Phish — Hilton Coliseum — Ames, IA 11.14.1996

I  Bag>Uncle Pen, Wolfman’s>CTB, Free, ATR, Gin, Talk, Julius

II  Llama, Sample, Taste, Swept Away>Steep>Mule, Life on Mars?, Demand>Lope>ADITL

E  Stash, Hello My Baby

After their extended stay in Minneapolis Phish did that thing where they follow the lines headed south — and I mean like due south because Ames is the first town of any consequence that you hit when driving south on I-35 out of Minneapolis, with apologies to Owatonna, Albert Lea and the home of the Music Man Mason City, IA of course. You may think that is but a throw away nod to the regional geography found via bored internetting but seriously do you know who wrote The Music Man? A dude named Willson, that’s who. I mean, sure, the spelling is a little different but that’s just a little convenient don’t you think? Don’t answer that. I’m a bit overly caffeinated today.

So Iowa. Not exactly the most frequently played state in the band’s history but they have been here for a few shows dating back to the second leg of Spring 1993. And if you really know your band history you will say, “well, obviously they have some history with this state what with Trey’s grandparent’s having lived here DUH!” which would not only make you sound like a total creep for knowing waaaay too much about the band’s family genealogy but also is just plain rude, sir, and we would appreciate it if you phrased it a little more nicely so as to not alienate those who might be a little touchy about that type of retort. That show was at The IMU Ballroom at the University of Iowa in Iowa City on 04.12.1993. Three shows into that second leg, this one is a hot affair with a smoking Stash, a massive bustout of Satin Doll after 418 shows, two more bustouts in Tube (73 shows) and Highway to Hell (185 shows), a lot of that tease fun typical of that tour (like the brief hints of ‘Woody Woodpecker’ Trey puts into his trilling solo in Reba), and a YEM that includes a big Gumbo quote and a fun Mike-initiated jam on ‘Honky Tonk Women’ out of the B&D section. Be sure to check out the Trey banter at the start of Satin Doll because you get a lot of the family history of Trey who explains why they busted the song out. The short story is that Trey’s great grand father went to the University of Iowa (class of 1908 woo!), going on to become the first dentist in Iowa to use nitrous oxide (eliciting a cheer from the wook faithful). His daughter, Trey’s grandmother, would later go dancing at the very venue Phish was playing that night where she met his eventual grandfather, leading to the old school jazzy dance tune being played (as crooned by Page, of course). This is one of those shows you may never have heard before but that has a lot to be found within which might be obvious when you consider they double encored it. The next year they played about 110 miles to the west in Des Moines at the Civic Center on 06.14.1994, just a couple shows removed from their landmark performances at Red Rocks that year. There’s a great YEM here with a jam on ‘On Broadway’ not to mention all of that big time energetic jamming that typified Summer ’94. Oh, and be sure to listen to the quite interesting Guelah>Adeline>DDLJ>Guelah in the (you guessed it) second slot of the first set – just know that the Addy is un-mic’d so unless you have a phenomenal copy it will sound like silence after the Asse Festival for a bit before they do the little Digi Delay Loopin’ that bends back into The Fly section. Fall 1995 saw the band back in the state again, this time back east in Cedar Rapids at the Five Seasons Arena on 10.20.1995. As Fall ’95 shows go this one is a bit tame but you could do worse than to spin a show from arguably one of their best tours ever and besides there is an Amazing Grace jam with electric bagpipe accompaniment by Johnny ‘Bagpipes’ Johnston, naturally (because who else BUT him?).

All of that led to another show in Iowa in Fall ’96, this time for the first time in Ames, home of Iowa State University (and a pretty darn good barbeque place in Hickory Park Restaurant Co. if I do say so myself). That makes four different cities in four years something which would end here as since this show they have only played Iowa once time more, back here again at the House that Hotel Money Built (not its real byline) on 10.01.1999. In all honesty I wish we were discussing that show because it is the more interesting of the two ever played here what with that big Gin (I’m a sucker for the ’99 brand of Gin) and the fun Gumbo jam in the midst of a raging second set that included Antelope, Fluffhead, and Slave as juggernaut energy jams. Alas, that show is almost three years on from what we have here.

Why am I prefacing this show in such a blase way? Well, for context you should know that this show was played in the midst of one of those wonderfully epic Midwest ice storms that can be quite bad for your health if you find yourself caught outside while they are happening. That effectively kills the lot scene which definitely has an impact on the energy level of the crowd for some pretty plainly obvious reasons. Add to that the fact that the band and crew had a show about 380 miles to the southeast to travel to overnight through that weather, causing the show to end somewhat earlier than most. Don’t believe me on that? The set lengths tell the story as here we have two sets that clock in under and hour — and that includes the encore for the second set — for a paltry total of two hours and six minutes of stage time. Using our trusty geekiness with a little help from a basic spreadsheet we know the average show length of this tour to be 150.57 minutes which is just over two and a half hours for the mathematically challenged. Even if you take out the two shows in excess of three hours (Atlanta Halloween at 3 hours and 41 minutes; Las Vegas tour closer at 3 hours and 11 minutes) the average is at two hours and twenty-seven minutes which means that this show is 21 minutes shorter than the average on the tour. Now, you might not think that is very much to take out of a show but it could be up to three or four shorter songs or a couple of decent jams, to say nothing of a potential 20+ minute aural feast. I am pretty convinced that the setbreak here was also a lot shorter but I didn’t attend and no one has produced that information to my knowledge. I guess the reason I bring all of this up is to help provide context as to why I’m not going to spend much time on the actual music here as it is less interesting in total than a similarly-lengthed show from 1992 or 1993 where at least then they were in the midst of working on big changes to their music and overall sound. With that wonderful lead in we might as well get to getting…

The show starts out positively enough with a rocking ACDC Bag that has promise before dropping into the mini-bustout and tour debut of Uncle Pen. This pairing kind of sets up the tone of the night where they seem to be keeping things energetic, light, and dancer/singer-along friendly by mixing up genres and opting for shorter numbers light on big improvisational acrobatics. This continues with an almost funky if they had let it continue Wolfman’s Brother which segues into the reliable punchiness of the Page-penned Cars Trucks Buses, giving us our fourth different style in as many songs. The CTB has one of the more interesting bits of this set as there is what sounds to be a washboard accompaniment (by Fish?) in the early part though I have yet to be able to confirm that independently or via video (because none exists that I know of for this show). Anyway, that bit is brief and after closing up CTB they head into Free for what will be probably the most engaging piece of music of the set. While still pretty contained in comparison to what we expect from the song these days the jam gets quite percussive with Trey adding that dark, fractured lead line that feels more machine-like than musical while also adding in a couple of fills from his mini-kit. During the drum intro to the All Things Reconsidered that follows Free Trey gives his expected nod to family history with Iowa before they run through the composed piece quite nicely. Next up is our next sign of promise for the set as Trey goes into the first Bathtub Gin since that pretty okay one from Lexington a week ago. But as generally happens when a song goes big in one show the next performance of it is not nearly as memorable. This is not a dig on this version as it is the longest song of this set and definitely is a fun bit of type I jamming but it never goes anywhere new even with Trey hinting at a possible dive into DEG at one point and eventually wraps up in a standard fashion. After a quick take on Talk (thankfully for me the last one we will get this tour — I’ve probably said why before but let’s not go there now) they wrap up the set with a punchy Julius that speaks to everything I have said leading here which is that while quite raging (and including a quick run through the Buried Alive lick at 4:43) is not exactly the song we look to to find the highlight of a set. And with that we have finished up the first set having heard an art rock/idiom romp, classic bluegrass cover, white boy funk ditty, fun instrumental driving song, dirty rock anthem, fun proggy composed number, avenue for jam potential disguised as a nod to Gershwin, throw away acoustic ballad thing, and rocking swing dance tune all in under 55 minutes. If nothing else I guess you could say that this is a jukebox set that captures the many sides of Phish which is correct in one sense but leaves out a whole lot in telling that tale. As a first set it is largely harmless and isn’t really too different from of the similarly banal first sets we have been subjected to here in 3.0 but here in Fall ’96 it is even less adventurous than pretty much all of the other first sets that don’t look that great on paper. Worse things can be said about this band for sure — and clearly have — but in terms of intent you have to give them credit for at least playing this one well if not so uniquely.

When they come back out for the second set (and note that Trey just says they’ll take a quick break and not the standard “fifteen minute break” that really means about 30 minutes or so) you have to be thinking “okay, obviously they are taking us deep here after THAT” and you get the raging frenzy of Llama to help you along. That’s a good way to keep things up after that break but they quickly lose me with Sample in a Jar, though admittedly I am probably not the target audience for that song at this point. They are keeping the genre-hopping going here as the next tune is the oft-played Taste, tonight staying pretty close to the album version of the song while as always incorporating bits of the Norwegian Wood/WTU? melodic bits that always seem to pop up in that song. It is cleanly played and well received but again not necessarily anything new. Next up is the popular Fall ’96 pair Swept Away>Steep here in its 3 show out of the last four. This has been a solid precursor to some solid jams so far this tour buuuuuut tonight we get Scent of a Mule in its wake which while perhaps a fun song in the moment that has the lovely coda lines is not exactly the song the most of us are seeking for the meat of our second set. Trey does do the vocal scat thing to accompany his guitar but that’s still a pretty linear thing in terms of Phish jamming. Now pretty well half way into the set you have to be scratching your head a bit about how things are progressing and they head into another spot on take on Life On Mars? which is nice. Still not a jam though ::insert winky dude:: . They follow this up with another bustout for Demand (64 shows), that somewhat dark Hoist track which in pretty much all of its meager 15 performances has been a good lead-in to bigger things particularly considering how it was positioned on the album ahead of that Melt jam from 04.21.1993 which we know was a major touchpoint for the evolution of that jam template. Tonight in what ended up being its last performance until 3.0 it precedes Run Like an Antelope (the second such pairing) which does come off well in that energetic way but is pretty rote as Lopes goes in all honesty. It’s fun but at under 12 minutes is sits in the lower half of Lope lengths which is not an absolute indicator of quality, of course but here definitely speaks to the fact that they were not exactly looking to stretch things out. You do get a little taste of that almost-but-not-really washboard tone thing right before the “rye rye, rocco” section though. That said, it isn’t like this is the closer even though Lope does fit that role more often than not as they go into the set closing A Day In The Life cover. As with LOM? this is well played but not the kind of cover that has anything of a jam and we are off to the encore after another jukebox set (which this time goes rage rocker, pop rock single attempt, syncopated pocket rocker, moody art rock pairing, oddball Mike tune with band hijinx, Bowie cover, neato bustout, Phish anthem, Beatles cover). Interestingly enough, after those two sets of largely uninspiring if well played songs they come out and encore with Stash of all songs for only the second time ever (11.01.1991 being the other) perhaps as a bit of a “hey, yeah, we know that wasn’t the biggest set ever so here’s a Stash to take you into the night.” And that is a nice gesture because I doubt anyone thought that would happen but in terms of execution this one is (again) light on the jam opting for some brief T&R building (which almost feels pulled from some James Bond movie soundtrack for a bit) before coming back to the close. After the quick a cappella for Hello My Baby we are on the road again to find less icy pastures on a Friday in Omaha.

Yeah, I wasn’t too kind up there perhaps because I have a certain set of expectations for this tour in the back half but I stand by it. This is quite frankly a pretty boring show to discuss. The odd thing is that nothing here is botched or otherwise played poorly, they just don’t go anywhere with the songs they played. I’ve read one review on .net that indicates it might have something to do with it being a crowd largely made up of less experienced fans and factoring in the weather woes on top of that you have the band playing a basic, safe type of show that pleases everyone (except me, I guess) and gets them on the bus at a reasonable hour after the load out. That’s all well and good but this is a band that is known for playing big time shows in skip towns and dropping flaming hot sets when the weather is at its worst. I subscribe more to the idea that this is a band a bit weary from the road seeing the opportunity to play it by the book and get on the road, something that is in their long history actually quite atypical. So in that sense this is Phish being Phish, doing the thing you don’t expect them to do (just to stretch that to the furthest conclusion we can muster, of course). At first I thought I might not have any takeaways from this show but I think that Julius merits mention and the CTB is interesting enough for second tier along with the Demand because how often do you even get to hear that one? Besides, I’m a bit weary of including the same songs over and over so let’s mix it up a tad. With that I will say no more about this show as there are much MUCH better things coming that should sustain our interest ::wink wink::

Phish — Van Andel Arena — Grand Rapids, MI 11.11.1996

I  CDT, Guelah, CTB, Bag, Sparkle>Brother, Theme, Axilla>Jim

II  Timber Ho>Divided, Gumbo, Curtain>Sample>Tweezer, Swept Away>Steep>Maze, Contact, Slave

E  Waste, Cavern

Following their Saturday night affair in eastern Michigan Phish rested for a night before the arduous 150 mile trek across the state to play in Grand Rapids for the first time in two years. They had played down the road in Kalamazoo on the Fall 95 tour (which we will get to in a bit) so this 1996 stop followed the pattern of playing Kalamazoo and grand Rapids in alternating order. The first visit to this wonderful, craft beer-filled part of the world was on 12.10.1992 at the old Kalamazoo State Theatre, one of those venerable old venues that can be found throughout the country. This show is a good example of where they were in the early theater days with that tight, rocking jam style that was starting to evolve into the speed jazz of 1993. There is an interesting YEM here with some rotating duet action but otherwise it is pretty much just one of those solid shows that was a fun time live (it was) without any lasting takeaway value. The next year they played Grand Rapids for the first time at the Eastbrook Theatre (possibly called Club Eastbrook at that stage but now it is definitely The Orbit Room), an old timey single screen cinema that was once split to make two not great rooms before being repurposed for music and other events. Phish played here on 08.11.1993 and you can guess what I will say here considering what I always say when we get to talking August ’93 Phish: GO SPIN THIS SHOW!!! It has a debut (Ginseng Sullivan), teases, tons of SL, and a bunch of those high quality jams we laud from this month including an open Jim, a MFMF with vocal jam, a purely nasty Stash, a Mike’s that quote Peter Gabriel, and a Lope that jams on the Simpsons signal if you can believe that. I’m starting to think I might have to just go ahead and do the August ’93 tour reviews at some point with how much I talk those shows up… Anyway, continuing the pattern they returned to Kalamazoo the following Spring, again at the State Theatre on 06.19.1994. This one is a fine example of 1994 with a menacing Stash, tension overload in Lope and a wonderful Reba>Makisupa that deserves your attention. That Fall they were back to Grand Rapids – this time at DeVos Hall – for one of those classic Fall ’94 shows on 11.14.1994. If you like dark jams this one is all for you from the evil outro in the opening MFMF to the hose-filled shred of Maze to one of the biggest, baddest of all the famed ’94 Bowies and on. It’s a raging fun show. We had a blast. And finally, on 10.27.1995 Phish played Kalamazoo (for the last time) at Wings Stadium which is home to the aptly named Kalamazoo Wings of the ECHL. This is just another white hot rager in the lead up to Halloween that year but check out the Bowie and Simple for jams and a bunch of setlist rarities (well, now, that is…) including Taste That Surrounds (that period was confusing for this song), Suspicious Minds, Keyboard Army, DFB, and Life on Mars? Okay, that gets us caught up so let’s get regulating, regulators.

This was the last show to fit the alternating pattern with Kalamazoo as the only show after this in Western Michigan was back here on 11.11.1998 which we have covered previously. Van Andel Arena is quite similar to Wings Stadium in look and feel (inside anyway as Wings is quite uniquely shaped) as it too is the home ice for a hockey team, the Grand Rapids Griffins of the AHL. Now, I’m just going to get this out of the way right up front: I was on the floor for this show camped out within arm’s reach of the rail in front of Page. Anyone except for the routine rail riders who do it every single show who claims that such visual proximity to the band will not have an influence of your enjoyment and subsequent recollection of the show is either lying to you to keep you from coming down front or stands there with eyes closed the entire time and really should go ahead and give way to those who would better benefit from such awesome sight lines. So yeah. Get ready for the fluffing! Oh, and feel free to follow along for at least the first set with this video though I warn you the sound on it is less than desirable and the camera person wasn’t exactly committed to a stable image or even clearing the shoulder of the person in front of him which is why you won’t be graced with more shots of my head, sadly.

The show starts with a fiery Chalkdust Torture that is all in bounds and not too dissimilar from the one in Lexington a few nights earlier while setting the tone for the evening as Trey takes a few laps around the fretboard. The good old Guelah Papyrus second song first set slot holds true tonight. Mike comes in early tonight with the fight bell as he and Trey draw out the intro a bit with the whistle wah fight bell combo. All good fun. Cars Trucks Buses follows this up making this the second show of the tour with this trio to open the show. The first time was 10.29.1996 in Tallahassee and it will pop up one more time later on in Vancouver on 11.23.1996. Closing this up they quickly drop into an on point ACDC Bag, frothing the fervor of the crowd even more along the way. I can tell you that I shared a moment with Page in this one as we locked eyes for what seemed like an eternity, him pounding away on the piano and me belting out the idiom-filled lines to the song as time stood still and we mentally made plans to go get a sandwich, maybe a cup of coffee or something after the show. Alas, I waited and waited but he never showed up and instead I scarfed down some horrible Taco Bell while trying to not nod off during the horrific blizzard as we started the long trek around the Great Lakes to get up to the Twin Cities for the show two nights later. He may have left me wanting but I will never forget that night, Page…

Um… so where was I? Right. Bag. So maybe as a nod to the moment Page and I shared or something they followed ACDC Bag with Sparkle, putting up a decent if not exactly FMS take on the song. This drops right into Brother, a tune that never seems to disappoint. For a song only ever played 58 times it sure showed up frequently in 1996, first having been busted out for the Ben & Jerry aided version at The Clifford Ball, with five total performances in this year (four of which come along this Fall Tour). Incidentally, the vast majority of those 58 performances came prior to its long wait on the bench as 43 of the performances came between its debut on 09.25.1991 and its final show before the 258 show gap on 08.02.1993 (which was itself a bustout after 143 shows). Anyway, that Brother rips and sets us up nicely for the Theme From The Bottom that follows. This Theme is pretty standard but they nail the transition to the jam and Trey does that shredding the peak thing we all seem to love so much. Our second Axilla of the tour pops in next and here we do not have those pesky guitar problems so they rock it out and finish it off with the Axilla II ending again before dropping into a set closing Runaway Jim. Having been mainly a first set opener so far this tour, getting a bit of that Jim jammery to finish things off is a nice change. They keep it at home, not going big time or anything but finishing a quite energetic set on a strong note. Now we have another opportunity to time Trey on his fifteen minute call for setbreak, knowing full well that this is a fool’s errand.

During the break the conversation you had was surely about how hot they are playing tonight as when you look back at that setlist you can’t help but notice that the only dip in the energy would have come from, what, Guelah? I mean, sure, the tempo is slower but with the fun they displayed there in doing the dance and playing around with their various toys it never felt like the energy waned at all. It’s the type of set that won’t get mentioned too much outside of this show review because nothing really stands out on its own but as a whole you could do a heck of a lot worse in putting together a fun as hell bunch of songs to get to to there. As you and your friends pore over this the lights drop – hey, maybe it really was  a fifteen minute break! (it wasn’t) – and you get yourself right to get down to business for the second set. For the second time this tour they open with Timber (Jerry) which teases us with its oh-too-short middle jam (we are still more than a year away from the lengthy versions scattered through 1997) before they come back to the final verse and refrain. Trey drops into the opening for Divided Sky, making this the first of a few repeats from our visit to Auburn Hills two nights ago. Perhaps it had something to do with the unbelievable double rainbow we saw along the drive here that afternoon? I cannot be certain but the weather was quite stormy those few days in Michigan so it isn’t too big of a stretch to make that assumption. The interesting thing about these two Divideds is that musically they are quite similar. Yes, I know the bulk of the song is composed but the pauses are the same length (1:02) and Trey’s solo is very similar to my ears. The only noticeable difference is that they drop our first Secret Language in the pause, bringing out the All Fall Down signal to the confusion of the vast majority of people in the room. I recall hitting the deck and realizing no one else around me was doing the same and kinda slowly standing back up with feelings of eyes on me all around. That signal really never caught on, did it? Every time I’ve been at a show where they played it I only see a small handful of people actually act on it. I always have wanted that one to get the whole floor to drop just to see what the venue staff would do as a result. Oh well, I guess we are just too cool to pull off that big of a coordinated joke.

After working through Divided Sky Phish graces us with the second Gumbo of the tour, getting the dance vibe going in earnest once again. The notable thing here is Page’s end piano solo includes a quote of Maple Leaf Rag, that ragtime number written by Scott Joplin that probably reminds you of The Entertainer or the classic film The Sting (starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford amongst many others). It is a neat little nod and fits quite well in the context of Gumbo. Next up is The Curtain, that wonderful composed lead-in to impending jam vehicles like, um, Sample in a Jar? WTF? C’mon, Trey. That’s not cool at all. Hang on. They have played Curtain>Sample 11 times??? Geez, man, that’s not where we want Curtain to lead! Thankfully, after that head-shake-worthy move we do get that vehicle we expected in the form of Tweezer (video here!), our fifth of the tour. Pretty well right from the start you can tell this one is going places as once they hit the drop into the jam, Kuroda colors the stage blue, Trey drops into some funk rhythm comping, Mike hits the fight bell, and then Trey adds in our friend the whistle wah. They fall into this groove quite nicely and it becomes a bit of a stop/start jam with Trey adding in the whistle wah as Mike leads the jam. Watch that video and you can see how much Trey is enjoying this groove jam thing with that grin you know so well beaming off his face as he bobs his head and comps along. This is cowfunk before we knew that was even a thing! Before you know it, Kuroda is punctuating the whistle wahs with his lighting and the crowd joins in as well, something that works a lot better than the dreaded woos that a certain Tweezer from northern California in 2013 brought (back) into the scene. Eventually Trey doesn’t even have to hit the whistle wah trigger as Fish and the crowd are laying it down so that he can get in on the action with some more varied fills on the guitar. Page brings in the wobbly tone (which he also inserted between verses earlier) then moves to the organ as this groove matures, all with Mike still driving the bus in the lead role. Trey moves over to the mini-kit to let this groove continue to breathe. Mike notes his approval by inserting some more fight bell action in time with the beat Fish and Trey are laying down while still leading the way. Trey moves back to the guitar and immediately takes charge, pushing us away from the groove and into a more traditional Tweezer-type jam, soaring to the eventual old school slow down Tweezer ending. I know I have Show Attendance Bias with this one but this is a seriously funky Tweezer. It is yet another example of the sound changing right in front of our eyes on this tour and a jam I could listen to on a loop. Here it sounds so fresh — because it is. The video really helps to show how much they just got down and into it from the drop. It isn’t a version you hear people point to very often when discussing the roots of cowfunk (what, you don’t have those conversations with your friends? PFFFT!) but damn if it doesn’t fit the mold. I need a smoke.

Sensing the need for a bit of a breather Phish plays Swept Away>Steep for the second time in as many shows and putting that pair in a six-way tie for third on the list of most played songs this tour at seven appearances (and all of those other songs were also played this show: CDT, CTB, Waste, and Sample – way to keep it fresh, Trey!). After this quick slow down they drop right into Maze, playing another fiery version heavy on the shred but perhaps not quite as big as the one a couple of nights ago in Champaign. Now in the latter part of the set, the band starts up Contact for what will surely be the start of the end proceedings. This road song is a clear nod to the impending almost 600 mile drive to come around the lakes and up to Minneapolis (I am still not sure why they didn’t have a Chicago area show on that off night but whatever) and it gets paired up with the other typical road song, Slave to the Traffic Light, in capping this set. Now, you are probably saying to yourself, “hey, I bet that isn’t too uncommon for them to play those songs together like that” but you would be wrong, mister. This is the first time they ever did it! And they have only done it once since on 08.13.2010 at Deer Creek where it served as the encore before a similarly northwesterly cannonball run up to Alpine Valley for the next night’s show (note that there is only one Slave, Contact ever which occurred way back on 02.18.1989 in Newmarket, NH). Considering these two songs have been around since 1988 (Contact) and 1984 (Slave) it is even more surprising that there are only 19 shows where both songs appear (I’ll let you find that list if you really are that interested in such minutiae…). The pairing is fun but not exactly revelatory stuff and then we are starting to gather our marbles and coats and such while we wait for the encore to start. Tonight gives us, thankfully, the only ever Waste, Cavern encore pairing (they are late first set buddies for 02.16.1997). Look, those are both fine enough songs I guess (I won’t bring up my Cavern issues right now but let’s just say the song follows me, okay?) but paired together for the encore just ain’t what this cosmonaut is looking for in an encore. I know encores can be as much about cooling down a hot crowd as giving us a big exclamation point to send us out the door so I’ll just leave at that.

And how are we feeling about this show? It pretty well fits the mold of Fall ’96 so far with a strong if not jammy first frame followed by a nicely flowing second set that has at least one big takeaway jam to it. The band is truly connected at this point of the tour and you can tell they are feeling good about where things are headed as they dip their proverbial toes into the groove jam waters. This Tweezer is another of the formative jams leading to the big changes in 1997 but the balance of the show is firmly in the mode that we have been hearing up until now: super tight band communication, big time energy, and some bits of percussive jamming. And here’s to more of this formula going forward because it is working for the band. Your takeaways tonight are Divided (I had to include one of the past two as they are both quite good) and Tweezer with Gumbo being the add-in for the fun ragtime teasery. Rest up and be careful on that drive over to Minnesota, fans, cuz there’s more weather brewing. And as my wife likes to shout to the cars leaving the lots while we unwind after shows, “don’t pass them, let them pass you!” I know. It doesn’t make sense to me either…

Phish — The Palace of Auburn Hills — Auburn Hills, MI 11.09.1996

I  Buried Alive>Poor Heart, Sloth, Divided, Horn, Tube, Talk, Melt, Lizards, Zero

II  Bowie, ADITL, YEM, Taste, Swept Away>Steep>Hood

E  Julius

After their single night stop in south central Illinois Phish traveled to the suburban Detroit area for their second time playing at the Palace of Auburn Hills, home to the Detroit Pistons of the NBA. By the time Fall 1996 came around the band were no strangers to the state of Michigan, having played 17 shows in The Mitten (good for #14 overall). Most of these seventeen shows were in cities and towns west of the Detroit Metro area which makes sense considering the large Phish-friendly populations at Michigan State (2 shows), University of Michigan (5 shows), and in western Michigan (5 shows – which we will get to for our next show’s post). So at this point they had really only played a small handful of shows in this region, first at St. Andrew’s Hall in Detroit on 05.06.1992 which includes a lovely Reba and the 449 show bustout of Shaggy Dog emerging out of a fun YEM for a unique a cappella version of the rarity. A couple months later on 07.30.1992 Phish played the Meadowbrook Music Festival (which is actually a venue not a festival in case you are confused as I was) in Rochester Hills just to the east of Auburn Hills as part of their tour opening for Santana. The Phish set is pretty unremarkable but the whole band did join Santana that night for several songs which is nice. The next year saw them return to the same place, this time in a headlining capacity in the middle of that August ’93 run I keep referencing. Being seasoned Phish folk I know you already have that 08.12.1993 show memorized but just in case you do not please do yourself the favor of checking out this quite legendary show. There are teases, tons of Secret Language, a great Reba, a big time Melt, and a Landlady/Tweezer mashup that you really need to hear. The next summer on 06.23.1994 they played the Phoenix Plaza Theatre in Pontiac just to the west of Auburn Hills which along with one of those fantastic ’94 Melts has a bustout of NICU and the second ever Silent in the Morning without The Horse leading into it. And then the final time they played this area prior to our show up above was their first time at the Palace on 10.28.1995, dropping a solid if not epic show along the path towards Halloween. With all of the big shows that surround it it is easy to see why this one is skimmed over but if you give it a listen you will be pleased in doing so. And with that we are caught up on our regional review and can get into the meat of the matter for this second ever show at the Palace.

Tonight starts with one of my favorite mood-setting openers, Buried Alive, which they romp through energetically before dropping into Poor Heart. Of its 148 performances, 86 times the song has opened a set and thirty-one times Poor Heart has been its partner (though four of those were not set openers). It is one of the more common pairings for Buried Alive and somehow works in having two very different yet both high energy songs start things off. The energy stays WAY up as they rock through The Sloth and then head into Divided Sky for our first long form song of the evening. This one is played quite well (1:02 for the pause tonight, timers) and elicits many a “woo” from the fans surrounding the tapers, something you will need to get used to for this show considering this continues pretty well throughout the show. Next up is the first Horn of the tour which comes off cleanly before a punchy run through Tube (by sign request based on the Trey banter that follows). Trey then straps on the acoustic for our fourth Talk of the tour which gives us a good breather before the Split Open and Melt that follows. This Melt is pretty linear, never really straying too far from the prominent theme but it is a fun one that punches hard in getting back to the close. Next up is The Lizards which mainly does what you expect from the song though there is a brief bit of playfulness by Page in the first part of the song as he uses a wobbly, liquid tone to accompany the main melody Trey is playing. After giving us our second dose of Gamehendgery for the set we get the Character Zero closer you should have seen coming a mile away considering this is the tenth one in just eighteen shows and they kinda really like playing it this tour. Now you are left to wander the cavernous halls of this quite large venue, trying to put this first set into the context of the tour as a whole, muttering to yourself as passersby give you a wide berth. Eventually it will hit you and you sprint back to your seats to find your friends and enlighten them about what you just discovered only to have them make fun of you because as soon as you start talking you forgot it all in one of those moments of lysergic confusion that we have all experienced. Maybe another lap around the venue will trigger your memory…

Yeah nope. Instead you will get to spend this next set head tripping over that lost notion… which is not always the best thing when they start out with a jam vehicle like David Bowie. Now, this is not a total mindfunker like some Bowies but it does offer up some space for exploration (both musical and introspective). The prevailing mode is in building tension here as it sure feels like it could take a hard turn into the aether at several points but instead they stay at home in crafting a percussive groove that builds to a nice payoff at the peak. You won’t hear this one on any best of lists but as a set opener it certainly gets things going quite well. This is followed by A Day In The Life which once through to the frenetic crossover section actually matches the Bowie energy, almost nodding back to that Bowie in how they approach it. Matching the first set, they continue to build the energy by going long form with You Enjoy Myself, our sixth of the tour which puts it in a tie for third place with 12 other songs. The early part of this one is fairly typical with lovely pre-Nirvana and Nirvana sections but we are here to talk about the jams, yo.

So remember last time when I voiced my concern about not being able to figure out who plays the ‘whistle wah’ tone in that Simple and elsewhere? Yeah, well, I now have VIDEO PROOF that it is in fact Trey! I KNEW IT! It is definitely a pad he hits on his mini-kit rig that triggers it and you can see/hear that plainly around the 8:35 mark of that video right there. Even better, this is the start to the really fun part of the YEM as with Trey adding in the whistle wah fill and Mike hitting the fight bell you can tell they are ready to go. So they funk through the Trey-led section getting a dance party going and then Trey moves over fully to the mini-kit for the D&B section which includes some fantastic Mike along with all that percussive power. This is yet another good/great YEM, perhaps not to the level of the one from Lexington a couple of nights ago but still one that begs you to move. After the typically hilariously ridiculous VJ Phish plays Taste (which is 2nd in times played so far this tour at 9). This one is pretty clean with a solid payoff jam but nothing too major to write home about. While not a segue, they do drop right into Swept Away>Steep which is becoming a nice counterpoint cool down here on this tour, seeming to arrive right around when it would be a good time to change it up a bit after some more energetic jamming. So far we have seen it come out of Simple (2 times), Mike’s (2), and Fluffhead prior to this one emerging from Taste, all examples that support my premise (::pats self on back::). Even better, this leads into Harry Hood in a combo that works even better than it looks on paper. Something about the tone and flow of Swept Away>Steep really matches well with Hood. This is a classic run-for-the-peak Fall ’96 type of Hood – and I say that with all the due respect for such versions. If you were looking for an openly jammed Hood in this era people would have called you crazy and told you to take another lap around the venue. This Hood does exactly what it is meant to, building towards the big time release we all signed up for. You signed up for that, right? Well, even if you didn’t you are getting it, mister, and you will like it! Oh, Trey throws a Steep tease in there for good measure if you want to listen for that. And with that another very engaging second set has come to a close and all that is left is the swinging Julius encore to yet again send us off into the night wagging fingers and do-do-doing off into the night.

On first glance and even listen this show doesn’t really seem to be that great. And in the grand scheme of Phish history it is not “great” in comparison but there is a lot to like here. Sure, the first set is largely anchored by Divided and only has that shortish Melt as the other jam but everything is played with fire and zest. Similarly, the second set doesn’t exactly contain a murderer’s row of massive jams but it all works so well together. This is one of the hundreds of shows that benefit from setlist construction which at this time was still one of Trey’s primary pastimes. Sure, the pure takeaways are few (I’m going with YEM and Hood tonight) but as with pretty much every Phish show you’ve ever been to you would have had a blast in the moment (yes, I know there are exceptions both for personal and other reasons). Putting this show into some kind of larger context works on some levels (it is the exact midpoint of the tour with 17 shows on either side which is something I guess and you could make an argument that with the recent RiL performance and all that opened up to the band everything from here on out is looking forward in the band’s development rather than being just more of the same…) but sometimes when we try to find meaning in every single moment we lose our ability to enjoy our time in the present. Which I guess might be why I am doing this almost twenty years after the fact… So let’s just say this is a fun Saturday night in the middle of tour -and let’s not forget the fourth show in as many nights – and move on west to Grand Rapids and the rest of the Midwest portion of the tour.

Phish — Assembly Hall, University of Illinois — Champaign, IL 11.08.1996

I  Jim, Axilla>ATR>Mound, Disease>Caspian, Reba, Golgi, Lope

II  2001>Maze, Bouncin’>Simple, Cup, Mike’s, SSB, Paug

E  Theme

Leaving The South behind after their stellar night in Lexington (though really, is Kentucky the South? or perhaps the lower Midwest? West Appalachia? Sure, it is south of the Ohio River – not that that is a designation point or anything – but it borders four Midwest states and but three southern states. I’m pretty sure they eventually sided with the Union in the Civil War too… maybe I should just accept it and move on? yes? okay!) Phish descended upon the college town of Champaign, IL for a one night stop as Assembly Hall, the on campus multi-use venue most associated with the Fighting Illini basketball team. This would be the band’s second visit to Assembly Hall and third visit to Champaign altogether as they first played here waaaaaay back on 10.03.1991 at Mabel’s. Check out the unusual Coil ending as they segue to Tweezer. The next time they came back to town was 10.22.1995 for their first show at Assembly Hall, supposedly the 1000th show in band history (according to some resources). Check out the Possum->Catapult and Tweezer->Makisupa if nothing else here. So the next visit would be our show here on Fall 96 Tour, one full of gusto and highlights as they began their assault of the Midwest.

Things start out in a familiar way with the fifth Runaway Jim of the tour – also the third Jim opener already, making it the most common opener in these seventeen shows. Actually, before we even get to that Trey drops a bit of the “whistle wah” tone (that’s the name I’m going with until someone can give me something better) we were introduced to in the Lexington Weigh and YEM. While it doesn’t show up in the Jim it will be all over the place throughout this night. So the Jim is nice enough with Trey playing a bit of staccato/plinko lead to accompany Mike and Fish’s punchy rhythm but they wrap it up after a few minutes and move into the tour debut of Axilla. At this point it had been 170 shows since the last one and it shows a tad even if some of the issues here are with Trey’s guitar more than anything (another thing we will come back to here). It is still good to hear this song though and I always appreciated when they used the Axilla II ending as they do here. This allows them to slide right into another bustout, All Things Reconsidered, our friend from Spring 93 which hadn’t been played in 108 shows at this point. The faithful rendition drops right into a funky but straight forward Mound and then we get our first real meat of the evening as they start up Down With Disease. While firmly an in the box first set type version, Trey goes off in that wonderful way, shredding big until they drop down to transition into a decent enough Prince Caspian. Following our date with Fuckerpants they visit our gal Reba to the delight of all in attendance (I know I was psyched). After the composed section as they are heading into the jam Trey pulls out a couple more whistle wahs and Mike punctuates with the fight bell though admittedly this could have been Fish’s bell he used to have since I really can’t recall right now when the *tings* by Mike started popping up. This is the type of Reba that just begs you to groove along with it as Trey takes his time in building to the end peak and all involved do their share to elevate this one to that smile-inducing realm the most satisfying ones do. After a quick and rocking Golgi Apparatus they head into the set closing Run Like an Antelope, punctuating the set with the classic mind bending burst of energy that jam entails. It is pretty well straight forward stuff but rocks the heck out in getting everyone pumped for the “fifteen minute break” to come. So we sit there with our stopwatches, fully expecting the lights to drop when that minute hand clicks over after fifteen extremely long minutes before it dawns on our addled heads that perhaps it would not really be fifteen minutes.

Now a bit more grounded after a swig of a friend’s coke (or pepsi, no idea what the served there then)  and perhaps a smoke if that was your thing back then (it was pretty common, after all) the lights do finally drop. Possibly knowing that we all wanted to get down from the get down in this one they drop into 2001, giving us a brief taste of what is to come with this song in coming months as they start to really stretch it into the groove monster it was for a few years there. Still, it serves its purpose here in waking us up from setbreak slumber and before you know it they are into a rip roaring Maze. Quite simply, Trey shreds the shit out of this one with Page having a bit of fun in his solo as well. This isn’t quite to the level of that Pittsburgh Maze earlier in the tour but there’s nothing to complain about here either. They counterpoint this with Bouncin’ Around The Room providing the happy music in the wake of the deep dark Maze that preceded it. Next up we get the jam highlight you came here for, one of those big time Fall 96 Simples that they write poems about. They do that, right? After working through the song and standard first solo Trey drops over to the mini-kit, adding pop to the backing rhythm for Page’s piano stylings. Trey is adding effects with his pedals and such, giving us a little whistle wah and more. Hey wait one second…  Now I am not so sure who initiates the whistle wah as when it comes up in the video (see the link a bit further down) Trey is on the mini-kit and doesn’t appear to make a move towards a pedal or anything but there it is – and Page is going nuts on the piano right then so I’m fairly certain it wasn’t him either. Dagnabit, that’s a world-view-altering question I need answered now. So anyone want to tell me who DOES play the whistle wah tone???

Now back to the jam… Page runs the show in this first part of the jam, first on the piano and then the Moog and electric organ all while Fish, Mike, and Trey add varied sounds to the mix. Trey then starts up some elongated, almost dissonant lines on the guitar as Page moves to a more percussive mode of playing which eventually evolves into Trey taking the reins to lead out into a high powered section  of guitar-led rawk. This section feels like it should head up to a massive peak but then you can tell something isn’t quite right with Trey’s playing as he seems to go in and out a bit as they move into a different space. I can tell you that he was literally kicking an amp up there, somewhat faux angrily playing at wanting to destroy the thing in frustration. You can see all of that in the last two minutes or so of this video (I know the quality is crappy but think about the source and the intervening years of tape degradation involved, mister 4K vid snob) of this wonderful jam which also shows off that it was Gold Shirt Night for Trey yet again that night. The thing about it is that Trey really does still pull off some nice stuff here which makes you wonder what could have been had he not been fighting with his rig there.

Right as they finish up the Simple Trey banters a little about how “you have to kick it sometimes, you know?” and then they head right into Loving Cup with fingers pressed firmly against the side of their noses. The “bad guitar” line definitely held a bit more weight and humor after all that. And while this isn’t exactly an epic Cup like, oh, I don’t know, the one from Indio in 2009 Trey does shred this with a bit more gusto than what is typical for the song. Now back on it, they start into Mike’s Song for what will clearly be the set closing Groove. They dive quickly into the chugging first jam with Trey accenting it with more wah’d out fills than we’ve heard from him in this song up to this point. They don’t sit here very long though as after only a couple of minutes we move into second jam territory with Trey hopping on the mini-kit for a bit to let Page play around as his sustain loop drones on behind. There are several whistle wahs here to accompany the percussion which may be indicative of it really being Trey who hits it, though I still don’t have video proof of that… yet. Anyway, they bring things down to a very sparse place, giving the crowd the chance to offer some positive feedback before they stop altogether and walk out front to get into a cappella mode. Trey give a little banter of thanks and about this being practice for their upcoming performance before the upcoming Minnesota Timberwolves game (adding in the jibe “those of you who have a tv”). Obviously, this gives us the Star Spangled Banner (an interesting Mike’s Groove filler to be certain) and then they return to their respective places to start up Weekapaug Groove. But something isn’t seemingly going right here as Mike is playing those big intros notes without anything really coming out of his amps until all of a sudden ALL THE NOTES come out at once in this wild cacophony of Paug noise. I’m pretty certain he forgot to turn off his delay pedal or something but whatever. It was a wild effect live and somewhat holds up on tape. Now we are off into the feel good vibes of Paug for a rocking close to the set. All told that’s a really fun setlist and it comes off quite well upon relisten as well. The encore tonight is Theme from the Bottom (after a whistle wah at the start to keep that going) and while nice and soaring — I will not comment on the clapping some fans did here (or in the Reba…) — it stays at home and the next thing you know we are filing out to head to the lots and figure out how long we need to screw around there before one of us is brave enough to take the wheel for the  almost 400 mile drive up and over to Auburn Hills. Thankfully for me, my family lived along that path so we had a stopping point for the night and to recharge before the next night’s fun but for a lot of people that would have been yet another in a long line of potentially harrowing drives on the highways and byways of this great nation.

Upon reflection, this show is one of those ones that is perhaps a bit better than it looks on paper — even if it looks pretty good there! Taking the equipment issues Trey experienced out of the equation (and honestly, they really aren’t too noticeable on tape anyway) you have a first set with a couple of bustouts, a few nice jams, and some great energy throughout. When your one ‘slow song’ for the set is a power ballad like Caspian that bodes well. Then they really amp things up for a second set that has no lulls unless you aren’t a fan of patriotic a cappella tunes. This is just an overall solid Friday night of fun in a college town which can lead to some pretty memorable evenings, quite frankly. Your highlights here are Reba, Maze, and Simple with second tier entry being Mike’s Song. I’d spin this whole show if I was you but if not you could also check out Disease, Lope, and perhaps Theme and have yourself a nifty playlist of highlights. Now we are on to the Michigan portion of the tour before that night off date with NBA destiny.

Phish — Knoxville Civic Coliseum — Knoxville, TN 11.06.1996

I  Melt, CTB, FEFY, Taste, Train Song, Poor Heart, PYITE, Billy Breathes, Bowie

II  Wilson, Curtain>Mike’s->Swept Away>Steep>Paug, Mule, Sample>Funky Bitch

E  Rocky Top

Heading north from their quick dip into Florida, Phish took two days off before playing again in Knoxville, TN. By this time the band were no strangers to Tennessee having played 14 shows in the state (the total is now up to 25 shows making this state tied for 19th most played by the band). The first time they came to the state in Spring 1991 they hit up this college town of Knoxville first, playing 02.27.1991 at Arnold’s Flamingo Grill (or Flamingo Cafe depending where you check). There are no known recordings for this one, unfortunately. The next time Phish came here was on the eve of the classic Roxy Run in Atlanta, playing a solid (if water logged…) show at the Electric Ballroom we have covered here previously. Check out the Tweezer->Foam, Reba, a tease-filled Antelope, and more from this fun show. They returned later that year on 07.29.1993 for a show at the Tennessee Theatre on the eve of the epic month we got that summer. There’s a punchy Possum, a rocking YEM, a great Mockingbird narration, an unusual Maze intro and jam, an extended (!) Bouncin’ outro, and more (like Trey and Mike on the exercise gliders for Ice – check around the 2:25 mark of this video for an example of that if you aren’t familiar) of that frenetic Summer ’93 greatness in this one. They came back only one time in 1994 for their first visit to the Knoxville Civic Auditorium/Coliseum facility, performing in the smaller Auditorium venue on 04.25.1994. This one has a ripping Jim, one of those awesome Fee->Foam combos from that time period, and a big time Melt all in the first set along with a super shred Antelope (with Layla teases) anchoring the second set. They returned once more on 11.28.1995, a solid show with one of only seven Stash openers ever (out of 401 performances of the song), a tease-tinged Suzy, and the lone performance (by Fish) of Wind Beneath My Wings as a dedication to his hero Col. Bruce Hampton (who sat on side stage reading a newspaper during the song). There are some bits of this show that appear in the Col. Bruce documentary Basically Frightened: The Musical Madness of Colonel Bruce Hampton. That doc is well worth your time if you dig the Colonel or any of the myriad of musicians he has influenced. Like Phish.

So now they were back once more to the venue where Randy Rhoads played his last concert (March 18, 1982) before his tragic and frankly pretty stupid death in a small plane crash where he joined the tour bus driver and the band’s seamstress for a stolen plane joy ride that ended in a fiery crash due to them deciding it was a good idea to buzz the tour bus where Ozzy and others lie sleeping. This show was personally my first since Pittsburgh and the start to a nice six show run in eight days for me (and the band and other people, I suppose). Getting down to business from the start, Phish starts tonight with the quite rare Split Open and Melt as there are only nine such show openers in the 306 times the song has been played (with an additional 12 2nd set opening versions). The jam here is nice enough, albeit a bit brief for my tastes, and includes some In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida phrasing and teasing by Trey, something we heard in the prior version from Charlotte as well. I’ll just say right now that if they want to start opening more shows with Melt I will not be complaining. It sets the mood much better than most of the more straight up rocker options. Page gets the turn to work some stuff out in the subsequent Cars Trucks Buses, getting the boogie machine rolling for all who care to hop on board. Following CTB they bring it down a bit for the tour debut of Fast Enough For You, that tender relationship ballad from Rift full of singular lines that always seemed to end up in the doodle section of your classroom notebooks when thoughts went a-wanderin’ during a boring lecture. This leads to Taste, already the 8th performance of the song in just fifteen shows. The outro jam here is pretty straight forward and brief but serves its purpose in this set, providing a counter point to the two ballads that sandwich it tonight.

That latter ballad is Train Song and after the travelogue ditty they crank into Poor Heart to ramp the energy up. Poor Heart leads to a rocking Punch You In The Eye and then we are back to ballad land for Billy Breathes. At this point you kinda have to wonder what is up with the pace tonight considering the set has had three ballads which all seem to mess with the overall flow a bit. My memory of this in person was that we were all saying “c’mon, guys!” a bit in hopes they would blow things up and once through Billy Breathes they do exactly that by setting up a loopy intro to the set closing David Bowie. The jam in Bowie starts out in a patient way, perhaps a result of the carry over from the set that precedes it. This version is pretty straight forward thematically but they take it out for a nice ‘type I’ ride, establishing some solid T&R along the way to the satisfying peak and resolution. This laid back set allows one (during the “fifteen minute” setbreak) to cordially debate the merits of Peyton Manning as a leader, quality upstanding man, and quarterback with any of the hundreds of completely reasonable Tennessee football fans in attendance and if you take the first half of this sentence at face value you really don’t know much about college football in the South. I’m not saying anything about Mr. Manning, just that UT fans are straight crazy pants nuts. And I say that as a vehement defender of my own team who have never been anything but the most perfect gentlemen and symbols of the innocence of the game.

As if to speak to that insane line of thinking, Trey comes out and starts up Wilson, a tune about a wonderful leader of men who maybe got a bad rap due to some scandalous press by the opposing party. I mean, maybe he really did what was in the best interest of those Lizards and they just haven’t had enough time to see that. They say history is written by the victors (well, lots of people say that anyway even if it isn’t always the case) so maybe once they overthrew him and cancelled all of the great programs he had instituted to keep them from doing things smart people don’t do they rewrote all of their history to make him out to be the bad guy. Why else would they keep imploring you to read their book if not to get you to buy into their propoganda?? I’m tellin’ ya, man. Trey’s in on it too. You think he didn’t get some kind of kickback from the Lizard lobbyists for telling the tale the way they wanted it? I’m guessing he got taken care of pretty well…

Where was I? Oh, right, Knoxville and the start to the second set. So after Wilson they punch through into The Curtain, offering up a sort of double opener pairing. Here in its With(out) form as it was in that era (and honestly, most of us really didn’t even know or at least concern ourselves with With since it had been over eight years at this stage since they had last played With) and as always it offers up a great lead-in to whatever vehicle they had up in the rotation that night (except for the eleven times they did Curtain>Sample which, c’mon, what the hell, Trey?). Here in Knoxville that led to Mike’s Song and this one continues the upward trend of awesome for this song on the tour. The first jam starts out super crunchy and a bit plodding as they all seem to feel each other out to see who will take charge. Trey plays with a couple of descending lines before starting up his lead, toying around the main theme of the song. This goes along for several minutes with the band picking up steam along the way as Trey makes those open-mouth-o-face motions to accompany his playing. He eventually comes back around to the Mike’s riff but instead of moving out to the next song in this groove they drop into a dissonant space to begin the second jam. Mike is on top here, offering up the main lead while Page adds in glitchy electro fills to accompany his organ. Trey is on the mini-kit here, giving Page and Mike room to play for several minutes and helping Fish to build the pocket. They clear out the noise around the 5:45 mark (of the second jam. this is about 16 minutes into the Mike’s proper) and Trey moves back to guitar for some heavy wah fill action. Things fall into a bit of a groove pocket jam here for the next few minutes without a true lead being played, showing a pretty conscious effort by the band to not get in front of themselves here. Over the last minute or two it loses focus as you can tell they are all kind of waiting for the next thing to happen but just before the transition Mike does offer up a little more and then we are out into Swept Away>Steep territory. This is the second time this tour that they have played this as the filler in the Mike’s Groove sandwich and I’ll say again that I am a fan of it. Tonight this makes for the only ballad space in the second set and following the Pink Floydish scream bit at the end we are right back to dance party time for Weekapaug Groove. This one stays at home in the song but they elevate the jam to allow Trey to straight GO OFF heading to the end peak in that way that has you hootin’ and hollerin’ and fist pumpin’ and shouting out “yeah!” with each round of notes. You know the feeling I mean.

So after that really fun Mike’s Groove you know we probably only have a few tunes left with maybe one of them being a vehicle of some sort. They start into Scent of a Mule which lets you know it is probably this and then heading to the closer after a song or two so you settle in for the always odd and sometimes interesting spacegrass tale of aliens, farm animals, and lemonade. The song goes as it does and then we get more of a ‘real’ jam than what is typical as first Page take his turn on piano, Fish joins on woodblocks, then Trey leads on guitar (with the vocal scat thing), then Page with Mike, then everyone comes back and finally we are on to the normal klezmer finish (with Mike really drawing out the “well”) and return to song. I am not going to get into the habit of breaking down every Mule jam but that one was at least interesting in how they structured it all. Following Sample in a Jar we do get that set closer we knew was on its way, tonight in the form of Funky Bitch. It is a rocking version (page on the organ in particular) but mainly serves to cap the set with energy. Then, being that we are in Tennessee we get Rocky Top to encore because of course we do.

This show is a decent enough Wednesday night show in a college town. You get some interesting setlist construction what with the Melt opener and the up and down tempo of the first set and then a solid grouping of songs making up the majority of the second set before it goes cold at the end. The takeaways from this one are a bit light (Mike’s is the only sure fire one but Melt, Paug, and the Mule if you are really feeling generous make for a nice little list) but the energy is high and there are signs that bigger things are on their way (they are). Best thing to do here is take what we came for and rest up for the next night in Lexington where along with a few tour debuts we will get a quite memorable jam to discuss and debate with regards to its all time placement.