, attached to 1991-07-18
Nice digital audience recording. The acoustics of the Casino Ballroom leave a lot to be desired but what can you do.
Things kick off with an appropriate Chalk Dust given the location and timing of the show. I can only imagine most of the people who attended the show that night spent the day on the beach across the street from the venue. Some funny audience banter during Page’s solo in Foam. It sounds like event staff is getting frustrated with a fan repeatedly telling him to “sit down!” Something not often heard at a Phish show! lol Trey introduces the GCH to the stage mid set. Beautiful Stash that pairs perfectly with an equally beautiful version of A-Train. Blistering Mike’s Groove to close the first half. Trey says they’ll be right back and warns everyone not to fall through the floor. lol
Well played versions of Llama and Reba start off set 2. The first Poor Heart of the tour follows and features the GCH. Nice Melt. It almost sounds like the PA cut out for a bit during Landlady? Trey introduces the GCH and Henrietta on Vac during the I Didn’t Know breakdown. Awesome Possum featuring the GCH! Cool Alone Again (Naturally) tease from Trey. Back to back Alumni encores. The horn arrangement for Alumni works perfectly!
Review by thelot
Nice digital audience recording. The acoustics of the Casino Ballroom leave a lot to be desired but what can you do.
Things kick off with an appropriate Chalk Dust given the location and timing of the show. I can only imagine most of the people who attended the show that night spent the day on the beach across the street from the venue. Some funny audience banter during Page’s solo in Foam. It sounds like event staff is getting frustrated with a fan repeatedly telling him to “sit down!” Something not often heard at a Phish show! lol Trey introduces the GCH to the stage mid set. Beautiful Stash that pairs perfectly with an equally beautiful version of A-Train. Blistering Mike’s Groove to close the first half. Trey says they’ll be right back and warns everyone not to fall through the floor. lol
Well played versions of Llama and Reba start off set 2. The first Poor Heart of the tour follows and features the GCH. Nice Melt. It almost sounds like the PA cut out for a bit during Landlady? Trey introduces the GCH and Henrietta on Vac during the I Didn’t Know breakdown. Awesome Possum featuring the GCH! Cool Alone Again (Naturally) tease from Trey. Back to back Alumni encores. The horn arrangement for Alumni works perfectly!
, attached to 2023-07-28
On July 28th, 2023 I woke up at 4:30am, twenty minutes before my alarm was set to go off. I always do that on travel days. Got up, brushed my teeth, dropped the cat at the neighbours, drove to St. John’s through seventy-five minutes of highway twilight, flew to Halifax and connected through Toronto Island to Newark. Waited in the Customs & Immigration line for ninety minutes before being waved through in less than sixty seconds, took the Skytrain to Penn Station, walked to our hotel on 36th and discovered that the hotel offered a free happy hour that whattya know, was starting just as we were checking in. Soon discovered that the happy hour entailed nothing but Bud and Bud Lite served in small sample-sized plastic cups, quit the bar in a huff and left m’lady to relax in our room while I went on a mission to find supplies. Upon my return we had a drink of Duty Free and went to a rather excellent pizza place on the corner of 36th & 9th where we filled our shockingly empty gullivers with piping hot pie. Then we went to the show.
Of course the show was Phish, playing the first of their seven-night residency in The World’s Most Famous Arena™, Madison Square Garden (which is conspicuously round, and doesn’t have a garden). The last time they did something like this was their legendary Baker’s Dozen run of thirteen concerts at MSG back in 2017, when the band created special setlists each night based on a donut theme. M’lady and I were thrilled to have attended the last five of those shows and we were excited to be going to the first five of these ones.
And while there had been significant online chatter speculating what sort of surprise theme the band might have in mind for this run - Seven Wonders of the World? Seven dwarfs? Seven deadly sins? - once we were actually in the building there was little talk or speculation about such trivialities as we busied ourselves catching up with far-flung friends, acquaintances, and the inevitable random run-in’s. In this case we incurred a random run-in that saw us getting yanked into the Chase Lounge where a private bar and free bottles of water awaited us as we and our crew took over a wing of barstools.
(I actually pooh-poohed the free bottles of water until m’lady bought one the next night for $6 [plus a $1 tip that almost broke my brain].)
So after a $20 beer and a lot of fun chatter we stuffed a couple of $6 waters into our pockets and headed to our seats. I was looking forward to enjoying all five shows from completely different vantage points, but I was probably most excited for our seats on this night, which were in a short row of bleachers set up at the back of the floor directly behind the lighting board.
Which meant we were sitting directly behind CK5. If you know Phish then you know that CK5 is the nickname of the band’s longtime lighting tech/designer/guru Chris Kuroda, and if you know me you know that I am a huge CK5 fan*.
The bleachers weren’t as close to CK5 as I had hoped. I could see him standing there at his massive console but I wasn’t nearly close enough to see him pushing buttons or sliding faders. But the main thing was our view of the stage. We were straight on and seeing pretty much exactly what Kuroda was seeing, and the show looked amazing!
Good thing too. The girl who showed up late to the seat beside me danced and bumped around raising her arms in the air like a rabid orangutang the whole time, even for ballads like [i]Brian and Robert[/i] (for realz). So I was extra-appreciative of the massive distraction that is CK5’s lighting work. I mean he has these hanging trusses that have independent controls on each corner so he can move them up and down or hang them diagonally or what-have-you. And for this tour he added spinning light bars to the front of each one of these dangling glories of polychromatic light. Gosh, it all looked so amazing. Especially when m’lady reminded me to take my glasses off so I could see it all fuzzy. So, so awesome.
I mean the lights in the first set Blew. My. Mind. For minutes on end I stood motionless gaping at the stage in wide-eyed wonder, only to break the trance with giggling fits that forced me to grip my head in my hands to keep it from exploding. I did this for at least fifteen minutes straight. I’m sure it must have looked like I was on all the drugs that I wasn’t.
Unfortunately there was no light show to help distract me at setbreak, when the two couples sitting behind us began conversing so loudly amongst themselves that they were literally screaming. They were clearly having a blast, heck, they probably had a few blasts before they got there, but it was killing me. However, just like the whirling dervish flailing beside me for the whole first set, I said nothing. I ain’t here to step on anybody’s legitimate good time.
Overall the show was very jammy ([i]Melt [/i]was a definite highlight) and the lights remained spectacular throughout.
The [i]Good Times Bad Times[/i] encore was unquestionably a nod to it being the 50th anniversary of the middle night from Led Zeppelin’s three-night run at MSG that was recorded to create their iconic Song Remains the Same concert film. I only made this connection in retrospect, when I saw a meme about it the following morning. This tidbit led me to speculate that Phish might play the entirety of the movie’s setlist at their show the following night, which I had tickets for**!
By the time the show ended our day had been pretty long and we were exhausted. When the house lights came up we found the nearest exit and bee-lined it back to our hotel, where we clamoured into bed as quickly as we could and fell fast asleep.
*The three reasons why I go to see Phish all the time are: m’lady, CK5, and the band. In that order.
**Spoiler: They didn’t.
https://toddmanout.com/
Review by toddmanout
On July 28th, 2023 I woke up at 4:30am, twenty minutes before my alarm was set to go off. I always do that on travel days. Got up, brushed my teeth, dropped the cat at the neighbours, drove to St. John’s through seventy-five minutes of highway twilight, flew to Halifax and connected through Toronto Island to Newark. Waited in the Customs & Immigration line for ninety minutes before being waved through in less than sixty seconds, took the Skytrain to Penn Station, walked to our hotel on 36th and discovered that the hotel offered a free happy hour that whattya know, was starting just as we were checking in. Soon discovered that the happy hour entailed nothing but Bud and Bud Lite served in small sample-sized plastic cups, quit the bar in a huff and left m’lady to relax in our room while I went on a mission to find supplies. Upon my return we had a drink of Duty Free and went to a rather excellent pizza place on the corner of 36th & 9th where we filled our shockingly empty gullivers with piping hot pie. Then we went to the show.
Of course the show was Phish, playing the first of their seven-night residency in The World’s Most Famous Arena™, Madison Square Garden (which is conspicuously round, and doesn’t have a garden). The last time they did something like this was their legendary Baker’s Dozen run of thirteen concerts at MSG back in 2017, when the band created special setlists each night based on a donut theme. M’lady and I were thrilled to have attended the last five of those shows and we were excited to be going to the first five of these ones.
And while there had been significant online chatter speculating what sort of surprise theme the band might have in mind for this run - Seven Wonders of the World? Seven dwarfs? Seven deadly sins? - once we were actually in the building there was little talk or speculation about such trivialities as we busied ourselves catching up with far-flung friends, acquaintances, and the inevitable random run-in’s. In this case we incurred a random run-in that saw us getting yanked into the Chase Lounge where a private bar and free bottles of water awaited us as we and our crew took over a wing of barstools.
(I actually pooh-poohed the free bottles of water until m’lady bought one the next night for $6 [plus a $1 tip that almost broke my brain].)
So after a $20 beer and a lot of fun chatter we stuffed a couple of $6 waters into our pockets and headed to our seats. I was looking forward to enjoying all five shows from completely different vantage points, but I was probably most excited for our seats on this night, which were in a short row of bleachers set up at the back of the floor directly behind the lighting board.
Which meant we were sitting directly behind CK5. If you know Phish then you know that CK5 is the nickname of the band’s longtime lighting tech/designer/guru Chris Kuroda, and if you know me you know that I am a huge CK5 fan*.
The bleachers weren’t as close to CK5 as I had hoped. I could see him standing there at his massive console but I wasn’t nearly close enough to see him pushing buttons or sliding faders. But the main thing was our view of the stage. We were straight on and seeing pretty much exactly what Kuroda was seeing, and the show looked amazing!
Good thing too. The girl who showed up late to the seat beside me danced and bumped around raising her arms in the air like a rabid orangutang the whole time, even for ballads like [i]Brian and Robert[/i] (for realz). So I was extra-appreciative of the massive distraction that is CK5’s lighting work. I mean he has these hanging trusses that have independent controls on each corner so he can move them up and down or hang them diagonally or what-have-you. And for this tour he added spinning light bars to the front of each one of these dangling glories of polychromatic light. Gosh, it all looked so amazing. Especially when m’lady reminded me to take my glasses off so I could see it all fuzzy. So, so awesome.
I mean the lights in the first set Blew. My. Mind. For minutes on end I stood motionless gaping at the stage in wide-eyed wonder, only to break the trance with giggling fits that forced me to grip my head in my hands to keep it from exploding. I did this for at least fifteen minutes straight. I’m sure it must have looked like I was on all the drugs that I wasn’t.
Unfortunately there was no light show to help distract me at setbreak, when the two couples sitting behind us began conversing so loudly amongst themselves that they were literally screaming. They were clearly having a blast, heck, they probably had a few blasts before they got there, but it was killing me. However, just like the whirling dervish flailing beside me for the whole first set, I said nothing. I ain’t here to step on anybody’s legitimate good time.
Overall the show was very jammy ([i]Melt [/i]was a definite highlight) and the lights remained spectacular throughout.
The [i]Good Times Bad Times[/i] encore was unquestionably a nod to it being the 50th anniversary of the middle night from Led Zeppelin’s three-night run at MSG that was recorded to create their iconic Song Remains the Same concert film. I only made this connection in retrospect, when I saw a meme about it the following morning. This tidbit led me to speculate that Phish might play the entirety of the movie’s setlist at their show the following night, which I had tickets for**!
By the time the show ended our day had been pretty long and we were exhausted. When the house lights came up we found the nearest exit and bee-lined it back to our hotel, where we clamoured into bed as quickly as we could and fell fast asleep.
*The three reasons why I go to see Phish all the time are: m’lady, CK5, and the band. In that order.
**Spoiler: They didn’t.
https://toddmanout.com/
, attached to 1991-07-15
Crispy dSBD available for this show.
Nice segue from Landlady into DaaM. Solid second jam on Mike’s. Trey is en Fuego on Groove! After Groove Trey mentions that a lot of family are in attendance since they’re playing in NYC. He also takes this opportunity to introduce the GCH. Well played Flat Fee. Trey forgets the words to a section of Cavern and asks for some assistance from the audience. lol Before the encore Trey comments on how beautiful the room is and says he’s pretty sure they’ll be able to return and play a full two set show. That never happened, but Trey did return with the Surrender to the Flow project in ‘96 for two nights. The encore stars off with a beautiful Caravan. Like the version from last night this also has some Manteca teasing. Unfortunately the Alumni cuts out about a minute in.
Review by thelot
Crispy dSBD available for this show.
Nice segue from Landlady into DaaM. Solid second jam on Mike’s. Trey is en Fuego on Groove! After Groove Trey mentions that a lot of family are in attendance since they’re playing in NYC. He also takes this opportunity to introduce the GCH. Well played Flat Fee. Trey forgets the words to a section of Cavern and asks for some assistance from the audience. lol Before the encore Trey comments on how beautiful the room is and says he’s pretty sure they’ll be able to return and play a full two set show. That never happened, but Trey did return with the Surrender to the Flow project in ‘96 for two nights. The encore stars off with a beautiful Caravan. Like the version from last night this also has some Manteca teasing. Unfortunately the Alumni cuts out about a minute in.
, attached to 2024-02-23
This Chalk Dust is an indisputable masterpiece and remains uncontested as the Jam of the Year.
The level of patience demonstrated by the band is unparalleled, no rushing through sections or constant key changes, which sometimes feels like a ripcord but without going for a different song if that makes sense. It’s been the only thing that’s sorta bothered me about a good amount of Phish’s jamming since 2022 especially, but none of those problems are present here. Everything here is fully fleshed out.
The beginning section of the jam (6-18 mins) is like floating peacefully on a cloud that slowly builds into a raging thunderstorm. The middle section (18-27 mins) is groovy but has a darker sentiment to it and gradually breaks down into chaotic disarray, which bleeds into the final section (28-39 mins) of pure EVIL.
Trey weaving hellacious licks between bubble effects with the M5 modeler is something only Trey can pull off, with Fish adding echoing drum fills. After a big pitch bend-laden peak Trey hits a cascading pitch sweep into a heavy metal-like riff and it all meshes together perfectly. The wind down and > into Beneath a Sea of Stars is impeccable.
This is the Phish that I know, yet it sounds unlike any jam they have ever played, and I hate to say it but they didn’t come close to matching it all summer. Whatever you are looking for in a jam, it is here. Jam of the Year, and possibly the decade.
Review by yEEt_1331
This Chalk Dust is an indisputable masterpiece and remains uncontested as the Jam of the Year.
The level of patience demonstrated by the band is unparalleled, no rushing through sections or constant key changes, which sometimes feels like a ripcord but without going for a different song if that makes sense. It’s been the only thing that’s sorta bothered me about a good amount of Phish’s jamming since 2022 especially, but none of those problems are present here. Everything here is fully fleshed out.
The beginning section of the jam (6-18 mins) is like floating peacefully on a cloud that slowly builds into a raging thunderstorm. The middle section (18-27 mins) is groovy but has a darker sentiment to it and gradually breaks down into chaotic disarray, which bleeds into the final section (28-39 mins) of pure EVIL.
Trey weaving hellacious licks between bubble effects with the M5 modeler is something only Trey can pull off, with Fish adding echoing drum fills. After a big pitch bend-laden peak Trey hits a cascading pitch sweep into a heavy metal-like riff and it all meshes together perfectly. The wind down and > into Beneath a Sea of Stars is impeccable.
This is the Phish that I know, yet it sounds unlike any jam they have ever played, and I hate to say it but they didn’t come close to matching it all summer. Whatever you are looking for in a jam, it is here. Jam of the Year, and possibly the decade.
, attached to 1991-07-14
Crispy SBD available for this show. There’s also a beautiful matrix that was put together that’s worth seeking out.
The recording starts off with Trey mentioning that he’s overdressed as the show took place during National Nudist Week. A really nice Reba gets the show underway. Llama rips per usual. Hank pulls out his bone for a nice solo in I Didn’t Know. Well played Possum to close the first set.
Cool lazor gun sounds caused from a slinky thing pulled into the audience from the stage. Strong Suzy opener. The horns fit nicely in Caravan. The rest of the set is pretty standard fair for this tour. The Antelope closer is the clear highlight of set 2. Guest vocalist during the Marco section? Possibly one of the GCH members?
A decent Bag kicks off set 3. The horns sit out during Esther and a lively Chalk Dust. The second jam in Mike’s seems to have improved the most with the addition of the horns. “Fish has gone to take a leak, when he returns he’ll be transformed into…” extended HYHU with horns. Mike teases Contact before launching into a gorgeous Hood set closer! Standard Contact>BBFCFM encore with some added GCH spice!
Review by thelot
Crispy SBD available for this show. There’s also a beautiful matrix that was put together that’s worth seeking out.
The recording starts off with Trey mentioning that he’s overdressed as the show took place during National Nudist Week. A really nice Reba gets the show underway. Llama rips per usual. Hank pulls out his bone for a nice solo in I Didn’t Know. Well played Possum to close the first set.
Cool lazor gun sounds caused from a slinky thing pulled into the audience from the stage. Strong Suzy opener. The horns fit nicely in Caravan. The rest of the set is pretty standard fair for this tour. The Antelope closer is the clear highlight of set 2. Guest vocalist during the Marco section? Possibly one of the GCH members?
A decent Bag kicks off set 3. The horns sit out during Esther and a lively Chalk Dust. The second jam in Mike’s seems to have improved the most with the addition of the horns. “Fish has gone to take a leak, when he returns he’ll be transformed into…” extended HYHU with horns. Mike teases Contact before launching into a gorgeous Hood set closer! Standard Contact>BBFCFM encore with some added GCH spice!
, attached to 1991-07-13
Beautiful audience recording available for night 3 of the GCH tour. Big thanks to John Redmond for another fantastic early NE recording!
Nice Curtain>Jim pairing to get things underway. Solid Foam.Smokin’ Llama. Trey introduces the GCH to the stage for Suzy. Alumni is up next with a new horn arrangement! :) TMWSIY didn’t feature horns but Avenu did. The first Split Open of tour doesn’t disappoint. The horn arrangement is so spot on it felt like female vocalists were going to help out with the chorus. lol Frankenstein closes out a stellar first half.
Well played versions of Chalk Dust and Guelah open the set before the GCH join the band for the first Sky of tour. During the mid section Trey says “that was the jazz version.” The levels overload for about a minute during the jam. No horns on Paul and Silas. Stash with the horns works beautifully!
Fish wishes Erica a happy birthday. The GCH play happy birthday in her honor. Trey says “that was for Erica, you’ll never forget that!” Unfortunately there’s a tape flip at the start of Brain. :( Some music is missing. The horns play the Brain theme before Fish takes a vac solo. A tremendous YEM makes for a nice follow up and set closer. Juicy jam with the GCH teasing Chameleon. Gooey B&D section and an entertaining VJ! They don’t make ‘em like they use to! “Change the song!” They come back out for the encore and tease BBFCFM before launching into the very first Landlady encore to wrap up the night.
Review by thelot
Beautiful audience recording available for night 3 of the GCH tour. Big thanks to John Redmond for another fantastic early NE recording!
Nice Curtain>Jim pairing to get things underway. Solid Foam.Smokin’ Llama. Trey introduces the GCH to the stage for Suzy. Alumni is up next with a new horn arrangement! :) TMWSIY didn’t feature horns but Avenu did. The first Split Open of tour doesn’t disappoint. The horn arrangement is so spot on it felt like female vocalists were going to help out with the chorus. lol Frankenstein closes out a stellar first half.
Well played versions of Chalk Dust and Guelah open the set before the GCH join the band for the first Sky of tour. During the mid section Trey says “that was the jazz version.” The levels overload for about a minute during the jam. No horns on Paul and Silas. Stash with the horns works beautifully!
Fish wishes Erica a happy birthday. The GCH play happy birthday in her honor. Trey says “that was for Erica, you’ll never forget that!” Unfortunately there’s a tape flip at the start of Brain. :( Some music is missing. The horns play the Brain theme before Fish takes a vac solo. A tremendous YEM makes for a nice follow up and set closer. Juicy jam with the GCH teasing Chameleon. Gooey B&D section and an entertaining VJ! They don’t make ‘em like they use to! “Change the song!” They come back out for the encore and tease BBFCFM before launching into the very first Landlady encore to wrap up the night.
, attached to 1991-07-12
The audience recording on Relisten is decent but pales in comparison to the official LivePhish release. Ironically they patch a portion of Weekapaug with the circulating audience recording.
Things kick off with a standard DaaM >Bouncin’ pairing. Buried Alive>Flat Fee work well together. Solid Reba. Fun version of Gin. Afterwards Trey introduces each GCH with Page offering different background music for each player. Solid versions of Donna Lee and Bag. An electric Bowie closes out the first half. Reba and Rocky Top don’t feature the GCH.
Set 2 kicks off with a hornless Golgi. The GCH sat out for Coil as well. They join the band for a lively version of Moose the Mooche, last seen on 2/8/88. The horn arrangement for Tweezer fits perfectly! No horns on MSO. Interesting composed section added after the first chorus of Gumbo. Nice horn arrangement and jam during Mike’s. No horns for Hydrogen. Fantastic Groove! The Lizard Queen, Henrietta delivers another fine rendition of Touch Me. Henrietta’s bone sounds like an Elephant being tortured next to the pros! lol No horns on Oh Kee Pah. Fun Frankenstein closer complete with a mini VJ! Fee has no horns but the closing Tweezer Reprise does.
Review by thelot
The audience recording on Relisten is decent but pales in comparison to the official LivePhish release. Ironically they patch a portion of Weekapaug with the circulating audience recording.
Things kick off with a standard DaaM >Bouncin’ pairing. Buried Alive>Flat Fee work well together. Solid Reba. Fun version of Gin. Afterwards Trey introduces each GCH with Page offering different background music for each player. Solid versions of Donna Lee and Bag. An electric Bowie closes out the first half. Reba and Rocky Top don’t feature the GCH.
Set 2 kicks off with a hornless Golgi. The GCH sat out for Coil as well. They join the band for a lively version of Moose the Mooche, last seen on 2/8/88. The horn arrangement for Tweezer fits perfectly! No horns on MSO. Interesting composed section added after the first chorus of Gumbo. Nice horn arrangement and jam during Mike’s. No horns for Hydrogen. Fantastic Groove! The Lizard Queen, Henrietta delivers another fine rendition of Touch Me. Henrietta’s bone sounds like an Elephant being tortured next to the pros! lol No horns on Oh Kee Pah. Fun Frankenstein closer complete with a mini VJ! Fee has no horns but the closing Tweezer Reprise does.
, attached to 1991-07-11
7/11 Crispy dSBD for night 1 of the GCH tour. Not much audience in the mix so it does come off a bit flat.
DJ Mike Luoma from WIZN FM introduces the band to the stage. They get the tour underway with an Oh Kee Pa>Suzy opener. Trey introduces the GCH during Suzy. Beautiful Sky. The first Flat Fee in 3 years gets dusted off for the GCH tour. Stash and Lizards sound fantastic with horns. Fish starts up Cavern before the Landlady closer.
DaaM starts off set 2. TMWSIY>Avenu>TMWSIY is well played. Mike’s has a short but sweet little second jam. The Lizard Queen treats the Burlington crowd to the debut of Touch Me. The first Frankenstein in a year and a half makes an appearance to wrap up set 2. Contact>BBFCFM ends the evening on a high note.
Review by thelot
7/11 Crispy dSBD for night 1 of the GCH tour. Not much audience in the mix so it does come off a bit flat.
DJ Mike Luoma from WIZN FM introduces the band to the stage. They get the tour underway with an Oh Kee Pa>Suzy opener. Trey introduces the GCH during Suzy. Beautiful Sky. The first Flat Fee in 3 years gets dusted off for the GCH tour. Stash and Lizards sound fantastic with horns. Fish starts up Cavern before the Landlady closer.
DaaM starts off set 2. TMWSIY>Avenu>TMWSIY is well played. Mike’s has a short but sweet little second jam. The Lizard Queen treats the Burlington crowd to the debut of Touch Me. The first Frankenstein in a year and a half makes an appearance to wrap up set 2. Contact>BBFCFM ends the evening on a high note.
, attached to 2017-12-30
SET 1:
Mike’s Song: nice, talk about declaring intent to rage the place! Pretty nondescript dark jam out of this one though. Painful whale call fail at 4:24, ooft. >
I Am Hydrogen: a little rough in the second half but the beginning is beautiful. >
Weekapaug Groove: Mike’s bass solo is unique here, would recommend.
Tweezer: BOOM! Crowd goes absolutely bonkers at this! Trey cracks up in the second refrain, he’s clearly loving it. Funny effects in the section just before the jam where things fall apart. Page does some really interesting clavinet work at the start of the jam, louder and more melodic than usual. Trey’s really cleaned up his tone this run compared to Dick’s and you can hear it in the solo. Turns major key about halfway through and then gets mellow, Mike and Page do great in this section and there are some light Weekapaug teases from Trey. Builds to an okay peak, the best part of which is his chordal shredding just before the outro. Lots of length to this jam, especially for a first set, but not much relisten value IMO. Love the old-school slowdown at the end here! Sets things up very nicely into… ->
Ass Handed: Hahahaha, too good! Probably the best version of this, with Fish absolutely bellowing out the lyrics at the start and then encouraging a crowd singalong.
Kill Devil Falls: Great energy in this set so far and good placement of this. Strong type 1 playing. >
Bathtub Gin: Slightly funkier jam than usual for Gin at the start. Really cool arpeggios from Trey at the 7 minute mark, great playing in general on this one. Slowly builds to a big peak! Lovely.
Brother: Yessssss, great bustout and the song feels like it’s made for this arrangement, much more so than slow Llama or Maze. The crowd recognition when Trey’s riff comes in is great. Not the most whip-sharp they’ve ever played it but if you didn’t know the original song you wouldn’t know that anything was off. Even gets a smooth lil funk jam after the main theme, clav central. Awesome one-timer and arguably as good as the original; no idea why this one hasn’t made a return.
More: standard.
SET 2:
Down With Disease: slightly unconventional full-band intro. Composed section is pretty poor, not much conviction. Things pick up real quick in the type 1 section of the jam though – Trey the guitar hero shines through big time. Things start changing around 7 minutes in and we get some awesome delay-led spy movie jamming (love the call and response between Page and Trey here.) Crowd senses something big coming around 9 minutes in. Mike is very high in the mix and takes the reins here – fuck yeah @ the clean melodic line he settles on at 10 minutes or so. Settles into a very contented atmospheric passage full of Trey effects soon after. Not quite blissy but definitely happy. Mood sours around 14:30. Mike once again impressing with the octave pedal around 16 minutes in, why doesn’t he use it as much these days? There’s a noticeable increase in intensity when Fish plays a bit louder at ~17:30 – Mike is LOUUUUUUUD, wow! Just searing through the mix. Then all of a sudden there’s a small transition section and Trey finds a confident chordal riff, we’re back to clean and happy. The blissy peak from here on out is well-earned, unlike the Tweezer from before, and Trey goes ham on his playing! Listen to the passage around 25 minutes in, that’s pure ’94 machine gun. Some stop-start ‘woo!’ encouragement in the wind-down section, which I’m a sucker for (and the way Trey weaves in and out of it reminds me of Tahoe Tweezer). Feel like there was an opportunity for a smoother segue here, but nevertheless we go into… >
Steam: good placement of a song I’m indifferent on. Standard up until 8 minutes in when the song dies out and they enter some of the oddest, eeriest, most Eno-like ambient improv I’ve heard from this band since 2.0. Goes on for a solid 6 minutes – must’ve been crazy intense at the venue. What is with the glockenspiel-like sound nearish the end, marimba lumina I’m assuming? Not a whole lot of replay value, I suspect, but INCREDIBLY unique for the era, even with 2017 synthy-ness to compare against. Trey gears up for a segue with a few seconds left to go… >
Light: love Fish’s latin-ish groove that he nudges the band to adopt 6 minutes in. Pleasant but sort of meandering jam. Gets a little weird towards the end, nothing particularly notable though. >
Farmhouse: lovely. If you hate this song you have no soul.
Run Like an Antelope: victory lap. Maybe slightly less confident en route to the peak than usual. Good end to a big set though.
Encore:
Sleeping Monkey: fitting!
Tweezer Reprise: standard
—
OVERALL: legendary 3.0 show whose reputation obviously rests on a handful of big tentpole jams. Down With Disease maybe isn’t an all-timer but its reputation is totally deserved and there’s some awesome stuff in there especially from Mike, would recommend. Steam, (surprisingly) Farmhouse and the reworked Brother are for sure worth revisits too. Ultimately doesn’t eclipse Dick’s N1 and some of the BD stuff.
4 stars on the dot.
Review by Esperanzan
SET 1:
Mike’s Song: nice, talk about declaring intent to rage the place! Pretty nondescript dark jam out of this one though. Painful whale call fail at 4:24, ooft. >
I Am Hydrogen: a little rough in the second half but the beginning is beautiful. >
Weekapaug Groove: Mike’s bass solo is unique here, would recommend.
Tweezer: BOOM! Crowd goes absolutely bonkers at this! Trey cracks up in the second refrain, he’s clearly loving it. Funny effects in the section just before the jam where things fall apart. Page does some really interesting clavinet work at the start of the jam, louder and more melodic than usual. Trey’s really cleaned up his tone this run compared to Dick’s and you can hear it in the solo. Turns major key about halfway through and then gets mellow, Mike and Page do great in this section and there are some light Weekapaug teases from Trey. Builds to an okay peak, the best part of which is his chordal shredding just before the outro. Lots of length to this jam, especially for a first set, but not much relisten value IMO. Love the old-school slowdown at the end here! Sets things up very nicely into… ->
Ass Handed: Hahahaha, too good! Probably the best version of this, with Fish absolutely bellowing out the lyrics at the start and then encouraging a crowd singalong.
Kill Devil Falls: Great energy in this set so far and good placement of this. Strong type 1 playing. >
Bathtub Gin: Slightly funkier jam than usual for Gin at the start. Really cool arpeggios from Trey at the 7 minute mark, great playing in general on this one. Slowly builds to a big peak! Lovely.
Brother: Yessssss, great bustout and the song feels like it’s made for this arrangement, much more so than slow Llama or Maze. The crowd recognition when Trey’s riff comes in is great. Not the most whip-sharp they’ve ever played it but if you didn’t know the original song you wouldn’t know that anything was off. Even gets a smooth lil funk jam after the main theme, clav central. Awesome one-timer and arguably as good as the original; no idea why this one hasn’t made a return.
More: standard.
SET 2:
Down With Disease: slightly unconventional full-band intro. Composed section is pretty poor, not much conviction. Things pick up real quick in the type 1 section of the jam though – Trey the guitar hero shines through big time. Things start changing around 7 minutes in and we get some awesome delay-led spy movie jamming (love the call and response between Page and Trey here.) Crowd senses something big coming around 9 minutes in. Mike is very high in the mix and takes the reins here – fuck yeah @ the clean melodic line he settles on at 10 minutes or so. Settles into a very contented atmospheric passage full of Trey effects soon after. Not quite blissy but definitely happy. Mood sours around 14:30. Mike once again impressing with the octave pedal around 16 minutes in, why doesn’t he use it as much these days? There’s a noticeable increase in intensity when Fish plays a bit louder at ~17:30 – Mike is LOUUUUUUUD, wow! Just searing through the mix. Then all of a sudden there’s a small transition section and Trey finds a confident chordal riff, we’re back to clean and happy. The blissy peak from here on out is well-earned, unlike the Tweezer from before, and Trey goes ham on his playing! Listen to the passage around 25 minutes in, that’s pure ’94 machine gun. Some stop-start ‘woo!’ encouragement in the wind-down section, which I’m a sucker for (and the way Trey weaves in and out of it reminds me of Tahoe Tweezer). Feel like there was an opportunity for a smoother segue here, but nevertheless we go into… >
Steam: good placement of a song I’m indifferent on. Standard up until 8 minutes in when the song dies out and they enter some of the oddest, eeriest, most Eno-like ambient improv I’ve heard from this band since 2.0. Goes on for a solid 6 minutes – must’ve been crazy intense at the venue. What is with the glockenspiel-like sound nearish the end, marimba lumina I’m assuming? Not a whole lot of replay value, I suspect, but INCREDIBLY unique for the era, even with 2017 synthy-ness to compare against. Trey gears up for a segue with a few seconds left to go… >
Light: love Fish’s latin-ish groove that he nudges the band to adopt 6 minutes in. Pleasant but sort of meandering jam. Gets a little weird towards the end, nothing particularly notable though. >
Farmhouse: lovely. If you hate this song you have no soul.
Run Like an Antelope: victory lap. Maybe slightly less confident en route to the peak than usual. Good end to a big set though.
Encore:
Sleeping Monkey: fitting!
Tweezer Reprise: standard
—
OVERALL: legendary 3.0 show whose reputation obviously rests on a handful of big tentpole jams. Down With Disease maybe isn’t an all-timer but its reputation is totally deserved and there’s some awesome stuff in there especially from Mike, would recommend. Steam, (surprisingly) Farmhouse and the reworked Brother are for sure worth revisits too. Ultimately doesn’t eclipse Dick’s N1 and some of the BD stuff.
4 stars on the dot.
, attached to 2006-10-15
This is a fiery Trey Anastasio show. This band is absolutely phenomenal. The second half of 2006 has some great performances, but Asheville is probably the best single show of the 2nd half of 2006. This drummer and bassist don’t mess around. If you listen to Original Boardwalk Style, you’ll get a good taste of what Trey’s band was doing, although I found the band was overplaying during the New Years run. Not to mention Trey’s bust was shortly after the Asheville show I saw. But if you can find the audience recording of this, it sounds AMAZING, and trust me, the show is amazing as well. Highly recommended.
Review by Black6
This is a fiery Trey Anastasio show. This band is absolutely phenomenal. The second half of 2006 has some great performances, but Asheville is probably the best single show of the 2nd half of 2006. This drummer and bassist don’t mess around. If you listen to Original Boardwalk Style, you’ll get a good taste of what Trey’s band was doing, although I found the band was overplaying during the New Years run. Not to mention Trey’s bust was shortly after the Asheville show I saw. But if you can find the audience recording of this, it sounds AMAZING, and trust me, the show is amazing as well. Highly recommended.
, attached to 1996-06-06
I was working and my fried Dan (Diga) called and said he heard a rumor about this show. His older brother was friends and Amy and gave her a call. I believe she said something along the lines of "I can't confirm or deny it, but they are recording in the area." I told my boss my mom needed me and went home then picked up Dan and drove from Nashua NH to Woodstock.
We fond the bar and parked somewhere nearby and walked up to get a sense of the place. We could hear the soundcheck and sat on the curb just outside of the window along the driveway. We heard the zero and waste soundcheck and we're getting pretty stocked. Soundcheck ended and we just sat there for a bit. Then a Subaru drove past us and I think Brad was driving and Trey smiled at us from the back seat.
We got in relatively early as the place opened to be sure we could get in. We watched the opening bad, which was kind of fun, but I don't remember much anymore, after nearly 30 years!
I was so close for first set I could have grabbed Fish's goggles from his kit before the show started. Of course I did not.
It was a great time, through and through. Yes, the rolling rock bottle on my friend was awesome (by second set, we found ourselves in the middle of the tiny room.
It was awesome to see phish in a such a tiny place, especially considering that my first show was Greatwoods '93. This was my 44th show, I think. I was also fortunate enough to see them at the Lowell Auditorium in '95.
Review by starchadstar
I was working and my fried Dan (Diga) called and said he heard a rumor about this show. His older brother was friends and Amy and gave her a call. I believe she said something along the lines of "I can't confirm or deny it, but they are recording in the area." I told my boss my mom needed me and went home then picked up Dan and drove from Nashua NH to Woodstock.
We fond the bar and parked somewhere nearby and walked up to get a sense of the place. We could hear the soundcheck and sat on the curb just outside of the window along the driveway. We heard the zero and waste soundcheck and we're getting pretty stocked. Soundcheck ended and we just sat there for a bit. Then a Subaru drove past us and I think Brad was driving and Trey smiled at us from the back seat.
We got in relatively early as the place opened to be sure we could get in. We watched the opening bad, which was kind of fun, but I don't remember much anymore, after nearly 30 years!
I was so close for first set I could have grabbed Fish's goggles from his kit before the show started. Of course I did not.
It was a great time, through and through. Yes, the rolling rock bottle on my friend was awesome (by second set, we found ourselves in the middle of the tiny room.
It was awesome to see phish in a such a tiny place, especially considering that my first show was Greatwoods '93. This was my 44th show, I think. I was also fortunate enough to see them at the Lowell Auditorium in '95.
, attached to 2000-09-24
This was my third time seeing the band after catching them twice during Summer 2000 tour! I was 17 years old and living in Rapid City, SD-- we couldn't believe our favorite band was playing a mere 9-hour drive away! In the Midwest, that's basically neighbors! I remember a lot of hoodies and flannel in the lot-- the lot scene was a lot smaller than Alpine or Deer Creek, but it was still hopping. Our seats were all the way across the floor and halfway up the back stands, so this was a light-show only for us.
Relistening to this one on it's 24th anniversary, I can't help but agree with a lot of the other reviews-- this show is solid, but there is not a lot of standout stuff in the first set. [i]Sloth[/i] is tight and energetic, [i]Divided Sky[/i] had a loooonnnnng pause while the band stopped to watch the glowstick war that I never see mentioned in the show notes (biggest glowstick war I personally have ever attended), and [i]Roggae[/i] really embellished the clash between mellow and loud sections. I remember [i]Roggae [/i]having almost a toy-like quality live, like a music box or a wind-up doll; listening to it again, a lot of that comes from Fishman's work on blocks and bells. Good stuff, but not much to write home about.
Getting into the second set, the crowd is clearly ready for some shenanigans, and [i]Cities[/i] delivers with some Santana-inspired blues before dishing up a hearty helping of outer space. [i]Free[/i] stays grounded and a little spooky, with some nice work from Mike & Fish setting up a driving pace that keeps Trey really focused during the build. This was my first time hearing [i]Carini,[/i] and it definitely made an impression at the time. I remember everything from [i]Lawn Boy[/i] until [i]Cool it Down[/i] was very funny live, there was a lot of laughter in the crowd. Cool it Down has some fun exploration and a very tight but otherwise unremarkable David Bowie closes the set. The single-song encore of Fire was absolutely blistering live, and definitely left us all wanting more.
This would be the last time I would see the band before the 2001 hiatus, and I still treasure the memory of this show. Of all the times I've seen Phish, this is the only show that has never had an SBD release or leak, so I am still out there chasing it every few years. Maybe some day!
Review by CaptConstantine
This was my third time seeing the band after catching them twice during Summer 2000 tour! I was 17 years old and living in Rapid City, SD-- we couldn't believe our favorite band was playing a mere 9-hour drive away! In the Midwest, that's basically neighbors! I remember a lot of hoodies and flannel in the lot-- the lot scene was a lot smaller than Alpine or Deer Creek, but it was still hopping. Our seats were all the way across the floor and halfway up the back stands, so this was a light-show only for us.
Relistening to this one on it's 24th anniversary, I can't help but agree with a lot of the other reviews-- this show is solid, but there is not a lot of standout stuff in the first set. [i]Sloth[/i] is tight and energetic, [i]Divided Sky[/i] had a loooonnnnng pause while the band stopped to watch the glowstick war that I never see mentioned in the show notes (biggest glowstick war I personally have ever attended), and [i]Roggae[/i] really embellished the clash between mellow and loud sections. I remember [i]Roggae [/i]having almost a toy-like quality live, like a music box or a wind-up doll; listening to it again, a lot of that comes from Fishman's work on blocks and bells. Good stuff, but not much to write home about.
Getting into the second set, the crowd is clearly ready for some shenanigans, and [i]Cities[/i] delivers with some Santana-inspired blues before dishing up a hearty helping of outer space. [i]Free[/i] stays grounded and a little spooky, with some nice work from Mike & Fish setting up a driving pace that keeps Trey really focused during the build. This was my first time hearing [i]Carini,[/i] and it definitely made an impression at the time. I remember everything from [i]Lawn Boy[/i] until [i]Cool it Down[/i] was very funny live, there was a lot of laughter in the crowd. Cool it Down has some fun exploration and a very tight but otherwise unremarkable David Bowie closes the set. The single-song encore of Fire was absolutely blistering live, and definitely left us all wanting more.
This would be the last time I would see the band before the 2001 hiatus, and I still treasure the memory of this show. Of all the times I've seen Phish, this is the only show that has never had an SBD release or leak, so I am still out there chasing it every few years. Maybe some day!
, attached to 2024-07-21
This was an all time show for me. Maybe it was because the entire weekend was incredible but I couldn’t believe how hard I was continuing to dance and feel the energy through this entire Sunday funday. The music all weekend was incredible but this show really put the nail in the coffin. Peak Phish in my opinion! Extremely thankful to have been at these 3 shows. Thanks Phish!
Review by Wallyworld
This was an all time show for me. Maybe it was because the entire weekend was incredible but I couldn’t believe how hard I was continuing to dance and feel the energy through this entire Sunday funday. The music all weekend was incredible but this show really put the nail in the coffin. Peak Phish in my opinion! Extremely thankful to have been at these 3 shows. Thanks Phish!
, attached to 1993-08-08
Fantastic show that radiates joy bolstered by a fantastic AUD tape on the spreadsheet. Starting with BBFCFM sets the tone for a frisky evening.
Delicate and beautiful Harry Hood in the middle of the second set starts off a great run with Wilson and a very cool Page-led It's Ice. Fluffhead it's a very clean and energetic version, Possum rages as usual.
Cool show!
Review by Juanferrr
Fantastic show that radiates joy bolstered by a fantastic AUD tape on the spreadsheet. Starting with BBFCFM sets the tone for a frisky evening.
Delicate and beautiful Harry Hood in the middle of the second set starts off a great run with Wilson and a very cool Page-led It's Ice. Fluffhead it's a very clean and energetic version, Possum rages as usual.
Cool show!
, attached to 2024-08-03
Great show with some odd song placements. Classic Mike’s Groove to open set 1, followed by Character Zero in the 3 hole. Closed out with I Didn’t Know, a gorgeous Reba, Izabella!
Set 2 was about the teases. Apostrophe, Freeway Jam (Jeff Beck - 6:30 into Fuego), Johnny B. Goode. Slow Chalk Dust, Crosseyed/Forget, Fuego stand out.
Full disclosure, I created this review mostly to get the Freeway Jam tease recognized…
Review by AAronL1968
Great show with some odd song placements. Classic Mike’s Groove to open set 1, followed by Character Zero in the 3 hole. Closed out with I Didn’t Know, a gorgeous Reba, Izabella!
Set 2 was about the teases. Apostrophe, Freeway Jam (Jeff Beck - 6:30 into Fuego), Johnny B. Goode. Slow Chalk Dust, Crosseyed/Forget, Fuego stand out.
Full disclosure, I created this review mostly to get the Freeway Jam tease recognized…
, attached to 1994-12-29
Just wanted to say this is the show where I "got it."
I remember my friend Andy turn to me probably about a half hour in and just simply say, "They haven't finished David Bowie." I would return the favor during a specific Runaway Jim about 45 minutes up Rte. 146 you may have heard about, a few years later.
I had seen a handful of shows to this point, but somewhere in that Bowie I knew as long as this band plays, I'm going to try and seem them do so as much as I can.
Enjoy your day.
Review by phoolish
Just wanted to say this is the show where I "got it."
I remember my friend Andy turn to me probably about a half hour in and just simply say, "They haven't finished David Bowie." I would return the favor during a specific Runaway Jim about 45 minutes up Rte. 146 you may have heard about, a few years later.
I had seen a handful of shows to this point, but somewhere in that Bowie I knew as long as this band plays, I'm going to try and seem them do so as much as I can.
Enjoy your day.
, attached to 2021-08-14
Just wanted to add a funny after-the-fact anecdote about this show.
This being my first show since the pandemic (the last being Fenway 2019), I was excited to say the least and well, I "went for it," as they say. I was way out there, or deep in there, depending on your perspective.
The first half of the second set is the story of someone who lost their life out in the ocean that lapped the beach to our right:
I Never Needed You Like this Before - when you are struggling in water, you've never needed anyone like that before. This person didn't get the help they needed, so they >
Drowned - very sad. Once they passed, this person became a >
Ghost - spooky. How do ghosts often make themselves known? Often, they emit >
Scents and Subtle Sounds - scary. Then, Trey freaked himself out and pulled the ripcord. It's OK...I was pretty freaked out at that point, too.
Enjoy your day.
Review by phoolish
Just wanted to add a funny after-the-fact anecdote about this show.
This being my first show since the pandemic (the last being Fenway 2019), I was excited to say the least and well, I "went for it," as they say. I was way out there, or deep in there, depending on your perspective.
The first half of the second set is the story of someone who lost their life out in the ocean that lapped the beach to our right:
I Never Needed You Like this Before - when you are struggling in water, you've never needed anyone like that before. This person didn't get the help they needed, so they >
Drowned - very sad. Once they passed, this person became a >
Ghost - spooky. How do ghosts often make themselves known? Often, they emit >
Scents and Subtle Sounds - scary. Then, Trey freaked himself out and pulled the ripcord. It's OK...I was pretty freaked out at that point, too.
Enjoy your day.
, attached to 2023-07-30
When I slept until 8am on July 30th, 2023 I felt I was making progress on the ninety-minute time difference between Newfoundland and New York City. NYC may be “the city that never sleeps” but what would I know about it? I’d be lucky if I could keep my eyes open past midnight at least once on this weeklong Phish excursion.
I tiptoed out of the room and went downstairs to the hotel’s free buffet for a small and rather lame breakfast washed down with much too much mediocre coffee. I killed the rest of the morning on the sidewalk outside the hotel just watching the big city in action, and there was plenty to see. Though Springhill Suites was on one of Manhattan’s smaller side streets (37th) rather than one of the bigger and busier avenues there was still plenty of bustle going on.
The first thing I saw was small squad of beat policemen gathered in an alcove across the street from where I was leaning. They were patrolling through the multiple lanes of one-way traffic on my street that were continually being brought to a standstill by the traffic light at 5th and 37th. It looked to me like the cops were checking for stickers on windshields, but I couldn’t be sure. Regardless, every few minutes one of the cops would direct one of the cars to pull over, where another cop would be waiting to write the the poor driver a ticket.
I watched them do this for a full hour, ducking inside only to refill my lousy coffee cup.
After the cops had left an ambulance came down the street with its siren wailing and soon found itself stuck in traffic right in front of the hotel. It was odd to hear a screaming siren and see the emergency go universally unheeded by the other drivers who sat in their cars staring straight ahead and not giving an inch. The analogy to the countless homeless people populating the surrounding sidewalks was not lost on me.
It’s astounding just how many desperate people there are roaming the streets with their hands open to the frantic Manhattan hive hoping someone will stoop down and save their day. But there doesn’t seem to be nearly enough people who are willing to give. Living in a city this large must diminish a person’s empathy. Even after just a few days of saying “I’m sorry brother” “I’m sorry, good luck” “Sorry my friend,” I was already able to stop feeling horrible for not helping people after just a minute or two, instead of letting it haunt me for the whole day. I’m sure after a few months I wouldn’t even notice them, like most of the people I saw walking by outside.
Funny, while the police where engaging in their sting people were smoking big fat stinky joints on the street all around them with complete impunity. The city had recently legalized recreational marijuana and while there were only two stores in all of New York City that were legally allowed to sell the stuff it seemed like every second shop in Manhattan had signs in their windows offering 3-for-1 deals on pre-rolls.
And not only that, the city had decided that smoking weed was legal anywhere that one could smoke tobacco, so people stood on the sidewalks smoking pot all the time.
I should know, I hung out there a lot.
Once m’lady got up and around we headed out to meet some friends for lunch and then went to a matinee showing of a Broadway show written by David Byrne and Fatboy Slim called Here Lies Love.
But that’s another story.
Getting to this story - which ostensibly regards the third night of Phish’s seven-show run at Madison Square Garden - we were seated behind the stage. I’ve been behind the stage at several Phish shows and while it isn’t my first choice it isn’t my last either. To be honest, there’s a lot to be said about sitting back there. Especially Kuroda’s light show. Sure, it’s way, way better to see it from a vantage-point somewhere near the light board (like we were on night one), but CK5 lights up the audience more than any other lighting director in the business, constantly shining colourful bursts of light onto the crowd giving the band - and those of us lucky enough to be sitting behind the stage - an arena full of ever-changing eye candy to gape at throughout the show.
In fact, it seemed to me that Chris was lighting up the crowd with even more gusto than usual for this show, though it could obviously have just been my perspective. But it was a much more song-oriented concert than the previous two as well, with an awesome [i]My Friend, My Friend[/i] near the top of the first set and [i]Tube[/i]>[i]Golgi[/i] closing it. Somewhere in there they almost played [i]Llama[/i] twice in a row when Trey comically restarted the song as soon as they had finished it.
At setbreak I marvelled from my backstage perch at all the wonderful rigging it takes to pull of a Phish show, especially Kuroda’s hanging lights that rise up and down at the flick of a switch. It was reminiscent of my experience at Here Lies Love that afternoon, where m’lady and I had to weave through a uniquely interactive open-concept backstage area with the obligatory hanging ropes, pulleys, and stage props in order to get to-and-from our seats. Plus I had a bird’s-eye view of Fishman’s drum kit! Though not quite Neil Peart-ish in stature it’s getting there, and with his Marimba Lumina and all the other gadgets and toys, well, for a geeky gear-oriented fan like myself it was pretty neat to be back there.
The second set was again pretty songy and pretty rock and roll too, and it stayed that way right into the [i]Suzy Greenberg[/i] encore, which single-handedly squashed an encore alphabet theme conspiracy that had been floating around the geekier message boards.
I had heard lots of chicka-chicka wah-wah pedal coming from Trey all night. So much that during the first set I randomly leaned into the stranger next to me and said into his ear, “I think I hear Jimi Hendrix coming!” After he looked at me like I was a cracked-out alien hobo I stood there silently feeling stupid for the next hour-and-a-half.
When I was finally redeemed as Phish closed the concert with Hendrix’s [i]Izabella[/i] (which I had heard them play in the same room six years earlier) I turned to dude to receive my well-deserved high-five and he was…gone!
I did, however, notice that our friend Terry was seated just behind us in the Madison Club section (where we would be sitting for our final night), and m’lady and I went up to say hello as soon as the show ended.
I really like Terry and hadn’t seen him in a long time so I was shocked to hear myself say “no thanks” when he suggested we come back to his hotel for a nightcap or two. But I did. And here we were mere minutes from the clock ticking us into m’lady’s birthday. For shame!
The city that never sleeps, huh? Well, this lame-ass sure does.
https://toddmanout.com/
Review by toddmanout
When I slept until 8am on July 30th, 2023 I felt I was making progress on the ninety-minute time difference between Newfoundland and New York City. NYC may be “the city that never sleeps” but what would I know about it? I’d be lucky if I could keep my eyes open past midnight at least once on this weeklong Phish excursion.
I tiptoed out of the room and went downstairs to the hotel’s free buffet for a small and rather lame breakfast washed down with much too much mediocre coffee. I killed the rest of the morning on the sidewalk outside the hotel just watching the big city in action, and there was plenty to see. Though Springhill Suites was on one of Manhattan’s smaller side streets (37th) rather than one of the bigger and busier avenues there was still plenty of bustle going on.
The first thing I saw was small squad of beat policemen gathered in an alcove across the street from where I was leaning. They were patrolling through the multiple lanes of one-way traffic on my street that were continually being brought to a standstill by the traffic light at 5th and 37th. It looked to me like the cops were checking for stickers on windshields, but I couldn’t be sure. Regardless, every few minutes one of the cops would direct one of the cars to pull over, where another cop would be waiting to write the the poor driver a ticket.
I watched them do this for a full hour, ducking inside only to refill my lousy coffee cup.
After the cops had left an ambulance came down the street with its siren wailing and soon found itself stuck in traffic right in front of the hotel. It was odd to hear a screaming siren and see the emergency go universally unheeded by the other drivers who sat in their cars staring straight ahead and not giving an inch. The analogy to the countless homeless people populating the surrounding sidewalks was not lost on me.
It’s astounding just how many desperate people there are roaming the streets with their hands open to the frantic Manhattan hive hoping someone will stoop down and save their day. But there doesn’t seem to be nearly enough people who are willing to give. Living in a city this large must diminish a person’s empathy. Even after just a few days of saying “I’m sorry brother” “I’m sorry, good luck” “Sorry my friend,” I was already able to stop feeling horrible for not helping people after just a minute or two, instead of letting it haunt me for the whole day. I’m sure after a few months I wouldn’t even notice them, like most of the people I saw walking by outside.
Funny, while the police where engaging in their sting people were smoking big fat stinky joints on the street all around them with complete impunity. The city had recently legalized recreational marijuana and while there were only two stores in all of New York City that were legally allowed to sell the stuff it seemed like every second shop in Manhattan had signs in their windows offering 3-for-1 deals on pre-rolls.
And not only that, the city had decided that smoking weed was legal anywhere that one could smoke tobacco, so people stood on the sidewalks smoking pot all the time.
I should know, I hung out there a lot.
Once m’lady got up and around we headed out to meet some friends for lunch and then went to a matinee showing of a Broadway show written by David Byrne and Fatboy Slim called Here Lies Love.
But that’s another story.
Getting to this story - which ostensibly regards the third night of Phish’s seven-show run at Madison Square Garden - we were seated behind the stage. I’ve been behind the stage at several Phish shows and while it isn’t my first choice it isn’t my last either. To be honest, there’s a lot to be said about sitting back there. Especially Kuroda’s light show. Sure, it’s way, way better to see it from a vantage-point somewhere near the light board (like we were on night one), but CK5 lights up the audience more than any other lighting director in the business, constantly shining colourful bursts of light onto the crowd giving the band - and those of us lucky enough to be sitting behind the stage - an arena full of ever-changing eye candy to gape at throughout the show.
In fact, it seemed to me that Chris was lighting up the crowd with even more gusto than usual for this show, though it could obviously have just been my perspective. But it was a much more song-oriented concert than the previous two as well, with an awesome [i]My Friend, My Friend[/i] near the top of the first set and [i]Tube[/i]>[i]Golgi[/i] closing it. Somewhere in there they almost played [i]Llama[/i] twice in a row when Trey comically restarted the song as soon as they had finished it.
At setbreak I marvelled from my backstage perch at all the wonderful rigging it takes to pull of a Phish show, especially Kuroda’s hanging lights that rise up and down at the flick of a switch. It was reminiscent of my experience at Here Lies Love that afternoon, where m’lady and I had to weave through a uniquely interactive open-concept backstage area with the obligatory hanging ropes, pulleys, and stage props in order to get to-and-from our seats. Plus I had a bird’s-eye view of Fishman’s drum kit! Though not quite Neil Peart-ish in stature it’s getting there, and with his Marimba Lumina and all the other gadgets and toys, well, for a geeky gear-oriented fan like myself it was pretty neat to be back there.
The second set was again pretty songy and pretty rock and roll too, and it stayed that way right into the [i]Suzy Greenberg[/i] encore, which single-handedly squashed an encore alphabet theme conspiracy that had been floating around the geekier message boards.
I had heard lots of chicka-chicka wah-wah pedal coming from Trey all night. So much that during the first set I randomly leaned into the stranger next to me and said into his ear, “I think I hear Jimi Hendrix coming!” After he looked at me like I was a cracked-out alien hobo I stood there silently feeling stupid for the next hour-and-a-half.
When I was finally redeemed as Phish closed the concert with Hendrix’s [i]Izabella[/i] (which I had heard them play in the same room six years earlier) I turned to dude to receive my well-deserved high-five and he was…gone!
I did, however, notice that our friend Terry was seated just behind us in the Madison Club section (where we would be sitting for our final night), and m’lady and I went up to say hello as soon as the show ended.
I really like Terry and hadn’t seen him in a long time so I was shocked to hear myself say “no thanks” when he suggested we come back to his hotel for a nightcap or two. But I did. And here we were mere minutes from the clock ticking us into m’lady’s birthday. For shame!
The city that never sleeps, huh? Well, this lame-ass sure does.
https://toddmanout.com/
, attached to 2017-09-01
SET 1:
Blaze On: interesting choice of opener for this run - def seems to signal to fans not to expect any crazy setlist shenanigans… very much a ‘we’re here to chill out and have fun after BD’ type opener. Pretty long jam for a 3.0 set opener. Gets into some pretty sparse territory around the middle portion, very nice and busy playing from Mike. Not too interesting otherwise.
555: standard.
Breath and Burning: can’t imagine the crowd was too pleased with this opening sequence, lol. Once again sending a message that this is a chance for the band to let their hair down. Nicely peaked and one of the better versions out there.
Theme From the Bottom: this one gets a better crowd reaction. Some nice reverse reverb briefly in the solo that gets some cheers. GREAT smooth segue into… ->
Free: very strong version, some great theremin-ish synth work and guitar work peak.
Tube: interesting jam! Fans of 2017 synth jamming will want to check this out, some super gnarly Page soloing in the early going – but ditches this for some guitar-led peaky jamming which is pretty unique for the song. Rough transition into the shuffle section.
Roggae: not crazy about this song but this peaks HARD. Trey shredding like it’s 1998. Euphoric!
More: standard.
SET 2:
No Men in No Man’s Land: another ‘let’s let our hair down and party’ choice to open set 2. Trey making good use of pedals in the early going of the jam which quickly transitions into a bliss peak - great screaming playing at the 9 minute mark. Seems like this is going to end right then and there, but Trey has other ideas and guides the band into a minor key section. Love Page’s Rhodes-esque playing in this section, very Miles Davis. Showing why he’s the MVP of 2017. The next 8 minutes of the jam is incredibly special. Trey takes the back seat to Page and Mike who lay down an atmosphere that really needs to be heard to believed – WOW. Eerie and spacey to the extreme! Fish even takes it into 12/8 for a section, extremely special playing that feels like a prelude to the Deer Creek Simple. Suddenly Trey is back on the guitar, comes out firing with Wedge teases everywhere. Fish picks up what he’s putting down – peak incoming, friends! Standard but strong bliss playing from there on out. Everything between the 10-20 min mark is out of this world and more than makes up for some standard fare on either side. Highly recommended. >
Carini: pretty abrupt into this but the place is hyped at the placement. Funny ‘lumpy head’ quotes around the entrance into the jam. Things get going around the 6 minute mark. The start to the jam is all about Trey pushing his pedals to their absolute limits. I’m no stranger to criticising Trey’s tone from this era but it really works for this extremely doomy playing in the early going. Alien sounds everywhere. Once again Fishman giving Trey an escape route about 10 minutes in – but nope, this is BD era Trey, and he’s gonna take this as far as it’ll go. A groovy, happy jam emerges from there for a while until Trey gets possessed with the spirit of Hendrix at around 17:30 and SHREDS an effects-driven peak. Wow. Feels like it could go into Tweezer as this winds down, but then suddenly the band conjures a funky, Camel Walk-style passage out of literal thin air with Page killing it on organ and Mike stomping on the octave pedal. Immediately went back to relisten to the last 4 minutes on first pass – it’s that good. Trey unfortunately bails on this too soon for… >
Ghost: almost disappointing to hear this come out of that space at the end of Carini but the song is great so it doesn’t matter too much. Pretty standard elongated blissy version that stays in second gear for a while until Trey powers things up around 14 mins in, total shredfest for a couple minutes there. Otherwise a solid Ghost that keeps the momentum going but nothing I’d particularly recommend – not that they have anything to prove at this point in the set. >
Harry Hood: nice! Decent, meditative intro but feels like it takes the band a while to lock on this one – the ‘where do you go’ refrain is sloppy here. Jam is standard with one or two nice themes. >
Cavern: super hype coming out of the effects at the end of Hood. A little shaky but loose and fun end to a crazy set.
Encore:
The Horse > Silent in the Morning: A little rough.
Character Zero: REAL rough at the beginning.
—
OVERALL: wow, what a statement show post-BD. We successfully ran the gamut through our toughest songs, we’re free now, and we’re going to play the stuff we WANT to play and play it within an inch of our lives. It’s wall-to-wall energy and crazy peaks right up until the fourth quarter. Set 1 through to Ghost is one of the most impressive stretches of music you’ll hear at any 3.0 show, but particular shouts out to Roggae and NMINML for being total all-timer versions. Will also be coming back to Carini, Tube, Breath and Burning and Free.
4 stars.

Review by Esperanzan
SET 1:
Blaze On: interesting choice of opener for this run - def seems to signal to fans not to expect any crazy setlist shenanigans… very much a ‘we’re here to chill out and have fun after BD’ type opener. Pretty long jam for a 3.0 set opener. Gets into some pretty sparse territory around the middle portion, very nice and busy playing from Mike. Not too interesting otherwise.
555: standard.
Breath and Burning: can’t imagine the crowd was too pleased with this opening sequence, lol. Once again sending a message that this is a chance for the band to let their hair down. Nicely peaked and one of the better versions out there.
Theme From the Bottom: this one gets a better crowd reaction. Some nice reverse reverb briefly in the solo that gets some cheers. GREAT smooth segue into… ->
Free: very strong version, some great theremin-ish synth work and guitar work peak.
Tube: interesting jam! Fans of 2017 synth jamming will want to check this out, some super gnarly Page soloing in the early going – but ditches this for some guitar-led peaky jamming which is pretty unique for the song. Rough transition into the shuffle section.
Roggae: not crazy about this song but this peaks HARD. Trey shredding like it’s 1998. Euphoric!
More: standard.
SET 2:
No Men in No Man’s Land: another ‘let’s let our hair down and party’ choice to open set 2. Trey making good use of pedals in the early going of the jam which quickly transitions into a bliss peak - great screaming playing at the 9 minute mark. Seems like this is going to end right then and there, but Trey has other ideas and guides the band into a minor key section. Love Page’s Rhodes-esque playing in this section, very Miles Davis. Showing why he’s the MVP of 2017. The next 8 minutes of the jam is incredibly special. Trey takes the back seat to Page and Mike who lay down an atmosphere that really needs to be heard to believed – WOW. Eerie and spacey to the extreme! Fish even takes it into 12/8 for a section, extremely special playing that feels like a prelude to the Deer Creek Simple. Suddenly Trey is back on the guitar, comes out firing with Wedge teases everywhere. Fish picks up what he’s putting down – peak incoming, friends! Standard but strong bliss playing from there on out. Everything between the 10-20 min mark is out of this world and more than makes up for some standard fare on either side. Highly recommended. >
Carini: pretty abrupt into this but the place is hyped at the placement. Funny ‘lumpy head’ quotes around the entrance into the jam. Things get going around the 6 minute mark. The start to the jam is all about Trey pushing his pedals to their absolute limits. I’m no stranger to criticising Trey’s tone from this era but it really works for this extremely doomy playing in the early going. Alien sounds everywhere. Once again Fishman giving Trey an escape route about 10 minutes in – but nope, this is BD era Trey, and he’s gonna take this as far as it’ll go. A groovy, happy jam emerges from there for a while until Trey gets possessed with the spirit of Hendrix at around 17:30 and SHREDS an effects-driven peak. Wow. Feels like it could go into Tweezer as this winds down, but then suddenly the band conjures a funky, Camel Walk-style passage out of literal thin air with Page killing it on organ and Mike stomping on the octave pedal. Immediately went back to relisten to the last 4 minutes on first pass – it’s that good. Trey unfortunately bails on this too soon for… >
Ghost: almost disappointing to hear this come out of that space at the end of Carini but the song is great so it doesn’t matter too much. Pretty standard elongated blissy version that stays in second gear for a while until Trey powers things up around 14 mins in, total shredfest for a couple minutes there. Otherwise a solid Ghost that keeps the momentum going but nothing I’d particularly recommend – not that they have anything to prove at this point in the set. >
Harry Hood: nice! Decent, meditative intro but feels like it takes the band a while to lock on this one – the ‘where do you go’ refrain is sloppy here. Jam is standard with one or two nice themes. >
Cavern: super hype coming out of the effects at the end of Hood. A little shaky but loose and fun end to a crazy set.
Encore:
The Horse > Silent in the Morning: A little rough.
Character Zero: REAL rough at the beginning.
—
OVERALL: wow, what a statement show post-BD. We successfully ran the gamut through our toughest songs, we’re free now, and we’re going to play the stuff we WANT to play and play it within an inch of our lives. It’s wall-to-wall energy and crazy peaks right up until the fourth quarter. Set 1 through to Ghost is one of the most impressive stretches of music you’ll hear at any 3.0 show, but particular shouts out to Roggae and NMINML for being total all-timer versions. Will also be coming back to Carini, Tube, Breath and Burning and Free.
4 stars.

, attached to 1999-07-18
Read the Phucking Book. ????. Oh my glob. I just re listened to the Wilson Catapult smoke on the water icculus jam. [i]Wtf[/i] ???? I didn’t remember this being so phuking hard. Read the book. ????. Just read it ok. Stop watching that fucking television. Pick up the new Danielle Steele book. Chapter 3! Cat scratch fever. Chapter six! Smoke on the water ! So read it. Read the book! ???? ⭕️
Review by Wgtym
Read the Phucking Book. ????. Oh my glob. I just re listened to the Wilson Catapult smoke on the water icculus jam. [i]Wtf[/i] ???? I didn’t remember this being so phuking hard. Read the book. ????. Just read it ok. Stop watching that fucking television. Pick up the new Danielle Steele book. Chapter 3! Cat scratch fever. Chapter six! Smoke on the water ! So read it. Read the book! ???? ⭕️
, attached to 2005-08-11
I’m betting this was a very cool and intimate night of music if it’s the Fox Theater I’m thinking of, on the Hill @ CU Buffalo. Wish I could go back in time. Maybe, that’s why Phish is my superpower. Their musical talent and personal love for each other; is what makes me feel as if I’m time traveling. I miss you
Review by Thephats
I’m betting this was a very cool and intimate night of music if it’s the Fox Theater I’m thinking of, on the Hill @ CU Buffalo. Wish I could go back in time. Maybe, that’s why Phish is my superpower. Their musical talent and personal love for each other; is what makes me feel as if I’m time traveling. I miss you
, attached to 2010-12-31
On December 31st, 2010 I attended my first-ever Phish-hosted New Year’s Eve concert, which took place at Madison Square Garden in New York City. M’lady and I had driven straight from my family’s Christmas celebrations in Moncton, New Brunswick to Worcester, Massachusetts (a town name/condiment that I just can not pronounce properly. It’s frustrating but at least people tend to get a kick out of hearing me try) for a night of Phish, then it was on to the Big Apple for a birthday show (of mine) featuring Prince, followed by another night of Phish, this concert, and still another Phish concert on the first of January.
Oh, and then we went to a Broadway musical on January 2nd, after which we did our best to get out of town and almost succeeded.
But getting back to this night in particular, m’lady and I emerged from the subway into a normally bustling city that was bursting with energy in all directions. A few blocks away the scattered remains of Dick Clark was soon to be hosting one of the most famous New Years celebrations in the world, coaxing the ball in Times Square down with a zillion eyes watching. Man, the shows you could go to on this night alone! Chuck Berry was playing over at BB King’s, Gov’t Mule was at the famous Beacon Theatre, the Drive-By Truckers were in town…not to mention Phish of course; there was simply tons going on everywhere you cared to look. NYC kicks it pretty hard as a regular feature but for NYE things tend to get cranked up a few notches.
We had inadvertently been shut out of tickets for the all-important December 31st Phish show, TicketMaster having erroneously issuing me wheelchair access tickets and then taking them away when I told them I was in fact able-bodied. I assured them that I would likely find myself libated enough to require much assistance, but they wouldn’t budge no matter how many times I badgered their unbadgerable customer service, which left us scrambling for a pair of very hard-to-get tickets.
And then lo, the evening before kindness had reared its karmic head. Friends we had stayed with at previous shows voluntarily traded their pair of 100 level tickets (and $160 cash) for two pairs of 400 level tickets in order to help us out. There were many hugs.
It’s notable to note that Phish invariably pulls out all the stops on New Year’s Eve, always playing three sets instead of their standard two-set show and, most notoriously, they always always always come up with some sort of midnight gag to present to the crowd. These gags are usually elaborate (but not always), usually musical (but not always), and always (yes, always) a surprise.
(Phish are remarkably good secret-keepers. Between their NYE stunts and their Hallowe’en ‘musical costumes’ these things never, ever leak to the phans, no matter how ‘inside’ your information; and our information can get pretty inside.)
On this night Phish timed the new years countdown to fall within their novelty song [i]Meatstick[/i]. I call [i]Meatstick[/i] a novelty song not merely because the lyrics are silly (lots of Phish songs have silly lyrics), but because it is intrinsically linked to a silly dance called The Meatstick, which was created in an effort to achieve the world record for most people doing a dance way back at one of their festivals. The attempt failed as the Guinness officials deemed that The Meatstick didn’t actually qualify as a dance.
But not only that, during an Asian tour the Phish fellas had learned how to sing the chorus of the song in Japanese, and they had been doing so for one of the choruses ever since.
So I say “novelty”.
Anyway, that latter point played directly into the gag at this show, which opened the third set. As the Phish boys finished up their Japanese version of the song’s chorus they were joined onstage by a quartet of tribal African dancers, who sang the chorus in their native tongue. Then out came a Mariachi band, singing and playing the chorus in Spanish. Then a group of Hasidic Jews, then a quartet of Swedish girls dressed in ski gear.
I’m sure you get the idea.
Canadian Mounties, Hawaiians in grass skirts, Swiss yodellers, Germans in lederhosen, belly dancers, whirling Dervishes…ultimately there were about fifty people on the stage, all leading the giddy crowd of 20,000 through Phish’s silly [i]Meatstick[/i] non-dance. Elaborate? Not really. Musical? Sure. Fun? Absolutely!
And then they followed up with the countdown to midnight accompanied by [i]Auld Lang Syne[/i] (of course) right into [i]After Midnight[/i] by J. J. Cale (how cool is that?).
And so it was that I discovered that Phish New Year’s Eve concerts are pretty darn fun. No wonder I went again a few years later (and again the year after that).
https://toddmanout.com/
Review by toddmanout
On December 31st, 2010 I attended my first-ever Phish-hosted New Year’s Eve concert, which took place at Madison Square Garden in New York City. M’lady and I had driven straight from my family’s Christmas celebrations in Moncton, New Brunswick to Worcester, Massachusetts (a town name/condiment that I just can not pronounce properly. It’s frustrating but at least people tend to get a kick out of hearing me try) for a night of Phish, then it was on to the Big Apple for a birthday show (of mine) featuring Prince, followed by another night of Phish, this concert, and still another Phish concert on the first of January.
Oh, and then we went to a Broadway musical on January 2nd, after which we did our best to get out of town and almost succeeded.
But getting back to this night in particular, m’lady and I emerged from the subway into a normally bustling city that was bursting with energy in all directions. A few blocks away the scattered remains of Dick Clark was soon to be hosting one of the most famous New Years celebrations in the world, coaxing the ball in Times Square down with a zillion eyes watching. Man, the shows you could go to on this night alone! Chuck Berry was playing over at BB King’s, Gov’t Mule was at the famous Beacon Theatre, the Drive-By Truckers were in town…not to mention Phish of course; there was simply tons going on everywhere you cared to look. NYC kicks it pretty hard as a regular feature but for NYE things tend to get cranked up a few notches.
We had inadvertently been shut out of tickets for the all-important December 31st Phish show, TicketMaster having erroneously issuing me wheelchair access tickets and then taking them away when I told them I was in fact able-bodied. I assured them that I would likely find myself libated enough to require much assistance, but they wouldn’t budge no matter how many times I badgered their unbadgerable customer service, which left us scrambling for a pair of very hard-to-get tickets.
And then lo, the evening before kindness had reared its karmic head. Friends we had stayed with at previous shows voluntarily traded their pair of 100 level tickets (and $160 cash) for two pairs of 400 level tickets in order to help us out. There were many hugs.
It’s notable to note that Phish invariably pulls out all the stops on New Year’s Eve, always playing three sets instead of their standard two-set show and, most notoriously, they always always always come up with some sort of midnight gag to present to the crowd. These gags are usually elaborate (but not always), usually musical (but not always), and always (yes, always) a surprise.
(Phish are remarkably good secret-keepers. Between their NYE stunts and their Hallowe’en ‘musical costumes’ these things never, ever leak to the phans, no matter how ‘inside’ your information; and our information can get pretty inside.)
On this night Phish timed the new years countdown to fall within their novelty song [i]Meatstick[/i]. I call [i]Meatstick[/i] a novelty song not merely because the lyrics are silly (lots of Phish songs have silly lyrics), but because it is intrinsically linked to a silly dance called The Meatstick, which was created in an effort to achieve the world record for most people doing a dance way back at one of their festivals. The attempt failed as the Guinness officials deemed that The Meatstick didn’t actually qualify as a dance.
But not only that, during an Asian tour the Phish fellas had learned how to sing the chorus of the song in Japanese, and they had been doing so for one of the choruses ever since.
So I say “novelty”.
Anyway, that latter point played directly into the gag at this show, which opened the third set. As the Phish boys finished up their Japanese version of the song’s chorus they were joined onstage by a quartet of tribal African dancers, who sang the chorus in their native tongue. Then out came a Mariachi band, singing and playing the chorus in Spanish. Then a group of Hasidic Jews, then a quartet of Swedish girls dressed in ski gear.
I’m sure you get the idea.
Canadian Mounties, Hawaiians in grass skirts, Swiss yodellers, Germans in lederhosen, belly dancers, whirling Dervishes…ultimately there were about fifty people on the stage, all leading the giddy crowd of 20,000 through Phish’s silly [i]Meatstick[/i] non-dance. Elaborate? Not really. Musical? Sure. Fun? Absolutely!
And then they followed up with the countdown to midnight accompanied by [i]Auld Lang Syne[/i] (of course) right into [i]After Midnight[/i] by J. J. Cale (how cool is that?).
And so it was that I discovered that Phish New Year’s Eve concerts are pretty darn fun. No wonder I went again a few years later (and again the year after that).
https://toddmanout.com/
, attached to 1991-02-09
For what possible reason does this show have a 3.3 rating? Just the little bit of video oh John’s special mix tape makes it plain, they were firing on all cylinders and this show was popping with energy. Just bc there aren’t any big type 2 jams doesn’t disqualify a show from being epic. This is when phish made their bones. Nearly every night is a masterpiece.
Review by theDirewolf600
For what possible reason does this show have a 3.3 rating? Just the little bit of video oh John’s special mix tape makes it plain, they were firing on all cylinders and this show was popping with energy. Just bc there aren’t any big type 2 jams doesn’t disqualify a show from being epic. This is when phish made their bones. Nearly every night is a masterpiece.
, attached to 2024-09-15
Short, but sweet. You know you're in for a fun time when Mozambique opens. Awesome clav work all throughout the show. Loved the Springsteen sit-in, but that's the only [i]major[/i] highlight I can think of. Olivia rules! Other than that, this is just a nice, high-energy, day show. Sometimes we need a little day TAB to help our soul. It's a nice way to come down from this barn-burner of a summer. Love it. Love Trey. [s]Big red[/s] Big Grey!!
Review by jive1twoandlee
Short, but sweet. You know you're in for a fun time when Mozambique opens. Awesome clav work all throughout the show. Loved the Springsteen sit-in, but that's the only [i]major[/i] highlight I can think of. Olivia rules! Other than that, this is just a nice, high-energy, day show. Sometimes we need a little day TAB to help our soul. It's a nice way to come down from this barn-burner of a summer. Love it. Love Trey. [s]Big red[/s] Big Grey!!
, attached to 2024-08-15
I think this might be one of the best sets they ever played. Wgtym is an amazing song already and the jam into chalk dust was wild. Next light is an awesome song and the jam out of light into caspian has to be the craziest most mindfuckery insanity they’ve ever played. (If someone can point me to a crazier segue please do). Of course Caspian is as beautiful as ever. Ya can never go wrong with cross eyed and painless. And lonely trip. I love it. It’s about us, how could you not love it? Made me cry those good old “church tears”. You know religious experience and all that. End the set with everything’s right. Well done. I just wanted to bring these thoughts out as I feel so adamant about this set. Love this band and love this set ⭕️❤️⭕️
Review by Wgtym
I think this might be one of the best sets they ever played. Wgtym is an amazing song already and the jam into chalk dust was wild. Next light is an awesome song and the jam out of light into caspian has to be the craziest most mindfuckery insanity they’ve ever played. (If someone can point me to a crazier segue please do). Of course Caspian is as beautiful as ever. Ya can never go wrong with cross eyed and painless. And lonely trip. I love it. It’s about us, how could you not love it? Made me cry those good old “church tears”. You know religious experience and all that. End the set with everything’s right. Well done. I just wanted to bring these thoughts out as I feel so adamant about this set. Love this band and love this set ⭕️❤️⭕️
, attached to 2024-08-18
Most underrated phish show of the modern era. If you listen to this show you will be very surprised. I think this is a top set of the summer. Fuego, Golden Age are the highlights, but everything is played fast and crisp. Maze is extremely well played.
I highly recommend you to really listen to this show before judging it.
Review by Thekwa
Most underrated phish show of the modern era. If you listen to this show you will be very surprised. I think this is a top set of the summer. Fuego, Golden Age are the highlights, but everything is played fast and crisp. Maze is extremely well played.
I highly recommend you to really listen to this show before judging it.
, attached to 1998-08-15
[b]Doses. Doses. Doses[/b]. I’ll take ten, I say to the dude. I figured I should eat six because I ate three the day prior. Woah. At 19 or 20 years old I didn’t know that there were differences in strength. Needless to say during the third set my mind had a mind of its own and for the life of me I searched the grass for my keys, which were in the tent. But I liked and looked while my mind couldn’t grasp anything that was real. So a friend of mine, thank you Mr Lerch, Lee me by the hand two these three “angels” dressed in all white. We played with glowing toys and I regained my composure until…. At this point Trey is announcing the ambient set. But his words were something to the effect of we are going to light the ring of fire around the top of the circular walled enclosure of the green. My irrational mind went into a misinterpretation of the candle light set. I remember thinking I’m not going to stay while everyone burns in the ring of fire. lol. So I missed the ambient jam while I wandered aimlessly toward the hissing. My friends knew just where to find me sitting in the grass next to the tank. Just recently at mondegreen I had a very similar trip where logic escapes me. Good times to say the least.
Review by Wgtym
[b]Doses. Doses. Doses[/b]. I’ll take ten, I say to the dude. I figured I should eat six because I ate three the day prior. Woah. At 19 or 20 years old I didn’t know that there were differences in strength. Needless to say during the third set my mind had a mind of its own and for the life of me I searched the grass for my keys, which were in the tent. But I liked and looked while my mind couldn’t grasp anything that was real. So a friend of mine, thank you Mr Lerch, Lee me by the hand two these three “angels” dressed in all white. We played with glowing toys and I regained my composure until…. At this point Trey is announcing the ambient set. But his words were something to the effect of we are going to light the ring of fire around the top of the circular walled enclosure of the green. My irrational mind went into a misinterpretation of the candle light set. I remember thinking I’m not going to stay while everyone burns in the ring of fire. lol. So I missed the ambient jam while I wandered aimlessly toward the hissing. My friends knew just where to find me sitting in the grass next to the tank. Just recently at mondegreen I had a very similar trip where logic escapes me. Good times to say the least.
, attached to 2012-07-07
On July 7th, 2012 I woke up in a Hilton Garden Inn or a Holiday Inn or some such place in Saratoga Springs, following a night of Phish at the wonderful Saratoga Performing Arts Center and anticipating two more nights of the same (but different). And speaking (parenthetically) of “different”, I’d had a bit of an odd experience throughout the night when one of the people m’lady and I were sharing a room with accidentally crawled into the wrong bed after a bathroom break and snuggled up to me for a hug.
But that’s a story I’ve shared elsewhere so here’s another:
Following our pre-set plans for the weekend m’lady and I changed rooms (I insist this had nothing to do with the snafu I just alluded to). I’m pretty sure we were only able to book a room for the last two nights which is why we’d bunked down with Bernie and his girlfriend on night one. Anyways, m’lady and I checked into the new room and dropped our bags on the bed. I got to beering the fridge when a knock came at the door. “That must be Linda and Mike,” m’lady accurately predicted, opening the door and greeting her two long lost Phish friends who would be sharing the room with us for the remainder of the weekend. “Hi!” I blurted, bounding to the door and introducing myself. “Who wants a beer!”
“I’ll have one,” answered Mike. I eagerly snatched two bottles out of the fridge. Turns out they weren’t twisties but that was no problem, I knew a little trick. I angled one beer upside down so the lip of its cap was leveraged under the lip of the beercap I was intending to open. Then I gave one bottle a quick jerk with the other and voilà!
All hell broke loose.
(I’d like to quickly interject that I have since learned that it is crucial that one hooks the side and not the edge of the leveraging beercap underneath the targeted beercap. In fact, this was pretty much the very moment that I figured out this very important detail but alas, all hell had to break loose for me to learn it.)
Because I was leveraging one edge against another it was basically a 50-50 split on which cap would come off. It was like wishing on a wishbone, and I lost. To wit: when the cap of the leveraging bottle unexpectedly came off, the quick jerking motion I’d added gave just the right shake to the bottle to cause the carbonated contents inside to spray directly upwards and into my shocked face like I was staring down a water hose. The gushing beer careened off of my surprised face and into the surprised moustachioed face of Mike, who was standing right next to me, before continuing on to spray the ceiling and spatter the walls. Half-blind with foam-covered glasses I thrust the still unopened target beer towards Mike. “Perhaps you have a bottle opener?” I suggested, my face and hair drenched and dripping. I’m all about first impressions.
Amazingly, m’lady and I have gone on to share hotel rooms with Mike and Linda several times since then.
Getting to the Phish concert, once the show began deep in the forested Saratoga Springs State Park we were treated to another cover-laden night of groovy, dance-a-licious fun. They opened the show with their barbershop musical life-count tally [i]Grind[/i] before continuing with a set that consisted almost entirely of personal favourites of mine: [i]Possum[/i]>[i]Golgi[/i], [i]Moma Dance[/i], [i]Torn and Frayed[/i], [i]Rift[/i], [i]Cities[/i]>[i]Maze[/i], [i]Lawn Boy[/i], [i]Peaches[/i], [i]Bathtub Gin[/i], and[i] Good Times Bad Times[/i].
You can’t argue with that!
And believe it or don’t, once the second set started the show got even better! [i]Down With Disease[/i] went into [i]Blister In the Sun[/i] and then went back into itself again before morphing into [i]Boogie On Reggae Woman[/i]. In fact, the whole second set was one big unending stream of music, as the band went into-into-into through [i]2001[/i], [i]Mike’s[/i], [i]Contact[/i], [i]Backwards Down the Number Line[/i], and another tear halfway through [i]Blister In the Sun[/i]. And tons more of course.
And then – are you sitting down? – for the encore Phish played [i]Sabotage[/i] for the fifth (and as of this writing, final) time, dedicating the song to Adam Yauch who had passed away two months earlier. Not to cast mirth after sombre, but [i]Sabotage[/i] seemed like a perfect cap to my error-riddled day (pun intended, of course).
[i]I can’t stand rockin’ when I’m in this place
Because I feel disgrace because you’re all in my face[/i]…
And I can’t even [i]begin[/i] to tell you about all the aftershow shenanigoats.
https://toddmanout.com/
Review by toddmanout
On July 7th, 2012 I woke up in a Hilton Garden Inn or a Holiday Inn or some such place in Saratoga Springs, following a night of Phish at the wonderful Saratoga Performing Arts Center and anticipating two more nights of the same (but different). And speaking (parenthetically) of “different”, I’d had a bit of an odd experience throughout the night when one of the people m’lady and I were sharing a room with accidentally crawled into the wrong bed after a bathroom break and snuggled up to me for a hug.
But that’s a story I’ve shared elsewhere so here’s another:
Following our pre-set plans for the weekend m’lady and I changed rooms (I insist this had nothing to do with the snafu I just alluded to). I’m pretty sure we were only able to book a room for the last two nights which is why we’d bunked down with Bernie and his girlfriend on night one. Anyways, m’lady and I checked into the new room and dropped our bags on the bed. I got to beering the fridge when a knock came at the door. “That must be Linda and Mike,” m’lady accurately predicted, opening the door and greeting her two long lost Phish friends who would be sharing the room with us for the remainder of the weekend. “Hi!” I blurted, bounding to the door and introducing myself. “Who wants a beer!”
“I’ll have one,” answered Mike. I eagerly snatched two bottles out of the fridge. Turns out they weren’t twisties but that was no problem, I knew a little trick. I angled one beer upside down so the lip of its cap was leveraged under the lip of the beercap I was intending to open. Then I gave one bottle a quick jerk with the other and voilà!
All hell broke loose.
(I’d like to quickly interject that I have since learned that it is crucial that one hooks the side and not the edge of the leveraging beercap underneath the targeted beercap. In fact, this was pretty much the very moment that I figured out this very important detail but alas, all hell had to break loose for me to learn it.)
Because I was leveraging one edge against another it was basically a 50-50 split on which cap would come off. It was like wishing on a wishbone, and I lost. To wit: when the cap of the leveraging bottle unexpectedly came off, the quick jerking motion I’d added gave just the right shake to the bottle to cause the carbonated contents inside to spray directly upwards and into my shocked face like I was staring down a water hose. The gushing beer careened off of my surprised face and into the surprised moustachioed face of Mike, who was standing right next to me, before continuing on to spray the ceiling and spatter the walls. Half-blind with foam-covered glasses I thrust the still unopened target beer towards Mike. “Perhaps you have a bottle opener?” I suggested, my face and hair drenched and dripping. I’m all about first impressions.
Amazingly, m’lady and I have gone on to share hotel rooms with Mike and Linda several times since then.
Getting to the Phish concert, once the show began deep in the forested Saratoga Springs State Park we were treated to another cover-laden night of groovy, dance-a-licious fun. They opened the show with their barbershop musical life-count tally [i]Grind[/i] before continuing with a set that consisted almost entirely of personal favourites of mine: [i]Possum[/i]>[i]Golgi[/i], [i]Moma Dance[/i], [i]Torn and Frayed[/i], [i]Rift[/i], [i]Cities[/i]>[i]Maze[/i], [i]Lawn Boy[/i], [i]Peaches[/i], [i]Bathtub Gin[/i], and[i] Good Times Bad Times[/i].
You can’t argue with that!
And believe it or don’t, once the second set started the show got even better! [i]Down With Disease[/i] went into [i]Blister In the Sun[/i] and then went back into itself again before morphing into [i]Boogie On Reggae Woman[/i]. In fact, the whole second set was one big unending stream of music, as the band went into-into-into through [i]2001[/i], [i]Mike’s[/i], [i]Contact[/i], [i]Backwards Down the Number Line[/i], and another tear halfway through [i]Blister In the Sun[/i]. And tons more of course.
And then – are you sitting down? – for the encore Phish played [i]Sabotage[/i] for the fifth (and as of this writing, final) time, dedicating the song to Adam Yauch who had passed away two months earlier. Not to cast mirth after sombre, but [i]Sabotage[/i] seemed like a perfect cap to my error-riddled day (pun intended, of course).
[i]I can’t stand rockin’ when I’m in this place
Because I feel disgrace because you’re all in my face[/i]…
And I can’t even [i]begin[/i] to tell you about all the aftershow shenanigoats.
https://toddmanout.com/
, attached to 1997-11-21
I walked out of this show completely wrecked by the music I heard. Somewhere between Emotional Rescue and SOAM, we achieved liftoff. Sure, I never saw more than a handful of shows per year dispersed amongst most years the band has toured from 1990 through present. Nevertheless almost 27 years later, this run continues to stand at or near the top of the heap for me. I remember walking out of the venue thinking: "I will never again see [b]this[/b] band play like [b]that[/b] ever again. And that is just fine." The next night was almost as great for me. Better than everything thereafter, certainly.
Review by adamopp
I walked out of this show completely wrecked by the music I heard. Somewhere between Emotional Rescue and SOAM, we achieved liftoff. Sure, I never saw more than a handful of shows per year dispersed amongst most years the band has toured from 1990 through present. Nevertheless almost 27 years later, this run continues to stand at or near the top of the heap for me. I remember walking out of the venue thinking: "I will never again see [b]this[/b] band play like [b]that[/b] ever again. And that is just fine." The next night was almost as great for me. Better than everything thereafter, certainly.
You can still access archived Phish.net reviews
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Review by thelot