Well Dressed Thieves 1-28-11

by Sophie Block

Friday night I went to see Austin alt rock trio the Well-Dressed Thieves at Headhunters. Located kitty-corner from Stubbs, the home of BBQ and big-name acts, Headhunters gives stage space to lesser-known bands. They have two stages: a small platform in the corner of the first level, and the Cannibal stage. The latter is outside on the second level, with room for the audience on a porch-like deck and the loft above it. The bar decor is very eclectic--a mixture of skulls and tiki items. This hodgepodge reflects the vast array of musical genres that play there.

Upon my entrance I found myself lost in a sea of long hair and denim jackets, and at least one KISS t-shirt. Metal band Fur-King was filling up the tiny room with enough energy to fill a stadium. I rocked out to a few songs, and was impressed with how tight their sound was. That’s one of the great things about Headhunters, you can stumble upon great bands on your way to see a different one.

The Well-Dressed Thieves took the Cannibal stage, and they were indeed well dressed! All clad in black, they opened with “A Blues Thing,” a song with a catchy emphasized downbeat. Guitarist Troy Dry’s strumming was clean during the verses, but he brought on the distortion later in the song in a bluesy riff.  Bassist Greg Baldwin took over vocals for the second song, the fast paced “Corina, Cocaine.” The Thieves' fuzzy vocal style over their defined instrumentation gives them a trademark sound. They’re rock with elements of trash, blues and punk. They play with distortion and feedback, and have clear punk influence in some guitar patterns and drums.

The band looked like they were having a lot of fun on stage and got the audience dancing (myself included!) Half way through their set and in the middle of a Nirvana cover, the Thieves were forced to stop playing. Apparently the Austin police called the show a noise violation, just shy of 1 am. Seriously? Even in the concert venue mecca Red River District in the world’s Live Music Capital, we can’t have a good time without getting in trouble. C’mon, Austin, that’s not very Rock and Roll.

Alas, despite the concert being cut short, it was a really fun show. The Well-Dressed Thieves took it like champs, and had a drink with the rest of us.

Sarah Jaffe, Bosque Brown 1-21-11

by Sophie Block

Friday night at the Ghost Room, two Texan acts played to a packed crowd of eager listeners. Sarah Jaffe, a singer-songwriter with a powerful voice and fluid guitar playing, headlined the show. Bosque Brown, a minimalist gospel band with strength in its simplicity and Mara Lee Miller’s lead vocals, kicked off the night. The Ghost Room, winner of “Best New Club” at last year’s Austin Music Awards, is located in downtown Austin. But this cozy venue stands alone on its 4th St. block --close to our many other bars, but tucked away from the crazy hubbub. The warm, dark wood and exposed brick interior is offset by elegant chandeliers in a space that set the low-key vibe for the night that was about to unfold.

Bosque Brown started off the night seated in their respective chairs, humble under the spotlights shone on them. Miller mostly played simple guitar picking patterns under her strong, haunting vocals with a vibrating timbre. About half the audience was seated on the floor, listening intently while the rest stood or watched from the wooden pew-like bleachers to the left of the stage. Her bandmate played synthesizer, keys and electric guitar. His contributions supplemented her sweet, driving sound by adding depth with each complimenting tone. His instrumentation, like his backup vocals, were soft and supportive. Bosque Brown started off its set acoustically, but after the first song, they incorporated electric beats, primarily utilized as the thread to tie songs together. Becky Howard from Sarah Jaffe’s band joined them onstage at one point to play violin and sing with Miller. The band ended the set with “Fine Lines,” a song about off of their first album, Bosque Brown Plays Mara Lee Miller  (Burnt Toast Vinyl, 2005). The set was pretty mellow with a lot of spirit behind it.

Eager fans in the crowd stood up and packed in elbow to elbow to see Sarah Jaffe. Jaffe, whose career blossomed in her adopted home of Denton, TX, toured with Norah Jones in 2010. Tonight, fans were singing along with her and taking photos. Jaffe played with a full band, including guitar, bass, keys, violin and drums. The drummer incorporated a lot of use of his mallets, driving the sound forward; steady and low. Jaffe was dressed casually, and her coiffed platinum hair was in a James Dean-like swoosh above at her crown. She was warm and welcoming to the crowd, and seemed elated at the big turn-out. Her song “Clementine” off of her album Suburban Nature  (Kirtland Records, 2010) got the biggest cheers of the night. The song is catchy and beautiful, and builds from lullaby sweetness to a powerful anthem. Jaffe mixed up her repertoire, playing a new song “Sucker for Your Marketing” for what she said was the second time in front of a live audience, and even covered “Hang With Me” by Swedish pop artist Robyn.

Jaffe played an immediate encore after what she said was her last song, and treated the audience to the beautiful “Plateau,” short and sweet. Jaffe, with champagne flute in hand, said that everyone should end the night with a glass of champagne, and emphasized how much she loved everyone who came out for the show. What a pleasure it always is to be in Austin, she said, whether it is to play a show or just for a visit. And might I say it was a pleasure for us, too, to have her here with us.

Hard Proof Afrobeat 1-14-11

by Robert Crump

Last Friday night, two Austin bands gathered on stage to give a glimpse of music loved and cherished in far-flung regions across the globe. Hard Proof Afrobeat and Atash played The Ghost Room to a sizable dancing crowd. I had no idea that so many people appreciated this kind of music enough to miss Girl Talk and whatever else was on tap for A-town this night. World music offers American patrons a foreign aesthetic and a unique state of mind to enjoy themselves. I don’t like the words ‘exotic’ or ‘escape’ when talking about music. Exposure to new art forms allows you to experience yourself in a new way. What might have been foreign becomes something remarkably familiar when you live it with a group. Atash has already been covered by LMC Radio, so I’ll devote this blog post to Hard Proof.

Most African music being played in the United States traces its origins back to the late great Fela Anikulapo Kuti, who first coined the term Afrobeat. The principle behind Afrobeat is to unite the musical styles of the Diaspora onto a single stage. To accommodate so many genres you need a lot of musicians and a flexible design to composition. Hard Proof succeeds brilliantly through this medium. Their dynamic improvisation is held together by a tight rhythm and expansive composition. It’s really thrilling to watch the players unfold their expression individually and collectively on stage. Hard Proof leans more towards the Afro-Cuban style than any of the others available under the larger banner of Afrobeat. A casaba and bongos thrown into the mix bring out a very vigorous sound, and the crowd ate it up. Everywhere I looked, people were grinning and dancing as Hard Proof navigated from funk to jazz and back again. For good measure, they threw in an Ethiopian song by Mulatu Astatqe, which was definitely my evening’s highlight.

Hard Proof inspire an infectious joy from their audience, which comes out through movement. Like a lot of Afrobeat, the horns lead the sound and tempo. I was especially impressed with the baritone sax player. The brass section digs into a deep funk groove only to pull out into a sultry soirée. Hard Proof’s dynamic variability wins over crowds of beautiful dancing people. The wonderful thing about fusion is that it allows the artist to cast a wide net while remaining true to a single aesthetic and giving individual artists space to improvise and communicate. I love Hard Proof because they reaffirm Fela Kuti’s brilliant insight that the funk, jazz, African, and Latin sounds can all work together. But there’s a catch: you have to be damn good to pull it off. Luckily, Austin has one of the best Afrobeat bands in the U.S.

Heybale's Gary Claxton

Heybale's Gary Claxton dies at 50  --  Richard Crenwelge

Austin lost another of its great musicians last week, and may he rest in peace.  Gary Claxton was a singer/songwriter, and the frontman for Austin-based supergroup Heybale, which boasts some of the most sought-after musicians in country music.  With Earl Poole Ball and Redd Volkaert on the roster, the band has a virtual all-star lineup, and that perhaps explains why they are able to so effectively capture that real, authentic honky tonk sound. 

You can learn more about Gary and Heybale at (insert link) http://www.austin360.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/music/entries/2011/01/07/rip_heybale_singergary_claxton.html?cxntfid=blogs_austin_music_source.

Although Gary is an icon of the Austin country music scene, I did not meet Gary through his music, but rather through another amazing talent of his, and that was Brazilian jiu-jitsu.  I write about this because it is important for us, as music fans, to realize that our local musicians have lives outside of music.  When I first began learning jiu-jitsu here in town, he was one of the few men in the room that wore a black belt, and for those who are familiar with jiu-jitsu, you are aware of how difficult it is to earn a black belt in that system.  It is an honor that very, very few people are able to achieve.  Gary did not just achieve a black belt, however; he went on to win the jiu-jitsu world championships (the Mundials) in 2010, which is even more rare of a feat, as most jiu-jitsu enthusiasts never even fight or compete at all, and he fought successfully at the highest levels.  Therefore, it is an honor for me to have trained on the same mats as him.

The best jiu-jitsu practitioners in the world are not just competition-proven champions, though.  They also display an almost child-like eagerness in learning, a gentle aggressiveness in training, and extreme grace in their losses.  I saw all of these things in Gary.  I was not a training partner of his, but I watched him spar many times, and the immediacy and potency of jiu-jitsu lays everyone's personality bare for all in the room to see.  The good, the bad, and the ugly.  It tests your mental toughness, your patience, and your humility.  Even then, I did not see Gary ever lose his patience or become frustrated, and every training session seemed like a joy for him. 

Ultimately, there are several things that we can learn from Gary's passing, and they are all extremely important to our understanding of Austin as a community.  One is that Austin really is the Live Music Capital of the world, and we must enjoy it for all that it is.  There are a seemingly infinite number of bands playing an infinite number of shows, so go out and enjoy them while you can.  Secondly, all of these musicians are working against time, and will not be around forever.  Get to know their music.  And third, get to know them as people.  There is much, much more to everyone out there than the face that they give to the public.

The Band of Heathens 11/26/10

This was a Thanksgiving homecoming for sure, at Momo's.  As many folks know, this is a band that got their start at Momo's, but the 3 guitar/songwriter leads were originally billed as 3 separate acts on a weekly basis on the same night.  Their collaborative spirits started improvising on each other's works, bass was added, later drums, and a band was organically formed.  Their first two albums were live recordings in Austin clubs, and they didn't even name themselves.  They did have a name (The Good Time Supper Club), but "The Heathens" was a misprint that stuck.  And the ball has been rolling for barely 5 years now..

The Band of Heathens are: Colin Brooks, Gordy Quist, Ed Jurdi-- all 3 on lead vocals and lead guitar (and sometimes switching things up with keys, harmonica, or lap steel)-- Seth Whitney on bass, John Chipman on drums, and now Trevor Nealon on organ (who normally plays with Wisebird).  

They guys really are collaborators and improvisers.  Every time I see them, they are grabbing a guest onto the stage, likely unrehearsed.  The Band of Heathens is one part country, one part rock, one part soul, and five parts Austin.  It's a testament to talent and authenticity when a significant portion of a band's crowd is older than the band member and the venue is enthusiastically full.   

Colin, Gordy, and Ed regularly rotate the turns to sing-- when they aren't harmonizing.  Their 3 voices are uniquely different-- from husky to clear and ringing to softly adaptable-- and comprise much of the textured personality of the Heathens' sound.     

They opened with "LA County Blues",  layering those 3 lead guitars as an immediate signature declaration.  It's been awhile since I've seen the Heathens, and their years on the road-- their dedication to the live music experience-- really shows.  "Golden Calf" was relaxed, smoky, and moody, but "Heart on My Sleeve" whipped us right back into the world of rock and roll.  "Miss Ohio", a Gillian Welch cover, had Ed sit down on keys while Colin and Gordy revved up the guitar work..  this band really knows how to conjure the energy, and the climactic guitar 'jam' (for lack of a better word!) was proof..  John on drums was incredibly grounding during this moment, which was probably why Gordy turned around and played exclusively only to the drummer for the remainder of the piece.

"Somebody Tell the Truth" had an organ solo at the end from Trevor that started out innocent enough, but somehow roped all 5 others on stage into his domain.  All band members were laughing by the end, because they all clearly caved to a musical moment they couldn't deny-- so fun to see!  And soon the side of the stage became a revolving door-- guest after guest kept stepping up, some of whose names I don't know..

Other songs they played  are "Jackson Station"-- with all 3 vocalists taking turn, and the slow roadhouse blues of "Second Line" (different from the studio version).    A friend of theirs stepped up to play some guitar for my favorite of all Heathens' songs, one penned by Gordy Quist, "Judas 'Scariot Blues".  This song is a lyrical gem, perfectly matched by the haunting and urgent mood of the music and vocal delivery.  Judas Iscariot is the Biblical apostle who betrayed Jesus, ended up hanging himself (according to the book of Matthew-- there are different versions!), and this song is sung from Judas' perspective--  darkly, bitterly.  The Band of Heathens' songs range from lighthearted to foreboding and worrisome..  and "Judas 'Scariot Blues" ranks extremely high in the murky part of my heart that needs fulfillment

Austin's Drew Smith-- another great songwriter/vocalist/guitarist who will get his own blog entry--  stepped up for a few songs, including his own "Silver Pictures" and played backup on the Heathen's smoky, soulful "Bumblebee". 

Another friend stepped up to deliver "Odysseus"-- a hilarious cowboy adaptation of Homer's Odyssey, and then came the horns!  3-players-- on trumpet, trombone and  saxophone-- stepped up to add the arrangements created by the John's brother, Chris Chipman.  The Heathens always have a soulful, southern sound, but the horns really brought us all straight to New Orleans!  They added to "Shine A Light" (not the Stones song) and the gravelly sass of "You're Gonna Miss Me"-- complete with harmonica and funky organ solo.

True to their Southern-American musical roots, and delivered with smoothly hones harmonies, the Heathens' encore was the traditional prison work song "Ain't No More Cane"-- a song covered by such artists as Leadbelly, Bob Dylan, Lyle Lovett, and the list goes on.  

The Heathens tour pretty heavily for much of the year, so tonight was a great kickoff to the holiday season-- they even get to stay in Texas for a month or so.  Lucky for all of us, their ball keeps on rolling.. ! 

Phish 10/7/10

If Phish happens to perform on July 15, 2011, I will be there.  That date will be the 20 year anniversary of my first Phish concert.   

For a crash-course on what Phish is about, check out LMC Radio's Inspiration page, because the station is partly dedicated to/inspired by Phish.  The last time they performed full-on in Austin was in 1999 (and I was there!) at Southpark Meadows..   Remember Southpark Meadows?  ...     ???!!!

I literally could write a book, but these posts are to chronicle one night of music here in Austin, and that is what I will do.  Somewhere in the first hour of Phish's set, I ended up alongside a young lady who cheered at the start of each song, anticipated musical changes, had the biggest smile on her face, and danced like there's no tomorrow.  She was about twice my size and half my age, and neither of those is a bad thing.  Partway through "You Enjoy Myself", a Trey Anastasio composition from the 1980's that the drummer Jon Fishman refers to as Phish's "bread and butter", she turned to me and asked: What's  the name of this?  That stunned me--  I suddenly realized this was a brand new Phish fan who must have somehow heard the music, but just not long enough to learn the names of things, even the staples.  She looked about 19, the same age I was when I first saw Phish.    ..So this post is for her.  And for anyone else who has a curiosity about this band, or even just good old-fashioned respect for them.  Old school fans will enjoy reading this too-- because this old school fan is having fun writing it.

Phish fans have a tendency to call the band members by their first names mostly-- as if we all know them personally?-- so, band member lineup: Trey on guitar, Mike on bass, Page on keys, Fish on drums.

Before I tell you what they DID do, let me tell you what they did NOT do.  Let me tell you!  They did not play the vacuum, did not play from the top of an airport landing tower, and did not ride a giant hot dog over the heads of audience members.  They did not form an Acoustic Army, cover The White Album or Exile on Main Street, or create a snowfall indoors.  They did not design an outdoor camping festival with themed art installations, ferris wheel, FM radio station (The Bunny), and post office.  (Some of their festivals had their own zip code-- we were a city, see?  Details.. priorities!)  They didn't switch instruments, play from midnight to sunrise without breaking, weave esoteric samples of other songs into their own, or throw 3 giant beach balls into the audience for a crowd-directed Ball Jam.  They didn't engage us with Phish Talk, sing in Hebrew, or shoot the drummer through the roof with a catapult.  They didn't go from metal to bluegrass, get esoteric or evil, or get bluesy or reggae on us.  They didn't set aflame a symbolic sculpture, get naked (OK, only the drummer ever got naked, briefly and bravely), or jam on a flat-bed truck rolling through a camping crowd at 3am.  They didn't play with Sharon Jones, a Seminole Indian Chief, B.B. King, or multiple Elvii (plural of 'Elvis').  They didn't sing a barbershop quartet, wiggle the Punch You In The Eye Storm Dance, play chess with the audience, or bury the meatstick in Japanese.  

Phish = Composition + Improvisation.  Jazz + Classic Rock.  Geeky respect for music + slap-happiness.  Letting it all hang out + hinting at the inside joke.  What inside joke?  That's what we're always trying to figure out. 

Close your eyes during any given "jam", or extended musical conversation of theirs, and just try to follow what each of the four is saying to the other three.  It's a fun game to play, and always leads me back into the entirety of the music.  "What song is this?", asked after 10 or more minutes of music, is a classic sign that Phish is really flexing their improvisational, experimental, and mind-melting muscles.  It's more than possible to get so lost in the music that you forget what song the conversation originally sprouted from.

Tonight was the debut of Fish's new "geriatric" drum chair.  All these years, he's been sitting on a stool, at one point nicknamed Mrs. Fishman.  The new improved Mrs. Fishman provides back support, and the removal of the stool provides room for more drums-- "like knocking down some walls and adding two new rooms onto the house".  Room for the kids!!   

What Phish DID do tonight: play a perfect set for a giant music festival.

What they played:

Down with Disease -- Possibly Phish's only attempt at a pop hit song in their history, punctuated with some macho guitar riffs--including bass, a danceable beat, and sealed with Trey's signature soaringly happy high-note climaxes.  This is the one song they made a video for (like, Mtv style)-- a video that demonstrates one more trick they didn't pull this evening-- turn the stage into a giant fish aquarium.  For the un-indoctrinated this evening, this was a pop-song-turned-listening-exercise, as Phish delved into a characteristic 4-piece musical conversation before neatly wrapping up.

Cities -- A Talking Heads cover, less funkified but no less classic, classic even for Phish to play-- in my recent acquisition of a musical cassette tape (plastic rectangle, holes in center) from December 1, 1984, I learned Phish covered this song during what many consider to be the first official Phish show in Burlington, VT.

Possum -- This is as barefootin, dust-kickin, and down-home as Phish gets-- and marked with some classic Phish musical tension-and-release-- plus it's an oldie from  the 1980's, from Trey's senior thesis at Goddard College (a liberal arts college in VT).  The thesis has an official title (he Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday), but most fans call it Gamehendge, which is the setting of the thesis' fictional story, songs, and characters.  If you ever want to be really confused, read Gamehendge on paper as a story.  Then, go listen to it-- if you can find a performance of it-- the band has performed it in its near-entirety, complete with story narration, 5 times.  It all comes together.  Except for the Possum, whose poor end was the road.  So wonderful to hear this outdoors, and I think Trey made his guitar talk at the beginning of it..

Wolfman's Brother -- A slow funky rock number with a bit of soul, this song really lept out as something new and different when it first emerged in 1994, and really came into its own by the end of the 90's.  This would be a great moment to point out that Phish's lyrics are sometimes a head scratcher, with this song being a case in point.   The band relaxed into Wolfman's tonight, perhaps to save it for..

Chalk Dust Torture -- An upbeat rocker that never fails to reach every person present--  we've all been bored at school or (unless we're lucky) bored at our current jobs.  I've never seen this song performed mildly, or without the centerpiece lyric can't I live while I'm young belted out with crowd in unison.  This is almost 2 decades old now, written by Trey and his songwriting comrade Tom Marshall.  Great example of Trey mixing some swampy/butt-heavy riffs with a screaming solo in the same piece.  They once played this on the David Letterman show in 1994, back when David had hair, and the same sense of humor. 

Rock and Roll -- A classic Velvet Underground cover that is the story of our lives.  Many times Trey is the main vocalist, but this is a good time to point out that all band members take turns singing & often harmonize.  Page sings this one, and seemed especially into it tonight.  Maybe his life was saved by rock and rock and roll too.  After the mandatory Rock and Roll jam (mandatory because Phish is known for adding jams to songs, and mandatory because..  look at the song!)-- with Trey's articulate guitar in stark forefront--and Mike's serpentine and insistent bass underneath-- the spacey ending after the close of the song was ambiguous for awhile, perfectly Phish, until the drums kicked in, leading us to.. 

Also Sprat Zarathustra (also known as "2001")--  This is..   is..   in my Top 3 favorite live Phish pieces, and has been for decades.  This is a symphonic poem (go look it up) first composed by Richard Strauss (Germany) in 1896.  Sounds stuffy, eh?  No way-- at least not when Phish gets their hands on it.  This composition, in part or whole, has been borrowed, used in films, and covered by other musicians for more than a century.  During the gigantic December 31, 1999 ("Y2K") Phish concert in southern Florida (85,000 people attended, the largest concert on earth that night) my friends kept throwing out the phrase Dance Party 2000!! The phrase stuck with me, and any time Phish turns us all into dancing fools, like they did yet again in Austin 2010, I shout it out.  This is a good time to give props to lighting director Chris Kuroda, whose colors, timings, and patterns make Phish's music a visual experience, and highly aesthetic..  Except during the musical peaks of "2001", when Chris turns a white light- the most evil and naked of all lights- to the audience, burning all of our retinas and temporarily blinding us.  We scream in agony , and the band likely thinks we scream because the music is climaxing or we are having fun or something.  We are screaming from damaged vision, temporary stupefaction, and potentially permanent brain damage -- but we press on with our funkiness.  Dance Party 2000!!

Backwards Down the Number Line --  This is a song by friends, for friends.  This is a newer song with a sweet and poignant origin-- I won't tell the story, but I recommend you read about it from a hopefully reputable source, maybe Phish.net, or find the NPR Morning Edition interview with Trey and Page from September 2009.  The accompanying jam to this song tonight was at first buoyant, and then increasingly rocking!

Harry Hood -- This is an oldie from the 80's, performed continuously for decades, and appears on no studio album.  This is Classic Phish.  Why?  Because it is a beautiful composition with several movements that show off the band's ability to be delicate, relaxing, scary, funny, weird, ambient, concentrated, and beautiful.  Within and between the movements is plenty of room for improvisation, which the band has explored with different faces in Harry throughout the decades.  Harry Hood is Classic Phish because this is a prime example of where composition meets improvisation, and where the band goes "in" at some point, brings us to stillness, to pure listening attention, and usually brings it back "out" with cascading musical majesty.  (Many times there is a "glow stick war" amongst the crowd during Harry-- first born when one time the lighting director was told to turn all stage lights off during a certain section-- to place all attention on the music-- and evolved into a dazzling display of flying colored sticks.)  Of course, this is also Classic Phish because all the loveliness revolves around a cartoon character from a New England dairy company commercial.  Plus, before the Internet, you'd never know who Mr. Minor is-- one of those things that draws you curiosity.  The inside joke!  And the joke was on us-- the band ended Harry Hood early, did not bring it "back" from the exploratory jam..  and instead led directly into "Light".

Light -- A new song from their most recent album Joy(2009).  Enlightening and spiritual lyrics-- not always Phish's specialty.  Light is based on Eckhart Tulle's book The Power of Now -- but it works, especially because the accompanying "jam" to this song is increasingly complex and dense in the past two years.  This exploratory rock song is in its relative infancy in the Phish timeline, and I look forward to watching it evolve.   

Suzy Greenburg --  Of the entire Phish song repertoire, a list several hundred pieces long, there is no single Phish lyric I relate to more than the line: "Little Suzy Greenburg, with her head caved in."  If you have ever had a crush on a wacky gal, or have been a wacky gal, this song is for you.  Completely fun, an oldie from the 80's written by Phish friend The Dude of Life.  Page usually has several openings in Suzy to funk it up on the keys, and tonight he went back and forth between an electronic and classic key sound.  In the words of one fan tonight, "Page owned it."  Although there were no horns tonight, it's worth mentioning this piece is perfectly embellished by brass, including the "monster" Suzy Greenburg of Festival 8 (featured in the Phish 3D concert film) with Sharon Jones, Saundra Williams, and several members of the Dap Kings on lavish backup.

You Enjoy Myself --  Another Phish Classic, a composition by Trey from the 80's.  It's long, complex, with several moods and movements-- but none of them are ever rushed.  This is one piece of music that tells a story.  There are some pieces, and some nights, I think Phish takes us "underwater"-- where the ebb and flow of the melodies, with Fish's soft jazzy timing underneath, combined with supple blue and purple lights, literally makes you feel buoyant, peaceful-- like you're in another world-- namely: underwater.  The first section of YEM (a lazy nickname I'm not a fan of) is like climbing magical stairways, and showcases some fancy fingerwork and timing..  but then the band slides underwater..    and they will stay there for as long as they wish.  When they decide to surface, there's a beautiful section that features Page on keys and is enough to get any real-life music box dancer twirling..   eventually leading to a suddenly staccato segueway, exciting chord progressions, and the ..  setting of the trampolines.   After some interestingly timed conversation between drums & guitar,  some screaming notes from Trey, the tension builds, the notes climb higher, higher, higher..  until all four members literally shout on the top of their lungs.  BOY.  MAN..   complete signature tension and release.  The band moves to groovy funkland-- you don't know how we got here--but it sure feels good.  All that funk deserves bouncing.  Such as..  the synchronized trampoline dance by Mike and Trey.  Yes, while still playing guitars-- and Mike holds it down as solid as he ever does.  When trampoline time is over, the funk jam adventure begins, never going the same place twice.  Again, Phish will stay here as long as they wish, and they have their choice of neatly wrapping up with a refrain of the minimal lyrics (wash Uffizi and drive me to Firenze, or, it could be "wash you feetsie"..) or they begin a vocal jam.. which they did tonight.  All four members start making random sounds-- with the only instruments they are playing-- their voices.  It's usually trippy, textured, eery, sometimes funny-- tonight was all three--  bringing this masterpiece to a psychedelic close.    I was jealous of folks hearing the likes of this for the very first time.  What's the name of this? she asked.

Encore:

Cavern --  A straight-up rock number with a declarative ending--  the song has a plot, and a moral--and good luck discerning what either of them is ..   it's easy to get lost between the primal soup, septic maidens, and rudiments of gruel.  This is the song that references Nectar (in a vague and veiled fashion), the club owner who let Phish gig and gig in the 80's.  What is not vague or veiled is the 1992 album from which Cavern came-- A Picture of Nectar-- or the album's cover, which is a photograph of an orange, with the shadowed contours of Nectar Rorris' face transposed onto it.  True story: When Phish reunited in 2009 after a 5 year breakup, their reunion set of shows were at the Hampton Coliseum in Virginia.  Fans from ALL over flew in.  As one plane was about to empty, the pilot, after the usual time and weather shpeal, quoted the last lines of this song: "Whatever you do, take care of your shoes."  The plane's passengers erupted.  Phish fans-- we're everywhere.

First Tube --  This piece will drive you straight across the country-- or into outer space.  Many times a show opener or closer-- perhaps to send us all home with a kick in the pants, or ants in our pants-- this electrifying and propulsive instrumental is a little over a decade old.  Constantly pushing forward, First Tube has Trey picking in 3, Fishing sharply cracking the kit in 4, Page embellishing throughout, and is a great example of Mike's rhythmic, thumping prowess on bass.  (After almost 2 decades of listening to this band intently, I would say Mike is the musical "center" of their most musically dense and experimental moments..)   This piece is not experimental, but straightforward, increasingly energetic and triumphant-- with an enjoyable space-loop Trey throws in halfway through with one of his toys/pedals-- and closed with some playful, climactic guitar feedback-- in case we forgot this is rock and roll.

I think with the wristband I had, I could have waited on a line to be on the side stage, with strangers who potentially don't know or even like this band.  Why would I do that, when I can be with my friends on the lawn, strategically placed in front of the soundboard?  And then watch the clouds change colors with the sunset, follow the mass of iridescent dragonflies glowing in the dusk, circling above.  Just before the music began, someone let go a helium balloon in the shape of a red heart.  It floated up and up and up.  I kept watching, with the skyline of Austin below it, the orange clouds alongside it.  I got to thinking, about the twenty-something years this band has been together, their dedication to the live music experience, to the art they constantly evolve, my relationship with this live music city, my seemingly permanent admiration for this band's music.  I watched that balloon for a long time.  Some powerful combinations are meant to keep going, and some old loves never die.