Of the eight Phish shows I attended and recorded this year, the second night of this week’s New Year’s run was my favorite. The first night (coming soon) was very solid and raised expectations that these four shows could be ragers, and this second night confirmed that. From the opening 22-minute “Fluffhead”, Phish were locked in and delivering the jams. There are at least four highlight segments in this show where the band just let go, stepped out, and peaked. Phish 4.0 is renowned for choosing the unexpected songs to stretch out and on this night it was an exceptional “Ruby Waves” where the band allowed the music to create the moment. This recording is one that I’m going to come back to often, and it is nights like this that keep me coming back.
I recorded this set with the Neumann hyper cards from a head-high stand in front of the lighting booth. The advantageous position and mic choice combine for a really bright and clear recording and we repeated this combo the following night based on the superb results. Enjoy!
Setlist: Set 1 [Total Time 1:16:12] 01 Fluffhead 02 Your Pet Cat 03 Bathtub Gin 04 hey stranger 05 Tube 06 Slave to the Traffic Light 07 Blaze On
Set 2 [Total Time 1:49:37] 08 David Bowie 09 Everything’s Right 10 You Enjoy Myself 11 Ruby Waves 12 Lonely Trip 13 Back on the Train 14 Character Zero 15 [encore break] 16 Guyute 17 Possum
With the onset tonight of the four-night Phish New Year’s run at Madison Square Garden (I will be attending the first three nights). I was reminded of the last time I saw three consecutive Phish shows, during the tour last July. The first of these three July experiences began in the beautiful Bethel Woods venue, on the site of the original Woodstock.
This was the second night of a two-show stand in Bethel, and while reports of the first night were so-so, this show started out with some nice energy that built up throughout the first set, capped by a nicely executed “Divided Sky” and a set-ending relaxed and well jammed “Ghost”. But it was the second set Caspian/Crosseyed “sandwich” where this show really leapt into the stratosphere. We enjoyed the entire second set as the band was locked into some juicy jams. The extended encore segment was great for the smiles, and ended this super show in true Phish fashion — with a nice Hendrix/Woodstock tribute.
I recorded this show with the outdoor-friendly large diaphragm Neumann mics from the first row of the taper’s section and the sound quality is superb. Enjoy!
Setlist: Set 1 [Total Time 1:14:56] 01 Evening Song 02 Turtle in the Clouds 03 Vultures 04 My Sweet One 05 Undermind 06 Fast Enough for You 07 Divided Sky 08 Suzy Greenberg 09 Ghost
Set 2 [Total Time 1:33:35] 10 Prince Caspian 11 Crosseyed and Painless 12 Miss You 13 Set Your Soul Free 14 Crosseyed Reprise 15 Prince Caspian Reprise 16 Twist 17 Carini 18 [encore break] 19 The Horse 20 Silent in the Morning 21 Fuck Your Face 22 Buffalo Bill 23 Fire
The Hudson Valley was lucky enough to get blessed with 2 Tonstartssbandht shows this year. The first, back in March, saw them promoting the material from their most recent album “Petunia”. That tour, like so many others, was riddled with COVID-related cancellations. On this night, as they wound down the tour cycle for that album, the brothers dug deep into their enormous catalog pulling out old gems, new favorites and even a choice cover. You will be hard pressed to find two nicer guys than Andy and Edwin so I was particularly happy to see that the audience had nearly doubled from their previous show. Grassroots promotion at its finest!
Tracking this recording was challenging. Talking with Edwin after the show I mentioned how, after the initial few songs, it felt like two distinct suites of music. Andy and Edwin were kind enough to email me a setlist (complete with timestamps!), but I’ve chosen to keep it tracked as the two suites with the individual track names noted in the text file. That’s what it felt like in the room and I try to keep these recordings as true to the experience I had in the moment as possible.
The brothers are taking some well deserved time off from the road but you can catch Andy playing duet with Ryley Walker on December 20th at Union Pool as part of the excellent line up put together by Island House recordings as a benefit for The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
I recorded this from my usual spot by the soundboard with my MBHO’s and board feed from Tubby’s FOH engineer Will. Enjoy!
Ryley Walker offers plenty of reasons to see him any chance you can. His guitar playing ranges from intricate to brain bending, his songwriting is constantly evolving in creative ways and his stage banter is always great. His willingness to chase creativity and always try something new keeps me coming back. As he said at the beginning of the night, “We play Avant Garde music!”
The set was billed as the Ryley Walker/JR Bohannon Duo but we were lucky enough to have Ryan Jewel (complete with “Jazz Machine” t-shirt) join for 2 of the 3 improvisational pieces. The first piece is a beautiful excursion into blissed out guitar and pedal steel zones and Ryan adding drums and percussion to the remaining two. A case point for seeing music that sits at the edges of rhythm and melody can be found around the ninth minute of the last piece. From seemingly nowhere they find a groove so sharp Slint would be jealous. They ride that just long enough to let you know they recognized it and then immediately push past; audience and band both in search of what’s next.
I’ve been reading and following the NYCTaper site as a fan for many years but my first actual contribution was a little over a year ago when AcidJack and I recorded Ryley with the “Course In Fable” band at Tubby’s. It was a nice little anniversary for me to be able to record this set from my usual perch in the back of the room by the sound board. To really tie the anniversary theme together, I used a set of MBHO 603A/KA200 mics and a clamp borrowed from AcidJack. Tubby’s excellent FOH engineer Will provided the board patch. Enjoy!
A little over a year ago Chris Forsyth made his first post-Covid appearance backed by Tom Malach (Garcia Peoples), Doug McCombs (Tortoise, Brokeback) and Ryan Jewel (everyone). This show was well documented by or own NYCtaper. In his write up he mentioned that the new material emerged feeling fully realized and noted the bands immediate chemistry. Time has proven him right.
With the release of Forsyth’s new album, Evolution Here We Come, we are able to see the full vision Chris had for this ensemble and these songs. The core band of Chris, Tom, Doug and Ryan are augmented by a host of cosmic and psychedelic warriors including Steve Wynn, Bill Nace and Marshall Allen (!!!!) with the final results all massaged into place by Dave Harrington.
On this night the band operated as a power trio. While Tom’s additions were missed, it’s exciting to see how much space Chris is able to cover on his own. The band sounded amazing, taking flight immediately and working through a majority of the new material. The set closer, Robot Energy Machine, featured Charlie Saufley (Heron Oblivion) on guitar and offered nearly 20 minutes of wide eared improvisation to digest.
Chris is currently wrapping up a co-headlining tour with Meg Baird. Hopefully you got a chance to catch a set, but if not we’ve got you covered! I recorded this from the back of the room with my MBHOs and board patch from Tubby’s FOH engineer, Brian. Enjoy!
Our live experiences with the Fiery Furnaces date back to the earliest days of this website. It would be fair to say that this band was in part responsible for the growth of the site circa 2007-2008, as we recorded them all around the area, from multiple times at Maxwell’s, Mercury, Bowery, and Music Hall, to singular shows at Sound Fix Records on Bedford (RIP), Socrates Sculpture Park in Queens, LPR, Southpaw (RIP), East River Park Bandshell (RIP), and Hiro Ballroom (RIP). We recorded them so often that we ended up getting credited as an “engineer” for the Fiery Furnaces live album Remember, which used some of our recordings. The attraction was natural for we live music fans — the band never played any of their shows or songs the same way twice, they consistently invited superb musicians to join them on tours, and the music was always challenging and cerebral. We couldn’t get enough of them.
But in 2011, the band’s core siblings Eleanor and Matt Friedberger decided to take a hiatus. I expected a few years of time away, a solo album or two and then a return. I didn’t expect the break to take a decade, but in 2020 the reunion was finally announced and well, you know what happened then.
Last November at Brooklyn Steel, the wait was over. Fiery Furnaces were back for a “hometown” show at long last. To be honest, I didn’t really know what entirely to expect. The two stalwarts of the band from last decade (Jason Loewenstein and Bob D’Amico) were not joining in the reunion, and of the new band members, we only were familiar with the most excellent Emily Lee (Shearwater, and others). But what I did expect was a new take on classic material, and likely the new single from 2020 (“Down At The So And So And Somewhere”). And in that respect, this show was entirely what I had hoped to see. The setlist contained a healthy dose from all of the band’s releases, of course segued with unexpected twists and turns — but always anchored by Eleanor’s meticulously delivered tongue-twisters and turns of phrase. Matt’s keyboard rack was liberally employed throughout and jibed perfectly with Emily electric piano — check out the interplay in a tasty “Benton Harbor Blues”, and the rocking “Ex-Guru”. The entire ninety-minute set worked like that, with no lulls, plenty of highlights, and no dip in energy throughout. It was great to have Fiery Furnaces back, even if for just one night. We hope it isn’t another decade before they return.
I recorded this set with the Neumann hypers set up at the Soundboard and mixed with a board feed. We are extremely happy with the results, and are pleased to offer this high quality download. Enjoy!
Setlist: [Total Time 1:22:52] 01 Leaky Tunnel 02 Single Again 03 Two Fat Feet 04 I’m Going Away 05 Benton Harbor Blues 06 [checklist] 07 My Dog Was Lost but Now He’s Found 08 The Garfield El 09 Chief Inspector Blancheflower 10 I’m in No Mood 11 Don’t Dance Her Down 12 The Vietnamese Telephone Ministry 13 Down At The So And So And Somewhere 14 Duplexes of the Dead 15 Automatic Husband 16 Ex-Guru 17 Quay Cur 18 Tropical Ice-Land 19 [encore break] 20 Here Comes the Summer 21 My Egyptian Grammar 22 Chris Michaels
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