As I dig back into the Fall 2013 tour catalog, an interesting thing came to light. Out of all of the great Tweezer and Carini jams that have been thrown out there, the song that has me coming back for more and more is Twist. The two specific versions that stand out are Glen Falls and Atlantic City.
With the Glens Falls Twist, there's an extreme sense of patience from all members, especially Trey. The slow build in the jam is guided by each and every member. The chord progressions by Trey are so well constructed it would make even the most hard nosed jazz guitar teacher proud. There's a point around the 6 minute mark where Trey rips off a few diminished chords that send chills up my spine.
There's a sense of discpline and, dare I say, structure that is present in their sound these days. Almost to the point where every improvisational jam sounds rehearsed. As contradictory as that sounds, the point is their communication on stage is so well in tune that it's often scary. You don't have to look much further past this Twist to see just how well they are playing right now.
The only thing bad about the Glen Falls Twist is that it ends, and I personally believe Gordon put the brakes in place when he broke out the electric drill. But that's just me being a greedy fan.
Watch and stream the Glen Falls Twist via Phish's YouTube channel
While Glens Falls represents the patience and communication skills, the AC Twist represents the creative juices flowing through their veins right now. Perhaps spawned on by the fact that they are writing so much new music as a band, coming up with musical ideas on the fly is as natural to them as it is to breathe. Just look at all the Tweezer jams from this past fall tour. If you were to play all of the jam setions side by side you would probably have a hard time recongizning that the jams are all tied to the same song.
But Twist, unlike Tweezer, hadn't quite broken out of it's skin until this past tour. Yes there were moments such as the Riverbend show from 2012 (watch this Twist from Phish's YouTube page). But nothing like what we saw here in Glen Falls and AC (Hampton got it all going but the jam was still a bit contained). The standard Twist jam up until this fall tour consisted mainly of a "Oye Como Va" jam from Trey and that was about it. With this AC version, we get a Beatle's "Get Back" tease, an extended "Under Pressure" section and even a Leo Sayer tease of "Long Tall Glasses".
