12-06-96 Aladdin Theatre, Las Vegas, NV

12-06-96 Aladdin Theatre, Las Vegas, NV

1: Wilson, Peaches en Regalia, Poor Heart, Also Sprach Zarathustra-> Llama, You Enjoy Myself, Cars Trucks Buses, Down With Disease-> Frankenstein

2: Julius, Sparkle, Mike’s Song-> Simple, Harry Hood-> Weekapaug Groove#, Sweet Adeline, Good Times Bad Times

E: Harpua* > “Wildwood Weed” Rap$* > Harpua* > I Wanna Be a Cowboy’s Sweetheart# > Harpua*-> Suspicious Minds^-> Harpua > Suzy Greenberg**

#With vicious start/stop jamming. *Most of Harpua had Les Claypool and Larry LaLonde from Primus. After the opening, Les did a rap about a weed or something like that. Then more Harpua and the Jimmy story (Jimmy and Poster Nutbag going to Vegas). They stop and camp. At the campsite, they start yodelling. $Based on the song from Jim Stafford’s “Spiders and Snakes” album. #With yodelers. John McEuen and Heather and Anamiekl August did a country/yodel tune. The story continues, Jimmy & Poster meet up with four “Elvii” on the edge of Las Vegas and have a duel. ^The four “Elvii” sing the first few verses of “Suspicious Minds” and then Fish continues. Jimmy (Fish?) is victorious. Then the dog/cat fight. Harpua wins and the song finishes. At some point everyone returns and then Brian Mantia, the drummer for Primus, shows up for “Suzie Greenberg”. **All of the above musicians; with “Suzie Q” jam lead by one of the Elvii.

Maybe it’s just the great sound quality of my download for this one, but this is one of my favorite shows that I own. That Harry Hood is one of my all time favorites, I don’t know if I can name one that I like more - it’s perfect. The Suzy kicks my ass too! and give me more Elvii baby!

This has always been and always will be one of my favorite Phish shows, and not even really because of the encore. Not that I don’t love the Harpua madness, but the show would still be one of my favorite shows even without it. Every note each member of the band plays is blazing with energy and perfectly placed. The Wilson, Peaches, Poor Heart trio to open is fire and then the 2001 that follows is just sexy as hell. Trey is playing around with the wah and they just let this one funk out for a few minutes in such a nice way. They botch a couple of the changes in YEM, but the jam more than makes up for it…very crunchy. I’m not a huge vocal jam fan anymore but this one’s fun. How can you not love a donut-themed vocal jam?

I think the actual Mike’s Song jam from the previous show is better than this one, but it features a good 10 minutes of intense Trey shredding and a nice transition into Simple. The Simple jam is top-notch with the last 5 minutes or so just getting into a really awesome space-funk motif. The Hood->Weekapaug is a Phish highlight IMO…not really much I can say about it. It’s just amazing.

This show has been in my car all week. Love the Simple, but for me the highlight is the Weekapaug. :thumbup: :wave: