Those of you that know me, know my love of the song Ghost. It’s a swiss army knife of jam vehicles, with the potential to go into machine gun Trey shredding, drippy cow funk grooves, or my favorite jams – pure, unadulterated hose jams in bliss form. Ghost produces by far the happiest bliss jams, and this mind melter was dropped on the cusp of New Year’s Eve 2012-2013 as Phish put the proverbial cherry on top of what was already a stellar year. Set 2, song 2; time stamps given are from the LivePhish soundboard.

Listen: youtube, phish.in

2012: the year Phish returned to form. After a rusty 2009, a hesitant 2010, and a 2011 that showed mild promise but never truly broke out of its constraints, many wondered if Phish would ever play on the level they once had. Then 2012 hits, and we are treated to a different band: cobwebs in everyone’s playing is gone, complicated composed sections have little-to-no mistakes, set lists and show flow cease becoming checklists and start focusing on completing a narrative. Most importantly, type ii jams go deep as the band locks in and shows incredible patience while reaching for the stars. By the end of summer tour 2012, the band has finally re-gained the respect of its fan base and more importantly opened up the channel they used for jamming.

Then comes the New Year’s Eve run. After almost four months off, the band picks up right where they left off with a deep Tweezer on 12/28. The Disease>Carini pairing from 12/30 dives into the darkest depths of hell, inspiring awe and beauty in swirls of hopelessness. But both of these jams are for their own separate write-ups… 12/31 begins immediately as a party, literally: part 1 of the gag has Madison Square Garden turned into its own garden, with a part 2 to follow later involving the band playing golf during set break after the second set, and a runaway golf cart marathon leading up to midnight. Not to mention, the debut of Rick Nelson’s Garden Party to kick things off. A high-energy set 1 follows with a hot Roses Are Free and Sample in a Jar to get people bouncing, a stellar Mike’s > Walk Away > Groove, and a high-energy Character Zero to get people chomping at the bit during set break. Set 2 kicks off with a brief Birds of a Feather, before dropping into this heavenly Ghost…

Intro/Composed Section

Starts just like your standard 3.0 Ghost: Trey strumming his slinky chords while the rest of the band joins in from nothingness. The vibe the band sets off the bat is definitely relaxed and ready to lift off, but it could just as easily run out of steam early on and ripcord for something else. It’s really not easy to tell this early in the jam or even the set. First breakdown highlights clav work from Page and some tasty slapping from Mike. At 2:37 Trey loops his last chord for the break before the final chorus while Fish keeps us driving on the hi hat.

Type i jamming

At 3:31 we’ve left the vocal section of Ghost and head for type i jamming. Page on clav, Trey with his standard tubescreamer tone, Fish locking down a danceable beat, and Mike leading the charge. Actually, it’s worth pointing him out this early on because the rest of this jam follows him: from the first bar, he begins playing around with C. Composed Ghost is in A dorian (meaning G is the major scale), so going to the C pushes for lydian. Dorian shares most of its notes with the minor scale, the difference being the two being that dorian has the major 6th which compliments the minor 7th much in the way mixolydian does; it’s a staple of jazz players and Phish frequently utilizes dorian to get dark. Lydian jams are dependent on the augmented 4th, which gives a very arabian and Klezmer feel to jams. If used a certain way, it can also give jams a bluesy or jazzy feel as that augmented 4th is what’s known as “the blue note” amongst blues musicians.

But back to the jam. Mike toes the line between A, C, and D while Page pushes for D. At 4:00 Mike moves up the neck for a beat to try to push into space, while the rest of the band stays rooted in A dorian. At 4:18 Trey starts strumming an interesting pattern that plays off of Fish’s kick. This is all about building space and preparing for the deep jam, the patience the band shows here is bar none. At 4:45 Trey starts a loop and reverses it, creating interplay off of his rhythmic strumming pattern; shortly after this at 4:52 he uses some light feedback to announce his presence as the leader of this type i jam. Page has by now caught onto Mike’s ideas, and shifts his focus to C as well, but keeps his playing rooted by returning to A and D sporadically. Fish starts hitting syncopated swing beats on the snare by creating space on the upbeat of 2, creating polyrhythm against Page and Mike. We’re locked in while the band is pushing for liftoff.

Cactus pushes us to C

At 6:08, Mike says “come on guys, let’s go to C, it’ll be fun!” Page, having picked up on the hints, takes his time but makes the shift slowly to help bridge the gap between Trey and Mike. At 6:25 Page shifts to the piano to lighten the mood a bit and we’re back in A. At 6:48 Mike finally puts his foot down and says “okay I’ve had enough, we’re going to C.” Page follows close behind, and Trey signs up for the ride at 7:00 as well. Fish has moved to the ride cymbal to create air, and at this point we’re now coasting along on the Sea of Tranquility. Trey starts some reverse feedback loops while Page pushes things higher with his piano work. The tension relief from A dorian to C lydian happens on a dime, and it’s beautiful.

How can this jam get better? With a MIKE BOMB! That’s how. At 7:32, the characteristic Taurus pedal boom hits us as the filter sweeps and brings us home. By 7:39 Page has begun playing this little riff that is gorgeous and shifts from the augmented fourth (F#) to a resolution on the third (E) and fifth (G, which is the tonic of C lydian); reminds me lots of the type ii segment at 10:19 of the 7/3/14 Tweezer, actually. But back to ghost: the band builds off of Page, with Mike sticking to the root and fifth. At 7:57 Trey starts his whale calls, building on the minor 7th outside of the lydian structure with Page following close behind. At this point we’re in C mixolydian, the king of bliss jams. Fish pushes things along with a little tom fill at the end of each bar and using the snare and kick to create foundation. Trey and Mike push things along with feedback work from Trey and solid root work from Mike

THIS ISN’T EVEN THEIR FINAL FORM

At 9:18 Trey starts playing arpeggiated pentatonics, with Page following his lead. Mike is all over the place, growing while working with Fish to create a foundation for everything. By 10:05 Trey plays a few licks that remind me an awful lot of Riverport Gin but without the swirl and intensity. This peak is much mellower than a late ’90s jam, but this is chasing after something different. The band is a bit more relaxed, less eager to simply reach the top and instead opting to travel slowly and just take in all of the sights they can along the way. 10:15 sees the recurrence of a riff that I’ve heard Phish do many times but can never quite place, it’s a root>second (C>D in this case) pair that never quite resolves. The band isn’t looking for an end here either.

Then at 10:57, Trey hits that note. You know the one I’m talking about? Where he just hangs onto a note for what seems like forever, and it is glorious. It’s like reaching the top of a mountain and looking out at the valleys, the surrounding hills, and the sky and clouds above. It’s pure joy and glory, and it allows you to take in your beautiful surroundings while catching your breath to process that you just climbed a goddamned mountain. Isn’t life beautiful?

Page keeps pushing this jam higher and higher, with Mike moving his work a bit higher up on the fretboard and Fish changing up his drumming patterns. Fish is the quiet hero at this point, as his work is so solid it’s easy to miss how important his drum fills are. His ride cymbal is dominating the drum tone, just careful enough to fill the air and mellow everyone out. His kick/snare pattern is seemingly unchanged from when the hose opened its faucet, but his toms have started filling the blank space in between. Between 11:15 and 11:20, he takes a gorgeous cue from Mike and changes to a 6/8 pattern that synchronizes with the original 4/4 perfectly.

Descent back to Earth

Page maintains the original 4/4 and at 11:30 Trey turns on his whammy to octave up to play some light melodies. This is one of the things that made 2012 such a good year: Phish didn’t just let jams die, they learned how to ease out of them and give both a sense of finality and time for everyone to process. The audience roars in approval at the monstrosity of a jam they were just treated to while Page switches up to the Wurlitzer at 11:58. Mike drops out of the mix by 11:44 and allows Page and Trey to gently rest this jam to bed as Fish keeps things driving forward with a simple snare/ride pattern in his 6/8 pattern. at 12:01 Mike adds minor fills as Fish drops out and prepares for the next phase.

It is here we are dropped into a perfectly-timed Piper. Great way to finish off the vibe and bring energy back up for what continues into a brilliant 40-minute segment of music between Ghost > Piper > Light > 2001. But as usual those jams are for another time.

This Ghost isn’t a size monster, nor is it the best Ghost you’ll ever hear. But it’s one of my two hidden gems from a brilliant year of Phish. The band locked in and patiently built up to a gorgeous peak that does not fail to deliver the goods.