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Phish Take Jones Beach by Storm

Hit “play” above to watch HD Jones Beach videos.

Tonight Phish culminated their three-night stand at Jones Beach, and just four nights into the 2009 Summer Tour it's safe to say the Phish machine is kicking into gear.

Tuesday 6/2

On Tuesday, the first set featured a dark new tune entitled Stealing Time From the Faulty Plan, an ebbing and flowing Reba complete with whistling, and the bands first pass at If I Could since PNC 2000.

Set two highlights: an aggressive Mike's Groove, a spunky new number called Kill Devil Falls that seems to channel Chalkdust and Alabama Getaway at the same time, and a long, ambient Harry Hood capped off with a Loving Cup.

I got a blank space where my mind should be.
— Trey Anastasio, Stealing Time From the Faulty Plan

Night one also featured the triumphant return of WigMan, a charismatic fan with plenty of chutzpa, a jailbroken iPhone, and an external mic that allowed him to live broadcast a good chunk of the Phish Jones Beach show to the delight of fans worldwide.

It's impossible to explain the feeling when the broadcast went live and I found myself on PhishTwit watching Phish in real-time from over 800 miles away, streamed from some dude's phone with a mic powered by AAA batteries borrowed from a guy named Headlamp Derek. In Phish lore, this one's an Instant Classic.

It wasn’t just about the show. I liked this guy. I felt I had shared the experience with him. It didn’t go to commercial. It didn’t pan out on a huge crane over the crowd
— Benjamin Slayter via PSFK.com

But the good always seems to come with the bad, and when WigMan's leaky secret trended on Twitter with the phrase “PhishTube Broadcast,” it was quickly exploited by spammers who Tweeted links to spoof websites that served up a helping of bunk antivirus software.

Talk about raining on a parade.

Thursday 6/4

Speaking of rain, that was the forecast for night two at Jones Beach, but Phish didn't seem to mind at all.

On Thursday the band kept the pace set in the previous two shows of the tour, kicking off with Ghost and Antelope, delivering a beautiful Divided Sky, an excellent rendition of the new song Ocelot, a Japanese infused Meatstick, and ripping versions of Waste and Rock and Roll.

NOTE: Sorry for uber lame recap. Just listen to the show and you'll get the idea :)

Friday 6/5

So far so good here midway through the show Friday.

Word from folks at the show is that the rain isn't so bad, but the Buried Alive in the first set couldn't help but remind me of my wife's first show — 6/23/94 at the Phoenix Center — where it not only pissed rain all night but we missed nearly all of the Buried opener thanks to a single staircase leading up to the roof of the parking garage that was the venue.

Meanwhile the setlist tonight started off like it actually was the mid-90s, with Wilson, Buried, and Bag being played among the first four tunes. But the Kill Devil Falls in the 3rd slot probably had some folks feeling like they'd been transported all the way back to Tuesday.

Set two just kicked off with a strong Disease — or as @YEMblog put it so eloquently, “nastiness” — which moved nicely into Twist featuring an extended Oye Como Va jam.

From there it was Segue City as the band moved seamlessly from Twist into Piper into Backwards Down the Number Line into Free. Whew.

There must be something wrong with my source, because Free is followed by some sort of Trey Band vehicle called Twenty Years Later.

After that it's two beauties to end the set, 2001 and a beautiful rendition of Slave.

Stringing together a series of truly improvisational pieces for the first time this tour, Phish crushed their last set on Long Island.
— Mr. Miner, The Best Set Yet

All in all it seems like the band put on a great three nights at Jones Beach… inclement weather and all.

Scroll down for the complete recap: setlists, MP3s, FLACs, SBDs, streams, reviews, photos and more from Phish at Jones Beach.

Summer Tour is On!

Tonight Phish played their first ever gig at Fenway Park, a suitably nostalgic location to kick off their 2009 Summer Tour — the band's first tour since calling it quits in 2004.

While I wasn't there in person, I followed along in real-time on PhishTwit along with thousands of other fans.

See above for Fenway videos or read on for the setlist, audio links, reviews, and a recap of the Phish Fenway show.

Last night with pretty much no forewarning, Phish released Time Turns Elastic — a whopping 13+ minute studio single of Trey's new opus.

• Buy Time Turns Elastic on iTunes ($1.99)
• Stream Time Turns Elastic on MySpace

The track is slated to appear on the new Phish album scheduled for July 28th release (and will presumably be played incessantly during Summer tour).

I'm barely finished with my first listen and already confident the studio cut will be the shortest version of this one. The song leaves ample room for improvisation, with segments that are bound to soar high and others sure to get down and dirty.

Meanwhile, I'm on some pretty basic computer speakers, but the mix and production values sound great to me. Nice work Lillywhite! Really looking forward to the rest of the album.

P.S. For another take on the tune, look no further than Trey's recent performance with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra featuring an extended orchestral version of Time Turns Elastic in the second set. [Set 1 | Set 2]

Can Heaven Wait? Only until June 9th.

Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.
— Revelations 13:18

The flight number of “Ed Force One” is always 666, and though decidedly evil, it's a perfect title for the new 2-disc concert DVD from legendary metal pioneers Iron Maiden.

Preorder Flight 666

From the onset of their Somewhere Back In Time Tour in early 2008, Iron Maiden set out to douse the world in otherworldly music, flames, explosions and hardcore theatrics.

As if possessed by the Devil himself, the Flight 666 concert DVD includes only the best of the beast; the loudest, head-bashingest, fist-pumpingly thrashed out versions of each track from their standard SBIT setlist — including some of the greatest songs in Eddie’s vault.

When I first featured McLovins back in December, they were still riding the buzz from their great cover of YEM. Since then, this power-trio of two high school sophomores and one middle-schooler have been steadily picking up steam.

Among other accomplishments, they had a live show seeded on etree [flac | stream | mp3], appeared on their local news in Connecticut, and were written-up on RollingStone.com’s rock & roll blog “The Smoking Section.”

To top it off, McLovins are booked to play Gathering of the Vibes in July, and I have a feeling that's not the only place on the festival circuit you'll be able to catch them (and their parents) this summer.

The video above is a new original tune, DYNNE. Unlike their other new tune which starts off pretty chill, this one rips from beginning to end. It's a cool blend of Jambay and RHCP and is just further proof of McLovins promise.

BONUS: For anyone who went to Brown between '92 and '95, this song reminds me of Martha Dumptruck a bit. That was a tight college band.

I reached out to Drumlovin' (er, Jake) to see what he had to say about the new tune. He tells me it's pronounced “din,” and the wacky spelling is a reference to the children's adventure novel Phantom Tollbooth — a modern fairy tale upon which McLovins new album will be based.

From what I gather on Wikipedia, the character Awful DYNNE is a genie formed of blue smoke who goes around collecting noises for Dr. Kakofounous A. Dischord, a scientist who enjoys creating horrible sounds like “a blindfolded octopus unwrap[ping] a cellophane-covered bathtub.”

Seriously, a psychedelic concept album from a group a teenagers. Color me impressed.

Phish! Is! Back!

Hit “play” above to watch 24 HD Hampton videos.

I was fortunate enough to be at the Hampton Coliseum the past three nights and am happy to say that Phish pretty much nailed it. As we said in our room Saturday morning, if you didn't have fun last night, you're following the wrong band.

In fact, the only bad part of the entire weekend for me (save a few songs I'm not in love with) was the line for the Hampton Phish poster on Friday. We were packed in like sardines for about an hour, most of which we already knew the Pollocks were sold out.

But that was all forgotten when the lights went down and the band busted out an amazing Fluffhead (see proof above) to kick off the weekend, the first since September 29, 2000.

I'm not gonna review every song or detail (there are links to reviews below) but I will say it was a great weekend of Phish shows, with nice setlists, great musicianship, and a handful of special surprises. Not to mention the perfect weather throughout. A great time through and through. Scroll down for the setlist, reviews, and more.

Much respect to mkdevo for posting the videos presented above.