I’m commenting on the years I got to see Phish Live here: Fall 97, Winter 99’ and 2000 were amazing.
On CD…almost said ‘tape’…gotta go with 93 and 95! I’m hoping I can add 2009 to this list in a few months!
I should have worded it better, but the music made amazing shifts in those 5 years…Complete was a bad choice of words…
maybe I’m subconsciously trying to be like Will, but I really like the way they played in '93. So cool. On the cusp of jam greatness and tighter than a dolphin’s butthole.
I like 92, 94, 97, and 98.
No need to single me out, I am not the only one.
No. No you really are the only one.
Says the wizard.
It’s been '92 for me for a long time. '91 would stand a chance if I only had more of it, but as it is, I have tons of 1992.
In '92, they were still evolving and were very experimental. Their jams were concise, but overall the band was very elastic. Lots of new material was still just pouring out of them. And they hadn’t yet abandoned their ambitions to create finely crafted atonal fugues and other assorted musical acrobatics.
By 1993, I can remember feeling like … okay, so have you stopped writing tunes? And then when they resumed writing, they WAY simplified everything. Simple is sometimes better … but Phish IMO was always way better at complicated than simple. It’s like, they strove for ordinary from then on in the songwriting department.
On stage though, it’s hard to argue with 94 being their peak. It’s just that it’s slightly less exciting than 1992 for me, because of how much growth was still happening in '92.
1993 is just not a very good looking number.