, attached to 1994-06-14

Review by SplitOpenAndMule

SplitOpenAndMule I was very surprised to read the reviews here after listening to the show. The setlist has some completely unique moments, and I thought the playing was the most consistently inspired throughout a show I've heard since mid May, and there've been some good shows since then!

Firstly, the soundcheck. Though I don't know of any recordings circulating for this, an experimental Makisupa and Voodoo Chile Jam (likely a rollover joke from 6/13/94's pre-encore tease of the song) reads very well.

First set second song Guelah post-Asse Festival pauses for a Sweet Adeline (that would be noteworthy enough) and is then followed by the wild psychedelia of an excellent Digital Delay Loop Jam (third ever appearance of that jam), before returning to Guelah. Heads should be turning. Rift then captures the sizzling energy the song was written with perfectly, both the intro and outro of DWD has some extra churning effects, and Fee's outro is slightly more extended than usual and is bubblingly beautiful. A few masterfully played songs later, IDK pauses for the very rare unamplified MSO, and then returns to IDK to complete the set's 2nd surprise sandwich. And finally, Split Open and Melt doesn't let up, so much so that at the short set length of 58 minutes, the band decides to end the set after Melt instead of trying to top that jam with anything else.

Second set you get the first set-opening Frankenstein, and what a way to start a set! David Bowie then requires multiple listens to appreciate all it does. The band is locked in, and this jam goes many exciting, diverse, gritty, groovy, DEG-like places. Highly impressive playing all around. It's Ice also gets taken to some very pleasing patterns, and even Sparkle sounds especially on-point tonight. Then comes the YEM, which, following the 6/11/94 Red Rocks version, gives these 2 YEMs a bid for the biggest and best back-to-back versions of a single song played to date. '94 YEMs have been getting extra experimental, if not entirely leaving YEM structure then creating new sub-structures within it. This version straight rocks, with the old school On Broadway tease throwback, and a section where the crowd is so swept away everyone claps along to a mellow section in Trey's solo before getting their heads blown off by the rest of the song. The rare -> out of YEM (3rd of the show after the segues from DWD -> Fee -> MFMF) leads to HYHU and a superb Fishman vocal performance and extra funky vacuum solo in Bike. I love Mike's vocals and playing throughout the set closing Possum. Trey rocks the Possum as he does the Sample encore, and I'm happy for Sample to be the first Hoist song to be given the encore nod.

Also, this night led to some significant band interactions with ZZYZX, recounted in his highly enjoyable tour memoir This Has All Been Wonderful.

The playing tonight is tight and filled with the deep listening creativity I love most in Phish shows. Don't hesitate to listen and Enjoy this sweet one.


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