Gordo Club (Mike Gordon)

[AllForYourDelig]

Im waiting to go in tonight, 4 nights of this, can't wait.

[Chadwickw]

Originally Posted by AllForYourDelig

Im waiting to go in tonight, 4 nights of this, can't wait.

Who else is watching bible study? So all I need is 4 Meyer cabs and some software now.

Also noticed the Markbass synth. That's new.

[edwinhurwitz]

Originally Posted by enjoi1018

Mike's got a new rig.... and I can honestly say it sounds better than the Meyers. A little less mud (if there even was any) and a mid-high punch that is even more pronounced than before.

Also, I bet his rig is half the weight. Really looking forward to details surfacing!

***WARNING*** I'm going to say it: they sounded better last night than they ever have, and I'm sticking to it.

All I have seen is some dim pictures, but it looks like it's still Meyer, just a newer design. Lesh has gone on to a newer Meyer speakers and we all know Mike's a big Phil fan, so it's quite possible he's checking out a similar setup.

I'm also guessing that any difference that it is heard in the house is not due to a change in his speakers on stage.

[Chadwickw]

Oh and a new bass

[edwinhurwitz]

Originally Posted by Chadwickw

Oh and a new bass

Which is?

[Chadwickw]

Originally Posted by edwinhurwitz

Which is?

Don't know. Headless and played only for disease; maybe a curveball after the rig video at halftime.

[edwinhurwitz]

Originally Posted by Chadwickw

Don't know. Headless and played only for disease; maybe a curveball after the rig video at halftime.

Ah, maybe it's a David King bass. I know he has a few of those.

[JFMusic]

For anyone that missed this at setbreak, here's part one of Mike talking about his rig (Modulus knob settings, the new Meyer system, etc.) - some great info:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42fnnZgTk0E

[enjoi1018]

Originally Posted by JFMusic

For anyone that missed this at setbreak, here's part one of Mike talking about his rig (Modulus knob settings, the new Meyer system, etc.) - some great info:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42fnnZgTk0E

By combining this video and tonight's show, I really can't imagine anything more on the subject of Gordo.

Brilliant.

[edwinhurwitz]

Originally Posted by JFMusic

For anyone that missed this at setbreak, here's part one of Mike talking about his rig (Modulus knob settings, the new Meyer system, etc.) - some great info:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42fnnZgTk0E

Yeah, that's pretty much how I thought it would be. Interesting that he's decided to can the enhance knob.

[Chadwickw]

Edwin getting lots of love in tonight's session!

[JFMusic]

Here's part 2 (pedals and effects):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXwUTBKRcWo

[hobbes1]

Can I get a number? Huge Mike Phan for many years!

[sleepy_monkey]

Those videos are awesome. Stepping on the pad turns his mic on.....incredible.

[edwinhurwitz]

Originally Posted by sleepy_monkey

Those videos are awesome. Stepping on the pad turns his mic on.....incredible.

That's actually something pioneered by the Grateful Dead in the 70s. They were at the Boston Music Hall, who forced the soundman to be upstairs. From that vantage point, he noticed that whenever the band sang, they stood in exactly the same place every time. The next day, he went out and got some supermarket door opening pads and trimmed them down to size and wired them to some gates. When Brent joined the band in '79, Healy was stuck doing the mutes by hand again, until he came up with the idea of using Polaroid SX-70 autofocus chips. When Brent leaned into sing, the sensor would trigger the gate open when he got within a certain distance. They talked to Polaroid about it, who hooked them up with a bunch of improved chips that they were working on, as they were looking for ways to utilize the technology in other fields.

I really like the boxing ring bell!

[sleepy_monkey]

I just realized that you are the one that did the programs for Gordo that he is referring to?

[edwinhurwitz]

Yeah, well, it was a long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.

[enjoi1018]

Originally Posted by sleepy_monkey

I just realized that you are the one that did the programs for Gordo that he is referring to?

Wow, I just put two and two together. What impressive stuff! Edwin, any other neat facts you'd wanna share with the gang?

[edwinhurwitz]

Originally Posted by enjoi1018

Wow, I just put two and two together. What impressive stuff! Edwin, any other neat facts you'd wanna share with the gang?

Not much to say. He's pretty much like any of us, although with a bigger budget. Our history is basically that I was in a band in Boston called Shockra in the late 80s and early 90s that played a mixture of funk and world music with a lot of jazz influences. We had a housemate in the band house who lived in the attic on, shall we say, alternative means, who ended up doing merch for Phish for a couple of tours in 1988. He introduced us all and we hung out some and Shockra opened for Phish a few times. Mike asked me about some slap techniques, so we ended up spending some time together, working on that and also effects. He was then and is now a complete musical sponge and is able to integrate what he learns very quickly and completely. And he never forgets (I gave him some funk tapes I made back then and he's still absorbing licks from them). When we played Burlington a few of the guys usually sat in, with some great jams. We got into the habit of giving Fishman interesting things to read during industrial jams, like Joyce's description of a descent into hell, or Bucky Fuller stuff. Trey and our guitarist knew a lot of jazz tunes in common, so it was a great opportunity for them to go off, warping all kinds of standards. Both of them have huge ears, so it would only take a hint from one for them to go off on another tangent. It was before record deals, tour buses and all that stuff, so it wasn't really a huge deal. Just fun! Paluska lived in an apartment in Boston with art student friends of mine while he was getting going with the idea of managing a band with Ben and it seemed like everyone knew everyone. There were artists and writers, film makers, jewelers, poets and all kinds of other creative people who were just as interesting as the musicians. My wife, an art student at the time, came out of that scene and was inspired to follow her bliss by all of the artistic energy and built a career, kind of like Phish, where there was no well trodden path or any path at all, to where she's now a a perfume designer (which she has been pioneering as a pure fine art form) known around the world. Her best friend and maid of honor at our wedding was Phish's tour manager's wife and it wasn't because they met through the band, but that the band, and so many others, were just part of the life so many people in the community. Everybody was making it up as they went along and putting their hearts and souls into it. The bands that were part of it, like Phish, Aquarium Rescue Unit, Widespread, etc., were all really different but everyone shared ideas about improvisation, grooves, inspirations, etc. were always hanging out when they were in town together. The great thing about it was being around a lot of people who were so focused and generous. Just a bunch of music nerds who spent all of their time practicing and rehearsing, reading books, looking at art, etc. Nobody really had much except a love of art and music (you should have seen the abused and falling apart homemade gear we all carted around. Oteil's rig was ridiculously random and he just sounded ridiculously good. Mike had made some very cool speakers that were big fun to play through) and there was no sense of people protecting turf, musical or otherwise. We all lived in band houses of various states of disrepair with various hangers-on and just toured a lot. We invited the bands to our house (known as Neptune) for after hours jams after their Boston gigs. Given that our house was right next to Amtrak and the Mass Turnpike and we could jam until the sun came up and the morning rush hour was long over, it became the place to go after shows, so lots of people showed up pretty regularly.

We were all really happy to see Phish get the success they got, they worked really hard for it and didn't squander any opportunities. It felt like a vindication of all the bands that had been underground and not gotten much respect from the music business. A lot of the things we take for granted now, like festivals (summer was actually a bit lean for touring), sharing files on the internet (let alone marketing. Our mailing list cost us $1400 a month in postage), talkbass, etc., just didn't exist, so it felt like all the bands were living very much outside the mainstream, having to create our own scene, person by person. We didn't know how many people were out there that would be into the music until we hit the road and met them all. Phish really paved the way with the clubs and fans (they hooked us up with a lot of clubs and passed on college gigs as they outgrew them) and created the bridge to the record companies, Rolling Stone magazine, airplay such as it was, and all the other aspects of the musical establishment that had long ago written off anything but music that was created as product. Even the term, jam band, had yet to exist. In the 80s and early 90s, the music business was every bit as cynical as Wall St. and they wrote us all off as being unsellable. Of course, my relationship to all that was sort of like the older brothers of my friends' relationship to the Grateful Dead back in the 60s, who were completely accessible back then and had become a largely ignored by the mainstream anachronism but with a huge following in real life that put them in a bubble by the time Phish got going. I was always jealous of the older folks hanging out with the Dead, but to them it was no big deal and they had moved on because it was such a PITA to deal with the crowds and worship of the band. So the facts for me are largely just personal things that wouldn't really mean much to anyone and aren't probably all that different from when you hang out with your music buddies. You could gain as much insight by reading great books, listening to great music, eating a great meal or looking at great art. Or bad books, music, food, art. The rest of it is just how you put those things into your music, being real and practice, practice, practice. That's what Mike did. The biggest thing I learned is that anyone you know, who is really dedicated and creative, could be standing on a big stage a few years from now. In fact, it could be you. The life you are living right now could be some kid's dream.

OK, I guess I had quite bit to say, but not much was about Mike. Or it's all about Mike. It's all the same. I guess there are more specific stories rattling around in there I coax out of the old memory, but I would run into the risk of digressing into old man, "why, when I was a kid, played 19 strings uphill both ways to school in a blizzard...hey, you kids, get offa my lawn" kind of curmudgeonry. Actually, not that I think about it, I do have something that I could share that comes with music partly composed by Mike, and includes the fellow of alternative means and others at temporary loose ends in a glorious soundscape. So, once I get it on SoundCloud, it will be a story for another time. Anyway, feel free to tell me to pipe down. It's hard to know what's interesting to other people.

[Bipslapper]

Wow! Great stuff and thanks for sharing. I'm glad I subscribed to this thread months ago.

Edwin - I first saw Phish in the early fall (September or October) of 1988 at a frat party in Amherst, MA when I was a junior at UMass. Needless to say I was blown away by this "college" band from Vermont. I was only one of a few that was appreciative of their talent and song choices - Take the A Train into Golgi Apparatus...

I even worked the keg pump for Mike when we got to the beer! He was cool when we chatted and very down to earth. I believe he was playing a Fender, as was Trey (Strat). Since then I have seen the band a bunch, but no shows compared to the Amherst College party (which was free ta boot). I even purchased my Modulus Q5 because of Mike and Oteil.

Any chance you were at this show (I know it was a long time ago........).

Thanks again for your post. Also thanks to JFMusic for the videos, those are fantastic. I am going to send them to our guitarist in the band; he loves stuff like that as well.

Cheers guys!