Yeah, I’m also baffled by what purpose the most recent iteration of TAB serves. Was never the hugest fan of the ‘99 tour, but man do I love the ‘01-03 era. And probably not coincidentally, at that point it was in a completely separately lane than the one Phish resided in.
Re: the trivia question, Phish also played “Come On (Part 1)” on 4/29/87 and more famously during the 11/27/98 Worcester soundcheck that circulates in SBD (also released as an iTunes bonus track for Live Phish 06).
(And, if I wanted to get even more pedantic and ACKCHYUALLY about it, I’d point out they’ve also played “Drums”.)
The lack of TAB exclusive songs is so strange. I had a good enough time when I saw them a few years ago, it’s hard to understand the point of it. It’s not even like the arrangements are much, if at all, different.
You are not alone in your disinterest in TAB. I thought it was interesting, but kind of hard to take in an hour or so of solid groove-based jamming when I went to see TAB for the first and only time at the Riviera show of the ‘99 tour. I have similar and what could be seen as controversial feelings about JGB. Both bands have a leader that is excellent at playing a guitar, and play in a very interesting and enjoyable ensemble, yet when going on solo tour with another band, make the musical experience about a long groove to solo over for a little more time than I have an attention-span for. Its almost the equivelant to being alone playing along with a radio but putting the song on repeat 2 or 3 times to maximize the experience. Something I think early disco edits do very well in their respective context, but rock music does not.
I've generally been pretty ambivalent to TAB (saw them in 2002 in Albany) with the larger horn setup. More recently I've seen two versions, last summer with Fishman in Denver (night 2) and earlier this month in St. Paul (classic TAB) and was blown away by both shows. The Denver show with Dezron + Fishman was dark and much more Zeppelin than the afrofunk of the earlier TAB shows I'd seen or hear, while the more recent classic tab show was more Phish-lite but with a combination of the rhythmic groove noted above + more exploratory jamming (Dezron-influence?). Either way it seems to me the project is worthy of more than my earlier ambivalence in its current form.
Yeah recruiting Dezron repiqued my interest in solo Trey, as he was already on my radar for his Chicago jazz work. If he made similarly bold choices for drummer and keys, I'd give it another shot.
That Night 2 Denver show with Dezron and Fishman was my favorite show of the year. I kept thinking I wonder what the crowd would have thought had those 3 played the Carousel Ballroom in 1968. What would a music junkie with no Phish bias either way think of that performance? I go back to it often.
Saw TAB for the first time this last tour and really enjoyed it, precisely because it was something different than Phish. The whole ‘what’s the use?’ question is weird to me. It’s a chance to hear phish songs performed by players with different instincts and proclivities, with different tones and timbres. Ray and Dez in particular just approach jamming and comping differently than Page and Mike.
I like phish because they constantly reinterpret their songs and color them differently. Why wouldn’t I want to hear Trey seek out new forms of those songs with other musicians as well?
I also appreciate the song bleed of phish / TAB. Most artists won’t do this, and it annoys me. My comparison point here is Craig Finn and the Hold Steady. He’ll play 1-2 THS songs solo, and no solo songs with THS. It pisses me off. His solo stuff is great, and some of it would work really well with the full band, and vice versa. The end result is we miss out on good songs and the chance to see those songs in different guises.
I'm with you on TAB (I think most people are...otherwise they wouldn't be playing 2500 seat venues in huge cities). But I've come to appreciate the band quite a bit. It's nice to hear Trey's guitar playing and singing in small spaces, be around phans who more or less have zero negativity about 3.0, show up late and leave early without being worried about missing something epic. I'd never go out of my way to see a show, but living in NYC...it's usually a "why not" for me and the show I caught this past tour was surprisingly quite good.
Always felt this trio was extremely overrated and very much gets the nostalgia treatment online.
Can relate to TAB being WAY off the musical radar.
On another note, I would strongly argue that improvising off a groove is *not* how most bands compose songs. In general, I’d say there’s as many ways to write tunes as there are ways to serve noodles, but I would venture that most bands have some variation on the “songwriter(s) brings a demo in and then the ensemble workshops it” approach. Caveat to that is I think most bands approach songwriting from multiple angles.
As far as Hendrix and the TAB '99 tour, I was amused listening to one of the early shows when Trey mentioned in the acoustic set that some setlist reporter had misidentified Ooh Child as Voodoo Child..and then he debuted Voodoo Child in the encore.
Yeah, I’m also baffled by what purpose the most recent iteration of TAB serves. Was never the hugest fan of the ‘99 tour, but man do I love the ‘01-03 era. And probably not coincidentally, at that point it was in a completely separately lane than the one Phish resided in.
Re: the trivia question, Phish also played “Come On (Part 1)” on 4/29/87 and more famously during the 11/27/98 Worcester soundcheck that circulates in SBD (also released as an iTunes bonus track for Live Phish 06).
(And, if I wanted to get even more pedantic and ACKCHYUALLY about it, I’d point out they’ve also played “Drums”.)
The lack of TAB exclusive songs is so strange. I had a good enough time when I saw them a few years ago, it’s hard to understand the point of it. It’s not even like the arrangements are much, if at all, different.
You are not alone in your disinterest in TAB. I thought it was interesting, but kind of hard to take in an hour or so of solid groove-based jamming when I went to see TAB for the first and only time at the Riviera show of the ‘99 tour. I have similar and what could be seen as controversial feelings about JGB. Both bands have a leader that is excellent at playing a guitar, and play in a very interesting and enjoyable ensemble, yet when going on solo tour with another band, make the musical experience about a long groove to solo over for a little more time than I have an attention-span for. Its almost the equivelant to being alone playing along with a radio but putting the song on repeat 2 or 3 times to maximize the experience. Something I think early disco edits do very well in their respective context, but rock music does not.
So identifiable and so true
I've generally been pretty ambivalent to TAB (saw them in 2002 in Albany) with the larger horn setup. More recently I've seen two versions, last summer with Fishman in Denver (night 2) and earlier this month in St. Paul (classic TAB) and was blown away by both shows. The Denver show with Dezron + Fishman was dark and much more Zeppelin than the afrofunk of the earlier TAB shows I'd seen or hear, while the more recent classic tab show was more Phish-lite but with a combination of the rhythmic groove noted above + more exploratory jamming (Dezron-influence?). Either way it seems to me the project is worthy of more than my earlier ambivalence in its current form.
Yeah recruiting Dezron repiqued my interest in solo Trey, as he was already on my radar for his Chicago jazz work. If he made similarly bold choices for drummer and keys, I'd give it another shot.
That Night 2 Denver show with Dezron and Fishman was my favorite show of the year. I kept thinking I wonder what the crowd would have thought had those 3 played the Carousel Ballroom in 1968. What would a music junkie with no Phish bias either way think of that performance? I go back to it often.
Saw TAB for the first time this last tour and really enjoyed it, precisely because it was something different than Phish. The whole ‘what’s the use?’ question is weird to me. It’s a chance to hear phish songs performed by players with different instincts and proclivities, with different tones and timbres. Ray and Dez in particular just approach jamming and comping differently than Page and Mike.
I like phish because they constantly reinterpret their songs and color them differently. Why wouldn’t I want to hear Trey seek out new forms of those songs with other musicians as well?
I also appreciate the song bleed of phish / TAB. Most artists won’t do this, and it annoys me. My comparison point here is Craig Finn and the Hold Steady. He’ll play 1-2 THS songs solo, and no solo songs with THS. It pisses me off. His solo stuff is great, and some of it would work really well with the full band, and vice versa. The end result is we miss out on good songs and the chance to see those songs in different guises.
I'm with you on TAB (I think most people are...otherwise they wouldn't be playing 2500 seat venues in huge cities). But I've come to appreciate the band quite a bit. It's nice to hear Trey's guitar playing and singing in small spaces, be around phans who more or less have zero negativity about 3.0, show up late and leave early without being worried about missing something epic. I'd never go out of my way to see a show, but living in NYC...it's usually a "why not" for me and the show I caught this past tour was surprisingly quite good.
Always felt this trio was extremely overrated and very much gets the nostalgia treatment online.
Can relate to TAB being WAY off the musical radar.
On another note, I would strongly argue that improvising off a groove is *not* how most bands compose songs. In general, I’d say there’s as many ways to write tunes as there are ways to serve noodles, but I would venture that most bands have some variation on the “songwriter(s) brings a demo in and then the ensemble workshops it” approach. Caveat to that is I think most bands approach songwriting from multiple angles.
As far as Hendrix and the TAB '99 tour, I was amused listening to one of the early shows when Trey mentioned in the acoustic set that some setlist reporter had misidentified Ooh Child as Voodoo Child..and then he debuted Voodoo Child in the encore.