Chairman of the Boards

7/23/99, Columbus, OH, Polaris Amphitheater

Photo by Aaron Hawley.

SET 1: Ya Mar, NICU, Back at the Chicken Shack > Punch You in the Eye, Fast Enough for You, Back on the Train, David Bowie, Strange Design, Possum

SET 2: Ghost -> Free > Birds of a Feather > Meatstick > Fire

ENCORE: Bouncing Around the Room > Rocky Top

Listen (but you should really treat yourself to the soundboard)

Let us take a moment to praise Jon Altschiller. For the last 14 years, Altschiller has been Phish’s mixer of choice for live releases, both on the fly for new shows (from 2010-2017) as well as for archival releases. It’s this latter job where he really shines, working his magic on the board mixes that Paul Languedoc recorded while distracted performing a million in-the-moment live sound responsibilities instead of worrying about posterity. I’m not super well versed in what the mixing process entails, but I can say that whatever fairy dust Altschiller sprinkles on the original tapes, it works. 

One of my commandments this summer is “you gotta hear the boards (if possible)” and tonight’s show sells that adage more than any other from this tour. The LivePhish release of this show in November 2019 might be the best-sounding Phish recording I’ve ever heard, for which Mr. Altschiller deserves enormous credit; the mix is noticeably different and much improved compared to the Live Phish 08 release of 7/10/99, a show presumably recorded with the exact same setup. But it’s also down to a happenstance of history: Phish, in this era, is playing some of the most sonically nuanced music they’ll ever play, and the high fidelity on this release brings it all into breathtaking definition.

That’s true even for a fairly pedestrian first set, which eases in slow with a rare Double Leo, the band’s laid-back Jimmy Smith cover, a frisky PYITE, and a dreamy FEFY. It’s fun, but it could also be forgettable, if I wasn’t gawking at the sharpness of Fishman’s wood blocks in Ya Mar, or the rich swirl of Page’s Rhodes during the extended PYITE intro. On a typical SBD, it’s so easy to let Trey hog the auditory soundstage, but this mix really balances the quartet perfectly. On that very long PYITE lead-up, you can hear how everybody’s notes fit snugly together, and when Trey’s siren loop comes in you might reflexively pull over your car. Later, the vivid sixteenth notes Fishman flutters across Bowie and Possum turn pedestrian versions into a thrill ride. 

That’s all prelude to a second set where the performance quality matches the audio quality – what the band (but probably mostly Trey) was going for in 1999 has never sounded better. The very first note played is a bweeoooo, and for the next hour there’s hardly a moment where there aren’t multiple loops flying around in the mix. Ghost ends its hard-rock climb with three minutes of twirling samples and live accompaniments that collectively sound like a bank of psychedelic slot machines. Trey leaves them on to wind around a stretched-out, one-chord Free intro, and the outro weaves in the creepy “die-die-die” sample from his keyboard that will be deployed to great effect on fall tour. Once again, he lets the loops carry over into the next song, and cracks himself up at how perfectly the macabre chant syncs up with the first verse of Birds of a Feather.

Photo by Aaron Hawley.

And oh my, that BOAF. It’s the first version to not just recapture the energy of its first two flights on the Island Tour, but surpass it, a 90 mph jam with all four members darting between ideas in perfect precision. Its relentless wall of sound could come off as monotonous or monolithic on an AUD, but the pristine mix of the board reveals every nuance, from Trey’s searing tone to Mike and Page’s fluid, unceasing counterpoints to the subtleties within Fishman’s tachycardiac rhythms. Unlike in Toronto, Trey’s effects pedal menagerie provides plenty of “yes, and” fuel — maybe because the intensity never lets up and sinks into ambient goop — and the disparate tones pile on top of each other until he’s playing with a chaotic Adrian Belew cacophony. 

I would’ve loved for the Mike bass/Trey keys segment at the end to go somewhere Sikety instead of Meatstick, but hey, at least this latest rendition broke some news with the announcement of Big Cypress. Fire caps off what feels like a classic late 90s five-song set, really the first and last of the summer, with no breather songs or bathroom breaks. Even the start-the-bus-and-keep-it-running encore of Bouncin’ > Rocky Top gets a little extra zip.

Photo by Aaron Hawley.

And while I had the best mail order tickets I ever scored — sixth row in front of Trey — I don’t think I fully appreciated this set’s awesome fury until the 2019 release. I should finally note that this was all taking place beneath a monstrous approaching storm, throwing lightning bolts throughout the set and letting loose sometime near the end to absolutely drench the less fortunate far behind us. Somehow that (literally) electric atmosphere worked against my memory of the show for a long time, making me think this night’s music ran on pure had-to-be-there energy — an impression the AUD did little to dispel — instead of providing one of the year’s richest, most revisitable sets.

Jon Altschiller remastered that memory for me; I’d now maaaaybe rank it as my favorite Summer 99 show, beating out the longtime champ two days hence. But should Phish Inc. ever grace us with the SBD of that show, I could flip back again. Such is the power of a professional mix, in the hands of someone who understands the intricacies of what Phish was gunning for in this complicated phase.