welll like i said in te other thread, this show is full of juicy nuggets. Like greg said, the Stash is a given. I like the maze-gumbo portions and the yem is quite tasty.
First set is tight too with the Esther, D-sky, foam and free.
I feel like everytime they release a show people say they could have picked a better one. For me, this is a GREAT choice!
It’s barely even an Immigrant Song jam. I hate how people label anything that vaguely resembles a song a jam on it. There is NO jam or tease of Fire On The Mountain in the NYE95 Drowned. There is NO jam or tease of Crosseyed & Painless in 99% of the shows you see that claim there is a C&P jam or tease. The YEM has something that vaguely resembles Immigrant Song, though they never play the main riff, and someone does the “AHHHHHHHH AHH” part a few times.
While I’m at it: my fundamental problem with most pre-97 shows is that the first sets are uninteresting. I’m not saying bad, mind you. It’s just that I like shows better if there’s jams in both sets. Or at the very least an interesting segue, cover, extra good but otherwise normal version, etc. Be honest with yourself. You don’t like 2/20/93 and 5/7/94 for the first sets. They’re very bottom heavy shows, with all the good shit reserved for the second set. Again, I’m not saying those first sets are bad. But you have more free time than me if you bother to listen to them everytime you want to hear the segue madness of 2/20/93 or the Tweezerfest.
Also while I’m at it: pre-93 shows are only interesting to me a historical curio. Sure, they’re tighter than hell and they play a lot of songs then that they didn’t afterward, but that’s not enough for me to bother collecting/paying for pre-93 shows.
All of these arguments are built on the fact that the primary thing that drew me to Phish, and continues to, is their jamming. I would honestly take a long, meaty Piper or Ghost over a well played, perfect Fluffhead any day of the week. So let’s just clear that up right now. That’s where I’m coming from.
With alllll that said, the first set of this show is boring and only worth a handful of listens. It reminds me of basically any fall '95 first set in that I’ll listen to it at the most twice through. Like 12/14/95, everyone loves this show for the second set. Also like that show, this one delivers in spades in the second set. The second set, the entire thing, is a peak experience, the kind that reminds you why you listen to so much Phish in the first place.
I do. I really, really do. I was actually thinking of this yesterday, and was going to post it in Phish Confessions, but this place seems better than any.
I like the first set as much, if not more, than the second. But that just goes to show how great that show really is.
BTW they played most of the 2nd set on sirius last night, I only caught the last 15 minutes
or so but it sounded sweet. I’ll have to check out the rest of the show.