Phish Concert in Manchester, NH

I went to a Phish show in Manchester the other night. Phish is an American jam band which is one of my favorite groups, period. A lot of people don't really know Phish's music, because they didn't really have any "top 40" singles. However, their talent as musicians, either individually or as a group, is pretty incredible.


[Click on any of these photos to see them in higher quality].


Phish is a four-piece, led by singer/guitarist Trey Anastasio. They all met at the University of Vermont in the early 1980's, and formed the band then. Although there were a few personnel changes at the start, the current lineup (including pianist Page McConnell, bassist Mike Gordon, and drummer Jon Fishman) solidified in 1985. They toured extensively from the late 1980's to 2004, when they broke up for a number of years, returning to the stage in 2009.

It's hard to describe their music as being a particular style, since they incorporate rock, jazz, funk, folk, bluegrass, reggae, country, blues, and classical elements into their performances. So it's probably best to just think of them as a jam band. They have often been compared to the Grateful Dead, and with good reason. Not only in their style kind of similar, their fan base is also very similar. It's like a big community. One guy that I was talking to for the first half of the show said that it was his sixtieth Phish concert. Incidentally, he was also pretty impressed with our proximity to the band, and said that he had never seen them from that close (we were standing together in the front row).

The last time that I saw Phish before this show was in 1996, in Portland (Maine). That was an amazing show, the second-best concert that I've ever been to in my life. So this one needed to be pretty impressive to compete. I wasn't disappointed - the first set was pretty decent, but the second set was stellar. The funny thing though is that when I listened to a recording of the concert afterwards (more on this in a minute), the recording sounded a lot better than it did live at the concert. Great miking job on the part of the recording engineers. Maybe part of the problem for me (for the first set) was that I was so close to the stage that the sound wasn't distributed properly, because I was sort of "behind" the speakers. I wandered around a bit during the second set, to hear the sound from different parts of the arena.



One of the best things about the band is their tape trading policy. Fans are actually permitted and encouraged to share recordings of their shows. In the early days, fans would bring cassette recorders with boom mikes into each concert, and trade tapes around at subsequent shows. Now, Phish has taken it a step further and every ticket-holder can get a free recording of the concert, posted on their website, usually within a few hours after the show is over. Amazing. And brilliant, since this policy has undoubtedly increased their popularity. It's also a great way of giving fans more insight into the band, since every show is basically different. They don't perform the same songs in the same order, night after night. It was entertaining to see them talking back and forth between songs, trying to decide what they'd play next. They also have a huge repertoire, and there were times where I was amused to see them trying to figure out the words to a song before they started playing it. I think that this concert was a pretty eclectic one compared to many. I haven't studied the set lists, but I'm guessing there were songs in the first set that they hadn't played live since at least 2004.

Anyway, speaking of live recordings, I highly recommend that you check out their website for live music: www.livephish.com. You can download tons of old concert recordings in great quality, for very nominal prices. And the quality of the recordings on the site is pretty sweet.



The entire trip was great. We were impressed with the large $2 draughts at Murphy's Taproom before the show (especially the Shipyard Pumpkinhead Ale, which isn't available in Canada). The "Shakedown Street" fan community bazaar before the show offered clothing, drinks, and art galleries. And the concert lasted for almost four hours with intermissions - a full three hours of performance time.



Here's a video clip of the opening track (a cover of "After Midnight" by JJ Cale, and made famous by Clapton):



YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdsLbdCzfbc


Now I've got the urge to go to another show soon. Perhaps Madison Square Gardens for New Year's?

I'm Jonathan Clark, known online as DJ Bolivia.  Do you want to learn more about DJ'ing and music production?  If so, visit:

djbolivia.ca/training

If you happen to enjoy techno tracks, most of my tracks are available as free downloads from this link:

djbolivia.ca/tracks

Thanks so much for visit, and for your support!  I really appreciate the fan base that I've been able to build up over the years.

Also, if you want to visit any of my other sites, here are a few links:

    YouTube:  youtube.com/djbolivia

    SoundCloud:  soundcloud.com/djbolivia

    Blogger:  djbolivia.blogspot.com

    Main Site:  www.djbolivia.ca

Taylor Mitchell - Musician

Today, Canada lost a great young musician. Taylor Mitchell, of Toronto, was attacked by coyotes while hiking yesterday in Cape Breton, during an Atlantic Canadian tour. She passed away this morning in Halifax. Taylor was a 19-year old indie folk rock singer/songwriter, with an idealistic view on life and a love for music.

While you're reading this blog posting, open up her MySpace page and listen to some of her songs:

http://www.myspace.com/taylormitchellband


Taylor was supposed to play in Sydney, Nova Scotia, this evening. Here's a link to an article explaining what happened: exclaim.ca article

Toronto Singer-Songwriter Taylor Mitchell Attacked and Killed by Coyotes
10/28/2009 By Brock Thiessen

After just recently releasing her Exclaim!-recommended debut album, For Your Consideration, 19-year-old Toronto folk singer Taylor Mitchell has died after being attacked by two coyotes in Nova Scotia’s Cape Breton Highlands National Park.

On Tuesday afternoon (October 27), Mitchell was hiking on the park’s Skyline Trail when the two animals attacked her. According to the Toronto Star, another hiker nearby heard Mitchell’s cries for help and called 911.

Mitchell was airlifted to Halifax in critical condition and died early this morning.

"I spoke to her mother late last night and at one point we thought she was stable," manager Lisa Weitz told the Star, "but she had lost too much blood."

An RCMP officer reportedly shot and killed one coyote overnight but officials are still looking for the second.

Mitchell was in the midst of an East coast tour and was scheduled to perform tonight in Sydney, NS. "She had a small break and [she] wanted to go hiking," said Weitz.

While coyotes attacks are rare, the popular Skyline Trail has been closed and barricaded since the incident.


This was a really ironic incident for me. The previous night, I had been re-learning the chords and lyrics to a hit by another Canadian singer, Joni Mitchell. It was an old song that Joni wrote in the 1970's, called "Coyote." Check out the "Last Waltz" concert by The Band, one of the best Canadian music films ever - I wonder if Taylor ever saw it, since she had listed Joni Mitchell and The Band and several other performers from that concert in her favorite influences. I had even changed my Facebook status, just hours before this incident, to mention the first few lines of that song, "no regrets Coyote ..." I've often worked close to coyotes (and wolves) in my forestry job, and the thought that a couple of these animals could act like this is a grim reminder that you can never know what to expect from wild animals.


Taylor played in my hometown of Sackville, New Brunswick, several days ago. She didn't have a big following yet, but she had big dreams. It's tragic that her goals of reaching out to a bigger audience have been realized at the end of her life, without her knowledge.

I hope a lot of Canadian musicians will see this post and share it on their own facebook pages and blogs. Cut and paste, if you want. Despite the tragedy, I think Taylor would have been happy to know that at least her music will, for a brief time, reach a much wider audience than she might have expected.

- Jonathan Clark
Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada



http://www.myspace.com/taylormitchellband





ETA: October 30th article on CNN:
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Music/10/29/taylor.mitchell/index.html

---

I'm Jonathan Clark, known online as DJ Bolivia.  Do you want to learn more about DJ'ing and music production?  If so, visit:

djbolivia.ca/training

If you happen to enjoy techno tracks, most of my tracks are available as free downloads from this link:

djbolivia.ca/tracks

Thanks so much for visit, and for your support!  I really appreciate the fan base that I've been able to build up over the years.

Also, if you want to visit any of my other sites, here are a few links:

    YouTube:  youtube.com/djbolivia

    SoundCloud:  soundcloud.com/djbolivia

    Blogger:  djbolivia.blogspot.com

    Main Site:  www.djbolivia.ca

New York City, Pacha, Shelter, Gabriel & Dresden, & more!

I just got back from a weekend in New York City. I went down to visit a friend of mine, Polly, who works in Research at Mount Sinai. I had been asking her questions a few weeks ago about a club called Pacha, and she suggested that I come down and see it myself. We figured that the 27th/28th would be the best weekend for me to visit, and ironically, it turned out that Gabriel & Dresden were playing at Pacha on Friday night. Small world.

I got to the airport on Friday afternoon, and since Polly was at work until 5pm, I just hung out in the airport for a few hours, listening to music and doing some work. That's when the next coincidence happened - I ran into Gabriel & Dresden at Laguardia. I talked to them for a few minutes, then headed downtown shortly afterwards.

I met up with Polly and the first thing we did was to get some alcohol for the weekend. After that, we ordered sushi for dinner, then went out to a pizza place to meet up with one of her friends. Later that evening, we eventually we made our way to Pacha. Pacha was a decent sized club - it had four levels, and I would say that it probably held about 800 people, as a guess. I'm not sure, but I think that the cover charge for regular guests off the street was $30. Drinks were $9 for bar shots like rum, and $7 for beer, so it was quite a bit more expensive than most Canadian bars, but not out of line for a big club like that. The lineup at the coat check was huge, which I laughed at because I didn't bring a coat. Of course, being a bar manager myself, I spent quite a bit of time looking at the logistics and operations of the club. I was pretty surprised to see that they had (I think) six bartenders working at each of the two main bars. My place would have two bartenders, or sometimes three, for the same volume of alcohol that was being served at each bar. But at least those bartenders looked a lot more relaxed that we are when we're serving.

Needless to say, the lighting systems were incredible, and the sound was decent throughout the entire club, not just on the dance floor. Gabriel & Dresden played from about midnight to 5am (I think the bars stop serving alcohol at 4am, but then they can start again at 8am). I was talking to Josh for a bit up in the DJ booth during his set, and they looked like they were really having fun playing that night. Their set was quite a bit different than when they had played in Boston - to me, both nights sounded great, but this set sounded more tailored to a dance club crowd, with more vocal tracks and mainstream tracks, whereas at Rise it had seemed more like a set for an afterhours club crowd (not surprisingly).

On Saturday afternoon, Polly took me for a partial tour, including Ground Zero, the ferry to Staten Island, Wall Street, and around other parts of Manhatten. Later in the evening, we went to a place called Crocodile NYC. This bar was insane. It had a crowd about the same size as my bar on a Saturday night (250 people), but it was less than a third the size. It was absolutely impossible to move around, or to get drinks quickly. To make things even more interesting, they gave out a free pizza with every beer, so for $20, we eventually got four large glasses of beer (two Stella & two Guiness, I think) plus three 12-inch cheese pizzas. It was a minor fight for me to finish the two beer and two pizzas, but I managed eventually, and was hungry for more. The bar was ridiculously warm, probably partly due to the crowds and partly due to the 700-degree pizza ovens in the back of the bar. Anyway, it was a pretty neat place, and obviously a lot of other people thought the same thing, considering the crowds.

  

After Crocodile, we went to a venue called Shelter, which was more of an after-hours type of club than Pacha had been, although they did serve alcohol. Cover was $25, bar shots were $8, and beer was $6. There were a whole bunch of good DJ's and producers performing that night, including D:Fuse, D-Formation (I used a couple of his tracks on my last mix), and Tone Depth (from Montreal). There was also another DJ who I had never heard of before, Chloe Harris. I was quite impressed by her set, so it was good to learn about her. The lighting system upstairs at Shelter was pretty impressive too. I wish that I'd been able to get some decent photos, but it wasn't possible with my camera.

On Sunday, we went for Chinese food in the afternoon, then did some more touring after dinner. We met a couple of my old friends from university in front of Virgin Records in Times Square, and we went up to the Marriot Marquis for drinks with them. After that, Polly took me to a fantastic Mexican restaurant for dinner. I've eaten Mexican food in a lot of places (including Mexico), but this was definitely some of the best that I've had. Of course, I can't remember the name of the restaurant, but I'm not going to forget the food.

I have photos from the trip on this page:
http://www.djbolivia.ca/photos_newyork2007a.html

The only sad part about the weekend was that there was so much more to see that I didn't have time for, so I'll have to go back as soon as I get a chance ...

I'm Jonathan Clark, known online as DJ Bolivia.  Do you want to learn more about DJ'ing and music production?  If so, visit:

djbolivia.ca/training

If you happen to enjoy techno tracks, most of my tracks are available as free downloads from this link:

djbolivia.ca/tracks

Thanks so much for visit, and for your support!  I really appreciate the fan base that I've been able to build up over the years.

Also, if you want to visit any of my other sites, here are a few links:

    YouTube:  youtube.com/djbolivia

    SoundCloud:  soundcloud.com/djbolivia

    Blogger:  djbolivia.blogspot.com

    Main Site:  www.djbolivia.ca

Tour-Tech Trade Show 2007

I was at the Tour-Tech show this weekend in Halifax. The show itself was ok. I didn't see as many revolutionary computer products as I did last year, but then again, I concentrated on the conventional audio seminars all day, rather than going to any of the video seminars, which is a field that is arguably advancing much more quickly right now. For instance, I went to seminars on topics such as microphone placement, PSM's (personal in-ear studio monitors), designing sound systems for churches, etc. Nothing really that exciting, but useful sessions.

  

Anyway, even though the trade show itself was fairly uneventful, we had an interesting time the night before. We went out to visit a few bars and have a few drinks. The bar that I work at is being rebuilt in 18 months, so I was asked to take some photos of other venues, to help come up with some design ideas. One of the guys I was with (Darren Wheaton) runs a couple of the other bars in my hometown, so he was equally curious to go on tour.

We walked past a bar downtown called the Seahorse Tavern. Several people had mentioned this place to me before, but I could never think of where it was. When I saw it, I figured it would be a good place to visit, so we went inside. I was pretty surprised to realize that I had actually been in it before, many times: it was the first bar that I was ever in, many years ago, although it was operating under a different name at the time. In fact, I have many funny stories from that very bar. For instance, one night, a few of us got more intoxicated than usual, and I woke up the next morning sleeping on the Bluenose II, in the Halifax Harbour. I have no idea why I was there - maybe an RCN press gang? Luckily, it was still tied to the dock.

Anyway, the bar wasn't exactly hopping that night, but there was a blues band playing, so we stayed for a while. The band itself wasn't bad, although I have no idea who they were. The lead guitarist looked like Wolfman Jack, and played pretty tightly. The drummer was consistent, and made funny faces throughout the show. The bass player looked sort of like Mr. Clean, and he was pretty quiet and unobtrusive in the background, but he was very, very tight in his timing, so I was pretty impressed. He also played on a fretless bass. The rhythm guitarist, however, was the really interesting character. During his first few songs, he didn't seem that notable. His timing was so-so, but he looked a bit nervous, and played some fairly uninspired solos when given the chance. However, after four or five songs, he suddenly warmed up and honestly ended up stealing the show.

What really got me laughing was the fact that he had a wireless pickup, so he was able to walk around the crowd while he was playing. He also had so many effects on his guitar that he didn't really have to strum the strings while he was soloing - he could just push the strings up against anything, such as a nearby table, and get decent sound. As he wandered around, he came up to this "crusty old seadog" - an aging weather-beaten sailor with a greyish-blond beard and a cap slung down low - who was pretty much passed out with his head on the bar. Anyway, the guitarist started playing by wildly rubbing his guitar against the crusty old seadog's head, while the guy was still passed out! The crowd went wild. It was definitely the funniest thing I've seen in quite a while ...

I'm Jonathan Clark, known online as DJ Bolivia.  Do you want to learn more about DJ'ing and music production?  If so, visit:

djbolivia.ca/training

If you happen to enjoy techno tracks, most of my tracks are available as free downloads from this link:

djbolivia.ca/tracks

Thanks so much for visit, and for your support!  I really appreciate the fan base that I've been able to build up over the years.

Also, if you want to visit any of my other sites, here are a few links:

    YouTube:  youtube.com/djbolivia

    SoundCloud:  soundcloud.com/djbolivia

    Blogger:  djbolivia.blogspot.com

    Main Site:  www.djbolivia.ca