Pro-Shot Video: Phish Shares Wild ‘A Song I Heard The Ocean Sing’ From Sunday

Sure, Phish have loaded every night of their Baker’s Dozen residency at Madison Square Garden in New York City with adventurous jamming. Yet the spaces they explored during the wild “A Song I Heard The Ocean Sing” on Sunday were unlike any others. Today, the quartet have unveiled professionally-shot video of the MSG “ASIHTOS.”

Though Phish took “A Song I Heard The Ocean Sing” for a ride at SPAC in 2004 as the second live version of the Undermind rocker, they have generally kept within the song’s boundaries ever since. Sunday’s version went well beyond those boundaries and saw Phish present the deepest music of the run. By the time the 18-minute stunner was finished we had the longest “A Song I Heard The Ocean Sing” in the tune’s history.

Here’s how the jam was described on Phish.net’s Jam Chart:

After a nice low-key standard jam, the music dissolves into a delicate guitar scratch/minimal percussion duet, almost like King Crimson’s “Moonchild”. Page and Mike jump in and add color to the proceedings, then Page and Trey hit on a repeating pattern that reignites the jam. The band wallows in odd ’94-style atonality, weird vocals and Mike’s envelope filter and all, then a pitch-black late night groove emerges with Page’s electric piano at the forefront and Fish adding a militaristic edge. Exceptionally deep music.

Watch Phish perform “A Song I Heard The Ocean Sing” on July 30: