, attached to 1993-04-23

Review by vindog

vindog I just wanted to add some detail about the signs during Lengthwise. Around this time, as Phish's popularity was growing (maybe even exponentially), there was talk among people, especially newer fans, about the role of the Fishman songs: Was he poking fun at them? Based on the choice Bike, probably not, but Cracklin' Rosie...? His time was clearly exceptional to the rest of the show (almost like a really weird version of Drums->Space).

I think the rest of the band took advantage of that during Lengthwise. First note that the signs were run back and forth across the stage behind Fishman, and well out of his sight (if he knew, he played it off well). In particular, the first sign that came out, and was out for a bit before the rest came out, said: ``When you're through playing, you're through". In the context of the gym, and the other signs (``We win in our gym"), this seems normal. But mixing acid and newcomers, one can see how the band could be punking the crowd (and even Fishman) here: ``When you're through playing, you're through" might seem like the band was also questioning Fishman's time, and maybe they are on the verge of kicking him out of the band (the horror!) b/c of his insistence on doing this stuff. If so, see one of Fish's crushing comebacks during Catapult on 7/16/94.

That, of course, could be wrong, but it's always fun to speculate (harmlessly).


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