LawnMemo

The Daily Ghost

The Daily Ghost #9 07/09/1997 Le Transbordeur, Lyon/Villeurbanne, France

Download link: YEM Jam>Ghost>Poor Heart
(@KernelForbin Remaster)

Background (Set: 2 of 2-Song: 5 of 6-Show Gap: 3)

Venue information from Wikipedia:  Created by Victor Bosch , it was inaugurated in 1989 with a concert by French musician White Collar. The city of Lyon told a delegation of public service at the management team that has a mission of spreading French and international groups as well as promoting and supporting the local music scene.

The room was located in the old waterworks Grand Camp. In 2006, the entrance and offices were restructured.

Cultural facility consists of:

  • 450 club seats with non-bar seating
  • a large hall of 1800 seats

Excerpt taken from The Phish Companion: “The smallest venue I’d ever seen them in was a medium-sized theater in 1994, and Mom only had experience with coliseum/arena Phish. The lots were just like any Phish show, except there were only about a hundred people out there. There were no French people, all Americans. Someone told me that many people had jumped off tour after the Italian shows. So there ended up being no more than about three hundred people there.”

phish.net notes:  Pierre, a local Häagen-Dazs employee who the band met the day before, was repeatedly called-out by the band and was brought up on stage and serenaded during the encore.

Ghost Guests

This Ghost and the segues contain a sit in with Bela Fleck and the Flecktones.  I am sure most of you are familiar with them, but for those that aren’t here is a brief history.  Bela Fleck is one of the premier banjo players and he found one of the best bass players on the planet to play with, Victor Wooten.  Victor Wooten’s brother is Futureman who plays a Drumitar (guitar that plays drum beats) and percussion.  In 1997 the band also included Jeff Coffin on sax.  If you have not heard them, they are must hear.  I have seen them many, many times and have been blown away each and every time.

The downloadable file included begins with the introduction of the Flecktones in the middle of a Monster YEM in addition to the Ghost (of course) as well as the entire Poor Heart.  Thanks to @KernelForbin for the remaster!

YEM JAM (Brief Thoughts) Ghost Segue starts at about 17:00 mark of track

The beginning of our clip starts out with the Flecktones introductions right in the middle of the YEM Jam.  Each one gets to solo and show off a bit.

If you have seen the Flecktones jam before you can certainly feel their influence in this jam.  Very jazz based jam and of course, some influx of other genres are thrown in.  It does not take long for the 8 members of this jam to gel as all involved are masters of improvisation.  They find some beautiful space to work in right away, centered around Bela, who really is the glue holding things together.  I am not going to get into too much detail about the jam in the interest of brevity.  Sit back and enjoy a unique Phish sounding jam.

Credit to @cdacton for this find. From 14:52-16:45 the Flecktones start to play a song from their 1997 album “Left of Cool”. The song is called “Trane To Conamarra”. Very cool, Flecktones>Ghost Segue.

At about the 17:00 mark you can hear Trey start to infuse the beginnings of Ghost.  Fishman joins him quickly, as Bela continues to play through the change.  At 17:38 (very quietly) you can hear Trey count-off.  At about 17:55 Ghost is pretty much here and you can hear Trey do a count again at 18:11

Composed Section

A fun Ghost intro with the addition of the Flecktones.  Bela and Coffin make their presence known, and then….Victor.  Instead of the Page solo we have seen each of the previous 8 ghosts, we get treated to a solo by one of the best bass players on the planet.  Wooten really shows off his chops, the man is a master.  He even throws a quick Andy Griffith theme in before they get back to the Ghost section at 20:25.  The drop is above average after a decent length pause.  Their vocals, after the drop in, are all over the place.

We are into the Jam by the 21:28 mark

Jam

Trey takes the lead right away with the rest of this army providing background.  At 22:15 Bela really joins in an finds a melody that compliments what Trey is doing fantastically.  Victor and Mike are doing a great job of providing some backbone to this jam.  Variety of beats coming from the Futureman with Fishman building around the beat he is laying down.

At the 23:18 mark Trey finds a great lick that he repeats several times.  Shortly after we hear the first real sign of Page.  By about 24:18 Bela has really moved much more the front.  Then he and Trey start alternating back and forth.

At 25:40 some crazy lasers start to get added to the mix by I believe Mike.  Also, Coffin begins to join in a bit, although very briefly.  By about 26:25 the jam has broken down.  Some noodling takes place for a while before 27:35 where Poor Heart comes exploding out.

Poor Heart Madness

Fantastic Poor Heart!  You can really hear the joy in Mike’s voice to be singing this with Bela Fleck on stage.  This is must hear, as you would expect, Fleck absolutely destroys this.  The noodling before the start of this Poor Heart really helps to accentuate this upbeat version.  We finally get a nice dose of Coffin just after the 30:00 mark and he rips a solo.  Super fun ending that will remind many of some goofy Mule jams.  The crowd then goes into a Phish led Pierre chant…must have been some good Häagen-Dazs…

Final Thoughts

Remember I am only scoring the Ghost here.  Segues and jams are included for everyone’s enjoyment.  As big of a fan as I am of the Flecktones, and as much as I appreciate the talent on that stage…this Ghost really doesn’t do a whole lot for me.  It has some nice parts but nothing mind blowing by any means.  The YEM and Poor Heart are much stronger.  Still a whole lot of fun!

Score: 7.1