Supporting Cast

9/25/99, The Woodlands, TX, Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion

SET 1: Tube > Runaway Jim, Ya Mar, Horn, Limb By Limb, On Your Way Down, Sleeping Monkey > Wilson

SET 2: NICU -> David Bowie, The Squirming Coil > Prince Caspian > Rock and Roll > Also Sprach Zarathustra > Frankenstein > Julius

ENCORE: Character Zero

Listen

OK, back to glass half-full for today. We’ve talked about a number of songs on this tour that have benefited from the spillover of the TAB approach (Ghost, Gin) or briefly recaptured the jamming styles of old (the Boise Bag, the Chula Vista Boogie On). On the occasion of this “average-great” (© Charlie Dirksen) show on the outskirts of Houston, I want to shine the light on a few of the tour’s less celebrated songs that appear tonight. None of them are heavy hitters, but they’re consistently filling in the spaces between the highlights with quiet excellence, sometimes following the musical trends of the year, sometimes bucking them.

Limb By Limb

LxL has actually been on a hot streak since 1998, always a welcome presence providing vibrant, communal communication without ever really breaking its structure. But tonight gets a little extra mileage out of what it does best: a satisfying four-way conversation kept on its toes by Fishman’s octopodal drum part. For most of the jam, you can dial in on any member and imagine that they’re the point to the others’ counter, a refreshing democratic antidote to a lot of the fall’s Trey-tyrant segments.

On Your Way Down

After going on the shelf for over 1,000 shows, the Allen Toussaint by way of Little Feat tune has a little moment in Fall 99, appearing three times in the tour. It’s kind of a sour song about the karma of fame, and as such a bit on the nose for the year when Phish started to unravel – “People fly high begin to lose sight/You can't see very clearly when you're in flight.” But dang does it sound cool, with Page banging those dark chords and Trey playing a moody blues. I can’t tell if it’s self-awareness or oblivious irony, but it’s a nice revival to have around in a Halloween-less year with only a few new covers.

The Squirming Coil

Phish has been deploying the traditional set closer/Page feature in unusual slots this tour, with the last performance in Irvine coming smack in the middle of set two. They pull that trick again tonight, and because it would be awkward for everyone but Mr. Keyboard Man to leave the stage and come back, we get four minutes of quiet interplay. Like Limb By Limb, there’s no real lead instrument here (until Page gets his usual solo for the last minute), just melodic smoke rings floating into complex configurations, fading down the volume and focusing an amped-up Saturday night Texas crowd to listen closely.

Prince Caspian

I’m hard on Caspian ‘round these parts, and it sometimes causes me to miss its finer moments; commenters took me to task for not giving the Japan performance its proper due. They were right to do so, and this version does some of the same stuff that I neglected to praise in that show. It’s Trey up to his usual 99 tricks, but in a mellower context – at the start of the jam, he loops a distorted sustain, then flips on that multiplied reverse delay effect to solo like he’s standing in an echo hangar. Whenever he hits a note he likes, he adds it to his digital delay loom, until the song is floating on a whole carpet of loops. It’s equal parts self-indulgent and grandiose, but when it hits, it hits.

Also Sprach Zarathustra

I’m cheating with this last one, because you could certainly consider 2001 a “heavy hitter” in 1999. But this last appearance before a monumental installment of Deodatoed Strauss deserves note, because it feels like an important step on the way to Memphis. Out of a chaotic Rock and Roll ending, they rush into the first peak at a 93-94 pace. But then they settle in deeeeeep, with Mike seizing the means of jam production and laying down a thick disco backbone when Trey disappears into his loops and keys. There have been plenty of jams this year where Trey abandons the other three; this one sounds like they’re all having a blast without him – when he returns to guitar, Trey abruptly wraps it up like he felt left out (it drops into Frankenstein, so I can’t stay mad).

Taking a step back, that’s a motley mix of Phish tunes that covers a wide span of eras, from one of their favorite covers in the 80s through the track that gave Trampled By Lambs and Pecked By The Dove its name. It suggests that the 1999 sound was more versatile than I’ve given it credit for, though I also suspect its influence on this five-pack of songs ranges from intentional to accidental. In an alternate timeline where the hard-driving TAB songs stayed in TAB, maybe the focus is instead on these promising strands: mellow “Ring of Fire”-style ambient or shoegaze expansions of older material. Instead, they’re side dishes that complement the tour’s bolder choices, subplots that flesh out the main narrative.