Category: Tours

Here We Shower Ourselves With Lightness – Worcester, MA 11.28.1998

Phish — Worcester Centrum Centre — Worcester, MA 11.28.1998

I  Gumbo, Tube>Disease, Guyute, Albuquerque, Foam, Moma, Melt

II  Julius, Wolfman’s>Timber Ho>Cup>Mule, Caspian>Crossroads, Tweezer, Cavern

E  Sample>Reprise

 

Following up a legendary show can be something of a challenge as you have now increased the already lofty expectations of the fans who want you to “beat” that one with something even more memorable. But it also presents opportunity as when Phish is playing well and connecting with the crowd it can lead to great things as well. Sometimes the show following one of the great ones can fall flat or at least be received more reservedly in being compared to its predecessor. But being Phish, where each night produces its own unique snowflake of musical intrigue, the surest bet is that the show following will be nothing like the one before it which is what makes it all so exciting to experience.

 

For this middle night of the Turkey Run in Worcester there was definitely a lot of buzz after the Wipeout show from the night before. That show was a seguefest punctuated by a few key jams but really most notable for the setlist construction and don’t-leave-the-room-cuz-you-might-miss-something feel of the way they threw down that second set. On this Saturday night we are treated to a different form of Phish one that is not quite the full jamnation of something like 11.17.1997 but that is also not just an energy rock show full of fun songs and solid playing. This is a hybrid type show with a setlist that might not set the world on fire but that continues the theme of Phish playing whatever they tackle extremely well. I’d also recommend watching the often times dizzying, other times Zapruder-esque fanshot video of this one (from the upper deck, no less) to get a good glimpse into the band’s playing and interactions (including some fun stuff between Mike and Fish during Mule but I’m getting ahead of myself). This is the first set and here is the second. Just warning ya though. You might want some Dramamine.

 

The show starts out well with a return to jam form from the get go as they open up with a stretched out Gumbo. Tonight they leave the Manteca theme out and we get a thick groove that plods on for a few minutes with Trey sharing ideas over top before they dive into the soup for a bit of loop’d, ambient goo that eventually resolves to our next song on the evening. That song is Tube and even in being a quite compact version has a bit of a min-jamlet in the middle before the final verse. I kept waiting for the Tube Reprise jam to kick in as we got in Utah earlier this tour but alas that was not to be here in Wootown. Instead they head to the murky beginnings of a third song Down With Disease to the delight of the crowd. While perhaps not as triumphant as the Disease that preceded it from New Haven tonight’s version has the inevitably wonderful peaky Trey shining forth above the cacophony of noisy rock groove the band develops here. This is not an exploratory version of the song but gets to that major mode shred quite well for a version that will definitely get you moving. Doubling down on the peak energy we get our 7th Guyute of the tour (in 21 shows to date) making this song one of three that sit in the #2 spot for most times played this tour (and just because the question has been begged, the three most played songs at eight so far are BOAF, Roggae, and Moma Dance with all three of those songs being featured as they are included on the then recently released The Story of the Ghost album). Guyute is its typically rocking self here and gets the crowd even more engaged which means they will probably play a slower, bathroom-break-friendly tune in its wake.

 

When your one true cool down tune of the show occurs mid first set, that is a good thing (not that you would have known that this would be the case during the show but just work with me here). This is not to say that there would not be other opportunities to take care of business but the ballad-esque nature of Albuquerque just lends itself well to making that quick run out to the concourse to reload the nachos and maybe get a soft pretzel and a beer and maybe some candy… anyone else have the munchies? Just me then? Hmmm, maybe I should have gotten that burrito on lot preshow after all. Lord knows I wouldn’t have been able to find any fried eggs and country ham which reminds me I am supposed to be talking about the slow tune they played here, Albuquerque. Yeah, so they played Alburquerque to follow that Guyute. Right. Moving on. Then they go back out for some more energetic music by kicking into Foam for only the second time this tour. For as little as they played the song this tour it sure sounds good here as they keep it it bouncy and tight, bringing back the rocking dance party that this set began as. That aforementioned eighth Moma Dance of the tour pops in next and (again) while not a massive version just drips with the languid funk that they have been exploring with this song on the tour. Then to cap the set we get Split Open And Melt (3rd 1st closing Melt of the tour and just the third time they played the song as well). There is some very nice exploration going on in this jam within the construct of Melt itself resulting in a satisfying version that doesn’t beg you to hide under your seat like some of those mid-90s versions at its peak but sends everyone off to setbreak saying “okay, that was nice, let’s have some more in the 2nd set, please!” Looking back at the setlist once the lights come up you are hard pressed to find anything really lacking here. It is a set full of well-loved tunes played well and the only “lull” in the action comes in the form of the only cover song played in the set. If more first sets were like this one there would be a lot less complaining about them.

 

Eventually they come back out for the second set and continue right where they left off by getting the room up and bouncing for Julius. While never a song that will stretch its boundaries musically it can often be a quite spirited ‘type I’ platform for Trey to lay waste on the guitar while the band provides that wonderful swing beat groove in the back. Tonight’s version is a good example of that as Trey lords over the jam with Mike and Fish providing that pocket and Page interjecting with piano fills and comping to accent Mike more than anyone. Julius is happy time bubbly Phish and I’ve always thought it makes for a great wedding reception dance song for a band to cover though I haven’t ever heard of that actually occurring. So instead we are left with Phish to make the Centrum the wedding venue of our minds with beautiful women twirling about in flowing dresses of floral print, patchwork, and other more abstract patterning replacing visions of the bride and her attendants spinning about on the temporary “wood” dancefloor all while cagey wook ‘groomsmen’ groove out and share a smoke with questionable intents in mind. This heart-pumping dance party gives way to Wolfman’s Brother and based on what we have already gotten from this song here in Fall ’98 you have to think another solid version is coming. We aren’t expecting the second coming of the Vegas Wolfman’s here but it is clear they intend to play with this one as once through the lyrics they first start with some exploration on the Wolf funk theme before taking a turn towards dark waters. Trey is offering up some great ideas here and Page is adding effects to the great, um, effect. The groove devolves into dark ambience in that Fall ’98 way with some loops accenting the drone and effect soundscape they put together. Eventually Trey plays some recognizable chords to trigger our transition into a (semi) bustout (62 shows) of Timber (Jerry) the Josh White penned classic that Phish has taken and turned into a springboard for dark improv over the course of making the song their own. Seriously, listen to the original and then one of Phish’s big jam versions of it and tell me they are being true to the original structure of the song. Fans colloquially refer to the song as Timber Ho! (sometimes with parentheses and/or exclamation point and sometimes not) which is more a reference to the words in the refrain than anything.  Here in 3.0 the song largely lacks the improv jam that would generally grow out of this one but it is a sought after tune to catch all the same. If you go looking for the key versions of this song check out some from its peak year of 1995 like the Hampton 11.25.1995 take that hints towards MLB, Nashville 11.29.1995 version, the famed 12.14.1995 version which resides in the middle of a great Tweezer, and the super dark one from 12.28.1995 also from here at The Centrum or the stretched out versions from 1997 like Austin 07.26.1997 with Bob Gullotti on the second drum kit, the effects-laden beaut from Denver 11.16.1997 that segues into Simple, or the linear shred of the 11.28.1997 version yet again from here in Worcester. This one in 1998 lives up to the rep it has gained in this venue by going down the hole once more with layered dark ambient washes providing the backdrop for Trey and Mike to solo over while Page adds flashes of bright piano to counterpoint the depth of the jam. Fish is crushing it as always and hitting the crash cymbal with abandon as they bring it up to the peak and circle back to the main theme of the song and final verse/refrain. It kind of leaves you wanting more in a good way but we are soon off into Loving Cup so there’s not much time to play the woe card for what might have been. The rocking energy of the Rolling Stones cover gets us back to that Julius-type headspace after two pretty dark jams and after a fine run through this one they start up the bane of the jam chasing jaded vet’s existence, Scent Of A Mule. Now, before we go deriding this as a mid-second-set-waste-of-ten-minutes let’s considering a few things. First, it is a tune that A LOT of people really like (just watch videos of it on youtube and you’ll see) and, personally, it is one I never complain about hearing considering that it combines their humor, oddball lyrics, and some pretty impressive musicianship over the course of the song and duel/jam. I’m not going to sit here and say that it is transcendent music by any means but I’ve seen a few that pretty well made me laugh out loud in lysergic enjoyment of the antics going down. And someone over at .net really likes the song or at least wanted to be complete with it as there is a quite large jamchart devoted to a song that isn’t exactly a jam vehicle. Plus there are many instances, such as the one during the first show from Vegas here in Fall ’98, where they have used it as a means to play for a bit either in debuting a song, dive into a rare song like Catapult or Digital Delay Loop Jam or otherwise have a bit of fun. Considering the dark nature of the jams earlier in this set this song pops in at a time when they were building back towards a peak of sorts in the setlist construction. This song provides a bit of breathing room and rest for all while still moving things forward. And tonight it goes a bit further than normal with Page and Trey interactively soloing in the typical Mule Duel manner before Mike takes over and then Fish joins him for their own duel, with Mike donning the Viking Helmet to mirror Fish no less (the song starts around the 36:00 mark of that second set video I linked way up top). It is one of those funny things that happen at shows that you really can’t explain well to people after the fact and possibly part of why when you start detailing what goes down at Phish shows to your non-phan friends they start to get that concerned look in their eyes while backing away slowly and looking for a way to change the conversation. Oh well. Some will never understand why we do it all.

 

So after our antics/humor portion of the set — and let’s be honest with ourselves, would you rather a Mule or some Fish vac tune or (gasp!) a Big Ball Jam? — we head back to the songs with Prince Caspian starting up. Now, some will say that gives us two bathroom break tunes in a row while also debunking my one-ballad-only show theory about this night but you just go ahead and listen to this Fuckerpants and come back with that theory, mister, and I’ll say you probably didn’t really listen to it. This is a Caspian that displays the power of what this song can be with Trey annihilating his end solo by playing a Hendrix-inspired clinic in shred. Caspian is not a song I go seeking but this is a version I would gladly spin again, though perhaps that also has something to do with the fact that they head right from the peak to a small bustout (64 shows) with the Robert Johnson song Crossroads (probably most famous as an Eric Clapton/Cream cover). Phish has some history of their own with the song as it was first teased as part of Harpua on 05.07.1993 before being fully debuted the following night during the tour closing show 05.08.1993 from Durham, NH. It popped up again four times in 1995 and three times in 1997 before the final (for now) version from this night in Worcester. It is a faithful cover of the blues standard with Trey taking a nice solo that he clearly is enjoying playing but otherwise it is mainly notable for the song chasers trying to tick this one off their personal checklists.

 

At this point in the show you have to think they will head to the closing numbers and they do in a way but the ‘false closer’ tonight just happens to be Tweezer (!). While perhaps not a massive version it does reach into the Fall ’98 bag to chug through the jam that progresses from straight up arena rock in the lyrical portion of the song straight down towards the ambient depths once more. I’m not kidding. As soon as they finish up the last refrain Trey drops down his tone, sets a siren loop and then he and Mike start to work over top, hugging the Tweezer theme while begging to go deeper. I will warn you that if you are watching the video at this stage the dude holding the camera is clearly more interested in dancing than in getting a good shot as it might as well be a POV cam. Not sure if he realizes this, but most people watching a video of the band don’t need nausea and headaches as a side effect. Trey screeches out a bunch of sustained notes here as they stretch for the peak, never fully resolving it as they instead turn back towards the deep end. Stuck in a bit of a search mode here Trey plays a ton of notes before dropping to full sustain and a loop or two as they look to be headed into the ambient world and WHOA WAIT. Just when things are really starting to potentially get interesting it inexplicably ends. Like just plain stops with Trey walking over to Mike and telling him the next song. And we get Cavern’d for the closer. Great. Then we have a rather uninspiring Sample>Reprise encore and we are out into the night. This is not to say the Reprise doesn’t rock but I have never liked pairing anything with Sample so it gets pulled down as well. Kind of a weird ending to an otherwise quite solid show.

 

This is an oft overlooked show sitting between the gem that is the Wipeout show and the tour closer that we will cover next. I think it is undervalued as a result and in listening to it this one plays out more in line with how the tour has gone than the one preceding (or the one following, honestly, but that’s for another post). That first set even on paper is quite strong and there is nothing in the playing that would cause you to downvalue it either unless you just really don’t like those songs for whatever reason. The Gumbo starts the jamming early and aside from the minor lull for a well played Albuquerque every song in that set is engaging music. The second set reads a bit oddly but again the playing is on point and there are some definite takeaway jams to be had here. I would have been quite happy with having seen this show and for takeaways I’ll point to Gumbo, Disease, Melt, Wolfman’s>Timber, Caspian>Crossroads, and Tweezer with add-ins being Foam and Moma. The Mule is a personal preference thing so you will either want to hear that or not and that’s your thing. In summing up it is hard to discount this show as being one of the stronger complete shows of the tour considering just how strong both sets are without one being noticeably good or bad. This show is a good sign of where the band was at this stage both on this tour and in their career arc and another I’d add to the ever-growing list of shows-you-could-spin-for-a-noob to give them a taste of what this band is all about. To me, that’s a sign that this show holds up quite nicely.

Hoping to Lighten The Tension – Worcester, MA 11.27.1998

Phish — Worcester Centrum Centre — Worcester, MA 11.27.1998

I  Funky Bitch, Ya Mar, Carini, Jim, Meat>Reba, Old Home Place, DST, Vultures, Circus, BOAF

II  Buried Alive>Wipe Out>CDT->Mirror in the Bathroom->CDT->Dog Log->CDT>Sanity>Buffalo Bill>Mike’s->H2>Weekapaug->Wipe Out->Weekapaug>Paug Reprise>Antelope

E  Wading, Golgi>Wipe Out

 

Ah, Worcester. City of Seven Hills. Wormtown. Heart of the Commonwealth and the City of Dreams. The Woo! We have mentioned how certain cities and venues seem to bring out the best in Phish and our scene and Worcester, MA is right up there with Hampton, New York City, The Gorge, Colorado, Chicago, and more as a place Phish just seems to feel at home. Over the years Phish has played this town 18 times, first back at the Clark University Pub on 01.19.1990. That’s a venue that I am pretty certain does not exist anymore. But from there they take things bigger first with a New Year’s Eve show on 12.31.1991 at the old Worcester Memorial Auditorium which is a really cool building with a storied history. This article gives a glimpse into this now closed venue. I can imagine that those murals would have been fun to check out with Phish as your soundtrack. After that the band didn’t play here for two full years as they again graced a Worcester stage at the famed Centrum (now DCU Center) that has been home to so many great concerts over the years.

 

Phish’s first appearance there on 12.31.1993 is a show that many point to as a tipping point for the band (and a great tape to give people new to the band to give them a clue of what this band is all about). That show got a radio broadcast and their are remastered soundboards in circulation which helped to make this a very widespread and popular recording… though the music itself really tells the tale with stellar versions of Reba, Tweezer, YEM, and Hood (some hold this as their favorite Hood ever) as well as the debut of the jam that would become Down With Disease to celebrate the new year. Since that night Phish has been back to this venue fifteen more times first for a pair of shows on the NYE 1995 Run on 12.28.1995 (home to a fantastic Tweezer and more) and 12.29.1995 (ever hear of The Real Gin? Yeah.) preceding the two epic shows at MSG, three Thanksgiving weekend gems in 1997 (11.28.1997 where the Ghost gets the love but don’t miss the YEM and pretty much the whole 2nd set, 11.29.1997 with the longest jam in band history for Runaway Jim, and 11.30.1997 with the big first set Wolfman’s and the Stash->Free>Jam->Piper), the three big time shows from around Thanksgiving 1998 that we will cover here, a single night on the Winter 2003 Run 02.26.2003 perhaps best known for the solo band tunes featured in the first frame but the jams here are big too, another pair of pre-MSG NYE Run shows in 2010 (12.27.2010 accompanied by an epic blizzard that influenced song choices and 12.28.2010 which begat the magnificent plinko funk Hood), the two Summer 2012 Tour opening shows (06.07.2012 with that amazing Carini->Taste>Ghost>Boogie>If I Could segment to start the 2nd set and 06.08.2012 with the return of the Roses jam, the Sandy Kane jam and more), and a pair of Fall 2013 shows on the path to Atlantic City for Halloween (10.25.2013 with the Waves>Carini and 10.26.2013 with its great 2nd set highlighted by Drowned>Light not to mention the Kenwood Dennard sit-in in the encore). Here’s a jams-only playlist over at our friends www.phishjustjams.com for you to peruse if this Worcester stuff sounds interesting. I didn’t even mention any of the 1998 highlights and already I am like 1,000 words into this write-up without touching a note of the show above. I suppose I should get to that…

 

All of that background sets the stage here for high expectations out of the fanbase. Perhaps that could have been on the band’s minds in kicking off their second Turkey Run of shows in as many years here (and the final run of shows on the tour too) but if it was they sure didn’t show it on stage. Instead we are treated to “one of those shows” where everything seems to come together to produce something bigger than the sum of its highly segmented setlist parts. Just take a look at that setlist up there. Seriously. Check it out. Remind you of anything? Like one of those epic seguefest shows all the setlist geeks are always squealing about? Well here we have one of the biggies in Phish history. This is canon. I’ll do my best to work through everything here but you really need to just spin this show to get an idea of how it all went down.

 

The first set is a bit more traditional, starting off with two covers in Funky Bitch and Ya Mar. The Funky Bitch is fun and gets the crowd into it but the Ya Mar is our first highlight as they add on a cool little jam (with a I Dream of Jeannie tease by Mike along the way). A short Carini is next with a streaker reference and then they kick into Runaway Jim. At this point the crowd is wondering if it will be like the hour long epic from last year. It is not. BUT it does have a nice little Jim Jam at the end which is worth the listen. Our sixth Meat of the tour is next and this one lacks the coda ambient jam but does go right into Reba which is a perfectly acceptable replacement. Reba gets a fight bell *ting* at the drop into the jam and then they build to a predictably good peak. Trey is on point throughout this one with everyone else along for the ride. Nothing revolutionary in this one but definitely a pretty, clean version. A breather for our bluegrass slot tonight brings The Old Home Place in for the first time since the Bridge Benefit shows before this tour then a quick Dogs Stole Things and our first Vultures of the Fall. There’s something about that song that always makes me think it might blow up into a jam but, alas, that has yet to occur. The pre-closer ballad slot gets Los Lobos’ When The Circus Comes and then they bring the set home with a soaring if straight forward Birds of a Feather. Judging from this first set you can tell they came to play but at this stage they have yet to really open it up or give us a hint of what might be to come in the 2nd set. Perhaps better that they saved that surprise…

 

So after braving the horror that used to be the Centrum bathrooms (seriously, there are some legendary stories about how bad it used to be here before the recent renovations helped… somewhat) you settle back in for the second set and they kick into the second Buried Alive of the tour. Always a good one to kick off a set, tonight it drops into a massive bustout (722 shows!) as they head into the surf rock classic Wipeout. That’s the Surfaris version but I might prefer the Beach Boys/Fat Boys take on it. Ah, the 80s where questionable musical collaborations and funny music videos shaped the world for generations to come… In the Phish world the playing of this song was once a band in joke to make fun of a mistake (i.e. a “wipe out” similar to when a surfer loses it while attempting to catch a tube, as they might say. I’m sure you had trouble figuring that out all by yourself). There are several teases of the song noted throughout the years and two times it actually made it to a setlist in 1991. It was a direct reference in the Vibe of Life portion of the Forbin’s narration on 11.17.1994 so when it came up for the first time again here in the early part of this set it was definitely a head scratching move to the fans. After this they crank into Chalkdust Torture which has a bit more Wipeout in it not to mention Mike playing the baseline to another song familiar to those who matured in the 80s, Mirror in the Bathroom, the wonderfully catchy ska radio hit by The Beat (known here in the U S of A as The English Beat because apparently we need more specificity in differentiating between British ska bands and not really memorable late 70s pop rock bands – apologies if you are big on stuff like this but then if you are what the heck are you doing reading a Phish nerd blog??). That Mike tease is foreshadowing because pretty soon thereafter as they jam CDT the band turns on a dime to start up the debut of Mirror in the Bathroom in earnest before heading back to CDT. Again, they jam the CDT theme before dropping into a bluesy space and adding a few lines from Dog Log in for good measure. This bleeds right back into CDT for a few bars and then we dive into Sanity followed by Buffalo Bill (first one in 75 shows) as the segues keep coming. Catch your breath for a sec because we are only half way home.

 

Buffalo Bill (one of my longest sought after tunes that I finally caught at Magnaball this summer!) heads into Mike’s Song and now you are thinking, “okay, here we go! just jam, maaaaaaan!” and they do for a bit with a second jam that goes ambient with some nice effects by Trey and Page, leading to a lovely full segue into the “bustout” of I Am Hydrogen (first in 68 shows so the judges say it counts). This is a nice interlude and then we head right into Weekapaug Groove for a triumphant jam that heads to the mountain top peak (with a Nellie Kane tease by Trey in here) before they pull off a full segue back to Wipe Out and then again back to Weekapaug. Things really start getting interesting here as they go double time in bringing this to the apparent close for the song before diving back in to reprise the song with another full Paug jam. Trey first starts to attack and then backs off to set a sustain note/loop as he and Mike then play leads over that note that pierces through in the background. Things get a bit darker here as the continue in this vein for a few minutes before transitioning out to the Run Like An Antelope closer. This Antelope starts out patiently with a somewhat extended primary jam before rising to that frenetic peak and insanity that make this such a great set closing tune. It isn’t the best or most exploratory version you will ever hear but it is a shreddy Lope so who’s complaining?

 

For the encores it is pretty much gravy at this stage so when they start up Wading in the Velvetta Cheese you just kinda shrug and start to collect your marbles that have someone been scattered all over your section by this set. Admittedly, Trey plays a nice enough solo so you decide to stick around to see if they drop a big energy tune afterwards. You get that with Golgi Apparatus not to mention a final dip into Wipeout so I guess it was worth it. Besides, the Dirty Woo shakedown scene will go long into the night so there’s no rush needed, my friend. The Nitrous Mafia will be waiting for you. Oh, and there is some funny banter between Trey and Fish to be found here if you like that sort of thing.

 

So how did we like this one? This, like most if not all of the other famed “seguefest” shows (such as 02.20.1993, 05.07.1994, 06.22.1994, 07.27.2014, and on) is a highly beloved show in the fanbase. It combines high energy, stop on a dime musical changes, top notch playing, a few nice jams, and all of the intangibles that make IT all part of the experience. Sure, there is no transcendent monster jam but this is a show that is fun to the core without worry about anything but being in the moment with it. The band is arguably at their best when they are the most un-serious, allowing themselves to take chances they might otherwise think better of. The result is that this show stands as the seventh best rated show ever on .net behind such gems as Big Cypress’s Millenium Set, the amazing middle day of this year’s Magnaball Festival, one of the best two set shows ever from Denver ’97, the mountaintop performance that was NYE 1995 at MSG, one of the best 2.0 shows from Nassau Coliseum, and the ridiculous Drum Logos show from the Japan 2000 tour. There is rightfully a LivePhish release of this one (LP06) and the auds out there are great too so do yourself a favor and spin this one top to bottom to find out what all the fuss is about. And if you like the video check out this for the full second set (with sbd audio). Eagle eyed fans will know that in the start to Weekapaug (around the 42:50 mark) Trey has one of his biggest “Poor Sue” moments….  Of course, as we must do, here are your takeaways for the show: Ya Mar, Jim, Reba, perhaps BOAF if you like em shreddy, and the entirety of the second set. Believe me, it is worth the time as it will also help you to make more sense of the rest of this weekend of shows if you hear this one first. Now go get that balloon, wook. You’ve earned it.

The Image Glistens Like A Gem – Albany, NY 11.25.1998

Phish — Knickerbocker Arena — Albany, NY 11.25.1998

I  PYITE>My Soul, Roggae, Bag, Lifeboy, Bowie, Sleep, Driver, GTBT

II  2001>Golgi, Drowned->Caspian>Piper, YEM, Been Caught Stealing>Llama

E  Something>Guyute, Free Bird

 

Once again we have a venue that has gone through several names in its sponsored history. I still refer to it at the Knick (you know, short for Knickerbocker?) but in 1997 the naming rights were sold and it became Pepsi Arena for about 10 years before that contract expired and the current one making it the Times-Union Center began. Perhaps a minor issue for some but there are lots of venues that have been subject to this sort of thing and keeping them all straight can get wonky when you have several Verizon venues for example that could be on a single tour. So we will continue to call some places by the names that made them great like Deer Creek, Great Woods, Pine Knob, Star Lake, and The Knick (amongst so many others). Because, honestly, having a concert album called “Dozin’ at the Pepsi Arena” just doesn’t ring quite as well as Dozin’ at the Knick, right? And we can use The Knick for Phish too because they had played the venue first when it had the original name back on 12.09.1995 with a show that includes a YEM that really shouldn’t need any introduction. They came back again for a pair of shows to cap the Fall ’97 Tour with two highlight-filled nights that I highly recommend you spinning once you are all caught up on your outstanding Fall ’98 homework. We’re getting close to Finals here, people, no time for slacking.

 

So here was Phish in the final run of shows for this Fall ’98 Tour stopping in for a single Wednesday night show on the way to Worcester. Which is not to say that Albany is on the way from New Haven to Worcester — far from it, in fact — but that this is the show between the now-demolished New Haven Coliseum one we covered quite recently and the three pack at the venerable Worcester Centrum (yes, yet another venue that now sports a corporate name…). There seems to be something of a carryover of the refreshed energy of the band from last night as they come out hot with a fiery combo of Punch You In The Eye>My Soul, two rocking numbers that while quite straight forward in the execution certainly do their part in getting everyone up and moving. A contemplative take on Roggae fills the three slot tonight and while still about what you would expect from this tune they are definitely quite comfortable with where to take it as the end jam gets to some beautifully ethereal space. Trey and Mike are on top here, offering up complimentary lines that take this version higher and higher. This is a song that has really grown on me in 3.0 as I think they really know now how to capture the emotional aspect of the song better now with that reflection back on their past but even in this first year of the song’s existence you can hear the foundation of what the song would eventually become.

 

Next it is back to sing along time for the cliche-filled, almost-musically-accurately-named Gamehendge classic AC/DC Bag, that sometimes shelved (recall that it sat waiting for 75 shows between 1991 and 1992 and then another 84 shows until popping up again in Spring 1993) and sometimes jammed tune about the mechanical executioner employed by Wilson. Tonight’s version would not match the jammery of the prior version in Chicago  but it does have a rocking outro jam that pretty well sends the crowd into a frenzy at the peak. We then catch our breath a bit with another of the better “power ballads” in the song book as Lifeboy hits the stage for only the second time in 1998 and for the final time until returning 133 shows later on 02.21.2003 in Cincinnati. This version has that cathartic build and resolution that makes the song so beloved in the fanbase and then we are on to our first real highlight of the show when — with a lengthy, loop and effect laden intro — David Bowie starts up to the joy of the crowd. This is not a total mindfuck version like something out of the song’s peak years in late 1994 and throughout 1995 (cuz, yeah, Orpheum and Providence  in Fall/Winter 1994 or any of a number of Summer 1995 versions like Lakewood, The Mann, Jones Beach, and Deer Creek) but the jam while somewhat linear does have a patient feel to it that is accented well with the loops Trey employs along the way. This one won’t make the Big List Of Best Bowies but in the moment it is a fun ride through a swirling bit of tension and release where Page and Trey dominate the action.

 

Now we get the unplugged part of the show as Trey straps on the acoustic for Sleep and Driver. While perhaps not the most exciting part of these shows, this interlude served its purpose well in providing a breather slot to “reset” things and to highlight a couple of the less jam-friendly tunes they had brought to the stage in recent months. This wasn’t something they did every show of the tour (like our friend the ubiquitous Big Ball Jam that was a part of practically every show there for a while) but usually when they did Driver or Sleep were one of the songs involved with the two appearing together in two shows on this tour not to mention two stand alone shows prior to tour (for their shared debut on 10.17.1998 as well as in the recording of the Sessions at West 54th performance on 10.20.1998) not to mention again during the NYE Run at MSG. Coming out of this pairing you would expect something big and raucous as we have to be getting close to setbreak, right? So Trey straps back on the ‘doc and warms up with a few casual strums before hitting those easily recognizable notes for Good Times Bad Times, one of the most reliable set/show closing cover rockers in the repertoire. The Led Zeppelin tune was debuted only 50 shows into Phish’s existence and since then has never gone longer than 66 without being played (with only two other gaps of 30 shows or longer). At 214 times played it is the most common cover song Phish plays with the caveat that I do not count HYHU because they have never played the song in its entirety and it solely exists here as a joke on Fish. A few songs are closing in fast (Ya Mar, Uncle Pen, 2001) but for now that place is safe. Tonight’s set ending version has a whirling, noisy, extended jam in the middle before the final return to the powerful chords that signify the close, making this the fourth longest version ever behind one from 1997 (they tended to play it a bit longer then when Trey was showing off his wonderful Hendrixxian chops in lieu of funking it up) and two from 2003. With that we are off to setbreak and tonight, maybe, you decided to take it a little easier after going big last night and hearing about it the whole two and a half hour drive up from New Haven so that means you are the one here rolling your eyes and making the trek out to the concourse to escape the raving mess that is your tour buddy Pauly the Tree. Sure, Pauly is a great guy who gives the best bear hugs to everyone he meets but he gave you so much shit last night that you are just waiting for the post show lot and hotel time to give it right back to him. Tonight is his night to be #1 just as last night was yours. The question then becomes who will be the “winner” in Worcester?

 

Eventually the setbreak ends your internal conflicts and scheming to bring us more Phish and out of the murk of the set’s start we get the languid funk of Phish’s delightful cover of Deodato’s take on Also Spake Zarathustra, or as we all know it “2001”. There are some debates as to when the peak for this song was, be it the cowfunk monsters of Fall 1997 or the more exploratory juggernauts of 1999 but I’d put 1998 right up there as by now they had the funk thing down and were starting to really tinker with this song. This version is not one I would put on the top of the heap but it has a great wah funk intro with Trey toying around on various lead lines throughout until a loop’d outro drops us into Golgi Apparatus. Wait what? Hang on. 2001 is a set starting tune that drops us into a big jam vehicle, right? RIGHT?? Ah ,well, they can’t all be winners so I guess we just have to deal with the fact that they doubled up on the energy building with the old tune about ticket stubs and cell structures (clearly as a nod to the tough ticket situation for those looking here preshow) before getting to the real meat of the matter here.

 

After Golgi we are dropped into the first Drowned since the first set one from 11.02.1998. This Albany version follows a similar pattern to that one in that the jam starts out as a high powered explosion of arena rock riffs as Page and Fish add to the cacophony of noise. However, instead of sliding into the groove space that took that Utah one ‘next level’ we get a less noisy but still rocking section where Trey sustains his notes in amping up the dissonant nature of the music before they bring it all down to a nice segue to Prince Caspian. The Caspian is pretty standard for Fall ’98 which means you get a lovely lyrical section followed by Trey just straight annihilating the end solo. You know, ho hum average guitar god stuff. Caspian bleeds right into the slow intro to Piper and, again, while nothing epic it shreds in the way those Fall ’98 Pipers did (excepting the Denver one which went much bigger) in a compact version that hits and runs in just over seven and a half minutes with close to half of that coming in the slow build intro.

 

Looking to perhaps stretch out a bit following this shredder, Trey starts up You Enjoy Myself which proceeds as it does with a nice though ambient-lacking pre-Nirvana section and then all the prog funk you could want in the balance of the song. Trey throws in a Super Bad tease along the way but overall this version isn’t very noteworthy.  The crowd pleasing cover of Been Caught Stealing ramps up next and is paired with Llama for a double closer punch and we are off to the encores. First up would be the final performance of The Beatles’ Something which is somewhat oddly followed up with Guyute. This rocks the joint the way Guyute tends to and then we are treated to my favorite a cappella cover, Free Bird. Kind of a weird three pack for the encore but whaddyagonnado. At the least it sends everyone out on a high note laughing at that Free Bird so there’s that.

 

I’m not really sure how to evaluate this one as a whole. There is no big standout jam (or three) to point to but to my ear the playing is perfectly fine throughout the show (though some of the reviews out there for this one on .net and in other places do not paint quite as rosy a picture about the show). The song choices and placement are a bit… interesting… what with number of ballad-y tunes in the first set and overall reliance on rockers in the place of true jam vehicles but that’s just quibbling at a certain point. The crowd seems to be really into it (though, honestly, when are they not?) and the band sounds like they are fully engaged so who are we to complain? Okay, sure, fine, maybe there’s a flub or three in Guyute and perhaps in a couple other places but whatever! We will just take our takeaways and move on to Worcester. And with that, your takeaways tonight are Bowie, Drowned->Caspian, and perhaps Roggae and maybe the GTBT if you are feeling gracious. Not a whole lot here but better than nothing. I am confident we will have a lot more to take away once we get to Worcester once we’ve wiped out the midweek malaise from this hump day affair.

And They’re Pushing Me Further From Shore – New Haven, CT 11.24.1998

Phish — New Haven Veterans Memorial Coliseum — New Haven, CT 11.24.1998

I  Disease, Moma>Ginseng, Stash, B&R, LxL, Sample, Tela, CDT

II  Ghost>Halley’s>Tweezer->Possum, Wading>Zero

E  Suzy>Reprise

 

Do you hear that? Come closer. Closer… Now you hear it? Yeah, that’s the collective exhale of a band moving on from a weekend with extremely high expectations back to the normal goings on of a midweek stop in the Phish-friendly climes of southern Connecticut. That is not to say that Hampton is not also Phish-friendly but that maybe just maybe the weight of the prior year’s performance in The Mothership influenced the band to the effect that what we got was two solid if not remarkable shows devoid of many “all star” jams (save the Simple, of course) as had occurred in 1997. I cannot verify the band’s mindset here some 18 years in the future, obviously, but all you have to do is listen to the very next show they performed in New Haven, CT and it sure seems pretty clear that they simply allowed this one to flow after having thrown a lot of songs out there over the prior two shows. The end result is a Tuesday night throw down where the playing is white hot, the jams come early and often, and there is nary a wasted moment in getting to the point of the endeavor.

 

In all the years since its debut — first as the celebratory New Year’s Jam on 12.31.1993 — Down with Disease has been played 250 times with only 19 of those being show openers (it has opened 74 2nd sets and one 3rd set for the Halloween 2010 show which featured the cover of Little Feat’s Waiting For Columbus). In most cases this song as show opener acts as a big energy burst to set the stage for bigger things to come. On this night the energy coming from the show opening Disease is big but so is the jam. This is not just a shred clinic even though that is on display here. This is a triumphant, patient, building jam that reaches its first peak to the elation of the crowd but just keeps going, eventually covering close to 14 minutes as it begs to blow the roof on the joint clear off just as things get going before finally coming around to the full Disease ending that is now so rare to hear. Oh, and lest we forget to mention it, Trey teased Stash a bit in the intro to that Disease. Keeping everyone on their toes, the band starts up Moma Dance after a brief pause, diving into the funk early in this show. They are really starting to put a little extra stank on this tune of late and this version fits that mold perfectly. There is nothing but deep groove going on here but, man, they hit that pocket hard. If you can’t get down to a version like this one then I’m not sure what to say because this is a clinic in Phish Funk. Trey is using the wah pedal to great effect in coloring the groove all while Mike and Fish hammer at that beat and Page comps along. It feels like a groove that could keep on going but they bring it down and head into Ginseng Sullivan for the three slot grassy tune on the evening.

 

After the brief interlude about the perils of being a valuable root scrounger trying to make his way back home we return to the jam for the Stash that Trey teased at the start of the set. Similar to the first two songs of the evening we stay firmly within the song itself but Trey plays an interesting staccato lead as they patiently work their way through the tension-building exercise that is Stash. Fish pounds us to the release of the peak and we are left with a third quality jam just four songs into the set. Now we get our first real breather tune with Brian & Robert but we are quickly back to it with Limb by Limb. I feel like I am beating the horse here but this is yet another solid jam that does not stray from the song but features Trey reaching high towards to peak. Here in the back half of the first set there has yet to be any one song that is going to make it on to some fan’s jamcharts but there is very little wasted either. Of course, as soon as we are able to turn and hug our neighbors to celebrate that LxL they start up Sample In A Jar to shut me up. Now, I’ve read some who say that Trey takes a “real solo” here but I don’t hear it and I will continue to maintain my position regarding this song because I am right and I have 278 examples to back me up here. Shit, even having Carl Perazzo sitting in doesn’t help and don’t try to tell me that one from Copenhagen 03.02.1997 counts either because a quick quote of Radiohead’s Creep isn’t gonna count here, bucko.

 

Moving on, we have a lovely Tela where Trey hits all the right notes in the end solo. This is what you want out of this song since even though it is like Sample in the fact that they never “jam” it here at least you have an interesting piece of music that is made better by the performance of it. As if to counterpoint the beauty of Tela they follow it by closing the set with a punishing, rocking take on Chalkdust Torture, one that will send you off to setbreak hooting and hollering about this band and how they came to melt faces before getting into a rambling almost incoherent rant about how THIS is Phish and THIS is them showing everyone why they are the best band on earth as you recap the highlights of the set for everyone in your section. Naturally, all of those people start to slowly back away as they understand the state of mind you are in and they make excuses about how they need to go get a beer or get some air — anything to escape the black hole that is this conversation — and eventually you are left standing there with your back to the stage as you continue to espouse on the wonder that is this set.

 

Hopefully it isn’t the house lights eventually going down again that snaps you out of it because that would probably mean your whole crew and everyone around you will have left to find somewhere else to dance for the second set to come. But hey, maybe that is what you needed to cleanse your mind a bit on this night so when they come back out and drop that telling loop to kick off Ghost it flips the switch and you shut the hell up for once and lose yourself in yet another high quality jam. Trey takes the helm here at the start, pushing a growly tone over the beat all while the loop persists and Page offers up some crunchy organ to augment Trey. Similar to the Disease that started the show, this one patiently builds with Trey holding his notes longer as Fish picks up the pace. Trey then takes things higher, teasing us with a lead line that gets more and more involved yet still stays true to its Ghost roots, building tension towards a release that hits more than one false peak along the path. Trey throws in some “Foxy Lady” style phrasing as this progresses and there is never a full release bliss peak as we get in many Ghosts but instead heads towards the typical outro space that this song begets. Page is on top here and Trey sets a new loop as they hit the breakdown and look to transition to the next song. Here’s a crappy old video of that one if you are so inclined where perhaps you can find the San Ho Zay and Psycho Killer teases that are hidden within. As a bit of an aside, if you have never read the wonderful Daily Ghost Project by lawnmemo you should go ahead and do that already. He does a fantastic job breaking down so much in those posts. He is also currently working through 2001 too if you like the Ghost stuff. Now back to the show…

 

The transition from Ghost gets us to Halley’s Comet which tonight does not include a jam but rather serves as the bridge to our next vehicle, Tweezer. The tempo here is a bit slower than “normal” at the start but as they enter the jam space Mike hits the fight bell multiple times (in time with the beat, no less) and then they head off into the ether. Mike takes the clear lead here, building a Tweezer-ish line that Trey picks up and elevates with some more growl tone. This evolves into a serious bit of groove that never really leaves Tweezer with Trey soloing on top, Page added flavors to complement him, and Mike and Fish pushing the groove to greater heights. This is the four-headed monster Phish where all of the players are contributing to the jam while no one is ever wanking out a big solo or anything. This is the type of Phish jam that in the moment has you doing your best dance moves, making knowing eye contact with perfect strangers who feel that connection and reflect it right back to you. Trey eventually brings us all home with some more growly, electro lead lines that bring us to a small bit of dark ambience before Trey kicks into the old school slow down ending to wrap it up. But before fully closing things out Trey stretches out the last note and then they ramp up to punch into the start of Possum. Even before the lyrics you can tell this version is a bit more than your standard Possum fare as Trey plays the slightly off key lead line from “Born on the Bayou” (last teased 11.13.1997 in Mike’s Song) in the intro. Once they get to the jam Trey plays around the Possum theme for a few minutes, offering up an almost staccato version of the normal Possum lead and then solos out of that as Page tinkles away with his own line on the baby grand. This all follows the typical pattern for Possum in getting to the peak but they extend it for several minutes with Trey alternately playing a direct lead and a dissonant “un- jam” (not really too unlike the “un-jams” that Possum enjoyed in Summer 2012) that serves to build tension towards the release peak where he comes back immediately to the Possum theme. It may not be the best Possum ever but it sure is more interesting than the swamp music normalcy of the song.

 

You could pretty well expect that here some 55 minutes into a set heavy on the jams they would play a bathroom break song next and they do with a serviceable Wading In The Velvet Sea that has a nice outro solo if that is your bag. This is followed by yet another fiery Character Zero on this tour which while pretty much what you expect rocks quite hard in capping this set. In coming out for the encore Phish had a bit of a surprise up their sleeves as they brought out an old friend to assist for the first Suzy Greenberg of this tour, not to mention the ensuing Tweezer Reprise. Everyone by now would have known who the Dude of Life is but might not have been prepared for him to give us some alternate lyrics to Suzy and Reprise. This offers some reason to check these versions out but otherwise it is just another brief visit from a vision of their past which included backing him for his album Crimes of the Mind (an album that offers us the music of Chalkdust Torture as backing to another song entirely amongst other “gems”). He is something of an acquired taste but you cannot deny his place in phishtory so there it is.

 

Perhaps I am over-fluffing this show due to its juxtaposition with the preceding Hampton run that didn’t exactly elevate this tour to greater heights. Again, I am not saying that the Hampton shows were bad by any means just that they may not have hit the extremely high expectations of the fanbase. This New Haven show is another type of Phish from the one we saw in Hampton, one that is more about taking songs to their logical conclusion by playing around the theme while searching for inspiration towards new music. Honestly, this show is heavy on what would be deemed “type I” jams but it is also showcasing the sound the band had developed in getting to this point on the tour. Being 18 shows into the tour with four to go (including the three night finale in Worcester) they were operating at full capacity. Outside of the Suzy every song in this show had been played within the preceding two weeks, showing that they were familiar with the material and willing to stretch their legs a bit. They also returned to the pattern of less-songs-played, back to the tour average of 9 first set songs after both Hampton shows had 13 song first sets (and below the tour average of 18.9 songs for the whole show by playing just 16 after nights of 22 and 23 in Hampton). All told, this one is a show that I will respin more frequently than those Hampton shows due to the interesting jams that go along with all of the other “standard” factors at play. Just putting together the takeaways proves that as we have Disease, Moma, Stash, LxL, Ghost, and Tweezer->Possum as definites and Suzy>Reprise for the unique offerings they are. I wish all my Tuesdays could be so fruitful. So to return to the question, am I being a bit to fluffy here? Yeah, sure, fine, but I’ll gladly wear that mantle for a show like this one.

Dancin’ The Night Away – Hampton, VA 11.21.1998

Phish — Hampton Coliseum — Hampton, VA 11.21.1998

I  Wilson>BBFCFM, Lawn Boy, Divided, Cry Baby Cry>Boogie On>NICU, DST, Nellie Kane, Foam, Wading, Guyute, Bold as Love

II  Sabotage>Mike’s>Simple>Wedge>Mango>Free->Ha Ha Ha->Free, Weekapaug

E  Tubthumping

The second night of this Hampton ’98 run starts out much like the first one in that we have a first set that offers up a lot of songs that are played well but without a whole lot of real jamming going on. That is oversimplifying it, of course, but looking at that setlist above produces thoughts of “jukebox Phish” jibes from the jaded vets. I would encourage you to spin it though because while being primarily song-based fare there are some fun bustouts, at least one nice jam, and some great energy out of the band. And that’s not even mentioning the more interesting second set.

Tonight they come out with a rocking pair of Wilson>BBFCFM, setting the stage with the big power chords and audience response of Wilson before the mini-bustout of one of the more uniquely disturbing songs in their repertoire, Big Black Furry Creature From Mars. There is a ‘Leave It to Beaver’ tease to be found here (by Mike) and Fish nods back to the night prior with a little ‘Getting Jiggy’ quote but otherwise this is the typically deranged tune that causes head banging and head scratching almost simultaneously. Next they bring it down for Lawn Boy and after Page’s crooning we get the Mike solo tonight. Divided Sky follows for a soaring version that invigorates the crowd greatly (with a 1:41 pause tonight for those keeping track which while far above the accepted average of 35.94 seconds as determined by The Divided Sky Pause Project is pretty well in line with the timing for the era). Another bustout comes in as they then play the Beatles’ classic Cry Baby Cry for the first time in 278 shows. This stands as the last ever version of the song which was played four times between its debut 10.31.1994 and this show here. Keeping things moving, they head right into Boogie On Reggae Woman for the first time this tour and finish up a little three pack by heading directly into NICU from there. After these two dance numbers they bring it back down for Dogs Stole Things and then we get our grassy tune in the bustout of Nellie Kane after 293 shows and close to four years on the shelf. I was witness to many of those 1994 versions having caught seven on Fall ’94 tour alone and perhaps for that reason it is nice to hear them play it again as it is one of my favorite of the bevy of bluegrass covers they do so well.

This brings us to Foam and this is a version I recommend seeking out if you are at all a fan of the tune originally known as “Marijuana Hot Chocolate”. Seriously. Listen to the banter between Fire and Alumni Blues on the 04.22.1988 tape if you don’t believe me as Trey gives the name and Mike plays the bassline that will eventually be Foam. Fun little bit of trivia to wow your stoner friends with, right there. Anyway, the song itself is not some big open jam or anything but Page takes a really nice solo before Trey comes in with a really nice bit of playing. It all has a little more juice to it than your typical Foam and for the first one of the tour it is quite well played. Continuing the see-saw nature of this set we come down for Wading In The Velvet Sea then back up for a run through the rocking Guyute suite before they punctuate the set with the deservedly loved cover Bold As Love. I’ve probably commented on this before but I really dig this song what with the evocative lyrics, swirling build, and overall psychedelic rocking nature of the tune. Considering the impact Jimi Hendrix clearly has had on Trey it is always surprising to me that they do not play more covers of his work though that is admittedly a daunting task to undertake so I suppose it might not be as surprising as I think. Either way, we are glad to have this one in the stable. And with that we are off to the break.

Keeping everyone on their toes, Phish comes back for the second set and gives us another cover, this time one debuted only that summer in The Beastie Boys Sabotage. This is a fun if a bit sloppy one but that’s pretty much in line with the song itself so the impact of the energy it offers up is what is important in this context. They would not play the song again after this until 3.0 so at the time it was pretty big to have this open up the set (it had previously been debuted in the encore at MPP on 08.08.1998 and as the third set open at Lemonwheel on 08.16.1998 and made its return after this night 318 shows later at the new Colorado home base for the band Dick’s Sporting Goods Park on 09.02.2011 to cap the “S” show in fine fashion). Trey sets up a loop at the end here and this keys them into Mike’s for the first real meaty jam vehicle of the show. By the time they get through the verses of the song Trey has more than one loop going and things get dark and menacing in a hurry here. Trey is playing around the Mike’s theme while Page whirls about on the organ and Fish and Mike lay down a punishing rhythm. They ride this demonic groove for a bit before wrapping up and heading into Simple, foregoing any thoughts of a second jam in the process. Not that anyone at that time really focused on the Mike’s 2nd Jam like they do these days but it was a lot more common then for sure.

And I don’t think anyone was complaining about it once this Simple got going. The jam here starts out in the typically blissy fashion, kind of plodding along towards more open waters. About halfway through things get a bit more ambient, never fully leaving Simple but providing an ethereal atmosphere to the bliss rock being played. This version is something of a culmination of the different aspects of their then-juvenile ambient jamming style, bringing the soundscape and more melodic elements together for a fully realized dip into something that is not-quite-Simple but still reminiscent of the song at the same time. By the time this one peters out with some colored accents by Page and then the transition to The Wedge you are left swaying and smiling, maybe even hugging your neighbors in acknowledgement for where that took you. Fair warning though, I wouldn’t go hugging your cubicle mate or the person next to you on the train if you are listening to this while commuting because they might not be on the same page as you. So then we keep it happy with the buoyant Wedge (a bit peppier than all of those slow Wedges from Spring ’93, huh?) and this is followed by another happy-time-party Phish tune in The Mango Song. Perhaps not a lineup of jam titans but this run of tunes should get you moving. A late set Free kicks in next and the hopes for another big jam arise once more only to be derailed after a little over a minute of crunchy rock they slide right into the first Ha Ha Ha of this tour. Maybe this is a nod to the shenanigans of the run and maybe it is a fakeout as if to say “you thought we were gonna jam this, didn’t you? HA HA HA!” I like to think it is the former but it could be the latter and in the end it doesn’t matter right, Bug fans? Yes, I know Bug wouldn’t be debuted for another seven months. Back off. I’m just using the lyrical reference, poindexter. Besides, the Ha Ha Ha is probably foreshadowing for the encore which we will get to shortly anyway. So they return to finish up Free (pretty much coming back exactly where they left) and then we get the anticipated Weekapaug Groove to wrap this set up. Mike hits the footbell in the intro and there’s a Mango Song tease by Trey as they bring the set to a high note in closing things up. For the encore they had one last trick up their sleeves in debuting yet another cover, Tubthumping, the Chumbawamba radio hit from 1997/98 that will get stuck in your head yet again because of this. Tom Marshall joins to help with the singing and Gears is back for the trumpet parts as they played a faithful cover of the song. Fish adds in one last ‘Getting Jiggy’ quote for good measure and we are off into the night to get ready for the trip up to New England and the final shows of this tour.

So what to make of this one? Again, this has the benefit of an official release (despite the protestations of the entitled who don’t think it is worthy of it) and so it is quite well known. The show (and run) are not known for the big jams as much as the overall vibe and the variety of playing styles on display with everything from rock to psych to bluegrass to loungy crooning to hip hop to pure Phish with more I haven’t even mentioned. This is not the high point of the tour but rather a celebratory stop along the way which showcases who Phish was in this time period (and continues to be, quite frankly). You may not like these shows in comparison to others and that is fine but you cannot deny that these shows are a great example of the band up there doing what they do best: playing the music they want in the way that works for them and bringing us all along for the ride. While there are no great videos out there from this run what is available plainly shows how much fun they were having and it is audible in the music as well. You will want to listen to the Foam, Mike’s>Simple, and Tubthumping (because it is pretty fun) at least but you would be forgiven for letting that whole second set run as it is a joyful reminder of the wonderful place Phish occupied in Fall 1998. The takeaways might be fewer than the shows that surround it but they are high quality all the same. Every once in a while you need an energy show or two to just go out there, rock the fuck out, party down with friends, and maybe cleanse the soul a bit in the process. So enjoy these for what they are and get ready to dive deep again as after two nights off to travel north Phish lays down an entirely different type of Phish show altogether…

Then Reveling In Mirror Mask — Hampton, VA 11.20.1998

Phish — Hampton Coliseum — Hampton, VA 11.20.1998

I  Rock & Roll Part II>Tube>Quinn>Funky Bitch, Guelah, Rift, Meat>Stash, Train Song, Possum, Roggae, Driver, Melt

II  Gin>Piper, Axilla>Roses, Farmhouse, HYHU>Gettin’ Jiggy With It>HYHU, Hood>Zero

E  Cavern

Let’s just get this out of the way from the start. This is not the 1997 Hampton run. Quite well known throughout the fanbase due to the eventual release of Hampton Comes Alive, the pair of shows that we are here to discuss has an image problem due to the constant comparison they endure to their older siblings from the same venue one year earlier. Is that unfair? Perhaps, as these shows often get criticized for not being deserving of the box set treatment they enjoy. But as we will see some of that criticism is warranted even when factoring in those pesky lofty expectations that came from revisiting a venue which had become a home away from home due to top notch shows dating back to their debut here in Fall 1995. Coming back almost a year to the day after having thrown down two complete shows of stellar playing here the stage was set for Phish to either add to the growing legacy of this venue or fall on their faces in the trying. The reality, however, is somewhere between those two extremes.

How exactly do you follow up two of the more highly regarded shows in that era? I mean, seriously, we are talking about 11.21.1997 and 11.22.1997 here. If you don’t already know those two shows inside and out by now (either via the tapes that quickly appeared with high quality aud pulls for all to enjoy or via the fantastic sounding boxset that also includes the Winston-Salem, NC show from 11.23.1997) I’m not really sure what you are doing here on a nerd phish blog read my bloviations about tours gone by but that’s your deal, man. I’ll just keep with the writing and asking oddly specific rhetorical questions. So yeah. Right. The review.

Knowing full well as they did that the fans would be expecting Phish to come out and lay waste to The Mothership yet again, it is pretty clear the tack they chose to take in crafting the setlist and flow for this first show. In 1997 they opened with a debut cover and big jam of a classic rock artist’s tune (the phenomenally out there Emotional Rescue) and so tonight they chose another classic rock cover to debut in Rock and Roll Part II, the glam rock/jock jams (many of the songs included there have not exactly aged well…) anthem by Gary Glitter that has pretty much disappeared from the jukebox of public opinion due to Mr. Glitter’s rather displeasing backstory. But in ’98 this was not a known thing and it served as a good way to wake up the crowd while perhaps throwing in a little tongue in cheek nod to the prior year’s goings on. This heads right into our first Tube since the funky, jammed out one from Utah which tonight stays in “single” mode before giving way to a MASSIVE bustout of Quinn the Eskimo. The song made its first appearance in 1,151 shows after having last been played 08.10.1987 at Nectar’s. Here in 3.0 it has become almost common, having appeared in 22 shows between 2010 and 2014. Many in the room probably only knew this as a Grateful Dead cover of the Bob Dylan song if they knew it at all considering how scarce the history was for the song up to this point. Riding the energy of these opening numbers, they added Funky Bitch to the string for a punchy bit of bluesy playing before finally coming up for air for a few seconds.

This breath allows them to reel it back a tad to give us Guelah Papyrus before they amp it up once again for Rift. By now you are starting to realize that they sure are playing a lot of songs in this set which is a bit off script for this tour so far. Allowing that thought to pass you are brought back into the music by Meat and here the set really begins to take some shape as they let this one breath out into an ambient soup jam that embraces you like a warm blanket on a wet, cold Fall day. Knowing they are probably going to use this to segue into something else it is still a little jarring when Trey stumbles into the start of Stash but outside of that small misstep they toy around with the reliable vehicle in building some tension for this jam. There is a brief Fikus tease in here (the last known direct reference to the song on stage by the band, sadly) and Trey has something of a train horn sound going as they hit the peak but otherwise this is straight forward Stash fare. Not a bad thing by any means but nothing new for us to learn. Train Song pops in next for the cool down/bathroom slot and we are back on our feet for a rowdy Possum. Again, they follow this with something a bit slower in tempo as they start up Roggae for a slightly extended (compared to others this tour) take on the still young tune. Pay particular attention to Mike in this version as he helps to build the jam with a lovely set of notes. Trey then pulls out the acoustic for Driver and finally we get Split Open and Melt to close up shop for the set. This Melt stays firmly at home but offers up a nice groove pocket for Trey to use in soloing over while working towards the eventual return. While that may make it sound like there isn’t much to this Melt but with the electro Trey soloing at the peak this one can get you closing your eyes, shaking that head back and forth, and rocking out for a bit which is always nice. And as you look at the setlist when the lights come on you realize they have already played thirteen songs which is a number we might blush at even in 3.0 (for reference, most first sets in this tour run 8-9 songs so that is a considerable increase).

Following the setbreak Phish came out and wasted no time in getting to the matter at hand by playing the second 2nd set opening Bathtub Gin of this tour. The previous one was something of a revelation and second set Gins generally can get a bit open so there was good reason to think that this one would follow suit. While more contained than its sister from Chicago this jam to elevate for one of those straight-shot-for-the-summit versions that might not make the arty rankin list for best versions of the song but will definitely get you moving and wooing at the show. Okay, maybe you aren’t into the woo necessarily but even the most stoic dancers might have at least raised a fist to the sky at the peak here. They play with the Gin theme in building towards that end as both Trey and Mike slowly tighten around it (not to mention Page throwing in a Tequila tease) until erupting into the screaming climax. Similar to the Stash and Melt of the first set this isn’t a revelatory Gin but it is one that will move your feet.

And then rather than returning to the standard Gin close they comp out for a bit and eventually drop into a quite patient slow build intro for Piper. It takes a full two and a half minutes before they are in the song proper and from there they build it up to a frenzied peak, resolving it without any jam to speak of at all. Next up is that odd song about armpits, Axilla, which gets the psychedelic Axilla II outro tonight before giving way to the sixth ever Roses Are Free, the well loved Ween cover that fans have long pined to have include another jam even close to the epic that emerged out of the first version from this year on The Island Tour. We have since had two dips back into the jam pool for this song (the long form Big Cypress version tucked late into the Millennium set and the pint-sized bit of jam from the Worcester shows that opened Summer 2012) but alas, this would not be one of those. It is well played but straight to form and then we get Farmhouse’d.

After this the set could have gone in several directions, be it a mid-late set big time jam vehicle or perhaps a string of rockers to set up a big closer or maybe some storytelling or hijinx. The latter would be the case here once the telling organ of Hold Your Head Up keys us into the start of Fish Fun Time. Thinking perhaps that we might get a standard Bike, Terrapin, or maybe even Great Gig in the Sky or If I Only Had a Brain, we are surprised when Trey and Mike start up the Will Smith chart topper Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It. Yeah, I know. But he actually pulls it off better than he should have (even though SOME PEOPLE think this was one of the worst covers ever – #4 on their list of the “worst 50” with some particularly uninformed and blatantly snide comments about the band and their music thrown in for good measure), using cue cards to get through the lines and even tossing in a reference to one of his aliases, Bob Weaver. I recommend checking out that video because you can tell how much fun they are having with it all. If you can’t find humor in that perhaps you are following the wrong band here because the image of a portly bearded dude wearing a dress, plastic viking helmet, white socks and black sneakers while singing a mainstream radio hit (and taking a vac solo too) is funny no matter how you slice it. After rocking out the reentry HYHU a bit and normalcy (well, at least what passes for it at a Phish show anyway) is restored Fish hits the opening run for Harry Hood and we are off into a nice but linear take on the Phish setlist staple. They wrap this up pretty quickly and head to the raucous Character Zero closer to put the finish to this set. The encore Cavern gets some help from Carl Gerhard on trumpet and we are out of here to catch some sleep (yeah, right…) before the next show.

I think we all know this show pretty well so I won’t belabor it to much but this is not exactly the high point people were pointing to when looking at the routing ahead of this tour. I firmly believe that the band was trying to offset the lofty expectations set by the prior year’s jam-heavy juggernauts by offering a wholly different sort of Phish show, one that a large segment of the fanbase seeks out as their ideal type of show. For the jam seekers this means you are left wanting but that doesn’t mean you couldn’t have had a good time at this show all the same. This is a party atmosphere show that has a highly unique setlist, solid and energetic playing throughout, a few takeaway jams, and one of the funnier Fish antics you could dream up outside of a NYE gag.  My personal history with this show (and the one the night following) is that I got the boxset when it came out and I was living in bum-fuck western Ohio so I ended up spinning it a lot, learning the ins and outs of this show much like we did when a tape got stuck in the car deck for a while and you just “had” to listen to that old Dead set over and over until you knew every squeal out of Donna backwards and forwards. This doesn’t make it a great show for me but it stands as the one I know the best from this tour and as a result I have been able to find the positives for me in it. Even on paper it isn’t the most exciting show but once you start listening you realize that this is the gelling of the Fall ’98 sound. While we still have six more shows to come after this one by now they are playing at a fully connected level, sharing ideas freely and quickly in moving through the music. Sure, it is more likely a tape you give to a noob to give them an introductory taste to the band than one you keep in regular rotation but even in having it be somewhat ubiquitous there is always a case where throwing it on for music in the background is not a bad thing. And realistically, it is perhaps that ubiquity that turns people off to these shows since part of our obsession with this band is finding the gems that others have yet to unearth either to be able to share them with others, hoard them for our own joy, or maybe a little bit of both. So with all of that your takeaways for this one are not big time and stay mainly in the box but include Roggae, Melt, Gin, Gettin’ Jiggy (because, c’mon, it is fucking hilarious), maybe the Stash, and maybe the Cavern if you like the added horn line that reminds you of the GCH Summer ’91 tour (kinda). So not too bad in the end, I guess…

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.