From: mdbruce@leland.Stanford.EDU (Michael David Bruce) Subject: NYE and stuff. Date: Tue, 5 Jan 93 00:06:38 GMT Ok...I've been pretty silent for the last few months (what do you expect with no shows out here?), but now it is time to go bananas and start posting again because I SAW PHISH AGAIN!! Where: matthew's arena When: First Night, 1992-->93 Who: Phish, me, my brother, some friends, and 6000 other people. Why: Because it's Phish. We drove in all the way from Rochester, NY, starting bright and early at 7am. The radio was sending the soothing sounds of phish shows past, the notes driving us along. We stopped to change drivers and empty bladders at the first eastbound stop on the Mass Pike. That's where it begins. Because the parking lot looked like a circus was coming to town. Or more accurately that a circus was passing through. Phish stickers everywhere. Tie-dyes everywhere. Long hair everywhere. And somewhere, we ran into a friend that we hadn't seen in over two years. She was headed to phish, too, so we started caravaning. It started with two cars and ten people (both with phish stickers). Pretty soon it was three and 13 then 4 and 18, all the way up to 10 and 40+ (can't see in the back of them vans, ya know). And we were passing more along the way. Headline: RELIGIOUS ZEALOTS HEAD TO MECCA: Caravan of beat-up cars with liberal bumper stickers turns heads. Anyway, we turned off early to find our boston friend, the one with the beds, so we didn't see the arrival. We took the train in, and ran out of the station screaming "Possum!!" and "Who's gonna help us finish this champagne?!" and on into the arena. As I entered the lobby and looked at the rather humble surroundings, I thought, "this ain't so bad. Like Union last spring (the greatest phish show ever, as far as I am concerned)" But something much bigger took over when I stepped into the arena. The immensity of it drew my breath out of me. Like being surprised by some- one from around a corner. Unbelievable. People everywhere. A forest of mic stands. And not one but TWO sets of speakers--one about halfway back in the crowd, suspended in air over everyone's heads. We stood under the rightmost of them. We barely had time to exclaim, though. Our train was a bit late, and so were we. Fortunately, so was the band. Lights out. Voices UP! And fishman begins to hammer out the beat to Buried Alive! For a moment, we think it is Poor Heart, but then page comes in with those five staccato piano notes, and we know. There is no holding any of us back. The music takes control of us and shakes our bodies into contortions. I peel my eyes off the stage and watch the rest of the crowd. Insane! They are all being pulled and pushed this way and that. An ant colony in an earthquake. Poor Heart flows perfectly from Buried, even if Trey does screw up the intro (listen to the broadcast when the band tries to pull it off!), but it is Maze and Trey's solo that sends the first fire through the crowd. The end of his solo brings all the hands on the floor into the air and every voice up to the stage. The show flows past in an ever intensifying tumult: Divided Sky is a wall of organ under raging guitar, Foam a frenzy at a faster pace than normal, and antelope--one of the greatest that I have ever heard. At set break, I wander around, find some people, chat, find some water, drink, meet some new people. People are satisfied in walking around. Relaxed, but tired. Waiting for a second wind. The second set is a little more ragged than the first, but it is clearly the bands "fun" set. Bouncing ball jam--brilliant!! Right over the beat for sweet1. The end is a big game of basketball, although it is soured by someone jumping up on the stage to dance in front of the crowd. "Ego, craving distinction, belongs to the narrowness of now." --William Least Heat-Moon. Famous Mockingbird is a riot as always. How many bands these days ask their fans to actually use their imaginations the way phish does? For that matter who *ever* asks it anymore? But the end of the set is another orgasmic jam: Good Times, Bad Times. Set III: I have my doubts as they begin with Mike's Groove. Not enough time! But somewhere in the strobes, the screaming guitar, the bouncing, the fog, Trey's voice proceeds: "Two minutes to New Years!" At the stroke of midnight, as always, Auld Lang Syne, plus streamers and confetti which gets stuck on the lighting rigs in front of the stage. But then brilliance: Auld Lang Syne breaks down to a bluegrass feel, and I think, no wait, I know I hear the beat to Weekapaug!! There it is!! And then, HARPUA!!!!!! With a riotous Fishman speech in the middle: "Yes we can stage a runaway golfcart marathon!" Will there be any more? Of course! The Dude of life comes out, dancing with a lawnmower, and making it good, too! As with the other two sets, it comes as no surprise that the hottest jam is at the end, and Llama is finally and forever the greatest that I have ever seen it played. Amazing!! But the final amazing part of the concert comes not in volume, but in silence. I did not think that it was possible that they could get everyone in the place to be quiet for "Carolina," but they do. And there is total silence--for the *entire* song. I'm sure that some of the people in the back could not hear it (the vent system was actually very loud), but they remained silent. Incredible!! Thank you everyone for making my year! POSTSCRIPT: An item in the boston globe the next day (quoting from memory here): "Was it an earthquake, a train, or a very loud Phish concert that shook the neighborhood around the Northeastern campus last night?" My answer: go with the phish show. -- --Mikey "'But anything we can do is so _trivial_.' mdbruce@leland.stanford.edu And I would say, 'Not trivial, just small. The Hayduke lives! way all life begins.'" --Wayland Drew. ------------------------------ From: Bill LoganSubject: NYE Reply-To: wwlogan@colby.edu Date: Mon, 4 Jan 1993 23:33:40 GMT I'm surprised at how few comments/reactions to the NYE show there have been. I'm still excited about it, here are some of my thoughts: In the first set during "I didn't know" Trey was really getting off on the YAY/BOO's, he was laughing a lot and seemed to get a big kick out of it. I thought it was great. Wilson was good, although the New Haven Wilson in my opinion, was incredible. (Also I don't think anyone ever mentioned their vocal "little" ball Jam the second night--a bold effort) Antelope was of course intense. Second set: During It's Ice (I really love that one) Fish played a cool "tick tock" for a while. (for some reason it made me look at my watch which I thought was kinda funny) The Famous Mocking bird was a hoot, it looked like a big chicken. Also did any one else notice that before Trey sang the last "Gliiidddee" in Glide he waited, (For a while as he's been doing) but just as he took a deep breath and began to sing, he sucked in a little more air and turned away as the audience started to sing without him. Just as if to say (modestly) you can't touch this, then he finished the song. How great. Third set started off strong: Mike's Groove (no Hydrogen) but I thought the arena was a little too bright for the otherwise-my favorite-strobe lights. Harpua was a major Highlight. I think Mike forgot to start the song and Trey said something about it too him. Also did anyone catch the reference to the "backstage ritual" that occurs on New Year's as well Trey started laughing and quickly continued. I wonder. Some friends of mine near the front row said that the Dude of life was there, sort of slam dancing and generally being and asshole yelling things like "make Burlington proud" before he went on in the third set. Anyone else see this? Still the Toro was great. Well that's it for now, -Bill EGGPLANT :-( ----------------------------------------------- From: ncole@nyx.cs.du.edu (Noah Cole) Subject: NYE Comments (No Setlist :-)) Date: Fri, 1 Jan 93 20:55:08 GMT Well, after a horrible trip down to Boston ($72 Ticket in New Hampshire- boy are those NH State Cops assholes!), we arrived at the Y and quickly managed to meet Ellis (Hi there!) and then IU managed to meet Rich and his party (Hi Rich, Jeff!) on my out to dinner. Once at the show (gotr in the dorrs around 7:00).. I was getting really excited. I was not ph, shit excited that it was a hockey arena but that's OK.. so I then managed to meet Tony Went by spoting the net shirt he was wearting (nice job Matt.. where's mine?). Now for the REAL stuff.. I didn't bother keeping a setlist because I knew that other people out there woulod.. but I do have some highlights.. in no random order: Sound System: BUY A NEW ONE! One.. one.. one (Echo Echo Ech) Security: Loosen up a bit; I saw some goy who looked like he was on a bad trip gett hassled and then dragged out and down the stairs head first! Musical Highlights: Bouncing was hot IMHO.. people really got into it and it was cool to see everyone bouncing from the second level. Run Like An was also tight and Trey looked like he was having a good time.. on that note Pagve looked like he was having an even better then normal show. Mike even smiled a few times (Does this sound like we're talking about a cvertain singer in the Grateful Dead :-))... I loved Mike's GHroove, the entire midnight activities, Fishman's bazooka of confetti, the famous mokingbird was strange (who was that- crew?), Dude of Life was HOT and should have done more sogs. The lights were well done. The Barbewrshop was INCREDIBLE; not only was it in front of 6000 people WITHOUT a mike but 6000 people stated, er stayed QUIET! I didn't see 1500 people at Minneapolis do that! Well, there was one person ("I love you Page).. but. Overall, it was incrediblew and I was leaving without believing what I had justy seen- waiting for more. I'm sorry if this is a bit random and unconnectedt but I was up with Rich Fromm (yeah Rich- thanks for everything from me and my brother) ( also thanks for Jeff and your friends for the Beer and stuff!).. time to sleep -Noah -- Noah Cole "Outside is America, NCOLE@MACALSTR.EDU Macalester College and also the car park" ncole@nyx.cs.du.edu St. Paul, MN 55105 - Bono, 27 December 1989 cncole@coos.dartmouth.edu 612-696-7388 Dublin aj909@cleveland.freenet.edu ------------------------------------------------ From: Phil Goldsmith Subject: 12/31/92 I noticed that this show wasn't in your review files, so I figured I should mention it, being that it was one of the best phish experiences I've ever had. It was my first new year's gig, and I've seen them all since then. It was my favorite new years experience, by far...it was the last time phish would play an intimate venue for New Years Eve, and the entire crowd knew it. I've never been to a new england general-admission show that was this mellow, with no one crowding, no one pushing, everyone just dancing and having an amazing time. It was the first time that phish experimented with silly special effects and stage antics (lowering the "famous mockingbird" from the ceiling) and the show definitely had the most dramatic countdown to the new year, ever. Right in the middle of a fantastically tight and blistering "Mike's Song", Trey began counting down, from 30, never stopping the hecticness of the jam, easing perfectly into auld lang syne, perfectly into weekapaug. In all the ensuing years, I never saw a more explosive reaction to trey saying "happy new year everybody!". The concert was held in Northeastern's hockey rink, and the ice was barely covered by a thin cardboard covering, which had large chunks ripped off by the end of the extremely long and satisfying show. By the end of the third set, people were skating and sliding around on the exposed ice, and the atmosphere was nothing less than magical. It is a show that I look back on with fondness and also depression, because I am reminded that there will never be a new years show like it again. It's hard to believe that I bought my ticket for this 6,000 seat venue just a week before the show...a laughable concept, nowadays. -Jon Herman email address joats@aol.com -------------------------------------------------------- From: jkraft@lynx.dac.northeastern.edu (john kraft) Subject: NYE Show comment Date: Fri, 1 Jan 1993 07:24:55 GMT WOW!!! I'll let people who can better describe the show give the more verbose comments. The NYE show was my first phish performance and I must say I was a happy buckaroo. Happy New Year Everybody. Peace Out- Johnny K. ----------------------------------------- From: phisher@aol.com Subject: (none) Reply-To: phisher@aol.com Date: Sat, 2 Jan 1993 04:08:19 GMT >From root Fri Jan 1 23:08:51 1993 From: phisher@aol.com X-Mailer: America Online Mailer To: phish@fuggles.acc.virginia.edu Subject: NYE-Oh What a Night! Date: Fri, 01 Jan 93 23:08:51 EST Message-ID: <9301012308.tn14052@aol.com> Dude! What can I say? The New Year's show rocked! Phish was playing with *so* much *energy*!!! Also, they went out on great jams in almost every song. I won't put the whole set list on because I'm sure someone else will be able to do it more accurately than I. Here is what stuck out for me though. IMHO-Stash, Poor Heart, and Divided Sky were the best songs they played. Divided... was huge! It must have lasted 15 minutes! A rocking Harpua was also to be had with a hilarious story.(complete with Fishman screaming incoherently about golf carts) The 3rd set started with Mike's Song. Then, Trey did the count down. The New Year was brought in with a smoking Weekapaug Groove and confetti falling from the ceiling.(BTH, I think they skipped I Am Hydrogen. What happened to never playing these three songs apart?) Other highpoints-A great Gamehenge story.(Down, down, down...we're all fossils for millions of years!)/During Mockingbird, someone was suspended over the stage in a bird suit/ball jam during My Sweet One/new sign signals. About that last-When you entered, you were given a paper explaining about five new signals to be invoked by signs that Trey had. Such as, if Trey held up a sign that said "Mass Hysteria", everyone had to scream and, well, act hysterical. All in all. A great show. Thanks to ya'll for making it so cool. I saw lots of tapers.(hint, hint) I hope there will be a tape surfacing soon. :-) Well, I'm going on two hours of sleep in the last two days. (Road trips are hell, but its worth it.) I need some sleep. I don't want a gold fish. I don't want a goldfish. -Zach --------------------------------- From: jeg5s@uva.pcmail.Virginia.EDU Subject: Other NYE comments Reply-To: jeg5s@uva.pcmail.Virginia.EDU Date: Sun, 3 Jan 1993 08:33:45 GMT 6306 Article 6306 (3 more) in rec.music.phish: From: jeg5s@uva.pcmail.Virginia.EDU Subject: Marriage in Lemuria :-) Message-ID: <1993Jan3.020233.19935@uvaarpa.Virginia.EDU> Sender: mmdf@uvaarpa.Virginia.EDU (Mail System) Reply-To: jeg5s@uva.pcmail.Virginia.EDU Organization: The Internet Date: Sun, 3 Jan 1993 02:02:33 GMT About two hours ago, I successfully proposed to my girlfriend/roomate of three years, Kristen of Lemuria, on the very steps upon which I met her three and a half years ago. She had fussed about walking out in the freezing cold, but I had been hiding the ring for two weeks (an oval blue topaz surrounded by diamonds), and after hearing Diamond Girl thursday night, just couldn 't wait anylonger. BTW, the descriptions of NYE seem extremely lacking. To begin with, Diamond Girl is by Seals and Crofts, which puts it at about the same chart-time as all the other covers Phish do (from GTBT to Ride Captain Ride). --MORE--(44%) The famous mockingbird was someone in a costume on a harness, lifted high above the stage for the entire song. The Dude of Life pushed in a lawnmower, continuing this odd obsession with 12-year-old-boyness, and, as with the famous mockingbird, being none afraid to fly straight in the face of the People magazine crap-commentary of calling them characterized by too much "jokiness". The encore was cool for a 3-set extravaganza after a long week after a short break, but, hey! We heard both Fire and Carolina as encores earlier in the week. It seems apparent, as well from the repitions of songs (compare 12-28-92 to 11-25-92, or the first set of 12-31-92 to 12-28&29-92), that there may be CONSCIOUS efforts to discourage touring. (BTW, I saw three people get kicked out for fake tickets.) Also, why no fanfare over the 12-29-92 Bike? It was psychotic, and introduced Jon's new cloak ("I've got a cloak, its a bit of a joke....) Cyall soon..... --MORE--(89%) ELLIS OF LEMURIA email: jeg5s@uva.pcmail.virginia.edu snail mail: P.O. Box 3240, Charlottesville, VA 22903 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ motto: keep smiling, gliding, and riding that train!! :-) ELLIS OF LEMURIA email: jeg5s@uva.pcmail.virginia.edu snail mail: P.O. Box 3240, Charlottesville, VA 22903 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ motto: keep smiling, gliding, and riding that train!! :-) ----------------------------- From: beowulf@wam.umd.edu (ames) Subject: new year's mockingbird Date: Mon, 4 Jan 1993 04:49:24 GMT apparently, the dude in the bird suit was brad. one wonders how they convinced him to do it. hello! to all the net people i met out there... particularly to matt "chocofiend" laurence, who was kind enough to put up with me. or rather, put me up. whatever. :-) anyone else - i was the one in the 2nd row, center with the phish.net banner. take it easy, all, happy new year. (sleepsleepsleep) amie -- I don't love you anymore since you ate my dog. beowulf@wam.umd.edu beowulf@eng.umd.edu =============================================================================== From: Rich Fromm 04-Jan-1993 0018 Subject: more NYE thoughts Reply-To: fromm@rock.enet.dec.com Date: Mon, 4 Jan 1993 05:48:01 GMT koverber@cs.ulowell.edu (Kurt Overberg) writes (Subject: NYE Set List) |Set I |===== | that was "Buried Alive" |II |== ... |My Sweet One |Stash (everyone in audience clapped along with woodblocks!) they did the Big Ball jam in between these |III |=== |Mike's Song --> |I am Hydrogen --> |Weakapaug Groove i'd have to check the tape to be sure, but i don't think they did "I Am Hydrogen"; i think it was more like: Mike's Song -> midnight countdown (with Auld Lang Syne) -> Weekapaug Groove anyway, a few comments... the narration between Col Forbin and Mockingbird, and the narration during Harpua, were pretty wild; anytime they were doing something like that, or Fishman playing vaccuum, i couldn't help but thinking how strange this was going to be to somebody who just happened to be listening to the radio the next day and flipped past WBCN, not knowing what was being broadcast did anybody see who came out of the Mockingbird suit? our guess was that it was the Dude of Life, but that's just a guess; having this guy in a big bird costume hovering above the stage was kind of funny at first, but it got tiring by the time it was over while trey was right in that it was kind of neat to do a barbershop quartet without mics in front of 6,000 people, i think it was even more incredible that they were able to get 6,000 people to be totally silent; it really worked pretty well - in fact, it was quieter than most of the times where they've tried it for 1 or 2 thousand people while the acoustics sucked (what do you want from a hockey rink?), i still had a good time at the show; it was a bit bizarre seeing phish in such a large venue - if they continue to play arenas, they really do need a new sound system; i ran into many people that i knew, but it was also one of the only shows i've been too where i DIDN'T run into a bunch of people that i knew were there if a tree is run, it should definitely be from a tape from WBCN - it sounds a hell of a lot better than any audience tape possibly will; i've got sets 2 and 3, but unfortunately we were still driving home when set 1 started, so i don't have all of it glad to hear that the triple at the Y was nice, ellis; the double rooms were about the size of prison cells; we made the best of the situation, and ended up staying up until about 6 am; unfortunately our only hope of musical enjoyment there was by cranking up the volume and using jeff's headphones as speakers - oh well; if i had to do it again i'd probably bag the Y and just drive home a nice healthy dose (thanks j) of phish; so, how long 'til spring tour? - rich (the guy with the neato twirling thing) ---------------------------------------- From: face@world.std.com (Scott Shurr) Subject: My 2 cents on NYE Date: 4 Jan 93 12:50:51 GMT Hi, Just thought I'd put in a few words about what I liked about the NYE show. I was surprised at how absent the security people were once people had gotten in the door. I didn't see anyone being hassled for the whole show. I was sitting in the back facing the stage, and the sound was very good from back there. I really like "Buried Alive"; it's one of those tunes that keeps replaying itself in my mind, and I was glad that they started with it. Wilson was kind of nice, but I was really pleased to hear that nice long Divided Sky. I wandered the floor during the break, and was pleased that Shelly saw my Phishnet shirt and introduced herself. She's the only nethead I talked to, though I did catch a glimpse of someone wearing the new style shirt. I was a little disappointed that no net gathering place ever got posted to the net, and I didn't get to meet more people. The Famous Mockingbird thing was neat, and I also wondered if it was the Dude of Life in the bird costume (which didn't look much like a mockingbird actually, but it was a nice idea). The new signals sounded cool on the next days broadcast, especially the "mass hysteria" during the flying saucer rap. Good Times Bad Times really cooked. I was hoping for a Hendrix cover, and really liked the Fire encore. All in all it was a most satisfying birthday experience for me. --Scott face@world.std.com ------------------------------ From: jxr1092@ritvax.isc.rit.edu (Jens Rodenberg) Subject: NYE comments Reply-To: jxr1092@ritvax.isc.rit.edu Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1993 00:50:12 GMT Wow, what a great show! It was nice meeting everybody at the Fort gathering and at the NYE show, and hope to see everybody during Spring Tour... There were a few times during the show when I thought that everybody in the band was quite proficient at their instruments with the exception of Trey, who learned how to play guitar by watching Headbanger's Ball on MTV, and the concept of the whole band is just one big joke on us phans, sort of like Spinal Tap (sorry, can't get the umlaut over the n). That was only a few short moments though... then of course there's the other end of the spectrum, during improvisational sections, where the whole band can see into the future (or another dimension) and determine where the jam is going to go, then base the actual jam around the jam that would have happened... (does that make sense?) Someone mentioned poor sound quality, but I thought it was excellent for a hockey arena. The only times it was marginal was during Trey's narrations when there was lots of echo, but usually it was too loud for that... I was quite satisfied with the sound during most of the show. I was in the net.section, which was in the Page Zone, pretty close to the stage, first row of seats. That totally uncoordinated mockingbird (it looked almost like a skinny Big Bird) was very funny- I haven't laughed that hard in quite a while. To me it seemed like a complete mockery of other bands who do stunts like that while thinking that they're coolest thing to happen since frozen yogurt. The Dude of Life singing Diamond Girl was pretty funny too, mainly because of the cheesiness, but also because he's (IMHO, of course) a pretty bad singer. I think that tune ranks up there with the Bob Weir and Rob Wasserman version of Misty. I thought the audience was very good... I didn't see/hear any yahoos (the idiots who go to a show to get drunk and scream WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO throughout the entire show)... it seemed like everyone was there for the same reason, which was to enjoy the music (and humor) of a very cool band. It seemed pretty amazing that the whole place was quiet during Carolina. Unfortunately, something like that doesn't happen very often. Too many bands are plagued with a popularity that seems to attract assholes to shows. I've been to Dead shows where only one yahoo hampered the experience for hundreds of people in the general vicinity, and at the Allman Brothers show I saw over the summer, there only seemed to be a few people who were there to *listen* to the music. That's what I get for going to a weekend show, I guess. While I wish plenty of success for Phish, I'm glad that they're getting very little radio airplay (and especially no eMpTyV videos) which of course keeps show attendance down and limits it (in the most part) to true phans, but I can't help but think that Phish will eventually have a mystique very similar to the Dead's which will draw tons of people to shows whether or not they like, or are there to listen to, the music. Steve Franklin writes: >lastly, shouldn't "fluffhead" be "PHLUFFHEAD"?! ;*) Of course not, it should be phluphphhead! Jens EGGPLANT!!!