Other than Oswego, doesn't it seem like Lemonwheel's the least talked about Phish festival? Maybe it's because it has the least going for it in terms of "big event" stuff - yes, it has the Ambient Jam, which is great (more on that below), but "50+ minute ambient music" is never really going to be a selling point, IMO. Compare that to the Clifford Ball (1st festival, big DVD release), the Went (best festival musically), Cypress (which is Cypress), IT (Tower Jam, major 2003 moment), Coventry (which we don't need to get into), Fest 8 (Exile, acoustic set), and Superball (which just happened last year, and has the Storage Jam). For such a major show, Lemonwheel kinda feels like it's fallen through the cracks (note the lack of reviews here). As I'd never heard Lemonwheel outside the big jam, I'd like to know what it is I've missed.

Set I: Starting off a two day festival with a set-long Mike's Groove is a pretty sweet move; yeah, the song selection doesn't knock me on my ass, but there's a lot of fun "we're getting warmed up" songs, Cities has a charming "lookit all the cool festival stuff" improvised lyrics moment before the jam stomps into Weekapaug, and Mike's/Simple/Groove are all cool, if pretty standard Type I jams (Weekapaug does have an interesting double-time breakdown at the end).

Set II: Now we're getting to the deep stuff, starting with a fine Reba and then one of the highlights of the festival, the Gumbo - Tweezer run. Gumbo breaks out of its usual structure pretty early in the jam, finding a slow, very funky, milkshake-thick groove that actually finds a motif of escalating chords similar to 12/14/95's fabled Timber jam. The Gumbo jam then segues excellently into Sanity, and then upon Sanity's conclusion the band kicks into Tweezer. The Tweezer jam starts with an ominous, fast-paced energy, settling into the kind of groove Tweezers settled into in the late 90s...but then Trey starts pouring on the rock, and the groove turns more heavy and muscular before petering out into The Horse. There's a pretty fine Slave to close, with a powerful closing peak.

Set III: NICU leads very easily into Bowie, which builds and builds with some nice Fishman cymbal/chime work, a dense, spacey guitar effects fog, and Page adding some atmospheric piano work before entering the song proper 8 and a half minutes in; the actual Bowie is good as you'd expect but doesn't break any boundaries. Neither does the rest of the set, although the Limb is worth a listen.

Encore: It's an encore.

Ambient Jam: Worth at least a star of my show rating all by itself, this is an astonishing, lovely set of free improvisation. The through-line to Fukuoka is pretty obvious, as well as to every other big jam Phish has ever done since - guitar playing that's more added ingredient than solo voice/jam starter; atmospheric soundscapes from Page; Fish's drumming and cymbal washes serving almost as another solo instead of rhythm; the temperature of the music rising and falling with each new movement. I don't know if I made this particularly enticing to listen to, but understand that if you love the Waves soundcheck, the Headphones Jam, and every other "we're playing for you and you alone" moment of Phish's career, this jam is every bit their equal and often their superior. There's hushed moments of sheer beauty, atonal weirdness, chugging rock and funk inflected mini-jams, all delivered with a languid air as though the band knows they have all the time in the world to do whatever they want. It's certainly not all perfect (or totally interesting - I mean, 50 minutes of jamming is a LOT of jamming), and many of the ideas in the jam would be better expressed elsewhere, but that's a big point - without this jam there's no Fall '99, no Cypress, no Japan tour, maybe no 2.0 style. It's a brilliant listen, and of immense historical value.

On to Day 2!

[Posted to rec.music.phish in 1998]

SET I
MIKE'S SONG is a great opener, IMO. Granted, it usually doesn't stretch out as much as it can when placed otherwise, but it really gets the crowd going. This version mostly featured machine-gun Trey on guitar in the jam. The segue into SIMPLE was very abrupt; it was not a smooth transition but came after the "end" of Mike's (the end being what the usually play before H2). Trey gave us the screaming guitar riff after the be-bop line, which I love. The jam stuck to the simple theme/chords, and was very mellow at times. BEAUTY OF MY DREAMS was next, which we had just heard the original of on the Badger in the morning. Leo had a nice little solo after Trey told him to play it. ROGET, which I had never heard, is a great new song. The main lyric is "The circus is the place for me" if you want to be able to recognize it. Unfortunately, there is nothing even remotely about a Thesaurus. The whole band sings on this one, trading lines like Page and Trey "Rift"-style. There is a short jam that I can only describe as psychedelic. The lyrics continue the contemplative nature of latter-day Phish, IMO. After the song, Trey says "Thanks for coming everybody, I hope you're having as good a time as we are." Then, "By request from a tiny little boy named sam" come SOAMelt. I would describe this version as medium length and typically great. POOR HEART featured some nice yelling by Fishman. Before I heard it, I thought MOMA DANCE would suck the life out of Black Eyed Katy by adding sing. I'm very happily mistaken. The song begins like BEK and featured some Simple teases. The lyrics are very cool, and I'm going to have to run to dejanews and check if anyone has transcribed them. I look forward to hearing this on the album if it is indeed there. Since the sun was just starting to peek through the clouds, we knew what was coming next. DIVIDED SKY is one of my favorite songs to hear outside and was played very tightly. It might have been a bit longer than usual but I can't be sure. The new arrangement of WATER IN THE SKY followed, continuing the sky theme. The new version reminds me of the CD single of Strange Design, with some great percussive work by Fishman. FUNKY BITCH was what I thought might be the set closer, based on the length at this point. Page was all over the organ in this Bitch. While a segue is noted between Bitch and CITIES, I didn't hear one on the tapes. Trey messes with the lyrics a bit, asking us "Did I forget to mention the garden of infinite pleasantries? Home of the portalet pagoda and the pond the steam comes out of. And the Hojo dojo." This version was nowhere near as good as the Went, however. They then break it down for the people on the ferris wheel into an almost bluesy jam and segue into WEEKAPAUG GROOVE. Trey gives us an anthem-like guitar solo which ends in a jam off the main riff of Weekapaug to close the set.

Setbreak: We headed out to the garden of infinite pleasantries and tried to figure out what was going on with the people who were heating up the rocks. As we watched, scared of the giant sentry, 4 or 5 people in yellow arabian costumes ran past us with a giant tree branch and a chainsaw, yelling "Chainsaw Bonzai!" Ever curious, we followed them as they ran to and up the step pyramid to the top. They then proceeded to start up the chainsaw and cut the branch, in a great parody of real bonzai gardening. Soon, a man on stilts came and chastized the bonzai practitioners for "killing trees" and tried to get the audience to join him. It didn't really work, however, and as soon as the guy with the chainsaw was done with the tree branch, he decided to go after the stilts. He cut them down to short stubs and then they solemnly brought the bonzai tree away from the pyramid. As we were following them to see where they were bringing the tree, we encountered some masked individuals wheeling a cart with 2 red-hot rocks in it. They brought this cart to the blue pond, and ,in a very serious manner, dumped them into the pond. The pond steamed as the rocks were dropped in, but very little. The mask people left, as seriously as they had come. We then walked around some more and checked out the shopping and other such stuff (who would have thought that they would sell phatty glass IN the venue?). We then moved back a to the second speaker tower on the right of the stage, which turned out to be a very chill place to hear the concert.

SET II
THE WEDGE got things going and was an obvious choice with Limestone in the lyrics. It was similar to the version at the Went. Next came one of the songs that, IMO, defines Phish, REBA. There was a pretty mellow jam (beyond the typical composed part) that had some nice interplay (echoing, etc.) between Page and Trey. This version included the whistling, which I was happy to hear. GUMBO followed Reba, and included the the best jam of the night, if you don't count the 4th set. It was long and funky, and left the funk to build using chords similar to Tweeprise. I was hoping for a segue into Walk Away, but instead, I got the rare treat of SANITY. Trey probably looked up and noticed that the stars sucked, and got a big cheer when he announced that fact. There was a little spacey messing with the mnain riff at the end of the song by Page, Trey and Mike, which ended when Trey played the beginning of TWEEZER. Page gave us a little Frankenstein style-keyboard work in the beginning and Mike was laying down a thick groove throughout. Trey was playing in true machine-gun style, not funk, and then the jam slowed to a hard rock groove that slowed to a stop. THE HORSE>SITM was standard, but that doesn't mean I (and everyone else) didn't cheer at the "just last year" lyric. CHALKDUST was a typically rocking version that didn't stand out in my eyes, but was fun to dance to. The glowstick war during SLAVE was amazing to watch, and Limeston secured its status as the best place for such a war. Slave was definitely great, but I don't feel like I can say objectively how great, just because all of my senses were working overtime.

Setbreak: Quick run to the bathroom and then an hour or so of chilling (literally and figuratively) before the next set.

SET III
NICU is a song that I've been hearing a lot lately, so I'm getting a bit tired of it. It still has some of my favorite lyrics, which Trey flubbed a bit with a laugh. It melded into BOWIE, or as I termed it, the space intro, because it was at least 8 minutes long. The band pulled out all of the space effects that they have; Fishman started and stopped the bowie cymbals several times before they kicked into the beginning of Bowie. The jam was mostly guitar-based, and didn't stray too far from the song structure. In between climaxes at the end of the song, Trey mixed it up a bit, bending notes like crazy. STRANGE DESIGN, far from being "dreadful" as the Bangor paper called it, actually served as a nice comedown from Bowie. Had very appropriate lyrics, considering the long drives everyone had made with their companions. Next up was LIMB BY LIMB, and I really enjoyed the stop after the lyric section and the way they bust right into the jam after it. Has this been happening all summer? This was a very good Limb, but not quite up to the standards of the Went. BRIAN AND ROBERT has some very cool music, but the lyrics leave me a bit perplexed, as Phish usually doesn't write things this dark. If anyone wants to take a chance on interpreting them for me, I'd love it. LOVING CUP is a classic sing-along cover and a great set closer. The solo may have been a little longer than usual, but maybe not.

ENCORE
HALLEY'S COMET was nothing like the Went, but more similar (if a bit shorter) to the Ball, with a building jam. Trey again referred to the garden of infinite pleasantries in the lyrics. CAVERN followed immediately after Halley's, and I was disappointed to see no one throwing shoes at the band like in days of yore. We all knew TWEEZER REPRISE would follow, and we weren't disappointed. At the end of the song, Trey tells us all about the Ambient Jam that would follow.

Setbreak: We made our way back to the tent as fast as possible in order to change into some warmer clothes. We figured we had plenty of time; so we grabbed some great organic coffee from a vendor to warm and wake us for the fourth set. As we attempted to go back to the venue, we were met with a large exodous of fans leaving the jam. Was it that bad, I thought?

SET IV
The AMBIENT JAM was wonderful, and my only regret is that the damn setbreak was too short for me to get into my warm clothes and get back into the venue in time to hear the whole thing. This was the ideal Phish experience for me: sitting down on a blanket and taking in a completely improvisatory set. I was extemely happy they didn't make us wander around the parking lot this year to hear the experimental stuff. Take your favorite moments from the Type II jams over the years and meld them into a long jam and you will have this set.

After the jam, we waited until the lights turned on to be sure they were done playing, and then went home to sleep.

The second set is my personal favorite set of Phish, all time. As always, the enjoyment of a set depends on more than just song choice. I was with great people and we had an amazing spot with great sound. We were actually walking into the venue as The Wedge started so it was great to get into position with a little walking music. Reba was wonderfual and Gumbo went into some nice little areas not often seen. Sanity was a perfect break and then Tweezer starts up...perfect. The Chalkdust and Slave closer made for a rocking set.

They could play the exact same set again and it wouldn't even come close. I've been "chasing" this perfect set ever since. Some have come close, but I bet none will ever beat that magical hour of music.

We all have our perfect set, this was mine.

This was my first Phish show. I had convinced my older deadhead cousin to come to this festival with me (didn't have a license yet). I had been well immersed in the music for a long time at this point but he had never heard a note. The whole weekend was an absolute blast. The complete sense of community displayed at Lemmonwheel has been unmatched in my eyes since. No sense in rehashing what the other commentators have already mentioned as far as individual songs. However, I remember feeling really lucky to catch that Sanity at the time, and really this whole second set is one that I return to for a regular listen. My cousin and I wandered off from one another at the start of this show (think the same thing happened on the second day too) but I remember how giddy we both were back at the campgrounds post shows. We did catch the ambient set together relaxing in that beautiful field while the boys played to all of us. 16 years and many many shows later my cousin and I try to catch as many shows together as we can, all the while him thanking me for "dragging" him to Lemmonwheel 16 years ago!

PHISH, SATURDAY 08/15/1998
LORING COMMERCE CENTRE
Limestone, ME

SET 1:

Mike's Song: Very interesting that they chose to kick off the festival with this when just the show before they dropped an all timer Mike’s. Bit of a head scratcher. >

Simple: Standard. >

Beauty of My Dreams: Standard.

Roggae: Standard.

Split Open and Melt: Standard.

Poor Heart: Standard.

The Moma Dance: Standard.

Divided Sky: Ripped big time! Would recommend.

Water in the Sky: Standard. >

Funky Bitch: Standard. >

Cities: Lots of great Trey banter in this one. >

Weekapaug Groove: Quite the up tempo version.

SET 2:

The Wedge:

Reba: Outstanding version. It doesn’t have a big, signature climax but the body of work is notable and it’s a very lengthy version too.

Gumbo: This journey begins with the infectious rhythm of a "Manteca"-inspired jam, setting the stage for a memorable jam. As the musical tapestry unfolds, the initial cadence seamlessly transitions into the familiar strains of "Tweezer Reprise," gradually gaining momentum. The seamless segue into "Sanity" becomes a moment of revelation. Easy all timer and highly recommended. ->

Sanity: All the creepy false endings are what set this one apart from other versions. >

Tweezer: >

The Horse > Silent in the Morning: Standard. >

Chalk Dust Torture: Standard.

Slave to the Traffic Light: Surprised to hear another tune played in back to back shows. But loved this one and it is indeed a very good Slave.

SET 3:

NICU: Standard. >

David Bowie[1] - Don’t be deceived by the length. There is a very, very long intro. Once they do get to the jam, it is long, but it didn’t grab my attention then or now.

Strange Design: Standard.

Limb By Limb: Standard. >

Brian and Robert: Woof at this placement.

Loving Cup: Standard.

ENCORE:

Halley's Comet: Cool encore at the time. >

Cavern: Standard. >

Tweezer Reprise: Standard.

SET 4:

Ambient Jam: One of the coolest experiences I have ever had at a Phish show. Laying on my back watching the stars and listening to this was very memorable.

Summary: Don’t get me wrong, I had a blast. Very fun show. Set two was a lot of fun. Current rating on .net is 4.571/5 (>50 ratings). That is crazy inflated. I would hit this as a 3.8/5.

Replay Value: Divided Sky, Reba, Gumbo

[1] Lengthy intro.

This was the first show of the Lemonwheel festival. SOAM was played by request for an eight-year-old boy named Sam Jarvis. Cities and Halley’s Comet included alternate lyrics relating to the concert grounds. Gumbo included a Tweezer Reprise-esque jam. Sanity was played for the first time since Halloween 1996 (140 shows). Bowie included a lengthy intro and Mission: Impossible theme teases. After Tweezer Reprise, Trey made a long announcement thanking people for coming and remarked on the fun and joy of the summer concert festivals. He said that there would be some more music, played by the light of candles made that day by fans. The ensuing “ambient jam” was in the style of Brian Eno and was nearly an hour long and included Albert teases from Trey.
SHOW RATING
Ratings are currently offline.
Overall: 4.571/5 (>50 ratings)
JAM CHART VERSIONS
Divided Sky, Gumbo, Tweezer, Limb By Limb, Loving Cup
TEASES
Tweezer Reprise jam in Gumbo, Theme from Mission: Impossible tease in David Bowie, Albert tease in Ambient Jam

If you only listen to one set from the first day of Lemonwheel, I (highly) recommend Set 4: the (legendary) Ambient Jam. The first set technically comprises an entire Mike's Groove, though not all of the songs are segued. The Mike's Song > Simple to open is pretty heady, even though Mike's isn't very long, and neither is simple. Things pick back up with a nice microjam out of Cities > Weekapaug Groove. As for the second set, the Reba strikes my fancy quite a bit more than the one from Clifford Ball two years earlier, and it features an interesting, modulated segue into Sanity. Tweezer is about all she wrote for the big outside-the-box jamming in this set. In Set 3, David Bowie has what the setlist team calls a "lengthy intro," which is certainly an interesting listen, and perhaps can be viewed in retrospect as having foreshadowed what would happen in the Ambient Jam. You then get a nice triple encore with the perennial favorite Tweezer Reprise, but as I said, the Ambient Jam is the big thing of note here if you're relistening. It may in fact be true that this jam goes a long way towards explaining the further shift in style from the cowfunk of 1997 into the more "superextended grooves" of 1999 and 2000.

This was the first show I was ever introduced to. At the time I liked the sound of the Dead, but with phish I just didn't get IT. This show definitely changed all of that, The first set Mikes>Simple is when I remember saying whoa I think I've got something here!! But it was the Reba.. and Gumbo>Sanity>Tweezer segue that changed my life forever. I would sit down my camper every weekend and play this show for the next couple years along with many others, they were some seriously magical times in my life.. It's very nostalgic now thinking about it.. Long story short, 16 years later I've grown into a man and I'm a better person because of this beauitiful music..The heady phish from vermont

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

Here we are at the end of this run with night one of the Lemonwheel festival. The band ambitiously opens with Mike's Song, though this one does not jam like some of the great versions of this tour, and leads into another fairly standard version of Simple. After Beauty of My Dreams, the band delivers a somewhat shorter but still pristine version of Roggae that feels good compared to others from earlier in the Summer. Split Open and Melt is a nice, slow burn, not a standout but still something that strengthens this first set. After Poor Heart the band delivers another great rendition of Moma Dance; again, this one isn't breaking barriers but every version of this song just sounds so good during this tour. This is a really good Divided Sky, with Trey tastefully building this one up and then going full rock star peak at the end to great effect. Water in the Sky cools us down and Funky Bitch warms us back up. Cities includes some fun references to the festival and a "sick" breakdown for the people on the Ferris Wheel as well as a funky outro reminiscent of Sleeping Sally... a segue to that would have been nice here but instead Fish starts dropping the Weekapaug beat and off they go. This one is fairly standard as well, though with some nice stop/start jamming for a bit towards the end. A nearly two hour set but not a ton to remember from this one, outside of strong versions of Moma Dance and Divided Sky, and that funky Cities.

Wedge nicely opens the second set here, after opening the 8/8 show a week earlier. Phish proves they mean business with this set next though, by jumping into Reba. This is another great '98 version, once again exhibiting how this band can rattle off a complex number like Reba at ease at this point, and then jam it out. Next up is a Gumbo with a funky jam that at first feels like a throwback to the excellent Deer Creek version. This one develops a different theme, with Fish offering up something polyrhytmic while Trey and Mike swing in an almost bluesy fashion. By the ten minute mark though it develops into an almost Tweeprise-like bliss build-up. After peaking the jam shifts again, and then segues nicely into Sanity. The centerpiece of the set is this Tweezer, which after a Moog-driven intro, takes off. There isn't anything hard to explain, this is just a nice '98 style "explore and build" and provides the first really electric peak of the show. After the climax it breaks down into a steady rock drive that conjures up echoes of Walk Away for a bit before finally bottoming out. After The Horse > SITM the band delivers a double shot to close the set, with a rocking Chalkdust and another delicately constructed Slave to the Traffic Light (with the songs played in the right order compared to 7/24). Definitely a much stronger set than the first.

Set 3 opens with NICU and then another great Bowie with an extended and incredibly creepy intro (8 plus minutes long). After Strange Design we are treated to yet another magnificent version of Limb by Limb, as this song continues to deliver this tour - in retrospect it is the perfect fit for the expansive explorations of theme that '98 jamming has thrived off of. The set wraps up with Brian and Robert and a particularly explosive Loving Cup. The three song encore is good and nicely tees up the Fourth Set Ambient Jam

It's hard to describe the Ambient Jam... it feels like an amalgamation of much of the exploration the band had gone through during the tour. I don't mean to downplay it here by calling it a rehash... it's quite compelling. The band twists and turns through many different styles and themes over the course of 50 minutes but I don't feel right cataloging it here. It's really meant to be listened to, and to let your mind drift away and be carried by the music. Definitely a must listen, and a very nice end to the first night of the festival. There were some strong performances but festival sets are large and busy affairs... Sets 2 and 4 feel like the winners here, and are definitely excellent examples of The Best Phish.

Doses. Doses. Doses. I’ll take ten, I say to the dude. I figured I should eat six because I ate three the day prior. Woah. At 19 or 20 years old I didn’t know that there were differences in strength. Needless to say during the third set my mind had a mind of its own and for the life of me I searched the grass for my keys, which were in the tent. But I liked and looked while my mind couldn’t grasp anything that was real. So a friend of mine, thank you Mr Lerch, Lee me by the hand two these three “angels” dressed in all white. We played with glowing toys and I regained my composure until…. At this point Trey is announcing the ambient set. But his words were something to the effect of we are going to light the ring of fire around the top of the circular walled enclosure of the green. My irrational mind went into a misinterpretation of the candle light set. I remember thinking I’m not going to stay while everyone burns in the ring of fire. lol. So I missed the ambient jam while I wandered aimlessly toward the hissing. My friends knew just where to find me sitting in the grass next to the tank. Just recently at mondegreen I had a very similar trip where logic escapes me. Good times to say the least.

On August 15th, 1998 I woke up on the tarmac of the Loring Air Force base in Limestone, Maine ready for day one of my second Phish festival (their third): Lemonwheel.

My friend Jason and I had arrived onsite the day before, having driven in from Vernon Downs, New York, the previous stop on our ten-day run of concerts south of the border. On the way in (or as Jason remembers it: on the way out) we were cruising along the interstate behind a hippie-van that was clearly bound for (or coming from) Lemonwheel as well. When all of a sudden a moose bolted out of the forest at a full gallop, running straight across the highway directly in front of the microbus! It happened in such a flash that I think the van’s brake lights didn’t even light up. Luckily, the moose was a millisecond ahead of the van, which missed the massive beast by mere inches. I had never seen anything like it.

The van immediately pulled over and so did we. The driver of the van was freaking out, hyperventilating and amazed that he and his friends were still alive. Close one, that was.

Anywho, with that either safely behind us or ignorantly ahead of us*, we pulled onsite at the festival just as the exhaust system fell off of Jason’s ailing Volkswagen Jetta. Well, not entirely. While it was the entire exhaust system, it didn’t entirely detach. So if the loud, rumbling mufflerless engine wasn’t loud enough we also had dangling, clanging metal bits scraping sparks against the pavement. We pulled into the first available spot we saw.

We pitched our tents right there on the asphalt, shook hands with our festival-neighbours and plunked ourselves down on the tarmac. We pulled out our cooler full of leftover duty-free Molson XXX and a cardboard-box of synthy-burgers that had been marinating in vintage icewater, cracked our first beers of the weekend and threw a bunch of burgers on the Coleman stove (our theme for the tour – and our argument for eating things we definitely shouldn’t have been eating – had been “fire kills everything”).

The weekend had begun.

The band played a soundcheck on the Friday evening but to me it was only rumour. I’m confident I was drowning it out with my Coleman-side acoustic Bon Jovi jams, which went over better than you might expect. Regardless, the concert field remained closed to mortals on Friday night.

The Saturday (and the day in question here) was a whole different situation, let me tell you! More beers and pre-poisonous burgers held the day until The Phish From Vermont began their mainstage musical glee that compromised of three full-on sets of jammy rock and roll before closing out with a candle-lit space-spa hour-long musical interlude-to-nowhere ambient set that I enjoyed immensely from my comfortable spot lying on the grass.

(Though logic tells me we probably watched the concerts from paved runways my memory tells me that we were in fact on a vast lawn. In this very moment memory is wrestling logic to the ground forcing it to say “uncle” and agree that Phish would not logically have made the crowd stand on concrete for the concerts. Looks like we can score this one: brain 1, brain 0. “In your face, brain!” sez brain.)

As I was still (barely) in my twenties at the time I’m confident that I spent the post-show hours drinking, guitar-roaming, and making new friends until sunlight forced me down for a short count. And while this is pure conjecture, it is based on a historical pattern that makes it almost certifiably true.

Festivals are fun!

*Jason has since convinced me that the moose incident was indeed on the way back to Canada after the weekend, but I’m not going to change things now. Nor will I add that he got strip-searched when we reached the border, another fact he reminded me of. No surprise that he remembers that bit more than I do.

toddmanout.com