I think the Breakfast\'s vocals are an opportunity for improvement, but still they\'re usually at least OK and at times very good. But this show was especially tough vocally...I\'m not sure why that happened. Tim and Ron have come really, really far with their vocals over the years though. Listen to any tape from 98-00 and you\'ll see what I mean. Tim\'s solo shows have helped him along and Ron has gone from little singing ability back in the day to really good in his parts. We\'ve heard The Breakfast sound great vocally plenty of times doing all their songs, including heavy vocal arrangement tunes like Beauty Sleep, Episode 2, Vera Street, and Overexposure to name a few. It just didn\'t really happen at this show, which is too bad because it\'s heavily circulated. However, The Breakfast do have complex and meaningful vocal arrangements throughout their catalogue that they usually nail pretty well.
As for Phish...they were tough at first but if we\'re talking say maybe 1995 and later, they\'re so good vocally that it\'s easy to fall into the trap of thinking they\'re bad if they happened to be less than perfect. I\'m not saying Trey is Marvin Gaye up there but they hit everything and they had more complexity, originality, and difficulty in their vocal arrangements than most bands have in their entire songs. And they\'re up there hitting them every night so consistently that you stop thinking about it and take it for granted. How many Phish songs should I name that have crazy vocal parts that they would nail every time and you could just forget how good they are? Split Open and Melt, Theme From The Bottom, I Didn\'t Know, Halley\'s Comet, Geulah Papyrus, It\'s Ice, Character Zero, The Curtain, Famous Mockingbird, Vultures, Mound to name a few...these are insane vocal tunes. And sure Phish weren\'t The Platters either, but for some emotion how about Trey on When The Circus Comes to Town, or Page on Velvet Sea and Strange Design, or everyone on Roggae or Hello My Baby? Phish could sing, don\'t forget it!
