Author: TIIIJPD

Mixed In With The Signal You’re Sending — Winston-Salem, NC 11.19.1998

Phish — LJVM Coliseum — Winston-Salem, NC 11.19.1998

I  Cities, Curtain>Sample, Ginseng, Bouncin’, Maze, Something, Ghost>Golgi

II  2001>RnR->Taste, Frankie Says, Gumbo->CDT, Frankenstein, Been Caught Stealing

E  YEM

Heading out of South Carolina on their way northeast towards the final batch of shows on this Fall tour, Phish made a one night stop in Winston-Salem to visit a venue (for the last time, sadly) that seemingly always ended up having a strong outing by the band. The first of these back in Spring 1994 is probably most notable for the Mike’s Song and Possum along with a sit-in for the encore by that night’s opening band (yes, once upon a time you could sometimes get an opening act with this band). The opener that night happened to be the then up and coming Dave Matthews Band (back when Phish was a much bigger act and DMB was still something of a real live jamband) and that encore goes Drums->Jam->Watchtower which is something to hear if you haven’t before. The next year they came back in the Fall and laid waste to the venue with a massive show highlighted by the 2nd set opening sequence of Simple->Bowie->Take Me to the River->Bowie. This is the band at one of their peaks as they were about to head into what would become one of the more storied months in their history December 1995. Two years later they again visited this venue on another highly lauded tour (and following the legendary Hampton run) for a show big on the cowfunk and jams. Everything cooks in that one as well but the Gin->Disease->Low Rider->Disease that makes up the bulk of the second set is master class Phish (though skip the first set Theme>BEK and Stash->NICU at your peril). With all of that history as set up, hopes were undoubtedly high for Phish to drop yet another classic on the North Carolina faithful.

The show opens in a promising manner as they pulled out Cities for the first time this tour. While this one does not elevate to epic status it does its job in warming everyone up and getting the funk going before they wrap it up and play another tour debut in The Curtain. At this time we were still firmly in the “without” period for the song as the bustout and eventual re-normalling of The Curtain (With) would not occur until 07.12.2000. So in 1998 we would be thinking about what the song would open the door for instead of whether it would be “with” or “without” considering that over the years The Curtain has been a kick start to numerous sets and the door opener for many big versions of songs like Tweezer and Mike’s though it also can be a fake out into something a bit more on the contained end such as this evening where they go into Sample in a Jar and we will just move on from that. Ginseng Sullivan fulfills the bluegrass quota tonight and then we have Bouncin’ preceding Maze for what seems like the 1,000,000th time. Shockingly, it has only occurred 17 times and for today’s deep geekery the most frequent dance partners with Bouncin’ out of its 451 performances are:  Rift (20), Stash (20), YEM (19), It’s Ice (19), Antelope (18), Maze (17), Foam (16), Possum (16), Landlady (15), Tweezer (14), and Bowie (14). Those eleven songs account for almost 42% of all Bouncin’s which is… something.

Tonight’s Maze has a bit of a loopy intro and then they get into it with aplomb, first with Page soloing on the organ and then with Trey putting on a shred clinic in working through the jam and sticking the landing. This is not going to win any awards but you could do worse than to have a version like this one as your early morning alarm. The third ever Something gives us a breather and then we get another set up loop though this time more recognizable as the intro to another late first set Ghost. They start out in a low key manner, funking along as Trey flavors things with some San Ho Zay which kind of serves to kick off the next section as they begin to slowly build their crescendo. Over the next several minutes there are numerous ideas being thrown out by various band members without anything sticking in taking them down a different path so they instead head for the peak. Trey is driving things here but Page is right there with him and as they get close to a full peak the music stays about where it was as Page throws colorful comps in and Trey devolves the jam towards transitional space. They quickly move out of this into Golgi Apparatus which while a rocking closer is not exactly where we would have liked that whole thing to go. In the alternative we are left to dance and scratch our heads for what might have been as the lights come on and the band leaves the stage. This ends up being a perfectly fine though mostly un-noteworthy set as a result but it is still a solid Phish set all the same.

Coming back from the break the band comes out and immediately begins at building a soundscape with Trey putting out some big loops and Fish eventually kicking in the tell tale hits for the start of 2001 which, similar to The Curtain, is often the lead-in to bigger things. Always a good way to start a second set (there have been 72 in the 204 times the song has been played), they take their time here as the sonic build takes close to seven minutes before Page enters the song “verse” proper. This build has many of the elements of the Fall ’98 sound what with the loops (both siren and drone), ambient wash, and funk comping not to mention a little Crosseyed and Painless tease for good measure. They ride the dance party anthem (well, it’s a dance party anthem for us anyway, right?) to the obvious peak and then drop right into Rock and Roll for the third ever performance of the song. While still mostly contained at this early age they do add in a little electro rock jam out of the verses which drops down to a groove rock section that eventually works its way to a full segue into Taste. Though the composed section of Taste here is not flawless once they hit Trey’s solo that is but a fleeting memory and it elevates to the peak you know so well to complete this three pack of set opening tunes.

Now about a half hour into the set we get our lone ‘breather’ tune in Frankie Says which is a perfectly fine choice by me for that slot any time they want to go ahead and keep doing that. This one lacks any form of outro jam but serves its purpose well and now we are ready to tackle the back half of the set with empty bladders and loaded lungs. Not that we are using empty bladders and loaded lungs to tackle the back half of the set because that would be weird but dangling participles aside I think you know what I meant here. Gumbo starts up and here in 1998 you just know that they will jam it because that is what they did with the song back then. I am not even kidding. Look at every version from mid-1997 (including every domestic version that year) through the early part of 2.0 and without fail they all include at least something of a jam. I’m not here to pin down when the peak for the song was but 1998 sure seems to fall somewhere right in the middle of it. This version from Winston-Salem is right in the wheelhouse of the punchy funk versions of the Fish-penned tune that emit wafts of Manteca throughout but after a few minutes of working the room Trey drops things down to a more sparse bit of playing that triggers a move towards ambience. Rather than go the melodic route, Trey then triggers a grating, noisy loop (you’ll know it. you’ve heard it before) that Page adds to with some interstellar sounds. This has some promise but alas, they use it to transition to Chalkdust Torture rather than to go out further so we are left to wonder about what might have been. The resulting Chalkdust rips hard and fast but stays at home in the song before giving way to Frankenstein for another fun rocker. Then, as if to attempt to blow the roof clean off the place they crank into the set closing cover of Been Caught Stealing which is quite well received by the enthusiastic crowd.

Following all of that you rockin’ could excuse them if they kept it light for the encore but noooooo they have to go and start up You Enjoy Myself instead. We again get the slightly extended ambience in the pre-Nirvana section and then a funky jam in the middle but the notable aspect of this YEM quite frankly is the guest who joins for the vocal jam. Now more reasonably known for her electro pop band Heloise and the Savoir Faire (maybe you know this song? I’ll admit that I didn’t…), Heloise Williams was at this time the lead singer and flutist for the Vermont collective Viperhouse. They toured around the Northeast and had a couple of releases before going their separate ways. Being a VT band there was enough of a crossover with our boys Phish that Heloise here has a backing vocal credit on The Story of the Ghost, that album which came out preceding this tour. She would also later provide vocals on Mike’s Inside In album but that is getting ahead of ourselves. Lo and behold, Viperhouse was on a tour of their own that matched up with Phish in more than one town (they had been in Greenville, SC when Phish played there the previous night). With a late show at the famed Ziggy’s (home to a fun old school Phish show once upon a time and a Jazz Mandolin Project show with Fish about three years later on from this night) set to follow Phish’s show here she ended up joining the band for the aforementioned encore. Where things get really interesting is that Trey then went to the Viperhouse show and sat in for the whole second set. And this is important for us because that was apparently the night Trey met the organ player for Viperhouse who would soon become his organ man in the many iterations of TAB, Ray Paczkowski. So that’s a pretty neat way for all of that to come together.

Okay, getting back to our show here, overall we get a solid Thursday night affair that kind of feels like table setting for the pair in Hampton to come. Maybe they were amping up for those shows or something but this one never really takes off like most of the shows before it. There is no major centerpiece jam in the second set which is not to say there isn’t good music to be heard but just that nothing really pushes things too far forward. The first set is a bit song-y (though will pale in comparison to such song-based sets soon enough…) and while somewhat engaging the Ghost and Maze jams don’t push this to great heights. The second set gets into it a tad more but it is still relatively contained, particularly when you look at all of those lovely 20+ minute jams to start several of these sets in the recent past. Definitely one where a fun night would have been had but outside of the few takeaways here I’m not rushing to go back to spin this one again. So for those takeaways we will say Maze (though admittedly this is just padding the list), Ghost, 2001>RnR->Taste, and Gumbo->CDT. The YEM is not quite interesting enough to add in because, really, who is going to spin a YEM just to hear a somewhat unique VJ? Don’t answer that.

That’s When It All Began Then — Greenville, SC 11.18.1998

Phish — BI-LO Center — Greenville, SC 11.18.1998

I  BATCS, BOAF, Farmhouse>My Soul, Guyute, Lawn Boy, Love Me, Bowie, Carolina

II  Wolfman’s->Lizards, Moma>Albuquerque, Slave, Fluffhead>Zero

E  B&R, Sleep, DFB, Coil

After a couple of nights off to navigate in a generally easterly direction through the Blue Ridge Mountains Phish found themselves back in the Upcountry of South Carolina for the first time since a quite spectacular show in Spartanburg that preceded the legendary Glens Falls Halloween show. They had played other shows in the Palmetto State in the years between but those were down state at the North Charleston Coliseum (11.18.1995 and 10.26.1996) some 200 miles away. Incidentally, the show this night would take place three years to the day from that first stop at the Coliseum, a venue they have now played four times in total as they again visited for a pair of shows during the Fall 2010 tour. But for Greenville this show stands as the only time the band has played here and it is one that has some very high highs.

Things start out well with the second ever cover of Back At The Chicken Shack as the band warms up and lets Page take center focus on the Jimmy Smith classic. This may have been a sign about where the show is headed as we will see but no matter what it is a fresh tune to slot there and comes off as well received. Next up is BOAF and while this stays firmly within the confines of the song structure it straight rocks and cranks the energy level in the room up several notches. Close to the peak of the jam Trey hits a note/chord on his guitar that almost sounds like a train horn blast which only furthers that high energy feel. Solid version here aaaaaaand then we get Farmhouse. While well played this serves to sap the room of energy for a bit until they head right into My Soul, rocking the rafters once more. And then when they start up Guyute to follow it becomes plain that this set will be a high energy rocking affair that stays pretty close to the script. And that’s a pretty fun thing to have for a first set sometimes. Guyute peaks well and then they belie that sentence I just wrote by playing two ‘crooner’ numbers in Lawn Boy (with Gordeaux solo) and the final (to date) version of Elvis’ Love Me. Following this interlude they set out into Bowie and your fears of the rock set being derailed are put aside once again. As with most Bowies of this era the song is largely a showcase in tension and release, staying pretty close to the song itself while elevating to a big peak. There’s a lot of shred and big time playing from Page on display over the 19+ minutes of this version and fans of the big arena rock sound of Phish will be happy with this one. Then the band comes out front to do a little a cappella with Carolina being the fitting geographical choice for the evening. Page manages to mess up the cue so they restart it but otherwise it offers up a nice cap to a rocking set.

Sometimes it is difficult to gauge what you might get following a set like that first one. It could be more of the same which is perfectly fine unless you came to hear them stretch outside of their norms. Other times they go an entirely different direction, be it a segue-filled set full of numerous head fakes, teases, and other fun. And then there are the times where that second set feels like it is plucked from a different show because it just all comes together so fittingly. Tonight is one of those. The set kicks off with Wolfman’s Brother and if we are going off of the past several of performances of the tune you have to be excited about what might happen. Keep in mind that Wolfman’s was arguably at its peak in 97/98 so they seemed to hit on a stellar version of the tune almost every time out but in particular the last six times the song was performed included the MLB jam in Cleveland, THE Vegas Wolfman’s (accept no substitutes), a funky contained one from that “secret” show at the Fillmore in San Francisco, a pretty swell one from Star Lake on 08.11.1998, an ambient groove monster from Lakewood Amphitheater on 08.06.1998, and a 22+ minute epic from The Woodlands on 07.24.1998. I didn’t skip a single performance there. That’s six straight top notch versions and then if you keep going back you eventually get to even more heavy hitters in early 1998 and throughout 1997. Look, let’s just say that they really knew what to do with the song in this era, okay?

So when they start up Wolfman’s to kick off the 2nd set here in Greenville you have to have high hopes (even though we all know what happens with high expectations and all that) particularly since there have only been 14 times that the song has graced that slot. Ever. The song itself is fine enough but as soon as they drop into the jam they mean business, first punching out the funk and obligating you to move with it or get trampled. After only a couple of minutes they leave the song entirely with all four sharing ideas freely. Trey adds in an atmospheric loop as the groove gets more and more ambient even while Fish continues to push the funk with a clever line of attack. Pretty soon it is clear they have caught on to a theme and by about the 11:00 mark we are on our way up into an exuberant, melodic, yet still ambient build of straight awesome bliss playing. They are very patient in working this motif and bring it up to the peak in that way that makes you cock your head and wonder if it was planned the whole time. Spoiler alert: it wasn’t; they are just that good.

As if to just leave you laughing and shaking your head (a reaction I love to have to their jams) they then execute a flawless transition into The Lizards for a spot on take on the Gamehendge tune. Moma Dance is up next and here we are treated to another loose yet contained bit of this gooey funk. This serves to set us up nicely for the mid set cool down which tonight is Albuquerque (yet another of those late 90s ballads I really appreciate). Rather than heading right into a big number to amp things back up they opt to slowly bring the energy back with a patient Slave to the Traffic Light that fits the mood of the set perfectly. Now we are about ready to explode with pent up energy and they provide it by playing the double closer pairing of Fluffhead>Character Zero. The Fluffhead is played well and blows up in that wonderful way that the old school song does before they finish up the set with another strong version of Zero. And before you think it is time to head out to get that lot burrito we are treated to a four song encore featuring three quieter numbers in Brian and Robert, Sleep, and a mini-bustout (49 shows) of Dog Faced Boy (the latter two songs featuring Trey on acoustic) before Page sends us into the night with the deservedly loved Squirming Coil. For some reason this provides just the right form of punctuation on a show that offers up two very different types of Phish sets and adds to the notion that this (and many if not all shows in South Carolina) are big time Page shows. I didn’t really mention it too much above but he is on top of his game throughout this one, adding color and flourish to pretty well everything while being a major part of that Wolfman’s jam as well. We often talk about how much the impact of Trey’s playing has on the show but often it is one of the other guys stepping up above their norm that really takes things next level. This is a quality example of one of those times where it is Page’s turn to hold the mantle.

Perhaps I am overselling this one a bit but this is a show that really seems to hold up as one that is greater than its parts. Looking only at the setlist you may think it looks okay, perhaps solid but nothing really sticks out as a harbinger of great things to come. And realistically, outside of that Wolfman’s nothing is truly “great” top level stuff here but as we all know you don’t know if you don’t go. So listen if you can and tell me if I just was hearing the imaginary orchestra more than normal or if you are catching any of what I did with this one. Your takeaways tonight are the Bowie, Wolfman’s->Lizards, and perhaps the Slave with additions being the BOAF, Moma, and Fluffhead>Zero if you want to bring the rawk. This was our first of four nights in a row so strap in as we head to Winston-Salem and Hampton for a reverse ordered run of the three nights in those venues just one year prior. That run in 1997 produced some pretty okay music, right?

If Life Were Easy And Not So Fast — Murfreesboro, TN 11.15.1998

Phish — Murphy Center — Murfreesboro, TN 11.15.1998

I  MFMF, Ghost>Driver, SOAMule, Cavern>LxL, Roggae>La Grange

II Jim>Stash, Mike’s>Simple>Wading>Cup>Weekapaug

E  Rocky Top

Stopping next in one of the more hard to pronounce US towns that the band has ever played, Phish played a Sunday night show on the back end of three straight nights to an enthusiastic crowd at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, TN. Okay, maybe I’m the only one who finds ‘Murfreesboro’ to be a tongue-twisting town name. Anyway, while this might not be a Sunday night skip show for the ages it does offer up some items for discussion and provides more to add to our ever-growing “takeaways” list. Speaking of, just a site note here, I wanted to mention that once I wrap up the tour I’ll do a few summary posts including at least one that highlights all of the takeaways so that we can then dance the night away about architecture. Now back to the show!

Things get started off in a dark way as they cue up the not-nearly-as-rare-as-you-think My Friend, My Friend opener. By contrast, the song has only opened 8 2nd sets and encored one show. This tune sets the tone for the set by staying a bit on the slower side while pushing that demonic feel that is furthered by a loop-aided crawl through the ending ‘Myfe’ section. Trey starts up another, more telltale loop at the end and we on our way to Ghost. You can tell from the start they are playing patiently tonight as they let this one seep into the jam, funking along and searching together for something bigger (there’s a San Ho Zay tease in here too if you like that sort of thing). Trey starts up an interesting melodic lead around 8:40 or so and the band catches on as they ride this to something of a peak though in reality they never bring that build to full fruition. This gives way to a static section where Trey and Page are basically comping along until it drops into some transitional ambient space. Mike is offering up the most in this section (and I must say that throughout this show Mike has some very strong playing though that might be as much a factor of his forward presence on the tapes as anything else) before we get that transition to Driver. Tonight’s version is nice enough with Trey on the acoustic once more but the highlight is probably after when Trey jokes that they were going to call it “The Driver In Fish’s Head” but decided that would have been too much, eliciting a subdued rimshot out of Fish in response. Funny guys.

Taking the energy up a bit with Scent of a Mule, Mike offers up some footbell action as Page takes over to solo. Trey comes in to parrot his line and they build to the klezmer finale you know so well. A mid set Cavern is next and at this point I should probably note that thus far (and really, continuing throughout the show) everything has felt to be played at a slower tempo than “normal”. This Cavern is a good example as it is plodding in comparison to what you expect out of the song. Limb by Limb comes in as a shot of energy following this, however, and all of that patient playing pays off as they really go for it in building a smile-inducing peak that shows off Trey pushing it higher while playing what seems to be an impossible number of notes along the way. He even gets in the peak run from Taste at the 8:00 mark  which is pretty cool. They take things down again for a nice run through Roggae which then cranks into the start of the tour debut of the old rocker La Grange, a song that has now dropped into the where-are-they-now file (perhaps due to its ubiquity on tv commercials these days…). Now, even in being that crunchy Texas rock it feels slow somehow but it pays off and sends everyone off to setbreak in a good mood, capping a set that doesn’t have much standing out but that flows well and has that top notch playing on display throughout.

The second set could have gone a lot of ways following that adagio first set. Not that it was bad by any means, just that the pace of some of these tunes moves like molasses as if it were a Dead & Company show or something. This carries over to the second set as well as even in the set opening Runaway Jim they don’t exactly rush things. The jam here is nice and to the point without much wasted on searching or comping along waiting for someone to put forth an idea but it also doesn’t move the song too far forward either. They wrap this one up pretty quickly though and head into Stash for one of those rare second set takes on the tune. Here the slower pace is more noticeable than in the preceding Jim but once they get to the jam that all takes a back seat to Mike first laying down a line that really moves this sideways before they go into the dissonant T&R build section in the back half. Trey takes the forefront here and they tie it up nicely for a relatively short but succinct jam. This one deserves a respin or two if only to hear how Mike takes charge. Next up is Mike’s which starts you wondering how they will fill up this Groove but then they get to the jam and you forget all that for a bit while you ride the backwards loop into the pocket they craft here. Still working patiently, Trey puts together a captivating lead line that hugs that chugging groove while Page swirls away on the organ. Soon they set up to head into the second jam but instead opt for Simple, playing a lovely version that has several “scaled” runs by Trey in bringing the mood up and then back down towards a move into Wading in the Velvet Sea via a brief Page-only section for what appears to be our mid set cool down number.

Now, I am generally not a big Wading fan as the repetitive, weepy lyrics just don’t do much for me and the end solo is usually pretty standard but tonight things are a bit different. After working through the song and sticking the landing on that solo they drop into some of that Fall ’98 ambience though tonight it is almost uplifting, hinting back to Wading at points. There are those who say this music feels a lot like the end of the Bethel Tech Rehearsal Waves and I really can’t deny the similarity even if that is probably purely coincidental. This is a somewhat abbreviated ambient space though as fairly quickly Page lays down the chords indicating the start of Loving Cup. This version cranks up in a hurry with Trey taking charge in leading the band through the song with a screaming solo all while the rest of the band pounds on behind him. It is a pretty solid version of this song that kinda sorta always sounds the same — and I say that having recently covered the tour where it debuted and in which they played it quite a bit. I mean, it’s no Indio Halloween show closing Cup with horns and Sharon Jones BUT it rages all the same. Mike then keeps it on the up by starting up that Paug we have just been waiting for and now we know we are in closer territory (if it wasn’t already obvious by the double closer pairing here…). Once again Mike is driving the bus a bit here, punishing that bass in bringing the pace up (these last two songs are the most energetically paced of the night easily). As they elevate here in building tension they are playing what feels like double time to the rest of the set, eventually paying off the build with a shreddy peak before coming back around to the final chorus and wrapping up the set. As one could expect the encore tonight is Rocky Top, the state song here in Tennessee. Okay, let’s be honest. It is one of TEN official state songs for Tennessee which is so perfectly Tennessean I can’t even stand it. In case you are wondering, the other ones are My Homeland, Tennessee, When It’s Iris Time in Tennessee, My Tennessee (1992), the Tennessee Waltz (here’s a nice version with Bonnie Raitt and Norah Jones), Tennessee, The Pride of Tennessee, A Bicentennial Rap: 1796-1996, Tennessee (2012), and Smoky Mountain Rain (a fantastically Ronnie Milsapian tune). I shit you not, that Bicentennial Rap song is real and it is hilariously bad. I couldn’t find the others on a quick youtube search but you are perhaps better off listening to the Arrested Development song Tennessee or maybe a high quality Tennessee Jed from the good old Grateful Dead than diving too deep here. Either of those would have been interesting covers for Phish to try out, eh? All that to say that this version of Rocky Top is pretty good considering the high energy of the crowd and the band playing to that.

So what to make of this show…  On one hand it feels like there isn’t much here as there really isn’t a “must hear” jam to be had and the slow pace keeps the energy level a bit subdued throughout the show. Perhaps that is due to playing their third venue in as many nights (with about 550 miles of driving between the three stops) and being a bit tired but I really don’t hear it that way. The other hand says there isn’t anything bad here and the playing throughout is solid at worst. They are clearly connected at this point in the tour and the ideas come freely. This show is one you won’t hear people point to, particularly with all of the great stuff in the days around it. I maintain that it is worth a listen. I enjoyed this one and was a bit surprised to have that realization. I’m not putting it ahead of the top shows here and the takeaways are fewer than most shows so far this tour but you could do worse than to spend the two plus hours it takes to get through this relatively short show. So let’s get to those takeaways. Tonight we have the Ghost, Mule, LxL, Stash, and Wading>Cup>Paug with the Mike’s being one to add if you are feeling generous. Now we have a couple of off days to rest up before we get to South Cackalacky for the last appearance to date in the Upcountry.

No Surprise, No Mystery — Cincinnati, OH 11.14.1998

Phish — The Crown — Cincinnati, OH 11.14.1998

I  Funky Bitch>My Soul, Reba, Bouncin, Tweezer>Moma>Sparkle>Zero

II  Bowie, Something, Piper, Golgi, Guyute, HYHU>Sexual Healing>HYHU, YEM, Julius, Hello My Baby

E  So Lonely>Reprise

As we have been finding, some locations just have a knack for producing high quality Phish shows. In general terms the frequency with which the band has played a particular locale plays a big role in that because obviously with more performances comes more opportunity for greatness. One such venue that holds strong history for the band is The Crown in Cincinnati, OH. It was originally called Riverfront Coliseum, then The Crown, then Firstar Center, and now US Bank Arena but we like stuff the way we like it so just as with Great Woods, Pine Knob, Deer Creek, and so many other corporately overtaken venues using the “classic” name is preferred by many including myself. This show in Fall 1998 would be the first time Phish would perform in the venue and since then they have played six more shows to date though they have yet to return since the pair in Fall 2009. But back in the year we are dealing with they set the bar for years to come in this musically storied venue* by putting together a complete show full of strong playing, quality jams, some hilarity, and a few curveball song choices.

The first set starts off in a good mood with a rocking Funky Bitch>My Soul pairing to get everyone up and moving. Neither of these two songs is anything more than you would expect but from the start the band comes in hot, showing off the polish of being almost two weeks deep into tour. Our gal Reba comes in next and here we get one of those classically underrated versions that no one seems to ever mention (at least not in my experience) but that does pretty much exactly what we want. The composed section is well executed and then once they drop into the jam we are treated to a pert and pure edition where Trey puts forth quite a few notes. Page and Mike accent this lead well as Fish rides that crash cymbal while waiting for the right time to signal it all to wrap up. This isn’t a Reba that strays from the format (perhaps part of why it isn’t very highly lauded?) but it reaches a quite satisfying peak that should buckle the knees of even the jadiest of jadersons though in all honesty those guys probably already scoffed at yet another Reba anyway (woo! third one this tour!) so whatever with them. At the worst this is a Reba that opens the door for bigger things to come in the set and that’s really the point, eh? The ever catchy Bouncin provides a bridge from that to the next fun part of this show… a first set Tweezer! That has only happened 74 times out of the 346 total performances for the song, though admittedly it had become a bit more frequent in later 1.0 as 21 of those would occur between 1996 and Hiatus. All that said, it still isn’t something you expect going into a show and it isn’t like they make stickers for this sort of thing.

Okay, right, back to the song. From the get go you can tell they are ready to jump all over this Tweezer and boy oh boy do they ever. Trey first lays down the screech loop and piles on the crunchy lead as the rest of the band follows into romping through this rocking version. This continues for a few minutes before Fish pounds on that crash to almost signal the change that comes next into a more sparse groove landscape. That loop is still going strong as Trey plays over top the rest of the band, eventually hitting on some familiar tones around the twelve minutes mark. At first it feels like he wants to drop into TMWSIY and then he gets into a bit of melody that could easily be mistaken as Manteca-ish if you are looking for that type of thing (and sometimes it feels like many people are…). After toying around here for a bit Trey sets up what I’ll call a “transitional loop” while Page is playing what sure sounds like it could be pulled straight from No Quarter. Next thing you know they have made the move and we are on to the dripping funk of yet another Moma Dance. Someone (okay, it was Tela’sMuff) rightfully noted in an earlier post’s discussion that these Fall ’98 Momas feel pretty loose and jammy and this one fits that bill nicely, with a gooey jam that while not revealing musically funks along oh so well. Sparkle is our filler/amp up tune next and then we get the rote rock of Charac… hang on! This one has some extra stank on it. I mean, yeah, it is still Zero and they follow the pattern here but Trey just DESTROYS his solo in this version. Pure guitar god shred on display for all to hear. At the end he offers up a few band nicknames for intros. I can pick out the ‘Chairman of the Boards’ (Page, natch) and ‘Sammy Hagar the Horrible on drums’ (ha! funny for Fish!) but the Mike one is eluding me (Fat Tyler, maybe?). Anyone know what he says here? Maybe it was all a ploy to give people something to discuss over setbreak. I dunno.

So after debating that and dissecting the Tweezer jam the lights go back down and we are ready to dive deep as we have pretty much every night so far this tour. With a somewhat stretched out intro section they start up one of only 28 2nd set opening Bowies (out of 435 total which tells you just how rare that is). Now, by Fall 1998 Bowie was not quite the jam monster it had been during its heyday in 94-95 but it was still a song that offered up a lot of potential. This is not an exploratory version by any means but instead they opt for the balls out (sorry, ladies) shred attack type I style. There’s ample tension built here before they reach the summit with Trey and Page both toying around each other’s notes and then they carry it all through to that T&R peak that makes Bowie what it is. Similar to the Reba in the first set this might not be a version you go back to again and again but I can think of much much worse ways to start out a set (yes I know that is a first set in 3.0 from a show that has one of the better sets of that tour but the point is valid. VALID I tell you!). They follow this up with a cool down tune in the second ever ‘Something’. Again it stays true to the song in the playing for this one-tour-and-done song that saw four performances before hitting the shelf. Honestly I kind of understand why they only played this a few times even though it is a nice tune. There’s just not much there to build on for the band and they have other Beatles covers that most people enjoy.

Moving on, we now get into a pretty jukebox-y remainder of the set which is fine unless you came only for the jams in which case you might not be too thrilled. First up is a short and to the point Piper that barely has much of a solo outside of the rise toward the small peak and old ending. Then we get Golgi, that setlist standard about which no one ever says “hey that Golgi was my favorite part of the show tonight”. Next we have that ugly pig Guyute which, while also not the most open tune in the catalog (or at all) does get the crowd amped every time you hear it live. Must be something about the big power chords and soaring solo Trey plays. People seem to like rock music.  And now we get to the humorous part of the set as HYHU signals only our second Fish Fun Time of the tour (back in Spring ’93 we would already be up over ten if not batting 1.000). Tonight’s schtick is vacuum-light (for this song his vac solo is kinda melodic in a weird way rather than fart noise/grating) but it is no less funny to simply think about a dad-bod-sporting dude wearing a donut dress (and perhaps the viking horn helmet since he had that this tour but I’d need in person confirmation on that though Trey’s joke post HYHU about the “horn section” sure seems to indicate he had it on) singing the classic Marvin Gaye between the sheets number Sexual Healing. Maybe they didn’t think it was quite as funny as I do (even if Fish does note the vac as being the ‘sounds of love’) though considering that this stands as the final performance for the song by the band. Oh well. Next up in the playlist is YEM and this one gets a bit more of the somewhat extended ambient pre-Nirvana section as Trey stretches out his tone with some effects pedals and adds that ascending loop as well, though perhaps not as elongated as the past two versions. Mike has a bit of a footbell romp at the start of the jam too either indicating his desire to take this big or maybe as a shout out to the Sexual Healing performance or something else entirely. We may never know. This YEM isn’t really that notable otherwise (though Trey does have a fun little solo in the funk section that Mike and Page add color to quite nicely…) but I’m not ever one to really complain about YEM being played because it hits on pretty much all of the stuff that makes Phish Phish. I think you know what I mean here. So back to the jukebox, we get a fun if not special Julius which is another one of those songs that when it starts you kind of say “eh, I’d have preferred something else here” but then they get into it and you are dancing and next thing you know you are singing “don’t take another step!” and wagging your finger as you spin around with that big smile on your face… wait. Am I the only one who does that? Don’t answer that! This is our fakeout closer since tonight gets the a capella ‘Hello My Baby’ closer and we are headed to the encore. For this we have a song I have always loved and one I was stoked to see that Phish (finally!) had covered in The Police’s ‘So Lonely’. It is such a fun tune and one I wish they would have played more than this one time. Maybe it isn’t the easiest song to pull off though so I can understand it, particularly in this the Year of Covers. This heads into the expected raucousness of Reprise and we are on our way to Tennessee.

Look, I’m not going to sugar coat it. This is the weakest overall show so far this tour. It is not about the playing itself as much as the song choices and lack of jamming. Yes, they rocked out a bunch of stuff and not every show needs to be a four song second set fully segued jamfest to the max (sorry for the early 90s reference there) but even in a Saturday night special like this one for 1998 I just expected a bit more. There are takeaways here, for sure, but outside of a handful of things I am just not going back to this show. Those takeaways for me are the Reba, Tweezer>Moma, maybe the Bowie if you like ’em shred ahead, and the So Lonely encore. That’s it. And even that might be generous. But whatever, it is one show on a great tour. Not everyone needs to be the best show ever, unless you were there in which case don’t let your attendance bias cloud your vision here. Let’s just take what we can and move on like we do. After all, the next show IS the best show…

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*If you don’t know the history of Riverfront Coliseum/The Crown/Corporate name of the Month Club Winner then here’s a little primer. The first event ever here was an Allman Brothers/Muddy Waters show on 09.09.1975 (incidentally, the Allmans were also a part of the Superdome grand opening weekend in New Orleans only a week or so earlier so that was a fun time for them I’m sure). It was also the site for the second-to-last Elvis Presley concert ever (06.25.1977). Over the years all sorts of sports, music, and other events have taken place in the venue but easily the most infamous are the events that led to the deaths of 11 fans trying to get into the venue to see The Who on 12.03.1979. Others have written more eloquently than I can about that tragedy but the impact of it was lasting, considering that it caused the cancellation of several future concerts here and resulted in the city of Cincinnati enacting a ban on “festival” seating (i.e. GA) that would last until 2004.

A Stairway to the Stars – Cleveland, OH 11.13.1998

Phish – CSU Convocation Center – Cleveland, OH 11.13.1998

I  CDT, Wolfman’s->MLB, Roggae, Ginseng, Ice>CTB, Farmhouse, WITS, Sloth, Antelope

II  Disease>sample, Dirt, BOAF, Meat>Hood

E  GTBT

Following another one night for travel between western Michigan and northeastern Ohio (those big lake thingies kinda get in the way) Phish hit the stage once more for the first of two shows in the Buckeye State over the weekend. This first one took place in Cleveland, a city with a pretty okay history with Phish considering they have played 16 of their 48 Ohio shows in and around the city. The rest of the shows in the state are scattered between Cincinnati (14 shows), Columbus (9 shows), and Dayton (4 shows) with the other five spread between various college towns around the state. Tonight’s show would be the last at CSU Convocation Center as since then they have only come back to play the beautiful Blossom Music Center in Cuyahoga Falls.

Things kick off with an energetic Chalkdust to get everyone warmed up and moving and then they drop into Wolfman’s Brother for what you have to think will be a pretty straight forward second song first set take on the tune. Well, yeah, no. After the lyrics they drop immediately into a gooey funk pocket so good it would be a crime to not dance to such music. This continues for several minutes before Trey starts toying with his lead line and eventually brings in a melody that is oh so familiar… wait. Hang on. Is he really playing it? Naaaaaah it can’t be… but but but it is! As the band continues the undercurrent funk stylings Trey plays the signature melody to only one of the most debated jams/teases/quotes/whatever in both the Phish and Dead canons: Mind Left Body, alternately known as an “MLB Jam”, a “baseball jam” (get it? MLB/baseball? clever…), or “that jam that everyone is always on about but never seems to materialize”. Now, it could be said that this is just a simple progression that mirrors the intention at least of the old Paul Kanter, Grace Slick, and David Freiberg song Your Mind Has Left Your Body which appeared first on the album Baron Von Tollbooth & the Chrome Nun but has since become something of a live staple for the Jefferson Starship. I’m not going to get into the full debate about this one as there are disciples to this tease/jam who seemingly hear it all over the Dead catalog and in several places with Phish as well but I will say that there are a few examples that are difficult to discount as being anything but a reference to MLB. Leaving out the numerous denoted teases (such as the one from the Magnaball Cities that I don’t really hear but maybe if I went looking specifically for it I would) there are two other prime examples besides this Wolfman’s of MLB popping into Phish songs: 08.21.1993 in the middle of Bowie and 06.18.1994 also in Bowie. The latter one is the example people point to most often and for good reason as it is a fantastic Bowie that only gets better when you add in this layer of mythos. The Dead had a much larger history with this jam motif but we aren’t here to discuss them now are we? Anyway, back to our show here, I’ll definitely say that this is a real live actual MLB jam (352 show gap before this, no less). The added funk pushing it along works perfectly and after about four minutes of playing around with this they come to a point of resolution and wrap it all up rather succinctly without ever returning to Wolfman’s. Don’t believe the setlists that you read about this because they all note a return to Wolfman’s which is not there. But we don’t abide that kind of sloppiness here, do we?

How do you follow up a second song jam like that? Well, if you are Fall ’98 Phish you play the ethereal Roggae and nail the end jam with a pretty rendition. Then you play a well loved bluegrass cover in Ginseng Sullivan before dropping into a purely Phishy song. I mean, seriously, can you ever really see another band playing It’s Ice and pulling it off without it sound a bit contrived? This is just one of those tunes that sums up Phish to me for some reason. Tonight’s take on the tune drops into a fairly dark outro jam that includes some of Trey’s ascending lick loop (the same lick he played in setting up several of the dark jams from the start of this tour including the Vegas Wolfman’s). They don’t take this too far out but it is a nice little bit of depth before popping out into the first performance of Cars Trucks Buses on this tour. It is a typically bouncy and fun rendition (nice counterpoint to where Ice was headed) and then we are off to sing the words to popular Bob Marley songs that match up perfectly to Farmhouse. Quick runs through Water in the Sky and a somewhat sloppy but always nice to hear Sloth bring us to the closing Antelope which tonight gets a patient and well constructed pre-Rocco jam. It has that frenetic build energy but feels pretty dialed in at the same time and then Trey drops the rare “suck the deer shit from the side of this hole” alternate lyrics which is always a treat. This is a pretty engaging Lope overall which perhaps Trey thought as well in laying down that deer shit line. It caps the set nicely and we are off to the break to see just how many heads are freaking out about that MLB jam.

After the setbreak Trey has a little banter about a crew member being late to work that day due to overindulging at a local bar the previous night as well as relating that Mike wants the lights to stay the way they are all set before they start up Disease. This Disease, while not in the 20+ minute category of several of the recent 2nd set openers, offers up a quite engaging jam that runs through several sections. First we have the straight ahead rock of Disease with Trey leading the way with trilling lines and tension building rises towards a peak that never matures. Fish then pounds on the crash cymbal during the cacophony of noise rock that the band has built before they head out into a section of sparser playing that hints towards a move to ambience but then Trey begins a line of chords that settle things into a happy, chugging rock groove that picks up speed and energy before returning to the Disease ending. This is fun time Phish spurting joy onto the crowd with their playing. Perhaps not the most notable Disease ever but damn if it isn’t one to get you moving. In the aftermath of the Disease coda they crash into a segue with Sample… ugh. I just can’t with this song. It is the same thing every single time (and don’t give me any of that “yeah but Trey really played the solo with extra gusto that time!” crap because you and I both know that solo by heart at this point). So that happens and then we have a Dirt interlude before they crank up the energy again for BOAF. Just when you are thinking this will be more of the same out of the new showcase tune they put a little extra mustard on the hot dog and we have a fiery version that hugs the structure of the song but offers up some exploration into murkier waters.  They are really starting to push the boundaries on this song as it feels set to explode into something much bigger here though the real period of exploration for this song won’t come until the year following.  For now we will just have to enjoy Trey pulling at the edges of BOAF. As if to catch their breath following this raging version they start up Meat and you have to think we are in for another bit of the weirdness without much to take home musically but after the lyric section Trey adds in a siren loop to accompany the odd time signature and we are off to play. There is an ambient feel to this but all the same Fish and Mike are laying down the gist of the Meat beat while Trey adds lead color and Page provides atmosphere. As Trey develops this lead Mike mimics him at points all while that loop and Fish keep us rooted in the Meat jam (meat jam sounds like a disgusting thing your grandmother used to make every fall in preparation for the long winter ahead that you had to eat when she came over since it was such a thoughtful gift from her to your family. mmmm… jellied pig…). As a group they tinker about for a few more minutes and then they end up with the loop soundscape providing the perfect entry point for Fish to drop the signature hits for Harry Hood to begin. The first bit of this Hood feel like it could just as easily slide right back to that Meaty jam goodness but they get into the anthem/PSA about keeping yourself out of closed refrigerators. Seriously kids, don’t do it. Recondo is right! What did we do without GI Joe to keep us in the know? Though I will say that this version is more amusing… Anywho, the Hood here is about what you would expect assuming you like beautiful, patient, well crafted Hood jams. You could do worse than to have a version like this cap a second set. After that we have a rocking GTBT encore and we are headed south for the next night’s show at The Crown or whatever they were calling it at that point.

This show does not have the major highs of some of the past few nights but the first set catches your attention from that jammed out Wolfman’s through the end and the second set is all well played with a good variety of music on display. Your takeaways here are Wolfman’s->MLB, Ice>CTB, Antelope, Disease, BOAF, and Meat>Hood. You could probably leave out the CTB but it flows right out of that dank Ice jam so you might as well just let it run. There ends up being a lot of highlights here now that I look at it. Good sign of where the trajectory for this tour is considering we are not even halfway home yet.

I’m Sinking Down, It’s a Glorious Feeling — Grand Rapids, MI 11.11.1998

Phish – Van Andel Arena – Grand Rapids, MI 11.11.1998

I  PYITE, Gumbo, If You Need A Fool, Sleep, Tela, BOAF, Theme, Julius

II  Halley’s>Simple>Walk Away>LxL, Circus, Ghost

E  Contact>Rocky Top>Funky Bitch

Certain parts of the country seem to be something of a catalyst for Phish to consistently play top quality shows. New York, particularly NYC, has quite a few notable shows from over the years. Colorado holds a special place for the band having been the destination on those first road trips away from New England. New Jersey gets the love because Trey and Page both grew up there. Connecticut seems to get good shows too, perhaps due to Trey’s time at Taft or maybe just because the good people of the Constitution State (or the Nutmeg State if you are more into that) bring the energy and attention the band appreciates. There are many examples of this type of “bias” and I bring it up to note that Michigan is also one of those lucky places. The band has now performed 25 times in The Mitten, starting humbly enough at Rick’s Cafe in Ann Arbor and eventually graduating up to arenas and sheds such as The Palace of Auburn Hills and the now renamed Pine Knob Music Theatre. Many of these well loved shows from The Great Lakes State are throwdowns from the many colleges here as Phish included several stops at various institutions of higher learning in the state along the path of their early 90s tours. In the mid 90s they started playing the hockey arenas in the western part of the state with notable shows at Wings Stadium in Kalamazoo on 10.27.1995 (check out the Bowie from that show for starters) and one from Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids (11.11.1996) that is relatively underrated on that Fall Tour. Two years to the day later they returned to this town on the heels of their three night run in Chicago and laid out a classic midweek sleeper show that has big jams in both sets and a lot more.

After the night off to travel and rest up after four straight shows the band comes out seemingly well rested with a clean and popping PYITE, amping up the energy from the get go. Gumbo, another song that could be argued hit its peak here in 1998, slinks in next and here we get our first bit of extra flavor as they take this one out for a slow ride through the funk accompanied by loops and effects. This is the evolving funk sound of ’98 which has a lot of Page up front on the clavinet followed by the dive into more ambient waters in the back half. Many of the notable Gumbos include Manteca teases or at least hint towards that song but this one avoids that almost entirely. This is a swanky jam that implores you to move with it albeit somewhat slowly since this one is just thick until they hit the ambient space. I challenge you to listen and not be moved! Well, at least until it kind of just ends there, I guess.

Following the rocking PYITE opener and that dank dance party Gumbo they break out the ol’ third slot bluegrass song for the second (of three ever) performances of the Steve Earle penned and Del McCoury popularized tune If You Need A Fool. This isn’t the best bluegrass cover they ever did (and it isn’t the worst either) but it suits its purpose just fine here. If you aren’t familiar with this song it sounds a lot like MMGAMOIO except for that whole different lyrics and a Page solo instead of Trey but yeah. Next up is one of my personal favorite of the late 90s ballads Sleep, a tune that had just been debuted three weeks prior at the first Bridge School Benefit show. This is paired up with Tela in providing the mid set breather tunes and tonight’s Tela comes off well with Page doing his thing and Trey playing a nice solo in the end. From here we have a positively white hot BOAF with Trey sounding the shred alert in going big on his solo. The song is still all straight ahead rock here but when they nail it like this there is definitely nothing wrong with that. Theme From The Bottom follows and this is a version that if you haven’t heard it may surprise you a bit as along with the typically soaring peak they reach for there is a harder edge to this jam, still though in the vein of the song. Some people are not huge fans of this song for whatever reason but this might be the type of version to change minds. The set is capped by a joyous romp through Julius and we are then off to the break.

I hope that those who were in attendance for this one took advantage of that break because the second set wasn’t going to provide it for them. It will be close to an hour into the set before we get the one breather tune and everything leading up to it is top shelf Fall ’98 Phish. First we have a song much like that first set Gumbo where jamming comes and goes — and its peak period is also in this late 90s/early aughts time frame. For the bulk of its history Halley’s Comet has been a lead-in, setting the table as a starting out point for bigger things. Aside from a few versions here and there over the years (like the 12.14.1995 version from Binghamton, NY) this held true for over a decade, though that time period did include a 475 show break from the Summer of ’89 (ha!) to Spring ’93. Everything changed for Halley’s with one magical and understandably highly praised version from Hampton ’97 which you all should already know by now so I will just assume you have that one memorized. Development of this song as a jam vehicle continued throughout 1998 with this version from Grand Rapids being the capstone take on the song for the year. Though perhaps not THE best version ever it is certainly in the conversation — and for good reason. After working through the song itself the band sets out right away with a punchy jam that is impossible to not move to as it gets funkier and funkier as it progresses. Page is all over this version, providing great accents on top of the wicked groove Mike and Fish lay down all while Trey comps along. This continues for a bit and then around the 16:00 mark we head out into space funk until going sideways after a minute or so. Things stay weird for a bit, hinting at a turn towards the ambient, but then they hit on a punishing rawk groove that Trey takes and solos over with a lot of distortion and drone mixed in until they somewhat abruptly segue into Simple. This makes for the third show in the last four where the second set opener stretches out over 20 minutes. And the best part of that statement is that each of these is wholly unique in comparison to each other, shining a different light on the varied jamming styles of the band.

A jam like that will make the night for a lot of folks but we aren’t finished yet. Simple ends up being a short but sweet version that segues into our second Walk Away of the tour which then segues into Limb by Limb. This version moves along much like most others with the Type I jam going as it does (Trey is really on point here) until everyone drops out except for Page. He solos within the framework of the song for a bit and then each band member comes back in to add to the build towards a very satisfying peak.  It is a unique version with this solo and something I wouldn’t mind hearing them do again some time as it comes off nicely. Now we get that breather tune with When The Circus Comes To Town (another of those late 90s ballads I appreciate – though in this case it is a cover of a Los Lobos song from several years prior) and this is nice enough in allowing for a bit of bathroom time for all. By now you have to expect we are headed towards the closer which is true but you wouldn’t necessarily think that is what we are getting when Ghost starts up (with the full, slow, looped out intro too so that’s fun). This one starts out as a funky groove monster and they keep pushing up the energy level higher as they go. Page unleashes his arsenal of effects on this jam (perhaps the first full display of such on this tour excepting the Vegas Wolfman’s?) and eventually Trey takes charge and they head up the mountain towards the summit, tackling a few false peaks along the way. It is a triumphant version in the mode of the Holy Ghost and other similar bliss-laden Ghost jams and here it provides a big exclamation point on the end of this great set. The encores tonight are Contact>Rocky Top>Funky Bitch, offering a road song for the trip ahead, the classic Rocky Top nod to a good show, and a somewhat rare encore slotting of the bluesy rock of Funky Bitch (one of only 19 times it has appeared as an encore).

For a Wednesday night one-off show in the western part of Michigan, there is a lot to like here. As we will see this may end up being one of the better overall shows of the tour as there are notable jams in both sets including one of the best versions of Halley’s Comet ever. This is just another example of Phish making people realize that you should never skip the show that is the obvious one to skip as there are definitely people who — potentially for the second time already this tour — skipped this one to get a head start on heading to the next venue further east (in this case Cleveland). Their loss, of course, but those that made that trip north instead of heading east from Chicago were rewarded quite well. Your takeaways from this show are Gumbo, Theme, BOAF, Halley’s, LxL, and Ghost. Not a bad night in a town now known for beer as much as anything — and it is a worthy reputation. I highly recommend a trip to Grand Rapids to taste some of the wonderful offerings here… but that’s maybe for another blog or at least another time…

—

So now that we have hit ten shows played on this tour, let’s do a little stat geekin’, shall we? Here we are having had shows in seven states including in all four time zones with the added oddity that each venue played has been in a different state. There have already been 132 songs played with 95 of those being one timers (the Loaded and DSOTM sets obviously factor in here as that provides 20 songs and only one – Rock and Roll – that has been played again so far. Additionally, a total of 20 songs have debuted this tour with Something and Smells Like Teen Spirit joining the tunes from those albums that had not yet been played by Phish). With this many songs played there is not any clear leader in terms of number of performances though several songs have been played at least four times: BOAF (5 times), Driver, Frankie Says, LxL, Roggae, and Moma Dance. Interestingly, we have only seen one Tweezer so far (in the second show of tour) and the next one is still another show away. We also have yet to see several setlist standards as songs like Bouncin’, Suzy, Foam, IDK, Rift, and MSO have not been played to date. There have been no repeats for show openers and only two repeats for first set closers (Cavern, Weekapaug). Second sets are just as diverse as no song has repeated as either 2nd set opener or closer. For encores, the only song repeated so far is surprising: Free Bird. We will get to dive deeper in the stats as the tour progresses but this does appear to be a quite diverse tour so far. Personally I think this simply shows just how damn good this band was at this point considering that they aren’t exactly mailing in the setlists or the performances for that matter. All signs point towards more heat to come as they drop down through Ohio and into the Southeast portion of the tour. Yay, stats!

Making Soup for the Ambassadors – Chicago, IL 11.09.1998

Phish – UIC Pavilion – Chicago, IL 11.09.1998

I  Llama, Horn, I Get A Kick Out Of You, Divided, Frankie, DST, Poor Heart>Free, NICU, Bold as Love

II  Gin, TMWSIY>Avenu Malkenu>TMWSIY>Moma>Slave>YEM

E  Frankenstein, Freebird

The third night of a run can go a lot of different directions. Sometimes you get the undersold sleeper show that makes people regret not sticking it out for the whole run. Other times you get a high energy affair perhaps light on jams but well received by the fans. And there are also times when that third night falls flat whether it be due to the band, crowd, or some combination of the two being a bit tired and not bringing it. This last night in Chicago was not one of those nights.

First up is a fiery Llama opener which gets a bit of that electro Trey shred in the solo before giving way to a perfectly serviceable take on the setlist staple Horn. Trey has a nice solo here but this is one doesn’t get any extra sauce (like the 07.15.1998 one with its ambient outro jam on the way to Chalkdust). Next up we have the third Mike tune in the early part of the first set in as many nights as they play what will end up being the second and currently final version of ‘I Get A Kick Out of You’, the Cole Porter jazz standard. Last night we had ‘Love Me’ and the first night of the run got that lovely Mike’s Song. Hey, it is a Mike tune, right? Maybe not a crooner but, really, which would you prefer? This version is a bit loose with Mike almost over-singing the words as it comes off a bit joke-y in the execution. From here the band straps in for bigger things, starting first with a clean and triumphant take on Divided Sky. It isn’t the best version you will ever hear but it is always nice to hear them nail this classic. Frankie Says pops in next with a straight forward version that lacks the outro ambience they have occasionally tacked on to the end of this song. After Frankie relaxes us we have the first Dogs Stole Things of the tour which goes how it does and then we get our old pal Poor Heart to bring the energy up a bit. Nothing special here but it does slam right into the start of Free which will provide us with our first real highlight of the show. Everything stays within the construct of the song but it gets pretty raucous and funky as they chunk their way through this jam. It is more akin to the latter day pinner Free jams than the early percussive, multi-themed giants of ’95 but with a dirtier feel that precedes the uncompressed tone of the 2.0 versions… if all that makes sense. Whatever, just listen to it. You’ll like it. After that we have NICU and one of my favorite cover closers, Bold As Love. This is the first Bold as Love of the tour and it rises to that swirling peak that makes it oh so good to hear and now we are on to setbreak after a largely average but overall well played first set.

Considering that the past three sets have been mostly straight forward without too many left turns into open jamming, you have to think by this point it is about time they took something out a bit at least at the start of this second set. And you would be right as they come out with the always welcome second set opening Bathtub Gin. Now, 1998 is arguably the best year for Gin overall with 1997 and 1999 having solid arguments in their favor as well. But considering some of the versions we have from 1998 (Prague, Barcelona, Ventura, this one, Hampton, Worcester, and of course The Riverport Gin, not to mention a few others…) it is hard to argue against it being in the conversation for this being the “BYE” (best year ever) for Gin. Tonight’s version starts off innocently enough as they search around the Gin theme. Around the 7:30 mark Trey doubles up his lead line and we kick into a higher gear that plugs along with that funky vibe until Trey takes a firm lead and adds new ideas on top of the pocket. Around the 13:00 mark Trey comes back to the Gin theme and then goes out from there to explore some more. Eventually, Mike throws in a few footbell *tings* which kind of signals the start of the transition to a quieter space where they are all still grooving along and exploring, even hinting at some Manteca-ish tones as they make their way towards the ambient realm. A loop starts up and Trey adds the drone tone and after wading here for a bit we return to the full Gin ending. I am pretty well oversimplifying this here but this is a jam that goes through several distinct phases while staying pretty close to the song itself. That is not atypical for Gin, of course, as many of the more notable versions of the song are mainly ‘type I’ jamming with some ‘type II’ sections. Here we have a prime example of that motif.

So now I am going to make a pretty bold statement which is to say that if you take this Gin and put it up against the all but universally lauded Riverport Gin from a few months prior I prefer this one from Chicago. At first I thought this was just recency bias but I listened to both versions more than once, alternating between the two, to check myself. The result for me is that this version is just more interesting with the creative paths they take in weaving in and out of the Gin theme. Don’t get me wrong, I really like the Riverport Gin but it feels a bit static (or maybe linear is the right word?) at times when you compare it to the breadth of scope that this one includes. And hey, it is a worthwhile discussion point so there’s that for us to look forward to here.

After collectively catching our breath from that 23+ minute journey Trey starts up one of the older originals in the catalog for our first TMWSIY>Avenu Malkenu>TMWSIY sighting of the tour. This is well played, as always, and then it gives way to our fourth Moma Dance in just nine shows. Things get funky in that Moma way here before they make a transition out into Slave for a nice, uplifting version of that song that always seems to pop into setlists preceding everyone getting on the road again. After resolving this one with a nice peak we head into YEM for what will inevitably be the set closer. Similar to the prior version from Utah tonight’s YEM has a somewhat extended pre-Nirvana section that gets into a little bit of ambient texturing but then once they take off this one gets seriously funk’d in a hurry. On the way there we get an interesting occurrence in the build towards the big jam where Trey is playing the chords for that build while Page is still soloing over top, creating a mashed up feeling to this section. Once through that the jam includes some hints of ‘Things That Make You Go Hmmm”, that classic C+C Music Factory dance anthem from the early 90s. Eventually we peak out to the VJ and that’s a wrap because the lights come up early without an encore.

But wait! That was just those guys being oh so funny and instead they rip into a particularly spirited Frankenstein. After this first encore Trey thanks everyone for coming out the past three nights and asks what a cappella tune they want to hear and thankfully everyone in the crowd seems to agree to shout out “FREEBIRD!” at the same time so that we don’t have conflicting opinions on that. And after that hilarious homage to both barbershop quartet and southern rock we are out of here to head northeast to Grand Rapids to visit one of those old hockey arenas once again. Your takeaways tonight are the Free, Gin, and YEM with additions of Divided and maybe Moma>Slave if you are feeling like listening to more.

This show provides a solid bookend to this three night run where the meat (jams) is more on the outside of the sandwich with the bread (staple songs) being the filler in between. That sounds messy but it really is quite tasty. That first night produced the big Bag>Ghost highlight and this one has the Gin while the middle show is more about songs and taking care of business with rocking jams rather than looking outside of the sandbox. All told, this is a great three night run that stands the test of time and should hopefully get its own release some day, perhaps in conjunction with the run they did here in 2011. No matter what, getting more tracks from this out there on SBD should happen hopefully sooner than later.

We Can Laugh Our Lives Away – Chicago, IL 11.08.1998

Phish – UIC Pavilion – Chicago, IL 11.08.1998

I  Taste, Carini, Love Me, RCR, Fee, P&S, Roggae, WITS, Stash, Cavern

II  CDT, Meat>RnR>Disease>Piper>Wading, Antelope

E  Been Caught Stealing

What happens when you have a Sunday night show in the middle slot of a three night run, the night that is typically your Saturday rock show night slot? Do you get an uber fantastic never-miss-a-Sunday-super-jammy-rock-show-for-the-ages? Or maybe you get that rock/energy show but amped up a bit because it is Sunday? Well, we get to find out because that is exactly what transpired on this run at UIC Pavilion in November 1998. After throwing down a quite solid show that is heavily jammed in the second set on Saturday the band came out and laid down a balanced effort that is high on quality performances of numerous songs including several first timers for this tour (and a couple of minor bustouts) with a few engaging jams that may not win any ‘best of’ competitions but can get you where you need to go if you let them.

Having stretched their legs the night previous and now settled into this little ‘residency’ here Phish comes out swinging with a energetic Taste, setting a good precedent for the night to come. This is firmly ‘Type I’ in nature but it comes off clean and bright. This uplifting music is put in counterpoint with the song that follows it, Carini, as the band crunches through the now-staple song which had not been played since the Europe Summer ’98 Tour. This version, coming 37 shows from that show opening take in Barcelona (the first of the final two shows of that mini-tour) is short and to the point but does get a little lyrical variation when the streaker from last night is referenced (you know, because Carini was the guy to take care of such matters back then…). After a bit of dark shredding in Carini we have the Mike-crooned take on the Elvis Presley classic Love Me, a tune that had been played seven times in 1997 with almost a year and 62 shows having passed since it last graced the stage on 11.30.1997 (as the denouement to that wonderfully twisted Wolfman’s). There will be one more appearance for this song later on in this tour which we will get to but since then it has gone the way of so many other fleeting covers before it. And I think most people are okay with that, honestly.

Once that is done we hear the tell tale tinkling electric piano sounds of a mostly rare but definitely well loved cover, Ride Captain Ride by The Blues Image. This classic rock radio standard has only been played seventeen times since it was debuted way back in 1987 (in a show where another well loved cover, Sparks, was also debuted) and up until a performance of the song at Deer Creek earlier in 1998 (after a 492 show gap) had not been played since the penultimate show of 1992. Tonight’s version is nice enough though it isn’t like they have ever really done anything with this song outside of mainly adhering to what you already know the song to be. After this performance it would be another year plus before the song was played again and after that it went into hiding until after Hiatus and The Long Wait. Fee is up next in a megaphone-less version and this does have a nice little outro that feels like it could have gone on longer and gotten more ambient but it doesn’t so we will just move on to the stock Paul and Silas that followed it but wait that isn’t really interesting to talk about either except that it had been 115 shows since they had last played the Josh White tune so let’s keep moving here, okay? Next up is yet another Roggae (it’s like the Fuego of Fall ’98!) which stands as the first song tonight that had already been played on this tour (I’m not counting the FarmAid or Sessions at 54th shows as part of this tour for stat purposes). They are clearly familiar with the song by now and it shows as they add a bit more flavor to the outro jam, layering a bit of ambience behind the lead lines Trey lays down. Still not exactly a big jam, this is quickly becoming a reliable midset tune with the end solos developing a bit more each time out. You could do worse than to have this song in heavy rotation.

Roggae is followed by the song that precedes it on The Story of the Ghost, Water in the Sky, a song that transformed for the album and in concert earlier in 1998 from being a somewhat clunky country-ish tune to its faster, phishier incarnation we know today. This is the first take on it this tour and it comes off well but still leaves us wondering if and when we might get an actual jam vehicle in this set. What’s that? Ah, yes, now we have it. Our first real live jam vehicle of the evening follows with the second Stash of the young tour. And while this stays mainly in the ‘Type I’ realm they do pull in some of those ambient tones, creating a melodic Tension and Release section with some Fikus teases thrown in for good measure. I’ve gone back and listened to this version more than once and was surprised at the density of music being played by the band here. On the surface it seems pretty straight forward but all four have a lot going on in the execution of this jam. After they resolve that Stash we are left with the set closing Cavern which in 1998 means some botched lyrics by Trey, a nice bit of funkiness, and a *ting* from Mike’s footbell in getting everyone ready for the lights to come up. I can imagine that the conversations about this set during that break were a bit all over the place considering there really is only one biggish jam (Stash). The playing is all very good and the energy is high so there aren’t any complaints there but it really just never gets out of the song-based format.

So after the break you have to be thinking that big things are on their way and when they come out and open with Chalkdust Torture you are saying to yourself, “okay, here we go, take this one out!” but then you remember that this is ’98 and they haven’t really blown up CDT in that big jam vehicle way yet. I mean, sure, there are some really shreddy versions from the first part of the song’s history but it really took until 1999 (and maybe even into 3.0, honestly) for CDT to evolve into a set-carrying monster like we have experienced in the past couple of years. This is not to take anything away from this night’s version except to frame it in saying that the song was more about energy and execution at this stage than in providing a launch pad for exploration. After crushing the rocking opener we get another Meat, a song where 40% of the total performances occurred in this its debut year. The best part of this is perhaps the set up it provides for the transition to Rock and Roll and the second ever performance of the VU classic. It would take a while for this song to evolve into being a real vehicle, practically becoming a crutch in the early part of 3.0 as it seemingly popped up as a consistently jammed song for the band throughout the first few years of The Return. This version is rocking and well played but sticks to the structure even more than that debut version from Halloween. The best part is probably the murky end/transition to Down With Disease which quickly elevates into a high energy version – and the de facto jam to carry the set.

The Disease jam starts off within the structure of the song as they build the intensity and develop a pocket as Trey goes electro shred over the rest of the band but then about ten minutes into the song Trey changes gears a bit, rising up with some guitar god lines that the band quickly follows in shifting directions. This does not continue for very long though as Trey eventually leads it all back to the full ending for Disease, something we don’t get to hear all that much anymore. But instead of wrapping it up completely Trey throws out a drone tone and over the next couple of minutes they put together a serene bit of ambient transition space (our only real ambient jam from this show) which offers a great starting point for Piper with its now-never-heard slow build intro section. This Piper goes to eleven in a hurry with Fish pounding away over the crunchy raging rock jam that develops — I really think it is Fish’s enthusiastic playing that causes this one to elevate as it does. The payoff here is in the shared frenzy that Fish and Trey push forward, building in strength and intensity until… all but suddenly the bottom drops out and we are Wading In The Velvet Sea. Wonderful. Sorry, I just can’t take this song here. It totally saps the set of all of the energy built up throughout that RnR>Disease>Piper section. I mean, sure, Trey has a lovely solo at the end but c’mon. It doesn’t even peak out like so many other versions of the song. This just feels like they needed to check off Velveeta on the songs played list for that night. Maybe Trey had an entry at phantasytour he really wanted to win that night or something. I dunno, but I’m happy to entertain defenders of the cheese even if I won’t agree with you.

After that interlude we set up for the set closing Antelope and tonight is another tight take on the song but lacks some of that mid-90s scary psychedelic energy that made this tune such a fan favorite in its hey day. Instead it provides a nice punch of energy to counteract the sob story of the preceding song in closing set, not too unlike the versions we (mostly) get here in 3.0. Not bad, but nothing to write much about either. The encore has some fireworks in the second ever cover of Been Caught Stealing, the Jane’s Addiction tune that was debuted during that ridiculously fun Alpine show from the preceding summer tour (and which also included the debut of Led Zeppelin’s Ramble On). While what you expect, it rocks out hard and sends everyone off into the Chicago night with a big grin because how could you not love them playing that song? Don’t answer that, jaded vets.

All told, what we have here is a failure to comm… wait, that’s something else entirely. What we have here is a classic rock/energy/custy/Saturday Night Special show except for that pesky detail of it having been played on a Sunday. There are jams here as we have seen but this one is more about songs and the energy they create. For many fans this is exactly the type of show they seek since they get to hear a bunch of songs, a few rarities and bustouts, some fun covers, and a couple of jams but nothing so out there that they might lose interest. I am not that fan. If this was your first show you would probably be psyched. If you had been following this band for a long time, perhaps had been on tour for a bit, and they dropped this show you might have had fun in the moment but this is not one you will call out to your friends when discussing epic shows and it won’t be one you get stuck in the ol’ cassette deck in your beat up Volvo wagon that is being held together by resin and bumper stickers at this stage. I am not saying anything negative here because it is all quite well played; I’m just pointing out that this is not an all timer. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have some solid takeaways here. For tonight I say you should spin that Taste, Stash, RnR>Disease>Piper, and perhaps that bit of outro jam from Fee, maybe? The Roggae is nice too so throw that in if you have the time. But don’t spend too much time here as we will have much more to discuss from the next one on the docket…

Sit Up And Take Notice – Chicago, IL 11.07.1998

Phish — UIC Pavilion — Chicago, IL 11.07.1998

I  My Soul, Mike’s, Driver, B&R, Wedge, LxL, Fikus, Billy Breathes, Beauty of My Dreams, Weekapaug

II  Bag->Ghost, Reba, Farmhouse

E  Guyute, WMGGW

After the one night stop in Wisconsin Phish made the trip to a city where they have had a long history, having first played the Windy City on 03.30.1990 as opener for a band I doubt any of us has ever heard of, Bop (harvey), who have apparently been going strong for over 30 years just like a band we kinda are obsessed with here. Hey, maybe you know this band but they aren’t ringing any bells for me. Reading their website it looks like their shows are fun though so I guess check em out if you get the chance? Phish would play nine more shows in Chicago in the years preceding this three show run in Fall ’98, graduating from opening sets at the Lounge Axe (11.09.1990 they opened for Alex Chilton of the Box Tops, Big Star, and solo fame there) to bar venues like Biddy Mulligan’s (04.13.1991) and The Cubby Bear (10.02.1991) to rooms like the Caberet Metro (05.02.1992), The Vic (12.05/06.1992), and the venerable Aragon Ballroom (04.10.1993) and eventually to this very room for two quite memorable shows in June (06.18.1994, a day that also included an appearance on Danny Bonaduce’s radio show) and November (11.25.1994) of 1994 which were released in 2012 as a boxset. It should also be noted, with a big hat tip to GP420, that the band had played in the towns around Chicago several times over the years leading up to this run in places like The Gathering Place in Evanston (04.15.1991), Poplar Creek Music Center in Hoffman Estates (08.01.1992 as opener for Santana with the band coming out to play during the Santana headlining set as well), The Rosemont Horizon (10.31.1995, duh, how did I not include this after just going deep on a Halloween date??), and The World Music Theatre (08.14.1993, 08.08.1997, and the FarmAid concert on 10.03.1998 just a couple of weeks prior to this date – which we may cover on its own eventually). Over the years, Phish has continued to show their love for the Second City and its surroundings with many more shows including a couple of three night runs of great music (and sometimes horrible weather and questionable “guest” appearances…) that all started with these three from UIC.

These days the band is very good about their tour routing, generally having three night runs at a single venue start on Friday and run through Sunday night, allowing for travel days on each side – not to mention providing a little rest for all involved. On this tour the three night run in Chicago began on Saturday right on the heels of the Friday night show in Madison meaning that there would be a Monday show to cap the run before they headed up to Grand Rapids, MI for the Wednesday night special. But we have three nights of engaging Phish to discuss before we get to that.

Over the years, we as a fanbase have gotten pretty good at figuring out the various setlist signs that will clue you in even without hearing the show about some of what occurred that night.  Some of this is denotation (such as segue notation) and some of it is song choice (e.g. encores like Monkey>Rocky Top or Fire are generally good signs of a show that rips) or song placement (certain openers and closers can mean different things). I bring this up to highlight the history of the opener for this show, My Soul, a song that while nothing really too special on its own (it isn’t a jam vehicle and pretty well does the same thing most of the time) has been known to be the first set opener for some true classics over the years. Examples of this include 02.21.1997 with its jam-heavy first set (including the first YEM in Firenze ever) and the ‘heavy metal’ jamming and Reba of the second set, 11.23.1997 with the Theme>BEK and Stash->NICU in the first along with a seriously epic second frame anchored by Gin->Disease->Low Rider->Disease, 07.04.1999 with the Ya Mar and Ghost->Slave (listen for the notable teases) and the debut of WTU?, 05.22.2000 with what many consider their favorite Ghost ever (nothing wrong with that choice for sure), 10.20.2010 with the Guyutica fun and that second set, and 01.01.2011 with all that went down in that phenomenal night at MSG. Sure, there are times when the My Soul opener “rule” hasn’t held up but on this night that would not be the case.

So Phish took the stage at UIC for the first time in almost four years and cranked up the energy with the rocking My Soul we just mentioned. Things stay in the higher energy realm as the band then started up Mike’s for an early first set version. These days Mike’s Song has been a bit neutered compared to its time as one of the major jam vehicles in the repertoire – this past summer’s “return of the 2nd jam” notwithstanding – but in this time it was still a formidable tune. Tonight’s version has a first jam that chugs along through the power funk shred first jam before the band drops into a more subdued space, building the ambient motif that typifies this tour already. The resulting jam is quite beautiful and not what you expect out of Mike’s but it works well in providing transition to the songs that will bridge us from here to the Weekapaug we know is coming. I did say songS, and tonight the first of these is a pair with Trey on acoustic for Driver and Brian and Robert. The Wedge follows and does what it does in bringing the energy level up a bit from those acoustic tunes, not to mention being quite the far cry from the Slow Wedges of Spring ’93 even if it still isn’t a jammer. Limb by Limb follows and we get another lovely take on this song though perhaps not quite to the level of the one that preceded in Utah. By now you are starting to wonder just when they might wrap up this here Mike’s Groove considering we are four songs out from the beginning of the groove but this is starting to get to be a bit too much. Will the next song be the payoff?

Nope. Fikus it is here for what still stands as the final performance of the Story of the Ghost track. Sure, there are a couple of teases of the song later on in this tour but outside of that this dreamy escape has been relegated to the realms of super fan wishlists. Things stay in slower territory for Billy Breathes and then we get the grassy cover of Del McCoury’s Beauty of My Dreams and now FINALLY we get the set closing Weekapaug Groove we have been waiting for all set. We will get to the Paug in a second but first let’s talk about how we got here since this is not your standard Mike’s Groove by any means. For the majority of the suite’s existence I Am Hydrogen has graced the midground in the Groove with Spring ’93 being the first time since the pattern had settled for there to be any relatively frequent examples of the band deviating from the norm. This isn’t to say that Hydrogen disappeared entirely but that it couldn’t still be expected to definitely be the song to follow Mike’s on the way to Paug. I’m not going to detail every one of these deviations because they become more and more frequent throughout the mid and late 90s but it is interesting just how many songs the band plays here mid-groove, so to speak. I’m not really interested in taking the time to see just where this ranks in terms of distance between start and end of groove but I have to believe that sticking seven songs in there while also staying in the same set has to be up there in the rankings. So honestly, by the time they do get to this Paug set closer you have to wonder whether people had forgotten about the Mike’s being out there or if everyone was hanging on it in anticipation. Either way the payoff is worth it as they first build an engaging jam to punctuate the set before they drop down to allow Trey to speak over the rest of the band in thanking the crowd and mentioning the upcoming setbreak. Following this you know they will come back to a big peak and they do that but not before speeding everything up considerably and rocking the fuck out to close the set. This ends up being a fairly uneventful first set except for the Mike’s and Paug but the song choices are fresh and the playing is solid throughout. After a set like that though, one has to wonder what they have in store for after the break.

Well, one should have figured they were saving something for this set as they came out and dropped one of those good ol’ four song sets that get the kidz all riled up and frothing. Tonight the main attraction is the set opening ACDC Bag, a song that really came into its own as a jam vehicle about a year prior to this first with the multi-themed beast that came out of Ghost on 11.21.1997 in Hampton and then on that year’s NYE Run at MSG on 12.30.1997 with some of the same type of playing but even more to show as well. From then on the song has been considered a potential vehicle by fans as many often want, nay expect, that the song will stretch into a 20-minute juggernaut jam. While that may not be the case (especially here in 3.0) on this night in Chicago those wishes were heard as the band threw down a magical jam over more than twenty minutes of playing. Once the lyrical part of the song ends the band wastes no time in heading into the cowfunk on steroids beginning theme, eventually passing into that ambient space they have been exploring this tour. This first sounds familiar to what they have done with other jams of this kind in recent shows but eventually heads into a completely new space as they explore the ambience more deeply than any time previous on this tour, excepting perhaps the Vegas Wolfman’s though that goes in a decidedly different direction. Tonight everything is positive and glowing and the waves of musical ideas within the ambience further that feeling. If you know the comp that Mr. Miner put together under the moniker A Trip Through The Late 90s you will recognize some of the more melodic sections of this jam. Eventually, after several minutes of this bliss space they begin to build towards a transition which emerges as Ghost (matching the only other pairing of these songs in this order that occurred in another jam-heavy show from Prague on 07.06.1998. and to answer the obvious question, the only time Ghost has preceded Bag was in the aforementioned Hampton ’97 show. good company on both fronts…). Though this Ghost does not quite reach the heights of others in the history of the song it does get to several minutes of hardcore Phish funk. Shaking off the less dance-friendly aspects of the ambient jam that preceded it this jam will get you moving in that wonderful way, practicing all your deepest knee bends and funk’d up faces. Oddly though, rather than stretch this out into another segue or by moving back to the ambient they bring the song down by steps eventually simply fading out as if to say “okay, we’re good on that, let’s move on now”. But before doing so there is an almost familiar passage Trey throws in that hints heavily at Dear Prudence if not another Beatles tune. It almost feels like they will transition into something here but instead it fades out and we are on to the next song. (thanks to stapes for the reminder on this aspect of the Ghost)

At this stage you would be expecting a breather song or something at least a bit more in the box than what the prior 40-ish minutes had provided but instead they dive right into another meaty tune with our gal Reba. The song and first part of the jam are just fine and dandy but it is the back end of this jam that provides the payoff as they build and build to that satisfying peak of Reba that we all know and love. This not going to be a version you call out for the best ever conversation – looking at you, St. Denis Reba! (yes, I know there is a sbd version of this gem out there but I don’t have it upped anywhere right now so…) – but it does what you want in a Reba jam and that is a good thing.

We can even excuse the set closing Farmhouse that follows this (the only time it has ever filled the 2nd set closer slot, by the way…) because over the preceding 50 minutes or so Phish has just provided three great examples of the breadth of jamming styles that they are capable of in this era. SO with a bit of a letdown closer of sorts we head to the encore and tonight we get an interesting pair of not-similar-at-all songs in Guyute and While My Guitar Gently Weeps. The first rocks hard through its proggy progressions and then we get the mournful wail of the Beatles cover to send us home. These aren’t my favorite encores ever but really, how can one complain about encore selections? The whole point of an encore is to give a little more back to the fans once they have voiced their appreciation enough for the band to come back on stage (just ask Dean Ween about that – check the comments from Mickey on that post). And in Phish’s case the encore slots fill many different roles be it adding an exclamation point to a hot show, cooling the crowd down a tad before sending them off to Shakedown, or making a wry comment on one thing or another. I’d say that this encore accomplished the goal of giving everyone a bit more of what they wanted and sending things off on a high note (not literally though. WMGGW isn’t exactly a bliss peak type tune…). Anyway, the night was complete and we still have two more shows here to be played so let’s just move on.

Looking back over this one it is really a tale of two sets. The first set is a largely song-based affair but there is that one big highlight in Mike’s not to mention solid playing by the band throughout. The second set is all about the jam from the start with the only non-jammed tune being that odd closer choice. It would be interesting to hear what people would think of a show like this in 3.0 as it has a little bit of everything except maybe antics/humor. In the pantheon of great shows this one might not even crack the top 50 or 100 but it does give us a seminal jam that stands the test of time. I wouldn’t add this show to the canon of greats but I’ll gladly recommend it as a show that should be heard at least once. Your takeaways tonight are Mike’s, Bag->Ghost, and Reba with the Paug being one to add if you want to hear that frenetically fast finish.

Next up is the middle show of this run and it is a completely different sort of Phish than what we just covered. Should be interesting…

Provoking Dreams That Don’t Exist — Madison, WI 11.06.1998

Phish — Kohl Center — Madison, WI 11.06.1998

I  Possum, Wilson>Roggae, Maze, Meat>Sparkle>Melt

II  Makisupa>Funky Bitch, Simple->Caspian>Fluffhead, HYHU>Bike>HYHU, Hood

E  BOAF, Hello My Baby

Two nights later and close to a 1,000 miles from Denver Phish took the stage in Madison, WI on the first show of the Midwest section of this tour. This would be the first of seven shows over ten nights as they wound their way in a generally southeastern direction to the south of the Great Lakes before following the lines headed even further south. It is also the first of four shows in as many nights and the first time the band had played this college town since playing the Dane County Coliseum 10.24.1995 for a show that is long on great playing and big highlights, most notably the YEM->Monkey>Antelope. They had started playing Alpine Valley in the Summer of ’96 so this wasn’t the first time back in the state since then but it had been a few tours since the ‘Berkeley of the Midwest’ had been graced by the presence of Phish.

The first set kicks off with a punchy Possum where Trey gets the fingers warmed up nicely in running through the swampy twang rock of the setlist standard. They keep the energy waaaaaay up with a rocking Wilson that includes some of that ‘electro Trey’ playing in the pre-Blap Boom solo before heading into a curious segue to Roggae. The juxtaposition of these two songs is a bit jarring at first but once they get to the end jam all is good in the world. Maze follows and brings the energy back up again in a straight forward but typically frenetic version that has a solid organ solo from Page. Following the resolution of Maze they drop into the gooey funk humor of Meat before bringing out Sparkle for an uplifting if not FMS take on the staple. By this stage you get the point that they are building tension in the more subdued songs with the release payoff coming in the big peaks of the energy rockers in between so you look at the pattern and realize that with the Fast-Fast-Slow-Fast-Slow-Fast order we could be getting another big one to close the set and provide symmetry. Which is exactly what happens as they drop into what will be the set closing Melt. You should already know this version considering that it was released in its SBD glory as part of the second volume of the Superball FTA. If you are not familiar with it, go ahead and spin it because it is one to be heard. Here we get the Fall ’98 funk sound paired with one of the most psychedelic tunes in the catalog providing for a jam that begs you to move with it. The rhythm section is on point throughout here, never fully leaving the structure of the song as Trey solos around the theme over top of a chunky groove that you just don’t want to end. Unfortunately, it does end but not before we have been treated to a top notch Melt that showcases the ’98 sound quite well. Now it is off to setbreak to see if they serve cheese curds.

The second set, which you can view in its old VHS glory here, starts off with the first Makisupa Policeman of this tour and tonight’s key phrase is “university rent-a-cop”. The outro jam here keeps the lilting reggae beat while getting decidedly ambient which then leads to the first Funky Bitch of this young tour. Though about what you would expect here, Page goes on an organ bonanza (an organ-za, if you will) in taking the spotlight solo for tonight’s version of the Son Seals classic. Next up is Simple, the jam of which starts out in pure beautific style continuing on in this way for a bit before they head into some ambience that keeps the beauty flowing as Trey provides sonic color without overwhelming the music with too many loops and effects. This is bliss Phish without the resolving peak but once you hear the transition coming you understand why they do not pay this off within Simple. Instead we have a great segue into Caspian which is moving along as it does when – just as they are about to drop into the big solo out of Trey – a naked guy jumps up on stage (you can see it partially around 29:40 of that video linked above if you are so inclined). This spurs on Fish to repeatedly exclaim “bring him back!!” which along with the band building the crescendo whips the crowd into a bit of fervor. Things settle in for a jam that allows Trey to get his guitar god on as the band creates the envelope of sound around him before they drop it all down to some minimal space and Trey drops in the tell tale riff that brings us to Fluffhead (yet another first timer for this tour). This version is high on energy and is pretty well nailed by the band, something that becomes more and more rare as we head to late 1.0 and the full shelving of the song for 2.0. Here that is but a figment of future imaginations as it comes off quite nicely.

At this stage you have to think the band deserves a bit of a breather and we get that… kind of… as we have our first Fish Fun Time of the tour! WOOOOO!!!! ahem sorry. Just had to get that out of my system. I blame any leftover FFT joy from my daliances with the Spring ’93 stuff. Anyway, here we actually have a notable bit of HYHU as Page brings the theme back after the normal stopping point for another bit of the song. Not exactly the full band jam on HYHU like 05.07.1994 or something but a nice derivation. The Fish tune tonight is Bike and along with the expected vac solo we get introductions of the band members, though not like we typically enjoy. Tonight it is generic “drummer”, “bass player”, and “organ player” call outs.  After Bike as they do the kit switch in the outro HYHU Trey calls Fish “Bob Weaver” which was, of course, the preferred nom de plume of our oft-named octopus of a drummer throughout 1998. Incidentally, if you are looking for a pretty complete list of the nicknames that Fish has acquired over the years a good starting place is his bio on .net which also includes some other fun facts about the donut dress wearin’ dude. Once back to the kit Fish immediatley drops the opening beat for Harry Hood and we are back to the music. This set closing version is a nice uplifting take with a solid peak but it isn’t winning any awards in comparison to the many other Hoods it competes with from so many years of performances. It does provide a nice punctuation mark to the set though and sends us on our way to the encores which tonight include a quite spirited take on BOAF and the old a cappella ditty Hello My Baby. From there it is time to get to Chicago for tomorrow’s show which kicks off the three night run at the UIC Pavilion.

As with the preceding Denver show this one feels like something is left lacking but that is really only in comparison to the massively important shows that preceded it from Vegas and Utah. The reality is that this show has a solid first set capped by a wonderfully funky Split Open and Melt and a second set that never lags and is anchored by that Simple->Caspian>Fluffhead mid section. The band is definitely fully in the swing of this tour now and heading towards much bigger things as they go forward.  Your takeaways tonight are the Melt and the Simple->Caspian>Fluffhead but if you want more check out the Wilson>Roggae pairing and perhaps the Maki>Funky Bitch or the Hood. I’m trying to be a bit more conservative with what I recommend from these shows but considering the level of playing it is difficult to limit it without skipping songs I consider to be highlights. Oh well. I guess that means more Phish to spin. What a terrible fate…