08-26-93 Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, Portland, OR
1: Runaway Jim, Guelah Papyrus, Reba, Fee, Split Open and Melt, Esther, It’s Ice-> Harry Hood, Golgi Apparatus
2: Also Sprach Zarathustra-> David Bowie, Lifeboy, Rift, Jesus Just Left Chicago, Lizards, HYHU-> Mice and Bats*-> HYHU, Chalk Dust Torture
E: Freebird
Baby Gramps opened. *With Baby Gramps; Fish on vacuum.
My very first Phish show! I technically should have been at one of the the Roseland shows in March of 1993, but my band opened for Jon Spencer Blues Explosion at Satyricon on one of those nights and my job kept me from doing anything interesting on the other night due to the graveyard shift.
I had already jumped feet first into the pantheon that was Phish, tape trading, and Phish musicial appreciation a full year and a half before my first show. Thanks to a great pot dealer as well as a friend who went to Warren Wilson College in Carolina, I already had an impressive amount of Maxell high-bias cassettes with shows dating from 1987 to present day. I owned one of the (now rare) Junta casette tapes as well as a Lawn Boy vinyl from Absolute AuGo-Go Records. I knew a lot of tunes, I knew Gamehendge, I already had a favorite Harpua, and was calling for a Runaway Jim opener on the night of my first Phish show. Of course, in 1993, a Jim opener was always a possibility rightously accepted due to the amount of times it had already been done! I was already a huge Hood fan as well so that was expected.
It was a nice warm August evening, as I remember. No rain, which always a bonus in Portland. Met up with my friends down on Broadway and headed over to the Widmer brewery tasting room for some Weizens before the show. The park behind the Concert Hall was filling up with hacky-sackers and fans as we filed past. The Duckelweizens and Hefeweizens were fantastic, especially as they were brewery fresh and quite tasty. We discussed the possiblity of songs to be played, tramps, a possible Baby Gramps sit in (he was a Northwest legend). Soon, we were puffing great Northwest herb on the walk back to the venue, anticipating an awesome night of music.
Baby Gramps opened with his witty humourous brand of travelling medicine show troubador roots music. Since he played solo on his National Steel for the entire set, there was a very small break between his performance and Phish’s first set. Phish came out and I got my Jim opener. Little did I know what I was in for in for during that first set! A wicked Reba, Fee, SOAM, Esther…and then the Ice–>Hood. It was an overwelming first set of music for a first timer. I spent set break soaking in what I’d just witnessed. Second set highlights include a stellar David Bowie as well as a triumphant Lizards. Baby Gramps did indeed sit in with Fishman, which was quite interesting. Chalk Dust to end things. The accapella Freebird encore sealed the entire night.
While the setlist looks standard and possibly even a bit rote to some heads, if you have not heard the single existing AUD to this show, do yourself a favor and find it! It is August 1993 prime Phish…even though it was my first show, I knew it was special. It crackles with badass jams and wicked playing. Seek it out.
SOME OTHER MEMORIES OF THIS SHOW…
I bought tickets early, so I was on the fifth row center, very close to the stage.
The Grateful Dead had just played a few nights before at Autzen Stadium, so a lot of my Washington and California friends were in town, sticking around for the Phish show. The “lot” scene at the park behind the show was filled with people selling weed, doses, and ale! It was very much like the Dead show I had camped at the week-end before!
The Schnitzer is where the Portland Symphony performs…the Portland Opera, broadway musicals, plays, etc. Rock concerts were very rare there! Naturally, it was a no smoking venue. When the lights went down and Jim started, you could see the lighters, smell the dankness!!! The ushers were flying around the floor with flashlights trying to drastically stop the smoking. too many people; not enough ushers…they gave up and smoke flowed freely, thus ensuring no more Phish shows there ever again!
*My friend taped the entire show on a walkman with tiny mics on his hat. His recordings sounded amazing! I lost contact with him in mid 1995 though and subsequently lost the original casette. I wonder if the second AUD listed on e-tree is his and lost in circulation?
Official release bump!
Great show. Baby Gramps was… odd, in a Joseph Spence kind of way. The Reba is near perfection. Harry Hood was very good. I don’t know what else can really be said about it aside from “Phish was really good in August of 93.”
Glad to see my first show is an official release finally. Listening back today…so many great moments.