I haven’t check the wonderful sharefreemusic.com site in awhile, but it seems the entire Europe '98 mini-tour has been posted via sendspace. I’m planning on grabbing all these shows since I don’t hear very much about this tour in general.
It’s not a super tight tour, but it is fun.
07-02-1998 is easily the best of the run.
This was the tour when Trey changed his amp setup to the Fender.
Plenty of re-workings and debuts in some sick ass clubs.
My brother was on that tour, i’ll see if i can dig up some of his pics.
a
what amp setup did trey have before the fender??
when did your brother get out of phish? and when did he see his first show?
i think this is the third time you asked me this!!!
his first show was Portchester 5-14-92. his last was 08-12-04 and saw about 225 in between those.
he lost touch of stats and anything phish related right after Euro '98, pretty much!
we joke about about '99 because it was a ROUGH tour for both of us.
you’ve heard the story, but him and his buddies drove Page to the show at Waterloo '93 so he could meet Sofie (then girlfriend) after the tour bus broke down.
Sofie was my backstage pass hook up till 10-07-00./
a
I’ve fluffed 7.2.98 before.
this tape really jumped out at me.
The spark comes midway through set 1. Its more obvious than any other show I’ve heard. Everything that follows is HEAT!
I quite enjoyed the 6/30 show. For a tour opener it’s got a lot of energy, and all the stage banter stuff is hilarious.
“We’ll have a banter band-tour.”
“You’re cut off.”
Aside from that, it’s got good-to-great versions of Ghost, Stash, Wolfman’s Brother, Mike’s Song, and David Bowie.
HaHa! I love it when a non fan asks me why I felt the need to see the same band over 50 times, or need over 300 hours of their live catalog. And then see the look on their face when I inform them that both of those numbers are BELOW AVERAGE for a Phish fan.
7-6 Prague is sick! So is 7-9 Barcelona
^^^haha I actually meant 7.1.98 up there.
i am a big fan of 6/30 as well
Good call bibg. Greg, you will enjoy the 07-06-98 Ghost > Cities
^
I know this has been posted before somewhere…hell I might have posted it…but it’s worth posting again!
7-6-98 “Ghost” jam
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lWi1dGT9UY
Gave the 7/1/98 show a spin earlier.
It feels like a much shorter show and I didn’t enjoy it as much. Setlist is pretty typical '98 fare, especially the repeat of Moma from the night before (they repeated a Moma during the U.S. Summer tour, too…). The best bits of this show are the Disease -> Dog Faced Boy from the first set, the Tweezer from set two, and the decent Hood encore.
It’s amazing to listen to even these first two shows from the summer tour and see how different they are from the Fall/NYE’97 shows, not to mention the Island Tour shows. The change in jamming style is really noticeable in that both shows have had the funk-to-space jams that typify '98 for me: see the 6/30 Wolfman’s and 7/1 Disease for good examples of what I mean. Some of the spacey parts of '97/Island Tour jams hint at this style, but it seems that this European tour solidified the ambient style for the rest of '98, though from what I’ve heard of the fall tour it began to get darker and rhythmic as we head into the intense space funk of '99.
Go back to the Island Tour, and some of the jams do hint at this direction. Particularly the latter part of the 4/2 Stash, as well as the jam from the soundcheck version of Shafty, which are the closest to an ‘ambient’ jam that Phish got before this summer tour. Naturally some of the Siket Disc songs are in this style, but there is a subtle but distinct difference between the space of '97 and the textural, more experimental jams of '99 and '00. If I had to say a word to describe the '98 style ambient/space jams, it’d be airy. They’re very light and happy sounding. Give a listen to that post-Horn jam from 7/15/98 or the post-Limb jam from the same show.
doh! i’m losing my memory in my old age!
“i believe it was 5-14-92 Portchester, NY.
he probably couldnt tell you anything after 95, though.
he wound up doing around 225-250 shows…he is not totally sure of that, either!”
a
Quick and dirty reviews so I can get back to playing Diablo 2 which I’m addicted to yet again:
7/2/98–This show has a fun vibe like the other ones so far. I love the string of ‘new’ songs, and then the “old phishtales” bustout of Fluffhead. Set II is complete domeshot material. The Ghost, Jim, and YEM are killer.
7/3/98–A completely forgettable festival show, something you never thought you’d find yourself saying about Phish.
7/5/98–This show is really weird. Trey flubs part of Reba really badly by playing in the wrong key. Then he forgets Fee’s lyrics, leading to a weird, floaty, synchopated jam that somehow segues into Water. An almost apathetic and resigned Chalkdust closes the short first set. The second set opening Gin is great as most second set versions are, though the subsequent Moma Dance is distinctly weak. Trey’s microphone went out during the song, so Fishman has to pick up the slack while it’s replaced.
Even so, this version goes nowhere and has no energy. As if to make up for it, the McGrupp to follow is beautiful and has an amazing jam that segues into Axilla: this must be heard to be believed, and is one of the most unique jams/segues I’ve heard. Rest of the show is good but forgettable. There was no fire or tightness in their playing this night, IMO, though the odd atmosphere of Trey’s forgetfulness and the mic breaking down led to some interesting jams.
Maybe it’s because I have the DVD, but I thought they played with a lot of energy that night. I agree it’s mostly forgettable, but listen to that Moma again. It might not be the most energetic version, but they play it in a more sleazy, albeit mellow, way than a lot of '98 versions. I think you are being too hard on that Moma Dance anyway. The Hood is a typically great Hood as well with a pretty sweet peak. There are just too many high energy songs to say that this show has no fire. Rocky Top and Funky Bitch, and the above mentioned Axilla all just ooze energy.
It’s not as good as the next night, but I really like this show (at least the 2nd set).