11-30-94 Campus Recreation Center, Evergreen College, Olympia, WA

[willbreathes]

Wednesday, 11/30/1994 Campus Recreation Center, Evergreen College, Olympia, WA

Set 1: Frankenstein, Poor Heart, My Friend, My Friend, Reba[1], Colonel Forbin’s Ascent -> The Vibration of Life -> Colonel Forbin’s Ascent > Fly Famous Mockingbird, Down with Disease, Bouncing Around the Room, I’m Blue, I’m Lonesome[2], My Long Journey Home[2]

Set 2: Halley’s Comet > Run Like an Antelope -> My Sweet One[3] -> Run Like an Antelope[1] -> Fixin’ to Die -> Ya Mar -> Mike’s Song -> Catapult -> McGrupp and the Watchful Hosemasters > Cavern

Encore: The Horse > Silent in the Morning, Amazing Grace[4]

[1] Unfinished.
[2] Acoustic.
[3] Unsually long delay at end, with some band members “snoring.”
[4] Without microphones.

Notes: Reba was incomplete. The Forbin’s narration included The Vibration of Life. I’m Blue I’m Lonesome and My Long Journey Home were performed acoustic. There was an unusually long delay at the end of My Sweet One, with some of the band members “snoring.” Antelope was unfinished. Amazing Grace was performed without microphones.

[TanasRoot]

everyone should hear the LivePhish release of this show. its really sick.

really an amazing first set… the Frankenstein to open is an “open for business” sign. a really weird, long, dark outro of MFMF without a “myfe” leads into a sharp Reba. as the jam opens its so delicate the guys flirt with silent jam territory and with the LP release you can really still hear every tiny note as the peak nears the soaring beauty gets caught by some creeping dissonance and tension, and pinnacle of which sees the band skip the whistling and kick out Forbin’s lumbering intro!

the Vibration story is really trippy (“first we gotta get Fish to stop here…” LOL Trey ) although it kinda dies after you arrive in Gamehenge. a young DWD reveals some interesting territory we don’t get anymore. coming out of Trey’s riff Mike and Fish find a vaguely arabic sounding groove, with Page really digging in early. Trey pushes some nice waves of old school “tension and release” before they close DWD out nicely.

the acoustic bluegrass pair to close the set is killer, and Page fucking kills the vocals on Blue and Lonesome.

set 2 review later

[TanasRoot]

after 15 minutes…

ok, some noodling and mike is announcing Halley’s flying in. a pre-jam era shorty cuts out and A 'Lope comes running up. this is a searing incendiary build with trey and page shredding things up plus a section of gnarly looping and pitch pedal. just as it feels the jam is reaching it apex mike switches up the bassline into a fixed pattern with a little speedy swing to it. the band follows one by one until it morphs unbroken into My Sweet One what otherwise seems to be heading for a standard version goes off the rails in a crazy long break in "i’ll say your…
… zzzzzzzz.

yup, the next thing you hear is snoring and sleeping sounds. i can’t pick up on any signals or language to initiate it, just kinda seems to have been totally spontaneous after an audible “WAKE UP” call from an audience member they deliver the “NAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAME” ending. but with no letdown all phour are immediately picking up a raging speedgrass jam that would seem to be the conclusion of Antelope. quickly its apparent that this is going someplace else! the tempo holds but the jam builds down into a kinda demented ethnic jazz thing with some villainous laughs from Fish during the breakdown. strong page chords pick the band back up into a freakish jam with a mechanical loop from Trey . page moves to the Clav and things start to space out but still the speedy tempo holds. Mike losing his mind with some rubbery bass bends ON THE STANDUP BASS and things are getting real gooby in this bitch. where is this going?!?!

again page is all over the piano keyboard and a "Maze"y feel enters the jam. the jam focuses even harder tho and Trey starts to sing the ultra rare 2-time only cover of Fixin’ To Die. this selection has clearly been pumped up by Trey (evident via his energetic vocals) and Fish (shrieking “yeah!” all thru the background and furious drumming). as Trey navigates the verses the whole band is rolling in it now. after closing out the song the band softens the jam and page introduces some Landlady-like latin piano flavor. trey comes back with chords a leads a transition into Ya Mar, in which Trey tells us “Leo will play it for you, play it Leo!”. Page’s rhythms on the Hammond really get Fish’s ear for some swingin’ on his toms, which after another super-soft, barely audible jam (which must be heard to hear just how silent the crowd remains during this section!) along with Mike playing a wonky off-key line lead thru the conclusion of Ya Mar and into Mike’s!

for the first time since Halley’s the tempo of the music rolls back. the Mike’s jam slowly breaks down into stuttery rhythms with everyone playing off Fish’s drum show where he’s deconstructing the beats until it lands in a mostly acapella Catapult with some weird vocal play, the end of which drifts right up into McGrupp. again the intimate venue reveals itself with a hushed start to McGrupp that only begins to crescendo at the “looks to much like Dave” refrain. Page and Trey kill it thru the composed section into the piano solo, and OMG. just step back and let the Chairman go to work, and they boys do just that for over 3 minutes of epic and gorgeous page soloing. THIS IS A MUST HEAR VERSION as Page is completely rolling in IT and finally leads the band smoothly back to the conclusion. finally a razor sharp and energetic take on classic closer Cavern, after which Trey interestingly thanks for crowd for a good time that night but remarks he hopes Phish can return for a 4th time to play this venue. in actuality, this show IS Phish’s 4th time at the Campus Rec Cen, and would ultimately be its last visit to date.

the band returns to the stage for an encore of The Horse > Silent In The Morning that is played excellently and sounds so fresh it serves well in its nightcap position. not quite ready to go Phish returns without microphones for one last song, Amazing Grace sans mircophones. again, the LP clarity and intimate size of the venue allow for clear listen to the choral performance.

in summation the Antelope run up thru Ya Mar is gold, and this McGrupp seems like an all timer to me.