Phish C/D

i'm really glad the shows i selected for this project so far hit close to or dead within those classic periods you name

this is the project so far btw:

- the white tape ✓
- colorado ‘88 ✓
- junta ✓
- 8/26/89 townshend family park, townshend, vt ✓
- lawn boy ✓
- 10/31/90 armstrong theatre, colorado springs, co ✓
- 7/12/91 colonial theatre, keene, nh ✓
- a picture of nectar ✓
- 11/19/92 ross arena, saint michael’s college ✓
- rift ✓
- 8/26/93 arlene schnitzer concert hall, portland, or ✓
- 12/31/93 worcester centrum theatre, worcester, ma
hoist
- 7/8/94 great woods performing arts center, mansfield, ma
- 12/19/94 providence civic center, providence, rh
- 6/19/95 deer creek music center, noblesville, in
- 11/14/95 university of central florida arena, orlando, fl
- billy breathes
- 11/2/96 coral sky amphitheater, west palm beach, fl

well, i almost formatted that well

i will resist the urge to give you any advance notice of what awaits you; suffice to say i'll continue to look forward to the project documentation :-)

12/31/93: chosen because some fans rate this as the best show ever. i can see why they think that, it's a really well-rounded show, but the august 93 show i heard before this was just a little more thrilling. i also suspect people really rate this show because of the "harry hood," which is exactly that good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7z15ORtarX4

regardless, really fun show, amazing debut of the "down with disease" jam right out of "auld lang syne." as usual fantastic reads of "reba" and "split open and melt" even though imo both are in better form (the former more beautiful, the latter more broken and fucked up) on 8/26/93. i really like "it's ice" every time it appears in the set and this was my favorite yet, the falling apart section was really beautifully played

hoist: i heard "lifeboy" for the first time during the 8/26/93 show and got fairly caught up in trey's solo but the song itself really came together for me in the studio recording, which is one of the most gorgeous things they've ever done imo. proto-billy breathes for sure. the guests are all refreshing and add warmth to the songs even though it is super weird to hear alison krauss' voice on a phish record, and "wolfman's brother" sounds totally sick with horns. pretty good album! better than expected, if not quite as special as the two that follow

7/8/94: went out on my roof tonight to watch fireworks and smoke weed and listen to the first set of this show, which is all gamehenge including narration, and it's phenomenal

what's different about '94 phish? well so far it's starting to feel like literally anything could happen in the middle of a jam, e.g. the way "llama" just falls apart into "N02" at the start of this show

the "stash" from a live one was taken from the second set; not sure if i'm gonna make it there tonight but the fireworks are still going off so who needs sleep

12/29/94: i could talk about this show but i could also just post the second set's 35-minute "david bowie," which starts off in an event horizon-esque "outer space is hell" place and only gets scarier from there. '94 phish is maybe a little less loose and wandering than '97 or '98 but the spirit of that later style starts here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MmY8oL8B_I

a live one: just because it's hilarious to make this project way longer than it has to be, i'm revisiting the two official live releases from the '90s, this and slip stitch and pass. somehow a live one sounds even better now that i have a lot more context for where they were at that point. the "yem" is astonishing. i loved this "stash" before i even thought i liked phish. etc. one of the best live albums ever

Goddamit, Brad!

I'm listening to Phish for the first time since probably 99 and maybe earlier than that. I absorbed plenty of them in college in the early-90s and then post-college friends were into them so I knew some stuff up to Billy Breathes. I liked a few of their bigger, more poppy songs but generally thought they were tiresome.

Since then I got heavily into jazz and the Dead and now I'm listening to Junta and really enjoying it. Definitely nostalgic because certain songs I can instantly recall from those days.

I'm really enjoying reading your journey through Phish, Brad. I agree that A Picture of Nectar is one of their weaker albums, but I think "The Mango Song" and "Guelah Papyrus" are great underrated songs that they got right in the studio.

When I got really into Phish in 1998 as a 6th grader I had the 5th edition of the Pharmer's Almanac that came out that year, and that shit was like the bible to me. It had all the known setlists through the Island Tour (it was thin on mid 80s shows; apparently lots more shows/tapes have come to light since then). I didn't have access to tapes, so my live Phish collection at the time was limited to A Live One and Slip Stitch and Pass. I would pore through the setlists and show notes in the Pharmer's Almanac and fantasize about hearing, e.g., 12/31/95 (voted #1 show of all time by phans in that book), the fall 1997 tour, the Great Went, etc. When we got internet in my house in late 98 I found some fan sites that had Real Audio™ streams of a few shows and that was like manna from heaven. I realize I keep using religious terms to speak of this band lol.

By the time I finally saw them live in 2000 (5/21/00 Radio City and 9/22/00 Rosemont Horizon) I wasn't as obsessed as I had been a year or two prior, but I feel very lucky to have witnessed the tail end of 1.0. I started paying close attention to them again circa the 2017 Baker's Dozen shows, and whenever I put on a show it feels like coming home

Wow, thanks for that David Bowie!

This is ideal phish to me.

Mr. Narrator
This is ideal phish to me.

Add my post to the pile thanking BN for the posts and journey. I played the 94 David Bowie for a rat I live-caught as I drove to release it 15 miles away. Really enhanced the experience.

Feel kinda bad the lil guy mostly got "outer space is hell" before drop off in a new home.

Sky Blu Sky era Wilco sounds a lot like LivePhish vol 20

Add my post to the pile thanking BN for the posts and journey. I played the 94 David Bowie for a rat I live-caught as I drove to release it 15 miles away. Really enhanced the experience.

― butyrate humbucker bobbins (Sufjan Grafton), Monday, July 5, 2021 6:29 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

literally the best story i've ever read

but I think "The Mango Song" and "Guelah Papyrus" are great underrated songs that they got right in the studio.

i think this is right! "mango song" is ill-served by how late it appears in the tracklist. "guelah papyrus" is one of those songs that is sick both in the studio and live even though it doesn't really get jammed out, the 12/31/93 "papyrus" is freakin tense

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpROAhjbXcA

i think almost every show i've picked for this project has a "reba" and i'm not complaining

Oh hell yeah, that's a flawless hi-NRG Guelah xp.

The blissed-out jam section of Reba is my favorite Phish jam, so the presence of a Reba is often a deciding factor when I'm picking a show to listen to

speaking of, from the show i'm currently listening to

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n861757Irsw

6/19/95: too early to judge probably but the vibe i get from 95 phish is "victory lap." they are playing at such a high level that even the songs i do not care for at all ("cavern," "poor heart" with added screaming and punk energy) sound dope, and the jamming, when it happens, is always taking you into an elsewhere state; "antelope" is not necessarily my favorite vehicle for phish jamming, but the "antelope" here leaves a lot of scorched earth behind it. the "reba," posted above, rivals and potentially outdoes 8/26/93 for my favorite "reba" yet, effortlessly slipping from dreamy impressionism into a cathartic rock finale. at this point they are playing "david bowie" at 100x speed or something and once again the jam is a fully can-esque nightmare. and yet the peak of this set may be the opener, "theme from the bottom"?

ooh mama, lots of activity on Brad's project and on this thread while I was away camping for the weekend. I'll have more thoughts at some point, but Brad, just wanted to say to follow up on your previous love for summer '91 horns Phish, that another side alley to go down might be Trey's self titled album of 2002 + the live album Plasma. That era is peak use of horns, in my opinion, as Trey tries to take the M.O. of afrobeat and apply it to his unique songwriting styles. There are a few clunkers on that album but some great ones as well. It's also still an acquired taste, but not to the same degree as Phish - that stuff is easier to situate in a paradigm, and it is insanely groovy and danceable.

11/14/95: this is even better than the other '95 show, dynamite first set with early renditions of "billy breathes" and "free," the latter even leading into a jam(? don't think i've heard that happen before). second set immediately announces its intentions with a very angry "maze" a slightly askew "gumbo" and then... the motherlode... that's right... the 40 minute "stash"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7q_4uFFRLA

which i would say is about as good as phish ever gets

fucking incredible

i love phish

I have been inexplicably seduced by Brad's running commentary in this thread and am bookmarking

i especially love "like a pink floyd album being composed in real time" phish

paul don't do it! reconsider!

Too late! I'm digging out my copies of A Live One and the one disc-rotted LivePhish volume I have as we speak!

well in that case, wash uffitze drive me to firenze

shiiiiiiiit

update:

- the white tape ✓
- colorado ‘88 ✓
- junta ✓
- 8/26/89 townshend family park, townshend, vt ✓
- lawn boy ✓
- 10/31/90 armstrong theatre, colorado springs, co ✓
- 7/12/91 colonial theatre, keene, nh ✓
- a picture of nectar ✓
- 11/19/92 ross arena, saint michael’s college ✓
- rift ✓
- 8/26/93 arlene schnitzer concert hall, portland, or ✓
- 12/31/93 worcester centrum theatre, worcester, ma ✓
hoist ✓
- 7/8/94 great woods performing arts center, mansfield, ma ✓
- 12/19/94 providence civic center, providence, rh ✓
- a live one ✓
- 6/19/95 deer creek music center, noblesville, in ✓
- 11/14/95 university of central florida arena, orlando, fl ✓
- billy breathes
- 11/2/96 coral sky amphitheater, west palm beach, fl
- slip stitch and pass
- 8/10/97 deer creek music center, noblesville, in
- 11/23/97 lawrence joel veterans memorial coliseum, winston-salem, nc
- 4/4/98 providence civic center, providence, ri
- 8/1/98 alpine valley music theater, east troy, wi
- the story of the ghost

if anyone feels like recommending me another '97 or '98 show... please do... otherwise i'm just gonna listen to the only show i haven't heard in the hampton/winston-salem 97 box, and it's gonna be great

i also have two '99 shows on my hard drive and remember nothing about them, so i'm thinking of just relistening to them lol

apologies in advance, but the phish revisit brought back a few small related anecdotes to pepper between BN's posts of actual substance. (hiding for easy skipping) 1) I spent a good portion of my elementary school days at the high school gym, forced to watch my older sisters play volleyball. To pass the time, I'd hang around the open section of hallway next to the concession stand. A part of the hallway featured student works of art, including a faithful pencil drawn copy of the Storm Thorgerson photo on the cover of Slip Stitch and Pass. I was infatuated with the drawing and would make a point of admiring it every game, probably while eating starburst fruit twists. I considered it to be the greatest work of art at the time, during which my own art was mostly drawings of dunking basketball players with lightning bolts in the background. 2) I had a similar obsession with my older brother's Junta shirt with the fish-shaped "PHISH" logo. I would search for it by rifling through the basket of clean-but-not-folded laundry. This was all before I ever heard the music. 3) In high school, I admired an older guitarist that owned an actual all-white stratocaster and was technically much better than me. My friend heard his band was going to play You Enjoy Myself at the high school battle of the bands in 2002. I was so disappointed when they knowingly played only the short funky bit, segueing out of Roses Are Free. Nobody gives a shit about isolated sections of Phish songs.

billy breathes: i think ghost is my favorite phish studio album but there's no doubt in my mind this is their most successful studio outing. it sounds incredible, they're writing many actually-good songs, and they actually replicate the feeling of their jams, it's just in the sequencing (especially on the abbey road-esque cascade of the second side) instead of the playing

"taste" is my favorite phish song that's not "harry hood"

lol at this lillywhite quote on the wiki

"Phish, for me, are the musical equivalent of watching a flock of birds fly across the sky: They don't scatter every which way, but rather, they move with each other; they dip and dive, they go up and down; but at all times, they seem to have this radar, this instinct, for where the bird in front or in back of them is going. Musically, each member of Phish knows what the other is doing, which then carries over to the whole. The band can play anything, which then raises the question: Well, what should they play? With Billy Breathes, it's the closest they got to making what I would say is a good stoner album. You know what I mean: you put on the CD, you fire up a big one and you just go down that road. There hadn't been a good stoner record since Dark Side Of The Moon. Billy Breathes got close. I keep telling Trey Anastasio we can make a better one."

"taste" is lovely,one of their best. you owe it to yourself to listen to the 7/22/97 walnut creek version, which was released on a dvd at some point

one of my favorite things about trey anastasio is that he can play the drums

Even more reason for you to hear 8/10/97 then! Spoiler tags in case you want to be surprised...

The long, involved Rotation Jam to set up Rock A William started when Page went to the theremin for a solo. Soon after, Trey took up the keys and Mike went to play guitar. Page eventually picked up Mike’s bass. After they jammed a bit longer, Mike went to join Trey on the keys. Trey then joined Fish on the drums. The two of them played on the same drum set and Mike took a piano solo. Trey eventually kicked Fish off the drum stool, and Fish picked up Trey’s guitar.

i have downloaded a copy of that show jvc, thanks for the rec!!! it’ll be a good follow-up to the 11/2/96 “crosseyed and painless” which trey plays a small percussion kit on afaict

my pick for the phish song that is amazing every time it's played even though it never turns into a jam is "the lizards"

Lizards coda, while it doesn't jam, is a jam

11/2/96: was '96 an off-year for phish? starting the first set with "ya mar" and "julius" tells me they're not really in a hurry to go anywhere, so maybe! "stash," which had been flipped upside down and shaken over the past two years, is... just very normal-good here. the "free" jam is very cool though, better than the one a year ago in '95, feels like the song is drowning in its own reverberations

was '96 an off-year for phish? alternate answer: not if you're listening to any minute of the coral sky "crosseyed" > "antelope"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpdAqCjnEvg

"Phish, for me, are the musical equivalent of watching a flock of birds fly across the sky: They don't scatter every which way, but rather, they move with each other; they dip and dive, they go up and down; but at all times, they seem to have this radar, this instinct, for where the bird in front or in back of them is going. Musically, each member of Phish knows what the other is doing, which then carries over to the whole. The band can play anything, which then raises the question: Well, what should they play? With Billy Breathes, it's the closest they got to making what I would say is a good stoner album. You know what I mean: you put on the CD, you fire up a big one and you just go down that road. There hadn't been a good stoner record since Dark Side Of The Moon. Billy Breathes got close. I keep telling Trey Anastasio we can make a better one."
― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Tuesday, July 6, 2021 10:27 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

I kind of want to say the same thing to this guy that I always want to say to overenthusiastic deadheads - "You know there's a whole genre of music called jazz, right?"

'96 always felt like a weird transitional year to me. I feel like they were still adjusting to having a whole new level of popularity and interest, along with the bigger arenas and expectations. Part of this was planned and a natural part of their evolution as a group, but toss in the wild and weird expectations in the post Jerry Garcia void and, well, I think they struggled to find their footing. They hadn't yet latched onto the cowfunk sound that would inform the best moments of '97, especially that fall tour, plus they spent some time being an opening act again (for Santana in Europe). But yeah, I always find '96 to be less engaging than either year around it.

Fwiw, Rob Mitchum has a pretty nice substack going where he goes over shows from 25 years ago the day of, right in the middle of that Santana opening run right now - https://phishcrit.substack.com/.

you know that makes a lot of sense

a lot of phish dot net reviews of the 95 shows i listened to were chronicling the loss of garcia and the influx of dead fans in phish audiences

Yeah, I'm sure the crossover was starting before '96, but summer of '96 would have been the first summer without a Dead tour in ages, so I think that's when the influx really hit home. I remember so many magazine articles in '96 about how Phish was the "logical" replacement for the Dead, I have to imagine that fucked with their heads a little bit.

i should also say that "crosseyed" is the first appearance of the funk siren in this project so far