Month: August 2016

Waiting, Calculating – Puzzling Our Visit to Fall 1996

Okay, let’s have some fun and do a little contest thingy. I’m kind of obsessed with crossword puzzles and phish (not necessarily in that order) and I thought it would be fun to bring the two together. Note that there are old threads on .net and other places where fans have made puzzles before so this isn’t exactly new ground being covered, just my take on the idea. All of the clues for this puzzle can be figured out if you have been following along on the Fall 1996 Tour and most even without that.

 

So here’s the contest.

 

  1. Download and print out the Fall96Crossword and clues.
  2. Complete the puzzle.
  3. By the deadline (more on that below), email me your completed puzzle.
  4. I will then pick one winner at random out of all 100% correct entries as the winner

 

The prize for this little game? A gift certificate redeemable at http://www.livephish.com for one Lossless Download of the show of your choice. That’s nearly a $13 retail value! If you want the HD version the upcharge is on you, bub. I’m already giving you the lossless you should be spinning anyway.

 

The deadline for submissions will be August 25th at 11:59pm Eastern Daylight time. That way I can have the winner announced and awarded prior to the next scheduled Phish shows in case that individual wants to grab one of them. Please email your completed entry to me at typeiiijpd at the gmail place.

 

UPDATE: Apparently I cannot spell certain people’s names correctly as the answer for 51 Down is the more common but incorrect spelling of that person’s name. The correct answer would be five letters which won’t fit in that three letter slot so if you think you know it but it will not fit there’s your reason. I have it incorrect. And if it fits for you, well, that probably means you have been spelling it incorrectly all these years.

 

The downloadable versions are linked above but here is the grid and clues for reference

Fall96Crossword

crossword clues text_Page_1

crossword clues text_Page_2

Okay, got all that? Now get to it!!

I’ll Show You Mine If You Show Me Yours – My Final Fall 1996 Takeaways

Well, it has been a long and winding road to get here but today we finally get to the wrapping it up bit for our journey through the Phish Fall 1996 Tour. I have really enjoyed this entire thing and have gained an even bigger appreciation than I already had for this tour and year – and let’s face it, I was already a champion for it to begin with. We Phish fans like to throw around superlatives and proclamations about what era/year/tour/show/set/jam/run of notes is TEH BEST EVAR!!!! which gets to a whole ranking of art thing that is really not what I am about. That’s not to say that certain shows or songs don’t have versions that speak to us more directly (or more simply: that get our rocks off as hard). Personally, I find that getting too wrapped up in that way of thinking misses the point  though I understand the desire (need?) to do so. Avoiding all the obstacles that terrorize my view, I will instead give you a bit of where I am with this tour after putting in the considerable amount of time it has taken to get us here today. So without further ado, here are my personal thoughts and takeaways from this wonderfully entertaining run of thirty-five shows numbered here for list purposes but in no way ordered or ranked…

 

  1. While perhaps not as defined as other years, the prevailing sound and feel to 1996 and the Fall Tour in particular is unmistakable. This is a band in full control of their art doing what they do best while also working towards what will be perhaps the biggest evolution in their sound.
  2. If I had to give a name to the style of jamming Phish employs most regularly during this tour it would be “Percussive Groove” which is a term I have thrown into several posts. This type of jamming can but does not always include Trey hopping on the mini-kit.
  3. In this time period Phish was very open to having guests join them on stage, something they have been open about not wanting as much here and now. It doesn’t always work but sometimes it comes together in big ways resulting in unique takes on the music we know and love. And then sometimes it becomes something even more influential…
  4. The impact of Karl Perazzo’s “mini tour” with the band cannot be overstated. That first show in Tallahassee includes what I consider to be the first proto-cowfunk jam in Mike’s Song and by Coral Sky you can hear the excitement in their playing as they toy with this new found groove-based jamming. Obviously the practice and performance of Remain In Light is integral to this similar to how each Halloween album seems to fit with where the band is at that time and where they are headed.
  5. Speaking of Halloween, others have written about how covering the Talking Heads can be argued to be the most important of the costumes Phish has worn over the years in how it changed their sound. I definitely agree with this notion and all you have to do is listen to how this tour progresses to start nodding your head in support of that observation. Heck, they even as much as confirm it when talking to David Byrne himself.
  6. I’m not going to lie, I had a difficult time trimming the takeaways list down into a more manageable yet still pretty large final list. Some of this might be related to my personal preferences but I think it also speaks to just how well the band was playing throughout this tour.
  7. There is a pretty interesting argument to be made that parallels between 1996 and 2016 can be drawn. Huge high point the year prior, perceived slip “backwards” by some/many in the fanbase, notion that work on album has detracted from band’s live performances… which year am I referring to???
  8. Though I am not a ranker I do have some thoughts on end of tour awards. So here goes:
    1. My pick for Jam of the Tour goes to The Rupp Gin (11.07.1996). This multi-phased beast stands the test of time and combines all of the elements of the band in one wide-ranging piece of music.
    2. The song of the Tour is Simple. Each of the ten versions played has something worthwhile to take away (though you will see below that I did not include every one). I am very comfortable saying that this was the best tour for Simple in the band’s history. It really isn’t even close.
    3. Like Simple, a few other songs had notable highs for this tour. Disease, Hood, Reba, Mike’s, Tweezer, and even stuff like Ya Mar have multiple versions that are well worth your time. While the open psych jamming of 1995 is mostly missing on this tour where they take these songs is quite engaging and indicative of the larger points above regarding the band’s development and progression.
    4. The show of the Tour is a bit tougher to unravel. The easy answers are 10.31 (Atlanta) and 12.06 (Las Vegas) but depending on your favorite flavor of Phish I could understand arguments made for others like 11.02 (Coral Sky) or another of the PerazzoPhish shows, 11.07 (Rupp), or possibly even something like 11.15 (Kansas City) or 11.16 (Omaha). In the end you simply cannot deny the three sets of wonderful music they created on 10.31. As much as I laud 12.06 as a personal favorite that Halloween show stands out above the rest.
    5. Best sit-in of the tour is easy due to the PerazzoPhish thing but in terms of best sit-in song performance it has to be the Crosseyed from Coral Sky. I’m choosing that over perhaps one of my favorite one time covers they have ever done, The Great Curve, which should tell you something about what I think of that C&P.
    6. Biggest “holy crap I cannot believe what they just did” moment of the tour is The Note in the Omaha Hood. Just a shade under three minutes of Trey holding the sustain, egging the crowd on while the rest of the band goes off and elevates the thing to a ridiculous energy level. It might not be the objective ‘best’ Hood of the tour in a strong tour for the song but holy hell if you don’t get amped by that I’m not sure what to say.
    7. The runner up to The Note might be the wild ‘Groove Is In The Heart’ YEM from Kansas City. It wasn’t the first time they had done something like that in YEM but the way it develops explodes into that funkified dance party might just make you start laughing uncontrollably.
    8. Best bustout of the tour is All Along The Watchtower with Buddy Miles and Merl Saunders not just for the song but for the great version they played with those esteemed guests. As a reminder, do yourself the favor of watching the backstage videos that have popped up from that night. They are easily found on YouTube.
    9. Funniest on stage thing from the tour is a bit tougher to nail down simply because of the variances in what each person finds humorous. The entirety of the Harpua suite in Vegas tops the list for me but you might prefer the Fish stumbling through Bike in Lexington bit or the Mule->Catapult->Mule zaniness and that is perfectly okay.

Okay, that’s enough of that. Let’s get to the final playlist that you might have espied over there in the sidebar player.

 

I mentioned in my initial post about takeaways that I had pulled 176 tracks out as either ‘tier I’ or ‘tier II’ highlights from all of the shows for the tour. Well, as I started to go back through it I added in two more tracks to the list so it grew to 178. With this list in hand I went back and listened to every song on it again, taking notes along the way and bucketing songs into “yes” “no” and “maybe” for inclusion (or not) in the final list. After the first pass I still had 150+ tracks at either “yes” or “maybe” so I went back and cut it further to the list you will find below which comprises the 109 tracks that I feel are worthy of inclusion.

 

Before moving on I’ll just give the typical disclaimer that given 99 Phish fans there would be 99 different lists because we all listen to the same shows but hear the music differently based on where we come from, how that shapes us as listeners, and where we are in that moment. There should be no judgement of a person’s personal take on the music and no proclamations of certainty with respect to this art as both reactions serve nothing but the selfish aims of the judge and/or proclaimer. Trying to make objective claims about the subjective is fruitless and undermines our ability to find connection with others in discussing this wonderful music. You may not agree with what I value in this art and I may not agree with you but the fact that we are both engaged by it should be the basis for finding ways to engage with each other.

 

Okay, we good? Here’s my list with the scribblings I put for each just so you can see some of how I got to where I am on these.

fall 96 takeaways_Page_1fall 96 takeaways_Page_2fall 96 takeaways_Page_3

It’s a big list, I won’t lie. And there are several songs for which I included multiple versions for one reason or another. But this list to me gives you a good glimpse of what Fall 1996 Phish was all about from the big jams to the sit-ins to the bustouts to the crisply played standard stuff and beyond. If you are interested in listening to this outside of the player on this site I have uploaded it for you to take away yourself. Note please that I have included my spreadsheet of the culling for your referral and potential amusement in getting into my head on this. The two files break down such that PH.Fall96.Final.1.zip has everything through Sat. Louis (and includes the spreadsheet) while PH.Fall96.Final.2.zip has the rest of the tour starting in Omaha. All of the tracks here are mp3 auds from the sources on The Spreadsheet but if you like what you hear and are itching for sbds there are a few shows from this tour available for purchase at www.livephish.com, namely 10.31.1996, 11.02.1996, 11.07.96, and 12.06.1996. If you do grab the mp3 files linked here please note that there are a couple with id tagging errors due to where I pulled them from. This includes the two tracks from 11.03.1996 Gainesville not having any band/album info included and the 11.16.1996 Kansas City tracks being tagged as Nashville, TN for some reason.

 

Fall 1996 1 (Lake Placid through St. Louis)

Fall 1996 2 (Omaha through Las Vegas)

 

So there you have it! I’d love to hear what others took away from this tour so please feel welcome to comment here as I am certain that my musings on this tour are far from the only opinions out there.

 

I have one last Fall 1996 thing to post once I have it ready but that’s for another day. I’ll tease you by saying it is contest with a real live prize and everything but in order to win you will need to know your stuff about this tour. Start studying!

All The Times I Raise My Cup – The Fall 1996 Tour Stats

One of the complete Phish nerd things that I love about this band is how detailed we are able to get in breaking down their tours, shows, sets, songs, and more. To some people this is not something they even think about with Phish as they enjoy the music in the moment and move on to whatever is the next thing along the path of their life. But for some of us the deep dives into the minutiae of bustouts, setlist construction, gap charts, opener/closer/encore trends, and more is exciting in its own way. And with the assistance of wonderful fan-made tools like Phish Stats or My Numberline figuring out how many times you saw them on Mondays, for example, is now so much simpler (note that both of those resources are best used in conjunction with a completed show attendance profile at phish.net). These tools are also great for breaking down the nitty gritty that make up the patterns and trends of the band over the course of a particular tour. Some will tell you that this type of analysis is missing out on the point with Phish but I’d argue that for me it has fostered an even deeper awe and appreciation for what it is that they do. When you consider that the band has now played something like 1,568 shows (give or take) there is wonder to be found in the details of it all. We all know that this is a band that seemingly likes to do the unexpected but the more you get into it the more it becomes clear that there are methods to the seeming madness. It may not be how every fan enjoys their Phish but for me it is another layer to peel back on this weird onion we cannot stop following.

 

So let’s get to gettin’, eh?

 

As mentioned in previous posts, this tour was made up of 35 shows over the course of 51 days. I’ve mentioned the vast distance this tour covered in that time with the band, crew, and touring fans covering a ridiculous 13,000 miles. That’s over 250 miles per day which works out to an average of about four hours of driving for each day of this tour. With only one venue seeing a two night stand (MSG) and a few big long hauls in there (KC to Spokane being the biggest single trek) it is a good thing that gas prices were so low in the U S of A at that time (though it should be noted that by the Fall gas prices were up close to 15% over where they were when the year started). But we don’t worry about the mileage we are putting on the VW bus or Subaru wagon or trusty old mom mobile we borrowed that we rely on to make our way around the country when following this band. It is just a part of the bigger thing, ain’t it? There is no set pattern to what nights the band played along the Fall 1996 path or at least a lot less rhyme and reason to it as we see today with the multi-night stands, 3-4 show weekend runs, and regular off days on the typical midweek lesser-attended nights like Mondays and Tuesdays. Sure, Friday and Saturday each got seven shows to tie for the lead but Wednesday of all nights sits alone in second with six. The majority of the shows occurred in November (19) but that’s more a matter of when the tour dates fell since it started midway through October and only went a few days into December. The shows took place in 21 states and one Canadian province with just over half being in the Eastern time zone. As stated above, New York and MSG is the only repeat venue for the tour – a tour that has fifteen venues unique to it.

 

The band played 707 total songs which means you had to travel about 18 miles for every song performed. I’m really going to run that distance traveled thing into the ground here if I keep this up. Those 707 songs included 141 unique tunes with each song averaging almost five performances for the tour and 34 being singular performances. The tour average for songs played was 20.0 each night which falls somewhere in the middle of the averages for that though higher than the full year average for 1996 (18). In terms of most frequently played songs, we kept track as we went so it isn’t much of a surprise to see Taste (19 shows) and Zero (18) way ahead of the pack here as the next highest played is thirteen for CTB, CDT, and Sample. The Top Ten is rounded out by the five song tie up for sixth place at twelve times: Disease, Sparkle, Steep, Swept Away, and YEM. With three songs having been played eleven times (Caspian, Theme, Waste) and a whopping nine having been played ten times (Bouncin’, Free, Julius, Poor Heart, Reba, Simple, Stash, Suzy, Train Song) that gives us 22 songs that were played ten or more times this tour. That obviously skews the averages for frequency.

 

Openers, closers, and encores were a lot tougher to gauge though as only three songs opened more than two shows: CDT (4), Jim (4), and MFMF (3). Similarly, only four songs closed first sets that often: Zero (5), Lope (4), Bowie (3), and Frankenstein (3). Second sets were not much different either as only three songs opened second sets more than twice: 2001 (5), Disease (3), and Wilson (3); second set closers were also quite scattered with only three over the two time threshold: Hood (4), Paug (4), and HMB (3). For encores, removing the cut up Harpua from Vegas that shows up as number one (I know it is a small glitch but it annoys me that the song count is correct on ihoz and .net for songs like this but not for the opener/closer/encore slotting) there are only five songs that fell here more than twice:  Waste (4), Fire (3), Funky Bitch (3), GTBT (3), and Julius (3). In terms of those weird setlist oddities we have a few including I Am Hydrogen (330 total performances), My Sweet One (242), Landlady (210), Oh Kee Pa (214), and DaaM (147) all NOT appearing the whole tour. Of those songs only Dinner and a Movie has been played in less than 10% of all Phish shows and even that one is pretty close at just under 9.5%. The then recently released Billy Breathes tracks make up the entirety of the ‘overplayed’ list as the band was obviously featuring these new tunes and new arrangements of older ones — with the exception of Free (cuz it just gets played a lot), Talk (thankfully), and Bliss (which has still never been performed live). Thirteen songs played on this tour have at least 50% of their total performances here as the Halloween debut of Remain In Light brought Born Under Punches, Houses in Motion, Listening Wind, Seen and Not Seen, The Great Curve, and The Overload for their only appearances and Once in a Lifetime for what was its singular appearance until the not-quite-nailed-but-greatly-appreciated bustout of it on 09.06.2015 as part of the meaningful “THANK YOU” encore. Others in this group include the singular debut covers of I Want To Be A Cowboy’s Sweetheart and Wildwood Weed in Vegas, Mean Mr. Mustard during the M Set (and as a hilarious intro for the Jon Popper sit-in), and Midnight on the Highway (the Tim O’Brien cover to nod to their fun with the border patrol in canada) as well as the last time they have played All Along The Watchtower and the first time they would play We’re An American Band. Tied to this ‘50%’ stat there were 16 songs debuted this tour including all of the tracks on  Remain in Light, Swept Away, Steep, The Star Spangled Banner, Mean Mr. Mustard, We’re An American Band, Midnight On The Highway, and those two from Vegas.

 

Even with the relative frequency of some of the songs played this tour there were many notable gaps broken as Phish mixed in bustouts of tunes along the way. The covers of All Along the Watchtower at MSG and Sweet Emotion (jam) in Seattle came in at the top with 227 and 237 shows respectively. Other ones over the 110 show gap mark include Axilla (170) and ATR (107) in Champaign, Sparks (173) in Daly City, Peaches (144) in Los Angeles, the Vibe of Life (148) in Kansas City, and Ginseng Sullivan (103) at MSG. Phish also threw in some more ‘minor’ bustouts along the way with the 50+ show group including JJLC (76) on Halloween, Wedge (70) with Perazzo in Tallahassee, Bold as Love (67) for Jimi’s birthday in Seattle, Catapult (57) and Carolina (64) in North Charleston, Demand (64) as one of the few highlights of that Ames show, and La Grange (56) and Kung (55) as part of that wild second set from Omaha. Not a bad tour for the bustouts unless you compare it to, say, Summer 2016 which was just chock full of some massive ones.

 

Lastly, this tour was a good one for those who like to see people sit in with Phish. That is not necessarily something we expect these days particularly considering the band’s openness about wanting to keep it just the four of them. All told there are XXX shows where at least one person joined the band for a song with a total of XXX songs that have guest musicians lending a hand. Those sit-ins include:

10.22.1996  The Freakapaug, Watchtower – circus dancers and Mimi Fishman adding to the visual element with costumes and improv dancing for a wild Paug and then legends Buddy Miles and Merl Saunders come out for a wonderful All Along the Watchtower

10.23.1996 Entire 2nd set plus encore – Bob Gullotti on a 2nd drum kit

10.29.1996 Entire show – Karl Perazzo debuts on percussion for, well, the entire thing

10.31.1996 Entire 2nd and 3rd sets plus encore – Karl Perazzo on percussion, Dave Grippo on saxaphone, Gary Gazaway (El Buho) on trumpet)

11.02.1996 Entire show – Karl Perazzo continues his Phish run on percussion throughout with the exception of the Adeline closer

11.03.1996 Entire show – Karl Perazzo’s run as the fifth member of the band ends with another full show sit-in

11.15.1996 Paug, Funky Bitch – old friend of the band Jon Popper lends some of his trademarked harmonica to the closer and encore

11.18.1996 Back half of 2nd set plus encore – Gary Gazaway (El Buho) comes back for another go on Tweezer, HMB, Reprise, Llama, and the JBG encore

11.30.1996 Two songs in the 1st and the back half of 2nd set plus encore – John McEuen comes out for a couple of bluegrass numbers in the first set (OHP, Uncle Pen), Peter Apfelbaum joins for Timber Ho!>Taste, and Funky Bitch, and then both play on the Amazing Grace (jam) closer and Possum encore

12.06.1996 Encore – In the midst of a Vegas-sized Harpua tale Les Claypool and Larry LaLonde of Primus, the Yodeling Cowgirls, and several Elvii make this encore one for the ages

I’m certain there are more ways to break down this tour statistically but for our purposes that gets about to the root of it all. I know this isn’t exactly everyone’s cup of tea when it comes to Phish (let’s just say my wife’s eyes immediately roll into the back of her head when I start in with the stats stuff) but I find it interesting and think that it all helps to paint a better picture of what went down.

 

Next up are our “superlatives” and the list/download of all the final takeaways from this unheralded yet quite fantastic tour. Time to give the calculators and spreadsheets a little rest…

A Taste of Her Creation – The Base Takeaway Lists for Fall 1996

Now that we have finished working through the Fall 1996 Tour in total we can start diving in a bit deeper to pull out the true highlight moments from the shows. As we have gone along I have been adding all of the ‘takeaway’ highlights that I note for each show to the music player in the left sidebar. As the tour progressed that list became quite large, eventually including some 176 tracks or about 180 songs if you were to pull apart the tracks that have more than one song in them as well as to put the ‘jam’ tracks back in with the songs that precede them. Now, I’m a pretty gracious guy but that’s a playlist that is unwieldy even for the most dedicated listener to digest in a reasonable amount of time. I mean, it comes out to something like 35 hours of music for Icculus’ sake! Who could possibly listen to that much Phish? Don’t answer that.

 

Well, I am here to help you wade through the giant morass that I have created. The first step is breaking down the list into more manageable chunks. This says nothing about the relative subjective quality of the music to a particular listener as it is only one fan (me) putting their opinion to it. These are not rankings and they are not value judgments that diminish the in-house experience one may have had. Quite simply, it is just how I have categorized them after listening to each show multiple times and then this list again more than once and putting whatever form of order that I can without getting too persnickety and analytical about the whole thing. I would expect that pretty much every other fan’s list would be at least slightly different but that will lead into the big philosophical discussion we don’t need to have since we are all adults here (kind of) and can understand how this all works (aside:  Heraclitus 4 lyphe yo!). That being said, here’s a couple of (rhetorical) quandaries I pondered while doing this…

  • what makes one ‘type I’ version of a song better than another? Is it the number of notes Trey plays? The interaction with the crowd? Something else more abstract?
  • Is it possible that every single Simple and maybe even Disease from this tour could be included? I mean, is there a point at which too much of a certain type of goodness becomes TOO MUCH?
  • Is there more value in a quick funk vamp jam than in something more old school simply because it is something they hadn’t shown us previously?
  • How the heck do you pick which of all of these wonderful Hoods to include?
  • Does anything that has a sit-in deserve to be included or just the really big stuff?
  • How long of a list is too long?
  • Am I overthinking this?

You know, that kind of stuff. But before we get to that level let’s look at the raw lists which can be listened to over there to the left if you want. Just don’t dilly dally as I will be updating the playlist to be the final ‘top takeaways’ once I have completed that whole thing. You have been warned! These lists are chronological so don’t be coming at me with any of that rankings bullshit. And in case you are wondering, the playlist is chronological with the tier one first followed by any tier two for each night, respectively.

 

Fall 1996 Tour – Raw “Tier One” Takeaways

Song Date Venue City
Down with Disease 10/16/1996 Olympic Center Lake Placid, NY
Simple 10/16/1996 Olympic Center Lake Placid, NY
Scent of a Mule 10/17/1996 Bruce Jordan Center, PSU State College, PA
David Bowie 10/17/1996 Bruce Jordan Center, PSU State College, PA
Maze 10/18/1996 Civic Arena Pittsburgh, PA
You Enjoy Myself 10/18/1996 Civic Arena Pittsburgh, PA
Reba 10/18/1996 Civic Arena Pittsburgh, PA
Down with Disease 10/19/1996 Marine Midland Arena Buffalo, NY
Split Open and Melt 10/19/1996 Marine Midland Arena Buffalo, NY
Reba 10/21/1996 Madison Square Garden New York, NY
Simple 10/21/1996 Madison Square Garden New York, NY
Split Open and Melt 10/22/1996 Madison Square Garden New York, NY
Down with Disease 10/22/1996 Madison Square Garden New York, NY
Weekapaug Groove 10/22/1996 Madison Square Garden New York, NY
All Along the Watchtower 10/22/1996 Madison Square Garden New York, NY
Ya Mar 10/23/1996 Hartford Civic Center Hartford, CT
Tweezer 10/23/1996 Hartford Civic Center Hartford, CT
The Squirming Coil 10/25/1996 Hampton Coliseum Hampton, VA
Harry Hood 10/25/1996 Hampton Coliseum Hampton, VA
Reba 10/26/1996 Charlotte Coliseum Charlotte, NC
It’s Ice 10/26/1996 Charlotte Coliseum Charlotte, NC
Simple 10/26/1996 Charlotte Coliseum Charlotte, NC
Scent of a Mule 10/27/1996 North Charleston Coliseum North Charleston, SC
Catapult 10/27/1996 North Charleston Coliseum North Charleston, SC
Scent of a Mule 10/27/1996 North Charleston Coliseum North Charleston, SC
Split Open and Melt 10/27/1996 North Charleston Coliseum North Charleston, SC
Taste 10/27/1996 North Charleston Coliseum North Charleston, SC
Taste 10/29/1996 Leon County Civic Center Tallahassee, FL
Stash 10/29/1996 Leon County Civic Center Tallahassee, FL
Rift 10/29/1996 Leon County Civic Center Tallahassee, FL
Mike’s Song 10/29/1996 Leon County Civic Center Tallahassee, FL
Down with Disease 10/31/1996 The Omni Atlanta, GA
Reba 10/31/1996 The Omni Atlanta, GA
Crosseyed and Painless 10/31/1996 The Omni Atlanta, GA
The Great Curve 10/31/1996 The Omni Atlanta, GA
Simple 10/31/1996 The Omni Atlanta, GA
Suzy Greenberg 10/31/1996 The Omni Atlanta, GA
Ya Mar 11/2/1996 Coral Sky Ampitheater West Palm Beach, FL
Crosseyed and Painless 11/2/1996 Coral Sky Ampitheater West Palm Beach, FL
Run Like an Antelope 11/2/1996 Coral Sky Ampitheater West Palm Beach, FL
Harry Hood 11/2/1996 Coral Sky Ampitheater West Palm Beach, FL
Divided Sky 11/3/1996 O’Connell Center, UF Gainesville, FL
Tweezer 11/3/1996 O’Connell Center, UF Gainesville, FL
Mike’s Song 11/6/1996 Knoxville Civic Coliseum Knoxville, TN
Jam 11/6/1996 Knoxville Civic Coliseum Knoxville, TN
Suzy Greenberg 11/7/1996 Rupp Arena, UK Lexington, KY
Bathtub Gin 11/7/1996 Rupp Arena, UK Lexington, KY
Hold Your Head Up > Bike > Hold Your Head Up 11/7/1996 Rupp Arena, UK Lexington, KY
You Enjoy Myself 11/7/1996 Rupp Arena, UK Lexington, KY
Reba 11/8/1996 Assembly Hall, UI Champaign, IL
Maze 11/8/1996 Assembly Hall, UI Champaign, IL
Simple 11/8/1996 Assembly Hall, UI Champaign, IL
Mike’s Song 11/8/1996 Assembly Hall, UI Champaign, IL
You Enjoy Myself 11/9/1996 Palace of Auburn Hills Auburn Hills, MI
Harry Hood 11/9/1996 Palace of Auburn Hills Auburn Hills, MI
Divided Sky 11/11/1996 Van Andel Arena Grand Rapids, MI
Tweezer 11/11/1996 Van Andel Arena Grand Rapids, MI
Suzy Greenberg 11/13/1996 Target Center Minneapolis, MN
Julius 11/14/1996 Hilton Coliseum Ames, IA
Makisupa Policeman 11/15/1996 Keil Center St. Louis, MO
Maze 11/15/1996 Keil Center St. Louis, MO
Mike’s Song 11/15/1996 Keil Center St. Louis, MO
Mean Mr. Mustard 11/15/1996 Keil Center St. Louis, MO
Weekapaug Groove 11/15/1996 Keil Center St. Louis, MO
Funky Bitch 11/15/1996 Keil Center St. Louis, MO
David Bowie 11/16/1996 Civic Auditorium Omaha, NE
Runaway Jim 11/16/1996 Civic Auditorium Omaha, NE
Harry Hood 11/16/1996 Civic Auditorium Omaha, NE
Chalk Dust Torture 11/18/1996 Mid-South Coliseum Memphis, TN
Reba 11/18/1996 Mid-South Coliseum Memphis, TN
Also Sprach Zarathustra 11/18/1996 Mid-South Coliseum Memphis, TN
Simple 11/18/1996 Mid-South Coliseum Memphis, TN
Scent of a Mule 11/18/1996 Mid-South Coliseum Memphis, TN
David Bowie 11/19/1996 Municipal Auditorium Kansas City, MO
Bathtub Gin 11/19/1996 Municipal Auditorium Kansas City, MO
The Vibration of Life 11/19/1996 Municipal Auditorium Kansas City, MO
You Enjoy Myself 11/19/1996 Municipal Auditorium Kansas City, MO
Theme From the Bottom 11/22/1996 Spokane Arena Spokane, WA
Split Open and Melt 11/23/1996 Pacifc Coliseum Vancouver, BC
Mike’s Song 11/23/1996 Pacifc Coliseum Vancouver, BC
Simple 11/23/1996 Pacifc Coliseum Vancouver, BC
Axilla 11/23/1996 Pacifc Coliseum Vancouver, BC
Weekapaug Groove 11/23/1996 Pacifc Coliseum Vancouver, BC
Harry Hood 11/23/1996 Pacifc Coliseum Vancouver, BC
Reba 11/24/1996 Memorial Coliseum Portland, OR
Also Sprach Zarathustra 11/24/1996 Memorial Coliseum Portland, OR
David Bowie 11/24/1996 Memorial Coliseum Portland, OR
Character Zero 11/24/1996 Memorial Coliseum Portland, OR
Down with Disease 11/27/1996 Key Arena Seattle, WA
Tweezer > Sweet Emotion 11/27/1996 Key Arena Seattle, WA
Down with Disease 11/27/1996 Key Arena Seattle, WA
Maze 11/29/1996 Cow Palace Daly City, CA
Simple 11/29/1996 Cow Palace Daly City, CA
Sparks 11/29/1996 Cow Palace Daly City, CA
You Enjoy Myself 11/29/1996 Cow Palace Daly City, CA
Punch You In the Eye 11/30/1996 ARCO Arena Sacramento, CA
It’s Ice 11/30/1996 ARCO Arena Sacramento, CA
Also Sprach Zarathustra 11/30/1996 ARCO Arena Sacramento, CA
Timber (Jerry) 11/30/1996 ARCO Arena Sacramento, CA
Taste 11/30/1996 ARCO Arena Sacramento, CA
Funky Bitch 11/30/1996 ARCO Arena Sacramento, CA
Amazing Grace 11/30/1996 ARCO Arena Sacramento, CA
Possum 11/30/1996 ARCO Arena Sacramento, CA
Tweezer 12/1/1996 Pauley Pavilion, UCLA Los Angeles, CA
Simple 12/1/1996 Pauley Pavilion, UCLA Los Angeles, CA
A Day in the Life 12/1/1996 Pauley Pavilion, UCLA Los Angeles, CA
Reba 12/1/1996 Pauley Pavilion, UCLA Los Angeles, CA
Ya Mar 12/2/1996 America West Arena Phoenix, AZ
Taste 12/2/1996 America West Arena Phoenix, AZ
Harry Hood 12/2/1996 America West Arena Phoenix, AZ
Mike’s Song 12/4/1996 Sports Arena San Diego, CA
Jesus Just Left Chicago 12/4/1996 Sports Arena San Diego, CA
Also Sprach Zarathustra 12/6/1996 The Alladian Theatre Las Vegas, NV
You Enjoy Myself 12/6/1996 The Alladian Theatre Las Vegas, NV
Down with Disease 12/6/1996 The Alladian Theatre Las Vegas, NV
Julius 12/6/1996 The Alladian Theatre Las Vegas, NV
Mike’s Song 12/6/1996 The Alladian Theatre Las Vegas, NV
Simple > Jam 12/6/1996 The Alladian Theatre Las Vegas, NV
Harry Hood 12/6/1996 The Alladian Theatre Las Vegas, NV
Weekapaug Groove 12/6/1996 The Alladian Theatre Las Vegas, NV
Harpua > Wildwood Weed > Harpua > I Want To Be a Cowboy’s Sweetheart > Harpua 12/6/1996 The Alladian Theatre Las Vegas, NV
Harpua 12/6/1996 The Alladian Theatre Las Vegas, NV
Suzy Greenberg 12/6/1996 The Alladian Theatre Las Vegas, NV

 

Fall 1996 Tour – Raw “Tier Two” Takeaways

Song Date Venue City
Swept Away > Steep 10/16/1996 Olympic Center Lake Placid, NY
Stash 10/18/1996 Civic Arena Pittsburgh, PA
Divided Sky 10/18/1996 Civic Arena Pittsburgh, PA
Harry Hood 10/18/1996 Civic Arena Pittsburgh, PA
Julius 10/18/1996 Civic Arena Pittsburgh, PA
Free 10/19/1996 Marine Midland Arena Buffalo, NY
AC/DC Bag 10/19/1996 Marine Midland Arena Buffalo, NY
Stash 10/21/1996 Madison Square Garden New York, NY
Runaway Jim 10/22/1996 Madison Square Garden New York, NY
Theme From the Bottom 10/23/1996 Hartford Civic Center Hartford, CT
Down with Disease 10/26/1996 Charlotte Coliseum Charlotte, NC
You Enjoy Myself 10/26/1996 Charlotte Coliseum Charlotte, NC
Ya Mar 10/27/1996 North Charleston Coliseum North Charleston, SC
David Bowie 10/29/1996 Leon County Civic Center Tallahassee, FL
Colonel Forbin’s Ascent 10/31/1996 The Omni Atlanta, GA
Fly Famous Mockingbird 10/31/1996 The Omni Atlanta, GA
Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On) 10/31/1996 The Omni Atlanta, GA
Listening Wind 10/31/1996 The Omni Atlanta, GA
Prince Caspian 10/31/1996 The Omni Atlanta, GA
Julius 11/2/1996 Coral Sky Ampitheater West Palm Beach, FL
Free 11/2/1996 Coral Sky Ampitheater West Palm Beach, FL
Funky Bitch 11/2/1996 Coral Sky Ampitheater West Palm Beach, FL
Possum 11/3/1996 O’Connell Center, UF Gainesville, FL
Split Open and Melt 11/6/1996 Knoxville Civic Coliseum Knoxville, TN
Weekapaug Groove 11/6/1996 Knoxville Civic Coliseum Knoxville, TN
Gumbo 11/11/1996 Van Andel Arena Grand Rapids, MI
Reba 11/13/1996 Target Center Minneapolis, MN
Cars Trucks Buses 11/14/1996 Hilton Coliseum Ames, IA
Demand 11/14/1996 Hilton Coliseum Ames, IA
McGrupp and the Watchful Hosemasters 11/15/1996 Keil Center St. Louis, MO
La Grange 11/16/1996 Civic Auditorium Omaha, NE
We’re an American Band 11/16/1996 Civic Auditorium Omaha, NE
Tweezer 11/18/1996 Mid-South Coliseum Memphis, TN
Tweezer Reprise 11/18/1996 Mid-South Coliseum Memphis, TN
Llama 11/18/1996 Mid-South Coliseum Memphis, TN
Stash 11/19/1996 Municipal Auditorium Kansas City, MO
Taste 11/19/1996 Municipal Auditorium Kansas City, MO
Stash 11/22/1996 Spokane Arena Spokane, WA
Down with Disease 11/22/1996 Spokane Arena Spokane, WA
Midnight on the Highway 11/23/1996 Pacifc Coliseum Vancouver, BC
You Enjoy Myself 11/24/1996 Memorial Coliseum Portland, OR
AC/DC Bag 11/24/1996 Memorial Coliseum Portland, OR
Theme From the Bottom 11/27/1996 Key Arena Seattle, WA
Harry Hood 11/29/1996 Cow Palace Daly City, CA
Taste 11/29/1996 Cow Palace Daly City, CA
The Old Home Place 11/30/1996 ARCO Arena Sacramento, CA
Uncle Pen 11/30/1996 ARCO Arena Sacramento, CA
La Grange 11/30/1996 ARCO Arena Sacramento, CA
Down with Disease 12/1/1996 Pauley Pavilion, UCLA Los Angeles, CA
Divided Sky 12/2/1996 America West Arena Phoenix, AZ
Free 12/2/1996 America West Arena Phoenix, AZ
David Bowie 12/4/1996 Sports Arena San Diego, CA
Reba 12/4/1996 Sports Arena San Diego, CA

 

SEE??? I told you the lists were massive. I listen to a lot of Phish – I mean A LOT OF PHISH – but even for me that is a tad much. So stay tuned because I’ll have a revised list of just the tippety top highlights for you to take away here in our next posting. Plus we need to go through the end of tour stats too because that is always quite entertaining and educational as well… But for now? Go get ’em, tiger!