08-09-93 The Masonic Temple

Phish Live Shows
#1

08-09-93 The Masonic Temple, Toronto, ON, Canada

1: Chalk Dust Torture-> Who Knows*-> Chalk Dust Torture, Mound, Fee-> Split Open and Melt-> Glide-> Nellie Cane-> Divided Sky, Memories, The Squirming Coil

2: Dinner and a Movie-> Tweezer-> Tela-> My Friend My Friend, My Mind’s Got a Mind of its Own, You Enjoy Myself-> Smoke on the Water-> You Enjoy Myself**, Contact, Crimes of the Mind#

E: Rocky Top

Venue commonly known as “Concert Hall”. *First time played. **With “Psycho Killer” parts. #With the Dude of Life.

#2

Chalkdust->Who Knows?->Chalkdust is the most underrated segue ever. SOAM has a sick jam in some weird time signature. Tweezer->Tela->MFMF is heat too. Very overlooked August 93 show.

#3

I would put this in my top-5, maybe. Top-10 for sure.

#4

Must check this out…thanks Will.

#5

Nellie Kane (quiet) jam during the quiet section of Divided Sky is just heavenly.

#6

I still get those spine tingling chills from this Tweezer. Thank you Will for turning me on to this show.

#7

There is some echo Trey puts on between SOaMelt and Glide that makes me bite my lip mmhmm good perfect.

#8

Fee>MELT>Glide and Tweezer>Tela>MFMF are excellent combos here.

#9

Agreed. Was listening to this yesterday at work and def made me lose all train of thought and focus on the music. I’m a huge fan of the bluegrass tunes and the actual Nellie Cane that preceded Divided Sky was top notch.

Pretty solid first set. Cool openers to kick things off. The Split jam starts out great but the last few minutes sounded like a cd was skipping but they eventually make a nice transition into Glide. The Coil closer is great and sends them off on a high note. I really enjoy set ending Coils where the band members slowly exit the stage and it’s just Page finishing up the solo.

Dinner opens the second set and Trey just isn’t there. He seemed lost for a lot of it so I just skipped forward to the next track…Tweezer! Maybe next time forget the quick warmup tune and just dive right into beefier jam song. This Tweezer is full of life and is easily one of the best from 1993. The initial jam is great. They then lead into a slower start/stop type of jam which reminded me of the bomb factory Tweezer. The last segment builds up nicely then slowly melts away to Tela. I always get a chub when this song comes on. The music is so beautiful and the page sung lyrics fit it so perfectly.

#10

Great show. Listened to most of it on my sloooow drive home from work through the blizzard . Really enjoyed the Split->Glide. Can’t go wrong August93. Good pick.

#11

Anyone notice the Nellie Kane reference in Mike’s bass break in YEM? Also, the DSky quiet section referenced Mound as well as Nellie Kane.

Some quick thoughts for now - I’m not 100% done listening to the show yet, so I might be back for more blabbin’.

I also liked the vocal jam segue into Contact (great Contact IMO) … was bummed Dinner & a Movie was so botched. Seems like it gets botched a lot on stage for whatever reason. Sounds like an incredibly precise and demanding number, even though the lyrics are kinda the opposite of that description. Liked the quieter, kinda scarier outro to MFMF. Fun Tweezer for sure. Glide was superb. Except I’m not a big fan of the pausing-for-the-crowd-reaction trick. I’ve been known to fast forward many a live DSky along to pass that sh!t. I know, it’s supposedly all about the “energy.” For me it’s about music; you won’t catch me downloading live recordings of the sun, ya know??

#12

^Dude! Not even 7-10-1913?! It’s in the record books for chrissakes! Helios brought the HEAT that day!

I have only listened through SOaM but I am loving this show so far. The CD->Waiting->CD was a very cool segue and kickoff and Mound is one of my favorites, so I’m always pleased to hear it. The brief quiet and suspenseful interlude before Split is nice and the initial part of of the jam is sort of trippy with the voice(s) blending with the guitar.

#13

This Split is incredible. The way they play around with the rhythm, volume, and tempo makes it an interesting listen. It’s like the song literally splits open and melts. The last few minutes elicits visuals of stretching and pulling until it kind of fizzles into Glide.

#14

^ I like that image of stretching and pulling. Whether or not it’s intentional is debatable but it’s definitely interesting.

So CDT > Who Knows > CDT is so bad ass. They even sing it. So fast though! That’s Phish though. If they played Who Knows now they would slay it and they’d play it slow. Not in 93.

I love the madness towards the end of Tweezer. That start stop Hitchock-soundtrack-esque playfulness just before they bring it back to Tweezer. I wish I could go back in time so I could bring someone to see music played like this. Not even for my own benefit! I just wanna see the look on their face when the band goes back into Tweezer.

^and yeah the Nellie Kane bass solo in YEM Is tasteful and well done. Crimes of the Mind rages with some good ol cock rock.

#15

^^^lol! Helios.

Love the Crimes of the Mind. One of the earliest Phish newsletters I ever got had a whole column about the mystique of the Dude. I’m pretty down w/Dude of Life for the most part.

Tweezer was crazy, I was really surprised by that return to the jam. I didn’t see it coming. And hey, no reprise.

Rocky Top encore cracks me up … I wonder if it’s got any significance to the band, like, … are they in a hurry to go? Such an amazingly fast tune, and brief.

I had a show from Canada on cassette from 93, I think I traded for it in the lot at Great Woods … but I don’t think this is the one I had. Someone added an amazing Frank Zappa song to the end of that tape too, and it took me FOREVER to discern its title. And even still, I can’t find that version. I’m no Zappa fan, but “Magic Fingers” - particularly this mystery version - is totally cool. I copied it before I gave all my Phish cassettes away.

#16

I like Dinner and a Movie recordings from early shows like this one, when you can hear the crowd do the ooos and ahhhs.

The little Nellie Kane riff in YEM is lovely. Funny that the footnotes only mention Psycho Killer but not anything else going on in there. I enjoyed myself the eclectic vocal jam. The transition into Contact is very nice. Very nice.

It seems they are all having a great time at this show and virtually every song has something special that makes it stand out as a mentionable version. It’s a blue ribbon show for sure. I imagine it holds up to many repeated listenings, revealing little nuggets of goodness even after having heard it dozens of times. Great choice.

I love Phish.

#17

All the segues in this show are spot on…they just move from one song to the next flawlessly (especially during the 1st set)

I love the Who Knows sandwiched between Chalkdust…very nice.

Really enjoyed the Split Open and Melt-> Glide-> Nellie Cane-> Divided Sky…just great stuff there.

And again, they lose me on the Memories; odd placement for that.

The 2nd set is good up until YEM, yeah I know I said it :silent: I’ve always said to my wife that the vocal jam kills it for me. If they did away with the vocal jam, it would be that much better. :wave:

Overall a good show…but, for me, it seems like we’ve been on a trend of smoking’ 1st set shows for the past few LSD’s

#18

^totally get the comment about the segues in this show… in fact, that’s kinda what this week in phish history is famous for if i remember right. i mean just go look at the shows from the 1st couple weeks of august 93… they’re full of segues and crazy transitions, culminating with that insane Murat Theater show in indy on the 13th.

as a side note, two shows later on 8/12 was my 1st show :shh:

love the Who Knows thingy inside CDT… although it takes some work for the guys to squeeze it in musically, vibewize its spot on.

i’ve never seen Fee with the megaphone somehow… probably seems like a silly detail but i hope to someday! the segue jam into Split is the best yet in the set. Split is rather unique version, and really suggests some crazy evolution in Phish jamming. they spend a while kinda like deconstructing the Split groove until its almost impossible to detect, then they kinda sorta gradually reconstruct it… the one mark i’d put against this jam is that despite its creative hooked up approach and magnitude, once they start reconstructing the Split groove its too literal for too long. thankfully, instead of a traditional Split closing, they slow down and jazz out the groove. Trey introduces Glide with stunning effect. the tempo Glide is played at is ridiculous as well!

listening again to Memories and realizing that not every song needs to be a bustout someday :silent:

nice Coil, Page even gives it a funny little ending in unorthodox style.

Tweezer jam has a familiar style for the era… those wacky crescendos and fade outs. kinda acidy now that i think about it. kinda just drops into Tela more than a proper segue but its clean.

kinda weird ending to this MFMF if you wanna hear something a little different from the norm in this one

i didn’t hear the crowd reacting to the trampolines, which got me wondering when exactly did Phish debut the tramps with YEM? this version is loaded with quotes and teases which is definitely cool, kinda awkwardly ended jam tho. i think the vocal jam is hit and miss. even tho the Psycho Killer tease is kinda cool it gets a little unhinged quickly.

Crimes with The Dude is a nice rare treat

this is a pretty wacky show with goofy shit throughout… Fee->Split->Glide is by far the winning moment of the night for me :slight_smile:

#19

Just a short note, the YEM -> Contact is super dooper fun! My wife and I were sitting her listening and saying “hey! we can totally vocal jam that like.” Then they segue into Contact. Yeah, we can’t do that.