music, and some that makes you cringe.  Overall I like the jam a ton.  Most of my scoring is based on the jam, but that intro has to take some points away.  Also, a meandering ending that doesn’t end well takes some points away.  Take the 4-13 minutes of this Ghost and it is in the nines.  Well, they are there so…

Score 8.7