From: [email protected]
Subject: Review: Providence 12-12-95

Nobody's reviewed this yet as far as I know and although I'm not a Phish
genius I thought some "somewhat knowledgable" insights should be posted about
this *most excellent* show.  Here it goes, hope you can use it.


It was a FREEZING night here in beautiful Rhode Island, which, unfortunately
took some of the spunk out of the pre-show extragavaganza -- basically, if
you stayed outside for upwards of five or six minutes straight all your limbs
would freeze off.  Still, though, I was amazed at the crazy scene surrounding
the Providence Civic Center (it was my first show).  My friends who had all
been to various shows before, said that the crazy crowd wandering the streets
of downtown Providence was NOTHING compared to Great Woods, MA, June 31 and
July 1 (which I had tickets to but couldn't go....).  

Lots of offers and lots of askers in the streets, especially for such a cold
night.  Anyway, we got through the line into the place in a short while at
about 7:05 or so (7:30 start time).  We found our seats, which we never ended
up using anyway, except to store our 500 lbs. of winter garments.  Before we
knew it 7:30 had rolled around and a few minutes later Phish made their
entrance to a noisy Civic Center.

Just like July 1 at Great Woods (or so they told me...) they kicked off with:

YA MAR: I doubt if you search the world over you will find a better version
of this song than this one.  Just a great tune overall, but they did a
tremendous job with the solos towards the end.  I was unfamiliar with this
song at the time, but it didn't take long for me -- and the entire civic
center -- to get jiggin' to this one.  Just a real sweet opener with tons of
spunk that got the show off on a great foot.

SAMPLE IN A JAR: This, at the time, happened to be one of my favorite Phish
songs (they're always changing), and I was ecstatic when they played the
first few notes.  Apparently, the other fans agreed.  A loud, energetic
version that had the whole place singing (you can hear the fans singing along
on the tape....) which was further enhanced by well timed, HUGE, bursts of
light when they hit the big chord before "I wheeled around...".  So far,
killer.

DIVIDED SKY: This was and still is my favorite song.  There's not really much
I can say about it.  It is mazing on Junta and even moreso in concert becasue
Trey can get creative with his last solo.  It was an amazing 12 minutes of my
life.  Oh yeah, cool anecdote-- when they get to that little quiet solo in
the middle, Trey stopped w/ a gaping wide mouth staring at the ceiling as
though possessed.  He stayed this way for 3-5 minutes, literally, as cheers
went up, then died, then went up again.  When he finally hit a note again,
the place erupted.  It was nothing less than incredible.

LIFEBOY: Nice surprise.  I didn't expect to hear this-- I had hardly ever
seen it on any concert tapes.  A good version, real mellow and sweet.  I
really like this song -- though this version was kind of standard.  Not bad
though.

PUNCH YOU IN THE EYE: This had never been one of my favorites, but it, if I
remember correctly, was a fairly strong version of it which had everybody
chanting "Ohh, Wilson!  Punch you in the eye!"  

THE HORSE/SILENT...: This, too, is and was one of my favorite songs.  I think
it is just beautiful.  Page has a great voice, too.  Extremely standard
version...not that I'm complaining, except for the end.  Trey has changed his
little "solo" (if that's what you call it) and made it a much, much better --
it really ends the song strongly.  The crowd really loved this one.

RUN...ANTELOPE: Decent version of another good live song.  They didn't veer
to far from the norm and it didn't get spacey or like noise as some Antelope
jams do....but it was fairly creative and Trey had a few real nice moves.
 This was a definite crowd-pleaser.  (Perhaps it invoked memories of
Providence's legendary 3-13-92 "Run Like a Big Black Furry Antelope"?!).

BLUE AND LONESOME: After a rousing Antelope, this was the perfect mellow,
quiet, country-type tune.  I don't know it weel enough to comment
extensively.  I enjoyed it, though.

THE SQUIRMING COIL: Before starting, Trey thanked the crowd, commented on
Mike's horrific shirt, and said that at the conclusion of the next song
they'd be back in EXACTLY 15 minutes.  Anyway, this Coil was a treat.  The
first parts went normally, nothing special, but still damn good.  The
highlight though, and one of the best things about the concert was Page's
AMAZING piano solo at the end.  If you think the one on A LIVE ONE is good,
I'm not lying by saying that this one so thoroughly kicked the pants off of
that one that...well, I don't know what.  It was difficult and creative, and
Page progressed beautifully.  The image of him sitting there, playing, with
one blue light shining on him and the place silent -- just Page and his
beautiful music...well, that image will stay with me forever.

SET II
FREE: This was a "cool, new song" as my friends and I put it.  It was rockin'
and it was a straight, powerful song (kinda had the same effect as a Wilson
would to open the 2nd set) that got everybody ready to continue an already
amazing concert.

SPARKLE: Next came this song, about which I can't complain, except say that I
have it on way to many tapes.  It's a good, fun type of song though which is
a general crowd-pleaser, though always played the same.  Short and sweet.

DOWN WITH DISEASE: I was psyched to hear this song, except I was wondering
when Phish were going to start playing the longer, more jammier songs that
they normally do during their 2nd sets.  I knew this much: 3 short songs to
start of the 2nd set was wierd.  Anyway, Disease was good and everybody loves
this song, so it was one of the best songs to really get down and dance to.

JAM:  OK, so Down w/ Disease moved steadily right into this-- a 30-35 minute
jam that was really wierd and broken.  It wasn't bad, but it wasn't exactly
too good either.  At times they got it together and made some nice music, but
other times Trey got bashing those drums of his (yes, Trey, not Fish) and
everybody (the band and the crowd) got zonked.  The jam wasn't horrible, but
it just didn't fit into the fast moving, sing-along type of concert we had
had so far.  I was dissapointed with the longness of it...it took so long and
it didn't go anywhere, but fortunately it "melted" nicely right into:

LIZARDS: All I can say is this: This song is/was/ever-shall-be such a PARTY!

SIMPLE: After Lizards (which had everybody singing along, I might add) they
moved immediately into this tune, which I was super-psyched to hear.  This
was a conventional version, of course, but a damn good one too....this is
definitely a good song to hear live.

RUNAWAY JIM: Decent version with a good solo by Trey.  Another song everybody
could sing along to (at parts anyway).  We all figured that the set was
almost over becasue it was well past eleven, but we all hoped for one final
instrumental like a Slave or a Harry.  No such luck.  They said thanks and
left.

FIRE: After a few minutes of screaming and holding lighters above our heads,
our beloved band came back out and played an OK version of Fire.  I was
disappointed that that was it.  I was hoping for another song, because Fire
was reletively short.  It was pretty rockin' though, and the whole place was
going nuts.  We knew it was our last hurrah, and we better dance our heads
off.

Anyway, it was an incredible show -- surprisingly, the first set bettered the
second set (in my mind, at least) and I highly recommend that you get the
first set!!!  Highlights: Ya Mar, Sample in a Jar (these two were so
energetic), the Divided Sky pause, PAGE'S SOLO AT END OF SQUIRMING COIL,
Lizards > Simple.  I was incredibly impressed.

Matt
--------------------------------
Date: Mon, 3 Feb 1997 14:57:02 -0500 (EST)
From: Jonathan Epstein
Subject: 12/12/95

12/12/95 - Providence Civic Center, Providence, RI

Here's my review of the Providence show's highlights...

Set 1
*****


Set 2
*****
Down with Disease was excellent. Very good and very intense.

Encore
******         
Fire was a good encore to an otherwise lame show.


Later.

Jon.