Stuck in the Middle

6/30/00, Hartford, CT, Hartford Meadows

SET 1: Ha Ha Ha, AC/DC Bag > Tweezer > Runaway Jim, Sneakin' Sally Through the Alley > Ginseng Sullivan > Guyute, Golgi Apparatus > Tweezer Reprise > Possum

SET 2: Halley's Comet > The Mango Song > Twist, The Inlaw Josie Wales, Back on the Train > Makisupa Policeman, Farmhouse > Sleeping Monkey > David Bowie

ENCORE: Cavern

Listen

I always feel like a bit of a coward ordering a medium-size drink, like I should be committing to go big or go small. The midsize sedan is the funniest vehicle classification, a resigned shrug shaped into family-friendly automobile form. The midrange jumper is now frowned upon in pro basketball, as it’s the least efficient shot on the floor. I’m told the kids today describe things as “mid” when they are embarrassingly normal and not worthy of notice. Medium, overall, gets a bad rap…you might even say it’s mid.

So what to do with a show like this one, which specializes in that most underappreciated form of Phish improv, the midsize jam? I’m firmly in the “length isn’t everything” camp when it comes to jamming, and have evangelized in the past about the pleasures to be found in a solid 10-to-14-minute range.

In that post – funnily enough, also for a Hartford show – I talked about how the jams that fall in this range are those that just push past the standard structure, finding one interesting idea to explore briefly before moving on to the next song. That abridged process may not create the marathons that usually go straight into the band’s hall of fame, but it reliably produces a lot of hidden gems. And when multiple occurrences arise in a single show, it can create a pleasant variety pack of improvisational flavors that set a show apart from the rest.

Tonight, the band’s first show at what used to be the Meadows, is one of those, with eight songs falling into what I will henceforth call The Zone. In fact, three of the first four tracks find themselves there, as the band hits the stage in an exploratory mood. AC/DC Bag goes temporarily reggae in the sixth minute, a trick they’ll repeat in the second set to bridge BOTT and Makisupa Policeman. It course-corrects, then finds an extended plinky outro to wind its way into another early first-set Tweezer.

That song’s jam immediately heads down an ominous path, but develops into a straightforward hard rock direction that eschews the patient pseudo-jamtronica of the last one. Jim quickly finds a floaty segment with Fishman mostly on cymbals and the other three locked in a melodic weave. After another long pause, Sally sounds like it’s going to get there too, with Mike sounding extra-inspired by George Porter Jr.’s alien bassline, but it falls just short, signaling a songier turn for the set.

This run is impressively meaty for a show’s first quarter, but also demonstrates how the magic of The Zone depends on the point of origin. When a mostly standardized song like Bag inches into double figures, it’s evidence that something interesting transpired. But Tweezer and Jim have gone much longer in recent times, and in Jim’s case, will again soon. For a jam vehicle, finishing under 15 typically signals squandered promise, or in tonight’s case, the band hopping to another song in pursuit of a spark instead of taking the time to fan the flames.

Happily, you get the opposite effect at the top of set two. A glance at its jam chart shows that Halley’s loves to prowl The Zone; any time they hold out past Trey’s initial short solo after the lyrics, you usually get some low teens magic, if not more. Tonight is a classic example, even if it doesn’t leap headfirst into a jam like it normally does when the song is feeling its oats. Instead, Trey’s slicing up funk chords right away and Mike settles into the captain’s chair, dropping “Things That Make You Go Hmmmm” and “Le Freak” teases in case you doubted my dance music dot-connecting.

It’s a jam that’s sleek like a shark, and it winds unpredictably into Mango Song, the rarity that has somehow already gotten three airings in 2000. Here too, there’s an extra sprinkle of creativity that stretches the song into The Zone as they unhurriedly extend the usual outro before taking a dark ambient turn. Twist is a great choice to keep that feeling going, but it never fully unwinds into Fukuoka territory, and once again we veer in a songward direction for the remainder of the show.

It all adds up to a show without a signature jam, but a quorum of compelling moments. And given the context of the year, it’s a real glass half-full/half-empty challenge. The Zone works better in eras where the band is both nimble and brimming with ideas, and that’s not exactly what’s going on in 2000 – this version of the band is like a big freighter ship, where it often takes several minutes of jamming on one theme to change course. Amidst that inertia, the moments of unexpected flair that briefly distract an otherwise typical jam can sometimes feel like squandered opportunities – a non-committal, medium portion.