Improvisational blogging

Enjoying the kitchen on a Friday night and listening to tonight's Phish show from Bethel, NY. The first of the 3-night/33-night total monster Summer Tour. Professionally, the marketing efforts by the band to offer an MP3 of the entire show an hour after lights (free for ticket holders) is both brilliant and disruptive. Disruptive if other bands or service providers are taking note. Want to build customer loyalty? Page available --and he plays a mean clav.

I got to thinking about my history of listening to and participating in Phish shows. As you may know it's a good part of my "entertainment/immediate gratification cycle". New music from your favorite band made available by the community and by simple download 3hrs after they finish in the highest, soundboard "releasable" quality is pretty fun. Yeah, there's the whole coming of age, see the country on tour, lifelong friends aspect, but it's the music and the newness that keep the beat.

As this is improv blogging -I got to thinking also about my musical background and influences. Being that Phish is a big slice of the pie, I was curious if it may have been a studio album that catapulted this. Lawn Boy, Phish's 2nd album got a lot of rotation back in the day ('94). However, with the availability of live shows now, rarely do studio albums get played --outside of the analogue types. Aside: Trey just threw out"wtf" to open up the 2nd set tonight with Carini, or as one might refer to as "no you di-n't just drop a Carini in our (Shoreline) house.

Would Lawn Boy be considered most influential musical album to date? I haven't listened to Lawn Boy in 10 yrs, likely more. But I listen to Lawn Boy songs weekly. Antelope is a Lawn Boy song. If that isn't a game changer, I'm not sure what is.

Ranking the most influential albums for yourself is a tough call and admittedly relative on an infinite amount of factors. Currently, the live album of tonight's show that I'm listening to right now is tops. Some "type" of Phish album would have to be in the top 3 to keep me in the game for so long, maybe Lawn Boy. Listening to the Thriller tape nightly validated this whole thing. Bruce and Born in the USA introduced me to the greatest live performances on the planet. But if I had to choose, I'd go with the first album that I ever owned. I first heard the J. Giels Freeze Frame album with my sisters at a babysitters house, who happened to also be dating my cousin. It didn't hurt that there was a swear word in "Piss on the Wall", or that "Rage in the Cage" still rocks today, but the hook of "Centerfold"on Freeze Frame introduced me to rock and the power of music.

Beatles White Album, Marley and reggae -it's a tough question. What's your most influential?

Finally, we caught Anastasia clapping today and of course encouraged it as much as we could. What's interesting is that it began after Daddy was rocking to the live stream of tonight's show (worthy of another post) during her dinner. 5/27/11 her Freeze Frame maybe?