And They Just Couldn’t Wait — Atlanta, GA 02.21.1993

Phish — The Roxy Theatre — Atlanta, GA 02.21.1993

I Suzy>Buried Alive, PYITE, Uncle Pen, Horn>CDT, Esther>DaaM>Bouncin>Antelope

II Axilla, Curtain>Stash->Manteca->Stash->Lizards, Gin->HYHU>Rosie>HYHU, Coil, BBFCFM

E Adeline, GTBT->Paul and Silas->Pig in a Pen

How do you follow up one of the better nights (up to that point) in your live musical career? Do you try to top it? Do you just say ‘screw it’ and go out there knowing you cannot live up to the previous show? Or do you do what you do which is to treat each night on stage as the special snowflake that it is with the understanding that the people who came out tonight are not the same crowd as the night prior and it is your job — nay your duty — to do whatever you can to try to melt their faces with the music you play on this night? Rhetorical questions, obviously, but this show points out the challenge of being a touring musician, playing your fifth show in as many nights (not to mention knowing they had to hit the road to make it to Gainesville, FL for the next night) and working as hard as you can to achieve that connection you know is out there just waiting to be found and fostered so that the fans that came to this show get as much out of it as you can give them. On this night, planted firmly in the shadow of the one that preceded it we get a little bit of all of the above as the band brings as much energy and musicality as they can to the proceedings while also clearly fighting the fatigue and ‘hangover’ from the prior few nights’ shows. This is not to say that the show suffers but in reality it is not quite to the level of the two nights that preceded it, hetty jams therein notwithstanding. But let’s get into things to see what went down, shall we?

The first set kicks off with a somewhat rare different intro to Suzy as they harmonize a line a cappella before diving into the song proper. This isn’t the first time (or last) that this would occur (summer 1992 has a few, for example). Trey slips in a Tweezer tease along the way, perhaps reflecting back to the previous night’s epic second set but also hinting they are raring to get after it again. They take this into a quick Buried Alive and then run through a still-pretty-rough-around-the-edges PYITE. Uncle Pen and Horn bring us then to CDT which rages in that way it did in the compact form it maintained in this era and then we are on to Esther. Page toys around with the intro here, adding some ‘reggae’ flavoring while the band banters about him ‘moving his organ’ so that everyone can see what he is doing. After Esther (which includes a Simpsons SL) they roll right into the tour debut of Dinner and a Movie before hitting Bouncin’ on their way to the big Antelope closer. This Lope has a Woody Woodpecker tease and some Secret Language (Random Note) but the real reason to spin it is the push towards taking this one outside the lines with Page adding to the dissonance and everything leading to a well executed peak. Now we are at setbreak and when not comparing this set to the show the night before people were probably starting to realize they should just go ahead and call out from work the next, oh, week or so and go ahead and follow the band down to Florida since the music was so hot. I know I would have had that conversation… at least with myself.

After the break the band comes out firing, ripping through Axilla and The Curtain before kicking off a Stash that will eventually become one of those Stashtecas the kids are always on about. This one is not as fully developed as the one from 11.14.1995 (part of that amazing set) or the one from 10.30.1998 (with the masterful transition both to Manteca and eventually to Tweezer and beyond) but it has its value. You get the typical Stash fare of ’93 in the first half and then they take it down quite low before making the move to Manteca (107 show bustout!) and then eventually bringing it back home for the release from Stash. They then go directly into Lizards after another fine segue and this one is about what you expect out of the Gamehendge tune. Next up is a somewhat rare for the time (heck it is rare now too!) second set Bathtub Gin that actually stretches a bit more than what is typical for the song in this era (remember, this song did not really take off as a potential jam vehicle until August ’93 with the Tampa and the probably-doesn’t-need-to-be-mentioned-because-you-should-already-know-it-by-heart Murat version) before heading directly into HYHU for Fish Fun Time. I’ll stop here for a second to point out that they were definitely trying to replicate something of the previous night with all of the seguery here but it doesn’t pop quite as much as that set perhaps due to the songs involved or the way it is handled, which is not to say it is ‘forced’ but that there is something just missing in the execution (even though the segues themselves are quite good here). Perhaps it was the total reckless abandon with which they attacked those songs the night before, throwing in teases and callbacks to prior songs while also layering them seemingly on top of each other. Really, it is just a matter of trying to compare one subjective thing to another. So we will move on with that. After HYHU we have some typical Fish banter, the second Rosie of the tour, and (after Rosie) Trey mentioning how they don’t want to leave the Roxy to head forward on tour. Aaaawww. Anyway, next is a fine Squirming Coil with Page doing his thing and then a typically fun BBFCFM closer to wrap up the set. After that you’d think we were about headed to the exists with a quick encore but they still have some tricks up their collective sleeves (and mumus) as after the standard a cappella number (Adeline tonight) they bring out another guest, the Reverend Jeff Mosier, who like Mr. Herring was also a member of the ARU family tree with their roots here in Atlanta. This is very notable sit-in as it is the first [known] example of him bringing his bluegrass stylings to the Phish stage but it most certainly would not be the last as we would all grow to know him quite well over the Fall 1994 Tour, specifically the Midwest section where he hopped on the bus and sat in for several tunes in several shows (aside: this is another tour I plan on eventually covering. but we will get to all of that eventually…). The first song they tackled was GTBT, putting a grassy spin on the typically raging rock classic before heading straight into the only repeat song of the three show run, Paul and Silas. This gives way to a direct transition to the Phish debut of Pig in a Pen which caps the night off and sends everyone home to check those finance boxes about that notion they had over setbreak.

As I said, this show is not the one from the previous night but it does have its highlights and takeaways. For respins, I’d recommend the Antelope, Stashteca, Gin->Lizards, and the encores if you are into the grassy side of the band. And with that in mind, if you have never taken the time to check it out, I highly recommend devoting the hour and twenty minutes required to watch the Phish Bluegrass Sessions video which was filmed along the path of the Fall 1994 tour, mostly by Rev. Jeff Mosier himself. Realistically, the biggest takeaway from this show is the introduction is allowed for that to happen at all considering his sit-in here and the background story which places he, Trey, and Mike playing bluegrass tunes backstage after this show for more than an hour to the crew, family members, and other hangers on before they hit the road and followed the lines headed south to Gainesville, FL. This summary isn’t the place to get into the full dissection of how that impacted the band but knowing that this is the probable starting point for it is important. So chalk another one up to the band finding the connection they can on the back end of a big run. And next we will dive into the band’s first ever shows in Florida which include some things that set the stage for the rest of the tour as it progresses further west.

The Resounding Echoes Grow — Atlanta, GA 02.20.1993

Phish — The Roxy Theatre — Atlanta, GA 02.20.1993

I Golgi, Foam, Sloth, Possum?Weigh>ATR, Divided, Horse>Silent>Fluffhead, Cavern

II Wilson>Reba>Tweezer->Walk Away->Tweezer>Glide>Mike’s->MMGAMOIO->Mike’s>H2->VoL->Kung->H2>Weekapaug->Have Mercy->Weekapaug->Rock and Roll All Night Jam->Weekapaug, FEFY>BBJ>HYHU>Terrapin>HYHU->Hood, Reprise

E Sleeping Monkey

You see that setlist up there? That right there is Phish in a nutshell, particularly the Phish that existed in the early to mid 90s traversing the country time and again building the fanbase we have today one show at a time. By this time they were not quite well known but regarded highly enough in certain regions of the country that they could play a three night run more than 1,000 miles from their home base in Vermont to a sold out crowd and drop that show seemingly without any notice that something like this was coming. Sure, the signs are there if you listen closely enough to the earlier shows on the tour as they warmed up and reconnected after the short break between the 1992 New Year’s Run shows and the Spring 1993 Tour that began about a month later. But up to this point in the year they had not broken out this brand of Phish yet, choosing instead to focus on more straight forward shows that highlighted the songs on the recently released Rift album while interspersing older songs and some new music in as well. Maybe this was the “make up” show for the one at the Variety Playhouse from just under a year prior that got abandoned only a few a cappella numbers into the second set when a flood in the venue caused officials to not allow the band to plug in and play. Trey had hinted at that flood during the previous show’s Colonel Forbin’s Ascent narration but here, seemingly, was the payoff since that night was more about celebrating Fish’s birthday and inviting Jimmy Herring to join in for the back half of the second set than it was about making any kind of larger musical statement. So here it would be, the show that would eventually make this three night run legendary and part of the lasting canon of the band’s legacy, a show that was at least partially nodded to as recently as 07.27.2014 at Merriweather Post Pavilion what with that show’s twists, turns, and returns to the overarching theme of Tweezer while also stringing the majority of the music together without much of a break to to speak of once they took the stage for the second set. Rather than effervesce here about what this night means in the larger scheme let’s dive in and take a look at what really makes this show stand the test of time: the music. Because if nothing else it is the music that tells the story and everything else is simply statistical detail.

First set starts off innocently enough with a few warm up numbers in Golgi, Foam, Sloth before Trey seems to wake up a bit for Possum (this is not to say the playing is off before this just that they really get going as of the Possum). This is your typical straight forward rocking Possum and by now four rocking songs into the set the crowd is fully warmed up as is the band. This brings us to the always fun Weigh and a fine ATR before a Divided that is clean, powerful and pretty… like my wife! Horse>Silent gets us to a perfectly serviceable Fluff and Cavern ends the set which all feels like table setting. There’s nothing bad in this set but nothing great either. You just aren’t going to have a legendary set on your hands when Divided and Fluffhead ‘carry’ the weight of the set. But it is a first set which is meant to focus more on songs than jams anyway so there is nothing wrong with calling the set what it is and realizing that it is all done simply to set the stage for what they get into after the break. It feels like they are just getting ready to drop IT all on us and holy shit are they ever.

Strap in, this second set summary may take a while…

So the second set starts off with one of those slow-ish Wilsons where they drop some secret language (Simpsons here) and a tease (Iron Man – this is just the start of much much much more to come in this set) before ratcheting things up to the peak before working towards Reba and this is a keeper version to be sure. The pace is quick, the playing is tight, and Trey slips in some Woody Woodpecker teasing which works perfectly in this jam that also has some inklings of Stash and Lizards mixed in before they go into Tweezer. From here things start to really get nutty as this one has not only a Low Rider jam but some Das EFX teases (seriously. go spin this and then the Tweezer and you will hear it) before going into Walk Away (tour debut and 159 show bustout!) and then back to Tweezer. Then they segue into Glide which has an undercurrent of Tweezer from Trey as they move through Glide before they go into Mike’s Song (while stretching the Gliiiiiiiiiiide out into the Mike’s intro which is nice). At this point I should probably just start another paragraph because shit gets real.

Mike’s starts up and they are having fun with the lyrics, changing it up a bit and then the next thing you know Trey is playing Reba, then they are playing Tweezer, then Lizards, the Wilson “blap boom”, then a bit of Stash, then back to Mike’s before ho hum I guess we’ll just do MMGAMOIO before going back to Mike’s and then why don’t we just move over into H2 now?Oh and by the way we’re going to do the Vibe of Life with some N2O undercurrents and add in Kung too while we are at it, tease Entrance of the Gladiators and NO2 and then maybe we’ll finish up and head to Paug, ok? Oh, you thought we were done having fun here? Now let’s just go ahead and rip into that Paug before executing a great segue into Have Mercy over the Paug groove (ho hum, only 669 shows between appearances there), working back to Paug, getting into a Rock and Roll All Nite jam (complete with a fan on vocals – in costume as Gene Simmons no less), and then returning to Paug to cap that off. Yeah. So let’s just take a little breather here and reflect on what just happened.

Got your wits about you now? Okay, let’s keep going… FEFY>BBJ>Fish Fun for Terrapin ought to do it. Heck they even throw a tease in there as HYHU gets teased in Terrapin (which also includes a lengthy series of band and crew introductions). 20 minutes later give or take and we are on to a wonderfully open Hood that provides a nice punctuation mark on a fantastic set of phish. This one goes to eleven. Then the Reprise closer really seals the deal and Monkey provides the denouement it typically does for such things in the encore.

So I’m going to tell you straight up that if you are not familiar with this show you really need to just go ahead and spin it straight through. I get if the ’93 sound isn’t your thing and you like the big open jams of later years or cowfunk or ambient washes or whale’d out jams or songs about doing lines with basketball players (that’s what that song’s about, right?) but this? This is canonical phish.This is a brand of phish that many of us cut our teeth on. I have joked in the past that this set is what the 07.27.2014 set II wants to be when it grows up and honestly there’s some truth in it. Sure, they were harkening back to this sort of set with that show but this is what that came from and what people talk about when they refer to ‘turn on a dime’ mastery phish. It is tough to say now how much of this set was planned ahead of time and how much happened in the moment but considering the setting and time period my money is on it all being a spontaneous outpouring of everything up to that point from the band. This is a touchpoint show that can be pointed to as one of those moments when it all came together. The wonderful thing is that for some bands this would be their peak, the thing to which they aspire and a show that they would talk about longingly in the future as ‘that time when it all made sense and just worked’ for them as musicians. But this is Phish we are talking about here and this show is exciting not only for the music it provided us but also that it is just one of many false peaks along the path as they continually challenge themselves and alter their course by pushing the boundaries of what their music can be.

I know I have already written a lot here and I don’t want to go on for too long (too late!) but this show epitomizes Phish in so many ways. Here we have evident the full gamut of Phish with their tight playing, high energy, playfulness, antics, mastery of varied forms of music, ability to alter the show based on the mood of the room, and their eagerness at pushing the envelope. This show not only culminates everything that came before it (recall that the better 1992 shows are high on energy, segues, teases, etc. but a bit light on open jamming) while also pointing openly to the future that lay ahead. It is the type of show you give to people who want to be introduced to the band just to show them the possibilities of what Phish can do. By this time I had enough of a baseline with Phish that when the tapes reached me (pretty quickly, I might add. this show hit heavy circulation very quickly) that I could hear what this show meant in the context of where they were as a band at that stage but if this was your first show or the first tape someone handed to you, honestly, how would you react to it? To my mind, this was the type of thing Trey was always referring to when he talked about people coming to their shows and not being ‘in on the joke’. Just imagine having no baseline for this band and having something like this be your entry point. It would be totally polarizing but hopefully if you are in the right frame of mind could catapult you into the world we all inhabit. This is truly the type of tape I would give to a friend to see if they “get it” when they ask what phish is “really” about (back in the day – now that story is different).

And if this type of show isn’t your thing? That’s fine. We all came into the scene at different stages and for that reason perhaps appreciate different aspects of what make the band what they are to us. But even if this isn’t your favorite flavor of Phish you have to realize the significance not only of what this set means musically but also in the larger picture of where they were headed soon after this. The jams would only get bigger and more open from here but the spirit of this show shines forth in other classics that came after it such as 05.07.1994 (Bomb Factory, of course), 06.22.1994 (Columbus, OH), 07.13.1994 (Patterson, NY), 12.01.1994 (Salem, OR), 12.14.1995 (Binghamton, NY), 06.27.2010 (Merriweather Post Pavilion), and the aforementioned 07.27.2014 (also MPP). It would eventually pave the way for the four song set era where sets generally did not have much of a stop if at all in getting through those massive jam vehicles. Now it is yet another tool in the arsenal that they can call on or ‘get to’ when pushing the music forward. And having such a versatile band is one of the things that attracts us to following them, is it not? I mean, who would want to go see basically the same show time and again year after year? That’s just boring.

You have read more than enough on this topic so with that I will end this post. If you do not yet have this show memorized I strongly urge you to get on that homework. There are much worse things you could do with your time than to revel in the jaw-dropping greatness of what still stands as one of the top shows the band has ever played.

The Room Begins to Spin — Atlanta, GA 02.19.1993

Phish — The Roxy Theatre — Atlanta, GA 02.19.1993

I Cup, Rift, Melt, Fee->Maze, Forbin’s>Mockingbird>Sparkle, MFMF, Poor Heart>Bowie->Moby Dick>Bowie

II Jim, Ice, Paul & Silas, YEM>Ya Mar, BBJ, Lawn Boy, Funky Bitch, MSO, HYHU>Love You, HYHU, Llama, Grace

E Bag

Ah, the last (of two) of Fish’s birthday shows… and the first of what would become quite a notable run in the band’s history — one that was eventually released as a high quality boxset for you to enjoy. Incidentally, this would be the first three show run at any single venue by the band since 1990 (not including the three shows at the Greek in August ’92 when they opened for Santana each night) when they did it twice: The Front in Burlington, VT (03.09-11.1990) and The Inferno in Steamboat Springs, CO (04.12-14.1990). Let me just start out by saying that the thirteen shows on the tour that lead up to this run all pretty much pale overall in comparison to what happens here. Sure, there are individual jams that might outpace some of the stuff here (and honestly this first night is probably the weakest in overall jamming considering it was the Fish birthday party and Herring sit-in night) but from the very start you can tell they mean business. Maybe they are finally warmed up, maybe it is the presence of other great musicians in the room, maybe it is Fish’s birthday, or maybe it is something else, but whatever it is they have IT here. So let’s get down to it, shall we?

The first set kicks off with Cup and this is definitely the best version of the song yet with Trey going big with his solo and Page really giving the baby grand the business. This carries over into Rift, the oft played number that hasn’t really clicked much this tour. This is definitely being used as a warm up tune here but Trey is already on fire, totally taking it where he wants without any inklings of borked notes or missed opportunity. Then we get a fast paced Melt that has a lot of Trey out in front, bending notes in ways that hint at where this song is destined to go in a few short months. But the real takeaway here is a lead line Trey adds on the journey back towards the main theme that takes this thing next level. There really is a lot packed into this relatively short version. Fee is next and while ‘normal’ has a nice segue into a positively smoking shredder Maze. Trey is hitting all the notes tonight and this Maze is Trza personified. Then we get a fantastic Forbin narration that starts as a callback to the last time they were in Atlanta and got flooded out of the Variety Playhouse (which may be another reason they are taking it up a notch) but then goes to something else entirely in the way the good Trey stories do before a beaut of a Mockingbird completes the tale (listen for a ‘Charge!’ tease in the Mockingbird). Sparkle and MFMF come in next and then there’s a Poor heart that again showcases just how on point Trey is this night. I can’t believe I’m even calling out Poor Heart but here we are. But now we get to the meat which is the set closing Bowie->Moby Dick>Bowie which starts out with some fun teases (Jingle Jangle Jingle, Happy Birthday, Moby Dick, Happy Trails), birthday shoutouts, and whatnot before heading into the debut of Moby Dick (with vacuum, natch) and then they get into the Bowie itself for a very nice jam and some more Moby Dickery in the wrap up of Bowie. Great capper to that set and we are left wanting more as we head to the setbreak to check out the Spanish Baroque architecture of this old venue.

Second set starts out with a fine example of where Jim is at this stage (which is still about a month from going ‘away from script’) but again Trey is exerting his clear influence on this night. Then we get the fourth Ice to follow Jim on this tour (and it won’t be the last) in a fairly standard version (another tune that didn’t get weird until a bit later). Quick dip in the bluegrass for Paul & Silas and then a midset YEM which is well played but without any major takeways other than “yeah, that was pretty nice”. A fun Ya Mar with Mike babble chanting and a ‘Happy Birthday’ tease is next followed by BBJ (Charge tease) and Lawn Boy with Page noting the presence of his parents in the crowd before we get to Jimmy Herring joining the fray for the remainder of the set. First up is Funky Bitch and Trey and Jimmy trade solos in a fiery version where they seem to be checking each other out a bit. MSO is up next and Jimmy gets a solo before they cut it to bring Fish out for Love You where, along with Fish beginning a joke of introducing Jimmy Herring repeatedly for the rest of the show and another ‘Happy Birthday’ tease, Jimmy gets a solo and Fish is presented with a Flavor Flav style neck clock to help him get to the bus on time as is part of the running bet thing this tour (there is no mention of what the bet is up to at this stage though). There’s also some fun in trying to get Col. Bruce Hampton up on stage but that doesn’t happen so we will just move on then. After all of this fun you get a seriously shredded Llama with Page, Jimmy, and Trey all taking solos before an a cappella Grace closer and then the bustout Bag (84 shows woo!) encore that was apparently a gift for someone else’s birthday who they may have met the night before or something. I don’t know. Go check the show notes on .net or .com for more on that ‘Hack’.

Overall this is clearly one of the better shows they have played on the ’93 tour so far and shows they are hitting stride in fine fashion. As said above, this is not the big jam show if you are looking for that but the playing is sharp, the band is clearly having a great time, the sit-in does not detract from the vibe of the show at all (in fact it probably adds to it), and you can tell they are settling in for bigger things to come from this weekend run. Interestingly enough, outside of YEM there really isn’t a big vehicle in the second set, something that will bear fruit for us in the next show, one that is really where the legend of this run grew and one of those shows that you can point to as a taking off moment for both the band and scene in general. The takeaways here are probably the Melt, Bowie->Moby Dick>Bowie and maybe Llama but this one is more than the sum of its parts. Go spin it for Fish’s sake as he hasn’t gotten a birthday show since this one.

Bereft of Oar — Knoxville, TN 02.18.1993

Phish — Electric Ballroom — Knoxville, TN 02.18.1993

I CDT, Guelah, Poor Heart>Tweezer->Foam, Sparkle>Cavern>Reba, Lawn Boy, Antelope

II Rift, Stash, Lizards, PYITE, Mike’s>H2>Paug, Mound, Grace, Memories, Adeline, Rocky Top

This is a another one off show on the way south towards what would be a band-defining three night run and here I am already getting ahead of myself because how would they know this at that point? But here we are thirteen shows into the tour and you can hear how they have come together as a band musically to form one unit within the music even when the venue and everything else around them conspire against them. I’ll explain as we go along…

First set kicks off a very nice quality sbd recording with a fiery CDT and Guelah (a tune they used to play quite a lot, quite well, and quite often in this second song first set slot) before a quick Poor Heart precedes a first set Tweezer that really deserves your time here. Before we get to the Tweezer I do want to note that Trey is using his echo repeater on vocals more than normal tonight as it has popped up already in both of the songs we have heard. Not unusual for Guelah but a little more so for CDT. Anyway, back to the Tweez. It is all pretty well ‘type I’ but Trey is really giving his ‘doc the business while Fish pounds away and Page/Mike add color behind it all to form a tapestry of tweezer-y goodness. Getting something like that even now would be quite the breath of fresh air and then Trey starts up a melodic line for which the pace quickens and before you know it we are in Foam! This is a pretty clean version with Trey playing a very crisp solo but nothing out of the ordinary, honestly. Realistically, it takes a lot for Foam to be notable above “hey, they played it well tonight and I danced a lot” but these ’93 versions all have a good pop to them in the execution. Sparkle>Cavern>Reba gets us to our next bit of jamming. It is a touch sloppy in getting there but who cares and then Trey and Page play off each other on some quite lovely stuff before The Trza gets his trill on and it goes stratospheric in the way Reba does for those couple of minutes. Grand stuff. Then we get a Lawn Boy with the somewhat rare Trey solo (though seemingly somewhat common on this tour so far as we have seen) and another raging Lope closer (kinda what they did with it then, huh?). This one is flavored with some teasing (Hall of the Mountain King from Page and then Another One Bites the Dust in more than one spot) and SL (All Fall Down). Trey has some interesting things going on here even during the ‘rye rye rocco’ section. Overall, a pretty solid first frame. Doesn’t hurt that the sbd is crisp, making it much easier to here what is going on with the band. Now we are off to set break to discuss the current state of Volunteer athletics which at this time was interesting considering the football team was leaving the Johnny Majors era for the Phillip Fulmer era to begin the following fall. I’m sure there were some fiery arguments about it over hotdogs and soda pop while everyone waited for the lights to go back down.

Second set kicks off with the then all but ubiquitous Rift (okay, this is “only” the 8th of 13 shows but still…) before a quick dip Stash pops in. Today we’d be whining up and down about a nine minute second set Stash but such is life in these times. This one is obviously straight forward but Trey does drag on his leads to create some nice T&R while Page pounds away on the baby grand before Trey builds it back for the ‘maybe so’ part. Not too shabby but leaves one wanting. A lovely Lizards provides interlude (Page on the BG really adds to this tune in the live setting) before Trey asks whether they “should do it” and the band plays a regrettable PYITE that perhaps they ‘shouldn’t’ have. It is just really botched on several fronts (in the back half – the first part is actually not bad at all) to the extent that Trey apologizes during the song. Yikes. Anyway, it is around this time that on the tape you can start to sense that something is going on with the sound system but we aren’t really sure just yet what that might be. So the band heads into Mike’s, does that with the tramps and all*, works through H2 (much better than the previous version in Chapel Hill to be certain), and then heads into Paug for a rocking good time. There’s actually a couple of chords at the start here that could be considered teasing of some sort from Page but I don’t know what he is hinting at before the Paug takes hold. You get the Mike “MAKE!” yelling which is always amusing before they jump on the jam here. Fun stuff to dance to if you are into that sort of thing which a lot of Phish fans are, I am told. Aaaaaand now we hit our snag. The available recordings of this show seem to cut the end of that Paug before they wrap it up and then we jump into the middle of the subsequent Mound which is okay, I guess, except that once they wrap Mound up we learn that the soundboard is fried. oops. That will wrap up the recorded portion of the evening. (Page blames it on a spilled drink here but the .com show notes say it was dripping condensation from the roof of this warehouse-cum-ballroom). Everything from here on out was done un-amplified and that went Grace (that makes 11 in 13 shows!), Memories (tour debut!!), Adeline (exclamation points!!!), Rocky Top (with Page on piano and Fish on trombone!). There was no encore. Sad.

So putting the soundboard issues aside, the band is playing well here. They are connecting and the jams are starting to really come together as we will see even more so over the course of the next several shows. Your takeaways here are Tweezer->Foam, Reba, Antelope, and possibly the whole Mike’s Groove but focus on the Paug for what they do there in six short minutes. There is nothing earth-shattering to be found in this show but in each of those examples you have a few minutes of connection and new ideas sprouting forth that should engage you enough to elicit at least a small grin. Unless you are jaded in which case good luck with all that. Realistically, the major thing to take away here is that they are becoming more connected as the tour goes on, not only playing sharper but testing each other with different takes on the same songs. Having the benefit of hindsight here it is very encouraging to hear how this progression is going considering what we know is coming in on the next three show run in Atlanta and beyond. You almost feel like cheering them on to bigger heights. Woooooooo! Go Phish!!! You can do it!!

—

*I really believe that this part of The Groove did not really take off as a true jam vehicle until the tramps went away. Sure, they were fun to see and there are those who want them to return but that is a gimmick that really just takes away from the musicians doing what they do. I mean, it’s not like something truly essential like a catapult foot trigger to release a drill to create soundscapes on the bass or something. Geez.

Ponder the Yonder — Winston-Salem, NC 02.17.1993

Phish — Benton Convention Center — Winston-Salem, NC 02.17.1993

I Buried Alive>Possum>Weigh>ATR, Sloth, Jim, Ice>Bouncin’, Fluffhead>Maze, Golgi

II Axilla>Landlady>Bowie, Glide, MFMF, BBJ, MSO>Horn>YEM, HYHU>Lengthwise>HYHU, Coil

E Carolina, GTBT

Some shows can look wholly pedestrian on paper and turn out to be absolute smokers. Other shows look fantastic on paper and then end up being largely underwhelming. And most shows fall somewhere in between with the setlist hiding the truth of what occurred, relying on our listening to get to a resemblance of the truth. I mention all of this in starting out the conversation on today’s subject show because on paper this one looks like it has a lot of potential. And it does have potential but it goes largely unfulfilled as the band never fully connects. By no means does this imply that there are not some moments in this show that deserve our attention because at the end of the day even the most flat performance by the band will have ardent defenders who found themselves in the middle of ::insert song here:: or felt particularly elevated by the communal experience they shared with the other spunions in their midst. And this one in particular is pretty uneven so there are definitely a few of those ‘moments of IT’ to be found mingling with the headscratchers, teases, and more. Oh, and just to address the venue they played here, it appears that based on the capacity .com says was for the ballroom they played in this convention center facility that they played in the South Exhibit Hall. So that’s something. Nothing quite as intimate as playing in the same room that a bunch of dentists or something probably used to hold meetings on prevailing trends in their industry (hopefully even the next day with the funny smells that follow phish shows still lingering in the HVAC units). Can’t say for certain but one would have to think that this kind of venue didn’t exactly help with the goings on of the band’s visit here.

The first set starts off promisingly enough with another string of songs being strung together before they come up for air. On this night we have Buried>Possum>Weigh>ATR and the only thing to note here from these mainly energy-building numbers is that Trey throws a ‘Sex Machine’ tease into Possum and also toys around with the Oh Kee Pa meoldy in the middle of Weigh. Other than that these are just table setting. A quick run through The Sloth gets us to the only real highlight of the set which is a straight rocking Jim where Trey is out front throwing ideas around. He takes a moment after Jim to give some thanks and then we are on to another group of tunes as they put Ice>Bouncin’>Fluff>Maze together. Ice and Bouncin’ do what they do and then we have the big energy peak of Fluff (but it is a bit rough in getting there) and the highlight of this section in Maze. This is still a pretty straight forward Maze though as there is no real new ground covered. The set is closed by Golgi which isn’t really anything special, now is it? Aside from the juxtaposition segues, write down this setlist and you have a pretty standard first set from any era (and one you could actually expect these days if you replace one or two of the less common songs with some 3.0 material.) So now it is on to the setbreak to look at the beautiful ballroom and other unique features of a block building whose greatest attribute may be that it is connected to nearby hotels. Not that many fans were doing the hotel circuit back then but whatever. I’m sure at least a few fans benefited from this. Trey also tells the crowd “don’t believe everything you read” which is a confusing statement to come out of a guy who will spend the next 20 years telling us to reading the fucking book (the right way)

The real meat of this one lies in the second set though so perhaps the band went back to the conference room they had booked here to make some flow charts and brainstorm ideas for how to get outside of the box that kept them from elevating in that first set. Or maybe they just had some sandwiches and beer. Who knows. But the intent is better in this set as they get things going right away with Axilla>Landlady>Bowie. Those first two are your energy builders before Bowie which ends up being a pretty nice version. First there’s some SL in the intro (Simpsons, Random Note, Oom Pa Pa) which also has some unique melodic interplay between Trey and Mike but then they really take off in the jam, giving us a great example of the growing potential of this vehicle. This one has hints of the massive versions of ’94 and ’95 while staying rooted in its 93-ness too. Put this one in your trapper keeper for that Bowie jam evolution term paper you have due in a few weeks. I’ll be sending out reminders soon and docking hetty brah points for tardiness. Don’t just think you can wook your way through life, son. Glide and MFMF (with acoustic intro, naturally) fill space next and realistically that’s about all they do. BBJ is notable because Page throws in some teases (Charge, Call to Post) and then we have its spiritual partner My Sweet One that brings us to a fine enough Horn. In case you are wondering about that “spiritual partner” comment, listen to Fish on both BBJ and MSO. And then look at how many times the two songs are paired up. Figure it out yet? Okay, moving on here, we next have a pretty engaging YEM that benefits mainly from the teases and musical quotes rather than from the main form of the song itself. That’s not to say that it is played poorly but rather that what makes it notable are the Mission Impossible tease (Page), Black and White tease from Mike (not the Black and White we heard during Harpua the other night. The other one. You know, Three Dog Night), and the Sunshine of Your Love jam (with lyrics in the VJ, which also has some sneezing and the choir ending). I really hope you clicked on that first link because I know I had totally forgotten about that video and the fact that George Wendt and McCauley Culkin both appear there. Man, the late 80s and early 90s were quite a different time, huh? Next up is Fish Fun Time and here we have a bit of an extended HYHU that bleeds into a fun take on Lengthwise that goes reggae and also has vac interspersed in there. Coil wraps up the set with Trey and Mike not really on the same page before Page does his thing in closing up shop. Carolina gets the a cappella nod tonight, giving Amazing Grace the night off (finally!) and getting its tour debut in the process. I’ve never heard the GTBT from this one as most tapes available cut just a few seconds into the Carolina but I’m sure it was fun because who doesn’t love that cover as an encore?

Okay, so maybe I was a little harsh on this show up top but the reality is that this show is largely underwhelming. Yes, there are a couple of highlights (Bowie, YEM, maybe Lengthwise to hear this unique take) but other than that it feels like a lot of filler. I am convinced that the type of venue had to play a role somewhat as that can influence the crowd which has a direct influence on the band. In the end, there are so many much better shows out there that we don’t need to belabor the point here, though at least we can find those nuggets here to catch before moving on to bigger and brighter options. Besides, a couple of shows from now they would throw down one that is canon so maybe they were just sandbagging.

Tie a Cable to a Tree — Chapel Hill, NC 02.15.1993

Phish — Memorial Hall, University of North Carolina — Chapel Hill, NC 02.15.1993

I Grace, Suzy>Sparkle>Guelah, Divided, Esther>CDT, Mound, Stash, IDK, Antelope

II Rift, FEFY, Reba, Mike’s>H2>Paug, Wedge, Poor Heart, BBJ>HYHU>Bike>HYHU, Fee>Llama

E Contact, Fire

After a day of travel spent getting from Delaware to North Carolina (and celebrating Valentine’s Day by weaving grass rings, listening to Brazilian music, and dancing all night with their respective SOs of the time, of course, though I doubt they had time to hike a long trail to a spring or swim at dawn) Phish found themselves in Chapel Hill for the first time since their last show at the Cat’s Cradle back in November 1991, a venue they played six times between 1990 and 1991. If you had a tape back in the day that had Roll Like a Cantaloupe on it as filler there is a good chance it came from that 11.14.1991 show here. But now they have moved up to a bigger room, playing at the on campus Memorial Hall (and for the last time in Chapel Hill as their subsequent visits to North Carolina would be to bigger markets such as Raleigh, Charlotte, Winston-Salem and the like) which has about double the capacity of the former venue. This is something that was common on this tour as they capitalized on the growth in the fanbase and graduated from the bars and small theaters to ones with more capacity. This is still far from the big sheds and arenas that the band eventually would play only a couple of years later but the move is a significant one in the evolution of the band both culturally and musically.

For this one they decided to flip the script a bit by having Amazing Grace open the show, something that had yet to occur in the song’s brief history. Heck, the earliest it had been played up to this point (as we saw with our geek out yesterday) was as the second set closer. Next up is the ‘real’ opening segment for the show as they strung Suzy>Sparkle>Guelah together as a suite of get-the-heck-up-and-start-dancing numbers. Next up is a reasonably well played Divided before they get into Esther. This time the sad tale included a Random Note SL and had a bit of an extended intro but it is otherwise exactly what you’d expect. After these two largely composed songs they threw in a CDT that includes some inspired playing from Trey as they employed their fast-jamming technique to present several ideas within the short framework of this 6+ minute version. Mound pops into the first set for the first time this tour next and then we have a very T&R filled Stash that doesn’t stretch the song so much as providing opportunity for release here in the midset jam slot. Fish (ahem. “The Little Beast Boy Tubbs”) comes out for the trombone solo during the IDK that follows and this one also has a nifty little vocal scat section before the rejoinder. The set is capped off with a raging Antelope that has some more SL (All Fall Down, Oom Pa Pa) right before the ‘Rye Rye Rocco’ section. This one also includes some nice ideas out of Page on the piano in pushing the jam towards the big peak prior to the break, layering some almost dance-y lines in amongst Trey, Mike, and Fish’s frenzied playing. Trey then reminds everyone in the crowd to remain calm before they leave for the setbreak which is an awfully lovely nice sentiment for him to pass on here. Such a friendly fellow, that one.

Apparently, the band didn’t fully embrace Trey’s advice over setbreak as they come out with a somewhat shaky take on Rift with Fish seeming to be slightly ahead of the rest of the band as they plug their way through the song. They seem to catch up to each other in the FEFY that follows and then Reba shows up to really make things right. This ends up being the real vehicle of the second set as the rest of the show is plagued with a variety of sound issues and other problems that we will get to forthwith. But first there is Reba which is highlighted by Trey plucking around for a bit over Mike and Fish’s pocket while Page adds some fills before they all collectively swell towards the peak as Trey gathers momentum. It is worth your time. Mike’s is next and works well enough in the short time it fills though the timing seems off from the start in some way. But when they drop into H2 you can tell things are amiss. This gets… well, it kind of goes off the rails a bit when Mike’s amp or something decides to not cooperate. Not sure why the .net folks put this in their jam charts but whatever. Anyway, after that they ratchet it up for a jaunty Paug then we get [slow] Wedge, Poor Heart, and BBJ which included Trey imploring the crowd to get the balls up to the balcony. Fish Fun Time gets a bit nutty tonight as in performing Bike he ends up running around the venue and up into the balcony with his vac in hand. You know, typical Monday night stuff. A botch-y Fee brings us back to earth a bit after that hilarity and then they rip shit up with a shreddy Llama closer to put the punctuation mark on the night. Contact and Fire are your encores tonight and the highlight here is probably the dedication of Contact to the tour bus driver Charlie.

This one is a bit of an uneven show. Sure, the energy and intent is there but something goes missing in the execution in places. Oddly enough, the last time they really didn’t connect as well for a show was after the other day off on this tour (02.09.1993 in Rochester). I’m not saying these are ‘bad’ shows but they just don’t get to there like happens on seemingly more nights than they should. Add in the fact that these come after nights off and you have the makings of a real headscratcher. Oh well. Anyway, your takeaways from this one are CDT, Reba, Stash, and maybe the Lope and, um, maybe H2 if you want to hear just how bad that was? Yeah, let’s just move on from there…

Just to Check My Status — Newark, DE 02.13.1993

Phish — Bob Carpenter Center, University of Delaware — Newark, DE 02.13.1993

I Bowie, Bouncin’, Poor Heart>Ice>Glide>Rift, Stash, Lawn Boy>Maze, Golgi

II Jim, Wilson>Pen, Tweezer>Lizards, Llama, YEM, BBJ>HYHU>Lengthwise>HYHU, Coil, Cavern

E Grace, Reprise

Ah, Delaware… small wonder. This is the first show the band ever played in our fine first state* and one that was in heavy circulation back in the day (along with the visit the following year which still stands as the last time they have played in the state). This is a singular stop as they followed the lines headed south towards the southern run of shows and the three pack at The Roxy which would end up becoming fairly legendary in its own right before they dipped down into Florida for their first shows ever in that state. But we’ll get to all of that in due time. We have this one from The Bob to get through which checks in as yet another solid Saturday night outing for the band and their fans.

First set here kicks off with a swirling Bowie (second time this tour the three songs played here open a show – 2.9 being the other) that sets the mood for the evening before a stretch of tunes get things going in earnest with Bouncin’, Poor Heart>Ice>Glide>Rift all being played with precision and intent. There are elements of that Bowie that you might recognize from later versions such as some from spring ’94. It has a shorter but densely packed jam that gets things started off well. Bouncin’, Poor Heart, and It’s Ice are all serviceable in getting everyone moving but there’s not much of note in any of these songs overall. Glide>Rift comes off quite swimmingly as the crowd gets involved with some coordinated clapping during the pause in Glide. They carry this energy forward into the subsequent Rift as the band plays probably the best version of that song to date on this tour. Then they dip into a nice Stash that gets the crowd amped with some nice T&R and a solid peak in the resolution phase. Page then has a brief announcement from the venue staff that those darned spinners need to keep the aisles clear for safety purposes. A nod to the first show in DE is next with a dedication of Lawn Boy (and this is another one where Trey takes the solo) which heads into a scorching Maze that has some different Trey lines than any of the prior versions from this tour. He is definitely trying out some new things and it pays off at the head of this one. Golgi caps the set and we are catching our breath for a few moments. That Maze, Golgi pairing also capped the 2.9 first set so this show mirrors that one a lot thus far but not for long.

Second set starts out with a fine enough Jim that chugs along before giving way to a very… inside out (if that makes sense) Wilson. The pace is slow, with Page hitting the ‘duh duh’ first here (and we are still a year plus before the crowd would get involved in earnest) and then the song stays relatively mellow with some SL (Simpsons, Oom Pa Pa, Random Note) thrown in at various times. Uncle Pen bridges us to an energetic Tweezer where Trey stays on top of the goings on (there are some hints of a Reprise build at one stage but they change directions before allowing that to manifest) before they head into a well played Lizards. They then take things up a notch with a stampeding Llama where Page takes a big turn before Trey and Fish get it even higher. Llamas were pretty freaking awesome once upon a time. YEM is next and this one’s a keeper with a nice jam including the B&D after Trey takes his solo for a fun romp. Things get interesting when Mike drops in some ‘Lion Sleeps Tonight’ phrasing in the VJ too. BBJ and then Fish for an amusing Lengthwise with some crowd participation (Fish gets the crowd to sing along to his vac solo), a lovely Coil, and then a rough Cavern closer before the [shockingly expected] Grace, Reprise encore (the third such encore pairing already this tour).

Overall you are getting another show of the band hitting stride here though being the fifth show in a row there are signs of some fatigue in this one. Nothing major but a flub here and a missed opportunity there in an otherwise high energy Saturday night affair that is very well received by the college crowd. Keepers from this one would be the Stash and pretty well the Tweezer through YEM sequence in the 2nd. On to the south after a break for the lovers!

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*If you didn’t know, now you do. Look it up.

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Well, hey, you kept reading! Thanks for sticking around to the end of the post. As a reward, let’s go ahead and put on our stat hats since this one now puts us ten shows into the Spring ’93 tour. By now some patterns have emerged and we have a pretty good idea of what the main rotation will be, at least until they go heavy into Gamehendge about five weeks from now. Let’s go bullets here just to make this more like some kind of informative blog post or something. Most of this information was compiled using the wonderful tools over at Phish Stats.

In a bit of a scheduling oddity, the band has thus far played every night of the week except Monday, something that would be resolved with the very next show they would play in Chapel Hill, NC and then they would play a bunch of them to catch up with the other, more loved days of the week.
Half of the shows have been played in New York state, with every other show being in a different state.
No songs have been played in every show of the tour but two songs (Amazing Grace, HYHU) have popped up in nine of the ten. (Grace sat out 02.06.1993 at the Roseland since it was played the previous night and HYHU sat out 02.07.1993 because REASONS. I don’t know. Go ask the band why. It isn’t like they didn’t have a Fish tune that night). Additionally, Amazing Grace had a long run of six straight shows in which it was performed and HYHU had a long run of five consecutive shows played.
Five other songs were played in more than half of the shows: BBJ (8), Poor Heart (7), Llama (6), Rift (6), YEM (6). After that it gets crowded, as ten songs were played in half of the shows and another fourteen were played in 4/10.
Overall, 86 different songs have been played thus far on the tour (by the end of the Spring tour that number would balloon to 140). Of these, 29 were one-time appearances which simple math then tells us 57 were played more than once.
Five songs have been debuted thus far (Loving Cup, Amazing Grace, Wedge, Lifeboy, Sample in a Jar). This will grow to 30 songs by the end of tour.
Openers and closers are still fairly spread out between several songs, with the only statistically significant item being that Antelope has closed four first sets (and that includes every version of the song they have played to date.
More telling is that for encores Amazing Grace has been part of the show coda 8 times (with the other one being a second set closer).
Total songs played for the ten shows is 263, giving us an average of 25.3 songs played each night. This isn’t inaccurate when you factor in that HYHU often gets played on both ends of the Fish Fun Time segment of the show (and is thus counted in the overall total) but when figuring the average songs per show figure it is only counted once. Fun with stats, huh?
Both times Suzy has been played have been part of the same show-opening run of songs: Suzy>Buried Alive>Poor Heart. Similarly, both times Bowie has opened the show it has kicked off this sequence: Bowie, Bouncin’, Poor Heart. And you thought the third song bluegrass slot was a myth. This will be even more prevalent as we go ahead.
The tour has started with two runs shows on five consecutive nights. This will be matched three times: March 24th-28th, March 30th-April 3rd (these two creating another 10 shows in 11 nights run), April 29th-May3rd. It will be bettered twice by a seven show run (February 17th-23rd) and a six show run (April 20th-25th). I am very confident in saying that this will never be matched again, particularly the overall 71 shows in 95 days thing.

I could keep going but that’s probably a sufficient number of useless Phish facts to fulfill my daily (weekly?) quota…

You Can Feel Good — Poughkeepsie, NY 02.12.1993

Phish — Mid-Hudson Civic Center — Poughkeepsie, NY 02.12.1993

I Golgi>Maze, Guelah, Sparkle, Melt, Esther>Wedge, CDT, IDK, A Train>Antelope

II MFMF, ATR, Reba, Poor Heart, BBJ, FEFY, YEM>Ya Mar, HYHU>Terrapin>HYHU, Hood, Harpua

E Grace, GTBT

Within pretty much every fan’s personal history with the band there are those nights that take on special meaning because of the obstacles overcome in order to get to the show. It may be due to vehicular trouble, relationship struggle, an undesired interaction with law enforcement personnel, or most commonly (to paraphrase Lou Reed) situations that arise because of the weather. February 12, 1993 is one of those nights for a lot of people as a major snowstorm hit the region, creating a travel nightmare for many people and providing a colorful background story for more than one fan who braved the elements to get their Phish fix that evening. This night would also be the last time Phish would grace a stage in Poughkeepsie, having played there five previous times at The Chance before stepping up to the much bigger (capacity is more than three times that of The Chance) Mid-Hudson Civic Center for this performance. Actually, they played Mair Hall at the Mid-Hudson Civic Center, but you get the idea. And for that last show the band played a fiery show to help ward off the cold, bringing with them more tour debuts, some high quality playing throughout, and a very energetic stage presence that all combine to make this show a fun listen.

Things kick off with a Golgi opener (which they had also done for the second Roseland show) that heads straight into a raging Maze where Page and Trey both take strong solos. This song obviously isn’t quite to the frenetic level here that it will be when it reaches its peak in 94/95 but the build they create with Peak swirling around on the organ as Trey shreds the peak gives a glimpse about where this song is headed. Next up is a come down tune for Guelah and here we have some SL (Oom Pa Pa) in the break, something that perhaps hints at a song that will be heard much later in the show. And since we are here talking Guelah, let me just say that sometimes I miss the voice delay/echo Trey used to use on tunes like this and Bowie. Maybe not an every time thing but it would surely spin some heads if they were to bring it back even just once in a while. Anyway, after a quick Sparkle we have a decent enough Melt that doesn’t really depart the main theme at all but brings the energy level up to a new level in the room. And, of course, they immediately deflate that energy ball with Esther, a fine enough song but not the one you seek if you want to dance your tail off. There are also two more SL signals here as they throw Simpsons and Random Note signals into the intro section. Esther heads to another [slow] Wedge and then we get that energy back up for a fast paced, shred-heavy CDT. IDK provides the crowd opportunity to clap along and laugh at Fish’s sheet-of-plastic solo (I’ve seen some places that note a vac solo here but on tape it sure doesn’t sound like a vac and the .com show notes say it was a piece of heavy plastic so we are going with that). Next up is the tour debut of Take the A Train, one of those songs that is now a relic of the bygone jazzier leanings of the band. This would be the penultimate year for this song with the band, being played three times in 1993 before a singular performance in 1994. Heck it hasn’t even been teased since like 1997 so I’m pretty confident that this one is left firmly in the past. This heads right into the set closing Antelope which is nice and heavy but fairly straight forward, with a couple of A Train teases thrown in for good measure along the way. Then it is off to setbreak to complain about the weather and get some hot chocolate.

After that lovely break the band came out firing once again, throwing down a Rift-y combo of MFMF>ATR. MFMF gets to that dark place we all love and then there is a brief but different intro (mainly from Page) to ATR before that runs its course. Next our girl Reba steps in to take the reins and get the room moving. While perhaps not a top tier version over the band’s total history, this one is clean, crisp, and bright like that girl you adored back in college but never had the nerve to ask out and now you sometimes wake up in the middle of the night wondering where she is and what she is doing and maybe she’d want to catch up and who knows what might happen but that’s crazy so much time has passed and people change so it could never hey wait how did I get so sidetracked here? oh yeah, reba jam. got it. see? it kinda takes you out there. anyway, after THAT all happens, we have Poor Heart, BBJ, FEFY and all three of these give you what is advertised, mostly providing some variety before they head to the next vehicle. And for that we have YEM and one with the ‘Beehive’ lyrics at that. The start is a bit rough with some feedback complicating matters but then they hit the Nirvana section and this one takes off nicely. Solid jam (including a nice quite jam section that precedes Trey’s solo and the rush to the end) and then onto the VJ which transitions into the first Ya Mar of the tour, back after almost a full year off to provide an ironic theme to a set played during a snowstorm. Odd to play this sunny, poolside number rather than directly reference the storm with something like Tweezer (“it’s gonna be cold cold cold cold cold cold”, or Mound (“ice is all he was made of”), It’s Ice (obvious), or even MMGAMOIO (“I freeze myself on fire then I burn myself on ice”). Eh, maybe that was too on the nose for them then. Things change though. Just check 12.27.2010 for one example. Then it is on to for Fish Fun Time which on this night is Terrapin. Nothing real special here unless you are into whale call vac solos but it does lead us to a solid highlight in Harry Hood. This one just pops from the start. It is fairly fast paced (with some fun “hoooooooood” lyric-ing before the jam that is clearly a nod to the group of fans that chanted for Hood and got us here in the first place) and they do not waste much time here as Trey gets to going on his solo before peaking it out nicely. He kinda knows his way around the guitar, I’ve been told.

And then we come to the closer. ah, my friend Harpua. First one of the year (of course) and a fun story about Jimmy watching the Super Bowl halftime. But before all of that Trey gives an update on the Fish Tour Bus Bet which is apparently up to $1000 at this point. Now we get the story with a little nod to Kerouac in the continued repetition of this tale and the music of MJ (Black and White) as Jimmy watches the Super Bowl halftime show which leads us to the confrontation we all know to love and hate. This one ends hilariously with Poster actually winning… before immediately having a heart attack and dying. The end. Cue the coda. Love it. Then we get the second Grace>GTBT encore of the tour and everyone is off to fight the snowstorm.

You can start to mark the trajectory more directly with this show. Things are starting to take shape with the band and they are communicating quite well here nine shows into the tour (only 62 more to go!! woooooo!!). They can turn on a dime and their exuberance in playing is evident even on the tapes. The biggest takeaways here are the Reba, Hood, and Maze (with the Harpua thrown on there as well for those who like that sort of thing. Like me). After the next night’s show at The Bob in Delaware there wouldn’t be a show in what can be considered “The Northeast” until late April after they had run a lap around the country in racking up another 48 shows over the 69 days until they hit Colgate University. Lots to look forward in between though!

My Will to Appease — Bloomsburg, PA 02.11.1993

Phish – Haas Center for the Arts (Bloomsburg University) – Bloomsburg, PA 02.11.1993

I Suzy>Buried Alive>Poor Heart, Stash, Fee>Rift, Fluffhead>Llama, Lawn Boy, Bowie

II Landlady, Wilson>Pen, Mike’s>H2>Paug, Mound>BBJ, Bouncin’, HYHU>Love You>HYHU, Lizards, Cavern

E Bold as Love, Grace

After those two shows in upstate New York Phish popped down to Bloomsburg, PA for an oddly placed tour stop before they headed back the the Hudson Valley for a show in Poughkeepsie (the last of the six shows the band has ever played in that city, in fact). But before we get to that one we have this Thursday night affair from Mitrani Hall at the Haas Center for the Arts on the campus of Bloomsburg University in this quaint town (that bills itself as the “only incorporated town in Pennsylvania” which is something) that sits on the banks of the Susquehanna River in the east central part of the state. How’s that for an interlocking series of prepositional phrases? And before we get to the show itself, it is notable that this is the third night in a row (of five) they would play, making that two five night runs to start the tour. After a couple of shows with nights off in between they would then string together seven straight nights before having a night off during their initial run through Florida. That’s 18 shows in 21 days if you are counting along. That would make I know they were a much younger band then but when you factor in all of the travel and everything else you have to think that it takes its toll as some point. And quite frankly, it is noticeable when they are on the tail end of a long run (i.e. five shows or more) as the playing seems to lag just a bit as a result. Here in this one it isn’t highly apparent but it is something to track as we go forward.

Here in this 8th show of the tour we are definitely seeing patterns emerge, perhaps none quite as obvious as playing the same three song ‘suite’ to open the show as they had a few shows earlier in Washington, DC (02.07.1993). Yup, that’s Suzy>Buried Alive>Poor Heart kicking things off here much in the same way as that previous show, bringing the energy level way up and getting everyone moving but not really providing much more in terms of notably unique music. We do have our first opportunity for such music immediately following this three pack with Stash starting up and bringing the T&R that we expect but without offering much more than that musically. Nice version but nothing we will be talking about later. Fee then gets us to the fifth Rift of the tour (already? um, yay?) before we are treated to the first Fluffhead of the tour. This one is a bit dodgy in places but brings that wonderful fluff energy. Trey throws in a Woody Woodpecker tease towards the end right before they segue into Llama. Now, this is not the cleanest, shreddiest Llama ever but they play around a bit with the theme and jam on that a bit and while it doesn’t completely work it shows they are open to trying new things with even their straight forward rocker tunes. Mike throws in an ‘Entrance to the Gladiators’ tease here as well (just like during last night’s Foam intro) and if you are now saying to yourself, “what the heck is that?” you probably know it better as the ‘Random Note’ Secret Language indicator which is where that originated from but without the signifier ‘trill’ and no response from band or crowd we can’t really consider it secret language, can we? Next up is a little lounge music with Lawn Boy where Trey again takes the solo and then we are off into the set closing Bowie. Now, this one is a bit deceiving on paper since it looks to be over 15 minutes long but the reality is that the first several minutes of that are the intro in which they continue the Lawn Boy theme and layer in a few real live actual SL signals (Random Note, Simpsons, Oom Pa Pa, Get Back – twice) all at a diminished tempo from normal (and more subdued than the backing Fish beat) before pulling a full Lawn Boy quote out – with lyrics – and then heading into a decent jam that caps the set nicely. Overall, a pretty stock first set here with not much to write home about except maybe if you have a blog where that is exactly what you are trying to accomplish.

After a break probably spent reminding Fish about his bet to get to shows on time, the band kicks into the first Landlady of the year to get things rolling for set two. Up until now this song had been relegated to its watered down PYITE segment but from here on out you will see a lot of alternation between the two songs as the tour continues. An odd combination of Wilson>Uncle Pen is up next and aside from a slightly elongated outro from the Wilson there isn’t much to discuss with these two numbers. So then we have the expected Mike’s Groove start up after its night off in Geneva and this one is pretty much about as normal as one of these can get without being a 3.0 stock groove. Well, except for the ‘Ice Ice Baby’ teases in the Mike’s jam and some overall dark/dirty playing during that one and the Paug that follows. After this we have Mound and while a fine enough tune it has always surprised me that there just aren’t any versions of this song that do anything except follow the original blueprint of the song. I mean, for almost every song in the catalog there are at least one or two versions that are noteworthy due to some tangential jam or unique phrasing or a tease that they throw in or something. But not Mound. Nope. That one is stock. Oddly enough, the only version that is of note only is because they had to stop a set due to the torrential downpour that was flooding the pav (06.15.2011 Alpharetta, GA) and they picked up about where they had left off in the song after the rain delay ended. This one goes right into BBJ (back after the well deserved break the night before) which gives way to Bouncin’. From here we have Fish Fun Time for Love You (complete with some band intros from Fish), a decent Lizards, and the Cavern closer that we could see coming a mile away. Encores on the night are a shaky tour debut for Bold as Love and (shocker) Grace. Hey, at least it is a good version of it.

What do we do with a show like this? The only tunes worthy of a respin are Llama (maybe), Lawn Boy>Bowie (sure fine whatever), aaaaaaaaannndd… Mike’s? maybe? Yeah, I just can’t say that there’s much in this one you should rush out to spin. The simple truth is that this is an average at best show with no real highlights. That’s not to say anyone who attended shouldn’t have fully enjoyed themselves and have wonderful memories of the night. And realistically they are still in the “forming” stage of getting it all together on this tour, developing what we will know to be the ’93 Sound’ along the way. So just to leave you with a broad metaphor I’ll say that this show is one of the little seedlings in the understory of the forest that is Phish, providing the elements of what was to come without having any of the big highs that make up the main foundation for where they would be later that year and beyond. Next, we are off to the home of Pete Seeger for a night of some more tour debuts including the first Harpua of the year.

And It All Would Be — Geneva, NY 02.10.1993

Phish — Smith Opera House — Geneva, NY 02.10.1993

I Cup>Foam, Guelah, Reba, Sloth, Divided, Tela>Llama, IDK>Catapult, Antelope

II Jim, Ice, Coil, Tweezer>I Walk the Line, Sparkle, YEM>Horse>Silent, HYHU>Rosie>HYHU, Possum

E Adeline, Grace, Reprise

Continuing on after Rochester, Phish was just a bit down the road in Geneva, NY for their show on this Wednesday evening at the venerable old Smith Opera House, a venue with over 100 years of history and which is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This would be the one time Phish would perform here though Fish would return seven years later while touring with the Jazz Mandolin Project. But we are here to talk about that first appearance, a show replete with several tour debuts, some secret language, a few solid attempts at taking jams out of the sandbox, and – quite frankly – some very uneven playing over the course of the show. Now, I am far from being a professional touring musician and I do not make any assumptions about what goes on for such people from show to show but there just seems to be something… off… about this show, particularly with Mike’s playing. This is not to say he plays poorly but just that he isn’t on the same page as the rest of the band in several places. And he’s not the only one who seems distracted as Trey has a few WTF moments along the way too. Fish seems to be fully on his game which may be due to performing so close to home considering this venue is only about 50 miles from his boyhood hometown of Syracuse, NY. Speaking of Fish, all throughout the tape I listened to for this one he is very much out front in the mix which really just punctuates one’s appreciation for his contributions, if you are into that sort of thing. And Page just does what Page does, coloring the music brightly with his various toys. Maybe I am setting the tone too negatively here before we even get to the music itself but here in the first week’s worth of shows there are bound to be some misses as they look to connect and progress towards bigger things. Back then this was definitely not considered to be a “bad show” (and it really shouldn’t be now either) but with the bar set as high as it is these days this one has a high hill to climb in order to be considered something worth our precious time. So let’s dive in and see what all the fuss is about, shall we?

Tonight we get the second show-opening Loving Cup ever (something that will become more common going forward as the song would open several more sets before hitting the shelf for a bit after 08.08.1993) and this song is progressively becoming more of a “phish tune” with every appearance. Page has full command of this song now on the piano and Trey takes a bit more of a solo that in earlier versions but in the end it is still a fairly straight forward, bring up the energy number. This heads directly into Foam but not before Mike throws in an unrequited bit of SL (Random Note). Heck, not even the band acknowledged it. Hmmm… maybe that’s why he was off on this night? “Hey, those guys clearly aren’t on my team tonight since they didn’t even do the random note. Screw them, I’m tanking it tonight!” #thoughtsthatmikeclearlyneverthought Okay, in truth, this is probably an ‘Entrance of the Gladiators’ tease rather than the secret language signal but what’s the fun in that? It is much more fun to imagine this as an opportunity to create division between band members (and much geekier than the sort of thing that divides most musicians like “why did you sleep with my girl?” or “I told you to never eat my pimento loaf” or “why do you keep hiding the good drugs from me?”). Where was I again? Oh, right. Foam. So the Foam is servicable in getting the crowd going but doesn’t really do much above that before we get the third Guelah of the tour. Only thing to note here is two more SL signals (All Fall Down, Simpsons). Reba is up next and this one is completely and perfectly okay, never really getting to a place that allows for true connection. This is really the first place we start to hear the cracks in the night’s performance, particularly through the bulk of the composed section. They do come together for the end jam but even that isn’t one you are going to spend more than once. There’s an entire RLP* devoted to the stronger versions where one can cull out their favorite take on our favorite gal and this one ain’t gonna be featured there. Next up is the first Sloth of the tour and this one is in the typically dirty vein that most versions of this song are. Fun to hear, particularly live, but doesn’t really do much outside of the realm of a Gamehendge set where it benefits from context (and we will have ample opportunity to delve into all of that about six weeks from this here show). A clean Divided fills the mid-set long number slot (complete with a nice long pause) before we have another first timer of the tour in Tela. They play this well with Trey handling the end solo admirably (nimble, young fingers are a wonderful thing on intricate songs like this one) before they head directly into a shred-heavy Llama. Next we have the late set I Didn’t know (still batting .666 for the tour here!) where instead of Fish picking up either the trombone or Madonna washboard we get the announcement by Trey of the running bet about Fish “The Little Beast Boy” being late for the bus (at this stage up to $800) before a somewhat-rare-for-the-time vac solo. And then rather then sewing up the IDK they head directly into the third ever Catapult. This would be the only time they would play the song in 1993 before it really had it’s “peak year” by being played nine whole times in 1994. So then after this we arrive at what will end up being one of the only real highlights of this set, Antelope, with a version that gets pretty well out there before coming back around. This one is a good example for when people ask you, “hey, you, show me why Antelope is a song people talk about as having been a jam vehicle because here in 3.0 (actually, are we still in 3.0 or has it moved on to, like, 3.4 or something? I can’t keep track of these computer geek designations) the song is pretty much just a rocking set closer.” At which point you would put on this Antelope really loud and then you would both rock the fuck out before nodding knowingly to each other once they arrive at the ‘Rye Rye Rocco’ section. So yeah, there’s that. Granted, there are much bigger and better versions of this song but this one is a good example of how they used the song to build tension and get weird for a bit within the context of the song largely in a way more than they do these days (with the one-off exceptions like from Utica 10.20.2010). And then it is off to setbreak to learn about the architectural history of this cool venue that has elements of Romanesque, Art Deco, and Baroque motifs.

So after that enlightening yourself with that architectural tour, the second set kicks off with another Jim (by now you have probably noticed just how short the bench was back then. More on this shortly) and again it is clear something is going on with Mike as in the breakdown section where he and Fish usually set the ground upon which Trey will solo Mike completely drops out at one point. Now, it is a minor thing and doesn’t ruin the song or anything but this is Mike we are talking about and he just doesn’t do that kind of thing that often. They somehow manage to recover from this (phewf!) and then Trey takes the solo we expect before they bring it all back and then kick into Ice for another fairly straight forward though energetic take on this number. We then get a somewhat rare early 2nd set Coil which is fine enough and then the Tweezer we knew was coming (since last night was Taco Mike’s Groove Tuesday and we know they pretty much alternate the main vehicles every other night at this stage). This Tweezer just plugs along doing Tweezer-y type stuff but without much work outside of the main theme of the song and then before resolving it they head into another tour first timer, I Walk the Line. Now, some may say that this is a nod to Mike having a bit of an off night and others may say it was simply a cover they played sporadically around this time so why wouldn’t it pop up? And really I think both answers are right. Besides, what better homage to The Man in Black could there be than a group of floppy haired weirdos from a cow state jokingly covering one of the iconic songs in his canon? Amiright? ::high five:: Anyway, after that little interlude we have a kinda rough Sparkle (sadly, non-FMS) and then the other jam vehicle we expected, YEM.

So before I talk about that song perhaps we should discuss the pattern that existed in this era regarding song rotation and the rotation of jam vehicles in particular. At this stage in the band’s history the song rotation was decidedly smaller, partially due to the fact that most of the songs we hear today were not yet written but also due to the tight lease they kept on song rotation. I’m not going to pull out the stats here as others have covered that much better than I can (see: caped individuals who tend to track the relative length of songs and often carry a clipboard to shows) but I will say that the main songs in the repertoire would pop up on a 2 to 3 show rotation with some being more frequent (Guelah, Poor Heart, IDK, etc.) and others being less so. For the songs we rely on for that jammy goodness this holds true even more as there just weren’t a lot of songs in this era that the band wanted to stretch out beyond the song. The only tried and true songs that could be considered in this conversation would include Tweezer, YEM, Reba, Stash, Mike’s Groove (more specifically Weekapaug as the real jamming for Mike’s Song was still evolving and wouldn’t punch through until the development of the ‘Simple-esque’ jams that are still a few months away from even being hinted at), Antelope, Possum (yes, this was something of a jam vehicle once upon a time. I know. But the tales you heard are in fact true. There are several highly notable versions of the song from this period), Bowie, Hood, Maze (though largely ‘type I’ jams), and Melt (but not really fully until the ‘aha’ moment hits on 04.21.1993). Keep in mind that songs like Jim and Gin didn’t become vehicles until later and the ones in the rotation at this time that blow up in the funk era (Bag, Gumbo, Halley’s, Ya Mar) are still a long time from being more than just fun setlist fillers. And of all of the ones listed above the only consistent jam vehicles were Tweezer, YEM, and the Mike’s Groove with the others being more ‘minor vehicles’ that could or could not elevate depending on the set and setting. With that in mind, it is easier to see why the pattern mainly holds that in one show they would anchor the second set with Tweezer and YEM (and maybe one other junior vehicle) and the next would have Mike’s Groove and a junior vehicle like Stash in there. In this way you could anticipate what songs would pop up next with much better accuracy — even going so far as to be able to predict the set more easily for the most part. But, of course, the exception proves the rule so that when you do see a show that has a combination of vehicles (i.e. Mike’s Groove and Tweezer in the same set or Reba, YEM, and Tweezer all in the same set) it is a good indication that this is a show you should spin the whole way through and at high volume if at all possible. We will encounter several of these standout shows as we move along here but for the most part we should expect to be searching for the minor highlights that supplement the larger vehicles since most of these shows follow the overarching pattern discussed above.

So! Back to the show, eh? We were on YEM next, right? Right. Anyway, forget what I said above about the vehicles carrying the set all the time because this YEM is not one of the better ones out there. They definitely try, with a somewhat unique bit of phrasing from Trey in the build of the main composition but it sort of falls apart at times due to more of that disconnected playing from the band because of which the composed aspects of the song suffer. Heck, Mike completely drops out at one point which indicates that some of the issues may have been as much physical (i.e. gear related) as mental. It isn’t like can’t-take-your-eyes-off-the-trainwreck bad or anything but they seems to struggle through it in getting to the jam which has a few nice moments before we get Horse’d out of the VJ. Sure, fine, whatever, play the same songs again from your new album. And this version of Horse>Silent is pretty okay but here’s another on in the 50% club over the six shows of tour so far. Not exactly keeping it fresh on the setlist front. On the bright side, we do avoid the BBJ for the first time this tour, which is something. Instead, they fire up Fish Fun Time for the first Cracklin’ Rosie of the year which plays about as expected before they give us that Possum closer we have been begging for. This one stays more in the rocking vein than going outside the song but does provide a high energy punctuation mark for the set and show. The encores provide a bit of levity as they abort Adeline due to Fish not exactly bringing his best to the table before another a cappella number in Amazing Grace (six for six on venues this tour! It’s like Fuego but without the audible groans from the jaded old timers!) and then the Reprise we all knew was coming.

End of the day, this is not a show you need to spend much time with. Your takeaways from this one are pretty thin with the Antelope being the only real highlight and everything else being either fairly standard or only notable due to being a minor bustout or general setlist oddity. There’s a couple of moments of connection that are worth the price of admission (which was probably pretty cheap at around $15 back then) but we are still about a week or so before the band really starting to hit their groove as a singular unit. I know I am repeating myself here and it is easy to say this now with the benefit of hindsight but in the moment this was not considered a “bad” show by any means. This was still a young, hungry band out there night after night proving themselves to any and all who would come to see them. And each and every night they were able to convert more and more people to their calling by doing things and playing music in ways that we were not used to but that just made us itch for more. The main “problem” with looking back at shows like this one is a modern issue as we know what to expect out of the band even just 8-10 shows from here, to say nothing of where this is all headed into August ’93 and beyond. So with that as your guide do as you are supposed to and enjoy it for what it is and not what it is not. They will get there. We all know it.

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*Reba Listening Project. Maybe we can go to there some time…

Lost In My Reflection

Scattered Musings from a Lifelong Obsession

Category: reviews