08-16-98 Loring Air Force Base

Phish Live Shows
#1

08-16-98 Loring Air Force Base, Limestone, ME

Soundcheck: Jam, Ginseng Sullivan, Back At The Chicken Shack, Jam, She Caught The Katy, Dog Log, Blues Jam/Instrumental, I Gave My Love A Cherry, Please Send Me Someone to Love

1: Ginseng Sullivan, Bathtub Gin > Rift, Punch You in the Eye, Lawn Boy, Ya Mar > AC/DC Bag, Frankie Says, Birds of a Feather, Guyute, Possum (1:38)

2: Down With Disease -> Piper -> Ghost* > Fluffhead, When the Circus Comes, Wading in the Velvet Sea, Hold Your Head Up+ > Sexual Healing++ > Hold Your Head Up, Run Like an Antelope# (1:41)

3: Sabotage > Also Sprach Zarathustra, Wilson, The Mango Song, Character Zero, Bittersweet Motel, While My Guitar Gently Weeps (0:55)

E: Harry Hood*, The Baby Elephant Walk^ (0:25)

Lemonwheel Day Two. *With glowstick war. +Long and drawn out; Fish introduces “his band”: Trey Anastasio on drums, Mike “Cactus” Gordon on bass, “Chairman of the Boards” Page McConnell, and himself as “Bob Weaver.” Fish introduces the next song as “a love song about a turtle” (which would have been “Terrapin”), but instead he performed Sexual Healing (“a much better song anyway”) after “his band” finally ended “Hold Your Head Up.” ++Includes “Sounds of Love” vacuum solo. #With “Sexual Healing” teases in the intro. ^Henry Mancini cover; see 12-01-92. Trey lit a tiki-torch (that looked like a “giant fake doobie”) and used it to light a fuse which ran up Page’s side of the stage, across the backdrop, down Fish’s side of the stage, along the fence to a giant elephant-shaped structure near the stage, which came to life as fireworks went off both above it and from behind the stage. Fish made elephant noises with a trombone. Then, as they played the song, the elephant blew water out of its trunk (while smoke came from underneath it) and led the crowd towards the campground.

#2

I think this may be the most underrated show of all time.

This topic was posted September 08, 2009 and no one has had even one word to say about it yet!

Let me start: DWD->Piper->Ghost->Fluffhead !!

It simply does not get any better than that folks. And the Ghost, which clocks in at a little over 18 minutes, is a gem among gems. The closest thing I can compare it to is the better known 22 minute Lemonwheel Soundcheck Jam, except funkier, more experimental, and simply better.

The 19 minute Disease that precedes it was the most improvisational Disease of Summer '98 and is certainly nothing to scoff at. It starts out hot before cooling in to some down-right PHUNK.

This show also boasts an excellent 18-minute 2001, a well-performed Fluffhead, Hood, has a few tasty “song” songs (Rift, The Mango Song).

So let me ask you this folks: What the deal is? Where’s the Lemonwheel love? I’m a younger fan so can someone please explain to me why the Lemonwheel has been one of the most neglected shows in Phishtory? I can understand how it could be living in the shadow of the Ball, the Went, and Big Cypress, but come on…

It’s really very strange to me that people over look this festival so much considering all the love people usually pour on Summer '98. Strange, strange…

Anyhow… if you haven’t yet… screen the Ghost! It’s a must-hear.

#3

That was a really convincing argument. And you didn’t even mention the Gin. I’mma go put this on.

#4

I didn’t mention Gin, Bag, Birds, a 15 minute Possum, Antelope, or Fishman singing Sexual Healing :mrgreen:

#5

I’m going to play devil’s advocate on this one. I was at the festival (as well as a few other shows on this tour) and I can certainly understand why it gets overlooked. It has a lot of things working against it. For one, yes of the festivals they played in 1.0 this is not nearly as good. And, I don’t know where all this love for summer 98 is you speak of. In fact I thought it was just the opposite. I heard a lot of grumbling about Phish on this tour, the most common complaint being the “lackluster” jams. While I like a lot of the jams from this tour, compared to what Phish had done in the past I can see how they seemed lackluster. For one this was the first major US tour after the Fall 97 Funk explosion (combined with the Island Tour) and they almost completely abandoned that approach in exchange for the more “ambient” type sound. I think it made some folks unhappy because now the thick cow funk was gone, as was the majority of the frenetic jamming and Trey shredding that Phish featured before 1997. Again I’m not saying I didn’t or don’t like it, it was just far different than how they had played up to that point and did kind of feel like something was missing. A lot of people seemed to complain that they were making up for their weak jamming with gimmicks like one-off covers and weird Fishman tunes and bust outs. Whether they were or were truly just going for a different sound is irrelevant, but maybe that played a role in why Lemonwheel never got/gets a lot of love. That and that third set is terrible :wave:

#6

Wait Phish engages in this “jamming” thing? I don’t hear it. But hey, we all hear different things.

Actually Sabotage is the moment I remember most from those there concerts, and I love that third set, going by the setlist… I haven’t listened in forever though, cuz shit, Summer 98 yo or somethin.

#7

PardonmeDoug, I appreciate your first-hand insight into the situation… kind of what I was looking for.

For the record, the Summer 98 love I’m referring to comes simply comes from some of the people in my little circle of heads who consider it one of the best tours of all time (as do I) and also from a quote in Phish: The Biography in which some Phish organization higher up (perhaps Jason Colton?) refers to the fact that he and a lot of people in the Phish organization consider Summer 98 one of the best tours of Phish’s career.

I personally love Summer 98. I love Fall 97, but the phunk is a bit one dimensional, just straight up porn-funk performd about the same tempo throughout the tour. Yes, this is an over-generalization, but I feel that in Summer 98 the new groove-oriented/ambient style hit the next level of evolution in which the funk was no longer a “look at our new trick” deal but instead reach a new peak that was innovative and varied as opposed to being a bit starved for variety in the way some of the Fall 97 funk is IMO. I believe Summer 98 represents Phish’s peak as groovesters. And also, the ambient style of jamming that became prevalent in 99 begins to rear its head in 98, but Trey still shreds… so I believe Summer 98 represents a cool combo of 99 style ambience while Trey is still (basically) at his peak.

Just my two cents…

#8

I agree with you 100%. I love 1998 Phish…good shit.

#9

:thumbup: :clap:

“A group of five friends who attended the festival passed around a camcorder to capture nearly all of the action on the 16th, but sadly the master tapes were lost shortly after the shows. One copy did survive, was paired with incredibly crispy audio and uploaded to YouTube over the past few days by YouTube user DSA.”

“Now, let’s bear in mind we’re talking about fan-shot footage on a camcorder from the late '90s, so don’t expect mind-blowing video. However, the team of fans shooting the concert became more comfortable as the show progressed and captured some stellar close-ups as the evening went on. It’s also cool to get a feel for what the Lemonwheel was like since the cameramen intersperse scenes from what was going on around them. For now, this is the best we have when it comes to video from Lemonwheel”

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPKA1lrPPAg[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmEl3kt8yDk[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yw-7015qR58[/youtube]

http://www.jambase.com/Articles/126870/New-To-YouTube-Phish-Lemonwheel-Night-Two

#10

Umm, yah, that’s awesome.

First half of the Second set and that 2001 :open_mouth:

It was so fucking cold that night, I ended up buying a, tshirt???, to keep warm.

Nugless Dugless, remember the vial??? It wasn’t L, it was liquid THC. Right?? :laughing:

:thumbup:

#11

Oh my, I forgot about “the vial” :laughing: :open_mouth: :open_mouth: