Editorial: An Open Letter To Kevin Shapiro

The most recent Live Phish release, 7-6-98, was a good call. A great show and a explosive Ghost for sure. My only issue with it, as with a few of the Live Phish releases (5-3-93. 12-7-97), is that excellent audience recordings were already in mass circulation. So really, it was upgrading from a good slice of pizza to a great one. You appreciate the difference, but not as much as if you had gone from Steak Umms to filet mignon. Shows like 12-30-93 (Portland, ME), The Clifford Ball and 4-16-92 are already out there with some crispness to them. So I’ve left them off this list of suggestions.

12-9-95 – Albany, NY

[youtube]L7hmBP6-vf0[/youtube]

A very solid first set including a slick Maze to open. But Set II is the real deal. A rockin Gumbo gives way to THE definitive Phish jam in the You Enjoy Myself. It’s 32 minutes of pure Phish heaven and in my opinion, represents the best improvisation the band ever put together. Throughout the various segments – from the gurggly washing machine bass to the melodic bliss of Trey’s noodling throughout – the band is pumping like the pistons of a Ferrari. The Slave builds to a beautiful climax and the Loving Cup encore has an extra shot of energy.

I: Maze, Theme From the Bottom, NICU, The Sloth, Rift, Bouncing Around the Room, Free, Billy Breathes, Dog Faced Boy, Chalk Dust Torture

II: Timber (Jerry), Wilson*, Gumbo, You Enjoy Myself**, Lawn Boy, Slave to the Traffic Light, Crossroads, Sweet Adeline

E: Loving Cup

*With “Beavis and Butthead” “this sucks” electronic noises. **With a silent jam.

7-22-97 – Raleigh, NC

[via Zac Williams]

A huge lightning storm rolled in during Taste, and the band seemed to be jamming along with the crackles and flashes of light. The segue between Down With Disease and Mike’s Song is among the smoothest and grooviest in Phish history. And who doesn’t love Bye Bye Foot?

I: Runaway Jim-> My Soul, Water in the Sky, Stash, Bouncing Around the Room, Vultures, Bye Bye Foot, Taste*

II: Down With Disease**-> Mike’s Song-> Simple-> I Am Hydrogen#-> Weekapaug Groove##-> Hello My Baby

E: When the Circus Comes, Harry Hood

*Band jams with a lightning storm, which eventually forces the set to end early. **With “Papa Was a Rolling Stone” (Temptations) quote.
#Mike’s bass is out of tune at the end.
##With “I Am Hydrogen” and “Mother” (Pink Floyd) teases.

7-4-99 – Atlanta, GA

The first 4th of July show in Phish history was a doozy. Set I is chock full o’goodness, highlighted by the AC/DC Bag, the Wedge and the underrated Vultures. The Ghost > Slave to open the 2nd set is like a fine scarf – smooth and silky and it will keep you warm on a cold night. A good filler could include the Twist > Piper from the previous night.

I: My Soul, Ya Mar, This Is a Farmhouse, The Oh Kee Pa Ceremony > AC/DC Bag, The Wedge, Vultures, I Didn’t Know*, Fast Enough For You, David Bowie (1:23)

II: Ghost -> Slave to the Traffic Light**, The Horse -> Silent in the Morning***, What’s the Use, Wilson^, Mike’s Song -> Sleeping Monkey -> Weekapaug Groove

E1: Carini^^, The Meatstick^^^

E2: The Star Spangled Banner#

*”Vajonna (Flagina?) Fishman” vac solo (wearing only stars-and-stripes boxers). **”What’s the Use” and “Dark Star” teases.
***”Little Drummer Boy” tease and glowrings. ^Trey flubs the lyrics; plays “air guitar”; swings guitar, using his effects pedals and feedback to manipulate the sound. ^^With Pete Carini; lyrics mention Mia Hamm (Trey was wearing a Mia Hamm jersey). ^^^Chorus-only reprise; with crew and fans on stage doing “The Meatstick Dance”; after the song, others leave Trey and Mike on-stage to do the dance alone. #A cappella; band in stars-and-stripes (Fish: boxers; Trey and Page: pants and vests; Mike: tank-top underneath, revealed during the song); ended with eruption of fireworks.

7-30-97 – Ventura, CA

I went with this choice over the following year at Ventura (which opens with an amazing Bathtub Gin and features two very well placed Who covers) because of two things: Stash and the Bowie > Cities > Bowie. I’m not a huge Stash guy but the 7-30-97 version is aggressive but not in a wanky way. The Wolfman’s, which just started to take off as a major jam vehicle in 1997, is hot as well. But the Bowie > Cities > Bowie is the real gold. Cities was still pretty rare at this point and to sandwich it perfectly in the middle of a scorching Bowie, brought the dust bowl to its knees that night.

I: NICU, Wolfman’s Brother-> Chalk Dust Torture, Water in the Sky, Stash, Weigh, Piper, Cars Trucks Buses, Character Zero

II: Punch You in the Eye, Free, David Bowie*-> Cities-> David Bowie, Bouncing Around the Room, Uncle Pen, Prince Caspian, Fire

E: My Soul

*With “Simpsons” language in the high-hat intro.

12-28-94 – Philadelphia, PA

[via PT]

I wore out my Maxell XLIIS analog copy of this show after a few months of non-stop listening back in the day. The first set is a very good representation of where the band was at this point. First sets were mostly quick hitters with a serious jam or two, in this case Reba and Antelope, thrown in. The second set is playful – with Contact and Love You – but gets down to business with one of the sickest Weekapaug’s of all time. Kind of a lost classic since so many of the Holiday Run shows over the years were inducted into the Pantheon of shows.

1: Mound, Simple, Julius, Bathtub Gin, Bouncing Around the Room, Axilla II, Reba, Dog Faced Boy, It’s Ice, Run Like an Antelope

2: Suzy Greenberg, NICU, Mike’s Song-> The Mango Song-> Weekapaug Groove*, Contact, Llama, HYHU-> Love You-> HYHU, The Squirming Coil

E: Bold as Love

*with Little Drummer Boy jam

What shows would you like to see get the Live Phish treatment?

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27 Responses

  1. The Raleigh show for me will be forever known as the Hurricane Danny show. It was awesome. One of my top 5 faves. The Taste jam got faster and the rain got harder. The lightning bolt that hit very near the stage at the beginning of the taste jam…Mike’s…I don’t remember all the teases but hey.

  2. great list. But isn’t there a pretty good sounding copy of the Ventura show? Or am I thinking of ’98 Ventura?

  3. I want to see more multi-track shows from ’97 on. Or at the very least these mastered shows on CD.

  4. Great call on the 4th of July show. That is my favorite Slave ever. I think my T-shirt is still soaked with sweat from that show.

  5. 12/28/94: My first ever concert.

    I told my parents that I had my first rehearsal (I was in the high school musical) all day and was staying at a friend’s house that night. As we drove down to Philly from my hometown in northern New Jersey, I later learned, the director of the high school musical called my house and left a message on our answering machine stating that rehearsals would begin the following week. Busted. Grounded. Ouch.

    I don’t remember much from my show-going days… I ended up going to about 35 of them, and they all seem to blend together in my memory. The weed, I guess. That being said, I do remember that I was absolutely elated by this show. I really loved that song NICU, so I’m sure that was a special thrill. And this may just be wishful thinking, but I think I remember that in the subsequent 34 or so shows that I attended, I never caught another Mike’s –> Groove as good as the one on 12/28/94.

  6. 7/25/99 – I’ve never been more satisfied after a show that after this one

    11/11/98 – Halley’s, Gumbo, Ghost make this worthy

    2/26/97 – a little more Europe love for maybe the most underrated 97′ show

    4/14/93 – Stash/Kung madness and some Spooky love

    11/30/95 – Tweezasupalope…..the Note

  7. I agree with everything, Luke (especially some love to SUMMER 97) Ventrua would be a great choice because all of the aud’s sound very windy, as this venue was right on the ocean.

    BUT, I am that person who can not wait to hear the SBD of the raging *Mud City!!!!

    (*with mike & Lacy shoutout)

  8. 02-17-97 Paradiso, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    1: Soul Shakedown Party*-> The Divided Sky, Wilson#, My Soul, Guyute, Timber (Jerry), Billy Breathes, Llama, Bathtub Gin-> Golgi Apparatus

    2: The Squirming Coil > Down With Disease-> Carini-> Taste-> Down With Disease-> Suzy Greenberg-> Prince Caspian

    E: Sleeping Monkey, Rocky Top

    *First time played (Bob Marley cover). #Trey flubs lyrics a few times.

    The DWD-Carini in this show may be the most amazing music ever played by humans.

  9. why not offer up a few limited edition vinyls of the live shows. I prefer to listen to phish on my old tapes, but this would be nice.

  10. I was at the 7-4-99 show. First Meatstick ever. As soon as they started it, I swear that I thought they were playing Fire on the Mountain.

    Hope KS reads this open letter.

  11. “Man, I simply must have crispy copies of that raging Mud City.”

    Um.. I beg to differ. This is THE Mudcity I’ve been waiting to hear on SBD, for purely selfish reasons of course.

    You know I wanna go!!

  12. Some nice choices. Disagree, with first two. Here’s why, and what I’d rather see.
    12/9/95 – Fall 95 is already very well represented. I realize a great tour in Phishtory, but lots of it is out there. I’d also put 11/10/95 above this. Were I to do another Fall 95 release, I’d do that whole Fox run (11/9 – 11/11). One of the strongest three night runs.
    7/22/97 – Great show, but a pristine copy exists. Look for the copy taped by Chris Glushko. Even the thunder sounds crisp.
    The next three are all solid choices. Not sure if they’re “gotta haves”, but they’re solid.
    I feel like big gaps exist in Summer 95, early Summer 97 (europe), and US Summer 98. I’d love to see for example.
    6/14, 6/20, or 6/26/95 – Get to hear songs like Theme, Free, Spock’s Brain getting early plays, as well as big jam YEM and Tweezers.
    6/13 or 6/14/97 – First plays of the funky material material that would become Ghost.
    And would be happy with pretty much any Summer 98 US show.
    I think pretty much all of these areas are underrepresented, and not a lot of SBDs in circulation.

  13. for the record, I had no idea about any sort of shout outs in that Mud City.

    clearly a great thing for great people to get a little love from the stage 🙂

  14. Wade- mine was in AC.. you know- the one that’s being released. 😉

    It’s actually Lacy and “Tom” – not Mike.. oof!

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