There's always a little extra scrutiny that gets paid to officially released shows, especially when they get the super-deluxe treatment the way that 11/20-21/98 did. For my money, it's not really hard to see why this run got the official treatment - the shows are tons of fun to listen to, clearly meant to be events (why else bring in a Giant Country Horn or do the big Tubthumping fooferaw on Night 2?), and still manage to throw in enough musicality to satisfy the die-hards. I've always thought @waxbanks was a tad harsh in his mini-reviews; sure, I'd take 11/22/97 over either of these in half a second, but the nice thing is that you don't have to make that choice, AND there are certainly some tasty musical jams for people that want Fishman to take that stupid Viking helmet off and the band to get down to the Type II already.

Set I is a nice set-up to the run, with some cool covers (I really enjoy Rock & Roll Part 2 for some reason), a dark-as-night Stash, and a host of energy. Set II, though, is where the real meat lies. A really great Gin opens things up, never straying outside the original melody but doing some really cool things within it (Trey's mellifluous soloing is a real treat), leading to a wicked-fast and woefully short Piper, taken at '95-level intensity. The Gettin' Jiggy Wit It is probably my favorite Fish moment ever, made the more fun because this time we don't have to take the song seriously (Trey and Mike laughing through their "na na na" backups is a hoot). Hood takes things down to a nice and mellow level after the composed sections (Page's twinkling notes are a highlight), and then Zero/Cavern close things out on a rocking high. Not an all-time classic set or anything, but fun to blast in the car on a summer day.

Night 2's the better night musically, I'd say, but this show is great fun to listen to. Give that Gin a listen at the least, as well as GJWI if you enjoy a good chuckle during your Phish time.

what a weekend, what a show!! the setlist were rediculous and they matched it with killer playing. of course, this run was later immortalized in the "hampton comes alive" box set.

rock and roll part 2 opens this one up in pretty funny fashion. otherwise, this is a nice high energy set. eskimo makes a nice triumphant come back. tube and funky bitch both soar, and possum and melt add some nice jams to the back end of the set.

then there is set 2. in a year full of great bathtub gins, this one takes a run at version of the year. trey and page are very much in synce on this one, while gordo and fish really do a masterful job controlling the tempo. an earl'ish piper continues the very nice improvisational vibe established early in the set. after it crashes to a close, they crank up a nice rowdy antelope. an always rare roses are free pops up after that. nothing too wild here, but as a giant ween fan, i'll take it. farm house is very blah. then after a rousing hyhu, you would expect standard fishman fair. what a syd barret tune, purple rain...hmm. now, they crank out some real hilarity. gettin' jiggy wit it is good fun. after, that goofiness, they jump into a very serious harry hood. they really space out here before building it back up. along with bathtub, these are you 2 show highlights. i really hate character zero, but i dig cavern so its a push.

great show here. personally, i prefer the second night. the mikes groove is out of this world, but as for single song highlight of the run, i'll take this bathtub. great run. there's a reason it's a box set.

It took me forever to get around to these '98 Hampton shows. I'm not sure why, but I just never felt inclined to check them out. There's nothing in this show that makes me disappointed I didn't check it out earlier; however, this is still a super-duper fun listen. Great setlist and good playing make this show a keeper. Despite there not being any really serious musical highlights, this show does boast an impressive Gin and my single favorite version of any Fishman tune: Gettin' Jiggy Wit' It. That is just a damn awesome cover they done did right there.

A perfect "party show", if you will. Great to throw on if you know you're not going to be able to give your full attention to it. You'll be able to pop in and out as you please without to much effort. Give it a spin!

(posted 12 years ago at rec.music.phish)

Hello all - first - WHAT A WEEKEND!!! Whew! Honestly, I think this quite
possibly could have been the best weekend of my life. With the exception
of the run-in with the makisupas to end it all on a bad note...

Yes, I woke up this morning, stinky kind in my pocket, and wound up in the
slammer. Oh well....THE WEEKEND WAS THAT GOOD THAT IT CANTT BRING ME
DOWN!!

Ok - so what made it so nice???

Friday November 20, 1998 Hampton Colesium

I: Rock & Roll #2, TUBE, Quinn the Eskimo, Funky Bitch, Guelah Papyrus,
Rift, Meat->Space->Stash!!! Trainsong, Possum, Roggae, Driver, Split Open
& Melt

II: GIN!!, Piper, Axilla, Roses are Free, Farmhouse, Gettin' Jiggy wit'
it!!??!??!?!??, Harry Hood, CHaracter Zero

E: Cavern w/ Carl Gearhardt
-------------------------------
Trust me, that was twice as wierd to type as it was to read. Rock & Roll
#2 is the official name of the tune they play at the Bulls (and countless
other sporting events) games where everybody shouts "Hey!" during the
'chorus.' Or, at least, this was the title of the chart when we played it
in Marching Band.

The TUBE, of course, smoked - no tube jam, tho. QUINN THE ESKIMO?!??
Wow - never thought I'd near that one. The FUNKY BITCH was good - not
great, but I was so geeked to see a show open the way it did, it didn't
matter how they played it.

I labeled "Space" in between Meat & Stash - not like the GD Space,
obviously, but more like 'Phish Space' - whatever. ANyway, that roughly
segued (fell, more like) into STASH, which was VERY GOOD.

The rest of the set was just solid, smokin, and all around good. SOrry
- but my time is nearly up on this machine. I'll need to hurry...

Set II was even better (as they usually are...) with a GIN opener that did
not strech to lengths like this summer (ie Ventura, St Loo...) but was
good nonetheless. PIPER to me seemed to have a bit of a false peak - in
that I thought it came out of nowhere,and too quickly, but was still good.
The highlight of the set was difinately

GETTIN JIGGY WIT IT where FIshman came out with the little
horned-Viking-type helmet he's been wearing to sing & do the little dance.
Quite nice to see, but I think it might have been a better rendition
musically if the backup vocals (Nah-nah-nah-nah-nah) could have stopped
laughing.

HOOD was average...CAVERN with a trumpet is always nice, imo. :>

OK - time up. Day II to follow!!!

I love both Hampton 98 shows from top to bottom. Fantastic idea to release them. Phish isn't just a jam band that roams around the country providing continuous type 2 jams for the elitist in the parking lots. They're fun. They're a rock n roll band and the party vibe jumps out of the speakers throughout both of these shows. Long first sets. There's long song Phish and more song Phish and this is the latter. The Rift from night 1 is so clean as is the Gin. Night 2 has one of my favorite Mike's they ever played. To this day I still listen to both shows often and it's the first thing I recommend to anyone who is curious about the band. There is a lot to discover. Hampton is a great place to begin and a better place to revisit.

The Possum in this show is one of the more underrated versions out there. Super psychedelic, tension/release in this jam.

Check it out if it's been a while. I know Possum isn't usually one you go back to from the past, but this one is worth it IMO.

Also, I wish Geulah Papyrus was played more.

I love these Hampton shows - the official release played a pretty big role in my intro to live Phish, and like others have said, they are just a ton 'o fun. Night two is a bit better but there's a lot to like here. My favorite performances are the Tube>Eskimo>Funky Bitch, Stash, and Possum from set one, and Gin, Roses, Hood>Zero, and Cavern encore in set dos. Possum, Gin, and Hood are the "must-hears" from this show IMO (and of course the Jiggy Wit' It, if your so inclined

Not to end things on a negative note, but anyone else hear the epic flub Trey opens Stash with? Definitely one of his worst I can recall.

SET 1:

Rock and Roll Part Two: Too funny. Crowd is bonkers. >

Tube: Crowd gets even louder when this starts up. Standard version though. >

Quinn the Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn) - Enormous bust out, very cool nod! >

Funky Bitch: Standard.

Guelah Papyrus: Standard. The very beginning is a little off.

Rift: Standard.

Meat: Heady space with lots of loops after the song proper, cool stuff similar to but not as crazy at the Cleveland version from 7 days ago. >

Stash: Tough start coming out of Meat, ouch. The jam is more or less discombobulated. Doesn’t seem like they were in sync.

Train Song: Standard. >

Possum: Standard.

Roggae: Standard.

Driver: Standard.

Split Open and Melt: Pretty good version really. Nothing stands out exactly, but it gets the job done and is a good way to end the set.

SET 2:

Bathtub Gin: Definitely a strong version, would recommend. To me, it seems much more like a 3.0 version than a 1.0 version. Once the jam starts it almost immediately goes into an upbeat mode. >

Piper: Standard.

Axilla: Standard. >

Roses Are Free: Standard.

Farmhouse: Standard.

Hold Your Head Up > Gettin' Jiggy Wit' It > Hold Your Head Up: LOL.

Harry Hood: Standard. >

Character Zero: Has a little extra mustard, Trey definitely playing the rock star here.

ENCORE:

Cavern: Very fun with Gears, crowd roars it’s approval.

Summary: Crowd just roaring throughout the whole show. Energy is sky high. But the band just couldn’t deliver. It’s one thing to not deliver a show akin to the product they put out the year before at this venue. But it is very curious why they put on such a run of the mill, vanilla show here. Really odd. Anyway, the Phish.net rating of 4.075/5 (173 ratings) is completely ridiculous. If you take the emotion and potential attendance bias out of the equation, you know this show is just average at best. 3.5/5 for me.

Replay Value: Bathtub Gin

This is surely a wide-roving setlist! I'm not very familiar with Fall 1998, or even 1998 as a whole, but I'm kind of smacking myself right now that I hadn't branched out into it more, since 1999 when Hampton Comes Alive first came out. (At that time, which was significantly before the release of Hampton/Winston-Salem '97, a lot of phans on rec.music.phish were wishing those shows had been released instead of these Hampton shows.) The Gary Glitter cover to open the show is probably an obvious crowd-pleaser... Meat goes into a sort of ambient, loopy jam, unusually. Stash, Possum, and Split Open and Melt are the longer songs of the set, but I dig the Driver with Trey on acoustic guitar, at the moment. The Bathtub Gin to open the second set is typically churning, and hits a nice, intense-yet-liberatory peak. Piper is of the slow-build variety, but doesn't go Type II. The next big thing to remark upon in this show, for me--other than Axilla I's pervasive replacement of Axilla Part II haha--is the Gettin' Jiggy Wit It cover of Will Smith. As silly as it may sound, Fish actually coaxes some really interesting rhythms, phrasing, and timbre from his vacuum, LOL! Then, to close out the show, Hood goes on a nice, melodic journey (with a bit of synth-type bass effect from Mike in the Thank You, Mr. Minor part) and Cavern sets us into the wild blue yonder featuring Carl "Gears" Gerhard on trumpet. The Hampton Comes Alive moment in Phishtory was really important for a phan like myself, having just gotten turned on to Phish in 1998, and maybe phanwide, with the exposure gained and the Grammy award for packaging.

These Hampton shows are famous, but why? I got the CD box set when I was about 7 (thrift store find!), but never actually listened to it in full. So, I thought I would finally check them out.

This isn't a bad show, not at all, I would rather listen to this show more than most of early 3.0, but it certainly isn't the best they can do. The setlist is fun, but that's coming from someone who loves covers. I thought set 1 was a perfectly appropriate opening set, it has everything you need from a first set; lots of energy, hectic type 1 jams, retrospective ballads, covers, everything. I loved the Fikus tease in Stash. Driver!! However, set 2 felt a little underwhelming, only because a lot of the best material here could've really been fleshed out (*cough* Piper *cough*); the whole thing kinda just felt like another set 1. Hood is one of the best, though, love Page in this one. The encore is fantastic, gotta love Gerhard.

Overall, a classic show, but maybe just an eensy-weensy bit overrated. I know they can do better, especially when looking at other shows from this year, but, still a really fun listen. Just don't go in taking it too seriously. Check out the Stash, Gin, and Hood (or anything from Set 1, really).

Same deal as the next night: laugh-out-loud fun and completely inessential. On the other hand, Set II is probably the strongest of the weekend, so if you've only got room for one...

(Day 4: Random Setlist a Day Challenge. I will be listening to and reviewing a Random Setlist a day for as long as I possibly can. Hopefully my review can be helpful to you. If not, oh well...)
*Please note: I was in attendance for this show. My review is based on my personal memories and re-listening to the show as per my rules of my challenge.

I admit that in my early days touring with Phish, I was spoiled. My first shows featured that oh-so-famous 97 Hampton greatness. Fast forward one year later and I fancy myself something of a "vet" at this point (laughable, I know) but not jaded enough to be psyched for this Hampton run!

I will say this, it's not a terrible show. Does it deserve the special remaster treatment it has got? Maybe. Most likely not. I can think of many other shows in 98 that deserved it. But it's a fun show. It's a light show. I remember when I was seeing it, it felt "fluffy". Without substance. The next night was absolutely better, in my opinion...

Set I: Rock and Roll Part Two was a funny and cool way to start the show. Get the crowd HYPED like a sporting event! Hahaha no jam on Tube, but it is tight nonetheless. The Quinn The Eskimo bust-out at the time was mind blowing to me. Nothing really remarkable about this set. The Possum is pretty much a screamer. Yup. A Possum screamer-
Check it out!

Set II: this was a rough set for me. So much potential. Great on paper, but just too two-dimensional in its execution. Maybe I'm bitter because I felt Piper was cut short. I am not the kinda guy who likes his Piper cut short! Gettin Jiggy Wit It is hilarious. Although, I remember at the time, there was a group of people who were around me and my phriends who were very visibly upset. Taking Phish too seriously, ESPECIALLY during this very light outing is absolutely ludicrous. Hood and Character Zero are strong finishes.

E: Cavern had a special guest and horn. The horn sounded great here. Makes me wish they did a longer encore.
Oh well.

A show so light and frothy, you can call it Diet Phish.

2/5