The Daily Ghost #45 11/19/1998 Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Winston-Salem, NC
(@KernelForbin Remaster)
Background (Ghost Position: Set 1 of 2 – Song 8 of 9-Show Gap: 2)
Ghost stays in the first set for the second show in a row. After a rare cover of “Something” Ghost is the second to last song of the set. The quasi segue to Golgi has not been included.
Composed Section (0:00-4:18)
Can I get some loops? Hell yeah! Fish and Trey start to come through the loops at about the same time. A nice tempo to this Ghost. Not too fast, not too slow. Gordon’s bass is at the perfect tone. Page has an awesome tone and gets down in the solo section.
An average length pause, and an excellent drop in. Well done Phish, well done! The vocals aren’t over-sung after the drop either. Solid intro.
Intro Jam (4:19-6:55)
The jam starts out with some typical sectioned off jamming. The jam starts to take shape at about 4:48, when things get minimal and Page seduces us with some beautiful melodies.
Page quickly backs away, and Fish is left holding down the beat. Trey starts to slowly creep out front. He takes his time and leads out with only a couple of notes at a time. Not a lot is going on here and the band is certainly taking its time letting the proper direction come to them.
A bit of tension is built up starting at the 6:05 mark, but within the context of the jam. When they come out of the tension, it is right back into the groove. At 6:35, Trey plays a lick that I believe we have heard in another Ghost. If you remember, please post in comments. This is a definitely a head bobbing jam section.
Searching for a Direction (6:56-9:50)
Fishman and Trey switch up the direction, and things take a darker turn. At 7:24 Fishman slows things up and Trey moves way out in front. The slowed down tone seems like it could move a variety of different ways. The path that is chosen is with Trey soloing using the darker tone. Fish picks the pace up a bit and Gordon moves all around giving us some great melodies.
This section overall gets a bit stale for me for a bit. Other than the fantastic work of Mike, nothing impresses me too much. Trey does some good soloing but nothing that is mind blowing.
Building? (9:51-10:44)
Mike comes with an awesome bass line and Trey responds by moving his tempo higher. Fish pushes the pace and things are starting to move. At 10:13, Trey rips into a solo and you can feel the jam starting to build. He then starts to repeat a lick and build this jam up. Then something awesome happens. As Trey starts to really rip into this build, and it feels like a peak is coming, Page starts to play some chords on the organ. Instead of moving to a peak, the jam moves in a completely different direction.
Peak Schmeak, We are here to party! (10:45-13:20)
Fish ignites the pace a bit, and those organ chords from Page lead us into a super cool section. Not sure what to call this but it sure does make me dance. I am going to go with rocking dance party. Good enough for me. This is the stuff I LOVE.
I am completely in love with the fact that instead of taking the easy road to the peak, they decided to find this awesome type 2 dance party. The peak can wait. This is a completely unique sound and it totally kicks ass. Get the LawnMemo straight jacket out because I can’t stop moving. Shit, I think I just shook my laptop to the floor.
The balance between the perfectly timed notes from Page’s Organ, Fish’s disco beat, Gordon’s bass destruction, and Trey’s tone is a huge party in my ear drums. I am currently on my 15th listen to this section and it is 1:30 in the am (Perspectives reference). When I say that other Ghost’s sometimes don’t venture out enough and create magic, this is what I am talking about. Phish 180’d and found this locked in dance party.
What is also fantastic about this section is they know they have found something special. They hang on to the sound and for just the right amount of time. Instead of ditching what they have created, they inject knew life into it.
At 12:30, Trey really picks up his playing and they build this jam toward the peak, while still maintaining this awesome sound. At 12:26, Trey moves even more out in front and you know the peak is coming. I just love that while he reaches out to find the peak, the jam continues for a couple measures.
Time for this party to get out of hand (13:20-17:56)
Then, Page and Fish drop the hammer. Big Red grabs a hold and roars his guitar. Mike gives him every ounce of support he needs. Cactus is flying up and down that bass. Page lends some piano chords to the cause at 13:50, and Trey says thanks, as he machine guns everything in sight. Trey starts to kick some major ass and I am yelling WOOOOOOO! in the LawnMemo review room. Whoa that almost rhymed.
Fish is certainly blasting away, I love the work Mike is doing, and Page provides great support. For the life of me, I cannot follow anyone but Trey in this section. He kills it. Trey in his prime ladies and gentlemen. I can’t keep up with him. His hand moves a hell of a lot quicker than my fingers can type.
Just as I write that last paragraph, he goes even more crazy! At 15:07, Big Red trades in his machine gun for a nuclear warhead. What the hell is going on right now? I heard some faces melting at 15:42. Trey is killing it. Nobody should be able to play the guitar like that. I don’t know what to type, I don’t know what to think, I don’t know my name right now. That was freaking awesome!
The jam at about 16:25, starts to break down and fade away. The final minute features Fish and some spaced out sounds from Trey. Wooo! I am spent…
Final Thoughts
So this is the tale of two halves for me. The first half of this Ghost, while not awful, is nothing that blows me away. It does find a nice groove and flows well into the last half of this Ghost. The last half however completely blows me away. The dance party section, and then the Trey peak destruction is amazing. Dear Ghost, yet again I love your story.
Score: 9.0