Subject:  3/1/97 Wolfman's Brother Review
Date:  Mon, 27 Apr 1998 22:53:46 EDT
From:   Noggin29 
To:    dan@archive.phish.net

*Patience in 3/1/97 Wolfman's Brother*

Ahh...the joys of SSP!  On to the review...

Wolfman's starts up after Cities.  Well, actually only on SSP; it actually
starts after Beauty of My Dreams, but since I don't have the tapes ,
my version starts up after Cities.  Anyway, Wolfman's starts up with Page
hitting the opening chords.  Trey starts up the wah early, as usual.  Verse
starts at 0:26.  Trey keeps up the wah effect over the chording until the
"telephone is ringing" line, when he adds the ringing effect.  I love little
things like that =^]  At 1:36, Trey adds some nice fills and continues to
throughout the next verse, very heavy on the wah.  Nice work from Page on the
"meaningless excitement" verse, or maybe it's just because I usually can't
hear everything that's going on here.

Jam section begins at 3:14 over the repeated "it's the wolfman's brother"
section.  The jam starts off fairly normal.  It starts without the vocals at
3:55 and heads directly into familiar Wolfman's ground.  Page has some really
nice stuff at the 4:40 mark, backing up Trey nicely.  Trey peaks at 5:00 and
jams around it before dropping.  So far it's pure type I jamming, but still
somewhat better than a typical Wolfman's imo.  Fishman seems very cymbal-
happy.  Trey slows down the beat drastically at 5:51.  Page adds some thick
stuff from the clav (?) in here.  Nice.  Trey teases the opening jam theme at
6:58.  At around the 7 min. mark, things start to become a little bit open
ended, and at 7:22, the tempo changes drastically.  The jam takes on a
textural feel with every band member throwing in his own fill.  Trey begins to
take the lead while the group still plays with a textural style.  Pure
noodling from Trey starting at 7:45 and lasting almost a full minute.  Mike is
playing well here.  I can't say the same for Page, who seems to be somewhat
misdirected, which is something that I rarely say about Page.

Mike seems to lead the band into another direction with a slower, more laid
back beat, and at 9:25, the tempo starts to change again, flowing seamlessy
into a new groove.  Mike and Trey hook up and Page provides the fills on piano
for the new groove, and I mean groove.  Sounds like the jam could almost be
leading to a Walk Away.  Mike is slapping down some monster notes before Trey
begins to use some more effects to get the group into that "one instrument"
style jamming, sort of a hybrid of types II and III.  Trey's guitar seems to
sweep behind Mike and Page's work.  The jam evolves around the beat, with the
band members playing around one another wonderfully.  

At 12:45, Trey starts the riff that gradually slows down.  Trey and Fish seem
to have some ESP going, as their timing is very in sync.  Wolfman's flows into
Jesus Just left Chicago at 13:51, with Fishman picking up the intro drum beat
to Jesus at 13:59.  The transition from Wolfman's into Jesus is superb.  The
segue is much like the 8/3/97 Twist Around -> Jesus segue, which, imo, is not
quite as good as this Wolfman's -> Jesus..

Though this Wolfman's is not much when juxtaposed with some other versions
from '97, this was the one that started it all, and it definitely deserves
it's praise.  This is the predecessor to many of the '97 summer and fall jams.
While some of the jams may sound nothing like this one, the group-oriented jam
style presented here is used and improved upon many, many times through the
remainder of '97.  This Wolfman's can be considered the "mother" of the type
III jam style.

If you don't have SSP, get it.  I mean, come on!  I don't care if you already
have the tapes, get the album.  The mixing is *really* well done, and if you
trade Phish tapes, it's your duty to buy the albums.  I don't care what you
say.

Matt Musick