Date: Mon, 3 Feb 1997 15:09:21 -0500 (EST) From: Jonathan Epstein Subject: 6/30/95 Great Woods Amphitheatre, Mansfield MA 6/30/95 I: AC/DC Bag, Scent of a Mule, Horn, Taste, The Wedge, Lizards, Mound, Fee, Run Like an Antelope II: Also Sprake Zarathustra > Possum > Ha Ha Ha, The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday > Avenu Malkenu > Mike's Song > Contact > Weekapaug Groove, Amazing Grace, The Squirming Coil E: HYHU > Cracklin' Rosie > HYHU, Golgi Apparatus Well, I guess almost everyone who went to Great Woods trekked up to VT too because I havent seen a review of these shows yet, so here goes... June 30.. SET ONE ------- ACDC was a great opener (I'm totally through trying to guess first set openers, how the hell can someone predict that!! I did get both 2nd set openers right, however:) I explained this to my friend in Virgina and I think it describes it best "you know what they do... well they did it in ACDC BAg." If you get IT, you'll know what I'm talking about. Page and Trey ripped up the Fiddler section to Scent. Trey played with his teeth, but Page still put him to shame. First Horn of tour was alright. Taste was good. I like this tune. Heard it in Gainesville before so I knew right away. My first Wedge!! (19 shows in a row gor me hearing a song I've never heard live before. All's I need is Weigh, Tube, and Sanity!!) Lizards was Lizards, and Mound was very dark again. Not as dark as Gainesville, but still very dark. Fee was next and then Antelope which was a good Antelope. Not amazing, just a good solid Antelope to end the set. Pretty good set, but I knew why I came (2nd set!!) SET TWO ------- On the car ride over I made the 2001->Mikes call, but I was just as happy with this opener. 2001->Possum!! This was superb. POssum rocked and spaced in all the right places. Man->Avenu was next. Hadnt heard this in a long time. Probably 91 or so. HAHAHA (I dont remember if this is weher it was in the set, but Mikey says it wsa, so Ill beleive him.) I really wanted to hear this again since Lowell and I was psyched. I love this tune. Reminds me a lot of King Crimson. Then Mike's. Mike's was very long and very spacey. I will admit that sometimes it got a little tedious .. the feedback noise and whatnot, but when it hooked up , oh shit, did it hook up. There was some serious music going on. A lot of people weren't into it, but I think they missed some the best jamming around in between the spacey parts. The jam slipped very very nicely into the Contact. It wsa at this point that I made the observation that Mike had sung a bunch of tunes that night and (in reference to the horrible traffic. Alot of folks missed the first set because of the traffic) there were 3 songs referring to cars. Horn, Contact, and Possum. Weekapaug came out of Contact. This was really hot too. A lot of peopl ewere saying the liked the Weekapaug more than the Mikes that night, but I still disagree, though Weekapaug was defintly hot. Grace and Coil ended the set. For the encore, Fish came out with Trey's guitar strapped on and I wa really hoping for Whipping Post (just a dream), but we got Rosie and Golgi (saw this coming from a mile away. This must be the Great Woods theme song!!) --------- Traffic was miserable. Took 1+ hour to get from the exit to the lot. Getting out was a breeze though. July 1st review in next post... Jon. ----------------------------------- 6/30/95 Great Woods Amphitheatre, Mansfield MA (Ellis Goddard) Hot show! Best first set of these four, IMHO. Great second set. Show started 1 hour late, still some empty seats at start time. Poor friend Reis (who hadn't seen an AC/DC Bag) got stuck in transport on the way and didnSong Contact Groove was a wonderful mini-trip, and Amazing Grace bursted on this great we've-just-rocked-balls-and-now-we're-cozy feeling into it all. Heh! Just in time for Coil! :) Encore: eh. fun. Venue: Nice space. Really, really big, but still held the sound well, especially with an audience that seemed amazingly in-tune, in-synch, and with-it for a crowd that size. Security/Event Staff: Wonderful. Parking: The drive in wasn't nearly as bad as we thought it would be. It did take an hour or so to get into the lot, and we were backed up down the ramp at the exit, but it went quickly and there was plenty o'time until the show. Actually, the most interesting feature of the drive in was being appalled at this action: some no-brainer that was about 5 cars ahead of us had a tank (of whatever; note the Phish flyer warning of unsuspected substances!) from which he was filling balloons which he then carried back down the ramp on foot to, and get this idiocy, *Sell Them to Drivers*! That's right! I was bumper to bumper, side by side some dufuses who were sucking down nitrous (well, something...) *while driving*! Brilliant enough, but wait, there's more: the car with the tank was going up the ramp right in front of an 18-wheeler, who hopped on his CB about as quickly as the balloons started hopping out of the car. Probably not by coincidence, the tank, its car, and its 3 passengers were apprehended at the top of the ramp by a small cadre of cops. Lot/Scene: Wow. Nuts. There was a rumor going around that they were expecting 50,000 at this venue that holds 25,000, so the lot scene was split evenly (thought not spatially): a mixed process of incoming cars directed by event staff, and tens of thousands of wandering freaks doing all sorts of nothing. ;) Oddest thing about the lot: will call was in an RV about as far as it could be from the venue entrance and yet still be in the lot. ----------------------------
6/30/95 - Great Woods - Mansfield, MA Set 1: (1:10) AC/DC Bag, Scent of a Mule, Horn, Taste, The Wedge, Lizards, Mound, Fee, Antelope (15 min.) Set 2: (1:18) Also Sprach Zarathrustra-->Possum, Ha-Ha-Ha, TMWSIY-->Avenu Malkenu-->Mike's Song-->Contact, Weekapaug Groove, Amazing Grace*, The Squriming Coil Encore: (:12) Cracklin' Rosie, Golgi Apparatus Comments: Well, I'd like to start off my saying that June 30th is my birthday, and I can think of no better way to spend it than grooving to Phish at Great Woods :-) The traffic getting in was ridiculous, the two miles on Interstate 495 took over an hour. There were people driving on the shoulder, the median, and even the grassy lawns next to the highway. Some people knew they weren't going anywhere soon and just parked, brought and the cooler, and threw some disc. Luckily, Phish waited a little longer than usual to appear (Set 1 started at 7:50), and most of the stragglers didn't miss much of the first set. AC/DC Bag was a rocking opener. I love this tune and it really got the crowd psyched. Scent of a Mule was nothing unusual, except Trey booed Page's first solo, and proceeded to play his solo both with his teeth, and behind his back. The crowd loved this, so Page played his next solo partly with his face, and the heel of his shoe. Definitely funny to watch. Horn was solid, doesn't vary much from the version on Rift, but I haven't seen it in a while, so it was a nice surprise. Taste was one of the two new tunes I hadn't heard yet, and I really grooved it. I especially like the long jam at the end, Trey and Mike really got into it. The Wedge was nice, but it made me wonder about everyone I saw posting to the net "Bring back The Wedge!!", I mean it's a good tune, but why not "Bring back Tube!!", that seems like a better choice to me :-) Lizards was great, made me wishful for a repeat of last year's Gamehendge, but of course it was a little much to even dream for. The solo towards the end of Lizards is in my mind one of the most beautifully composed pieces for guitar. It just touches a chord in my soul and takes me a little higher. Mound and Fee were mellow, nothing incredible, but not disappointing either. A raucous Antelope to end the set made it all worthwhile. Trey said something to the effect of "Set the gearshift for the side of the hole" instead of the "high gear of your soul." I asked a bunch of people what he said, but everyone came up with about the same I did. Anyone know for sure? All in all, a good first set, nothing _spectacular_, but the Antelope certainly left me with a good taste in my mouth. Also Sprach Zarathrustra is _always_ an incredible 2nd set opening and usually foreshadows incredible tunes to come. They segued smoothly into an outrageous Possum, one of the best I've heard since some of the shows from Spring '92. They just kept pushing it to the brink of noise, and then bringing it right back to a tight jam. That seems to be a trend with most of their long jams these days. I don't dig Ha-Ha-Ha very much, but at least it's short :-) TMWSIY is a beautiful tune, and Trey really played it for all it's worth. It seemed to be a very appropriate choice for such a nice venue and really sent a great vibe to the entire crowd (or Section 4 at least). Avenu Malkenu was standard, if not a little longer than usual, and then . . . Mike's Song!! Beautiful! A 17-min. version with several Simple teases. I think that almost every Mike's has a slight Simple tease, but these were so overt, I swore to the guy next to me that they would go into Simple. Well . . . I was wrong, it was an incredible jam, but they actually went into Contact. Definitely not my favorite choice for in between Mike's and Groove. I would much rather hear Hydrogen, which for some reason they haven't been playing much recently. Are we going to have to start shouting "Bring back Hydrogen!"? There are enough cool tunes that they don't play that often that they definitely shouldn't add H2 to the list. The Weekapaug that followed was _amazing_, it was 14-min. long, making with Contact, a total of 36 minutes. The Weekapaug was a tighter jam than the Mike's, by which I mean there was less off-key, atonal, feedback-washed, playing. It went places, looked around a bit, and then abruptly came back to the theme. Just a great Mike's->Groove altogether. I called Amazing Grace and really enjoyed it. I just think that the boys really dig this tune because they identify with it. The very last verse that starts, "When we've been there 10,000 years . . .", I always interpret as Phish saying, no matter how long we've been around, how many fans we have, and how many times we sell out MSG, we'll always remember where we came from, who helped us get here, and we'll always be as humble, "as when we first begun!" Don't know the exact lyrics to Amazing Grace, but I always get that feeling when they sing it. They love to close a set or show with Squirming Coil to allow Page to strut his stuff, and they did it again. Page was fantastic in his final solo. He deserves most-improved band member by a longshot, listen to him on an 88 or 89 tape and then now and you will be blown away. Just a phenomenal difference. Fishman comes out for the encore and introduces Cracklin' Rosie as a love song sung to an inflatable storebought sex doll. I think it's a great interpretation, but I'm not sure Neil Diamond would agree ;-) Golgi was kind of a bummer of a show closer, but on the whole, an incredible show, only to be topper by an even more incredible show tonight. Read my next review for details . . . Take it easy, and I'll see you at Sugarbush, Zach Date: Thu, 20 Mar 1997 21:56:23 -0500
From: Lincoln Williams Subject: 6/30/05 Let me just first say that this was my first show. I am writing this review on 3/20/97. I received these tapes last week so I now have new knowledge of this show. I am going to write my review based on the tapes. My views have changed sinse the show, but may I say that now that I am more knowledgeable about Phish that I have realized that this was a pretty good first show. Enough said. I think. Set I: AC/DC Bag: Good opener. Maybe a bit longer than normal, but as far as Bag's go it was standard. Standard in this case is good. Scent of A Mule: Nice Trey and Page duel. Nothing out of the ordinary however. I like this song. Horn: I enjoy the song. Nothing special in it. The Wedge: A rarity. A Bit different live. Again enjoyable. The Lizards: Good song. Standard length. Again nothing special, but enjoyable. Mound: Mound was Mound. Take that which ever way you want. Fee: It was my first show so I was happy to hear it. Now Fee is a song I could do without. Antelope: This was a great Antelope. The ending part was spacy and intense. It sounded like Trey said, "Suck the dear shit from the side of it's hole. You gotta run like an antelope out of control." This was the set closer and instead of the usual we'll be back in 15 minutes. Trey decided they would return in 14 minutes and 61 seconds. Good first set. Low point now was Fee. High point like usual was Antelope. Everything else is good. Set II: 2001: Good opener. Standard what would this go into????? Possum: This Possum is very good. Not as good as 12/30/96 or 7/13/94, but still very good. Ha, Ha, Ha: Enough said. TMWSIY: Very nice peaceful song. Avenu Malkenu: Nice and fast. Very enjoyable, but what segues out of this is what made the show. MIKE'S SONG: This comes right out of Avenu and totally rocks. The jam was insane. This contains a nice simple jam in it. I also hear on the tapes some Letter to Jimmy Paige. This is very good as well. Mike's keeps on rocking, and rocking then slows down to go into............. Hydrogen no I wish. Contact: This is not one of my favorites, but it goes nicely inside of this Mike's Groove. Only one thing left. Weeka Paug: This was a very good Weeka Paug the jam is about seven mins and features nice work by Mike and Page. The entire Mike's Groove Lasted between 25 and 30 mins and was INSANE!!!!!! Amazing Grace: Nice and relaxing. Squirming Coil: Page gets a chance to show people what he is about at the end of this tune and he certainly does. A very nice solo. Encore: Cracklin' Rosie: Fishman tells the crowd to listen to the lyrics to hear how it is a song a lonely man sings to his love doll. Listen to the lyrics he has a point. Fun, but as an encore I don't know. Golgi: Good song for my first show. Looking back there are other songs that would have been prefferable, but hey Golgi is decent. The second set was outstanding. This further proves the theory that 2001 is a very good omen. The highlights were Possum and Mike's, but everything else is good too. The encore left a bit to be desired, but it was fun. This is a great show. I reccomend the tapes. Thanks for your time. N.W. -------------------------------------