I’m proctoring an exam right now as a TA, so I figured… what better way to kill time than with a jam analysis? (Update: the exam is long over, and this sat as a 3/4 finished draft for a few days while I traveled… I gotta get better at this.) This Twist is the jam that got me interested in Island Tour and Twist as a whole. A long time ago, when I was still exploring Phish (I had only 3.0 shows and the official LivePhish 1-20 releases, and this was sometime in 2010 about two months after I first started listening to Phish), a friend of mine told me, “you NEED to listen to Island Tour! It’s quintessential Phish.” Sure enough, I picked up the shows and skipped around a bit. I unfortunately didn’t shuffle around to any of the stellar jams, because outside of an interesting Tweezer > Taste I didn’t think much of it. I dunno – maybe it’s that I was still exploring Phish’s catalog of songs, maybe it’s that I wasn’t ready for this style of jamming, maybe I just didn’t hear the magic. But it simply didn’t stick out to me. Fast-forward to a little over a year ago when I was writing my master’s thesis, a friend of mine asked me to show him the Island Tour, as he had read it was the best Phish. We were on his computer, so we traversed to youtube and I simply put in “Phish Island Tour” and one of the first results was this Twist. So I sat there and watched it with him. Needless to say, it blew me away more than it did him. Twist is one of those songs that I hadn’t heard shine in its 1.0 glory, only in its modern pre-2015 whoo-machine form; this jam turned my expectation of Twist as a song – and of Island Tour as a whole – on its head; I have since discovered plenty of amazing Twists and dug through all of Island Tour top-to-bottom. Set 2, song 7; time stamps given are from the LivePhish soundboard

Listen: youtube part 1/youtube part 2, phish.in

Ah, the mythical Island Tour. A magical and revered time in Phish’s storied history. Phish had totally redefined what they could do in 1997, beginning with the 3/1/97 Wolfman’s Brother; Phish was no longer a goofy jazz-fusion-rock-goofy band. Hot on the heels of a Halloween musical costume of the Talking Heads’ Remain in Light on 10/31/96, they created an entirely new groove-based form of jamming, lovingly titled “cow funk,” and used all of 1997 to build on this new improvisation style. This culminated in fall tour 1997 (the highlights of which can be found in the compilation “Phish Destroys America” – just google it) where the band reached new heights and fiery blissful peaks while discovering psychedelic grooves of said cow funk. Plenty of highlight-worthy jams in this era (the McNichols Ghost and 12/6 Tweezer are both up there on my jam analysis list and amongst my favorite jams), but I’ll get to those in the future.

Queue up early 1998. Phish was in the process of recording Story of the Ghost, an album full of spacey, funky, psychedelic grooves, and they were so excited by the new sounds they were creating that they simply couldn’t wait to play the shows live – so that’s exactly what they did. With little more than a few week’s notice, they announced a short run of two shows at Nassau Coliseum in Long Island, and two shows at Providence Civic Center in Rhode Island – where the “Island Tour” cleverly gets its name.

And from the get-go of the first show, it’s obvious why the band was impatient to play live. These shows were straight fire; the band was locked in and constructing jams that showed patience, creativity, depth, and complexity the likes of which had never before been seen. This was no longer the small-time band from Vermont playing high school auditoriums; if anyone had qualms that Phish didn’t deserve its following, these shows are the proof that Phish deserves its place in the upper echelon of jam bands. It also proved to fans that 1997 wasn’t a fluke or a phase, but rather passage into a newly transformed Phish. 1998 would go on to be storied as one of Phish’s best – arguably the best (I’d disagree) – and most consistent year of Phish. I lump Island Tour stylistically more with 1997, but I do have to say I’m hard-pressed to find a run of shows that is top-to-bottom as consistently stellar as Island Tour. I don’t think they’re Phish’s best shows, and of all jams contained within them this Twist is really the only jam I regularly spin over and over again, but if I’m hanging out with my friends and someone puts on Island Tour I’m hesitant to complain.

Oh right! I’m supposed to be doing a jam analysis. On with the show…

Set 1 burst out of the gates with a groovy and funky eight-and-a-half minute Tube that competed with the song’s fall ’97 outings. But the real gem of this set was Stash. A formerly jazz-fusion tune in the vein of Frank Zappa, this Stash climbed like the fiery ’94 versions; but instead of breaking back into the main Stash riff to end the song, instead the boys broke into major bliss jamming, throwing their cow funk skills at the tune and proving that the jam style could drop at any time, in any moment, in any set, with any song. That to me is truly special. But this stash is for another writeup.

Set 2 kicked off with a stellar Punch You in the Eye, a Simple that is purely sublime (one of my favorite Simples, if not my favorite), the debut of Birds of a Feather, a funky Wolfman’s that dropped right into Sneaking Sally (which proved to fans that the NYE ’97 bustout was around to stay for a while), with another debut of Frankie Says. With all of the fire built up into this show so far, little did fans know that the jam of the evening was about to drop… the Island Tour Twist.

Introduction/composed section

I have to say… I kind of miss the old intro to and chord structure of Twist. It’s less whoo-prone, and kind of slithers and slinks (dare I say it, twists?) around instead of being the blues machine that it is today. I also prefer the delay on Trey singing “… that way” during the chorus, it added swing and laziness to said chorus. I think the old introduction also built energy way better, to me it sounds way more fun. And then, finally at 2:24 we are treated to the band’s own whoo’s. I don’t mind them here as they are less dominant in the song and Page is doing some VERY tasty clavinet work instead of the band simply going start-stop.

Type i initial jam

At 3:05, the song proper breaks into straight type i jamming. This isn’t too different from early 3.0 iterations of the jam – Trey does his blues/rhythm thing, Page plays a few chords, Mike plays the same root notes, Fish plays a pretty standard drum beat. We get it. The guys are having fun. When I used to get Twist in a second set, it was usually around here that I lost interest as the band wouldn’t do much more with it (with rare exception – see 10/23/13 Twist, which is a future writeup). But it had a way of sucking up set energy, tension, and flow that the band had worked hard to build, and I never liked that.

For those of you playing jazz theory modal bingo at home, Twist is in G dorian (which is also F ionian/major), which is what gives this a bluesy feel but with a jazzy… twist. This is important for when we hit the stride of type ii territory in a bit, as the way these modes interact is quite interesting.

But yeah… back to Twist. Nothing special quite yet. Same story as earlier. at 4:13 Trey hits some interesting rhythmic structures to play off of Fish, and this will make a reappearance in the jam later, but for now it gets placed on the back burner. Around 4:50 Page plays some interesting chords, but things settle back to normal within ten seconds or so. What is interesting is if you listen carefully you can hear some of the tension building and ideas about how the band wants to expand the jam – Mike keeps hitting Bb’s (which is where they end up going thanks to him), and Page is giving Trey a million-and-one ideas with his chordal work. Fishman is building very careful tension using dynamic, and he’s forcing the entire band to work and listen carefully if they want to pay attention to him.

Break into type ii: G dorian to Bb mixolydian

Finally, at 6:28, things start to get interesting. That rhythmic idea Trey came up with at 4:13? They’re back, and now they’re dominating the jam. Trey and Fish are paving the road for the rest of the band to follow into type ii. Page steps up to the clavinet to get funky, and Mike throws some great octave picking for good measure while playing around with the flat-7 beneath the octave. At 6:48, Trey hints at going full minor, which would make things quite dark and heavy. The band plays around and thinks about it, before Mike makes what is easily the best decision of the entire jam and is what gave this jam bearing for what it would later become. For the time being, it sounds like the jam is going to straight funk, but at 7:01, Mike stops on the Bb for a second, and he likes what he hears. He switches things back to G-dorian to keep in line with the rest of the band, but clearly Page heard what Mike was thinking and switches up to the rhodes. Instead of dark funk, it’s time to get swirly and happy; Page obliges and tries to convince Trey that Mike’s idea is good. By 7:07, Trey plays the fifth-minor 7th of the G minor (again, we’re in dorian here), and realizes it will work brilliantly instead of the blues space funk from hell he might have thought of earlier. At 7:16, Mike definitively slips into Bb, and this jam – almost on a dime – changes mood to Page’s swirly-happy time.

Fair warning: if you’re not interested in modal analysis or theory, skip ahead to the next paragraph. Otherwise, time for a moment here to analyze that shift from G dorian to Bb. From Trey and Page’s playing later in the jam, I can tell you that the Bb modal shift is Bb mixolydian (which is Eb-ionian/major). Here’s the cool thing: G dorian has a heavy minor-key-esque tonality, which adds tension and jazzy accidentals. This combines with a major-6th (if we analyze G dorian as a function of the key of G major), which when paired with the minor-7th gives things an Arabian feel. If we look at F ionian (for which G dorian shares a tonic) and try to shift to Bb, we are in Bb lydian. Lydian also has the same Byzantine/Arabian feel in the augmented-fourth to it, but with the added benefit of having major key tonality otherwise. If Phish wanted to go bliss in the mode of G dorian, the obvious choice would be C mixolydian, which is the analog of F ionian/G dorian. But they didn’t. Instead, they switched gears to the Bb and made it mixolydian. This has an interesting implication – the Bb holds the importance of being major in the mode of F ionian, but making it lydian brings more bliss peaking. Likewise, the shift from the tonic F to Eb means the fourth in Bb goes from augmented to major, and the seventh goes from major to minor. You can hear what this jam would have sounded like if they had made it Bb lydian; listen to timestamps 7:15-7:25, specifically Page’s playing as he skirts the line into Bb with Mike. This is the tonality the jam would have if they stayed in Bb lydian. The shift to Bb mixolydian is extremely subtle – Page and Trey actually outright ignore the fourth (not giving any clues as to whether we’re in lydian or mixolydian) for precisely this reason as they want the tension to resolve itself or have the solution come to them naturally. Finally, at 7:32 Page gives us the answer by hitting the major 4th, which forces the rest of the band to slip into either Bb ionian (major) or Bb mixolydian; the band settles into mixolydian to really slather on the bliss. It’s harder to convey this without actually playing the modal shifts and interactions for you on an instrument; if you have questions about this please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Page’s rhodes work here is nothing short of stellar; either his rhodes or his yamaha synth is my favorite thing that he uses on stage, and this segment of this jam is certainly a strong argument for the rhodes. It has width, twinkle, and an incredible combination of jazz-fusion meets ambient bliss. It gives the perfect counter to Trey; together, the two of them are exploring the psychedelic expanses that Fish and Mike are building the frameworks of around them.

Trey is focusing heavily on rhythmic picking instead of notes; Fish is providing the perfect air and vibe thanks to the ride cymbal, and Cactus… as usual, the unsung hero right now. He’s simply exploring the root, major 9th, minor 7th, and major 5th as allowed by Bb mixolydian, playing it out and letting the groove come naturally to him. Fish and he are locked in; the two are tangoing to create polyrhythm that compliments and doesn’t fight. At the same time, Fish is also providing that air and giving ideas for Trey to build off of. You can see how this weave – as Steve Lillywhite put it when they were recording Billy Breathes, like a flock of birds – gets very complicated very quickly, and this band has mastered the art of improvisation.

Meanwhile, they are currently focused on nothing more than setting a mood and vibe. There are no real solos, everybody left their ego at the stage entrance and these guys came wanting to push each other, not themselves. By 8:11 we are simply floating in mid-air, taking in the miles of sights around us. Page steps up to the synth to add some noise around 8:28, which pushes the vibe of thick and steamy upon this already gorgeous jam.

Houston, We Have Type ii

At 9:02, Trey starts feeding back heavily on notes to add soar and movement to this mid-air float. He also turns on his Leslie rotary speaker at 9:16 and switches from fast to slow rotation at 9:21, furthering the swirly psychedelia in a Hendrix/Trower/Gilmour-esque way. Now, instead of remaining stationary, we have begun a rocket ship-style excursion as we begin to blast off into outer space. Trey takes us all over the fretboard, while Mike holds down the fort with a riff beginning at 9:45. Page sets his rhodes with modulation; this is incredibly cool to listen to with headphones on as the sound seems to travel around your head. This, along with Trey’s rotary speaker, sounds otherworldly on a decent pair of headphones.

I would also be remiss if I didn’t mention the lighting at this part of the jam. This point correlates with part 2 of the youtube videos I posted above; sadly you don’t get the entire jam in one go, but you do get this segment of the lighting in its entirety. This is easily some of CK5’s best lighting work, ever. I wish I could have been there to see it, but it’s absolutely brilliant. I can’t describe it too well; I implore you to, once you’ve heard the jam once all the way through, to check out the video; and make sure to watch the lighting of this segment to the end in its entirety!

But yeah, this jam. We’ve gone from floating in the ether of space to traveling full-speed ahead thanks to Trey and Page. Page’s chords are very jazzy, Trey hits the wah pedal at 10:51 and starts scratching his strings, which when combined with his delays add some wonderful rhythmic complexity over his looping. This compliments with Fish and Mike’s rhythmic structure by both working with it and providing polyrhythm against their work. Page is keeping the psychedelic space with his Rhodes traveling across the speakers, setting us up for one of Phish’s most beautiful segments of music, ever.

The blissy peak

Starting at 11:10, Trey hits a sequence of notes that in my opinion always correspond with bliss peaks. The same sequence (albeit, in C and not Bb) appears in the Riverport Gin from 7/29/98, but I prefer it here as the Leslie rotary speaker and wah pedal add a bit more icing to this most delicious of cakes. Here, Page seems to take a bit of a back seat compared to his prior Rhodes work, and Mike keeps doing his thing, laying down foundation for the rest of the band to build upon. Pay attention to Fishman, too: his cymbals are adding just the right amount of air to this jam.

At 11:42, Mike shifts his focus to the C, adding major 4ths and the flat-7 to the mix to add a slightly darker feel; this compliments Trey nicely and slowly, over lots of time, forces this jam to get very spacey. It’s a brilliant counterpoint to the bliss peak Trey and Page are building. By 12:00, Page has faded from focus, but his work here is equivalent to a tech crew making magic happen on stage behind the scenes. At 12:06, Trey moves his work one octave up, signaling the peak of this jam segment and allowing Page to shift back into focus with his work.

Into dark space

Page begins hitting some very jazzy chords around 12:20 to fully join Mike into C aolean and create dark, dark, space. Trey joins the fray into darkness around 12:45, and we shift into ether boosted by Mike at 13:05. Trey uses a fast rotary/tremolo effect to complete the dark minor tonality shift, and some vocal jamming (my guess is Fishman, but it could be anyone really) completes the shift out of bliss. Page hits the yamaha synth at 13:50, and things get downright nasty and dark.

The band is trying to figure this segment out, playing noises and sounds that all work to compliment each other. This is the band getting creative. Fishman adds some cowbell work around 14:30 to push things along, and Page’s synth work is dominating the space. Mike’s bass work at 14:55 combined with his delays and reverbs causes a total loss of cohesion (sonically, not compositionally) and someone (Fishman I think) yells his approval via vocal jamming at 15:15. By 15:45, Trey has hit a C, signaling a potential shift and creating a 2001-esque vibe. Page’s synth turns from dark to euphoric at 15:55, and if this does end up shifting to 2001 we’re in for one hell of a ride.

Trey’s feedback around 16:10 strengthens the argument for 2001, and Fishman’s shifting tempo seems to lock right in to the concept. Mike works his way to the C root-octave pairing, and this allows Trey to start soloing around 16:45 with Page’s synth work.

We’re in dark, dark territory with the potential for massive payoff. Had I been at this show, I’d have been calling 2001 from a mile away. But in the meantime, I’m just fine with this headspace. Reminds me lots of the 7/7/99 2001 introduction but with a dance-happy drum beat which I’m not going to complain about either. Page’s synth and Trey’s feed backing hit their peak around 18:10; this is QUITE different from the bliss peak we were just in.

By 18:20, Page has switched gears to piano, signaling something that isn’t 2001. Trey lets his guitar slowly fade, and Mike follows closely behind. We are kept on the heels of this jam solely by Fish’s tom toms, and Trey lands us perfectly in Sleeping Monkey.

Not much more I can say about this jam musically that I haven’t already said. All I’ll say, is that this is in my opinion one of Phish’s most cathartic and complex peaks out there; I’ve heard it referred to as an anti-peak, which I wouldn’t 100% disagree with. But every time I hear Page’s rhodes work and Trey hits those notes from 11:06 to 12:20, I feel as if I’ve learned something about the world that I didn’t know before I last heard this jam.