1997-07-01 Amsterdam, HOL

 Onwards with 1997!

Super excited for these 2 Amsterdam gigs. They are some of the last major "classic" shows I have yet to hear.

7/1/97 Amsterdam, HOL

Set 1

Ghost - Well hot damn! An epic 22 minute version to open the show! Slow and sludgy on the playing of the song itself. Of course it is also ridiculously funky in a way that current Phish just couldn't make it. Everyone laying back and laying it down thick. Somewhere around 5:45 mark, roughly, Trey begins to "vamp" on the wah and the jam starts to take off. Around the 7 minute mark the jam gets a little heavy and we begin to move into a rockier direction, but still with the heavy funk underlay. Trey then proceeds to just tear it up on the wah while the rest of the band groove hard beneath him.
----Around 9 minutes, Trey and Fish start howling "WE'RE ON THE BACK OF THE WORM!" and the jam starts to get psychedelic!! This is INTENSE!!! This is swirling, ridiculous heat! They rip this hard until around 10:50 when everyone lays back again and Page takes center stage on the piano, delivering wonderfully jazzy leads atop the crazy funk.
---Suddenly around the 12 minute mark Trey starts to repeat a little melodic motif. Slowly the rest of the band catch on and begin jamming on this chill little figure. By the 13:30 mark they are still jamming along in this more melodic vein, hinting at a more blissful side of things, but the energy is slowly increasing once more. This goes all the way about the 16:30 mark.
---The building bliss slowly subsides and a more "tense" kind of feel starts to appear. Trey is still noodling repeating motifs and Page is still on the piano. This goes until about the 18 minute mark when Trey jumps back on the wah, doing lots of scratching and inserting himself more into the jam. The heat and funkiness are making their glorious return! By the 19 minute mark we are almost into a kind of latin-funk type of jam!!! Very powerful and angsty!
---Somewhere around the 20 minute mark the fire subsides and they band go into a terrific "stop/start" jam, bringing things back on down in such a smooth way. These section transitions are SMOOTH!

And with that, the Uber-Ghost comes to a perfect conclusion. Holy mother WHAT A FRIGGIN JAM!!!!!! This song keeps getting stronger and stronger with each rendition! My god what a start to the show! ESSENTIAL LISTENING!


Horn - is Horn. I guess after a 22 minute Ghost ya gotta take a break! Strong little version but Horn is Horn.

Ya Mar - A terrific version just loaded with extra mustard all over. Pretty long as well, reaching the 10 minute mark. Wonderful jamming with a heavy emphasis on the drums and the rhythms. A+ Ya Mar!

Limb By Limb - Holy crap, a 13 minute Limb By Limb! Trey's background noodling during the "taken far away" part is so choice! This thing rages hard. It's just an exceptional Limb in every way. Somewhere though, around the 8 minute mark, Trey begins a little motif and the jam starts to slowly stray sideways in the slightest of ways. They proceed to remain inside the Limb structure, but are pushing and pulling it in every little way, making the absolute most of what they are working with. They play around heavily with dynamics, bringing the song down to a literal whisper while Fishman proceeds to accentuate his drums. This is fantastic!!!! Talk about a unique version!!!! Then, around 10:30, the song at a whisper, they kinda dissolve into a murky soundscape. Trey is doing rhythmic time keeping while Page carefully picks his spots to insert a piano note or two. Fishman gently tapping his rims. The bottom completely fell out! Around 12 minutes Trey comes in with some terrifying feedback-type notes and we are officially IN THE BLACK HOLE!!!! WHERE DID THE SONG GO?!?!?!?!?

YO THAT LIMB IS ESSENTIAL!!! TOTAL DECONSTRUCTION!!! HOW DID THEY DO THAT?!?!?!?!?

>Ain't Love Funny - And into the 2nd version of ALF we go! Starting extremely dark and scary!!! What the corn is going on! What a dumb little cover but it's fun and sounds great!!!!

Saw It Again - And the strangeness continues with a move into SIA. Bass FX right off the rip on this one. This is basically just an excuse for the guys to lose their marbles and go ape$hit for 7 minutes. Absolutely glorious meltdown of a track.

Dirt - Yet another standout from this show, this is a wonderful rendition. Ever so slightly more mid-tempo instead of "slow", you can really feel the emotion this song conveys. Sick. Trey's soloing is excellent.

Reba - 17 minute Reba!!! The composed section is played at lightspeed as usual. Unfortunately, Trey has a very, VERY rough time during the technical portion, at one point missing darn near 30 seconds or so of playing! Trey tries to recover but kinda threw himself off and he slips in and out for the rest of the section - this is one of the worst composed Reba section performances this side of Coventry. Yucky! And then he comes and slays the next portion like he didn't just F up for 3 minutes straight. 90's Trey was crazy, eh? The guitar solo/jam is wonderful. Almost immediately it drops down into a very ethereal area. I mean, it's Reba, but it's EXTRA chill! The solo is one of the nicest I have ever heard - just phenomenal in the way the whole band participates, building and then collapsing....Love Page's subtle use of synthesizers! From here it builds to the expected Reba solo peakage. This solo section is one of the best, most perfect, most awe-inspiring versions I have heard. My goodness what a PERFECT Reba solo!!!!!!!!!!!!! MUST HEAR!!!!

Dogs Stole Things - closes the set. Dogs is dogs....



All in all, what the hell do ya want me to say?! A ridiculously good set - the opening Ghost, the Limb By Limb>Ain't Love Funny and the Reba are the "must hear" material, but almost everything is strong as can be and worth a highlight. This did not exceed my expectations - it delivered exactly as I had hoped it would! WOW! 

Set 2 - TAKE TWO....excuse the brevity. I just typed a masterpiece of idiocy and then accidentally deleted it so I gotta rejigger this from memory.....

Fish keyboard jam>Timber - The set opens with a super strange and dark little jam that sees Fish playing the keys while the rest of the band slowly join in one by one creating a strange, wacky kind of soundscape for several minutes. Suddenly Trey begins the Timber lick and they proceed to turn in a barnburner, A+ reading of said song. Great stuff.

Bathtub Gin - Superb slide right into a 14 minute Gin! An absolutely stellar version, this one is all about the FEEL! It's like they are exploring every inch of the box they are playing the song in without ever moving outside. It perfectly sounds like a drunk stumbling his way out of the bar at the end of the night. The jam is very cool - they go "ROCK BAND" on it and turn it into a slightly strange, kinda heavy feel. Very unique!!!! The outro sees the jam slowly getting slower and slower and slower until they are creeping along like a snail and move into Cities. This Gin is phenomenal. It's just PERFECT in every way. Exceptional.

>Cities - 24 minute Cities>Outer Space Odyssey! This is likely the single most unhinged, extreme, strange, wacky and downright ridiculous jam I have ever heard. This is not an exception. This is the stuff legends are made of. Cities, coming out of the Gin outro, is played at, like, 1/3 tempo. Extremely SMOOTH, the jamming eventually dies down to totaly silence. Eventually, one by one, everyone creeps back in and they go into this super dark and strange zone. Twenty Years Later could only dream of producing a jam this dark. It is DARK DARK DARK DARK DARK DARK DARK. Everyone is doing strange noodling, yet it holds together somehow. After almost 10 minutes in the outer space black hole they move back into a slightly more upbeat-yet-still-strange area. This turns smoothly back into rocking out before morphing into a SICK funk jam to close out.

^^^^^I am making the bold claim that the above piece of music is now the greatest jam my ears have heard. Ridiculous does not begin to describe it. It's STRANGE and WEIRD yet somehow never falls apart (despite completely deconstructing itself!!!!).

Loving Cup - Picks us up from the ashes of that scorched earth jam and lets us rock out carefree. Wonderful type 1 version that just annihilates.

Slave to the Traffic Light - See Loving Cup. Absolutely magical. I rag on 3.0/4.0 Slaves all day, but when you hear one like this... I understand what the fuss is all about.

When the Circus Comes to Town - As the encore?! What the hell?! Maybe better in person, and it's a fine version, but it's just awkward as hell to me as the encore. Huh.



All in all....IF ONLY I DIDN'T FRIGGIN DELETE MY FIRST DRAFT!!!! GAH!!!!

Seriously though, WHAT THE HELL WAS THIS SHOW?!?!?!?!? I mean that in the best way possible!!! Europe 1997 has been as strange as you can imagine on the jamming front and I can't imagine anything topping that Cities. That's gotta be, like, a top 10 Phish jam of all time!!!! This show was remarkable and deserves all the praise it receives. Classic doesn't begin to convey how amazing it is. This. Show. Blew. My. Mind. Honestly, this is the best show of 1997 to this point I think. I don't feel that's controversial to say.

Essential listening. Why the hell did it take me 6 years to finally hear this masterpiece.....

2019-07-02 Saratoga, NY - 2024 revisit

 7 2 19 Saratoga this morning.

Aka, Cathys Clown

Set 1

Opens with the weird ass Everlys cover that nobody saw coming. Awkward and strange, lol

After Tweeprize we get an INSANE Carini!!! 11 minutes of MUST HEAR MAGIC!!! This is an absolutely spectacular little version that is totally killer from start to finish!!!!

AC/DC Bag is extra hot, if not essential, but Moma is another keeper - a fun false start leads to spirited playing. They are going total "smooth operator" on this one. Must hear.

And that SMOOTH segue into a very nice Theme.

Meat is excellent and Home, albeit sloppy, is great to hear. Home is at least raging hot and has a great little jam! Must hear!

An absolutely killer Gin is the penultimate song of the set. The peakage is long and insane. Complete rage fest.

Killer face melter Walls to close.

All in all this was an excellent set!!! The boys sound LOCKED IN in a way that they havent for several gigs (aside from set 2 of Camden 3...). Carini is essential listening, as is Gin and Walls, and Moma is well worth your time, but almost everything here is just REALLY GOOD if not entirely essential. A great little set!!! 

Set 2

Fun and short Cool Amber opens the set. But thats just a warmup for the 20 minute Disease that follows! Thankfully, the reading of the song is surprisingly excellent. Its not all limp and weak but rather strong and powerful!

After the initial type 1, the jam drops down into a more "late night" uptempo feel. Lots of dueling Page and Trey. Out come the delays and the Leslie. Very cool stuff. Very aquatic.

Very slowly they work themselves into a more feel good zone. Page moves to the piano and a bliss peak begins to build. Trey sidesteps the peak in progress however and they move into a slightly more jazzy/funky area.

Wah pedal, Gordo fx, etc. Lots of cool delay usage and the synths even come out to play. Unfortunately its only for a brief moment, then Trey yanks them back towards feel good.

Cool rhythmic area comes out of this with the whole band syncing up and working the jam to a peak.

This was a pretty good jam but I wont call it must hear. It was a bit all over the damn place with a constant need to change direction just as they get one thing going. Worth a listen but its the lesser of the Summer 2019 jams, imo. I mean, its going on the master playlist of highlights but it's definitely very "fragmented". 

Disease comes to a sudden, jarring stop and they move into the Scents intro. Scents is pretty big, nearly 15 minutes!

The jam starts in a cool, laid back kinda jazzy vein and stays there for a good while, very slowly building in intensity.

Still in this jazzy vein, it gets more and more rocky. Pages on the piano while Trey is raging the delay pedals. They proceed to dig deep and rage this sucker hard. Fantastic.

This was terrific. Absolutely better than that ADHD Disease, imho. Must hear Scents!!!! 

Twist is up next and continues the great vibes, turning in a shortish but excellent version. Really good little jam on this. Put it in the show highlights!

After Wilson we get a rare Scent of a Mule. Solid but unremarkable.

And then we get a must hear F Your Face!!! Holy crap melt those faces Trey!!!!! And out of that and into a basic Halley before they close the set with a strong Hood.

Another strong encore with a very rare Fee turning up.

All in all, set 2 was pretty tasty. Disease was flawed but still highly enjoyable while the Scents was probably the best jam of the night. Twist was worth a listen and F Your Face crushed. Hood and Fee are worth a listen as well. Strong show overall but not a classic. Strong A- . Good stuff!

2019-06-30 Camden, NJ - 2024 revisit

 6 30 19 Camden #3

Set 1

You know a show is gonna bang when you get a Curtain With opener! The Curtain With is a bit flubby but overall good. Inessential but solid.

Wonderful move into the first FEFY in 2.5 years! Great mood setter! Strong version, worthy of the highlight list.

Buried Alive rages hard but the intro is the yuckiest trainwreck youve ever heard. UGH!!!

Thankfully Camel Walk is excellent and worthy of the list as is the following Reba. Must hear!!!

After a standard Sample, we get an excellen Pebbles and Marbles before a standout Tela. Tela is EXCELLENT, as is the flawless Mango Song afterwards.

Very rare Driver as well.

Solid Bowie closes this rarity packed set.

All in all, this was great! Camel, Reba, Pebbles, Tela and Mango were all standout versions. Absolute blast of a set!!

Reba is SHOCKINGLY well played! The solo is so so but the composed part is the best modern one Ive heard in a while. Seriously, its actually flawless. Stunning! 

Set 2 opens with a must hear 17 min x factor magic Mr. Completely. Rages hard with a dark hear before moving to a great kind of uptempo "late night fire" section before moving down into space and then going skywards and climaxing with the most epic rock and roll finale of the summer. The spacey section the middle was amazing!!! And the slow build back into the song before the rocking finale was even sicker!!!!

THIS WAS ESSENTIAL!!! HOLY CRAP THIS WAS FREAKING INCREDIBLE!!!!!! MUST HEAR!!!!! ONE OF THE BEST JAMS OF THE SUMMER!!!!

That was so great I had to play it twice!!!

And then we get a 21 minute Twenty Years Later!!!!

Initial heavy grooving gives way to a slow build move into an extended section of awesome, heavenly bliss. Very slowly and organically over the course of several minutes this slowly morphs into a hard funking yet still feel good jam. This heavy funk is terrific and leads the jam all the way to its conclusion.

Dang! Another absolutely must hear jam!!! Felt like Camel Walk on steroids!!! My truck reviews does not do this justice. It was phenomenal. 

So 20 Years Later concludes and Trey friggin launches right into...BBFCFM! This set is unhinged!!!!!

BBFCFM rages harder than usual and then we get a shock surprise move into a 13 minute Tweezer!!!!!! Tweezer is a fantastic funk fest and delivers the goods. Excellent type 1 rager version. Rock and roll supremacy! Must hear! Destroys worlds!! Oh my freaking god!!!! 10 outta friggin 10!!! Meltdown!!!! MUST HEAR!!!!

Following a needed cooldown with a lovely Shade, Pages Most Events gets us grooving good again. Rocks hard as usual.

A fun Makisupa into a blazing Chalkdust/Suzy combo closes the set in grand fashion.

A+ for effort on the encore!!! Punch, WTU and finally Julius? Sick!!!


All in all this was a spectacular show and easily tied with Charlotte, probably, as the best top to bottom gig so far of the summer. Set 1 was all about the rarities but delivered the heat when needed. Set 2 was one of those incredible X Factor sets that you hope and dream for. Utter perfection and awesomeness.

2019-06-29 Camden, NJ - 2024 revisit

 6 29 19 Camden #2 in the truck this morning.

Set 1

Set 1 is just ok tonight. A definite improvement on set 1 of night 1 but it mostly sounds like the guys going through the motions.

Nothing is bad, in fact its all well played, but very little jumps out or makes you take notice.

Divided Sky is pretty strong and the ER has a very nice, if too short jam. Guelah sounds well rehearsed.

The main must hear material though is the incredible, X Factor 46 Days to close the set. Multisectional and epic, they go dark before peaking harder than almost anything else this summer. A true must hear version. Incredible.

All in all, a pretty boring set overall. 46 Days is what you need, though ER and DS are worth mentioning ... 

Set 2

A strong Blaze On opens. Sub 10 minutes but excellently jammed. Not essential but a great listen!

After a botched segue (A for effort!) we get a nice NICU followed by a strong, if short, Golden Age. Like ER in set 1, this one goes deep quickly but ultimately comes to a terrible close, fizzling out horribly. Massive disappointment!

At least we get a 13 min Ruby Waves in its place! Ruby is weird. It goes DEEP, throwing everything at the wall without much sticking. Its an A+ for effort but the results are kinda lopsided. Probably the weakest one so far, but not for lack of trying. Hell, the best part is the SICK segue into DDHVL...

DDHVL is completely skippable. When they get to the solo/jam, Trey instead opts to launch into Rift!

Ok, at least Rift is very strong tonight. Great version!

First set cool down is the debut of Beneath a Sea of Stars! In the wake of monster versions to come this is rather inessential, but its a great little debut if a great song and the placement was perfect. No, screw that, this was terrific. It goes full type 2 ambience and the drill even comes out to play. Wow!!!

AND THEN THEY WENT INTO WAITING ALL NIGHT. The perfect pair of all time!!! The song is nothing special tonight but that pairing was a match made in heaven!

Ghost gets us up and moving again. A strong shorter version with a great little jam. Excellent reading with the perfect segue into a hot SANTOS.

Solid YEM into Grind for the encore.

All in all, what an oddball set. Highlights and lowlights and anything but consistent. Its at least interesting, but little is essential. Most will say Ruby was great but Idk...Sea of Stars was fantastic. Ghost was pretty strong. 46 Days and ER in set 1..... Definitely just grab the highlights. This show is all over the place.

2019-06-28 Camden, NJ - 2024 revisit

 Back to 2019 this morning.

6 28 19 Camden

Set 1

The first half of set 1 is enjoyable but bland. Skip straight to Birds of a Feather. Very awkward version but it has some great moments of jamming. Not anything must hear but worth a mention.

After that interesting but awkward Birds its into a nice sequence of Wolfman, Wombat and Timber!

Wolfy is about 11 minutes and has a wonderful little jam to it that goes kinda dark befoe building to a rocking climax. As with Birds, it aint must hear and is slightly awkward, but its still a nice little piece.

Wombat goes nowhere and Trey ripcords them right into Timber. Whiplash!!! Timber is decent but nothing special

Drift to close - just what this set did NOT need!


All in all, an enjoyable but kinda off set. The boys try hard but are fumbling over arrangements and lyrics the whole time. Hell, Birds is basically a train wreck in the back half. Fine set but not one of the best of the summer. Hey, they gotta have an off night some time, eh?

Not a great one... 

Set 2

Thankfully set 2 opens with a terrific 20 minute Mercury. Excellent version that funks hard before peaking out and returning to the song for a proper close!!! Must hear!

11 minute No Men up next. Super funky late night supeme. Killer version. Absolutely stellar bliss peak on this!!!! Must hear!! It was absolutely spectacular!!! Fades out with dark ambience into WACTOOB.

WACTOOB and About to Run are good but nothing special.

The following 11 minute Light is pretty good. Not must hear but worth a mention - does a lot in its short run time and the final 2 or 3 minutes are excellent WACTOOB reprise!!!

Stellar segue into an 11 minute Antelope to close the set!!! Pretty strong version but not essential.

Nightmare encore (for me) of Monkey and Quinn


All in all, not a great show. Mercury into No Men was the easy highlight if the whole night with Light as a bonus. It was an ok show, but something like the much derided Toronto gig wipes the floor with this.

1997-06-29 Roskilde, DEN - Roskilde Festival

 Onwards with Euro '97. Last show before Amsterdam again!

6/29/97 Roskilde Festival

8 songs in 75 minutes - the anti-Ramones set

The song selection is utterly pedestrian, but I'm sure the performance is serviceable.

The set gets off to a great start with a 22 minute You Enjoy Myself, which I can't complain much about. Very strange, but this is the first YEM of the tour - 11 shows in! I guess this is one, like Wilson, they had "shelved" prior to the tour! YEM is a fine, funky version full of energy, but it's nothing you need to rush out to hear. An ordinarily average-excellent reading.

Up next is Taste - the 8th version in 11 shows, my goodness! Yet another excellent, if not mind-blowing rendition. Solid but inessential. Following standard readings of Bouncing and Beauty we go into Chalkdust. Chalkdust is excellent. 8 minutes of rip roaring awesomeness. As with Taste, nothing essential, but great stuff for a casual crowd.

Following some nice Trey banter regarding their 1992 appearance, they move on into Theme From the Bottom. I would say this is one of the highlights for sure. An absolute stellar reading, not really anything special, but totally excellent from start to finish. They kill it.

Character Zero keeps up the energy and rages friggin' hard. Stellar type 1 melt-your-face version. No, seriously, this is an absolutely RIDICULOUS version. Full-tilt, 10/10 fire from the sky. Must hear!!!

Standard hot My Soul to close.

All in all, this show was pretty much what you expect by looking at the setlist. Very enjoyable - the energy and enthusiasm is palpable - but the only thing you really NEED to hear is that Character Zero. Everything else is excellent but nothing else is must-hear.

On to Worm Town!

1997-06-27 Somerset, UK - Glastonbury

 Home again from work due to rain so let's go on with 1997, shall we?

54 minute set at Glastonbury. Not expecting anything, but it's cool they got to play "Wilson" so close to Stonehenge.

6/27/97 Somerset, UK - Glastonbury Festival

A rousing Wilson opens the show. Not much to say. Good version. The following Chalkdust is pretty demented. For an "in the box" rendition, Trey annihilates the hell out of it like it's a strangulatory version of Maze instead, Highly recommend this Chalkdust!!!! Wow!!! No, seriously, this Chalkdust is positively UNHINGED!!! MUST HEAR!!! Wow!!!

Stash is surprisingly enjoyable. Incredibly dynamic version, they bring it down to silence and to raging peaks and all points in between. The excessive whistling by an audience member is icing on the cake, lol. Not the greatest version ever but it's perfectly fine and even slightly unhinged at points. Solid stuff.

The obligatory "It's 1997 so we HAVE to play it" Dogs Stole Things is next. NEXT! Poor Heart picks us back up but Poor Heart is Poor Heart.

And into a surely-great 11 minute Taste we go! This is a pretty terrific version. Love how relaxed and patient Trey begins his solo section. Great little Taste!

Bouncing and C Zero lead us out.

All in all, there is as little to talk about as you'd expect. I'd say the Chalkdust Torture is pretty essential listening, but nothing else really goes beyond "pretty good". A nice little festival set, nothing less, nothing more. Definitely the least interesting of the tour so far....