From: Charlie Dirksen
7/12/96 Milkweg in Amsterdam, Netherlands Ok, well. I commented about the spectacular musical lameness of this show
in the recent MikeS Files post, so I'll just review the Tweezer and chut up. Suffice it to say that if you see the setlist of this show
and drool, as I did, you are arguably better off actually not hearing it (but I recommend hearing it anyway, because you MAY
appreciate AVERAGE Phish all the more, and because I encourage reasonably harmless masochistic tendencies in others). A
below tempo Tweezer without question, and the vocals kinda drag as a result as well. Very loose in the opening "composed"
section.. both the vocals and Trey's playing are not especially tight. Yawn. Wow! They even screw it up! Who was that who
came in to soon!? Mike!? Ouch! I don't believe.. couldn't have been Mike. Trey. ;-) This opening segment (even the little jam
they do) is basically CRAP, although Page's clav action in the pre-Ebeneezer jam segment ain't bad, and Trey toys around on
the frets a bit. This is kinda sorta groovy.. No screaming on "Ebeneezer" at 4:27 (like many versions of the last year.. we are
supposed to do the screaming now, I guess.. but the Milkweg is as silent as hash... imagine that). Jam segment kicks in at 5:02,
and Trey immediately lets out a melodious little lick that is reminiscent of "Spooky," but he doesn't actually tease Spooky. Trey
is basically just rhythmically noodling, somewhat repetitively, for the first minute. This whole jam is just slow and uninspiring, I'm
afraid. Mike and Page and Fish accompany as best they can, it sounds like, but this version just plods along rather uneventfully.
It isn't BAD, mind you, but it doesn't inspire at all, especially given the Tweezers that concluded the final months of 1995 (!).
Around 7:30, Trey is finally in the upper octaves, albeit briefly.. he is still noodling away, finally sustaining around 8 minutes a
little bit... just nothing of any merit in here at all. And then.. well, it looked around 8:10 that the jam was going to actually go
somewhere, but it was a false alarm (Page appeared to try to pick it up a little more). The jam just dies out slowly, but not in
typical tweezeresque fashion (Trey is hitting the occasional note or two, as are Page and Mike... loose and sleepy around 9:50).
Fish has basically given up.. a little hi-hat, snare and bass but nothing steady... jam just fades out. Bass drum only at 10:30.. and
hi-hat.. and then Llama segues in (if you can call this a segue!) a few seconds later (Trey just opens it up). Can't give this
Tweezer more than a 4.0. Below average without question, and not even vaguely impressive. :-( two cents420