12-31-96 Fleet Center

Phish Live Shows
#1

12-31-96 Fleet Center, Boston, MA

1: Axilla, Peaches en Regalia, Punch You in the Eye, Cars Trucks Buses, Stash, The Horse-> Silent in the Morning, The Divided Sky, Sample in a Jar, Tweezer Reprise (1:02)

2: Chalk Dust Torture, Wilson, Sparkle, Simple-> Swept Away-> Steep-> Harry Hood-> Prince Caspian, Character Zero (0:57)

3 : Also Sprach Zarathustra*-> Auld Lang Syne-> Down With Disease, Suzy Greenberg, Run Like an Antelope, Bohemian Rhapsody**#, Julius# (0:56)

E: Amazing Grace# (0:03)

*Started about 10 minutes into the countdown and ended at the New Year . At the end, thousands upon thousands of balloons dropped from the ceiling.**First time played. #With the Boston Community Choir.

#2

This New Years run isn’t bad per se, but when I listen to the shows I can totally see why they needed to go to Europe and “reinvent themselves” or whatever. They are still playing well and having a good time, but there’s kind of this “now what?” feeling to the music.

This is honestly my least favorite of all the NYE shows. The improvisational highlights are the Stash and the Simple. The rest of the show features really high-energy playing from the band, but nothing too unique. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. The Bohemian Rhapsody is very very cool though. :thumbup:

#3

I’ve actually been discussing this idea you bring up here on another msg board…the idea that they seem to be kinda stuck in a rut in 96…stuck between the old of 95 and the new of 97

interesting to say the least, I really like 96 though but I can see where that sentiment is coming from…most nights only have 3-4 big jams, if that (and probably the least in the summer), and compared to what was to come in 97, that’s why the others are claiming it gets swept under the rug so to speak

one dude on the other board said that this year sounds the most like 96 than any other year since…I don’t know about “sound” but style wise and consistency wise I can see where he’s coming from on that too

#4

I concur on '96. Except my memory of Bohemian Rhapsody isn’t nearly as good. I taped that show off the radio, and was hoping for a much different show than what I got. I listened a couple times, but really wasn’t into it. Maybe I wasn’t that into the band at the time, I dunno. I don’t think I saw any shows between Clifford Ball & The Great Went. I was still really proud to be a fan of this incredible band … but musically they were getting a little stale at that point.