Jam Breakdown - 7/18/99 Piper
Originally written for Episode 14 of We Move Through Stormy Weather featuring PhanArt Pete Mason.
Piper was a premier jam vehicle in late 1.0 and 2.0. While it has certainly had a weaker modern era (outside of incredible versions like 9/4/16 or 10/23/21), its greatness in 1999 is not to be understated.
One of the best of the bunch took place at the stifling Camp Oswego in July - the lone Phish festival to take place in the middle of a tour rather than the end.
Listen to Pete Mason and I talk about the Oswego Piper, my pick of 9/4/16, and more on Episode 14 of We Move Through Stormy Weather, available wherever you get your podcasts!
All timestamps are per Relisten.
Brief ambient jam after initial riff
Ramps up at 2 min mark
Deconstructs and gets groovy at 2:45
Crowd cheering for something
Lyrics at 5 mins
Trey hammers low minor notes at 6:30
Keeps going on Piper riff
Trey starts shredding at 7:35, reverse delay
REALLY strong driving bass from Mike
Jam continues to speed up and grow in intensity as Trey continues to melt faces
Very typical late-90s shredding from Trey
Fish and Mike jfc
FLAMETHROWER
Trey starts to hammer rhythm chords at 11:30, Fish catches on and starts imitating on drums
Jam evens out into a fast, driving groove and Trey starts shredding again
Holy shit
More reverse delay soloing
Jam mellows at 13:50, Fish leads on cowbell
Trey starts to layer ambient loops and cow funk riffs
Page peppers great piano licks in around Trey’s rhythm playing
Fish, Mike, and Trey are so locked in
Clav at 16:30
Ambient background loops add a nice vibe to the fast groove
Trey engages whammy octave up and starts soloing just before 17 mins
Fish tightens groove on hi hat, introduces start/stop
Dissonance begins just before 19 mins, Trey starts going off into his own world
Keyboard loops from Trey (chirping birds)
Trey starts soloing at 21:30
Jam continues in same vein, ramping up intensity again
Jam deconstructs and drifts into space in the last few minutes
Mike continues great thumping bass, Fish catches on and begins thick dirty beat
Drifts > Caspian