11-27-96 Key Arena, Seattle, WA
1: Julius-> My Friend My Friend-> Ya Mar, Chalk Dust Torture, The Sloth, Uncle Pen, Free-> Theme From the Bottom, Bold as Love
2: Down With Disease-> Jesus Just Left Chicago-> Scent of a Mule*, Tweezer**-> Down With Disease Jam, The Star Spangled Banner, Fire
E: Waste, Tweezer Reprise
*Trey scats to the “Brady Bunch” theme for a few minutes amd includes a vacuum solo. **With “Sweet Emotion” (Aerosmith) quote.
How come no one talks about this show?
How come?
Highlights abound.
This show is one of my favorites! I just re-acquired it after having forgotten about it.
Jimi’s birthday in Jimi’s city… I like :thumbup:
Diseezer FTW!
I used to listen to this second set all the time back when I had it on cassette. While it’s really good, the DWD isn’t as good as I remember it somehow. It has some really awesome parts, but it also goes through some rather stagnant parts IMO. But, gotta a love a nice segue into Jesus Left Chicago. The Mule that follows is yet another awesome Fall 96 Mule…while the Went version is still my favorite, Fall 96 is THE tour for Scent of a Mule. I do like the Tweezer->DWD Reprise but the transition is not very smooth. It’s still awesome, but after Trey works back to the DWD theme Fish brings the tempo up to the DWD tempo rather abruptly and it takes the rest of the band a few measures to adjust. Actually, now that I think about it…it sounds an awful lot like a 3.0 segue 
Really solid first set. MFMF > Ya Mar is superb. Excellent first set jam in Chalkdust led by Trey. Treat to hear the Sloth. And an interesting Free. I’m rusty to 96 at the moment, and the Free just sounded a little differently played. Bold as Love a fitting end to a first set, with the date & city.
Very solid first set. They come out firing and maintain high energy throughout. The MFMF and Ya Mar combo is very well played. Just a random thought but I always think of Ya Mar as a summer tour song, along with Loving Cup. They just seem to remind me of being outside on a sunny afternoon. When I hear them it always brings a smile to my face. Ahh, flashbacks… The next trio of Chalkdust, Sloth, Uncle Penn is a rocking great trio of songs that works surprisingly well in succession. Free and Theme have an unpolished raw feel to them even though both had been in rotation for 18 months. Great choice for a closer in Bold As Love. Page always sings this one well.
Second set starts off great. To be honest, I’ve never been a fan of DWD. It takes 4-5 minutes to finally get into the jam and most of them never really go anywhere. I found myself enjoying this one a lot and the segue to JJLC was pretty good. This cover has always been one of my favorites and it did not disappoint. They followed up with a very playful Mule. The Tweezer seems pretty standard for the mid 90’s but it’s totally ruined with the forced reentry into DWD. No need to do that but seems like Trey was the only one who thought it was a good idea. After that, the remainder of the show is a wash for me. Hate to say it killed the mood but everything that followed is short and straight forward.
Overall, never heard this show before so great suggestion! I’ve only listened to a few shows from 1996 and besides Clifford Ball was never really impressed. Seems to me like they took the year off musically but that’s just my opinion.
I agree on Disease! Haven’t broken into this show yet, but it’s a relief to read that from somebody else, lol. I love it on Hoist, but like Cavern, they rush the shit out of it on stage and lose the whole groove entirely. And it’s a neat tune, I do like it, … but I tend to feel a little disappointed whenever it starts up live.
I think Trey forgot how cool the melody syncopation originally was in the opening line of each verse … cuz he rushes thru it like he’s running late, every time. I think if they slowed it back down and restored that melody like it oughta should, I’d probably stop complaining about everything forever.
Well, maybe not that.
edit
I feel the same about '96. Love that Halloween show though.
I really enjoyed this 1st set…including the Julius. They came out with a lot of energy and it shows in the last 3-4 minutes of the song. They were just rocking’ that version out.
The energy continues on into MFMF>Ya Mar as both were played with confidence, including the much maligned intro to MFMF. It’s probably only me but the ending of Ya Mar where Mike yells that gibberish always bothered me…but the crowd usually enjoys it. 
The next 3 songs - Chalkdust, Sloth, Uncle Pen are played awesomely. And I don’t usually say that about Chalkdust, they were just killing it. Sloth is welcome anytime, they just don’t have that in the rotation enough. And who doesn’t love a good Uncle Pen…whenever I hear Phish do Bluegrass it reminds me of when we were forced to square dance as kids in school.
This Free is surprisingly smooth. You never know how its gonna go when they play this. Usually when Trey nails the intro, as he does here, you know its gonna be good. Even the spacey middle jam is well done with Mike laying down a killer groove which leads to a smooth transition back into the song again. Very well played.
And they continue the solid first set with Theme. Again, well played. I like how they go in a different direction about halfway through, it just switches on a dime and kinda goes down a dark alley for a little before returning back again.
Page shines during Axis, as always; a great tune for him to showcase his talents as Trey focuses on being Jimi.
Overall, I really enjoyed this 1st set. There a 3 songs which I love (MFMF, Free, Theme) that I sometimes cringe when I hear them started today, but by listening to this show I was reminded of why I fell in love with them to begin with. Great pick for LSD #4 so far, looking forward to set 2.
Can’t believe I spaced on the Halloween show! It also reminded me of the new years show. I was so excited to get a copy of this on tape a week or so after it happened. I played the shit out of these tapes for weeks. Shortly after my tape collection was growing exponentially and I probably haven’t listened to the new years show since.
i can’t help it… i apparently LOVE Julius as an opener. what can i say? i’m a dancin’ fool and Julius is a good way to get a fool dancin’
(p.s. i know similar can be said about any number of opener tunes, but a Julius opener has served good omen for experimentally phishy nights 
)
the Ya Mar from 12/13/97 may be of some interest to you 
Albany opener if I remember correctly? If so I remember that one being quite good and long. My ‘summer tour song’ comment was more about the atmosphere Ya Mar creates when I hear it. I wasn’t implying it should only be played on summer tour because that would be a travesty!
/end threadjack
yah brah 
opened the show on the final night of fall 97… its a little well known so i figured there was a good chance you already knew it, but i wouldn’t be doing my phishy duty if i missed a chance to spread the word of an 18.5 minute depth charge to start the show 
oh, and its totally no thread jack… its an interesting conversation the idea that certain tunes may vibe better in different venue settings. like i have a strong outdoor association for “Gotta Jiboo”, but i think that orientation can be entirely attributed to the fact that the best version i ever saw was outdoors/summer tour. but i totally get where you’re coming from… like Divided Sky indoors 
plus if we need to tie this back to the discussion topic, how about the 3/1 ratio of indoor to outdoor shows picked for LSD so far?
Okay, just listened to most of this show on my drive today.
Big huge area sounding recording, man. It’s cool. My car stereo doesn’t do these well. It sounds great at the computer in the headphones … no other noise interruption, no car running. I can actually hear Mike.
The Julius opener struck me as very high energy, and very confident. Then the next five tunes just had me grinning, goin, this band rules. MyF, Ya Mar, Chalkdust, Sloth, Uncle Pen. On fire, the whole time.
Free has a way of deflating my tires, and I’m not normally big on Theme. And so I used Free to give my ears a break and turned the volume down some. But Theme, I don’t know … I dug this one for whatever reason. I think it’s more that I was just enjoying the song itself, in a more accepting way than normal. The Bold As Love impressed me, I thought it was real sweet. Particularaly dug the slick work Fish does on all the flashy fills in that song.
Set two has been cool to me so far … contrasted to how I was complaining about Trey’s vocal delivery on DWD earlier in this thread, he delivers it just right in this version. Still freaking crazy fast though ain’t it? Good version, I enjoyed the long weird jam. And then I loved the Jesus. Page is great in it, and Trey is arena rock blues guy to reasonbly great effect. And Scent of a Mule is a good contrast tempo-wise, after the long DWD followed by long slow blues. But this is a far out Mule, I’m not used to this kind of a Mule. The Brady Bunch? I don’t know, I think I’ve always prefered the condensed studio version … appreciate the attempt at the whole epic expansion thing, but it doesn’t really do it for me.
Actually I think the first six tunes of the show are where it’s at for me. Second set starts pretty cool, but then the Mule duel wasn’t my tea, and then the Tweezer in the late half of the second set just feels like … awkward. Reminds me of the Brooklyn '04 show. It’s like, dude. You’re late.
I agree with Hose’s take on the 2nd set. Not that it was bad…just overshadowed by the awesomeness of the 1st set. I never even realized he was doing the Brady Bunch thing (I try not to read the setlists before listening) until my wife walked in and she’s like “why is Trey be-bopping the Brady Bunch theme?” I was like Wha? 
I would like to have a SBD of set 1
96 is an interesting year to me. You have the raw psychedelia from 94/95, the afro-groove influence from 97/98, but the groove hasn’t settled with Phish’s 95 and earlier speed and tenacity. So 96 gives you this loose, raw, psychedelia that breathes a little more than it did in 95. Maybe you disagree.
This DWD is a pretty good example of that. You have moments where the band plays very comfortably in dissonant spaces, relaxed, and just being there, and if this Disease were in 1995 it would sound to me more aggressive and of definite purpose. I guess this is what Doug is saying when he says some parts are stagnant. Phish draggin us through the coals. Page hints at some Phish bliss at 17:30 but the band seems to favor the darkness at that time.
This Mule RULES also.
^ i like your idea of not reading set list before listening. I’ll do that next time.
^^I just looked up the Brooklyn DVD setlist, and it wasn’t Tweezer … but it was the Mike’s Groove & Divided Sky encore that just strike me as kinda flat, a little lifeless.
But maybe I’ll relisten to set two before I move on to the next pick. Fire was fun, as usual.
Know what I’ve thought, is, are these last couple choices full of Trey kicking complete fretboard ass or what? Is it me? Maybe he’s just always the man. Or maybe it’s just that it’s 1.0 shows, from before the Dark Times. But wow, I just can’t believe what I’m hearing sometimes, decades hence.
Is that how ya use ‘hence’?
MFMF was quite rag`er… tho sometimes i feel like MFMF is one of those songs that *always feels like its the most raging MFMF ever, right?
the first time i listened i wasn’t so sure about the vibe change to Ya Mar but this time thru i get it. good start to the set.
last time i listened thru some small old JBL speakers and i wasn’t so keen on the sound. this time with some cheaper sony closed cup headphones i’m enjoying the sound of the recording much more. even the crowd sounds like its at a nice level in the mix.
CDT feels more like the vibe i was in after MFMF so for some reason now it feels a little weird to me to be hearing it after Ya Mar
ok, weird thing was i kinda tuned out at some point during CDT and only tuned in to bop my head with the Sloth… then Uncle Pen went in one ear and out the other… these aren’t typical reactions for me, but they happened listening here.
then Free starting up hooked me, and then it got a little crazy in the jam… goes into a kinda dark and repetitive groove, but a rare type, unique. jam reels back in but it touches quickly on some very different ideas… reminds of some 2011 jams
whoa Trey just flipped the script in the Theme jam. the rest of the band is slowly deconstructing behind him. Fish kinda sounds like he’s in a similar but differently vibed pocket… mike finds a bomb pattern and now whole thing is this chugging growling psych rock monster when just like that it pops right back into Theme jam. wild and insanely precise 
nice Bold As Love in a spot i’m not used to hearing it in. Page singing it out. nice happy birthday from Trey before setbreak
some cool sci fi sounds in the DWD intro. the jam first hooks me when Trey starts playing wah-wah chords at like 200 mph. then they all hit a change and its rock n roll valhalla for a minute. was that Trey laughing in the deep section of the DWD jam?? at first this is i guess what you’d call a “textured” jam, no big changes that hit you over the head but bits and pieces changing here and there. then Page is kinda in the lead and the whole thing turns gnarly and dissonant for a while. locks in again and slowly breaks down until it kinda drifts into JJLC… but doesn’t anyone else feel like Page was almost starting to play Wading In The Velvet Sea? obviously not possible as it hadn’t been written yet, but sure feels that way…
really nicely played JJLC, although nothing extraordinary happens
i can see why not everyone would be high on this Mule. its not exactly dancey but i like these more unhinged moments and seeing how the band follows each other. there’s a bit of full band jamming before Page really drops into a solo. Trey doing the Brady Bunch Theme as he’s playing along with the vocalizations, and its all in a weird tense mode. dig it.
Right 