We Move Through Stormy Weather Episode 20 - Sand with Eric Renner Brown
For this episode, I am excited to be joined by Eric Renner Brown! Eric is an editor and reporter at live music trade magazine Pollstar, where he has written cover stories about Billy Strings, Goose, Lockn', Trey Anastasio's Beacon Jams, and more. Last year, he produced Osiris Media's "Alive Again," a four-episode podcast about Trey Anastasio's career outside of Phish. His work has appeared in Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, Vulture, Billboard, GQ, and People. Listen along as we break down the evolution of Sand, how Trey introduced his Trio compositions to Phish in 1999, and more! Listen now wherever you get your podcasts!
Check out my breakdowns of our picks below!
All timings are per LivePhish.
12/16/99 Raleigh
0:39 - Mike and Fish kick into slow Sand groove
1:10 - Trey and Page lazily begin their parts
4:00 - Jam begins, Page immediately hops on Rhodes and Trey starts looping
4:30 - Page on CS60 with ambient sounds
4:57 - Trey does choppy delay stuff
5:20 - Foundational groove is rock-steady
5:30 - Jam gets soupier as Page increases intensity of synth swirls and Trey loops faintly in the background
5:50 - Typical ’99 twinkly stuff from Trey keyboard (like ending of Boise Bag)
6:25 - Ambient Trey keyboard sounds get louder
6:35 - Page and Trey play off each other’s weird synth swells
7:01 - Page’s synth work oscillates in headphones, sounds awesome
7:15 - Trey uses Boomerang to layer more keyboard loops
7:23 - Page adds some soft Rhodes chords to give jam more texture
7:55 - Crowd cheers but it sounds like a wave cresting effect from someone’s synth
8:46 - Jam is like a drive down a clear, straight road
9:13 - Trey adds steel pan drum synth effect to jam
9:25 - Cosmic cloud hovers over bedrock of Sand groove
10:02 - Synths continue to dominate in a hypnotic pattern
10:15 - Page adds Rhodes again
10:28 - CS60 is MVP
11:35 - Trey effectively playing percussion on his keyboard
11:47 - Page doing more Rhodes than synth work
11:57 - Trey plays first guitar of jam
12:10 - Trey lightly accents, lets his keyboard loops dominate
12:58 - Page switches to piano
13:10 - Trey on aah staccato notes
14:15 - Jam is just straight hypnotism
14:41 - Synth loops have mostly faded, jam feels more grounded now
16:07 - Fish does a cool fill
16:24 - Trey turns on reverse delay and things get weird
16:35 - Fish switches to ride cymbal and groove opens up a bit
17:28 - Intensity gradually increasing
17:35 - Trey soloing backwards as Page gets more aggressive on piano
18:54 - Bliss hose
20:00 - Brief dissonant build from Trey and Page
20:24 - Trey JEDI
21:00 - Page plays Sand riff on piano
21:15 - Band drops smoothly back into song proper
21:28 - Background synth loops become audible again
22:12 - Jam fades
10/31/14 Vegas
0:00 - Band kicks into faster Sand groove
0:35 - Page enters on clav
1:03 - Stank face clav
2:17 - Sweet guitar fill
2:36 - Jam begins over song vamp
2:57 - Trey begins laid-back soloing
3:17 - Page accenting perfectly on clav
3:31 - Mike already varying up bass line
4:03 - Fish alternates between ride cymbal and hi-hat
4:40 - Trey starts trying to pull jam out of Sand proper
4:55 - Page drops to piano, hammers some chords
5:24 - Trey solo increasing in intensity
5:28 - Page puts one hand back up to clav
6:18 - Fantastic peak, Trey rips it up
7:08 - Bigger peak!
7:50 - Page hammering piano
8:11 - Trey does characteristic bend tapping
8:33 - Band drops back into Sand groove
8:45 - Page drops one hand to Wurli as band keeps jam going
8:57 - Filthy funk develops with Trey starting a repeating riff
9:09 - Wurli gets bouncy
9:20 - Fish and Mike still playing Sand but Page and Trey are getting adventurous
9:49 - Page hops back to clav as Trey reverse-loops some stuff and plays staccato over it
10:07 - Page dampens clav a bit
10:21 - Mike playing up high with envelope filter, gives jam cool feel
10:32 - Mike drops back down low
10:45 - Page getting SAUCY on clav
10:55 - Trey emphasizes double hit as Mike drives bass line
11:10 - Page still being saucy on clav
11:22 - Page links up with Trey as Mike plays repeating riff from earlier
11:34 - CLAV FILLS
11:39 - Fish opens up on ride cymbal
11:55 - Fish hits back into hi-hat, STANKY
12:05 - Trey loops a bit
12:12 - Trey playing great rhythm stuff as Page continues to rip
12:49 - Fish drops out for a bar, lets repeating riff from earlier come back for whole band
13:07 - CLAV BREAK
13:12 - crowd woos, Trey eggs it on
13:26 - Stop/start woo jam develops with more incredible clav work from Page
13:45 - Trey’s tone is FILTHY
13:55 - Page drags clav chords, begins to move to next jam idea
14:14 - Trey doing weird delay looping stuff
14:31 - Mike has subtle envelope filter going but it’s still awesome
14:45 - Trey on octave up chirp as jam continues to push forward
15:08 - Fish switches to snare-centric groove as Page and Trey dance around
15:33 - MICHAEL GORDON
15:43 - Trey delay swell
15:51 - Trey introduces hits on 2 and 4, band follows
16:07 - SCHOOOOOOL’S OUT
16:22 - Trey leads into bluesy jam
16:35 - Time Loves a Hero-ish from Fish briefly
16:46 - More bluesy soloing from Trey
16:57 - Page switches to piano, does opposite hits from Trey
17:01 - more woos
17:15 - Trey increases intensity as jam pushes forward again
17:32 - Trey slow-burn segues perfectly into Tweezer Reprise
17:45 - Fully playing the riff now but taking their time to drop into it
17:49 - -> Tweeprize