Search - Phish :: Live Phish Vol. 8: 7/10/99, E Centre, Camden, New Jersey

Great Show -- Great Recording

Brooks Williams | 04/16/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"LP8 is the only two-disc show of the second batch. Packaging: More of the same. This release has pictures of each band
member. Trey looks really old.Sound: This is more of a Matrix recording than LP7. You can hear the crowd
pretty clearly, but not so much that it's annoying. There's no noticible
vocal or instrumental echo (at least as far as I can tell). This show
really sounds great. All the instruments sound clear and are mixed well
(except Page's piano, which seems just a tad too quiet). The vocals are a
little low in the mix, but it's not too bad. It's not noticable in the
slower, quieter songs.Music: The real highlight of set one is the Chalk Dust Torture > Roggae.
Not that Roggae is the greatest song, but it's a really nice transition.
Chalk Dust gets really interesting around the 9:00 mark. Kind of spacey and
textural -- but with a lot of energy. A very unique jam. It glides easily
into Roggae.
This set also features the slow blusy tune, Back At The Chicken Shack. It
just doesn't do anything for me. It's just a little too long for my tastes
since it doesn't really go anywhere.
The Bathtub Gin is pretty standard. It's a good 16 min, so there's some
good jamming in there. There's a directional change at 11:00 that reminds
me of the 6/14/2000 Fukuoka (Japan) Jam, but it quickly picks up a darker
and more energetic tone. The jam eventually fades out to end the song.
Set two is pretty great. It opens with a phenominal Tweezer. Very slow jam
in the middle. Nice and long. Put the headphones on for this one and turn
it up. One of my favorite Phish jams to date. It eventually segues into
Mountains in the Mist -- which is a song with which I'm not too familiar.
Birds of a Feather basically has the same jam as the Chalkdust, but that's
cool by me. Fluffhead ends the set in typical high-energy fashion.Good stuff."

So phuckin good (a review for non-Phish Heads)

Matt | 05/22/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Live Phish 8 was my first intro to the band. The only other album I have from the Live series is 11 -- the one everybody says is the best. Well, I like this one a lot more. To most people, jam bands are about making the songs as looong as possible. To me, jam bands are all about interesting and awesome song transitions. That's why, unlike most fans of the Dead, I like Live/Dead a lot more than Skulls & Roses. Live/Dead was (mostly) one long concert, and it is full of great transitions. Skulls & Roses was recorded on about as many different nights as there are songs on the album.



Anyway, it's the same deal with Phish, for me. Live 08 is as amazing listening experience, not because of how far into the stratosphere they go on each song, but on how skillfully they bring things back down to earth, bring back the hook/riff/chorus to remind you what song you're listening to, and creatively move into the next tune. Live 11 doesn't really do that; the songs are long and jammy, but inbetween songs they always stop, and sometimes even talk to the audience.



In my opinion, Live 8 is what jam bands are all about. You should get it."