A LIVE ONE

At particular evening I dropped by at our local book store (the big one) here in Jakarta and as usual I went straight to either novel, leadership / management topics or - what else man? - music! Yeah .. I saw at "Performers" section a book about PHISH, a very thick and very big one (I think it's about A4 size). So I asked the bookstore waiter to open the plastic strap and have me a look what is inside. Wow! I was amazed on how the content of the book was telling all nitty-gritty things about a band which - I swear! - had never heard the music yet at all. I had heard it before from some of my prog mates down here but never got interested with the band at all because they could not answer my question: is it symphonic? Is it neo prog? Is it prog met? Or what ? They simple say: "It's hard to categorize .".

About couple of weeks ago my prog guru, Andy Julias, introduced me this live album from Phish. The first spin of the CD I had only one word comment: "confused". It's not that the music is too complex or indigestible , rather I was confused on what category I should put this kind of music into? Nevermind, I don't really care, at the end music that counts. So I tried to have some more spins. It has everything - you name it: rock, jazz, pop, disco, funk. Yes, everything is lumped together into the music of Phish. And I found something interesting about this album: the guitar player who seems to be the mastermind "Trey Anastasio" plays his guitar wonderfully with heavy influences from Santana, Frank Zappa and Jimi Hendrix. I really enjoy his guitar playing style. The other great musician is the keyboard player Page McConnell.

Musically, the style that Phish plays is basically like a jamming music but with a structured approach and excellent harmony. You will hear the virtuosities of musicians involved in this album through various solo especially guitar and keyboards. The only problem, probably, is the repetitive music segments that may create a boring experience. Good example is "You Enjoy Myself" that consumes 20:57 minutes featuring long guitar work but with some repetitive chords that may be boring for most of us.

Overall, it's a very good live album especially if you enjoy long guitar solo and keyboard work. Trey Anastasio is one of Top 100 guitar player according to Guitar World magazine. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW