Twenty-Two Year Old Phish Video Footage Surfaces on YouTube

UPDATE: February 25 – YouTuber Cleantones has taken this video and given it a makeover using soundboard audio. We’ve changed out the old video for the new one in this post.

This past Friday, February 17, marked the 22 anniversary of Phish’s headlining performance at the University of Massachusetts’ Student Union Ballroom in Amherst, Mass. To celebrate the occasion, one of the producers of the event, Positronic Dave of Positronic Design, has uploaded nearly an hour and 45 minutes worth of footage from that evening to YouTube.

[via BluebirdDaze]

Containing nearly the whole show, this video gives Phish fans a glance at the band’s formative days and their early touring setup which saw LD Chris Kuroda utilizing an extremely basic light rig consisting of three banks of eight par cans each. The musicians each had much less equipment then they would even a short two years later, but that didn’t stop them from displaying the talent and originality that would propel them to big things in the future. Highlights include a gorgeous version of Harry Hood, an intense You Enjoy Myself complete with a vocal jam based on The Ocean by Led Zeppelin and a ferocious Trey solo that ends the Oh Kee Pa Ceremony > AC/DC Bag pairing. Take a look…

Phish – //Possum, Bathtub Gin, Divided Sky > Sloth, Bouncin’, YEM, Golgi, Reba, Oh Kee Pa > AC/DC Bag, Squirming Coil, Harry Hood, Carolina, Mike’s > I Am Hydrogen//

Timeline

00:00:00 Possum (cut)
00:02:08 Bathtub Gin
00:09:29 Divided Sky >
00:21:19 The Sloth
00:26:09 Bouncing Around the Room
00:29:55 You Enjoy Myself
00:45:53 Golgi Apparatus
00:50:48 Reba
01:03:35 The Oh Kee Pa Ceremony >
01:05:17 AC/DC Bag
01:12:09 The Squirming Coil
01:18:03 Harry Hood
01:30:27 Carolina
01:33:36 Mike’s Song >
01:40:53 I Am Hydrogen
01:42:29 Credits

According to the description left by the uploader, the band gave their permission for the show to be filmed. Widespread Panic and Gene Matthews opened for Phish that night for a triple-bill that was produced by David Caputo of Positronic Design, The SEO Company in association with The Weekly News and UMass Radical Student Union and Social Thought and Political Economy Department (STPEC).

Thanks to Dave for sharing a glimpse at an important time in the band’s development.

Related Content

5 Responses

  1. Thanks for the publicity and detailed description! It’s appreciated and I hope your readers and all of the fans enjoy this new version! My 2nd Phish show was a few years later a hundred yards from this room. I’ve also shot The Slip on this stage 11 years after this Phish show. I think this is like the 4th or 5th most old footage of the band!!

  2. Was lucky enough to have seen the boys a few times previously. My girlfriend (now wife) took me to this show for my 25th bday. Yikes… Many highlights, but starting with a blistering possum got my inner Tigger (T-I-double-guh-ER!) bouncing immediately.

    Phish has been through many phases, but they feel like they’ve been more rooted lately. I tend to enjoy their jam/rock with jazz mix, more than the opposite. I appreciate it all, but connect to the full blown jams more naturally.

    Q: Anyone know if the original flyer (or image) is available?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recent Posts

New to Glide

Keep up-to-date with Glide

Twitter