The Scene: Many, many, many, many ticketless, and many cops to make sure
no one had too much fun. I swear, providence has more unmarked cop cars
than any city needs. But this doesn't really matter that much.

I got into the show really early, and Ann and I decided to walk around and
check out the t-shirts and all that fun stuff. Then we made our way over
to the Waterwheel table where were made a purchase that lead to us being
awarded the Holy Grail - Aftershow Passes! I'll get to the description of
the "party" later...

The Show:
[Timings are for the START of the songs and are not completely accurate]
Set I: Tweezer [8:05]> Taste [8:25], Bouncin' [8:35], Funky Bitch [8:38],
Ginseng Sullivan [8:45], Limb by Limb [8:49], Lawn Boy [9:00], Charcter 0
[9:04] [Set ends at 9:11]

Set II: Birds of a Feather [9:53]> 2001 [10:10]> Brother [10:25], Brother
Outro [10:38], Ghost [10:48]> Time is Tight* [10:55]> Lizards [10:57],
David Bowie [11:10] [didn't write down end time]

E: Harry Hood

*aka "Can't Turn Me Loose" or "The Blues Brothers Theme"

[you'll notice that songs divided by segues are written about in one
paragraph, if you don't like this, let me know]

Set I:

TWEEZER as an opener got me pretty damn psyched, and was quite fitting
seeing as they finished up Friday's show with Tweeprise. I got the
feeling throughout this whole show that the funk was being toned down a
bit, and while Tweezer is always pretty funky, this one had some spacier
elements to it as well. Being the first song on my two night run, I
unfortunately don't remember as much as I wanted to, but I was delighted
to hear the jam degenerate (in a good way) to some funk out of which
sprang a Trey-lead segue into TASTE. Let me just say right now that Trey
was definitely in rock-star mode the whole weekend, hamming it up on
stage, and taking several waka-waka solos during the run. Taste had a very
nice solo by Trey, but it is one of those types of solos that I have a
tough time judging at shows. I think it was probably above-average, if
that means anything. I just felt a lot more emotion coming from Trey than
I usually do in Taste.

BOUNCIN' was next, and the singing of my section mates was oh-so-enjoyable.

FUNKY BITCH, the rock favorite of jaded men everywhere, came up next, and
we were treated to one of the longest EHHHHHHHHHHH-very from Mike that I
have ever heard. The other parts of the Bitch were unremarkable (but fun
nonetheless).

GINSENG SULLIVAN is a song that I've been seeing a lot lately, but luckily
it's my favorite of the bluegrass songs. This actually got a smile out of
the unhappy parents that were sitting next to us at this show. Phish
really has something for everyone.

LIMB BY LIMB followed, with a jam that I was VERY impressed with. While I
haven't really latched on to any Limb jams before, this one seemed to have
direction and melody in Trey's solo that I think others have lacked. Most
of the time when Trey starts up the high-pitched effects in this song,
they start to lose me a bit, but this solo was VERY tight.

LAWN BOY was up next, and Page did his usual routine of standing up and
crooning like Perry Como. Speaking of Perry Como, does everyone here know
that he did an album of heavy metal favorites in his signature style? Or
maybe the heavy metal bands did Perry Como favorites in their signature
style. I forget...

CHARACTER 0 closed out the set nicely. It was nowhere near as good as
12/31/96, which set the standard for "Phish Arena Rock"

Setbreak: I finally got to meet Bill Marconi and Matt Frankel. We chatted
for a while, and it was finally great to see people who I only knew by
their words. Bill looks a little bit like Don Glasgo (trombone for ween
'96 and professor at Dartmouth). I found out that rmp people are as cool
in real life as they are here (and reaffirmed this at the gathering the
next day :)

Set II

BIRDS OF A FEATHER started up with some guitar riffs by Trey and then a
driving bass line by Mike which continued throughout the whole song. The
chorus, in case you want help recognizing the song, is "Birds of a
feather/are flocking outside." From that, one would think that the song is
about conformity, although I can't be sure, since it was kind of hard to
hear in there. I'm pretty sure I heard the words "ritual drum" which gives
a vague hint that the song is about the conformity WITHIN the Phish
"community" (drum circles). The other lyrics were pretty cool as well (and
supportive of my theory), although I can't remember them. But I'm probably
completely off with my ideas about this song. It definitely has a Talking
Heads feel to it, like everyone was saying on the net and at the Gathering
on Sunday. The jam was pretty cool, but it didn't really go too far, IMHO.
It seems to be grounded in the same driving bass line from Mike
throughout, with very few, if any chord changes (I'm probably going to
catch hell from a music major here). Trey and Page did some great soloing
over the essentially static rythym section in this song, but my favorite
Phish moments are when songs break out of their molds. I suppose the mold
for BOAF isn't hard enough for them to break out yet, so I'm just being a
jerk. Anyway, the end of the song degenerated into space, and after 17
minutes (did I just complain about a 17 minute new song? somebody slap
me), the drum beat for 2001 started up. This was one of the great 2001s
that we've been hearing lately, lots of funk with a little space thrown
in. (Jeremy Goodwin has a nice name for this, but I'll let him share it
with all of you). Kuroda was NUTS on the lights. I thought I was seening
some new effects, but I think I was just seeing virtuosity on the lights
that was above Kuroda's usual greatness. Of course, when he tones them
down a bit, people decide that it's time to throw the glowsticks. A lot of
them ended up on stage, which is not too cool in my book. After 15 minutes
of 2001 mahem, Trey started a percussive vocal jam, sort of playing
cymbals with his mouth. It sounded REALLY cool, and the rest of the band
joined in with their own percussive sounds. Trey still had the delay loop
going, which is why I indicated a segue into BROTHER when he played the
main riff. This was by far the spaciest and coolest Brother I've heard,
although I have only heard a few. It got REALLY spacey, with Trey hopping
all over his pedals and Page on the clavinet. Trey kind of ripped the band
back into reality by playing the main riff, and this listener thought it
was an ugly transition.

I can only assume the band thought so too, because they did the whole
thing with the "radio-friendly" version, which was essentially the BROTHER
OUTRO that they had just screwed up.

Then, they decided to play something "radio unfriendly" and "very long and
very slow." I had no idea what it might be, but they ended up playing
GHOST, which certainly isn't that slow in my book. This was a typically
great Ghost, and I love this song every time I hear it. My memory is
failing me here, but the segue into TIME IS TIGHT was nicely done, and it
was great to hear a cool tease/jam like this one. (FWIW, I didn't know it
was called Time Is Tight until someone at the gathering edited my setlist
to say so. If someone can dispute this, go right ahead.) Amazingly enough,
this jam found its way to LIZARDS without stopping. I remember thinking
that it should have gone into something else (maybe "Walk Away") but I
forget. I usually think of Lizards as a fun song, but not particularly
moving. I actually LOVED this Lizards, mostly because they were putting a
lot of emotion into the jam, like they were actually trying to make it
sound better than usual. I thought this song would end the set, but...

The hi-hat for DAVID BOWIE kicked in. I couldn't believe they were
starting Bowie at 10 past 11! This was a nice Bowie, with the ending being
repeated more often than usual, all with digital delay from Trey. I think
they even fooled Chris! I know the description here isn't that great,
but...

Between the second set and encore, Ann and I made our way "backstage,"
which was actually the lounge at the very rear of the venue, above the 200
level.

Encore:

Watching from the lounge, HARRY HOOD didn't receive all of my attention,
since I was so psyched to be at the Aftershow Party. I do remember liking
it a lot, and I've been VERY impressed with the recent variation in Harry
(12/30/97). It seems that no song is too sacred now.

Aftershow Party:

Anyway, Hood ended and the lights came up. I was disappointed to see
people *paying* for beer at the party. I had always assumed that that sort
of thing was free. We couldn't find any food either! Ann and I did snag a
glass of water for free, and sat down at a table. As we were sitting
down, who came from the back elevator but Mike! He went and sat a couple
tables away from us. Before I got up the nerve to go say hello, he walked
back into the room with the bar, where most of the people were gathering.

After a few minutes, I realized that I wouldn't have many more chances to
talk with the members of Phish in my life, so Ann and I went to the other
room to seek him out. There were only a few people around him, and there
were a LOT of people at the party. I was glad to see he wasn't being
mobbed. After watching him talk to a few people, I finally got up the
nerve to introduce myself. "Hi Mike, I'm Dan," I said, holding out my hand
to him. He said "Hi Dan." I told him "Great show tonight, and he said
thanks." While I had his attention, I decided to ask him a question that I
had been wondering about for the few days before the show. I recently
found out that Jan Kerouac (daughter of Jack) had written a book called
"Trainsong." (It's out of print, so I unfortuately have yet to find a
copy). So I say to Mike, "I have a question about the song Train Song."
"Sure, go ahead." he tells me. So I ask him if it is related to the book
by Jan Kerouac, and after a clarifying who Jan is, he tells me "I don't
know. That's interesting, I'll have to check that out." I told him "Thanks
again for the show." and left, because at this point I had no more planned
questions, and spontanaeity would have been a disaster at this point. He
also had somes friends with him, and I didn't want to bother him that
much.

Mike is the NICEST guy, and if he was being patronizing to me or anyone
else, I had no idea. He seems to really enjoy talking to the fans. He is
shorter than I am (5'11") which was pretty surprising to see.

Sorry for all of the minute detail here, but it was an amazing experience
for me, and I just wanted to share it with all of you. If I had to sum up
the aftershow experience, I would say that the party was a lot LESS cool
than I thought it would be but meeting Mike was MUCH cooler than I ever
imagined.

Stay tuned for the review of Sunday night (and the gathering!). Right now
I have to go catch up on homework that I neglected to see these amazing
shows. (and to write this review!)

To sum up: You probably want the second set (8), and maybe want the first
(5). You definitely want to meet Mike :) The whole show gets a 6.5, if you
can't handle averages.

Deeper than the following night in Providence, brighter than the previous night on Long Island, and consistently exciting. You can't go wrong with the Island Tour shows. Tweezer > Taste is a great way to open a show (and both tunes are treated well here), 2001 and Ghost are standout versions, but everything's pretty much spic'n'span. If you like the band you're pretty much guaranteed to like this run of shows, so what in the world are you still reading this review for? Download, baby. Download.