(AUD Download @KernelForbin Remaster)

Background (Set: 2 of 3 – Song: 2 of 7 – Show Gap: 5)

This Ghost takes place on the second day of the “IT” Festival. Right in the meat of the show, this is the longest Ghost to date. A legendary glowstick war took place during this Ghost and I have linked the video at the end. Since this is already almost 32 minutes the segues from Mellow Mood and into Mountains in the Mist have not been included.

Composed Section (0:00-4:08)

Fish starts things off and Trey follows him. Mike doesn’t play his traditional bass line at first, but eventually falls into it. There is a little jam that breaks out before the vocals. When the vocals enter, Fishman is the first to start singing. He is much louder than normal and it takes a second for Trey to catch up.

The pace is a bit more upbeat than normal. The solo section gets a heavy dose of Trey. Page gets funkier as it winds down. Average, nothing special. There are some crazy howling wind loops that are evident during this composed section. Big fan of those!

The pause is a bit longer than normal. The drop is executed pretty well, a touch sloppy, but they re-enter with energy.

Page has IT (4:09-8:44)

The jam breaks out immediately into a groove. Page finds himself on the piano and represents himself strongly from the start. Laying down some beautiful melodies he helps push this jam into a good groove. When Fish hits the splash cymbal at 4:16, the jam breaks right down. Mike lays down the bass and Trey begins to solo.

Page’s playing is extremely strong. Each melody he presents dances softly in my ears. Trey is doing some leading in this jam but it certainly Page who is leading my ears in his direction.

Mike’s deep tone finds Page’s heavenly melodies and makes them dance even lighter. I like this initial groove quite a bit. Then again when Page is on the piano, it is easy for me to get excited.

Around the 6:00 mark, Page starts to repeat a series of notes. Fish picks up the pace just a smidgen while he does that. Mike finds himself a great bass line, and when Page comes away from the repeat, we find an even better jam.

Trey’s soloing seems to get cleaner, and Page is even brighter then before. This is nice! Page is moving my soul, and the band is locked into a balanced jam. Life is good. Time to crack open a Troegs Nugget Nectar to make it even better! I am feeling like this!

So we are only 7 minutes in and I am already having random thoughts. Last night I watched the Grammy’s and it was full of a bunch of crap. There were some cool moments for sure, but some of that music is god awful. I am not one to criticize what people like…(well maybe sometimes). It just always makes me sad for people, that the majority of people that listen to music don’t get moved the way Phish and many other jam band fans do. I know that is a blanket statement, but I see it a lot. Phish has always charged my soul and it is a feeling I wish everyone got to experience. Summary of that paragraph=#GoTeamPhish!

Page is just blowing me away around the 7 minute mark. He drops melodies that make me want to hug him around the 7:15 mark. Trey grabs a hold and starts to repeat some notes at the 7:21 mark. Page, just moves in behind and continues to drop Angels of Limestone (Angels of Harlem joke) (Wow, that was a bad joke).

The only thing that is keeping me from a full floating journey is that Trey’s tone has the rough edge to it. Its grit cuts through some of the heavenly Page butter.

Pure Heaven (8:45-13:29)

Trey moves away from the gritty tone and to more of a blissful one. Page is staying right where he is and I am getting excited. Not to mention this Nugget Nectar is kicking in. Woooo! This is some good stuff, both this jam and my beer!

Fishman is laying down a beat that provides a large amount of room for the rest of the band. Everyone is hitting there stride during this section. Page has been just fantastic throughout. Trey’s lighter tone, along with Mike picking his spots makes this outstanding.

Trey holds a nooooooooooote at 9:43, which Mike and Page dance through. When Trey pulls away he repeats a couple different notes and Page is providing the soundtrack to my happiness. The band is officially locked in here. This is bliss. Quatro members all moving as one. (Quatro=Four In Spanish). I thought it sounded cool there.

This guy gets it! Floating and grooving and dancing all in one.

These sections just makes me smile. With every note Page hits, I feel more connected to happiness. I get to these sections in the review, and I can’t stop listening. I rewind it and play it and just sit there like this

#MindBlown

It is just perfect. I can’t contain myself at the beauty this band is able to achieve. It overwhelms me. The grit of Trey’s guitar has been washed away with magical bowls of hot fudge sundaes. I could listen to this forever.

Did I mention Page McConnell yet? He is playing so well it is time to unveil one of the greatest gifs ever created…

I know this was from this year, but I feel like the Chairman is owning this. I can’t say how much I enjoy his playing in this section any other way than to just show you how bad ass that man is.

9:00-12:50 AWESOME stuff.

Around the 12:30 mark you can start to hear the jam beginning to change. Trey moves his tone extremely high and Fish moves things fast underneath him. Then Trey begins to repeat those high notes at a quick pace. Page takes this opportunity to destroy the keyboards. They create an awesome amount of tension! HERE WE GO….

Peak/Ambience/Complex Stuff (13:30-20:13) This is also the Glowstick Freakout

The air comes flying out at the 13:30 mark and the crowd goes nuts. Fish switches things to a much more powerful beat. It seems like things are about to just go ballistic but hold the phone.

Instead of ripping everyone’s face off, they band takes things way down. This is a great technique in order to make things explode even more later. The jam moves downward and Trey continues to repeat a lick.

At the 14:30 mark Fish adds an extra beat and then a splash cymbal. You can feel the animal coming. This is sweeeeeeet. Trey comes away from that lick around the 15:00 mark and Fishman moves right with him. Fishman adds a bunch of different beats on the way to the change.

At the 15:25 mark, Trey moves into full rocker solo mode. Page has asserted himself heavily into the piano once again. Things peak pretty nicely around the 15:30 mark. I am feeling good writing this review. Trey gets into some pretty impressive solo work at the 15:58 mark. It is snowing and nasty in Buffalo, NY right now. This is making me forget about what is outside.

At 16:05 Trey finds a lick he starts to repeat and we move towards a big change. Things change pretty drastically starting at the 16:20 mark. Trey is still soloing like a mad man while Fishman and Mike begin to drive things downward.

Page comes through with more awesomeness at the 16:53 mark. He could not have timed that any better. With Trey in full shred mode, Fish and Mike move things downward and that Piano just punches you right in the face. SO AWESOME! The jam could have fallen down into the depths, or held on for more peak. Page signals for more peak and WE KEEP GOING!

Page holds some chords at 17:25, and then Trey does the same. It allows for Fishman to just echo through this jam. Page then comes washing everything away.

Cool peak section. Not the simple in your face, facemelter. This has a lot going on. I dig it. As Trey lets his guitar fade away, the jam moves down into the darkness. Get ready to forget Who, Where, and How you got here….

As the jam fades, Fishman is the man that gets us to the next destination. He drives the jam as everyone else is providing feedback. No worries, the man in the dress is strong. He moves right through the resistance and takes to the next stop on our journey. When he stops, things have changed…

Welcome to Hoth (20:15-31:47)

When Fishman stops, the road to the Apocalypse begins. The feedback from Trey’s guitar is haunting. At this point I can’t tell if I just drank a Nugget Nectar or a Bud Light. Oh wait yes I can…and I will certainly be able to tell the difference tomorrow.

Instead of my usual space reference I am going with a Nemo Storm inspired Hoth reference. We are way past any planet that would show up on scanners. It is cold and dark. This is about to go down…

Get out while you still can!!! From 20:15 to 21:15 there is no sign of Fishman. He re-enters with a fury. An extremely fast paced beat from Fishman starts trying to find its way through this planet of ice.

The patience in this drifting through Space/Ice/Whatever the hell you want to call where we are is crazy. There is almost nothing going on. I dig creativity like this. Sometimes less is more!

At 22:35 I am pretty sure Vader just force choked someone. That was a crazy sound. Fishman is really moving during this. He has moved into some serious cymbal work. I am getting tired just listening to him.

Trey starts to move into some soloing at the 23:30 mark, and it is time to start a fire on this ice planet. Page moves to the synth, then the organ as Trey starts to play with more frequency.

Trey is full rocking mode around the 24:00 mark. So we are on an ice planet? Might as well kick some ass! A full spaced out jam emerges. Trey is in full 2.0 mode and has the gritty think tone moving. Mike drops some ice laser beams at the 24:35 mark. We are moving now!

I know I went with the Hoth reference but I have to post this gif. I came across this…Apparently someone HATES their wallet…

Beow Beow Beow Beow from Mike makes this jam awesome. Pair that with some unique runs form Page plus Trey’s soloing and this is pretty cool. Huge points for the uniqueness of this jam and the balls the band showed. This could not be any more 90 degrees from the blissful Phish we saw toward the beginning of this jam. This is the dark dance party on the ice planet.

Trey’s playing is good but nothing that catches me and moves my soul. I know a lot of people who drift off during this section. Such is 2.0. It is cool for the uniqueness of this jam and I get super excited every time it starts. Then I drift away for a bit, and it doesn’t hold my attention.

At around the 27:30 (whoa that is a big number) Fish is just destroying things. We see Trey play a whole bunch of crazy notes which is not really my thing. I do love listening to Fish, he is an animal during this.

#Fishman

Like many Ghosts, Fishman is the man behind the scenes locking down the beat until he explodes. This is certainly the case here, it just happens at like the 27:00 minute mark. Around the 29:00 mark, Trey comes back into the jam nicely and the end is actually really cool.

He has a nice tone and with Fishman crushing the drums, Page drops in nicely on the piano at 29:43. When the 30 minute mark hits, Trey starts to rock out this ending. Fish is working all kinds of cymbals. At 30:30, Trey picks it up even more.

NOW WE ARE TALKING!

Trey says alright 30 minute mark? I am ready to get the hell out of here! I think this happened…

At the 31:00 mark he slows down and some more beautiful Page leads to the end of this Monster Ghost.

Final Thoughts

The current longest Ghost ever played. A monster in every way. Another great example of the 2.0 era and maybe the jam that defines it. When it is good, my gosh it is it good. The bliss section is just beautiful. In fact I am huge fan of the first 20 minutes. I also love the crazy right angle space turn we took shortly after that and it does get somewhat monotonous for bit. I would also say as great as a lot of this Ghost is, it doesn’t have that one section that just blows you out of the water. As a body of work though there are some better, but not a whole lot.

Score: 9.3

A REAL Glowstick War…