6-4-02, Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Morrison, CO

review submisions to me at dws@netspace.org or dws@gadiel.com

Date: Wed, 19 Jun 2002 20:22:53 EDT
From: Gworm767@aol.com
Subject: Trey Red Rocks night 2 Review

The first night of Red Rocks was solid, but, in classic Trey fashion, the 
second night blew it away.  The weather was far nicer than the previous night 
and we got to the venue nice and early to secure a nice spot.  We sat next to 
some nice people in about the 14th row, just to the right of the soundboard.  
I rediscovered just what a huge difference it can make to sit next to some 
truly friendly people.  My expectations were fairly high for the second 
night- especially given last year's Red Rocks run- but I was suppressing my 
expectations for Phishy things..

By the time Trey came out, I noticed that there were significantly more 
people there the second night than had been there the night before.  The 
crowd was really psyched up as Trey and band took the stage.  At the BBQ was 
amusing, but the real meat of the first set was a fairly monstrous "First 
Tube."  Money, Love and Change also made a vast improvement over the night 
before.

Set break was a great- I love just going up to the top and checking out the 
view.

The second set was really awesome.  "Windora Bug" is always funny and chill 
and had this really spacey long jam leading out of it that was the perfect 
segue into a ripping "Mr. Completely."  "Burlap Sack and Pumps" kept the 
energy flowing.  "Ether Sunday" + Red Rocks = beautiful.  This "Sand" really 
rocked me.  It was really long and just funked so hard- check out the tapes!

A triple encore?!?  "At the Gazebo" was really nice- but too chill to close.  
"Mozambique" was cool- energetic- a much nicer closer.  "Push On" was just a 
huge exclamation mark at the end of a great Red Rocks run.

See you all in Albany- this tour is getting better and better!

Jimmy Macauley
Gworm767@aol.com

Date: Mon, 10 Jun 2002 01:32:24 -0400 From: Jonathan jbkendall76@yahoo.com Subject: Trey Reviews: 6/4/02 06/04/02:  It was readily apparent that security was much more lax this night.  I imagine the behaved crowd from the night before contributed. Security was no problem getting in, and I found my way down to the 9th row. This night, many people looked tired from the previous show and rain, but it didn't take long until they were whipped into a frenzy with the Money Love and Change.  I am not a huge fan of this song on the album, but this tune is a great foundation for some excellent TAB experimental work.  They worked the melodies over and over and Russ and Cyro chipped in some tasty drum and percussion work.  The first tube closer almost blew the rocks over as the sound rumbled through the dark Colorado night....Trey was jumping around and shaking his head unlike any other time I have ever seen him.  He was "getting off" on this tune and the frenzy the crowd was in.  The second set and encore were equally explosive and as we were walking out, I uttered to my friend, "That was a freakin' rock show."  And it was....TAB this night (and in fact 3 of the 4 nights I saw them) was more rock and roll than any kind of groove based outfit.  They simply opened the throttle and let it all go.  And I for one enjoyed hanging on for dear life. The drive back to Vegas was wonderful except we ran out of gas in the desert.  There is a 108 mile stretch across Utah where there are 0 gas stations.  My friend incorrectly assumed he could traverse this section and we ended up at a rest area looking for assistance.  We could have used a kind hearted fan at about that time, but about 2 hours later, some southern hospitality from a TN truck driver saved the day ($100 probably didn't hurt either!  :)) Jonathan
Date: Fri, 7 Jun 2002 09:13:12 -0600 From: Paul Jakus pjakus@econ.usu.edu Subject: 6/4/02 Question Okay, both shows were excellent, but who were the elderly folks sitting on the couch throughout Set 1 on 6/4/02?  Trey kissed the lady before moving to centerstage...     Paul Jakus Dept. of Economics Utah State University
Date: Fri, 7 Jun 2002 00:48:15 -0800 From: Amber aheydeman@mchsi.com Subject: 06*04*02 Red Rocks Review good little story about set break:   I was sitting right next to Chris Koruda when his wife comes over sparks up a fucking hog leg! They burned it down right there at the light board in the middle of the audience. Did anyone else catch this? anyhow the Windora Bug made perfect sense to start the second set with Chris shining all those bright green lights! peace Rums
Date: Thu, 6 Jun 2002 10:31:39 -0700 (PDT) From: Dan Konet dancolostate@yahoo.com Subject: 6-4-02 Rocks Review Happy Birthday to Me!!! Happy birthday indeed. Back for more after a rainy monday show which rocked nonetheless. Was treated to the tour diary picture of Trey flipping off the camera to begin the day...Happy birthday f*%ker! My first birthday show ever started with me and a half-dozen friends partying heavily at the hidden ampitheatre entrance around 2pm. No lot scene, so might as well get in line...especially if you ARE the line. Hung loose with the spectacular view of Denver until they opened the doors promptly at 5:30. We were the first people through the North gate both nights...down low front + center with a great view of the band and surrounded by friends all night. There's not a better way to celebrate the anniversary of your birth than this if you ask me. Hot, hot, hot show with lots of energy and Trey looking like he was really enjoying himself. The band has gotten ten times better than last year and the jams are finally starting to go somewhere. Everything was jammed out and pushed to the limit both nights..they didn't even come close to skimping on the show. If the rest of the shows this tour are even half this good, I think it will be a great time. GO SEE TREY's BAND! THANKS FOR THE BEST BIRTHDAY YET!!
Date: Thu, 6 Jun 2002 11:11:09 EDT From: AJB700@aol.com Subject: 2nd Red Rocks show This show didn't really compare to the 1st Red Rock show on Monday night.  There was a lot of emphasis on the horn section through the night and a couple songs dragged on too far.  I'm an avid phish and trey phan, but still can recognize when a song has gone to far.  First Tube was jammed out to end the 1st set, but then dragged the ending out for 10 minutes to close the set.  Instead of opening the 2nd with a ripping jam, they opened with Windora Bug.   I brought a few friends with me that have never seen phish or trey and all they could seem to remember were the annoying parts, rather than the jams.   Although there was some jamming, there was not enough.  In summary, like pizza and sex, it was still a good show, but I still give it a C- overall, for whatever my opinion is worth.  AJB
Date: Wed, 05 Jun 2002 18:31:04 -0500 From: Greg WEISS greg.weiss@firstunion.com Subject: red rock nite 2 review wow! this was a totally different show! after a lackluster and very wet and cold monday night at red rocks(see my 6/3/02 review) i wasnt too psyched to head back and do it again on tuesday...... the weathermen were calling for rain all day and cold weather and i was feeling tempted to just blow it off..... fortunately for me i dragged my ass out of the house and headed back to red rocks for a surprisingly good 2nd night.... the rain stopped by 300pm and after a few kind microbrews at mtn sun, my fiancee and daughter and i made it to the lot @600pm.......just a side note, my first shows with a 6 1/2 year old daughter in tow, she is a trooper and did both nights and had the time of her life....totally different perspective for me, really interesting actually anyway... trey came on around 745 again for a slightly shorter set that ended @900 still a repectable 1hour and 15 minutes......the vibe was totally different for this show......more people livelier crowd, better weather and trey was in full on rock star mode..... at the bbq does little for me, alive again, the single i guess got things moving, $ love and change was a repeat but was hot, sounded better than monday, and first tube had the crowd rocking, the energy was at peak levels for 1st tube and i got that big goofy grin that creeps onto my face when trey is really on.... set two was totally sick, with the windora bug opener, one of my favorites of the trey band songs, mr. completely which totally rocked, and burlap, which was also a repeat but was so tight i didnt mind at all, great song. sand finished off the set and went to all sorts of interesting and different places......the set was short, but 3 encores more than made up for the short set...push was another repeat but again well played....... so trey totally redeemed himself on night 2 imho and guaranteed that i will be back to see him again..... a few side notes..... trey introduced the band both nights calling himself the crimson dego on night one and wilson on night two he had the wilson shirt on night one the lights were completely insane both nights and the sound was pretty flawless.... trey thanked the crowd frequently both nights and said red rocks was his favorite place to play.... trey's voice was really hoarse for both nights and he had a tough time hitting the higher parts of windorabug, eventually not singing them at all trey looked like he was having a blast up there, huge shit eating grin on his face, dancing around and conducting the band in spots.....great to see him having fun! again, my .02 g
Date: Wed, 5 Jun 2002 16:31:12 -0600 (MDT) From: Ben Knowles knowles@kestrel.ciclops.swri.edu Subject: REVIEW: Trey @ Red Rocks, 6/4/02 ahhh, where to begin? i guess by saying that this was my second trey show - my first was last summer, also the second night at red rocks, so it provides a convenient comparison. you can read reviews (including mine) of that show here: http://www.phish.net/reviews/shows/7-18-01.html we arrived quite a bit early so as to secure good seats (just left of the taper section, the closest i've ever been). the scene this time around was super chill - very friendly and laidback. my newbie friend and i struck up lengthy conversations with several kids around us. security was pretty damn lax - to the point where, in retrospect, i should have smuggled in some liquor. ($26 for 4 beers - doh!) also, in contrast to the previous night, it was relatively warm and, most importantly, dry. i should also note that red rocks was NOT sold out, on either night. or if it was, there were a lot of no-shows, since there were maybe 10 or 15 empty rows at the top. but enough of that, onto the show... SET I At the BBQ Alive Again Tube Top Flop Money, Love and Change The Way I Feel First Tube Alive Again was rockin' - a worthy beginning to the evening (although i saw it coming, since they hadn't played it the previous night). during the ending jam, trey exhibited some definite machine gun tendencies, to everyone's delight. "oh yeah, this is why i come to these things..." a general note - from the first song on, trey wasted no time in showing off his new trick of "conducting" the band. i kept trying to make sense of the hand signals, but couldn't seem to find any correlation between them and the music. i guess it's better that way. :) Money, Love and Change, which is incidently not one of my favorite songs, evolved into this insane jam with an absolutely INTENSE peak at the end. this was the first truly shining moment of the show, of which there were several more to come. First Tube. yikes. this one was nearly frightening in its intensity. the ending chords went on for ages, and just got more and more powerful, eventually inducing multiple brain aneurysms in most of the crowd, i'm pretty sure. rock! i don't have much to say about the new song, Tube Top Flop, or the old one, The Way I Feel. i think i need to hear them more before passing judgement. setbreak: beer, smoke, friendly conversation, you know the routine... SET II Windora Bug Mr. Completely Burlap Sack and Pumps Ether Sunday Sand E: At the Gazebo Mozambique Push On 'Til the Day okay, first thing: the Windora Bug was FANTASTIC. i was loving every damn second of it. Tony's vocal and bass backup was perfect, and the whole thing just grooved on a sublime level. the one drawback - which really wasn't, in my opinion - was that trey's voice was GONE. i heard a radio interview a couple days ago where he mentioned his raspy "vegas voice." well, it got even worse sinnce then, so after awhile he pretty much gave up altogether trying to sing the high parts. ah well. oh, but anyway, the windora bug just went on and on and got more and more chill until it turned into a sort of protracted ambient jam. very pretty stuff with beautiful melodic lines from trey... although i must say i was ready to hear something else when they finally ended it and went into... Mr. Completely. aww yeah. a crushing, monster version. this one also went off into inter-psycho-galactic territory, somehow winding up in Burlap Sack and Pumps. i think it was about this point that i experienced full cerebral overload. by the way, i read a review where someone said that kuroda's lights this tour were overkill. i don't know about that. in my opinion, CK was totally ON, and whenever i would focus specifically on what he was doing, i was always very impressed with his ability to follow - and sometimes even lead - the jams. the projected patterns on the rock wall behind the stage were particularly sweet eye candy. long live kuroda! okay, back to the song-by-song... Ether Sunday was extremely beautiful, as usual, and the intensity shift gave my brain a little recovery time. jenn played this solo - which eventually became a duet with trey - that almost melted me. spectacular. Sand, sand, sand, SAND. good GOD. actually, there was a while in the middle there where i thought the jam got a little bogged down, but the finale made up for it. the part i'm referring to is where trey actually took a couple *unaccompanied* solos. that's right, just rock star trey in full-on machine gun mode, alone in a circle of light, ripping shit to pieces with his jedi-like guitar abilities. and then he did it AGAIN. oh man, it was a beautiful thing. i saw it as a gift to the red rocks crowd (which he has repeatedly said is his favorite venue). i mean he doesn't do that often - or ever - does he? i'd never heard of such a thing, but maybe i'm out of the loop. At the Gazebo was gorgeous, and the only acoustic song of the night. this was upsetting, as i was hoping for - and expecting - a good number of acousic numbers, and maybe even something akin to the soul-dry-cleaning that was last year's bathtub gin. alas, 'twas not to be. Mozambique isn't one of my faves, so i was frickin' overjoyed when they busted out: Push On 'Til the Day! my favorite track on the new album, and one which i was NOT expecting, since it had also been played the night before. thank god for their small repetoire! this version was perfect in every way, and swiftly removed any lingering concerns i may have had over ticketbastard fees, beer expense, etc. this song has come a long way since last summer, i think - much tighter, much more powerful, and a great showcase for everyone in the band, especially trey. anyway, it was a great and more-than-adequate closer. in sum, this was a great show, although not what i would call spectacular. what made it great were the occasional moments of brilliance and fiery perfection that rose up every now and again - which would then, unfortunately, fall back down underneath the somewhat more mundane jamming. don't get me wrong - this band is TIGHT - definitely tighter than last summer, and the addition of cyro baptista on percussion was a damn good move (the guy is crazy!). and at the same time, they are a lot more exploratory than they were last summer. but i still think they suffer from a lack of... something. there's only so much you can do with some of these 1 or 2-chord jams, and they seem to do most of it within the first 15 minutes, even with trey's intricate band-leading. do we really need the last 10 minutes on some of these songs? of course, it's usually around the 25-minute mark where all of a sudden you find they've arrived at some really intense peak, and at that point this all becomes sort of moot. i guess i just feel there's an awful lot of "empty" jamming in between the spiritual-musical epiphanies. another thing: i like the "wall of sound" approach of some of the jams, but at the same time it gets kind of frustrating when you can't distinguish the instruments from one another. maybe this is a necessary consequence of such a large band, but it bothered me at several points during the show. finally, in comparison to last year's 2nd night at red rocks... well, they were both amazing. i think overall, this show actually wins out in the end. the difference is this: 7/18/01 sort of built in energy as it progressed, beginning with a pretty good 1st set, a really good 2nd set, and a completely-beyond-words encore. 6/4/02, on the other hand, was more consistently great throughout, with occasional moments of spine-tingliness popping up here and there. there were also lots of slow parts, but i'd say the insane, mind-scrambling peaks made up for them. in sum, what can i say but: thanks again trey. as long as you keep rockin', you know we'll all be there rockin' right along with ya. peace, nub
Date: Wed, 05 Jun 2002 14:06:30 -0600 From: steve gilmore stevegilmore1@hotmail.com Subject: 6-4-02 Red Rocks Night 2 Review Night 2: Ok, so the first night wasn't an anomolie, it wasn't just the rain and some Indian spirits that still wander Red Rocks dancing in their own way to the music, no, it's Trey, he's grown into a fu@@ing maestro. Night two at Red Rocks: Set I At the BBQ Alive Again Tube Top Flop Money, Love and Change The Way I Feel First Tube Set II Windora Bug Mr. Completely Burlap Sack and Pumps Ether Sunday Sand E: At the Gazebo Mozambique Push On 'Til the Day No rain, it was a beatiful night, a little cool, but, hmm, ya know that seemed to feel good on my skin cause i was all hot for some reason, decided to take a little trip if ya know what i mean. Highlights of the first set, which started extremely slow compared to the blistering pace of night one, were certainly Money Love & Change and First Tube. It was apparent if you were there on night one that Trey was just sort of ridin' the groove a little slower, and a little prettier, but none the less it was the same groove as the night before, just the other side of it, the ying and the yang (excuse the cliche'). The Windora Bug was much appreciated, a friend of mine and I played it at an open mic about four months ago, and ever since last summer it has been floating around in my head, so yea, we got the rules down now. Mr. Completely and Sand (oh lord what a Sand) were my other two favs of this set, yet every song was high quality, in particular Ether Sunday which I was waiting for and was not dissapointed with. I expected a good encore, but a three songer, which was in essence a mini-third set, was more that I could have asked for, but we got it. It was strange because I thought it was all over when they started At the Gazebo, I thought he was bringing us all back down to Earth to return safely to our regular lives, but at the end of the tune, he put down the acoustic, walked in a bit of a semi-circle, looked around at the crowd and then hit us with another on-slaught. The Mozambique, and Push were both great ~ the Push really spoke to me as a sort of adios, see ya next time, go live tommorow better than today. Alright, until next time. Peace, Steve g.
Date: Wed, 5 Jun 2002 06:00:31 -0700 From: harrison whitley harrison_whitley@msn.com Subject: trey Parts/Attachments: 1 OK 19 lines Text 2 Shown ~18 lines Text ---------------------------------------- 6/04/02 I haven't listened to Trey's new album yet, so I'm illiterate as far as that is concerned. I can say though that one of the funnest parts of this show, is when he and his band first comes out on stage. He came out, and the first thing he picked up was his triangle, and began conducting the band. The sound was absolutely phenomenal. Great percussion. He turned around to hit his triangle a couple of times for sound check. They went into about three or four calypso-like dance songs that sounded well with his electric guitar. I thought he was going to be real acoustic this year, because he played some excellent tunes at KBCO in studio C. But he held to his electric guitar most of the show. He played a surprising First Tube for the last song of the first set. This was a tremendous crowd pleaser. The second set was surprisingly jazzy. The best thing about the show was the crowd. Everyone was extremely cool and uninhibited.  Great people. Great weather. Great venue.
click here to return to the 2002 reviews page
hits (many)