YEM review - 8/12/98 Vernon Downs Race Track, Vernon, NY

Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2000 23:36:36 -0700
From: Charles Dirksen [email protected]
To: Daniel W. Schar , [email protected]
Subject: 8/12/98 Vernon Downs Enjoys Itself
 
 
Has anyone listened to the 12/2/95 New Haven Tweezer recently?  It still
kicks ass  (thanks to Yoda Davis for the discs! =^).  I just listened to it
again tonight.  You're not likely to hear a more inspired version of
Tweezer under 20 minutes in length (though you might hear a few equally or
almost as inspired versions!).
 
8/12/98  Vernon Downs Race Track, Vernon, NY
 
Thanks to Chris Glushko for the tapes!
 
This YEM is the SECOND encore tune, following a cover of the Talking
Heads's "Burning Down the House."  I don't know if they rehearsed BDTH
at all before performing it.  It's pretty amusing. And they clearly
have a good time playing it. It takes a lot of balls to cover
something like this without rehearsing it.
 
Trey's pretty talkative before the encore.  There's some teasing of
Fishman and a quote of Hold Your Head Up (HYHU).  Trey says they'll
play one more.  "..Fish wants to do this one..."  Trey thanks everyone
for their support on the summer tour.
 
YEM opens up well, even though Trey is a bit more shaky than usual
(particularly around 1:50-2:10).  The "pre-Nirvana" section begins
when Fish starts whipping the hi-hat around 1:15.  It's typically
spacey and enchanting.  Trey plays a soft HYHU quote around 1:55.
Otherwise uneventful.  "Nirvana" (christ I'm sick of this name for
this section, even though I love it... it is this section of this
Phish song that first opened my ears to Phish's music, fwiw)  at
3:35.  Mike's solo section begins around 4:20 and it is melodic and
pensive.  Crowd goes whacko during the pre-charge section, suggesting
that Brad brought out the trampolines. This section is played well --
which is remarkable given how tired the band must have been.  Trey
nails the first shot at "The Note" and solos around it well.  Second
"Note" isn't sustained too well at first, but whatever.  Charge at
6:38, and, naturally
 
"Boy" after a great scream (Trey had help on the scream from someone
standing near the mics used to make this recording;  I'm still
surprised that the entire audience doesn't get 'in' on The Scream..)
at 6:55.  An especially snappy and groovy WUDMTF section, even if it
isn't as tight as it often is.  They all play this one passionately!
Just having fun..  Tramps jam begins at 9:06.  Page is on keys.  Mike
signals for the tramps moves. Page teases "Mission Impossible" a few
times in this tramps jam.  He hadn't done that in awhile..  Good jam.
Mike's got that phaaat drippy effect *on*.
 
Jam segment effectively begins around 10:20, I guess.  Very groovy,
textural.  No lead soloing yet.  Trey comes in adding only a note here
and there overtop Fish and Mike's phaaat bottom.  Page isn't doing too
much either in here, until around 10:58 -- when he lets loose a flurry
of notes on keys.
 
The jam around 11:43 is a bit groovy and a bit funky.  Trey starts
soloing around 12:18, but softly/quietly overtop this groove.  Fish
gets increasingly more complex on the drums.  Great fills!  An
intricate jam, to be sure, but nothing outrageous (yet?).  Trey goes
back to playing rhythm guitar for a few measures, before he begins
soloing around 13:35.  Page has moved to the clavinet it sounds like.
Trey finally climbs into the upper octaves of his 'doc around 13:50,
but his tone is still soft.  He's definitely playing with the jam
instead of leading it.  Around 14:50 the jam gathers a bit of steam as
Page plays some scary chords on the clav, but the steam dissipates
into more straight-up funky jamming.. around 15:28 MIKE steps out a
bit.  (Trey drops out)  Page continues playing along with Mike for a
measure or two, but then drops out.  It's only Mike and Fish for a
couple measures when,
 
at 16 minutes or so, Trey and Page start vocal jamming.  Mike stops
playing and joins in the vocal jamming, as Fish softly mellows the
drums, dropping out by 15:25.  This is the famous "Who's Your Daddy"
vocal jam.  Definitely one of the more interesting and amusing vocal
jams from the last few years and worth checking out.  Hysterical!!
Total time 19:50.
 
This YEM has a *GREAT* vocal jam, and was well-played overall, but the
jam segment basically just funked along.  No climax to speak of, no
unusual improvisation, etc.  Easy "average great" B rating for this
short but sweet second encore YEM.
 
two cents,
charlie
 
p.s. Some have asked me recently why all the reviews -- was I back in law
school again with a lot of time on my hands?  ;-)  I'm actually busy
working for an antitrust and securities class action law firm these days
(have you and a bunch of other people been screwed by a large corporation?
is your company doing something that you think might be unlawful and might
be damaging consumers? you may be entitled to a piece of a enormous cash
settlement..;-).  The reviews I post nowadays are ones that I have reviewed
in the past but just not posted, though I'm still trying to review what I
can from 1998-1999.  Reviews can still be checked out at
http://www.phish.net/reviews/ last I heard, thanks to Dan Schar.



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