1997-06-21 Scheessel, GER - Hurricane Festival

 Onwards with Euro 97.

6/21/97 Schesseel, GER - Hurricane Festival

Only Phish would play a festival set and include SEVEN unreleased/non-album songs in their set!

Opening Sample in a Jar is standard. The following 2001 is fantastic though. Obviously the 1997 funk feel escalates this one. Great stuff. I guess in the grand scheme it's just a "standard" 2001, but it really is loaded with energy. Good version!

Up next, a hot Poor Heart shreds it up before another ripping, 11 minute version of Taste wipes the floor with our faces. It's a very dynamic version, up and down, tension and release. First Page rips it up then Trey cleans up his mess. Killer Taste!!!

After a standard Dogs, it's onto Theme. As with Taste, Theme is excellent. Trey just taking his time, slowly building his solo up and up and up. Not any kind of all-timer, but a strong "standard" version for sure.

Following the sleepy Swept Away>Steep, the guys choose Limb By Limb to slowly build us back up once more. Very much like Taste, building up the fire from the cool base. Great stuff, however, after already having Taste and Theme kinda filling the same roles, no matter how great this Limb is (it's great, by the way), it's all starting to feel rather samey at this point.

And Dirt cooling us back off doesn't help. But hey, Dirt is Dirt and I'll always take it. Following dirt, this oddball set continues on into a 13 minute Harry Hood. Hood is sleepy to start but gets going strong during the "heavy metal riff" section with tons of bass FX from Gordo, lol. Quickly it quiets back down and the whole "build up" section of the song is positively quiet. Overall a solid Hood, but nothing to get overly excited about.

FINALLY, 12 songs into the show, we get something to get our blood pumping - Chalkdust Torture. Chalkdust definitely gets it going with some serious guitar strangulation and mutilation, ala a good Maze. Probably THE highlight of the set to this point and would be a highlight in any regular show. This Dust is demented!!!

Super strangely, we then get the live debut of.....the Samson Variations! WHAT THE HELL?!?! WHY??!!! WHY AT THIS SHOW?!?!?!?! Ok. Weird as hell, glad it only stuck around for one more performance....

Even stranger, they follow it with another new song, and an 18 minute version of it at that!!!!! Taste begins it's jam by getting down hard into the funk, laying it on uber-thick. Somewhere around the 7 minute point the jam suddenly morphs into a quiet and downright bluesy piece of music! The drums completely stop and the focus is on Mike and Trey. Slowly Fishman emerges once more and you don't know if it's gonna go all jazzy or funky or whatever!!!! Slowly it builds back up into a kind of twisted type of blues playing, Trey just wrangling the hell out of his guitar. Eventually everyone is back in, raging harder than the sun, but at half the tempo of a funky Llama, doing their hardest "cowfunk blues" or something like that. Actually, this is very Zeppelin - have you heard the jazzy jamming in the middle of a good No Quarter? Something like that!!! Then it suddenly dies down to a whisper once more. By the 14 minute point the jam has devolved and deconstructed itself into dark ambience. What the hell is going on?!?!! Welcome to Type II X Factor Magic!!!! Then, around 16:30, just when you think the song has concluded, the LAUNCH back into the bluesy, Zeppelin jam once more!!!! Dude! This is incredible!!!!! And from THERE, they bring it to a close....

Standard Cavern closes the set with a disappointing encore choice of My Soul to tie it all together.


All in all, this was an ok show. Nothing wrong with it at all aside from the constant need to keep it "sleepy", if you will. Kinda strange set for a festival, but if this were a standard show, that'd be different. In no way a poor gig, but nothing to get excited over either. Few highlights, but not many - the demented Chalkdust, the debut of Samson and the must-hear Twist are about all you need.

Eh, it was ok!

P.S. - That Twist was in the top 3 or so jams played so far in 1997, imo. Pure X Factor ridiculousness. 1000 percent must hear on that sucker.