Before Tweezer was a disco-ball dance tune it was an all-bets-are-off mid-90's free-improv springboard, and this small-venue second set is a relatively coherent Tweezer medley. Apparently the band did shots at setbreak and decided to experiment with playing open-endedly without stopping; it's busy music and the experiment isn't 100% successful (that 6/8 blues jam is misguided) but once they swerve into a medley of covers and joke tunes the band achieves the ecstatic fluency that marks their best sets. (Fantastic DDLJ > etc. in particular.) The HYHU > Tweeprise jam is good enough to stand on its own, and what a segue! This show isn't quite in line with the marvelously inaccessible 1994-95 free Tweezers (cf. 'A Live One'), but it's an important example of the band flying without a net in front of an audience, which would become the norm in 1997. Luckily it's also a welcoming and enjoyable set of rock'n'roll (and HQ SBD copies circulate, of course - including the official release).

This was, honest to Jah;-) my first show. I had been listening to Phish for 2 or 3 years by that point. Friends I knew would spin a show or two off for me and I truly thought I got IT. I was sooo wrong. Looking back I kinda wish this hadn't been my first show. The first set was fun but then the second set Tweezer kicked in and didn't let up for like an hour. Now, I had listen many hours of the boys on tape but this was something different. I had never heard anything so loose, full of interesting musical ideas, and a down right mind phuck. I couldn't fully wrap my mind around what I was hearing at the time. Well, over the next ten years I continued to see them as much as I could, which was quite a bit. I went to anywhere from 3 to 7 or 8 shows a year until Coventry. I was chasing that first time I saw them around the country and although I saw many epic shows over the years nothing was like the Dallas Tweezerfest. I was blessed with this as my first show but I wish I had been able to fully appreciate what I had witnessed on that night. Great show to listen to. I remember, after watching a long already trippy show, Fishman coming out and singing Purple Rain with Trey on drums screaming "suck it mother fucker" during the vacuum solo. I mean, it was blissed out insanity at it's finest.

The Legendary Tweezerfest!

- This show shines through and through! To kick things off, the band opens with a very solid first set, including gorgeous renditions of Divided Sky & If I Could, down right nasty bass from Mike in Split Open And Melt, a tasty Mound, and the fan favorite Suzy Greenberg to finish things off.

Its the second set that makes this show an absolute MUST HAVE for the Phish fan who loves them for their ability to play with reckless abandon for 70 + minutes.

The Tweezerfest opens with a 25+ minute Tweezer with a heavy hard rock jam in the middle with mind-bending improv from Mike and Page that will send waves of pleasure up your spine! The "Fest" includes a nice "Sparks" (the Who tune), a chill "Makisupa Policeman", some "Sweet Emotions" jamming (Aerosmith), an entire "Walk Away" (Joe Walsh cover - included a Simplson's Signal 10 min into the tune), then "Cannonball," which closes out with a quality rendition of "Purple Rain."

The "Hold Your Head Up Jam" -> "Tweezer Reprise" will absolutely dazzle you and certainly left the entire Main Street District in Dallas begging for MORE.

The "Amazing Grace" --> "Sample" is a beautify to finish off a very special show.

Phish's unique ability to put together a seamless second second set is showcased in this MUSICAL ADVENTURE!

-ENJOY!

I probably listen to at least part of the Tweezerfest at least once a week (Set 1 I've given the token listen probably everyone who has heard this show has given it - as @HighNote points out, it's a very solid set, but nothing you'll really feel the need to revisit); it's one of those sets that's stuck with me ever since I first heard it. It's kind of interesting to hear how everything gets swept up in the jittery, super-energetic flow the band was wading in that night (compare the Walk Away here, played at nearly double time, with the more relaxed 8/14/93 version and the sedate, majestic Fukuoka version); there are plenty of moments where things slow down and it feels like the band is groping for where they want to go next, but for the most part the music is played with an energy bordering on manic, for good or ill.

And it's mostly for good. The closing HYHU>Tweezer Reprise is a truly amazing jam, the DDLJ ->Sweet Emotion ->Walk Away stretch is inspired, and Purple Rain is a real hoot, Fishman vacuum solo and all (why don't they pull that one out anymore?). This show, for me at least, stands as one of the linchpins for what it is that makes me so happy to be a Phish fan.

Although the 2nd set is rightly considered one of the all-time great Phish jams, the first set also contains excellent playing. Trey's soloing in Llama, Divided Sky, and FEFY suggest he is already thinking about pushing the boundaries of the songs and the setlist. The jam out of Horn and a huge Split Open and Melt also feature a group improv approach that would fully flower in the second set. I love this arrangement of If I Could where the rest of the band drops out and Page gets to shine on the piano. The solos in Suzy Greenberg are fun, with Page on the Rhodes, then Trey on his wah-wah. And when Trey says, "don't do anything we wouldn't do", things are only going to get crazier.

I studied music at the University of North Texas from 1993-96, and I knew a couple guitarists who were planning on going to this show (The previous week was finals week). I didn't hear about the legend of this show until I came back and talked to the two guitarists, who now had Hoist and Rift on cd and Phish stickers on their guitar cases. It sounded cool, but I was skeptical. A couple months into that semester, I heard Junta and fell in love.

As with many fans, the second set of this show was one of the first sets I heard on cassette. This noob loved all the covers of classic rock songs that I was familiar with, and I still appreciate the band's approach to covering other artists. Listening to it today, I can hear the band's confidence in their musicianship taking a step forward from 12/31/93 and 8/13/93. This show makes a great LivePhish release, and even if the band never plays another note, I'll always have 5/7/94 to lift me back to the heavens.