I, like RMD was at the Tucson show this past monday but have a considerbly different opinion.
I left the theatre, what I can best describe as "sad". Sad in the same way I felt watching Arnold Palmer shortly before he totally retired from golf - we in the crowd loved to see this legend on the course but we we not watching his golf.
Seemed like this was the same for me at the Tucson show - it was thrilling to be in the crowd but his voice is only a shell of it's former self. What was once powerful and melodious is now thin and reedy. Seems to me that an epic song like "The Wreck" requires a strong voice and it just wasn't there. Some other songs were OK but the high notes are gone.
The banter with the audience was also un-audible - and i was only 12 rows back. It was so poor that we in my general vacinity were convinced that the technicians had turned down his mik. The volume just wasn't there and his voice seemed to crack frequently. (The producer who came on stage before the performance was loud and clear - couldn't have been a technical problem.)
So, when I return home I'm going to put the "Reno Live" DVD on the wide screen with surround sound and try to keep the voice and performance of one of the greatest composers of our time as I'd like to remember him.
with the greatest of repect,
phish
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