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- [00:02]
Brian
Hey listeners, I want to tell you about an event this summer. The Roots Rock Revival Music Masters Collective is inviting you to the beautiful Catskills at Full Moon Resort for a four day all inclusive music exploratory experience like no other. It's a week full of incredible music, creativity and connection. There will be intensive songwriting and music making with incredible artists like North Mississippi All Stars, Brother and Sister band, the Nth Power Taz, Steelin Peaches and more. They'll be showcasing intimate performances every night and hands on workshops during the day. There will also be an amazing wellness tent with meditation, yoga and massage as well as a deeply relaxing scene around the brand new pool. Whether you're a seasoned musician just starting out or simply a fan, they've designed this year so there's something here for everyone. And it's more than just an event. It's an opportunity to connect with the music directly, with artists, play with legends and with the amazing community of people who share your passion. Space is extremely limited because this is a truly personal experience. So don't wait. Grab your spot now. Everything's included lodging, meals, workshops, performances and a whole lot of good vibes. This is just the beginning. Artists have started their careers here, bands have been formed once in a lifetime. Collaborations are witness. You do not want to miss it. Check it out at rootsrockrevival.com helpingfriendly that's rootsrockrevival.com helping friendly.
- [01:32]
Megan
If you're thirsting for asphalt, melting your work boots, tape measure has anger issues, nail guns, talking smack again and hard hat baked onto head level refreshments. We definitely have that. Cool off with Gatorade Summer Blaze available.
- [01:49]
RJ
Only at Circle K. When you're feeling.
- [01:52]
Megan
The heat, Circle K makes your day. Osiris Foreign welcome to the Helping Friendly podcast on tour covering fishes summer 2025 tour. We are coming at you live here on Monday, June 23rd is Brian and Megan. RJ is still carousing through the mad streets of Venice, stopping in gas stations that serve as pizzerias and ice cream shops. All the same where he's introduced to people's grandchildren and second cousins. And he's having just an amazing time with the family over in Europe. We are holding on the fort trying to make sense of the first run first tour stop of Fish's summer 2025 tour here in Manchester, New Hampshire. Meg, how are you doing today? How are you feeling after the first weekend of Fish tour?
- [03:27]
RJ
I feel great. It's also my first weekend of summer vacation. Friday was my last day of Work for two months and I went out with a bunch of girlfriends after work, a bunch of teachers, teachers gone wild moment. We had a lot of fun. And then I got to come home, clean my kitchen and put on the live stream and I was so excited. I don't know, I don't know what it was, why, but you know, Spring tour was really great and I was just feeling really positive about it and it was a really fun weekend. I got to stream Friday and Saturday and then last night I was at the goose show, so I didn't get to stream. But I listened this morning. So I'm having a great weekend. I guess it's over now.
- [04:02]
Megan
It's over now. It's Monday. We had a great weekend. But it's. It's a, it's an extended weekend for you here for these next eight weeks. I had the reverse. I did not stream Friday. Saturday I listened to them. I was out of town at a wedding. And then I streamed last night while also watching Game 7 of the NBA Finals. We are just, we are fully in the period right now where there's so much content available that you have to double up content to stay on top of all the content that you are trying to cover. More on that later because we have another episode within our larger family of episodes that we will push out later. More on that later. There's just so much going on endlessly. I did love listening to these shows immediately after they concluded and then listening back through the jamming highlights while I was flying back tomorrow. You're right. Spring tour was excellent. Mexico was very good. New Year's Eve was good. Albany was. Albany Summer tour last year was very, very, very good. If not good, great. I think we said we would have ranked in our top 25 tours list. You know, we talked about this in the spring. We're in this kind of fish consistency period. It's a very strange place to be because if you have tracked this band's history and the ebbs and flows, there have been highs and there have been lows. It's okay to admit that the lows color the highs and they make sense of the highs. And right now we're not really in any sort of highs and lows period. At least not yet. It felt like this tour picked up right where spring, Spring left off. Feels like the band is fresh, new ideas, new stage design, new old stage design. More on that in a second. But it feels very good to be back in Fish. Summer tour feels like it makes sense. We're not thinking about the Mount Rushmore list of songs. We're not thinking about drafting old shows or old jams. We're talking about new fish. New fish ideas and we're trying to make sense of it. And you mentioned Goose. You went to Goose on Sunday night. Apologies in advance to everyone out there, but you just have to know this right now. It's a very special time in jam band world. Fish, Goose and Eggie are all killing it right now. All playing excellent shows, excellent tours. If you have not listened to Eggy's 618 second set from Pittsburgh and you are. You are late to the party or you're like, hey, what do I need to hear? That is a set that you absolutely need to hear to get this band. Goose has been absolutely crushing it of late. Some incredible jams over the last couple of shows and I'm very excited to get to their new show from. From the. You were at last night. But. But we are. We are. We got to talk about fish here. So, Meg, before we dive into the run, we had a new Live Bait that was released ahead of this tour. This is a live bait. This seems to be a new trend. This Live Bait is now promoting the next tour, not the immediate tour. It's promoting the fall tour. We got a small sampling of tracks in the Southeast. Were there any highlights there for you? Anything you recommend people check out?
- [07:17]
RJ
Well, no. What was funny about the Live Bait was when it came out, I was so confused about it. I looked at it and I was like, what actually is this? Because I thought it was supposed to be for summer tour, but it's not. It's for this, I guess the second part of summer tour.
- [07:30]
Megan
Technically summer tour. I call September fall. I'm sorry. I understand the fall equinox.
- [07:34]
RJ
I get it, but I don't. To me, it feels like fall. I'm back. I'll be back at work. So it feels like fall, but. But yeah, I think it's cool. I think it's cool how they. How they're kind of separating that out a bit. It's a nice, like, extension on. I feel like interested how this whole tour is going to map out like we've talked about. But it's always fun to see a new live bait come out and fun to see what they're thinking about that should be released. How about you? What was your favorite parts of it?
- [08:00]
Megan
I mean, I really love the tweezer from Louisville, August 93. Tweezers are kind of this breaking out point for the band. Really, really cool stuff there. The Tweezer Prize to disease that opens up the Fox 95 run is amazing. It also does, I won't lie, send a few, you know, bit of nerves down my spine because I I've been a long advocate that we need the Fox 95 run released as a box set. It is a high quality, diverse, excellent, energized run that offers a really nice little snapshot of fish as they're transitioning from October 95 fish to November December 95 fish. Always worried when we get a small little snippet on from the archives or the live baits because sometimes that means that we are not actually going to get a full release at some point. Sometimes they reverse themselves. Sometimes. You know, we get plenty of 3.0, 4.0 live bait jam releases where they kind of remaster it. They figure something out. But I would really like for that to be released. But it was very nice to hear because that that tweezer Divided Sky, Tweezer Reprise, Divided sky to open the run is just high octane, you know, maximalist fall 95 fish in the best way.
- [09:19]
RJ
Anything from fall 95 always good.
- [09:22]
Megan
Anything. Anything. We did that. That was the number one tour in our top number one tour, which is.
- [09:27]
RJ
A great Ryan Segway, great segue. If you are one of the awesome people that bought the limited edition top 25 tours of all Time T shirt, it's going to be coming your way soon. They're at the printer right now. So thank you to those of you that supported the pod and picked up that shirt. There's never going to be more of those made. So you're the only ones that are going to have those T shirts, of course, with me and Brian and RJ and I think my daughters even wanted some, which is saying a lot because they're teenagers, but they wanted some too. So you're going to be out there and I'm really hoping to see some people on summer tour with those shirts on and they're going to be out soon. So thank you to everybody that did that. And we're going to do another run, another shirt sometime soon.
- [10:08]
Megan
We have a lot of ideas just with all the series that we're doing. If those are here ahead of my Boulder. Right. I will be wearing it to one night. I don't know. I don't know if we're going to be ready, but that would be also. I've also been tossing around the idea of One Night of Chicago TBD on that. I'm not supposed to travel for fish anymore. This is a rule post 100 shows. But if I go home and I sleep in my. My childhood bedroom, is that the same as traveling for Fish? I don't know. We'll see.
- [10:37]
RJ
You know what? You know what, Brian? Rules are meant to be broken.
- [10:41]
Megan
This is a good point. This is a good point. I've been doing this with some of my summer jam charted lists, which we will. We will get into here.
- [10:50]
RJ
Oh, I want to say one more thing. Yeah. I want to tell there is one more opportunity to get a top 25 tour T shirt, and that is if you were going to be at The Man Night 2, HFPOD is going to be doing an event in the parking lot with another organization that raises money for the Pennsylvania Children's Hospital. So support us. And if you're going to be there, come check it out. We'll put it out on our socials. It's a big event. I think Ari from Sirius, formerly of Sirius, is going to be there, lots of people, and it's gonna be really fun. We're gonna have some music. I think Eric Lenz's band is gonna play. And I'll have some of those shirts that I'll be selling. So that's the last chance. That's it.
- [11:27]
Megan
That's it. The man, baby. The man is where you gotta go. And these shirts are sick. They got our. Our full list on the back, which should spark up some nice conversations between you and Fish fans on tour, if you wear it. All right, let's transition here. Let's talk a little bit about this first run in Manchester. Unfortunately, if you left a voicemail, I have not received the email yet from rj, so I apologize in advance. If you really wanted your thoughts shared with us, maybe we'll do an all voicemail episode when RJ comes back. Maybe he'll send me it before the next episode. But if you sent in a voicemail and you're not hearing it today, I do apologize. We are one man down, and that one man really, really does a lot for this podcast. So I want to just kind of start with the first big thought I had coming into Summer tour. I was not there. I was not in Manchester. I had some good friends there. And about 30 minutes before showtime Pictures started coming in, I was at dinner at a wedding in Hood River. Very beautiful setting. My phone starts going crazy and everyone's sending pictures of the stage and what has happened. For the first time since July 3, 2013, I believe that was the date that kicked off summer tour 2013, Fish has changed their stage setup. They have Done this a couple of times throughout their career. They settled on the all four in a row. Paige, Trey, Mike, Fish. In the late 80s ahead of the start of the Summer 99 Tour, Fishman went to the back. Trey switched spots with Mike was a little bit out on an island for 2.0. Trey came back in the middle. Fish was on a little bit more of a standard rise. Looked like a very standard rock band if you saw anything in 2.0. For 3.0, famously, they went back to the four in a row kind of a. Hey, we are, we are. We are going back to basics. We're going back to the original. In 2013, Fishman went back, but he was a little bit. He was lower a little bit on an angle tra. Facing Trey more. Trey said in an interview that the reason for that was that he needed to hear Fishman with his ear to really connect, to get them to take this next step forward. From a jamming standpoint, that that clearly worked because I think anyone could argue that the stage setup between 2013 and spring 2025 was probably, I would argue as, as, as memorable and as effective on the band as the four in a row here. Now we're back to four in a row. However, I was talking with a couple friends. I'd love to hear the comments on this because my initial thought was Fishman looks different than in 1.0. He looks lower and he looks like he's more on a 45 degree angle than a 90 degree angle. I'm guessing this has been confirmed and discussed on the socials. But Meg, let's two parts. What are your thoughts on the change the adjustment here and what are your thoughts on. Is Fishman in a different spot than he was in 1.0?
- [14:58]
RJ
Well, it was really fun. Anytime they come out and something's different on stage and you start getting those texts. I think you were the first one to text me about it. It's so fun and it makes such a sense of anticipation, which I feel like is so. Is so exciting to start a tour that way. I saw on socials that Mike had posted a video that he was explaining why they could do that was because he got rid of his speakers. And so he just has the in ear monitor and the rumble pad so he doesn't have speakers on either side of him so he could be moved back. And it was very cute. Him and Trey were having a bit of like a bromance on socials. Mike putting pictures of Trey like standing on both of their platforms with one foot on either saying like he's bridging the gap and them just like looking at each other a lot. The whole whole Friday show, they just kept turning to each other and Trey was smiling a lot at Mike and I felt like they're more in conversation, which was really exciting and fun to see. So I think it's awesome. I think it's. It really reinvigorated them in a way that's fun. And anytime they can change it up and go to back to something that's nostalgic for them, it must be really fun. I don't have a comment on if Fishman's lower or not. I'm just not that kind of a person who knows that. Apologies.
- [16:04]
Megan
I'd be curious to hear what the. What the commenters have to say about it. I, when I saw it, because last night was the first night I actually sat down and webcast it and I was like, that looks slightly different. My, my beyond the Pond co host Dave Goldstein said it's a smaller riser and it's a 45 degree angle versus a 90 degree angle. My initial thought on the adjustment there is that he did not have Marimba Lumina in 2013, and so now that creates a slightly different stage setup. I wonder if it just allows him to see. It looks like he can see over the cymbals and the drums a little bit better than he could in the 1.0 early 3.0 standpoint. I, of course, could always be overthinking it, but I'd love to hear if anyone else has has thoughts on this. It definitely looks different to me from early. From 1.0 and early 3.0 F. Dude here. I can't believe they've reverted to copying Goose. Sad. I agree, man. You gotta find inspiration where you can find inspiration. And the four in a row for Goose has really worked wonders for that band. So maybe it will work wonders for the old guys as well. I have a probably unpopular theory I want to just discuss before we get into the music. I don't know if it's necessarily unpopular. It probably will be if someone just hears kind of a clip of this and then decides to run with, you know, the, the initial thought here, but let me explain myself. I think Fish is very cognizant of time right now. I think it's why we got Gamehenge for their 40th anniversary when we had not had it since 1994. I think it's got something to do with why the music has been so consistent. I think that they are fully Aware and recognize, you know, just the clock. And that this is not going to and cannot go on forever. And this is something that will end at some point in time. And I think that they know from past events that they would like to be in complete control of when that happens and go out on their terms. And my initial thought could be totally wrong. Here I have been before, is that this is almost a recognition that they have less time to do this than more time. And if they're going to end at some point in the next decade, decade and a half, two decades, who knows? In two decades they will be 80 years old. At some point within the next 20 years, you would imagine the thing is going to wind down and be less of what it is right now. They want to end in a way that is almost a nod to the way they started. And one of the symbols of the original stage lineup, the four in a row, was that we are a band of equals. No one in this band is more important than others. No one in this band is the star. No one is the frontman. Every single person in this band offers the same amount. Now, obviously Trey writes a lot of the songs and makes a lot of the calls, but I think it was always an important acknowledgement from Trey that the Fish at his absolute best is a four headed monster that works together. And I always thought when I got into this band and as you know, the band evolved, that they were kind of at their best when they were presented in that manner. The typical stage setup for a band is the drummer behind, the lead singer, guitarist, right front and center, and everyone supporting them. Fish was always different in that sort of way. And as much as I always thought the 3.0, 4.0 stage setup really worked for them from a sonic standpoint, this seems to. This feels like Fish to me. This feels like who Fishes? So I don't necessarily think this is like an acknowledgment that, like, hey, we're getting old. This is over. Like, I just think it's more of like a little nod of like, hey, at some point this is going to end. Let's end the way that we started. Do you have any thoughts on that, Meg? Do you completely disagree? Like, hate the fact that I'm even conjuring up the reality that Fish might end at some point in time, or do you see what I'm saying?
- [20:19]
RJ
I have a few different trains of thought. One is that it's kind of a sad thing to be talking about at the beginning of, like, a very energized tour But I do totally think that it's an interesting thing to discuss, because I'm very confused about how much Fish thinks about its legacy. I think as I get older, the one thing I'm learning is that worrying about what's left or what's after or what's later is very scary. And so I really work to be in the present. And I think that that is something that Trey and those guys are really good at, is actually just focusing on what do we have right in front of us, and let's do it the best we can. And I think that's a big reason why they've been so consistent. To me, I think this probably happened because Mike realized he could get rid of his speakers, and then they were like, hey, this actually is cool. It can get us back to how we used to be, and let's try it and see how it is. But I can see that. I mean, I do think they've been fairly nostalgic lately. And I think that they've been, like, you really. Like you pointed out really accurately, I think, thinking more and doing things that we didn't expect they would ever do and leaving things purposefully as a part of their history. I think they've been in the press a lot. I think they've been thinking about, you know, this whole tease with the Rock Hall. I think all of that is kind of percolating and probably making them think a lot about Legacy, in a way.
- [21:40]
Megan
I think that's a really good point. No, I think that's a really good point. I like the. The fact that they've been willing to sit for interviews with, you know, sometimes these interminable writers trying to come to terms with the fact that they just discovered that Fish is a good band. But, you know, those are obviously great, very. Those are obviously very good marketing tactics for the band to, you know, put themselves out there with a different perspective. The Rock and Roll hall of Fame, it seemed like the band was really into the idea of. And I think we all acknowledge that they fully deserve to be decades ago, but, you know, we'll take it now. I. I am not saying that Fish is like, hey, we are going to break up five years from now. I just would imagine that this band, with how great they are right now, with how well that they're playing and knowing how bad it can get. They've been there before. They are not there right now, would want to make the ultimate call that when and if they walk away, they walk away at their absolute best. And symbolically, it would Just seem to me to make sense that if they're going to do that at some point in the next 10 years, let's make this 15 years. Let's make this the new normal of how people see and perceive us on stage. Who knows?
- [22:54]
RJ
No, I like it. It's really poetic. I like it.
- [22:56]
Megan
It's a return. It's a return to the beginning. You know what I mean?
- [22:59]
RJ
That's.
- [22:59]
Megan
That's kind of all I'm thinking here. All right, got that out of the way. The band looks slightly different. Let's talk looking at the run as a whole first. These. These three shows, we're going to. We're going to give you kind of the big story right now of what we see from this first weekend of Fish summer tour. It's a slightly unique summer tour. We talked about this in our draft episode, which. Oh, my God. My God. We have to pause here. Producers coming in my ear. We have a winner from the draft that we have to announce for everyone out there. Meg, would you like to do the honors here?
- [23:40]
RJ
Absolutely. So the draft voting was interesting because it was really, really close. We were all basically split by a third for a majority of the voting. And at the very end, Mr. RJB squeaked out some extra votes, and I think he won by like 2%. So he beat us. He won.
- [24:00]
Megan
Are you upset about that 2%? Are you cool with it? I'm cool.
- [24:05]
RJ
I'm totally cool with it. No, I. You know, I felt like it was a really even draft, to be honest. I felt like it was a hard draft, but it was also there were a lot of options. So I feel like there's a lot of paths to victory, which is not always the case with these drafts. There were many paths, and I think that this is so much about personal choice in this. In this case, because there were just so many shows that we had to draft. So I think it makes sense that it was all really close. But I'm glad the RJ won. I think we all had lists that could have won.
- [24:36]
Megan
RJ. RJ holding down 12, 195, 11, 17, 97, 622, 94, 12, 297, and 600 1904. Just for my money. I mean, those are. Those are some amazing shows that anyone should be proud of holding. As Foreman 777 says, the lack of understanding the snake draft is RJ's advantage. I would agree. RJ coming in. I. You know, I. I'll just say I learned a lot preparing for this draft. I learned to Trust my own instincts to trust my knowledge and just have fun. These are just a great way for us to shoot the for two hours, give each other, have a lot of fun. And I'm glad that Megan's winning streak is over. It was a fun draft. It was a really fun draft.
- [25:23]
RJ
It was a fun draft. It was a fun draft. And I did prepare a lot, but I didn't freak out about it. I was very calm as I was preparing. I felt good about it. Maybe I'm getting better at preparing or maybe I adopted your sense of fun. We'll see.
- [25:37]
Megan
I thought you did a good job preparing for it. And Aside from picking 12, 7 97, I think you did a really, really great job with your overall list. So, you know, well, it wouldn't be.
- [25:47]
RJ
A draft if you didn't have one of my choices that you continued to harass me about afterwards. So, I mean, I just, you know.
- [25:53]
Megan
It'S an interesting pick with, with all of that was available in Ohio at the point that you selected. But, you know, it's neither here nor there. We will have. I know you do. We will have why you picked it. We will have another draft coming up at the end of summer. As many of you know, there will be no dicks this year. So ahead of Labor Day, we will be counting down or we will be picking our favorite Dick's shows and Dick's jams. It's going to be a fun, fun episode. I can't wait for it. I'm going to feel pretty sad not having dick shows this year, even though we're going to have Boulder shows and that's how we're going to deal with it is we're going to look back at our favorite dick shows and jams. All right. One other comment I wanted to highlight here. I thought this was really, really cool. Matt Emmer. It's not that they want control over how Fish ends. It's realizing that they can't. Trade's been pretty vocal about wanting to do this until one of them physically can't. I think that this is a really solid, solid point here. And I think that that is ultimately, in my mind what is going to be the end of it is when one of them can physically reproduce what they do. Who knows how long it is. It seems like they're all really healthy, keep themselves intact at some point. That's just the way it goes. And I don't think that they want to play a B level Fish tour, you know, I think that they want to keep pushing themselves. That's that's what they've done. So speaking of pushing themselves, speaking of pushing the band at this point in time, three shows this weekend. Meg, what was your kind of big takeaway here from from this overall tour opener?
- [27:41]
RJ
Well, I was reflecting on spring tour and thinking about what that was kind of about. And I felt like the big takeaway from spring tour was just that they were had a huge intention to jam. There were so many jams in spring tour. There was an average of like two and a half top tier jams per show on spring tour. So spring tour had a ton of jams, they had a lot of jamming to like a classic peak. And they really continued the trend for Mexico with like better than average set lists. And so I went into this run thinking about that and thinking about what kind of fish was heading into with that. And I think they really stuck to that. Mainly a lot of big jams, mainly in set two in these shows. A huge willingness to go really deep and take risks. I thought that was really encouraging. I think they were playing a lot of jamming without a net. Really cool stuff. Taking a lot of risks, playing experimentally, which was really fun. I think they sound really warmed up. I'm really into the spring tour. I think it really helps them go into summer tour without such a long gap in between. I did feel like the flow was a little inconsistent in some of the sets, but still really maintaining the year's trend of better than average set lists overall. And I think the jamming was. It was really diverse and it was like a nice balance of spacey and warm. We're going to talk about it and I'll get into examples, but I think there's this really amazing thing they're doing by kind of grounding themselves in rhythm and. But still having a lot of the synthes, space effects and it's giving this kind of more warmth to the space jamming, which I think is really satisfying. And I've been hearing more and more of it and I really like it. And yeah, I think that the most exciting thing for me too is that some of my favorite jams or the sections from them were in like the last few minutes. So like the Life Saving Gun or the Wave of Hope, both of those, the last few minutes were the most intriguing and that is really positive because that means that like they're finding that space and as they get more patient and have more time and stretch out, I think those jams will go in even deeper and we're going to get some really big long Jams, I think.
- [29:47]
Megan
Yeah. I feel like this almost confirms something that we talked about in the spring, that there is a less heavy emphasis on effects, especially coming from Trey. He feels like he's playing a lot more clean. He feels like he's playing more chords rather than going for a solo. Trying to connect with Paige and Fish. Mike continues to sound really upfront, really exciting in a way that he wasn't a couple years ago to our ears. Yeah, it feels like we're right now a long way away from the synth pedal heavy jams of 2021 and 2022. It seems like last year's kind of angular riff, heavy aggressive jamming that you got in kind of those. Those big jams in Mexico and some of our favorite jams from summer tour, especially around Dicks, there's not as much of an emphasis on that. It feels like there's more melody. It feels like Trey would prefer to play in a very clean, straightforward manner and leave the effects to Paige. And Paige seems to be responding in a really good way in some of the big jam segments that we're to get into here today. I think also because I, I agree with you. It felt like an up and down run at times. I think from a flow standpoint, especially when we get into parts of Saturday night there definitely felt like. It definitely felt like the first run of a tour where the band is kind of feeling certain things out and that we will get these shows later. Which I don't mean to contradict myself because I'm going to have. Have nothing but gushing things to say about Sunday.
- [31:36]
RJ
But I do think opening run strong. Opening run 100, 100.
- [31:41]
Megan
But it did feel like almost similar to Great woods last year. Where to my years where the band comes out playing at a high level, sounding very good. But within two weeks we had that Deer Creek night three. We had Monda Green night run, we had Bethel I believe it was night one was. That was the high bar we had the Dicks run where the band was clearly playing at a different level than they open the tour with. That happens all the time. The tour openers very rarely the best shows of. Of the tour. That's okay. You just want to see them come out and play at a very consistent level rather than slowly working themselves up. You want Michael Jordan entering the early 90s seasons wanting revenge even after he won a title versus Shaq playing himself into game shape across an 82 game season.
- [32:34]
RJ
Even I get that and I think we have that. Like yeah, I think they're coming out like really strong and playing. Taking risks. Yeah. Which I think is, is all I really want in the beginning. I just don't want safe and boring right away.
- [32:48]
Megan
100% agree. I don't want them to be like, hey, we need to just like play a bunch of songs just to see how we're all feeling. And also here's my soul. Because we need just a blues song to get on on the same page. The one thing I was going to say is like the thing that jumped out to me more than anything is we have two 60 plus minute segments in two second sets of this tour that are uninterrupted. In one case like full arrows. In another case a couple fades. But like thematic fades.
- [33:21]
RJ
Yeah, yeah.
- [33:22]
Megan
Full segments of music that when you go back and listen to them, there's really no, no need to hit the next track. There's no need to kind of of, you know, put it on in the background. Like these are like fully committed, you know, let's, let's dive deep and hear what's going on. Segments of music that if they're already playing that well, you know, from a thematic, fully realized, segmented jamming standpoint. Three shows in. I think that we are in a very, very good place with Fish going into the summer tour.
- [33:56]
RJ
Yeah, I think each night has a section. Night one and night three, their sections are longer. But even night two has like a 40 minute segment. That's awesome. Really awesome. Just like killer. That Carini wave of Hope into Billy Breathes is perfect. Perfect. So yeah, I agree, I think super strong in every show. There's a suction really good. I mean night three is I think off the charts but we'll talk about it.
- [34:23]
Megan
Well, let's get into it because we're going to do a quick, quick breakdown Friday night. Meg, do you want to read our set list here? Forest of sure. The whole, the whole show. Lay down the gauntlet of what happened on Friday night in Manchester.
- [34:41]
RJ
Friday night 6, 2025. Set 1 is the MoMA dance. Back on the Train. Wolfman's Brother Theme from the Bottom the old home Place 46 days Birds of a feather Slave to the Traffic Light Set 2 is bouncing around the room Sample in a jar Life saving Gun into Twist into Piper into Everything's Right. An encore of Strange Design, Harry Hood and Susie Greenberg.
- [35:09]
Megan
That's a pretty solid night on a tour. What do you think? So I'm looking at the gap chart here for this tour opener. It's a 6.47 average song gap. We have only two songs in the entire show that are over a 10 show gap. Old Home plays first since 8, 7, 24. Strange Design first since 8, 30, 24. Everything else is under 10 shows. So pretty. Like I would call it safe set listing. I don't mean that derogatory. It's just these are all songs that are in the rotation. We hear them often. What do you think that says about Kind of Fish opening the tour?
- [35:55]
RJ
I think that's where Trey is right now. I think that he has a staple of. I'm not good at calculating quickly, but there seems to be kind of a pot or a cache of like songs that Trey plays that he plays within every like 10 shows. And he's really comfortable playing with those. We saw that in Mexico. We saw that in spring tour. We saw that even in the New Year's Eve run. All of those shows had really low show gaps. Like occasionally you'll get. But we're not getting a lot of bust out. We're not getting a ton of variety either. But I think it's working for them and they have enough songs in that kind of mix that the shows aren't getting boring and repetitive. But I do think Treya is. He's going more frequently to what he's continues to play more frequently. I don't know if I said that articulately, but like, I think he's really just like in a comfortable place with where he. The songs that he's set listening most often.
- [36:48]
Megan
Yeah, no, and I get it because I think back to certain tours immediately, like fall 2010 and summer 2011 and summer 2012 jump out to me as these tours were one of the eternal draws. I think the Baker's Dozen is similar to this as well. Fall 2021. The draws of those tours is that you are going to get a lot random songs played in random spots, big bust outs and you're going to get this sense of like anything is possible from a song selection standpoint. And I don't necessarily think that that's where the band seems to be feeling right now. And I think that that's. That's okay. Like if you're going to focus more on deeper jamming rather than like, hey, let's shock you with a 347 show bust out, you know, tonight, two nights from now, six nights from now, you know, just to like kind of scatter that, I think that's okay. We'll see how they kind of feel from a set listing standpoint. They usually tend to open the archives a little bit more as A tour goes along as I'm just looking at the gap chart for this, for this run, it does increase. We have a 12 show gap on night two, a 15 show gap on night three with a couple 50 plus performances. But yeah, I mean this set list to me feels very much like these are our strengths. This is what we do really well. Let's just see how the music speaks for where we're at right now. And I think early on, on Friday you got a Fairly expanded Wolfmans 1.5 if you will. You know, a nice expanded theme from the bottom. And then you get in the second set, this segment of Life Saving Gun, which goes for nearly 20 minutes into twist, which takes a detour to Fukuoka before coming back to New Hampshire. A really nice little melodic and energized Piper and then Everything's Right that gets a bit beyond itself before closing out the set. That's a really, really solid structure of songs right there that are both newer, a little bit older, but kind of in that, you know, Twist. Piper, those two songs have always felt part, you know, connected to each other ever. What was it? Salt Lake City 97 and Detroit 90 or Auburn Hills 97 plus you know, both being on Farmhouse, you know, there's just like there, there feel there felt like a thematic connection between those segments. You know, as, as the band was kind of figuring out where exactly they're they're at going into, you know, the, the start of this tour. These are, these are songs that are on a two show gap, a one show gap, a three show gap. So none of these song, you know, out of the rotation. But they feel like kind of all reliables for the band.
- [39:44]
RJ
Yeah, and I think that's maybe another reason why they've been so consistent lately is because they're not saying, hey, let's play every single bust out or let's make sure we play four new songs we haven't played in a really long time. Especially as you get older and you have more and more to remember. I was thinking about this when they were playing when I was listening to the Curtain with that, you know, they don't play that song very often. They played it really well, but I'm sure they practiced it a bit bunch, you know, and I think that they're, they don't want to go out and play songs that they haven't played in a long time that aren't going to meet their kind of level of consistency right now. That's what I would expect.
- [40:18]
Megan
That's a good point. And F dude says Something similar. I'm a big proponent of repeats. There definitely is a sameness going on right now. You can almost predict the set list across a three night run. It's. It's just an interesting thing where like you don't feel right now going into a run that like, I have no idea what I'm gonna hear. It kind of does feel like the band, to your point, knows what's working, leans into that. There's still obviously diversity. These are different set lists from spring tour, which were different from Mexico, which were different from msg, so on and so forth. But it does. I feel like I watch fish shows less like, oh, wow, they're playing this right now. And more oh, okay. This song, let's see what happens and what is happening seems to be working in a lot of ways for them. I think we're going to come back to this segment here in our next section of the episode. So let's just dive quickly into night two. Saturday, June 21st. I will read the set list for this set. One free and ariba halfway to the moon. Haley's in a stash Meat and down with disease. Set 2, Carini Wave of hope. Oh, wait, sorry. I'm sorry. They started with Drift while you're sleeping, apparently. I can't believe that they would do that. Drift while you're sleeping in Trey, what are you thinking? My goodness. My goodness. We'll talk about this all Wave of hope. Billy breathes 2001 into meat stick into about to run into Possum, Encore of Boldest Love into David Bowie and then Wilson closing it out. What is your big takeaway on night two of Manchester?
- [42:07]
RJ
I think the first set was pretty interesting, the set list, but it worked. I think that. Which is fun. I think that when you have a kind of an interesting set list and it works, it's exciting. I thought that the stash had some really amazing Blissey peaks that were so beautiful. And I think the whole first set just kind of works as a narrative arc with kind of ending in that big energetic like down with disease ending. And I think that the segment of the show that really worked is that Carini Wave of hope into Billy Breathes. As I mentioned earlier, really excellent jamming. And Billy Breathes is always a great landing pad for me. But then it just drops off an absolute cliff to me. And I think that anytime that Trey plays 2001 after a good segment of jamming, that point in the fourth quarter, it's almost never going to be good for the rest of the show. And I Think that that was. That was the case. It was just an intimate meat stick and then about to run in possum. I don't know. But I do think that the encore were rocks. Bold as Love Always. I got my first at 12 29, 24. That was the last time it was played, but I love that songs and encore and then to follow with Bowie and Wilson. That's really like old school vibes. Even though we don't really want to Bowie here, but like what are we going to do? So we just have to take Bowie's where we get them now.
- [43:18]
Megan
I feel like Bowie is just a troll mechanism at this point in time. They clearly know how to play it. They clearly are like, hey, we can kind of flirt with space here, but we're never going to fully commit and we're just going to play it in points where people are excited to see it because David Bowie. David Bowie absolutely rules.
- [43:36]
RJ
Yeah.
- [43:37]
Megan
But we're just not going to try to do anything with it. I. I still remember when they opened, what was it? 12. I gotta pull up fish.netset listing here. I'm so sorry. This is so fun to listen to, but I've got to confirm this.
- [43:55]
RJ
Very unlike you.
- [43:57]
Megan
Yeah, I just want to confirm because this is a rare thing. The last time bowie opened a second set was 12, 29, 22. Before that it was. That's a great open, isn't it? Before that, the last time it opened a second set. I'm still scrolling here, man. Was 12, 3 97, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Is that. Can that actually be accurate here? I've got to just double check this now. This is great podcasting. Well, I think, I think that that's accurate. If someone has alternative information here and wants to tell me that that is not the last time that they opened a second set with Dave Bowie. Please chime in in the comments. But that version always felt a little. The 12, 29, 2022 version felt like it added a little bit extra space. That was a really great start of a set. There's an amazing wave of hope, if I recall correctly. Or Ruby Waves. Excuse me. In that set, that, that run felt like a reawakening for Fish. And it feels like that was the last time David Bowie had a real chance to do something. We've had a few hints and flirtations of late, but alas, a nine minute encore. David Bowie. I thought this show overall, I agree with you. This first set might have been my favorite first set of the overall weekend. I love Reba in the second slot.
- [45:30]
RJ
Of a show for that. Right. It's rare.
- [45:33]
Megan
Yeah.
- [45:33]
RJ
For modern fish, I feel like.
- [45:35]
Megan
Yeah. It always will remind me of 320 92, one of my favorite tapes I ever received as I was learning how to understand fish. I'm a huge proponent of Halfway to the moon. I think it's a great mid tempo adult contemporary ballad that the band has. Haley's got into some cool space stash. You. You're right. There was some great blissy jamming in stash that I was totally into meet. That was the first time we'd had meet since 7:30, 20, 24, 38 shows. That is one of three songs played on night two along with Drift while you're sleeping and Billy Breeze that had a 30 plus show gap and then disease got into some cool space before kind of peaking to end the overall first set. It was just good song selection, good playing. Second set. Is Drift while you're sleeping the worst set to opener ever off the top of your head?
- [46:39]
RJ
Yeah. I can't imagine a song that less builds energy or anticipation for a set. I just don't know where you're going with that. I think Drift is a hard song to find a place for in general because it can also suck the energy out of the room in the fourth quarter. So I don't really know where you play this song. To be honest. I have warm feelings about this song because of COVID and it really like making me feel good during COVID But in general I don't ever feel like it's like a. I can't think of where it feels good in a show.
- [47:13]
Megan
I think it is good as an encore because then you have the option to opt out and get to your car early.
- [47:21]
RJ
What if they place me after that though?
- [47:24]
Megan
They usually don't. They've played it in the encore a couple of times.
- [47:27]
RJ
It's longer.
- [47:28]
Megan
It's longer and so like it's a good. It's like if they play Fluff head in the encore. My feelings are well known about Drift while you're sleeping. I'm really not into it. I don't like the Michael Franti segment. The peak is fine. But like we have other composed songs that peak. I. I would be very, very fine if this song went the way of Time turns elastic. I know I'm.
- [47:53]
RJ
Don't even say that. Don't even say those words in case Trey hears you. I don't ever want to hear time turns elastic at a Fish show ever again. But I had a very nice.
- [48:04]
Megan
I had a very nice conversation with Someone at the wedding I was at on Friday night who was explaining to me how important Drift While youe're Sleeping is to him. So I don't want to offend here because I was very moved by his story and obviously like people are. Are moved by different Fish songs versus others. You know, I fully accept that, you know, my love of Halfway to the Moon is not popular. I get it. I accept it. I think that we're in the minority there. It seems like a song that a lot of people just wish Fish would not play. I know that a couple of my buddies were at the show on Saturday night, sent text related groans about that song. So everyone has their different.
- [48:48]
RJ
It's so emotional though. Like Trey plays so emotionally in that song. His guitar. Guitar is like. You can just feel his heart coming out of it. But yeah, I get it, I get it.
- [48:56]
Megan
But I also think people do. People have some very, very people really dig that song. The jamming portion of this show really comes in the K wave of Hope and then the resolution in Billy Breathes. This segment I don't think is as accomplished as what we heard on night one or what we will talk about on night three. But I do think that it's. It's got some really, really stuff. I thought the Wave of Hope was more naturally in the space that you were describing earlier where Trey is playing more chords. Trey's a little bit more melodic. He's kind of taking a back seat, letting Paige kind of dominate with his synthesizers. Fishman is right connected, almost playing as another melodic instrument with Trey Carini felt like a lot of ideas they were searching for that they never fully latched onto. But I still really dug. It's hard not to dig a 23 minute Carini middle of the second set. But what did you think of this segment as it compared to what we heard on Friday night?
- [50:00]
RJ
I really loved it. I think the Twist on Friday Night is probably my favorite jam of the whole run. Except for possibly the third Tweezer Jam which I haven't had a chance to like ab them because I only listened to last night show once. But the twist from night one is so killer. That's like my favorite kind of stuff. But this Carini I really loved. I thought it was like really rhythmic out of the space like I was talking about earlier. There's like this multi rhythmic stuff going on. I don't know how Fishman's doing what he's doing in that part of the show, but it's incredible. I found it to be really creative and the wave of hope immediately out of the song, they land in this really warm, sophisticated space. Space. It's super effortless. And they're in this beautiful space for a while. And then when Paige starts laying in the synths, it's absolutely breathtaking. And I think that is a jam that's almost 17 minutes and it goes by just like that. It's so pretty. I loved it. And I think landing in Billy just, like, elevates a jam. I think if you're going to land in a really great song that isn't played enough, but that is such a nostalgic, special fish song, like, that's how I feel about Billy Breathes. I think it just. It kind of like elevates the whole section.
- [51:11]
Megan
I agree. Yeah. I think that sometimes you can land a jam segment in a single ballad, and if it's quote unquote, the right ballad or a ballad that you really like, it adds to, like, I've seen, like, I think back to my first show. They. They opened up the second set with a really dark tweezer. They played Punch in the Eye. Didn't really jam, but then they went into Fast enough for you, and it always felt like this kind of reson resolution midway through the set. Night one in Mexico, there was like a 13 minute, very solid. Nothing crazy, but very solid. Type two down with disease early in that first night. And then that resolved in if I could and like, just the right ballad placement definitely helps to elevate things. And I felt like Billy Breathes absolutely did that. I think that's a really great call. I just want to shout out a couple of our listeners who are commenting. Our discussion about drift while you're sleeping VT to boot with the usually and encores could have screwed people who left early this weekend.
- [52:14]
RJ
Yeah, totally.
- [52:15]
Megan
That is. That is absolutely a risk that you take if you leave during the encore. And sometimes you absolutely get screwed. William Welsh. I love all paid songs. He doesn't get enough songs at shows nowadays. I agree. I agree. Outside of. Outside of a couple, I. I am very pro. All page songs getting more elevation.
- [52:36]
RJ
I want to say something else about that too, because I think that they need to be thinking more about it because Trey had a little vocal issues on Monday night. And I think that giving Paige some more of these vocals is a nice way to, like, let Trey ease off a little bit.
- [52:48]
Megan
It's a good call. Let's get Sweet Jane back in the COVID rotation.
- [52:55]
RJ
Oh, yes. Yes.
- [52:57]
Megan
Let's get Dear Prudence back in the COVID rotation. Let's Get Home Back in the originals. Rotating that song has a built in jam segment that you could blast off into like 15, 20 minutes. The way that they're playing right now, they played it like eight times and then they were like it just doesn't fit anywhere. I would argue that that song could fit Jason Silverman a couple really good. Maybe Drift was played because of the wars to wage. Lyric that as good lyrical insight. I support that way level of thinking. He said he's not a fan of the placement. Just trying to suggest the reason they chose it. Hey man, I'm there for you. Don't come at me.
- [53:40]
RJ
I was like for this but that's interesting. I know I felt strange streaming the show and hearing the news and it was a very odd moment and I was thinking a lot about that this weekend too. Being at a festival and thinking is this what we should be doing when so much horrible things are happening around us? But you know, finding a reason to create joy with other people I think is some sort of resistance in a way.
- [54:04]
Megan
Yes. You are not the only person having a good time when bad things are happening and you are celebrating life, which is, you know, the French would do everything they could to celebrate life. Even as they were revolting against their king and chopping the heads off of various lords, there was still life being lived, wine being drank, celebrations in the streets. I think it's important to do that. It is, you're right. Is a way of establishing this is how we want things to be in an ideal way. So I mean some great stuff here from our listeners. Thank you everyone for hanging with us here today. As we're talking through. Let's go ahead really quickly in the podcast. We are going to take a very quick break before we dive into some Night three highlights as well as our own personal personal favorite jam segments of the weekend. Ray Ban Meta glasses are powered by Meta AI so you can get real time answers.
- [55:09]
RJ
Hey Meta, how Bougie is Jade Garden?
- [55:11]
Megan
It's a trendy spot.
- [55:12]
RJ
What's a color that pairs with this top?
- [55:14]
Megan
Consider dark earthy colors charcoal or black.
- [55:18]
RJ
What are some good first date topics?
- [55:19]
Megan
Consider discussing face favorite travel destinations or your favorite books. Get suggestions, inspiration and answers from your glasses. Ray Ban Meta Glasses iconic style meets meta AI. Okay, night three Sunday 6222025 the Last Sunday show that we are going to have for two weeks. Two weeks guys. No Sunday show next weekend. No Sunday show the 4th of July weekend. So this is kind of like know I thought this was a there was a Little bit of pressure on this show. Nights one and two, we had some ups and downs. We have. We had. Before last night, we had four fish shows until July 3rd. There's a lot of big gaps on this tour before the band really hits a consistent stretch. Want to make sure that we're on level playing field as we go into Boulder. Make sure that those of us who are going to Boulder get a really good show, really good run.
- [56:18]
RJ
Some of us, Colorado, you just. You never know. You guys always get the best show.
- [56:22]
Megan
Those.
- [56:23]
RJ
It's so annoying.
- [56:25]
Megan
That is true with Goose. With fish of late, yes, we have had. We have had like the 2022 dicks run. You know, that happened. That just happened. They have really made up for it. 2023 was. Was outstanding until the final night. 2024 was some of the best fish I've ever seen. I got nothing to complain about. I saw Mexico 24 and Dick's 24 until they play a bad run. I have not seen a bad fish run in a long, long time. This show, I'm just gonna put my heart out there. I thought this was a classic fish show. I thought the second set is some of the. I think this, the second set, Tweezer segment, I think personally is the best fish we've heard all year. I thought there was a great mix of classic fish songs that you expect to sometimes hear on a Sunday night, while also really diving deep into the jamming in a way that I absolutely loved. Meg, why don't you read the set list here for everyone and we can dive into it.
- [57:28]
RJ
Set 1 from 6 22, 25 was Runaway Gym Oblivion. The Curtain Width Llama Fast Enough for you. The Wedge, Pebbles and Marbles, My friend, My Friend Into Egg in a Hole and Fluff Hat. Set two is Axla Part two, the correct version. Tweezer into Mercury into Tweezer into Pillow jets into Tweezer into Golgi Apparatus. And the encore is Bug into Tweezer Reprise. That is how you do it. That set two is Chef's Kiss. It's perfect in terms of flow and narrative arc. I really do think it's the best set of the year. I was. I wanted to ask you, though, the only other one I thought might be in contention is Bill Graham. Night one, set two. That was the only set that I thought had the most kind of flow like we're talking about, because this is. You and I talk about flow a lot. We all do on this show, on podcast it. To me, it's one of the most important things A band can do. And Fish isn't always amazing at at it. And this is a perfect example of when it seems so effortless for them because not only did this Tweezer Fest, which sometimes I have a hard time with because it can feel forced, this one did not. But because of the way it is. Tweezer Fest. Each of the three Tweezer Jams are really deep and really diverse, and each one seems to build on the one before, and each one gets better than the last one. I remember I was texting you and I said the second Tweezer Jam and you were like, just wait till. And then I was in the third one and I was like, oh, my God, this is what I was waiting for. Insane. Like, just incredible. And all the songs in between were also excellent and fed into the vibe of the set. Just. No complaints for set two. No complaints. Zero.
- [59:21]
Megan
No zero. Zero complaints for set two. I mean, I think so to your first comment about, you know where this is in the overall year, I agree with you. This is right there with Bill Graham, Night one, Set two. And I think Night one, overall, I think that that is the. That and this are the two best shows that have been played thus far in 2025. Set two of night one of Bill Graham 422. Just to read for everyone, Carini. No man in no Man's Land Ruby Waves Waste what's the use down with disease that's a all killer no filler Second set. I thought that this. This one was right in that way. I think that this took a bit of a step forward in terms of really inventive jamming in, especially in the last half of the tweezers. I thought that this Tweezer Sandwich Tweezer Segway Fest that we got was fascinating because oftentimes Tweezer Seg. Yeah. Tweezer Seg Fests tend to go towards the more humorous side of fish, which is always fun, gets everyone up and going, but is never like, my favorite Tweezer, the My favorite type of fish that we're looking for. I really want this kind of deep, cerebral fish. That's just a preference thing. I've had fun at the silly, goofy fish shows, but if I want to listen back to something, I want something that's a little bit deeper, a little bit headier. And this felt like a combination of inventive on the fly set listing fish with kind of nostalgic, looking back on the past and admiring themselves fish with super heady cerebral jamming. It's fascinating to me that you get a Segway fest that has two songs written in the band's 32nd. And what would that be? 40th year in Mercury and Pillow Jets Within a Tweezer Jam, a song from 1990, a song that has unquestionably shown us more options on the other side than any song in Fish history. There's a reason why it's the only song that we have drafted in our short history of drafting, because, like, there's just so much to choose. We could do three more Tweezer drafts and not run out of ideas. Maybe four more. I mean, this, to me, was that advanced level Fish that I will listen back to for years and years and years. I think that, sure, there's probably more to come from Fish in the. In the coming weeks as they're on tour, but I Honestly, in the moment, maybe I'm. Maybe I'm being hasty. Who knows? In the moment, I feel like this is as good as it gets. Gets the Fish. Like, this second set is as good as it possibly could get. And I think it's right there with what they did on night one in the second set of Bill Graham.
- [62:34]
RJ
I totally agree. There's something about the pairing, too, of Mercury and Pillow Jets. I feel like they're sort of related in tone and theme and this feeling of kind of this epic. These epic tales that, you know, to me, they've always hinted. And this isn't trying to be blasphemous, but it's a little bit of the Dark Star St Stephen World, where it's very like. Like, you know, a lot. A lot of, like, iconography and big themes and these kind of beautiful stories that are really inventive and really wide in scope. And I think that they. To put them together is just absolutely genius. Like, I can't believe this hasn't been done before, but it's so good how it was done. Like, this is absolutely perfect. And I think even starting off the set with Axela 2, which is such a hungry, ferocious song, and I love that they started out like that. And this Tweezer is amazing, too, because when they start it, you know, there are certain versions of Tweezer, the minute the song ends, it just takes off right away. And there's such an authority to it, and this version has. That you can hear it right away, that they're just locked in.
- [63:42]
Megan
Locked in and almost effortless at the same time.
- [63:46]
RJ
Yeah.
- [63:47]
Megan
Big shout out to Dave Goldstein again. He compared parts of the Tweezer Jam to the Ghost Soul Planet from Deer Creek. Last summer, which is I think another two songs back to back that both just feel like the band steps on stage. And kind of the goal Trey always has talked about is that they are not trying to do something, that they are simply conduits for emotion and music that comes through them in a way that I always. There are certain shows you go to where you're just watching the stage and you're just like every movement, it's almost. It's almost akin to athleticism and watching basketball players just like in that full headspace of movement and connectivity and teamwork. And you know when things are just clicking and you see it sometimes, sometimes you don't. Sometimes you see the band and they seem like four guys on stage trying to find connection and other times the connection is just there. And last night's second set, every single thing just felt there. I'm seeing some great comments here. You know, I just want to shout out Matt Emmer asks is it's the mercury of 4.0? I think it has to be. I mean it is interesting because my first reaction was they don't really know how to play this song anymore. Like I would love for these guys to just dedicate an afternoon to relearning how to play Mercury. You listen to some 2015, 2018, 2019 versions of Mercury. The song is expertly played and then the jams are really cool. Very, very cool to hear it getting this. This bit of a shout out, you know, this placement and this performance here. Because that jam before it even went back into Tweezer was excellent.
- [65:27]
RJ
So good. Also they played a good version at the Hollywood bowl, so I think it is coming back. It was played well. It wasn't like jammed out. But I think they are tapping into. Into this song again in a way that's hopeful. I'm optimistic about it.
- [65:43]
Megan
I like your optimism. I mean that is that and Sense and Subtle sounds are my two favorite post 1.0 fish songs written and I would love to have them both played. I think Sense and Subtle Sounds getting the intro back, they've. That's been played incredibly well of late. I'm hoping that we get the same with mercury. Forbin77 says the jam in Mercury was so good that it sounded composed. Pillow jets as well. Very hopeful, very nice segue into Pillow Jets. Pillow jets is really just finding itself as kind of this. When in doubt, let's throw this midway in the second set and we'll just see what happens happens. I saw an excellent version last year at Dick's. If you haven't listened out sometime. Throw that on when you finish catching up here. It really kind of serves as a bridge between tweezers here, which is, you know, there's a lot of that the song can do. It's like a two minute long song with a dark undertone on the back end that can then either be jammed out or go back in a tweezer. And this did the latter. And I thought it was very, very cool.
- [66:47]
RJ
Yeah, that was cool how he was saying like conjures of thunder and then he started playing the tweezer riff really slow under that. That was cool.
- [66:54]
Megan
Yeah. And just like, what a way to bridge the past, the present. The first set of this show, you get Jim with Llama fast enough for you. The Wedge, My Friend, My Friend and Fluff Head. All these old classic, nicely composed fish songs. Three Rift songs in the same set. Plus you get it interspersed Oblivion Pebbles and Egg in a Hole. These three relatively, in some ways very relatively. But, you know, new fish songs, new ish fish songs. Post 1.0 fish songs that did a great job of keeping the momentum going, exploring. Not too much outside. This was kind of an in the box until we got to My Friend, My Friend, Egg in a Hole. But you know, just a very well played, well structured set. Maybe didn't flow from a first set standpoint the way that Night two did, but still some really great stuff here.
- [67:56]
RJ
Yeah, I agree. I think that the flow to me wasn't what it was in set one from night two. But fantastic song selection. And I think anytime you're going to play the curtain with, it's going to make people really, really happy. I was thinking about last year when I got my first one and was, wasn't it so crazy how my first width was inside of a mic's groove? Oh yeah, I remember Easy at Mohegan. I got the curtain. They opened up the show. I think they opened the show with it and then I didn't get the width and I was like a little sad. And then they played in the middle of Mike's Groove. Anyway, I was just remembering that when I heard this last night, I was like, that's so crazy.
- [68:33]
Megan
Totally forgot that they broke that apart. That is. That is a wild. That was a wild little segment of that show because Night one, weird, had the jams. Night two had a little bit of kind of the set with set listings, shenanigans.
- [68:44]
RJ
Yeah, it was weird. So I'm still searching for the curtain with right after it. But I still got it, I guess. But I thought that My friend My friend was awesome how it kind of goes into Egg in a Hole and they kind of match up the like she's got a knife and you know I'm in a hole or whatever he's saying because to me egg in a hole. Like I don't really ever need to hear that song. Like it's just so lyrically underdeveloped and and it's just sounds like an inside joke over music. But this actually for me kind of worked a little bit. Like I thought it worked within the My Friend My Friend jam. I thought it was cool.
- [69:21]
Megan
Well, we both know that we have violently opposite opinions on Sci Fi Soldiers. I'm very proud of these songs. Violently. Violently. Aside from the howling, I'm very pro. All of these songs getting more opportunities to really showcase. I thought that this, this reminded me of the way oh Holy Night came out of Mike's song on Holes Night. It was kind of silly fish, but spooky fish. It reminded me of fall 1994. Cool comment here from forbin77. Great insight. I think sometimes they play set 1 songs to get ideas flowing for set 2. Less concern for flow. I definitely agree with this. I think that last night was a great example of that where they're not necessarily playing to jam, they're playing songs that they want to play that also happen to be very classic fish songs. And so sometimes you get this sort of set one that's less surprising and more just hey man, let's just settle in, make sure the band's in a good headspace because the set second set is ultimately where this is at. Great additional read here from Jason Silberman. We gotta get a Jason Silberman segment on the podcast where he just connects real world events. The Conjurers of Thunder Pillow jets was played shortly after the Thunder won the NBA championship. Ultimately a great game seven. Although for basketball fans everywhere, pretty tragic seeing Tyrese Halliburton tear his Achilles seven minutes into the game after coming out on fire. Pacers hung in Thunder win their first title since being ripped away from the city of Seattle. I would leave love to find out if Trey has his IEM tuned to like Patrick Jordan. Just checking world events and if anything big happens just be like hey the Thunder one. And then Trey's like cool, we're playing Pillow Jets. That would be that would like to know that maybe the next time like a high end journalist for a really big publication gets, you know a a package to go and follow the band around and ask them questions. Maybe Instead of the 15,000 word intro about how you didn't think Fish was a co band until you met Trey and went to a nice dinner with him and then got recommendations from him. Maybe you could like ask them about, you know, what happens on stage and like how they connect. How did this band connect, you know, what was happening with OJ to these, these unsuspecting fans on 617 94? How did the band perfectly play Pillow jets after the Thunder won the the NBA championship? I'm just asking questions here. What do we got here? Any others? Get back. Gotta get back to Chicago. That was a message for me that might have been. We're still clearly, we're circling o' Hare right now trying to see if we can get to get there. All right, what is the song? If the Pacers had won, someone give me like a 70s Indiana classic rock band. Like the Seeger equivalent for Indiana. We would just insert that cover learned in the encore break. All right, one of us needs to drop their kid off at camp in 10 minutes. So we are going to fast pace through the end of the show here. Meg, give me your big highlight from this weekend and let's do one prediction for Pittsburgh.
- [72:56]
RJ
Okay. My highlight. I think I'm kind of torn between two, but I'm going to say the twist. I just. It shocked me. It wasn't what I was expecting. Night one. I think coming out and playing a jam that's this conversational, this interesting. I thought Trey's tone sounded absolutely incredible. It was spacey, it was breathy, it was really round and enveloping. It just melted into such a soft space. I just, I think it's great. So I, I am definitely here for, for this twist and I hope they play more jams like this. It surprised me, I think because it was night one too.
- [73:37]
Megan
Yeah. Everybody I, I trust on Fish was shocked by this. I was, I was at a wedding at this point in time and I was getting a ton of text messages and just rapid fire about the twist. I got a video before I could hear the full thing. And one of the things that shocked me was that Fishman was able to incorporate his her into a segment that was then looped like Bravo. Well done. VT to boot. My God, how did, how did this go over my head? Little pink houses. If Indiana Pacers had won like any Melon Camp Small Town as an encore, Cherry Bomb would have worked really nicely here. Jack and Diane could have worked great. Wouldn't we have loved to have heard like a, like an Hyhu Jack and Diane Hyhu if the Pacers had won the finals, that would have been really fun. Ben Gardner Egg in a hole is a plus. Fish. Sorry, Megan. I think that those are fighting words for you, but I agree with Sounds like it.
- [74:39]
RJ
It sounds like it. No, I, I understand why people might like it, but it's not my bag.
- [74:45]
Megan
I think, and I've said this before, if they would just commit themselves to playing some of the Sci Fi Soldiers songs a little bit more, they would be more developed, similar to Kaz.
- [74:54]
RJ
That's the thing. I feel like they have like, they sound, they sound underdeveloped to me. They sound like they're not really sure what the lyrics are because what are the lyrics of that song? There's like yelling and there's like overlapping stuff. And I think if it had more of like, like a, I don't know, consistency or like a breath. It just sounds very. It just doesn't. I don't know, I just don't get it. But I understand that people do like that.
- [75:18]
Megan
The yelling, the Got to get back to Chicago makes me think of. I used to drive between Chicago and Missoula, Montana, going back and forth for college and it's a 24 hour Dr. And on the way back, like as we were driving, you know, through Madison, Wisconsin and down 294, we were yelling, we got to get back to Chicago. You know, you're just like, some of that is cool.
- [75:40]
RJ
But yeah, it's just, it's like, I mean, you know, lyrics are important to me and writing thoughtful lyrics takes time and consideration and I just don't hear that in these lyrics. I don't think there's a ton of thoughtfulness in these lyrics. And they're, I would. They're all about this like weird, you know, comic book story which doesn't, you know, which is really just kind of like on a front for them to do this cool, you know, space thing. But it's not really, I don't know, I think if you're going to do some kind of big thematic album, to me, it's got to have a lot more of a through line that makes sense.
- [76:21]
Megan
But I, it's fair. Yeah, I, I'm right here with Forbin 77. Egg and hole works like Kung used to in 1994. I think that that is, that's it.
- [76:31]
RJ
This is, I love.
- [76:33]
Megan
This is silly, goofy, absurdist fish.
- [76:36]
RJ
Yeah.
- [76:37]
Megan
All right.
- [76:37]
RJ
Less egg in a hole.
- [76:39]
Megan
Okay. How about both?
- [76:42]
RJ
I'll take both.
- [76:45]
Megan
For me, it's, it's, it's this this segment of Tweezer into Mercury into Tweezer and a pillow jets into Tweezer. I think that's this is for my money right now the best jam segment of the year. It's in my tier one of jams of the year, along with the January 31st Fuego, the February 1st what's going through your mind, the April 22nd Ruby waves and the April 25th light. I think that we are in really, really good, good terrain right now if that's how Fish is playing on night three of tour. All right, so our next next show is Tuesday night in Pittsburgh and then we have two nights in Austin on Friday and Saturday. We will be back with HF POD next Monday to cover those three shows. So keep an eye out for that. Not really a regional run, Pittsburgh to Austin, but you know, we'll make it work. We're going to make it work. And then we're going to be back on Wednesday of this week week with our next Blockbuster Card episode, Covering Evil does not exist from 2023. Keep an eye out for that. Until then, you guys stay cool out there. I can't say stay classy, San Diego. That's already been taken. But you guys stay cool. Have fun, listen back to some fish. Check out eggies to 618, second set from Pittsburgh while I have y' all. Anyone who hasn't been converted, that will do it. We'll see you guys on Wednesday for Evil Does Not Exist.
- [78:14]
RJ
See you then. Thanks, everyone. Sam.
- [79:09]
Megan
Osiris. Sam, close your eyes.
- [80:09]
RJ
Visualize your appliances and home systems.
- [80:11]
Megan
Protected covered, repairs and replacements taken care of. Wash, washers, dryers, AC units.
- [80:19]
RJ
Now.
- [80:20]
Megan
Say it with me. American Home Shield warranty. American Home Shield. Don't worry, be warranty for 20% off our plans. Visit ahs.com listen see ahs.com contracts for coverage details including limit amounts, fees, limitations and exclusions.
- [80:35]
D
This is Lawrence Lanahan, journalist, musician and host of Rearranged, an Osiris Media podcast about music arranging. Once a song is written, arrangers make musical decisions that shape how we end up hearing the song. We're not just talking about adding orchestral accompaniment like horns and strings, or doing a cover version of a song. Arrangement can be putting happy music over dark lyrics, using samples, recording all acoustic, even tiny decisions like putting an electronic loop into an acoustic song to draw your attention to an important turn of phrase. It's all arranging. Rearranged Episodes are documentary essays where I use arrangements to answer some big questions like what is a song and what can a song become and how can the sound of a song change the meaning you take from it? Listening this way has changed my relationship with music. Tune in to Rearranged and maybe it'll happen for you too. Learn more@rerangedpodcast.com.
- [81:41]
Megan
Osiris.