10 31 09 Exile On Main Street Kill Devil Falls is roaring to a climax. I wasn't sure if I was in the mood today, but apparently I am. Heard 10/30 the other day and loved it. This ain't disappointing either considering Exile is one of my all-time favorite albums I know the show won't disappoint.
1994 Phish is the sweet spot for me. It is not coincidentally the year within which I attended the most Phish shows... about 30 total if I remember right.... (I think it was @posnera who mentioned 1999 being his favorite year, which is also the year he attended the most shows) Many of my all-time favorite Phish shows are '94s. Halloween is in the top 3 -- hard not to place it in the top slot but I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE 5.13.94 and 10.29.94 too.... anywayz.... SET 1: Frankenstein, Sparkle > Simple > Divided Sky, Harpua -> The Vibration of Life -> Harpua[1], "Horse."">Julius > The Horse > Silent in the Morning > Reba, Golgi Apparatus Well, here we go! As I mentioned previously myself and a handful of my hardcore West Coast touring friends were all on the rail for this one. More or less dead center. Doesn't get much better than that. We did a lot of shows "on the rail" back then and our motto was "nobody between me and the band!" Just looking at that setlist is bringing back memories! So, the Frankenstein opener for Halloween was of course just exactly perfect. Sparkle >Simple > Divided Sky.... yep. The band was feelin' it. They were ready and they came to play! HARPUA!!! Really?? First set Harpua? Yes!! Now I'm forgetting what album Jimmy puts on.... was it.... some Sabbath? I had some really good paper that night and I was almost tricked into believing the Halloween album itself was going to unfold during this Harpua. Thems some good doses, heh heh. Horse > Julius > Horse > Silent.... intersting segue but I don't remember it happening.... the Reba, however, good golly miss Molly this is a good REBA! And Golgi takes us out to setbreak, clutching our ticket stubs. Set II: The White Album. Not going to go into a whole lot of detail here. It pretty much speaks for itself. If you are familiar with the official release then you may not have heard the pre-set PA stuff. When the lights went down, the intro heartbeats from Dark Side of the Moon begin playing over the PA. Of course that one would have been too obvious a choice but it fooled some of us for a second or two..... as Speak To Me continues over the PA, it fades down until we hear Ed Sullivan introducing "Ladies & Gentlemen .... The Beatles!" at which point Phish kicks into Back in The USSR. From the open notes I knew we were in for a treat. I had grown up with the White Album as a kid and then into my teens it was the soundtrack to some of my first psychedelic experiences..... so now here I am tripping proverbial balls and Phish is performing the f**king White Album!! I loved it. One of the best Phish concert experiences of my lifetime. SET 3: David Bowie, Bouncing Around the Room, Slave to the Traffic Light > Rift > Sleeping Monkey > Poor Heart, Run Like an Antelope ENCORE: Amazing Grace, Costume Contest, The Squirming Coil As others have mentioned - take out the White Album set and you still have a killer, killer, 1994 Phish show. I don't think we left that building until sometime after 2am that night.... my good friend & tour partner Christine was Tela that night, and participated in the costume contest. It was awesome seeing her on stage with the band during that segment! (audience videos do circulate).
NYE 93 was one of the most fun nights I had. The set was designed like an aquarium with a giant clamshell in the back. The third set started with the band descending from the rafters wearing scuba gear (can't find any video of it, but I think part appeared in the Down With Disease video). They played Auld Lang Syne after the countdown and went into the debut of DWD (closing jam). SET 1: Llama, Guelah Papyrus, Stash, Ginseng Sullivan[1], Reba, Peaches en Regalia, I Didn't Know, Run Like an Antelope[2] SET 2: Tweezer > Halley's Comet > Poor Heart > It's Ice[3] > Fee[4] > Possum, Lawn Boy, You Enjoy Myself SET 3: Auld Lang Syne > Down with Disease Jam > Split Open and Melt, The Lizards, Sparkle > Suzy Greenberg >Hold Your Head Up > Cracklin' Rosie > Hold Your Head Up, Harry Hood, Tweezer Reprise ENCORE: Golgi Apparatus, Amazing Grace
Coincidence! I played that from Live Bait 03 today. And then I played it again. And again. Trey really rips it up on that DWD jam!
There's a very interesting epic Bowie from 12/2/94. The 12/29/94 version seemed...a little forced? As of the last time I listened.
Phish has such a massive discography. Its gonna take me a while to wrap my head around all the songs! That being said, my list of "anchor" songs (ones i know and currently look forward to) is expanding almost every day. So far this list includes the likes of: Joy Gotta Jibboo The Squirming Coil Punch You in the Eye Reba Tweezer Maze Possum Chalkdust Torture David Bowie Golgi Apparatus Time Turns Elastic You Enjoy Myself These songs - i like them. I can recognize most other songs by name but as for how they go, this is what i can really recall so far, lol.
Watching the webcast of 12 31 17 Wow. Im really impressed. This is as good or better than most of the concert dvds out there. Whoever is, i guess it would ne directing, knows what the hell they are doing. Nothing worse than a crowd shot during a guitar solo or the drummer on screen during some tasty piano licks.
I did the entire NYears run last year. First saw Phish in 92...clearly I’m having a hard time growing up. Lol
Too long? I’d be curious to know what you don’t like. Do you like the one on 11/26/94 Orpheum? Thanks for the suggestion, I’m heading there next.
So many great Bowies...like a never ending tribute to the man of many faces/voices/styles. A vehicle with a surprise in the middle. David Bowie Jam Chart - Phish.Net
Way too long. For a good Bowie, you can get the job done in 15 minutes max. Unless you throw in a Mind Left Body Jam or a Moby Dick segment or something. I know it goes against everything we know and love, but we have to admit that there are times when an "extended jam" just becomes "pointless noodling". That 57 minute Runaway Jim is even worse. If I'd have been there, I'd have been pretty peed off. It's like they started the first set, then realised they hadn't soundchecked beforehand, so just did that for the next 50 minutes instead. Yawn.
I do agree that 12-15 mins is probably the sweet spot for that song but I enjoy a meandering version from time to time, depending on the meander of course.
I gave the 12/2/94 Bowie a couple listens, that’s a good one. And at 22 mins it’s extended but not quite as far, which to @Harry Hood ‘s point can be a good thing. Bit of horns to finish it out too.
I agree that a 50 minute jam will always have lots of weak sections and usually a good bit of noodling. But in my experience, those “pointless” segments can allow the band to find the path to really unique sections, at least in a perfect world. The more compact jams are generally tighter and free of boring segments, but rarely go as far away from the original song structure or composition as the crazy long jams can. This is certainly not always the case, but my hope when listening to a 30 minute plus jam is that I’ll get 5-10 minutes of truly unique music out of the effort.
For some reason I’ve been on a SPAC 2004 kick, with 6/24 Noblesville added as it was my first show. Dark and extended jamming, with a great 4 song 2nd set on 6/20. If they would have retired at the end of this week it would have been quite a high note. Unfortunately Coventry ruined so much of the memories of 2004. I really dig these shows.
There were some good, even great, shows that summer. Too bad Coventry wasn't in that list! Still, I'm glad I was there. A unique experience to say the least!
I kept thinking during that DWD jam that it was a variation on the JGB "Midnight Moonlight" tune! Listen for it, the similarities are striking! I was seeing a lot of Jerry shows around that time as well, so...