6/22/94 Live Phish Vol. 10
I know I've played this show at least once or twice (pretty sure
in the last year when I was dump trucking). I know this show gets whacky
and I'm stoked to hear it again "properly". I was feeling burnout
earlier, but my mood has lifted and I'm taking this sucker for a ride! 
6/22/94 Columbus, OH
Set 1
Llama - And away we go!!!!!!!! I'm buzzing right now on my
afternoon Adderall as well as a cup of coffee, so this Llama is like the
perfect thing to describe me at the moment! Wacky,
heavy, FAST and mental. As any great Llama is!! Nothing you haven't
heard before, but it's an A+ opener for the show so it gets the
highlight! 
Guelah Papyrus - Love this song to bits but sometimes feel my
enjoyment can be affected by setlist placement. Tonight, after the
BARNSTORMING Llama opener, it feels perfect in the second
slot. Like, A+ setlist flow from ya boys!!! At the risk of this being
another "highlight EVERYTHING" kind of show, I'm going to make the call
NOT to highlight this (even though it is terrific). As with Llama,
you've heard a million Guelah's that sound exactly like this one. That
does not take away from how good this one is, just that it isn't
anything "noteworthy". It's a great Guelah, just nothing "special". EDIT: I went back and highlighted it. It's worthy. Screw my "rules" 
Rift - Oh man, imagine if they put this in the set immediately after Llama! Has that ever happenned before?? A terrific trio of opening tunes!!!! As
with Guelah, it's nothing "special", except HOLY FREAKING CRAP THE
ENERGY!!! THE PRECISION!!! THE PIANO SHREDDING!!! PLAY IT LEO!!!! A+
RIFT!!! Holy hell....
Gumbo - A+ set placement continues!!!! I always think of Guelah and
Gumbo together - same kinda musical "vibe", both are slower, more
"groovy" songs. A treat to get them both in the same set for sure! This
one has a little more uptempo "oomph" to it than other ones I've heard.
Love Page shredding it up on the organ.
Maze - Are they trying to make me rage myself into a heart attack
or something!? Holy crap, not a break in sight!!! 1994 Maze is 1994
Maze. It absolutely destroys (but you didn't need me to tell you that,
did you?). Pure face-melting, guitar annihilating destruction of the
highest order. How do they keep peaking when there is nowhere left to go?!?!?! Incredible!!!! A+ WORLD DESTRUCTION!!!!!
If I Could - And the hits just keep on coming!!! No pause yet! Great
set placement after 31 minutes of solid face-melting destruction. It
hits all that much better when you NEED the break Also, why the hell is this song a rarity?! Not
that it was in 1.0 (kinda became later) but these days it's only played
a few times a year if that... Great version, always wonderful to hear
the vocal harmonies and the guys all singing together.
Scent of a Mule - Do I really need to say anything? See above, etc etc
Stash - Am I crazy or is there a brief audience patch at the start? Great
set placment strikes again! After the bluegrass insanity and weirdness
of mule, the spanish-style sound of Stash fits right in as far as
keeping us musically "out of the norm". Killer as expected. The
final two minutes see the song almost launching into a Type II rhythmic
jam, but the nip it in the bud and instead opt to end the song.
Golgi Apparatus - Ok, if anything is going to not get highlighted, we'll
let it be Golgi. Great set closer and as good a version as any other
"nothing special" track played in the set!
All in all.....HOLY MOTHER OF FACEMELTING INSANITY!!!!! I really
thought I wasn't going to be in the mood to properly enjoy this today,
but I had "just enough" enthusiasm to want to give it a go. AND IT
SUCKED ME IN LIKE VORTEX AND SPEWED ME BACK OUT LIKE I WAS CHOPPED UP BY
A BLENDER!!! I know '94 is excessively "hot", but jesus freaking christ
man.......Just pure FIRE all the way around. Put this on at the gym and
I'm sure your gains will increase 10 fold
2001 - A great opener, but a tad sludgy and sloppy for my taste. A+ for effort. Definitely not The Great Went 2001, but a nice prelude to a set of insanity.
Mike's Song - Proceeds to kill for 6:20 as expected until segueing expectedly into....
>Simple - Trey starts the riff but doesn't commit to it, instead making this more of a "Simple Interlude" or something, if that makes sense. Page takes a very nice solo spot, and then they bring things down very quietly, allowing Trey to tease Midnight Rider while Page jumps on the piano. AWESOME!!!!
>Catapult - At some point, Trey just keeps going with the Midnight Rider lick and then starts singing Catapult!!!! WHAT IS GOING ON!!! THIS IS SO UNEXPECTED AND RANDOM AND FUN!!!!
And
that dang MR riff just keeps on going and going and going.......And
then at a minute, Trey puts the vocals aside and just RIPS into some
killer guitar work, letting the guys amp up the whole thing around him. And then he goes back to singing Catapult with the MR lick underneath!!! WOW! THIS IS FREAKING AWESOME!!!!>Simple - Eventually the guys return perfectly to Simple and continue on with the verses!!!! WOW!!! Love the guys having a blast and hearing them almost laughing, because they know "this is crazy, lol". FUN IS ATTRACTIVE. They keep rocking Simple, going into the Skyscraper verse, and they bring the dang song down to a whisper!!! Fish keeping the beat, but no guitar, but the guys singing the lyrics. The crowd begins clapping along and this sounds like a YEM VOCAL JAM TO THE TUNE OF SIMPLE!!!! DUDE!!!
>Icculus - "YOU MIGHT BE STANDING ON TOP A SKYSCRAPER!!!" WHAT IN THE EVER LOVING HELL!?!?!?!? OUT OF NOWHERE THEY TRANSITION SEAMLESSLY INTO ICCULUS!! WHAT IS GOING ON?!?!?! "YOU DAMN WELL BETTER HAVE READ THE EFFING BOOK!" It's Icculus, everyone is going nuts, screaming their faces off, the crowd losing their mind, etc. Yea, it's crazy.
>Simple - So Icculus finishes to a dead stop and Trey reintroduces the Simple riff, Fishman slowly re-entering like a perfect fade-in on a studio cut or something!! The guys keep playing the Simple chorus, but keeping things "calm" before exploding into a "play everything as hard as you can" version of the song for the jam!!!! I don't think Page can smash those keys any harder or Trey play that lick and rougher. Headbanger's Simple, holy crap.
>Mike's Song - AND THEN THEY SOMEHOW RETURN PERFECTLY BACK TO MIKE'S SONG! WHAT IN THE EVER LOVING HELL!!! IM LOSING MY FRIGGIN MIND!!! THIS IS INCREDIBLE!!!! HOW DID THEY PLAY SO IN SYNC LIKE THIS?!?!?!??!?!?!?
>I Am Hydrogen - And the Mike's Song reaches it's natural explosive conclusion as usual, only to then lead into Hydrogen. Always wonderful when that happens.
Hydro is Hydro, great as always.>Weekapaug Groove - Considering the craziness we just got through, it's odd that this is one of the shortest Paug's I've heard. Barely 3.5 minutes. But I mean, what, do you want them to do a Worcester '98 version and just kill us dead instead? It slowly turns quiet and they play a nicely delicate jam for about a minute before another where the F did that come from transition into:
>The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday suite - Ok, I've heard some great segues in my day, but that's easily at the top of the pile. The song TMWSIY itself is perfect coming out of that chill Paug ending, and then the transition into Aveenu Malcanu is like launching back into the party again! And then back into TMWSIY to finish it off, but they take a solid minute to do a very Dave's Energy Guide-inspired jam out of the back!!! What?! Literally a Type II TMWSIY. I'm imagining this, surely. What in the F!!!
>Fluffhead - The weirdness of that outro jam subsides and Trey just launches quickly into the Fluff intro and the crowd goes NUTS!! When Fishman comes in with his opening drum fill, there is just a different intent behind it. Its AWESOME. You know this is going to be one of THOSE versions! And holy mother of crap, just every single musical passage is loaded with EXTRA X FACTOR MAGIC, loads of "playing around" with the material, but still perfect on the execution, etc etc. Just NEXT LEVEL playing on the whole. Very hard to describe. As close to PERFECTION as possible. Like, if there was a rating beyond A+, this would be it. Is this contender for Best Fluffhead Ever Played? I'm not exaggerating, this REALLY is THAT exceptional. What in the hell. The vibe of the show, combined with the excitement, combined with the musical chops and adventure-seeking mood of the band...it's literally the perfect brew of insanity.
As with the Antelope suite on 8/14/93, that Fluffhead felt like the perfect conclusion point for the set. "BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!!"
My Sweet One - After shouts of "SHUT UP!" (thank you, based crowd member), the boys get on with an acapella/unplugged rendition of My Sweet One. Thankfully the crowd remains quiet and it's funny to hear the performance off in the distance, considering this is a SBD recording, not an AUD.
Big Ball Jam - Performed 103 times, this is the 6th to last version.
Jesus Just Left Chicago - Never my favorite/preferred choice of cover. Really great version. The guys dig hard into dynamics with this one, bringing the jam down to an almost inaudible whisper for a good while!!!!! Seriously, they get just about as quiet as that unplugged My Sweet One!!! And then they slowly, tastefully, bring the volume back up. Incredibly slowly, milking each note for all it's worth. It makes it all "pay off" that much more!!! And of course they rip it to shreds from there on out. Good stuff!
Sample In a Jar - See Golgi
Ooh, Trey's guitar is out of tune at the stary. Yuck!Carolina - Good stuff. Not really anything to say!
Cavern - Good version but nothing special. Again, see Golgi.
After the whole Mike's Groove/Fluffhead shebang, the rest of the set and show really just felt like time killer. Good fun, but the only other thing approaching must-hear is the sick JJLC. Sure the rest was a blast in person though. Not a knock on the stuff played, it's just that what came before was so mind-blowing that nothing could follow successfully!!!
All in all, an absolutely ASTONISHING show and set! Legendary for a reason, this could've been a contender for first archival show, imo!!! It really is one of those magical, NEXT-LEVEL gigs that we speak of in hushed tones.
MUST HEAR MUST HEAR MUST HEAR MUST HEAR MUST HEAR!!!!
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