08-02-97 The Gorge

08-02-97 The Gorge, Quincy (George), WA

1: Theme From the Bottom, Ginseng Sullivan, Ghost, Dogs Stole Things, The Divided Sky, Wolfman’s Brother, Water in the Sky, Split Open and Melt

2: Down With Disease-> Tweezer-> Down with Disease-> Johnny B. Goode, Sparkle, Wading in the Velvet Sea, Loving Cup, Tweezer Reprise

E: Harry Hood*

*Trey asks Chris [Kuroda] to turn the stage lights off; band jams in darkness to the stars.

The first Gorge show is a beaut. The Ghost in the middle of the first set sets the funk tone quite nicely, then shortly after they rage the only Divided Sky of the US portion of the summer tour and one of four in all of 1997. And Trey takes advantage of it with some nice shredding at the end. I’m also a big fan of the 97 SOAM’s and this one to end the set is sick. Really nice dissonance going on for a few mins there.

The second set opens up with another monster DWD that gets the funk treatment until it segues into the first Tweezer in 37 shows! I remember lots of chatter on the ol’ rec.music.phish about this tune being shelved, which during the funk explosion of 97 seemed like an odd tune to scrap. But they finally bust it out here. The actual song part sounds a little sloppy and lacks some punch, most likely due to a combination of not having played it in a while and the ultra-slow tempo. But the jam out of it is sick. It’s funky as hell but in a more mellow/empty sort of way than other funk jams…they create a lot of space between them and it has a nice effect. The jam turns back to a DWD reprise and then they kick it into a rousing JBG. Great guitar work as usual, but then the rest of the set is kinda meh until the stunning Hood encore. They create some very pretty textures in this version during the jam and it culminates in a nice peak.

I really love this show. A really awesome, maybe the most awesome, Theme From the Bottom that I can think of. There are some really big jams, and that second set just boogies.

I turned 21 the day before this show, on the road from the Shorline show.
The furthest I’d traveled for the Phish in the short time I’d been listening to them at this point.
The campground was nothing like it is now, in fact you had to walk out of the venue and back up the road to the campground if memory serves me right. :confused:
Got into the show very early and grabbed a center spot on one of those little cliff/ledges.
Theme to start is very nice. Got my first Ginseng after.
As Doug mentions above, the Ghost just sets the table for the rest of the night with the 97 funk.
Dog Stole is alright, more of breath catcher for the Divided Sky.
Divided Sky as the sun sets behind the Columbia River. :thumbup: Trey destroys it. Very nice memory for me.
Wolfman’s keeps a little funk going. Water in the Sky is fun, but SOAM sends us off into space for set break.

DWD->Tweezer->DWD was outta this world right from the start and the gem of the set.
Dance party for sure that really was a preview for what was to come the rest of the year.
Kinda hard to keep that energy going for the whole set, especially after throwing Johnny B. Goode in there.
Loving Cup and Tweezer Reprise bring the energy back after Sparkle & Wading. Great way to end the set.

Harry Hood took everyone for a ride. Being there with the lights out at the end was very special.
All four of them were very in tune with each other the whole night. Just an awesome show.