Phish C/D

i enjoy junta a lot more now that i'm familiar with all of these songs as set warhorses. still kind of hate "fee," still find "esther" awe-inspiring

Brad, please keep sharing yr thoughts, really loving this. I never came around on "Fee" either, still not really a fan of that. Glad you checking out Colorado '88, killer comp of where they were that year.

colorado '88 is really good for the most part!!! an edit of it without the jazz odyssey or fishman's trombone playing would be one of the most accessible phish records imo

but of course it would be less quintessentially phish

otm on both counts, although I love the story about Fishman getting lost on a mountain while tripping and leaving the band hanging (which is why they were playing that jazz odyssey in the first place):

Perhaps Fishman’s most infamous Colorado memory isn’t what he played, but why he didn’t play. “It was the only time a member of Phish failed to make a gig,” the drummer says. “I went to Ajax Mountain with my friends and we tried to come down an alternate route and ended up running into about one thousand feet of sheer cliff. The only way to get out was to go back up the mountain and down the way we came. By the time I got to the gig I had already missed two sets.”

In Fishman’s absence Anastasio sat behind the kit and the group offered a “jazz odyssey” based around Herbie Hancock’s “Maiden Voyage.” While the results were at times less than stellar, the group overcame its follies through humor. “I came waltzing in with a handful of flowers and a head full of acid and Trey told this story about me while I played high as a kite,” Fishman laughs, before pausing to look at the unopened copy of Colorado ’88 resting on his shelf. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard a recording where I was on acid before.”

well ok the gamehenge stuff would be an obstacle for normal ppl but i have figured out on this go-around that i really like the gamehenge songs :(

xp

i read that story last night and it genuinely terrified me lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sN5CqvC5TCY

Mike turned to me and said, “Check everyone’s minds they’ve turned to egg yolks” which, meant so much to me.

lol

amazing first set on 8/26/89, pretty much every early phish song i love right in a row

"harry hood" increasingly seems like it's my favorite phish jam

"Hood" is so much fun live, I hope you get one at your show. Killer way to end a set.

I humbly submit 8/10/97 (my second ever Phish show) as a show to check out when you get to that year:

SET 1: Bathtub Gin -> Sparkle > Down with Disease > Dirt, Cars Trucks Buses, Billy Breathes, Split Open and Melt, Bye Bye Foot > Ginseng Sullivan, Harry Hood

SET 2: Cities -> Good Times Bad Times -> Rotation Jam -> Rock A William -> David Bowie

ENCORE: Cavern

The rotation jam in the second set doesn't quite hold up on tape as fun as it was in person, but the "SOAM", "Hood" and "Cities" are all among my favorite ever versions of those tunes.

thank you mr. miner

bag it
tag it
sell it to the butcher in the store

lawn boy is a little more uncanny than junta because here we have 4-5 phish classics presented in somewhat-to-radically different studio forms, but that's kind of to their benefit, at least in this particular space?

10/31/90 was a weird show, clearly has a deranged-yet-playful aspect to it because it's halloween, but both sets have their peaks (early "stash," great YEM jam and vocal jam, "the asse festival," "reba" -> "runaway jim" into "foam" into early "tweezer") and valleys (mostly just "love you")

7/12/91: i didn't know this was a phish w/ horns show until i started it! this freaking rules!!!!!

once you hear certain tunes with horns, you can't not insert them in your head for all subsequent listens to those songs (Suzy Greenberg, Cavern, Gumbo...)

i would go nuts if they did another horn tour sometime but trey largely channeled that side of his musical interest into his solo band. 91 was the only time they ever did a whole tour of it, and they haven't even really had sporadic horn appearances in like 20 years

I saw them on that 91 tour with the Giant Country Horns, never having heard a note of their music, at the Bayou in DC. Completely blew me away but I lost the thread shortly thereafter.

this is def one of the best phish shows i've ever heard even though it features pretty much none of the searching improvisational fugues that i fell in love with. the horns just sound SO good and give the show so much energy and as a bonus make phish sound way tighter than normal

Brad you are becoming a true blue phan

a picture of nectar is a solid hour of everything that’s really bad about phish

“stash” is still good. “stash” is always good

11/19/92: fantastic show for the most part, really ideal versions of "foam," "split open and melt," "divided sky" in the first set, the debut of a bunch of rift tracks, the highlight of which is a "fast enough for you" with additional pedal steel (said pedal steel also turns "llama" into a really hot basement with mold growing in the corners, best rendition of the song i've heard yet). "tweezer" is a nightmare, in a good way. unfortunately "lengthwise" is the closest i've come to thinking "fuck this band" during one of their shows

really glad they did away with having an obligatory fishman singing showcase in the second set, always a momentum slaughterer

rift is awesome!!!!!!

"horn" is one of the best phish songs ever imo

I love Horn.

8/26/93: wow! wow!!!! best show yet. first time they sound like a Real band, by which i think i mean there's just a confidence and professionalism where previously there wasn't exactly a lack but it wasn't the priority. they are just firing on all cylinders for the whole fuckin' show. first set is an embarrassment of riches, the "reba" totally perfect, the "split open and melt" flickering like a damaged signal. they even jam briefly on "fee" which makes me like the song a lot more lol. what sets '93 improv apart, afaict, is the density, more than ever page and trey feel like they're creating these masses of notes that jut out at odd angles like a mountain of cars in a junkyard

link for the interested: https://www.livephish.com/browse/music/0,1200/Phish-mp3-flac-download-8-26-1993-Arlene-Schnitzer-Concert-Hall-Portland-OR

it is a real treat hearing these first reactions from someone with a honed but open-minded musical ear. i couldn't agree more that picture of nectar blows and rift is awesome (somewhat controversial opinion among phish fans who, afaict, are going just based on how many "classic" phish songs each album contains), and love your descriptions of how the improv changes and improves from 92 to 93 (conventional wisdom in the fan community but you articulated the qualitative difference so nicely)

August 93 was kind of the first era of the band to develop legendary status, soon to be followed by June 94, November 94, December 95. 96 widely considered an off-year (though making a statement like that is sure to elicit valid defenses of numerous shows therein), and then once you get to 97 the really experimental improv becomes such a mainstay that it's hard to single out specific stretches. However, by that time a lot of the tightness starts to wane so you have to really be in it for the jamming

Horn is an absolute beauty. Part of the reason Rift stands head and shoulders above the other albums of its era, imo, is it captured this little window where Trey was writing reasonably normal lyrics about relatable human experiences, but before the quirkiness seeped out and those lyrics just became corny and trite. Horn is a great example of that sweet spot. It's also just such a lovely composed guitar solo.

I took guitar lessons from this grizzled blues dude in 8th and 9th grade, and he would just ask me to bring in tapes of the songs I wanted to learn. It was lots of Phish and Zeppelin, as I recall. I remember always having the distinct feeling that he was happy to teach me whatever I wanted, but didn't have the highest opinion of the non-classic stuff I'd bring him. When he was teaching me Divided Sky, though, I remember him complimenting the writing on a particular section - the one right after the proggy atonal part, but before the slow ethereal part - in addition to giving me a sense of pride in Trey/Phish for impressing him, it spurred me to attend to and appreciate how their composed sections and melodies are structured in a new way.

ugh a picture of nectar was so bad. sequenced nonsensically, and a really good case study of using the studio to ruin and drain the energy from your own songs

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.