Yet another Phish 3D review.
If you know me well enough, then you have heard me talk about this band Phish on a quite frequent basis. I have seen them live in concert 20 times. Therefore, my experience of this movie is that of a fan.
Phish 3D is a concert film shot in 3D at the band’s “Festival 8” event from Halloween Weekend, 2009. Over 3 days, the band played 8 sets, including their tradition of covering a classic rock album in its entirety on Halloween night (The Rolling Stones “Exile on Main St.”). One of the sets was a Sunday afternoon performance, where Phish played their first ever full length acoustic set.
And, oh yeah, I went to this festival, which was in Indio, CA, site of the Coachella festival. I flew into Las Vegas and took an RV with some cool people I met on Twitter, through the social group service Twibes. I went to see Phish 3D on a Sunday night in NJ with 3 others from the RV trip. And honestly, that was the highlight of the film.
With 16 hours of concert footage shot in 3D, to be cut down to a 2 1/2 hour movie, I think they made a few good choices and bad choices. The biggest glaring omission from the film was the 1st song from the festival “Party Time”. It set up the entire festival, and everyone was singing the song’s only 2 words throughout the weekend. Outside of that, my personal musical highlights made it to the set. It was odd, though, that most songs were not presented in the order that they were played.
My biggest complaint is the 3D. I was expecting an HD video-like experience, with things popping out in 3D. I wanted to feel that it was like a live simulcast of the concert. Instead, it looked in 35MM film. It was something that was not live, which made the 3D effects seem cloudy, like it was smoke and mirrors and not feeling like I, as an audience member, was actually there. This is a film I would have loved to see in 2D, and I hope I get that chance (or please, the entire festival) on DVD.
All in all, I am happy that this movie was made, and I got to see it with friends who I went to the show with. The movie is called “Phish 3D” and not “Phish Festival 8”. I acknowledge that the focus of the movie is live performances and where and how it happened, but I was there and proud that I concert that I went to was released in theatres!
