, attached to 1993-08-16

Review by Fluffhead

Fluffhead Ok, so this show is the 5th installment in the rebooted Phish Show of the Week, and what a show it is. Smack dab in the middle of the legendary August 1993 run, there are so many little nuggets in this show. And THAT REBA!

Show starts off with Axilla to get the crowd going, and then drops into, what is possibly, the best Possum I have heard. I'm not a Possum lover, but this version is just nuts, balls to the wall wackiness. The ending is also totally off-kilter, and will leave you shaking your head. Quick and sweet Horn, and then the King of all Rebas.

This Reba, wow. The composed section has hints of verbal lunacy by Trey, which I have been told was indicative during this era of a HIGHly tuned in Trey (read: 2/20/93). He is on tonight. When the chill hits it immediately veers into right-field, and we hear, just three days after the amazing Murat Gin, another stellar example of the primordial Type II jamming that is Aug 93. You must hear this Reba. Even after the whistling and Reba ends, they then play a nice little postscript. I call it the "Reba jamlet".

Sparkle next, and then a beautiful Foam, which gets almost completely silent, and then just a FANTASTIC jam which goes all over the place. They were on fire! The I Didn't know had Fish on the Madonna washboard.

Crazy, QUIET ending to I Didn't Know.

Absolutely amazing Split Open and Melt. I'm not a fluffer, but this show is really that good. This is an atypical SOAMelt. Seek it out. Listen to it.

Coil to end the set, with some great discordant jamming before Page's outro.

Mike's Song starts Set 2, and Trey is all over the place, improvising all over the verses, another sign that Trey is completely TUNED IN! Great stuff. The tramps section starts off dark, and in the usual minor key (I don't know shit about music, I don't know why I type stuff like that, I hope I'm right). Fish is feeding off of Trey, and they are simply killing it. I can imagine the strobes and fog pouring off the small stage. Must've been a blast to be there. Second jam hits. Man, I wish they would still do the second jam. Hints of Simple, before Trey finds a new riff, and Page shines for a bit. Stop and start type jamming, kind of. They then enter what I am dubbing "the elf jam." If Leprechauns were to play music, it would sound like this (not to be confused with Leprechaun). Back into Mike's. That was beautiful.

Mike's Song > ....Faht???? How about that. I've actually seen this song twice, both times were very confusing. This one got me as well. I wasn't expecting it. Was trying to figure out what the hell they were going to play, when I realized that they were "playing" Faht (or Windham Hell). Between the crowd whistles, it totally confused me. I couldn't hear Fish playing his out of tune guitar for crap though. Must've been acoustic, unplugged.

Foghorn > Weekapaug Groove. They're having so much fun. Strangely, as they're singing the tempo speeds up a bit. Mike sounds great, intertwining with Trey. Wonderful Weekapaug. Great middle, with stop and go jamming, with Fish filling in the holes. Love it! Trey's blasting great notes. Wow. This is why I love Phish. Great Gypsy Queen tease. The Weekapaug then gets real mellow, and Trey plays some great melodic licks before they all fall in line into a descending jam which goes up and down. Damn. It then vamps into a vampy jam. Vamp! Moundish. Fitting that they play it next. Jam speeds up into what sounds like the Big Ball Jam, but that is to come later in the set. Possum jam of sorts. Back into signature Weekapaug riff. But they still take it out for another spin. Weekapaug Grooving around St. Louis. Into main outro of Weekapaug, with singing. This should be in the jamming chart.

Mound > It's Ice. I'm assuming Fish does his "dance" on his seat, and Trey and Mike were on slide boards (you can hear the crowd cheering real loud for no apparent reason), that one would pretend to ice skate on, sliding side to side). My Friend with acoustic intro (love that!). Fantastic outro to Knife. Really playing around their vocals there. Poor Heart, and Big Ball Jam.

Something happened at the end of BBJ to elicit an "aw, man!" from Fish. Did someone knock the ball way outside of the "hoop" Trey and Mike made with their arms? I think that's probably it. No net.

Take the "A" Train (great bass solo!!!) followed by a badass Good Times Bad Times, with another atypical jam after Page belts out his lines. Short but sweet, with semi stop start jamming again. Damn, this show is sick.

Encore has an Amazing Grace without microphones, and Rocky Top to finish it off.

Glorious, Aug 93 show! 4 out of 5 stars. Will listen again. Many times.


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