8-1-99 -- Fuji Rock Festival, Naeba, Niigata, Japan

review submisions dws@www.phish.net or dws@gadiel.com

 
Date: Mon, 2 Aug 1999 00:21:14 -0500
From: kwmayo@mindspring.com
To: dws@archive.phish.net
Subject: Review submission
 
I said Goddamnnnn!!!!!

Date: Sun, 8 Aug 1999 08:21:54 -0700 (PDT) From: Jaime Lee jalee420@yahoo.com To: dws@gadiel.com Subject: 8/1/99 Fuji Fest Review Sorry took so long to post my review for the final night at the Fields of Heaven! Well, here it is : 8/1/99 Fields Of Heaven 7:00 pm WEll, as a whole, this night was probably the best of three in my opinion. But, I still stand firm that the best set of the three nights was 7/31/99 Set II. 1st Set The evening began with a standard version of Cities with no in-depth jam, however served its purpose. Moma Dance was phat with a nice chunky funk feel. Divided Sky was certainly a dream. Trey decided to hesitate for about 1:05 until playing that note that we all wait for impatiently. S.O.A.M. was a must listen for all. NObody can ever complain with an Antelope set closer especially in the first set. 2nd Set I had the opportunity of relistening to this set the other night so the music is pretty fresh in my head. Well, Possum>Tweezer...mindblowing. Tweezer had this jam which words cannot describe and Trey was manipulating his guitar with that backwards effect that he used quite often during the Fuji Fest. Sounded quite confusing, but somehow came together harmonically. This ingenious form then blended into a Llama which blew smoke out of my ears. Page, lifted his ego from the stool he sat on and expressed himself on the organ...Phat melodies. Had enough yet...no this then sunk into Mike's which ripped my skull out. Thought they were gonna take it into Simple and then thought...."NO, they played it last night...hehehe." Mikes was taken into a Pseudo-H20 where Page and Trey layered some ambient jams on top of Fish and Mike's H20 rhythm...and then...oh yes, Trey busted the H20 jam out..which was pretty much on point. Weekapaug had the entire field hoppin including the vendors and even children. I swear, the towering cedar trees must have been as mesmerized as I was. Wedge...always a nice one to hear...Lizards proclaimed one of my most phavorite quotes, "The trick was to surrender to the phlow." Y.E.M. was a phatty throw down to end this chunky set with trampolines and all. Well, the encore could have been a little better...but I can't complain after what I witnessed this weekend. I think they also had time constraints as well. Reprise as usual, energetic and fulfilling, pretty much was a great summary to a phabulous weekend in the Asian forests. I really hope that they do this again in the future... probably the most amazing venue I've seen Phish play at out of the 50 shows I've been to. Hope everyone considers going to the fest next year even if Phish decides not to partake. Thanx to Andy for posting this and to the dedicated phans around the world for listening to my babble. Sincerely, -Jaime Lee
Date: Sat, 7 Aug 1999 00:46:00 -0400 From: steve garcia@cisnet.com To: "'dws@www.phish.net'" dws@archive.phish.net Subject: Fuji review I left Thur am, picked up the 747 in chicago, with the boys on the plane and their entourage sleeping in the economy section. not a crowded flight. Shook page's hand, but they all seemed tired. Went through customs with the group, and fishman was wearing a tattered old dirty shirt put out by some texas bar. he was also wearing the cowboy hat. he was behind us in line, the rest in front of yes. talked a little to fishman, but i hate to bother people. everyone made it by the drug sniffing dogs with no problem. We still lacked our room at neaba, but the conceirge at our hotel got us a room in tower 4. glorius. We talked to a young native couple on the train platform on the way up, who spoke no english, but instructed us to follow them. when we told them we were from us, they said, ahh, phishheads. Page was in tower 4 as well, and i ran into him a couple times. saw none of the others at the prince. entire setup is what festivals should be. you could bring anything in, except bottles, but noone seemed anal on the search. i got my 35 mm and got some nice shots on night 2. you could set up umbrellas and chairs, ect on the back part of the green stage pawn. bottled water and coke was $2.00 or so, native beer $3, so we weren't being ripped off. very good vibe. some of our promotors should take lessons. you might actually be able to make more $$$ killing the crowd with kindness. Green stage, day one. band before them was cranking, and i thought chalkdust would be a good introduction. apparently so did the band. and the crowd approved. I've never been crazy about guyute, and it was standard. when did trey start adding the evil exorcist distortion to his voice? Wolfman was ok, but lost the crowd. place went wild duting pyite, apparently a universal tune. Couple of security guards who looked to be from a local us army base (were big guys, spoke english, wore fatigues - much better security than rent a pigs- these guys formed security at the shows. apparently the japanese security, looking as small and feminine as the ones that guarded the prince looked, were not felt to be enough deterent. these guys were). anyhow, one motions to the other, pinches his nose and then makes the universal sign for toke a joint - you know it. Thinks got better at the field of heaven. very small this was the best venue i have and will likely see phish at. Red rocks, was nice, but we estimated about 300-500 at night one, and it thinned out from there. others are overestimating night one. night 2 and 3 we got up to 1000 or so. a lot more westerners got in sat. Kent mac was too crowded, although it had the intimacy. too many at sugarbush and fox theatre. I shared the crowd barrier up front with some other english speakers from hong kong. only a few decks going. hope tapes get out. whole thing was video taped with four fixed cameras and one roamer. set one, standard, well jammed. funky bitch was played at a much slower tempo, and did not work for me, but at least we got something different. set 2, highlight was bike. bike was a crowd request, and fish balked cuz no sweeper. his guitar work was nice. he played it like we discovered how to play the instrument, and then started milking it. almost like bugs bunny would do, showing off once he learned how to handle the jet, but without the climatic crashing into the ground part. Julius was, like funky bitch, played at a slower tempo. note: fish wore a black white print dress, a assume japanese, but back to the old one for set 2. night 2, set 1 was short, with train being the high point. this one is a keeper and has room to grow. set 2 was the killer. just try to get the tapes. encore, no monks, just one tibetan that played with trey at carnigie hall. first he talked about tibet problems too long (sorry, but it was too long. people were loosing interest, and in rude america there would have been yelling.) I could see one of the crew laughing and wondered why. he must have seen fishman with the sweeper. tibitan played an instrument which made a whale sort of sound, and fishman started working a sweeper from the prince hotel. very funny. b/r was fine, simple was nice. night 3, set 1. Cities was very short, almost like an album cut. no jam, and i was disappointed. rest of set raged. they knew the wilson chant (as they did the stash clap), no one screamed during the divided sky silence (that don't happen anymore, do it?), bouncin was bouncin, then it ended for me. My wife wanted to see zz top, so i headed back to green stage. i hoped to catch end of strummer (i did) then zz top and their 1 hour set, then run back for last 45 minutes of phish. well, allow be to vent: zztop, like the true "professionals" they were, must have pushed the closing japanese band out of the way, then made us sit and wait 60 minutes while they tested each micophone, like it had to be jsut right. you know the lame exercise: some guy walks up, says check mike one, check mike one, then walks off stage. five minutes later, he appears to test mike 2, then drums, the guitar, i guess to build the anticipation. It did not work, even on the japanese. when i saw these guys in vegas in the early 90's they had tons of gimmicks and a nice presentation of the hits, and it kept my interest. this did not. they felt they had to announce the title of each song before they played it. they butched jesus left chicago. i missed what looks like a good closing set. the things we do for love (wait, wasn't that an old tune?)
Date: Mon, 2 Aug 1999 03:33:43 -0700 (PDT) From: Blane Harvey To: dws@gadiel.com Subject: Fuji Fest Sick! Sick! Sick! The whole weekend was absolutely fantastic. Best single-venue stand I've ever seen. Small energized audience, and a gorgeous venue. This is how I'd imagine Amy's Farm might have been. I won't do the song by song thing now, cause I desperately need sleep. But, I thought I'd get some news about it up on the web. The audience was crazy. I was curious about it before going and was pleasantly surprised when I got there. The Japanese heads were totally psyched (first show for most of them) and were really getting down. Here were my personal musical highlights from the weekend: Day 1, Green Stage: TASTE (nicely jammed out and really tight. I saw lots of people who had no idea who Phish was getting down to this one. Page was really on top of it.) Day 1, FOH: FUNKY BITCH (best version I've ever heard live) GHOST (the jam at the end will blow your mind) BIKE (Seeing Fishman from the front row jamming on Trey's guitar for about 3 minutes is unforgettable. He was having a blast and actually hit the right notes a few times:) JIM (REALLY nicely jammed out) Day 2, FOH: THE ENTIRE SECOND SET: Maybe the best set I've ever seen. 2001>Bowie was about 40 min. Caspian(usually hate it) raged as did Fluffhead. The encore was mind-blowing too. *** A small correction to what's posted in the setlists from this night. THere was only one monk (Nawang Khachog was his name) he played the Tibetian long horn (kind of like a digeridoo) and a digeridoo as well. He also chanted. He and fishman played together (Fish on vacuum). You REALLY have to hear this!!!!!!!! It lasted around 10 minutes (if I remember right) and then as the rest of the band came on he switched to his flute for B&R. So there wasn't any extra singing on B&R, but some really nice flute fills. It was kind of like the Hamza El Din setup from the Dead's 'From Egypt with Love' shows in '78 (Ollin Arageed>Fire). THis was CLASSIC stuff guys! Totally intense. Simple was also really nice, with Trey using that 'backwards' guitar effect (Like Hendrix used) for his long, long solo. Day 3, FOH: Set 1: Really nice MOMA Dance (very tight), gorgeous Divided Sky (fitting after we ALMOST got some rain), tight SO&M and a nice Antalope. I thought the song selection in this set was just about perfect. Even Poor Heart and Bouncin' were fun for all the Japanese who haven't had a chance to get tired of them. THis set was 1:33 min. I think. Set 2: Again, THE WHOLE DAMN THING! I'll have to listen to the tapes again to decide which Set 2 I liked better (right now I'm thinking Day 2's), but this was MONSTROUS. Tweezer's segue into Llama was smooth as silk, Mike'sHydroGroove was SOOOOO sweet. I flipped out on the Weekapaug. EVERYONE was dancing. The food and goods vendors were dancing while they served beer. You could see the cooks from the little restaurants coming out and dancing with their aprons on... Seeing a little 5 0r 6 year old dancing her ass off with her dad was really touching. That was my personal favorite moment of the night. The YEM was solid and the vocal jam was really influenced by the chanting monk from the night before. Mike was doing a damn fine imitation of the low drone. Nice. Well that's all I'll write for now. You could really spend a day trying to describe what this scene was like and not really get it accross, but whatever... I gotta sleep. One last note, regarding tapes. There were only about 8 decks running in total (3 westerners, I think). There was one main rig that almost everyone was running off (AT4050's). THe Green stage set had no taper's section, but several people taped with stealth mics. There are a few nice copies of that that I've heard. Anyway, point is, there are tapes coming, but please be patient. THis might be slow (especially green stage, first day). It's not like tour where there are 300 decks going. Also, for a look at what the people at the show were like, check out the 'Audience' section of the Fuji website. It's really cool. Peace Blane
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