The O.G. Live Phish Series In Review - Vol. 7: 8/14/93 Tinley Park, IL

 Moving on finally with the Live Phish series once more after another hectic week.

8/14/93 Tinley Park - One of my all-time favorite shows since I was an early fan!!!

Can't wait to give it a PROPER listen and review!


8/14/93 Tinley Park, IL - Live Phish, Vol. 7
To preface - it's 1993. EVERYTHING is going to be 10 million degrees hot. We know it will all be "base-line" excellent. I'm going to try my best to only highlight the real, MAJOR highlights!! This will be very hard

Set 1

Chalkdust Torture - As with EVERY version of 1.0, it is of course a massive highlight. Pretty much the best opener this side of Fluffhead or Punch. Nothing you haven't heard before but it destroys as expected so I must highlight it.

Guelah Papyrus - Always welcome!!! Nothing special at all, but very nicely played. See preface.

Divided Sky - Oh golly, remember the days when they could flawlessly tear this sucker to shreds like this?! Oh golly I haven't heard a version this "nimble" in quite some time (haven't heard much early 1.0 in a long time). Just delicate and powerful, precise yet flowing. Wow. Like, good golly, we aren't even to the guitar shredding yet and this is one of the best Divided Sky's I've ever heard. Dang. And ya know what? At the end of it's 15 minute run-time, it doesn't even feel like it was half that long! Just a phenomally PERFECT reading of the song. A definite go-to version, I would say!!! WOW!!!

The Horse/Silent In the Morning - You guys know I'm not fond of this pair. See Guelah.

It's Ice - A top 5 or 6 FAVORITE Phish song for me!!! I played this song to death for months when I first became a fan!!! This show was one I looked into (along with the other first shows I heard) because it featured many songs I particularly liked and wanted to hear more of!! Very nicely "dark" middle section as usual. This one is pretty "heavy" in a way, like a slow-build doom metal song at points!! But they taper it off and Fishman jumps to the woodblock while Page teases "Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy" (I'm too lazy to check .NET but I SWEAR that's what I heard!!!). Then Fishman returns to the It's Ice drums pattern while Page returns to the keys for some hot soloing while Trey does his dissonant chords in the back. Sometimes the "jam" in "It's Ice" can sound rather disjointed. Tonight it held together very well and they came back into the ascending "motif" perfectly!!! Ending soon after, this was a terrific Ice!!!! Another "go-to" version for me!

Sparkle - Stupid and fun as usual, I think the set placement works great to brighten the mood after the darkness Ice had us dancing with. AND ITS GREAT! I'm sitting here in the middle of Starbucks HEADBANGING TO SPARKLE LIKE AN IDIOT!!!

>Split Open and Melt - YES THAT WAS A SEGUE! AND IT WAS GLORIOUS! Jesus, Fishman is just killing it on his kit tonight. I could listen to him play the Melt patterns all day, I swear.....This one is only 12+ minutes in length (only, he says). It's a little bit "unique" in that it doesn't go into FULL "teeth grinding" abstractness completely. It actually gets kinda quietly....melodic??? I guess?? They bring the jam to a nice quiet zone like the middle of It's Ice, without losing the rhythm or drum beat. And then they slowly work it back up. What I mean to say is, this isn't EVIL like most Melts are. It's actually a pretty cool little change of pace!!! A terrific version all around. Not the most "omg that was incredible" Melt ever played, but a DAMN GOOD ONE!!!

>Esther - I used to not be a fan of Esther (@Crispy Rob gave me hell about it ) but I've really come around in the last year or so and I do look forward to each "new" version I get to hear. It's such a dense track and I'm NOT a lyrics guy, hence my initial lack of enthusiasm for the song a few years ago. I'm the guy that loves Bob Dylan but doesn't pay attention to half of the lyrics, ok? Is there any relation at all between this song and Divided Sky or The Lizards? I swear Esther hits that point where they could segue PERFECTLY into Lizards and noone would bat an eye (you know what I'm talking about). Now I want an Esther/Lizards mashup!!! 6 minutes into Esther and I have no idea what is happenning in the story, but I love the music....

Poor Heart - Let the headbanging resume! What the hell, an almost jammed out Poor Heart?!?!? Insanely kickass like the finest Chalkdust Torture, this Poor Heart will tear you a new one. PLAY IT LEOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

Cavern - Right out of Poor Heart (not calling that a segue though...) and with a hint of vacuum suctioning at the beginning!!! Oddball little Cavern, some nice "jammy" fill bits where the band takes things "sideways" perfectly!! Killer little version, it's over almost before it begins!


All in all, I really tried hard to not go nuts highlighting everything, but jeez louise that was just a terrific set!!!! Great song selection and placement, interesting and slightly "unusual" readings of a couple songs, just 10/10 pretty much. I mean, when something is close to perfection, how do you even go about describing it?

 

Set 2

2001 - Ooooohhhh, this is cool! I forgot they introduced the tune around this time and I'm so used to the late-90s funk-fest readings, so to hear one that sounds rather "different" is a great!! Much slower tempo than I am used to and SO MOTHER FRIGGIN FUNKY!!!! Seriously, Mike lovers, step to the front for this one!!! JEEZ!!!! THICKER THAN BOWL OF OATMEAL! Great Page vamping as usual as well.



>Run Like An Antelope - Oh hell yes, HERE WE GO! The first 6 or so minutes of this dissolve into that weirdo August 1993 Type II of the "we don't know what we are doing but we are doing it anyways" variety . They totally "lose the plot" in the best way, all that's missing is some Simpsons signals! Eventually around 7 minutes they slowly re-introduce actual musical patterns and return from from the noodle-like abyss! Slowly rebuilding the song from the ground up. What the hell is going on?! This is so weird and cool and crazy!! But at 8 minutes they dive back into "desconstruction" land with some repeating motifs and Trey doing whacky vocal screaming, haha. And then at 9 minutes they start building back into Antelope AGAIN!! At this point it sounds like they have totally abandoned Antelope and are going to go into some random 70s classic rock cover. By 10 minutes they have firmly latched onto the hottest friggin' rock and roll peaking that you have ever heard. Seriously, WTF!!! THIS IS THE MOST ROCKING THING I HAVE EVER HEARD?!?!? THIS IS LIKE DOWN WITH DISEASE ON STEROIDS OR SOMETHING?!?! WHERE THE HELL DID THIS COME FROM?! HOW DID WE GET HERE?! WHAT IS GOING ON?! WHO AM I?! WHAT IS THIS?! *faints* By 11 minutes FINALLY return to the ACTUAL Antelope jam section. Everybody is EXPLODING like they have all taken Adderall and Cocaine backstage during set break. Dude......



>Sparks - And holy hell, somehow the "Classic Rock Explosion" winds "down" into the most unexpected Sparks ever......The "drop" (you know, where the descending guitar lines and explosive Keith Moon drums happen) is INSANE! What do you say when you are literally left speechless by a piece of music like this?!?!?!??!??!?!?! Dude.......

>Walk Away - AND THEN JUST WHEN YOU THINK IT CANT GET ANY CRAZIER THEY GO PERFECTLY INTO WALK AWAY OUT OF FRIGGIN NOWHERE!!! HOLY MOTHER FRIGGIN CRAP ON A CRACKER!!!! And of course it friggin' kills..... Holy crap.....Someone start a warewolf95 drinking game - everytime I vocalize hyperbole, take 5 drinks


>Tinley Park Jam - So yea, Walk Away gets an actual jam tonight!!! Right away the guys waste no time doing that noodley Type II August 1993 stuff (again, you know exactly what I'm talking about!). Everyone hitting syncopated beats together for emphasis and whatnot. Eventually they bring back the beat and start some wacky doom-metal stuff again. But then after a few minutes of heavy vamping they return to a facemelting Antelope reprise!!!

>Antelope Reprise - At first, I thought they had actually done a Chalkdust reprise instead!!! Hell, they could've gone perfectly into the back half of Chalkdust Torture right here and everyone would've lost their minds! So we get 2 minutes of the Antelope jam that was jettisoned for weirdo Classic Rock Type II in the first portion. How about that?! And with that, one of the most ridiculous and mind-blowing sequences of music ever played by the band reaches a conclusion.


I don't know what to say. I have heard this many times and STILL was completely blown away with my jaw on the floor as if I had never heard it before. I went in knowing what to expect and still left with more questions than answers!

>Have Mercy - Oh thank goodness, I'm already overdosing on coffee and Adderall this afternoon, so this is the perfect spot for this. I can't take anymore fire!!!
* begins slow deep-breathing exercises to calm down *

>Antelope Reprise 2 - See the first one, lol

Basically, a 31 minute Run Like An Antelope mini-opera or something!!!!

Mound - That damn intro drum beat, I can never figure it out..... Good choice to change things up after the hellfire craziness we just endured!!!! Great as always, wonderful to have Mike so high in the mix (a constant with this Live Phish series!) so we can hear his soloing and fills!!! All in all, Mound is Mound, but it was still friggin' sweet! Mike is totally the MVP for this.

The Squirming Coil - I'm kind of burnt out on this song these days. I really love it but the excess "melodicism" of the song makes it feel a bit "soft" at times for my taste lately. That's a total BS thought by me, I know this. And good lord if this isn't the best one I've heard in forever!! Easily the Coil equivalent of that Divided Sky from set 1! Just utter blissful and beautiful perfection! Genesis would be proud!!!!

And with that, it feels like a natural conclusion point, as with most sets/shows.....




>Daniel Saw The Stone - OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH DANIEL SAW THE STONE!!!! Fun little vocal jam. Then Page the Rage comes and slays it on the keys! "5 minutes left in the 3rd quarter, Cardinals 3, Bears 10!"

>You Enjoy Myself - Aww yes, perfect!!!! Proceeds stupendously perfectly until around 9:30 when the rhythmic "August 1993 Type II Syncopated Pounding" jamming returns before they LAUNCH back into the funk like they meant to do that!! Flying by the seat of your pants perfected! But the funkiness has that "Classic Rock" vibe imbued into it and Trey leads the band full-tilt into a SMOKE ON THE WATER jam!!! This kinda goes back into YEM and then around 14 minutes we go into another weirdo, unusual Type II jam!!! This time it's very rock-based and ends up with some Pretenders teasing from Trey and all kinds of weirdness. YEM is far behind us at this point! But then at 15:40 the music dies and we enter the vocal jam.....

>Purple Rain - Purple Rain. Hearing one version is already one too many (not even because I'm a Prince fanboy!). Sorry guys. I'm not one to skip tracks, but good lord this is a "SKIP!" for me.....

>Golgi Apparatus - A terrific type I reading reminiscent of your favorite, say Suzy Greenberg in the same slot! Nothing you haven't heard before, but exceptionally well executed. See Chalkdust.

La Grange - Not my favorite cover or ZZ Top tune (and I do love ZZ Top!) but I'll always take it for the variety factor. Great stuff and wonderful way to end the show with a party-like bang!


All in all.....just read the review (or don't - the gifs I posted sum it up perfectly!). An outrageous show, and MUST HEAR for anyone daring to call themselves a fan in any way shape or form. This should be on the short-list of the first few shows for any new fan to hear!