Phish Show Recap: 6/22/09 Jones Beach by Bruce

Editor's Note: My buddy Bruce (aka the Dead Guru) caught the show last night and wrote a mini-review. I love his perspective since he's a drummer and a hardcore Deadhead. I saw my last Dead show with Bruce in 1995 and turned him onto Phish after Jerry Garcia died. Thanks for sharing Bruce!)

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Jones Beach By Bruce

As requested... MINI REVIEW...

My friend FRED and I got off the LIRR and we waited a while at the front of the line to get the 88 BUS to get us down to the Jones Beach theater. The main parking lot was packed when we arrived. I proceeded to get 2 beers for the standard $5 deal. We smoked and walked towards Shakedown Street. Some techno Phreak had his own SOUND TRIBE SECTOR 9 jam going. Interesting.


Photo by Dave Vann (from phishfromtheroad's Flickr page)

The show opened with a VERY decent Runaway Jim... high energy. Foam, (my first time seeing it) was very very nice. Great keyboard stuff from Page. We were sitting down lower from where are seats were.. until after FOAM, when it got crowded so, Fred and I went up to the SKY-HIGH seats. I took a piss during the new tune, and then started grooving on the TIMBER HO flo...(song is kinda quirky lyrics, but the Jerry reference and the jam are kinda cool).

They did a nice slow driving CITIES.. REBA kicked some ass. Might have been best version I have seen. Possum, was OK... Page, seemed a little tentative, and Trey was keeping it in line. Farmhouse jammed, and If I Could was a real surprise for me. I didn't expect them to do that song without a chick singer.

For second set, Fred and I, stayed up in the UPPERDECK; But, we moved to the center. The sound and the light show was much better straight on.

MIKES SONG freaking JAMMED. I picked out some SIMPLE riffs at the end of the jam... and lo and behold, SIMPLE! Trey flaked on the lyrics... but, SIMPLE was fun, cool. Great Weekapaug, with high energy Fishman riffs... and MIKE goin nuts. A great highlight for me was to see When the Circus Comes to town.

I personally DIG all of Trey's Ballads. Some better than others. But, I really like the lyrics on Circus. I guess, the song (originally by Los Lobos) gets played out, but it has a nice guitar solo. The new tune "Kill Devil Falls" was pretty good. They rocked hard on it.

Harry Hood, really cooked as well. They went into a mesmerizing SPACE which was really nice.... and the ending JAM rocked.

And, they ended the show with a high energy LOVING CUP!!! My first Loving Cup and was psyched when Page broke into that intro... and I particularly was digging the INTENSE ending on that tune. They picked a great STONES tune, and they freaking do it BETTER than the Rolling Stones, (not that I ever saw the Stones play it).

I was hoping for a 2 tune encore, but Suzy Greenberg was darn good. It was better than my first Suzy which Phish did in Brooklyn @ the Cyclone Stadium. The Keyboard jam toward the end.... CRANKED!!!!!!

Overall, QUITE A GOOD SHOW... making me completely PSYCHED for Thursday and Friday night shows.


Bruce Cohen is a drummer from Forrest Hills, NY

Comments

Kid Dynamite said…
Loving Cup was SEARING.

best line of the night heard on Shakedown street: "I'm trying to decide which drugs to take"

also, some guy offered us 2 beers (keystone lite!) for $3. We told him we'd give him $7 for 4, and he said "look, i was being nice with the 2 for 3 deal."

we said "yeah - we're doing better than that for you! 2 for 3 equals 4 for $6!"

phish <> math

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