------------------------------

From:         Lee Silverman 
Subject:      Portsmouth 3/6/92

Wow.  It's 4:00am.  I just got back from the most incredible Phish show
I've ever seen.  I'll post a review/description sometime when I'm less
tipsy, fuddled, woozy or groggy.  Here's the setlist:

            I                                   II
Rift*                               Knife*
Cavern                              Poor Heart
Sparkle                             "The Language" Instructions
It's Ice                            Simpson's Jam
Oh Kee Pah                          Stash
Guelah ->                           Mound*
Asse Festival ->                    Llama
Papyrus                             Bouncing Round the Room
Maze*                               In an Intensive Care Unit*
Reba                                Possum
All Things Re-Considered*
Weird-ass stuff Jam!!               E:Sleeping Monkey*
David Bowie

*First Time ever played.

"The Language" Instructions:Trey describes the musical signals that
the band uses; he describes three signals that he'll use with the
audience:The Simpsons (crowd yells:DOOOH, like Homer), The Asshole in
the Front Row (The Band points to him/her) and "To Everything Turn Turn
Turn" where the audience turns around and cheers.  Also, there was a signal
for everybody fall down (4 progressively lower downbent notes).

So there ya go.  Enjoy Yourself!!

Pandion

------------------------------

From: Matt Laurence 
Subject: Portsmouth Friday!


What needs to be said about the kick off show of ANY
Phish tour? This was the first kick-of show of a tour
I've been to in about 4 rounds of new songs, and they
played more at this one than any I;ve seen! And even
WITHOUT the new material, this show was about the most
phun I've had at a Phish show since Amy's farm (or  
perhaps Greenfield where I was a roadie).  

This was a KICK-ASS show. The Portsmouth Music Hall is
a WONDERFUL place to see a show, much like the Somerville
theater but the balcony curves all the way 'round so it
meets the wall that the stage is on. And a less ornate
ceiling, which would work great as a planetarium dome  
(now THERE'S an effect for 'Topher to shoot for... right
in the middle of Divided Sky they could flip on the
planetarium projector and fill the room with stars!)
But I digress. They opened right up with a brand new
tune called Rift (which is actually an old one re-done.
They used to play it with a much mellower melody a
few years ago, but aparently Trey didn't like it too
much, so they scrapped it. But this is the first time
they've played the re-working). They ripped through this
tune without a hitch (except the planned ones of course)
and then through a mostly familiar rest-of-the-first
set that you can see in Lee's posting. The other  
exceptions to the familiarity thing were Maze and
the variations-on-a-theme flavor of the new All Things
Re-considered (which apparently NPR is planning on  
using for their program!), as well as the most inspired
David Bowie intro yet (a few of us caught on to what it
was)

Second set brought us another bunch of new ones, including
Knife, Mound, In An Intensive Care Unit (a fantastic new
Reggae tune that has yet to be given a firm name), and
Sleeping Monkey (which was the encore). Near the start of
the set, however, they stopped for a while and gave the
audience some instruction on what their musical cues are on
stage, and what to listen for. For example, (and example that
Lee didn't already give) when you hear the trill and then
one of them plays the "carnival tune" (like in the begining
of Esther), it means that everyone should stop and sing a  
random note (which sounds great with a whole audience doing
it), and another one where they grabbed their left
wrists and yell "Oh Shit!". It was a symbiotically amusing
experience: learning all the nifty "behind-the-scenes" stuff
made us feel great in the audience, and the band was clearly
enjoying seeing an entire audience responding visibly to the
music they
were playing.!

"I'll Never get out of this maze..."

Matt

------------------------------

From: Shelly Culbertson 
Subject: sing any note
Date: Sat, 7 Mar 92 12:26:18 PST


One thing I was really excited to read about was the audience participation
aspect of the show.  This particularly intrigued me because I had suggested
to Trey on the phone that they might try this!  That conversation came about
as a result of something he said during the post-Somerville interview, that
they'd like to tour with a choir, who could (for example) sing a dissonant
chord during the jam in Tweezer.  I suggested having the audience do it,
in response to some sort of signal from the band, and sent him a copy of
an interview with Brian Eno where he talks about trying something like
this:
"I noticed this when I worked on this Cornelius Cardew piece a long time
ago called `The Great Learning'.  The first instruction is `Sing any note'.
You choose randomly.  And you do it with a big group of people.  And the
first chord they hit is very dense and beautiful because people really are
singing every note.  But they very quickly slide into a few families of notes.
And I always liked that first note when you have this beautiful, dense,
breathy sound."

------------------------------

From: John Greene 
Subject: Portsmouth review

Anyhow... we got the setlists from Lee -- thanks Lee!  First impressions  
of the new songs are as follows:

Rift:  Ok, so this is an old song re-done... I never heard the original.   
I like this tune a lot.  It was better the second night.  A lot of wierd  
harmonies, and Trey and Page alternative lines of the verse.

Maze:  This is my favorite of the new tunes.  The beat is really funky,  
and there is this dinging sound that Page makes with his new organ that  
really makes the song.  Interestingly enough, when we were talking about  
the new tunes, Trey said that Maze was the one they were least sure of.   
But they played it both nights, and I'm sure it's here to stay!

All Things Considered:  Don't remember this one too well.

Knife:  This song was cool.  Was this the raggae tune???

Mound:  Crazyness.  Sounded a lot like Asse Festival.  It's gonna take a  
little getting used to, that's for sure.

In an ICU:  I don't remember this one too much either, just the title.   
Lee and I were right in front writing the setlist, and after each new  
song we'd ask him what it was called.  For this one he was like "Umm..  
In an Intensive Care Unit.... for now anyway".  Look for this title to  
change.

Sleeping Monkey:  Great encore tune.  Happy tune.  At one point everyone  
stops playing and Fishman sings a whole verse.... Really funny.

Mind:  Strong tune.  Don't remember much more than that.

Silent in the Morning:  Stong as well.  Hard to remember all these :-)

Weigh:  It's called "Weigh".  My second favorite of the new ones.  Mike  
sings in a weird up and down style.  It's goofy and funky.  Something  
about chopping off your head.... 6 pounds, 7 pounds... weird lyrics.

Fishman:  Whatever the Neil Diamond tune is that goes "Play it now!   
Play it now!  Play it now!"  It was really funny.  He had two cymbals  
(one in each hand)  One said "B" and the other said "AH".  The chorus of  
this tune was just "Bah bah bahbahbah Bah, Bah bah bahbahbah Bah etc."   
I'm sure someone knows what it was.  Oh yeah, they changed his theme to  
"Cold as Ice".  Trey announced that he always hated the "Hold your head  
up" theme.


   The shows themselves were incredible.  It was cool that Trey taught  
everyone the language.  They're even thinking about making a little tape  
with the explanation and selling it for cost at shows.
   As far as tapes goes, JP said his boards didn't come out too well.   
We should probably use Travis' audience for Friday and Henry's for  
Saturday if we decide to run a tree.

------------------------------

From: C.William.Thomas@dartmouth.EDU
Subject: Portsmouth

        Great new tunes.  I have a couple addendums to Lee's set list.  The
song Trey announced as "Knife" is generally referred to by other band members
(Mike at least) and Paluska as "My Friend, My Friend" or just "My Friend."  
Likewise, I think "In an Intensive Care Unit" can be referred to as "NICU."  
Obviously these tunes don't really have set names yet.  "Silent in the
MOrning" may be changed to "Matilda's Morning."  The Neil Diamond tune is
something like "Crackle and Rose" or something like that (any help from
Diamondheads appreciated.
        Also, this whole language thing is a lot more developed than what
they announced from stage.  Mike showed me a list of about thirty different
signals that they have been working on in practice.  I'm not sure if anyone
has mentioned this, but the band is considering producing a short cassette
with a whole mess of "musical language symbols" and selling them at shows for
$1 or so.  This could develop into something pretty interesting.
        Oh yeah, "FAHT" comes from a misprint in a newletter column by
Fishman (the one with the Southern-like accent transcribed literally).  It
was supposed to read "raht" (i.e. "rot") in that particular sentence, but
there was a typo.  Since Windham Hill was not to keen on "Windham Hell" the
original name, the other three band members thought it would be funny to
rename the song FAHT without Fishman's prior knowledge.

------------------------------