Happy Friday, duders. I thought I’d wrap up the week with a nice Phish Friday post full of mp3’s to get you grooving while you sit in your chairs at work or do whatever it is you do. Plus I just booked my hotel for Red Rocks, so yeah, I’m awesome.
I came to realize the other day that Phish is definitely a more prominent force in my musical listening habits ever since the return of the band in March. It’s like, normal again to listen to Phish all the time now in between all of the newer, indie stuff I try to sample and keep in touch with. But I’m also finding myself totally back into the spirit of counting the days until the next show (30 days until Fenway!) and waiting until I can get a crispy copy of the show from some kind audience taper. I really can’t wait for more, and it’s brought back that spirit of Phish that made me feel like downloading shows and grousing through obscure spreadsheets full of Mediafire links to full show downloads that sound fantastic. It brought me to this week’s Phish Friday, so I felt a little context was in order.
A few weeks back me and my band mate were discussing Prince and I mentioned that Phish did a cover of “1999” to open their NYE 1998 show, quite possibly the most logical and potentially predictable cover the band has ever done. And remembering that they did this and realizing that was 10 years ago (!), I felt that it was in order to dig it up and give it a listen. The band opens the show with their rousing, funked-up-even–more rendition of the Prince classic into a completely sublime Mike’s Groove. Check it:
Phish – “1999 >” (live, 12/31/98) [mp3]
Phish – “Mike’s Song >” (live, 12/31/98) [mp3]
Phish – “Jam >” (live, 12/31/98) [mp3]
Phish – “I Am Hydrogen > Weekapaug Groove” (live, 12/31/98) [mp3]
Just a headsup that we’ll be making some changes on the site this weekend to accommodate some new ideas I’ve got the site, so stay tuned if things look a little rough around the edges at first.
