An ixi-style read of the improv window, 7:40 to 12:10, after the sung section drops away. This is a two-player conversation, Trey leading and Mike steering the floor, since Carini's stems never separated the keys or drums. The jam enters on the dominant pole, settles into a bright D major, then collides Mike's flat third against Trey's major third right at the crest. Every claim traces to a per-stem chroma and spectral-flux pass over the bass and guitar. The staves are transcribed off the stems with librosa pyin. The entry and the lock track both voices, Trey above Mike's D pedal. On the build and the crest only Trey's guitar pitch-tracked cleanly, so those show his line alone, and the F-natural against F-sharp blues rub sits right there in his crest bar.
Carini (jam peak, 7:40 to 12:10) — Phish · 2025-04-22 Bill Graham Civic, San Francisco
D major · entering on the fifth (7:40 to 8:47) · the bass circles A before it commits home
Mike opens with the bass parked on A, the fifth of the eventual key, not the root. The note field across his bass and Trey's guitar reads A, E, C#, and F#, the upper structure of a D major already implied while the floor sits a fifth above it. The detected key over the whole window is D major at high confidence, and this opening hangs on its dominant pole, the harmony leaning forward, waiting to drop to the root. Trey circles A and F# while Mike holds the lean.
favorite momentThe whole opening balanced on A, the fifth standing in for home, the resolution to D felt before it ever arrives.
D major · the lock (8:47 to 9:55) · the bass drops to D and the triad rings clean
Mike drops to D and the key snaps into focus. The bass field is D, C#, E, and the guitar leads D, A, F#, the full D major triad stated plainly, with the C# major seventh brushing through. This is the brightest and most stable stretch of the window, the lean of the opening released into a clean major key. The guitar rides the root with the F# third singing on top, full daylight after the suspended start.
D major with the 4th · the build (9:55 to 11:02) · G colors the major and the energy climbs
Mike stays rooted on D. Trey's field shifts to F#, D, A, and G, the fourth degree now coloring the major, a Lydian brightness pulling at the top of the chord. The F# major third stays prominent, Trey's lines getting busier as the dynamics build. Mike holds D with E close behind, the floor steady while the activity above it thickens, the jam pushing toward its crest without changing home.
the blues-third rub · the crest (11:02 to 12:10) · bass F natural against guitar F sharp
The densest stretch, and the ixi payoff, and it lands as a two-player collision. Mike slides the bass to F natural, the flat third, while Trey keeps F sharp, the major third, sounding above it. The two thirds ring at the same time, the blues third rubbing against the major, with a C natural flat seventh added to the stack. The bright D major of the lock turns gritty and ambiguous right at the peak, Mike's minor color and Trey's major color held together rather than resolved. The jam rides out on that grind, the clean tonic the lock promised pulled back out of reach.
favorite momentThe bass dropping to F natural under the guitar's F sharp at the crest, the flat third and the major third grinding together, the brightness of the lock soured into the blues right at the loudest point.
Carini's stem set carries bass, guitar, and vocals only, with no separated keys or drums lanes, so this is a two-player reading, Mike and Trey, with Page and Fishman left unread. Lead and activity come from a per-stem spectral-flux pass, Trey out front the whole window. Window chosen by the lowest-vocal, highest-instrumental stretch, the improv after the sung head.