First a quick setlist note: that 2001 > Magilla > 2001 looks more complicated than it is. The 2001 reprise lasts just a few seconds before Trey starts playing Tweezer. You won't mind.

...

Ramble On received canonical treatment eight shows later (and you shouldn't hesitate to seek out that performance) and is pretty much by-the-book here, but the delicate complexity of the song creeps into a wonderfully nimble Mike's Song. By this point Phish's uptempo rock tunes were benefitting greatly from the yearlong ongoing experiment in minimalist funk polyrhythms; the Mike's jam blends wah/clav funk noise and rock'n'roll anger in equal measures. It's not an era-defining jam or anything, just another quarter-hour of balls-out sophisticated jamming from a band drunk on its own power. The rest of Set One proceeds along similar lines, featuring dance jams of almost pornographic virtuosity.

Standard Piper to open the second set, a little restrained in comparison to its current form. I don't know why Wilson turns up in so many second sets; it doesn't usually keep the improvisatory momentum going (not to my tastes anyway). This version features a short metal-riff jam that holds some interest, I suppose. Then it's 2001 > Magilla > teeeeeease > Tweezer, and it's as fun as it looks on the page. This is a *really* frisky 2001! The band brings things down in a skillful decrescendo. Trey gets the idea to dive into Magilla, Fishman's with him, things are a little rickety, Page hops gladly into the fray, Fishman's skittering around on spider legs, Mike takes a brief solo - pure 'why the fuck not?' goofiness at a high level of casual expertise. (Do folks realize what a talented jazz drummer Jon Fishman is?)

During Phish's mid-90's solidification, Tweezer was one of the band's great outstretched blank canvases for experimentation, and the gorgeous 8/1/98 version recalls the song's old pre-funk variety while maintaining all the emotional depth and patience that characterize the band's music since the watershed Fall '97 tour. This is a divine Tweezer: understated, precise late-nite music that ends with dark dissolution rather than climax precisely because all four band members are prepared to follow even half-formed impulses. It's 'ambient' jamming of a sort and (unsurprisingly) wouldn't be out of place in the Lemonwheel 'Ring of Fire' set, but the darkness of the closing few minutes prefigures the evil ambience of 12/28/98. Fluffhead is the perfect tonic after this complex exploration. What a set! (There are four more songs after Fluff's Travels, but by this point the set is past peak intensity and interest.)

Get this show. Get this show.

Writing a review in 2014 of what still has to be among my favorite shows I've seen since 1998. This is before Clear Channel and when the lot was a rampaging circus of goods and hilarity. Like when you could still buy just about anything in row after row of cars.

It's funny that a couple of the reviews mention how trashed some folks in the crowd were. I remember it being that way too. I mean there were several people I saw being taken away on stretchers or just straight up no longer in control or probably even sure of where they were at.

When you yourself are on a pretty ripping hit of acid yourself the stream of fucked up poops being hauled away makes you oh so paranoid about turning into that guy too... That part wasn't so good at times, but the trip evened out due to the awesomeness of this show.

What a treat this show was though. I'll note that this was still when marshmallows were being thrown in addition to glow sticks.

Ramble On cover to open gets the crowd going. This is a really hot cover of the song and Trey really commits to this fully. It is just a smoking start to the show. Mikes - Esther - Weekapaug with the WG being one of the harder / faster versions of the song with a huge (I mean huge) glow stick and marshmallow war.

Let me just say how much I appreciate getting that Esther even though Page kind of flubs the organ music intro. It was just a rare one up to then and a very rare one after. I for one feel lucky to have caught this very sparingly played song.

Guyute, Fikus, Birds just keep with the high energy and very spirited jamming that was the hallmark of that awesome summer of 98. They really had a special presence with high paced chewy jams that you are really seeing them 3.0 in a sharper and more vertical speed vs. horizontal if that makes any sense. I guess what I mean is the jams were spirited and sprawling grooves that they really nailed when they were at their very best. 3.0 of late is really reminding me of that, but in a higher paced and more vertically deep jam.

Closing the set with Funky Bitch that followed a great cool down with Lawn Boy capped a very blues / funk high energy spirited jam set.

Set two opens with a high paced and jammy Piper that goes into a sick Wilson. As I recall, CK5 nailed... I mean nailed the lights on this one. I think that made this a very memorable moment in the show. The darkness really kicked in and the lights really stretched out into the lawn amazingly on this song.

The Also Sprach - Magilla - Also Sprach was just signature 98 jam out goodness.

Tweezer and Fluffhead were just slamming as a one two punch and are both very well worth listening to. They rip into Tweezer via a thrashing Trey transition into it. This is a funky one. The Fluffhead was one of the better versions too.

This set up a Brian and Robert breather. This is was a very pleasant and well done version of it too. Another debut / cover of Neil Young Albuquerque was another gift and this got the crowd an awesome breather couple songs.

Chalkdust and a thrashing version of it followed by Frankenstein to close out the set made it take right back off and even out nicely.

This show encores with the Jane's Addiction cover of Been Caught Stealing. The crowd went NUTS and was singing along with a gusto to this one making it a super fun encore. How on Earth can you ever complain about getting a Tweeprise cap on it for two songs?

This show opened with a great Ramble On, had two cover debuts in addition, and a very rare Esther blended into a smoking rendition of 98 Phish in a stellar song selection.

You need to check this one out if you haven't. This one was a special one.

Out of all the shows I saw at Alpine Valley, this one is my favorite. It helped that I was now feeling comfortable on tour and had a lot of the kinks worked out from the year before, but it was the band and the crowd that brought the heat this Saturday night.

Before the show started, we saw a guy sitting on the lip (of the lawn near the bathrooms) pull out a huge sack to show off to his friends. A kid in a yellow security shirt who couldn't be over 21 walked by and snatched it up saying, "Thank you," to the guy. We couldn't help but laugh at his misfortune. "Only bring what you need for the show!" his buddy yelled at him.

The second classic non-musical moment of the show occurred during set break. We walked back to the lodge bathroom area and it was horribly packed. I noticed an opening around the three step area and we tried to get over there for some space. Little did we know that the space was being created by a naked guy pissing on himself with a group of security guarding the borders until he stopped. The crowd of people looked like statues, unable to look away from this guy jabbering to himself. Writing this in 2011, I'm glad many of these moments don't happen at shows very much anymore.

Now for the music: The entire crowd went ape-shit with the first notes of Ramble On, as they did most of the night. This time the band's jukebox hit a winner. If only I had stayed on until the Vernon Downs version. The Mike's/Week wasn't nearly as hot as the version the year before, but it didn't disappoint. The rest of the first set was pretty standard rocking 98 Phish. Everyone we talked to mentioned the Esther bust out and the lack of serious jamming in the first set. We were all prepped for a blowout!

Boy did the band deliver. The short Piper bled into my first jammed out Wilson and first Magilla! The real treat of the set was the now famous Tweezer. This still stands as a top 3 version for me, maybe #1 (2-28-03 anyone?). The jam starts immediately (rare during this era) and flows effortlessly behind Mike's lead. Along with the Riverport Gin earlier in my summer run, this was the transformative moment causing me to go from a Phish fan to a total phreak. I had to go on a real tour run (more than 5 shows) and I had to do it as soon as possible. The transition into Fluffhead caused all in our area to give high 5s and hugs. This was the first show for me where total strangers wanted to hug over and over again. Here's another show where the band and crowd needed two songs to cool things down. The jukebox continued with Been Caught Stealing, but we were still in the freezer the rest of the night.

I reviewed this show's Tweezer in 1998 on Rec.Music.Phish, and here is my two cents on it:
******

From [email protected] Sat Dec 12 16:21:27 1998
Date: Mon, 07 Dec 1998 04:15:14 GMT
From: [email protected]
Newsgroups: rec.music.phish
Subject: *8/1/98 Alpine Tweezer*

08/01/98 Alpine Valley, East Troy, WI

Sean Orzol and Jason ([email protected]), among others, requested that I check this one out. Sick Wilson in this set, fwiw. After Magilla ends, Mike and Fish kick back into Also Sprach for a measure or two, before everyone leaps into Tweezer. Very smooth. Thanks are due to Mark Hutchinson for the tapes!

This version has the same punchy vibe as those from 1997-98 overall. Slower and much more funky than the versions from the first years of Tweezer's evolution. The opening segment, however, is otherwise standard. The jam segment begins around 4:40,

with a deep, rich growl from Mike. Nothing from Trey until just after 5:10, when Page plays and sustains a few notes on what I believe is the moog. The soft rhythmic chords that Trey throws down in this
first minute are practically "Moma Dance" chords, but not quite. A tease? Perhaps. Sounds like it to me. Mike leads the groove with melodious playing for this first min or two of the jam, until around

7 mins, when the groove takes on a wondrous and mystical quality! The jamming in this section is GORGEOUS! The entire band seems to soar in a semi-sweetly psychedelic haze, which builds and climaxes around the 9 min point. It doesn't climax triumphantly and melodically, though. Just gets louder. Trey doesn't begin playing anything mellifluous until around 9:30, and even then, what he plays merely complements the arguably ambient groove that Mike, Page and Fish dish out. He's not showing off (he's not lost in his own world, as he appears to be in the 10/30/98 Vegas Tweezer). This groove is DIVINE around 10:30. Mike, Page and Trey seem to weave complementary melodies and chords in and out of each other to spectacular effect (11 mins).

Around 12 mins the charming, ambient groove cools, and Trey begins noodling around peacefully, as the others gently coast beneath him. He flubs a note at 12:53, which is unusual in Tweezer.. but it doesn't dent this sweet, sensitive version at all. Trey soons begins trilling softly and sweetly and repetitively, over and over again, and overtop some enchanting chords from Page. Mike is repeating the same note in this section (13:45 now) o'er and o'er.. Wow. Hypnotic, ambient jamming. Some of the best I've heard them play all year, for sure. It isn't "typical" at all for Tweezer. An extremely unusual version.

Even around 15:30, the jam is still meandering aimlessly, but not lifelessly. At 16:20, Trey begins playing some off-kilter notes, as if to wake them out of their dreamy state and kick things into something more intense. As a result, though, the groove seems to dissipate and meander anew -- while becoming increasingly psychotic at the same time. Fish begins playing an almost LimbxLimb-like rhythm, only to drop it after a few measures when there wasn't any response from the others. It isn't long before things cool off (again) into a spacey fog, out of which Trey begins playing Fluffhead's intro, around 18:34.

I'm not very fond of the final few minutes of this version, as you may have been able to tell. It sounded like the band wasn't at all clear on where to go or what to do. It's incoherent. But there is definitely some "teary-eyed" jamming in this Tweezer, and it is worth hearing for yourself. This jam segment is also extremely UNIQUE, given what I've heard played in Tweezer in the past. For those who care, I'd give it an 8, primarily given the version's uniqueness in Tweezer history. It is about as far as you can get from "typically dark, evil and Tweezeresque," in other words. The funky flavor of the first 7 or so mins of this Tweezer didn't last very long, as I hope you gathered from the above paragraphs. This version is without question one of the most interesting versions of the last few years, though definitely NOT a "rocker" or a "rager."

If you would like to hear some killer versions of Tweezer from the last few years, I urge you to check out 11/03/96 Gainsville (one of the most excellent 1996 shows), 11/27/96 Seattle, 11/26/97 Hartford, and, of course and especially, 12/6/97 Auburn Hills and 10/30/98 Vegas (!!). If you are interested in amazing, incredible pre-1996 versions of tweezer, check out http://phish.net/reviews/archive/tweezer/ for more info.

two cents
charlie

This is a good fun show that gets overshadowed by the bonner springs/maryland heights shows on one side and the killer deer creek run on the other.

being summer tour '98, what's a phish show without a killer break out. well, things start out nicely a page led version of zeppelin's "ramble on." this version is played pretty straight forward, but as they hit the melodic outro, trey jumps right into mike's song. pretty damn good for 2 songs in! this mike's song is not one for the ages, but it is a nice addition to the first set, and it works nicely into esther. weekapaugh picks things up, as trey and page drop some nice little flurries of notes. guyute is well-executed before they finally slow things down with fikus. the rest of the set is pretty straight-forward but still played very enthusiastically.

piper was not yet what it would become, but it got the crowd moving before wilson finished getting the crowd gassed up. the boys start a slow roll into 2001. the front end of this is very loose and his littered with some very well-placed cross eyed and painless teases by trey. after hitting the climax, they loosen back up. this time page rolls them right into an impromptu magilla. this is pretty well done, and obviously, it's always a treat. as they wrap this up, fishman goes back into 2001, but it's very short lived as trey rips into tweezer. this jam sounds a lot like a 1999 phish jam, but it has WAY more focus and direction. it is very laid back and very groove oriented, but it never has that directionless feel that i feel spoiled a lot of phish jams in '99. this tweezer finally gives way to a more psychedelic than normal fluff head. this one is played with loads of precision and there are some nice embellishments thrown in taboot. they slow things down with brian and robert and alburquerque before sending everyone home with rocking but standard takes of cdt and frankenstein.

having had played ramble on as an opener, surely we are done with random covers/debuts...WRONG! this one is almost as big as the sabotage that would come a week later. they really nail been caught stealing with some great playing by mike. tweeprise finishes things up in standard fashion.

all in all a great show that is very set list friendly. the 2001>magilla>2001>tweezer stretch is easily the highlight of this show. if you dig this show, you'll like the cities jam from polaris the night before, and the deer creek shows the next 2 nights will blow you away! nugs.net's free stash has great sounding copies of all these shows, a long with the rest of the summer '98 tour. get them all. there's hardly one worth leaving out!

This was my first Phish show. I was a young lad, 15 years old to be exact. I got hooked into Phish after listening to Reba a few months prior. I remember first listening to that song and thinking to myself.....What the fuck is this? And why do I enjoy it so much?

This show I will never forget. This is the live performance that got me completely hooked on Phish and have been ever since. Being a huge Zeppelin fan they opened with "Ramble On" Yes Please! What I remember the most though was the 2nd set. The whole damn set. The 2001 thru Frankenstein was the shit. And the encore of Been Caught Stealing was pretty damn cool. But nothing will compare to hearing Reprise for the first time! Hot damn!

My first Phish show and it was better than what I deserved.

First set opens with the debut of Ramble On followed by a really great Mike's Groove. The Mike's song (which does't stray to far from the song's form) was standard for the time, but would be considered fantastic now. It segues nicely into an atypically placed and always welcome Esther which segues into an above average and extremely funky Weekapaug. The rest of the set is standard/great with solid versions of Guyute, BOAF and Funky Bitch and one of the few Fikus'.

The second set opens with a week piper which goes into a decent Wilson. The set takes off from there with one of the better segments from the summer tour in the form of 2001-> Magilla>Tweezer>Fluff. The 2001 is nice and funky with a somewhat clunky, but interesting segue into Magilla. The second iteration of 2001 is only about 10 seconds long before going into ONE OF THE ALL-TIME BEST TWEEZERS. This one tends towards beautiful Hose rather than the scary or funky territories Tweezer can often go. Lots has already been written about this jam which I strongly suggest you check out for yourself as soon as possible (available as a SBD from the Wisconsin Edition bonus disc as well as being posted on YouTube). To have a jam this epic land on Fluffhead is just icing on the cake. Things cool off with a well executed Brian and Robert into a critically underplayed Albuquerque. The whole rest of the show is firey with the set closing CDT and Frankenstein followed by the Been Caught Stealing > Reprise encore.

Unfortunately, there are 0 good sounding recordings of this show. The tapers have done their best, but AV just isn't acoustically that great. You need to muscle through that shit and listen to it though because this show is great!

4.6 / 5 Solid A Phish.

My First Show!
Was there in time to have the "Ramble On" opener blow my mind!
I had seen Page & Plant in Milwaukee a couple years before and I was going thru a Big Led Zeppelin phase
I was hooked on Phish right then and there!

The entire show is very well played.
I was a total Noob at the time... just soaking up the scene and awesome party.

Of all the Phish concerts I've been to, this one stands out as one of the all around best experiences for me. Song choice, jams, dancing, light show, weather, everything. The entire crowd singing along with 'Been Caught Stealing' was seriously intense.

Part of my full run through of Summer '98, see here

The band rolled into Alpine this year with a full head of steam, the shows preceding it had built momentum and resulted in some of the eras best performances. So two shows after kicking off with one of their greatest jams ever what did they chose to start with here? The band dips back into a bag of tricks from earlier in the tour and debuts a cover instead. The band nails their debut of Led Zeppelin classic Ramble On, much to the delight of the crowd and then, without a blink, starts up Mike's Song. This is another solid version, but as the first jam wraps Page comes in a bit more on the organ and Trey drops out as Page changes the key... and suddenly we are instead jumping into Esther (complete with an All Fall Down signal). The ending of Esther is the perfect fit for a segue into Weekapaug Groove... at the 5 minute mark this one gets VERY funky. Page and Mike really dominate this one fantastically until the 8 minute mark where Trey lights it up. At around 10 minutes the band does the tempo ramp up that is typical of the fine Weekapaugs from this era and the band wraps the opening section of this show up with an exclamation point. Guyute follows as it has at several shows; the composed piece keeps the energy going but gives the band a breather from heavy exploration. Fikus offers a proper cooldown before standard versions Birds of a Feather, Lawn Boy, and Funky Bitch wrap up the set.

Piper kicks this second set off, still mystifyingly jamless (did they just completely forget what happened in Prague to this song?) and is followed by yet another heavy-metal-breakdown Wilson in an early second set slot. This one fades out menacingly and then eases into 2001. There is something different about this one as the second jam kicks off... the band almost seems to have landed in the wrong song for a second, and then they just run with it, lead by Fish and Trey, spinning off into Magilla instead. Page and Mike oblige with vigor, and after a fun version of the song Trey flips into 2001 again for a few seconds before authoritatively bursting into Tweezer. As the jam starts we wade in several minutes of funk, and then at around 7 minutes Page and Mike take this one out in a different direction, a much brighter one. The jam harbors some Theme From the Bottom vibes for a bit before Trey takes control, with the new theme evoking feelings of slowly sailing off on a beautiful, sunny day. They capture some of the same feel of the best jams from the Gorge earlier in the tour; they are carefully exploring yet again, and the vibe is majestic and grand. Suddenly at 16.5 minutes the band starts a furious and dark peak and then peters out into ambience, an unexpected end to another classic performance. Equally unexpected is the transition into Fluffhead, an ambitious follow up. For the second time this show the band nails a compositional piece after impressive improv; this is a fantastic version of Fluffhead with an absolutely triumphant Arrival.

After such a stellar segment the band needs a double cool down in the form of Brian and Robert and Albuquerque. The Chalkdust is rioutous; Trey thanks the audience afterward, and the Frankenstein that follows seems almost unnecessary after everything else that this second set has delivered. The encore though feels perfect as the band debuts yet another cover with style, closing the show out with a fun Been Caught Stealing > Tweezer Reprise that nobody could have seen coming.

We are now three shows in a row delivering signature, "best version ever" contending jams (the 7/29 Gin, the 7/31 Cities, and now this Tweezer) and the band is definitely coming on strong at this point. This evening the swirling elements of the Summer 1998 tour - ambient funk, exhaustive exploration, and energy-infusing and unexpected cover songs - converged into another peak, marking this show as some of The Best Phish.

PHISH, SATURDAY 08/01/1998
ALPINE VALLEY MUSIC THEATRE
East Troy, WI

SET 1:

Ramble On[1] - Saturday night at Alpine and they open with this? You kidding me? That is seriously unreal. Incredible opener and debut! >

Mike's Song: Very solid offering right here. Nothing too crazy but it does have some length, energy and passion. We are off to a great start here. Cool segue into Esther. ->

Esther: The only time this has been played after Mike’s – very cool and creative. Big bust out – 139 show gap. It had been played many, many times after Weekapaug. Not a perfect version as Trey has some difficulty with lyrics and there is a slight misstep in the climax but all in all this was executed nicely >

Weekapaug Groove: They eventually take this one to funky town and then execute a stop start which the crowd goes nuts for. Big climax with some thrilling trilling from Trey around 9:27. You would think that would be it but nope. From there they take it back up to hyper speed, rage it around for a while and then into the closing lyrics. Super fun version would recommend.

Guyute: Standard.

Fikus: Standard.

Birds of a Feather: Standard.

Lawn Boy: Standard. >

Funky Bitch: Standard.

SET 2:

Piper: Standard, but great way to open the set. >

Wilson: Could have used something jammier here but this keeps the energy ramped way up. >

Also Sprach Zarathustra -> Magilla > Also Sprach Zarathustra: Groovy 2001 leads into a Magilla, big surprise and bust out with a 69 show gap. Mike gets a solo in Magilla. Fun segment of the show and an interesting sandwich. Honestly, it’s not even really a sandwich. I mean, they do go back into 2001 but only for a few seconds and then into Tweezer. >

Tweezer: One of my favorite versions of all time. It has everything, it really does. The funk, the hose, the rock and roll. It stays within itself too. I am struggling to put this into words, but I think the best way I can describe this one is that it never tries to do too much. It’s very organic in that manner. This jam starts off just as the Portland California love jam does, dominated by Mike and Fish with Trey and Page laying in the cut and adding color and texture. Very nice ramp up to a nice wall of sound in the mid 8’s and by the late 8’s out comes that glorious hose and everyone gets soaked. But again, they don’t overdo it, they give us just enough and then move on to the next idea. The next three minutes are low key fantastic, so great. The whole 13 minute section is gorgeous, low key but so pretty. Things stay mellow from here until the mid-16 minute range when things ramp up rather quickly and they build up a good bit of tension which melts away by 17:00. The next minute or minute and a half is them slowly winding this down into almost nothing and then into Fluffhead. Easy all timer and highly, highly recommended. >

Fluffhead: Strong version, incredible placement.

Brian and Robert: Standard. >

Albuquerque: Standard. >

Chalk Dust Torture: Standard.

Frankenstein: Standard.

ENCORE:

Been Caught Stealing[1] - Wow, just wow. The summer of covers just got a lot more interesting. People had to have been losing it to this. >

Tweezer Reprise: Standard.

Summary: Super strong show with one all timer and Weekapaug as a strong anchor in the first set. The current rating of 4.552/5 (277 ratings) seems a little strong for my tastes. Yes, great show no doubt. But from where I am sitting with two items that I would revisit (Weekapaug and Tweezer) I am feeling like 4.3/5 is a better rating.

Replay Value: Weekapaug Groove, Tweezer

[1] Phish debut.

This show was webcast live and marked the Phish debuts of Ramble On and Been Caught Stealin’ as well as the first Esther since October 19, 1996 (139 shows). Page teased Gimme Some Lovin' in Weekapaug. 2001 contained Crosseyed and Painless teases from Trey. Chalk Dust included a Jean Pierre tease from Trey and a Shake a Tail Feather tease from Mike.

SHOW RATING
Your rating:
Overall: 4.552/5 (277 ratings)
JAM CHART VERSIONS
Weekapaug Groove, Magilla, Tweezer, Fluffhead
TEASES
Crosseyed and Painless tease in Also Sprach Zarathustra, Jean Pierre and Shake a Tail Feather teases in Chalk Dust Torture, Gimme Some Lovin' tease in Weekapaug Groove

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