10-27-95 Wing Stadium

Friday, 10/27/1995
Wing’s Stadium, Kalamazoo, MI

Set 1: Runaway Jim, Fluffhead, Taste That Surrounds, Horn, I Didn’t Know, Rift, Stash, Fee -> Suspicious Minds > Hold Your Head Up

Set 2: Also Sprach Zarathustra > David Bowie, Dog Faced Boy, Poor Heart > Simple > McGrupp and the Watchful Hosemasters > Keyboard Army, Bouncing Around the Room, Possum[1]

Encore: Life on Mars?

[1] Simpsons, Oom Pa Pa, and All Fall Down signals in intro.

Teases:
· Beat It tease in Possum
Notes: The Possum intro contained Simpsons, Oom Pa Pa, and All Fall Down signals and Beat It teases.

HYHU to end first set? Is that correct?

Looking forward to that JimFluff opener…

I am only just finished Fluffhead, but this recording is a prime example of why I love audience recordings. The band is on fire from the first note, and I think the crowd is even crazier. When they came back from the quiet section in Jim the audience response put a big smile on my face.

Finished the first set, and it is excellent.

Taste/Fog That Surrounds is really weird. Trey & Fishman each singing verses on top of each other is interesting and almost works, but not quite. Horn is solid. And I Didn’t Know has an insane pace to it. I think Trey is really in high gear during this entire set as he seemed to be pushing the lyrics forward.

Stash is really great. There was a few elements that I thought was a call-back to the epic Orlando version, and then I realized that this show is just over two weeks before that one. When Trey comes wailing back and the band starts the end of the song, I had some goosebumps going on. Another point where the crowd was way into it.

Solid Fee with a short jam segue into Suspicious Minds which would have been near perfection if Fishman could remember how the song started. Turned into a fun Phish version with the lyrical flub. Short HYHU and Elvis said they would be right back.

I’ve only listened through the same point yet. I wasn’t thinking in terms of aud vs. sbd, but I did take note of the crowd, mainly how noticeably larger this one is than the last few WSDs.

5,100 seat hockey rink east of Kalamazoo, MI

check out the badass font on the stadium signage :thumbup:

  • super pumped crowd at the start… will is totally on about how the crowd is fully sold for the swells in Runaway Jim. rhythmic jam in minute 6, which is really scorching by the 8th minute :slight_smile:

  • energetic Fluffhead tho i can’t detect anything out of the box going on

  • Taste That Surrounds is a prime example of Phish refining some ideas within a song to make it better in the end… the layering of vocal parts here is too cluttered.

  • really enjoying what i perceive as the energy in this 1st set. i didn’t go to this homestate show, but i have talked to friends that did and they always noted what a great vibe show this was

  • like how this Stash is starting off… amazing how polite the crowd seems during the early hushed parts of the song. jam is kinda meandering nicely until 9:45 when i gnarly, locked in jam emerges. kinda feels like a grimy DEG. trey is playing like 1,000,000 face melting notes around the 11:00 mark. 12th minute madness. the jam recedes with Page staccato piano chords. Trey swells back in at 13:00. i think this a great-if-familiar version of Stash.

  • not quite seamless but a really smart piano transition into Suspicious Minds. Fish flubs the opening line, i love it… asking for the lines :smiley:

  • they’ll be back in 15 minutes. Elvis said so.

  • this is a really interesting David Bowie to me. the jam starts off immediately going weird places. first a few “off key” notes, then trey playing some staccato stuff on muted strings makes the whole thing go in a dark and rhythmic place. as the thing starts to open up again Trey starts doing some crazy, monotone, vocal noises… the whole jam becomes this massive rock monster before reducing to the minimal Bowie jam groove for a reset. again, some soft, wordless vocals (sounds like Mike?) at about the 10 minute mark. just loving how large and ominous this whole Bowie feels.

  • i think the Simple jam gets interesting because Trey is on the percussion minikit maybe? his guitar is definitely locked in some kinda buzzing loop, but i don’t really pick up on any unusual sounds in the mix tho. interesting jam that gets kinda spooky and spacey and drops into McGrupp super nicely

  • i think there’s a tease from Page early in the piano solo in McGrupp. no idea what it is but something in the melody is so familiar, something classically inspired. anyway Page is on fire and the close of the solo and tune are bombastic. instead of the gentle melody reprise to close McGrupp, Page softly introduces the piano riff for Keyboard Army… excellently executed transition.

  • my big takeaway from this show is how great a show from the past can be with a setlist that would draw ire these days, as set II closes on a run of Dog Faced Boy, Poor Heart > Simple > McGrupp and the Watchful Hosemasters > Keyboard Army, Bouncing Around the Room, Possum.

  • keepers: Runaway Jim, David Bowie, McGrupp and the Watchful Hosemasters

What a great show Runaway Jim / Bowie / Possum can’t get enough! All this for $20 bucks what a steal!

The opening sequence of Runaway Jim and Fluffhead is great but outside of that the rest of the show seems pretty meh to me. Stash and Davie Bowie have some nice parts and the McGrupp is played well but everything else was pretty standard.

Bowie is excellent. Loved the thirty seconds of spaciness leading into it from 2001. Trey vocalizing in the beginning of the jam is interesting.

Simple has a good jam. I am not a huge Simple person, but this one was nice. Segued excellently into McGrupp. I really dug the acapellaness of the beginning.

Keyboard Army is a disaster on tape, but the audience seemed to love it. And when they kicked into Bouncing the place went bonkers. Also during Possum I couldn’t hear Page playing from the crowd being so into it.

Tossaway encore, and it turns in a decent show.

Fluffhead, Stash, and Bowie are the real keepers to this one.

yeah, when do you ever see a Jim>Fluff opener? It was as good as you would imagine.

I’m so glad they continued to work on Taste that Surrounds to get it to the point where it is today. Although I love to hear Fish singing…it just doesn’t work here.

Horn is great as always and that I Didn’t Know was like a race to the finish. Rift never gets a complaint from me but Stash on the other hand…meh, never really enjoyed this song for some reason.

The end of this set kinda fades out for me. Fee has never really translated well to the live setting. I always remember I couldn’t wait to hear my first live Fee and then I did and I was like :neutral_face: and then the rest is just some Fish shenanigans.

Set II is where it’s at for me…except for the Bouncin’

You will never see this song connect again Poor Heart>Simple>McGrupp. It’s awesome, if nothing more than for it’s obscurity. And a great but different encore choice caps off another great show.

This was a very fun show to be at as a young college kid. :smiling_imp:
FYI, Fishman put on an Elvis wig, sunglasses, and cape that had christmas lights on in the inside for Suspicious Minds. He was just eating it up. Very funny stuff.

Place was tiny and packed. All GA too. It was so hot in there too.

Jim>Fluffhead was an incredible start to the show.
The second set is the bee’s knees. Encore was a dud.