I like this show a good deal, and combined with the previous show in Atlanta, they make up my favorite back to back shows of the tour. The first set flows well and has a nice mixture of songs. The intense Melt is the best jam of the set, but I would recommend listening to the whole set. The second set starts with a long psychedelic Runaway Jim jam ending with a good segue into Free. This Jim is in the same league as the other big exploratory jams of the tour. Carolina serves as an appropriate mid-set breather before a well above average YEM featuring Boyd Tinsley on fiddle. Coil and Bold as Love put the cap on this strong show, which is well worth a download. The Jim, Free, Catapult, SOAM, Dog Faced Boy, and Carolina were released on the Left Nuts bonus disc and the YEM was released as a bonus track on the LivePhish Walnut Creek release so track those down if you want SBD quality of a large chunk of this show.

IMO The "So far from home" section of this Jim is even better than the Lassie part of the Providence Bowie, and I absolutely love the Providence Bowie. Such a great jam.

Actually like the Carolina, too, crowd of course is awfully into it.

And then the YEM, great YEM. Boyd smokes the fucking thing, Trey fillets it, Mike finishes the thing off, eerie vocal jam... Great second set. Five stars.

This Runaway is everything I love about this band rolled up into one amazing and epic musical journey... I'm surprised it's not discussed more really, it's that good...

Drove down from Vermont, Hot as hell, beer went down like H2O. I clearly remember pre-show crammed in a VW bus with 10 other hippies smoking ganja like crazy...then we get a knock on the van by 2 tie dye wearing fuckers who unveiled a sheriffs badge underneath.
I hid my pipe and weed in a WD40 hide a can, but they must have seen by peaking in the windows and confiscated ALL our shit and even wrote us tickets. (guessing they were fake cops as the fine was never on record). so, we just grabbed a more beers and made it inside right before Halleys Comet. we rocked out hard, fantastic show. that JIM though...

Several of these tracks were released commercially as Left Nuts, and the Jim jam is absolutely unbelieveable. Clocking in at approximately 31 minutes, it's spacey and ambient but includes the psychedelic, structured groove of the 95 sound.
Though I can't speak for the rest of the show, fuck, that Jim is nuts.

This was my first Phish show. Little did I know at the time that this was Phish’s twenty-first show in the Tar Heel State. Meanwhile, Phish had played their first show at Walnut Creek the previous June, but from what I heard a couple years later it was not very well-attended at all and was also perhaps not a top show of the 1994 Summer Tour. All of which is to say that the boys from VT were a well-kept secret in the Research Triangle Park area on that early summer evening back in 1995.

I had turned sixteen a little over a month before the show. I had also just finished my sophomore year at a new high school. Because of my father’s career, our family moved on a regular basis, and this was the sixth school I attended in as many years. Music had by then become my personal refuge, the space in my life where I was free to simply let myself be.

For all that, I honestly can’t remember how I first heard the music of Phish. I might have belatedly picked up on a mention of the band by a guy from ninth grade homeroom who, like me, was getting really into the Dead at that time. In any event, at some point during my sophomore year I ended up browsing at a record store that was near the public library where I sometimes went after school to read and otherwise procrastinate doing homework or studying. I remember that I only had enough money to buy a cheap tape. Somehow, I landed on Hoist. Tape purchased, the fifth studio album by the gentlemen from VT didn’t leave my Walkman for months.

By summertime, I was obsessed. A Picture of Nectar was the first Phish album I had on CD, followed quickly thereafter by Lawn Boy. And that was the full extent of my exposure by the time the band announced tour dates for Summer 1995. Then, one night while I was listening to the radio before falling asleep, I heard strange outer space alien sounds coming from the speakers. A voice spoke over the dissonant tones, saying something like “See Phish live in concert.” The voice was clearly speaking to me, or at least it felt that way. A Live One didn’t hit the streets until several weeks after the show at Walnut Creek, but in retrospect I think the audio for the summer tour advertisement was pulled from Tweezer.

Having decided that seeing Phish live in concert was nothing short of a divinely appointed mission, I set about putting a plan into action, despite having never attended anything close to a rock concert up to that point in time. Needless to say, and for too many reasons to list, this was to be a very sensitive and toppest-top-secret mission. Herculean labors followed, but I managed to find myself where I needed to be for one life-changing Friday night.

Nothing in my previous experience prepared me for the lot scene. For a kid from a very conservative Southern Christian home, it was a lot to take in all at once. I remember feeling good and relating to what I was encountering for the first time in a way that I would not have been able to articulate had I been asked, but for the most part I was overwhelmed.

I set up camp on the lawn by what I would eventually learn to call Page side. Walnut Creek is not nearly the size of, say, Alpine Valley, but the view from the lawn is still at a fair distance from the stage. I can only recall bits and pieces of the show itself. Most of all what I remember is the pure joy of being surrounded by sound, bathed in lights, outside looking up above the stage into the open sky beyond.

At the time of the show I knew very few other people who had even heard of Phish. By the time of senior year, that had changed. I began to slowly accumulate a small collection of tapes. Among the first batch were Amy’s Farm, 4/16/92, 8/20/93 (Red Rocks!), 5/27/94 (1st Simple!), 11/21/95, 12/11/95, and this show. Listening back over the years, I feel very fortunate to have had such an auspicious introduction to the live Phish experience.

Most folks will have probably sought out this show for the spaced-out exploratory Runaway Jim and the great YEM featuring Boyd Tinsley. Certainly, these are the historical high points of Set II. However, the Set I ending Dog Faced Boy into Catapult into SOAM should not be missed, either. I also recall being very moved by the instrumental section of Esther, as well as the jam out of Jim into Free. To this day, Free remains very dear to me. At the end of the day, does anything else need to be said about what it means to be a fan of this music?

2nd day of Summer 95 for me. People were trading tickets for single beers at this one. The lots were a lot of fun this summer. Most people were there for the music. Either vets who knew the deal or noobs who were thirsting for the energy. I was somewhere in between.

I loved this show. 1st set was all killer no filler. Halley's opener sets a damn good tone for the night. Cry Baby Cry?? Sweet. Really special for me as I got shut out of the White Album and was very very bitter about it. Melt is my favorite set closer too, it just really leaves you in high spirits going into set break.

2nd set is known for the killer 35 minute Jim. I was pretty shocked to hear it in the 2nd set I don't think I had ever heard of that happening before. I was blown away by the YEM though. It's always nice for a sit in on a jam vehicle and Boyd fit in nicely...

Runaway Jim on 6/16/95 is one of phish's most interesting improvisational Jams. This Jam is only for the experienced "phish fan"... Not to sound like a phish fan snob but wow if your not familiar with this band or just an average fan you will be a lost puppy in the woods...not for you. As for the "experienced" phish fan this is a must download. The only way I could describe this Jam it reminds me of extension of the wacky strange segment of the 12/29/94 David Bowie (Lassie) from the 23 min to 29 min mark.

PHISH, FRIDAY 06/16/1995
WALNUT CREEK AMPHITHEATER
Raleigh, NC
Soundcheck: Caravan, Three Little Birds, Free, Funky Bitch, Jam

SET 1:

Halley's Comet: Standard. >

Down with Disease: Standard. >

Esther: Treys ending solo is on point. >

Ya Mar: Standard.

Cry Baby Cry: Nice – not to be seen again until 11.21.98.

It's Ice: Standard. >

My Mind's Got a Mind of its Own: Standard.

Dog Faced Boy: LOL, they try and start up SOAMelt twice and Fish screws it up, so they do this instead. Fish “Sorry, trying to get my foot started. ->

Catapult: Standard. >

Split Open and Melt: Chunky and muddy middle passage. Intense. Mad dash ending. Strong Melt, would recommend.

SET 2:

Runaway Jim: Incredible. Gets way, way out there. Intense. Dark. Creepy. Evil. Scary vocal jam. Easy all timer and highly recommended. The segue into Free is awesome. ->

Free: Below average. Slow and uninspired.

Carolina: Standard.

You Enjoy Myself[1] Fun special guest.

The Squirming Coil: Beautiful Page solo!

ENCORE:

Bold As Love: Awesome in this slot as always.

Summary: Cool and unique first set. All timer Jim. 4/5.

Replay Value: Split Open and Melt, Runaway Jim

[1] Boyd Tinsley on fiddle.

Halley's Comet was preceded by "Charge!" teases from Trey. Dog Faced Boy was preceded by several false starts of Split Open And Melt by Fish. YEM featured Boyd Tinsley on fiddle for a portion of the jam. The YEM vocal jam contained a Lovin' You (Minnie Riperton) quote from Fish.
JAM CHART VERSIONS
Esther, It's Ice, Split Open and Melt, Runaway Jim, You Enjoy Myself
TEASES
Charge! tease, Lovin' You quote in You Enjoy Myself

More peak Phish goodness from the summer of '95. Set 1 has a particularly beautiful Esther (which I normally have a hard time distinguishing), a fun Cry Baby Cry appearance, and a somewhat odd Dog Faced Boy -> Catapult as well. The It's Ice and SOaM definitely take the cake in this first half of the show; Page is on fire throughout.

Set 2 is certainly one of the more under-appreciated sets in the band's history. Effectively a four-song set, you've got one of the most unique Phish jams to date in Runaway Jim and a spectacular YEM whose quality extends far beyond the Boyd fiddle feature. As others have pointed out, there are certainly parallels to be drawn between this Jim and the Providence Bowie, though I personally find the various sections in Bowie are more distinctly separated than those in the Jim (not to say that makes it better; just a difference in the improvisational structure).

What's so spectacular about shows like this is that even the standard versions of tunes are spectacular. Killer Halleys > DwD to start, super fun Ya Mar, and breathtaking Squirming Coil (which, imo, belongs on the jam charts for its more unique harmonic explorations. Like the ALO version, Page dives deeper than usual on this one).