Date: Tue, 01 Jul 1997 16:40:59 +0100
From: Mark Reilly 
Subject: 6/14/97 review; dublin 2nd night

6/14/97, The S.F.X Centre, Dublin, Ireland

I:   Down w/ Disease, NICU, Dirt*, Talk, My Soul, Cars Trucks & Busses,
     Limb by Limb, Bye Bye Food*^, Free, Prince Caspian

II:  Twist Around*, ??*, I Saw It Again#*, ??*, Dog Stole Things, Waste,

     David Bowie, Cavern

E:   Circus Comes To Town, Rockytop

* new tunes (more on this later)
^ fishman sings, part of the lyrics appeared in the last newsletter
# "I Saw It Again" - Trey Original, played in New York w/ The Pants as
well.

    Well, there's the setlist and mymymy what a show (especially the 2nd
set) it was.  Great feel to the plae especially because i think that
everyone was expecting a couple of big songs to really "kick off" the
tour... and we got them!

Set One

    The scene was set and everyone was ready for a killer show.  me and
my bud nick had our front row positions right in front of the chairman
and it was worth it because tonght he was on those boards.
YEEEEEEAAAAOOOOOWWWW!  So the lights dim, a couple of people die from
pure excitement, and here we go. A familiar drwoned out sound of
guitars/synthasizers/who knows what else echoes throught the SFX and
suddenly just the bass line that always gets me (and i can safely say
for this show the rest of the crowd) going, especially at the start of a
show.  great way to start off.  this version wasn't particularly jammed
out but it wasn't definately clean with no major mistakes.  so then we
go onto NICU! why not?  amazing song, always appreciated due to its
relative scarcity  so it was fun.  Dirt is an interesting new song.
unfortunately i can't remeber specific songs  that well due to the
amount that were played in the first three nights of the tour.  then
talk.  very nice version with a semi-extended jam.  now onto my soul.
there has been a lot of bitching about this song and i could see how one
could grow weary of this tune if heard say 5 nights out of ten, but i
liked it.  verrryyy fast and pumped.  chris k does cool lights
especially for a small room on this.  CTB was a nice relaxing tune
although i still danced my ass off and page, well...page is as page was
and always will be: a mad pianist (stop your minds there).  limb by limb
is an excellent song with sooooo much potential.  it starts out real
cool with page and trey trading lyrical licks and moves onto a slight
jam and then the repetitive "limb by limb by limb...." which suprisingly
enough doesn't get annoying.  good new song.  trey speaks to us for the
first time here as he introduces the next song as bye bye food, written
by fish and says that this is his favorite song out of the new batch
(was he sarcastic, i couldn't tell)  anyway, a pretty good song... maybe
a little dull and it was strange seeing fishman singing a truly
heartfelt tune not mockingly.  Next was FREE! YES! Really good version
and veryy clean.  nice middle segment with trey doing a little looping,
page pounding away, mike having fun and fish keeping the rythm.  now let
me diverge a little bit.  in refernece to mike gordon; i have never seen
the guy smile so much, and this was pretty agreed among many phans.  he
was trying to hide his smiles but he couldn't and every time he cracked
a gring the whole crowd would go wild  next was prince caspian, a real
nice closer( this version similar to 12/31/96) and it had a longer "jam"
than usual.  overall i'd give the first set a 5.5/10

Set Two

    Twist around proved a nice way to start out... they also played this
in soundcheck.  then a couple of other new songs i can't really comment
on.  then waste was excellent.  now, mike gordon (i realized that night)
has the most incredible range in terms of his voice.  so low and so
high...beautiful.  the jam was verrryyy nice and emotionally felt.  and
then the hight hat BOWIE BOWIE BOWIE!!!! the crowd went wild (and so did
i) because this is what was waited for, and old skool jam.  the crowd
started clapping and we got reall fast, and trey decides to let us take
over.  they do a kind of russian dance/jig to this and it was
incredibel.  all the people in that room (including the band) were
having soooo much fun.  and as trey counts of 1,2,1234 so does the
crowd.  even louder than trey. this was an itense bowie with an
excellent jam that started out very slow but built and built until i
thought the roof was melting (perhaps i was inhibited by a foreign
substance?) great version.  then cavern.  i love this song and i think
everyone in the place wondered what the hell was going on when they
stopped after the second verse and just started jamming.  what a jam, it
was so cool.  granted, phish have been playing a lot of new songs here
in europe but they are experimenting a lot with old "standard" tunes aka
wlofman's, cavern, mcgrupp.  definately cool.  the encore of cctt was
fun and then rockytop just topped things off.  a good show and a great
atmosphere.

side note:  i think that phish really love playing in europe and i
certainly love seeign them here because it is so much more intimate.
for instance, after the show mike was out and talking for like 30
minutes.  now, i know he does this in the US, but there was no crooning
by giddy teenagers which made it so much more chilled out.  i hope they
do a euro tour next summer because i'm going the whole way.

  riles   (mark.reilly@citicorp.com)

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

From: J�rgen Fauth 
Subject: More about Dublin
Date: Tue, 17 Jun 1997 12:18:10 +0100

Hey hey,
here's what I remember about the Dublin shows...the SFX centre was
small, like a high school gym, wooden floors, about 500 people in
there...they were selling stout in the back, of course.  The new
songs...everybody I talked to seemed to like them a whole lot. Limb By
Limb is a nice tune, sort of bouncy, maybe like CTB somewhat? the chorus
repeats "limb by limb by limb by limb" so that it ends up sounding like
"limba-limba-etc". My favorite, I think, was "Wading in the Velvet Sea",
a sweet ballad with some sweet sweet trey soloing going on. If I
remember correctly, Mike started out singing on it, but then everybody
layered their voices on top of that. "Twist Around", if that's what it's
called, was a fun song that had everybody up and dancing. It seemed to
fit real well at the beginning of the second set. BTW, the Wolfman's
from the first show was great, definitly the highlight of that set. "Dog
Stole Things" was sort of bluesy, I think, but I might be getting
confused. I mean, damn, that was a whole lot of new stuff. Oh, about
that rumor--this kid told me Chris Corona came out before the show and
told him the band had a meeting two days ago where they decided to
retire 30 songs. Wilson and Suzie were the only ones he mentioned. The
guy said Chris looked sort of wistful and nodded slowly, repeating,
"gone...forever..." Believe at your own risk. My personal guess is that
they might lay off some stuff for a while to make room for all the new
stuff, but what do I know. At any rate, the new songs were all pretty
damn good, and if they play like they played in Dublin (especially the
second night--Waste! Cavern!! Bowie!!!), then I for one don't care what
they hell they play. The BB stuff was really growing on me, too. That
song "Vultures", I think, was sort of a harder rock tune, and everybody
just loved "STory of the Ghost", which I don't remember a thing about,
other than thinking, this is great. "I See It Again" started with Trey
singing and then went into him repeating "And I See It Again" something
like 50 times, building and building, a big wall of sound coming our
way, everybody on stage going apeshit. Great stuff. Before Bowie, Trey
and Fish did a little Russian dance. Fishman's new tune, Bye Bye Foot
was sweet and lovely--"my absolute favorite of the new songs" is what
Trey said. Again, part of the lyrics were in the last newsletter.
"Stand" was huge fun, especially when Trey goes, "everybody!" I really
hope they keep on doing that one. What a great way to end a show.
anyway. I see they did hood in london, so that's not gone: good. That's
all I remember, folks. I'll see everybody at the Great Went!
jurgen

==============================

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

Date:    Sun, 14 Jun 1998 08:24:50 GMT
From:    PZerbo 
Subject: 6.13 & 6.14.97, The Anniversary Review (long!)

Can it really have been a whole year ago? While I don't
really have a "favorite" Phish show or run, there are
definately those that stand in a class by themselves, and
for very different reasons. While I've been seeing Phish
shows off-and-on since '91, '97 was a big break-out year
for me and my "relationship" with Phish: going from one of
moderate interest ("moderate" is relative to a long-time
Deadhead, meaning seeing only 3 - 5 shows a year, and
confining my travel to the nearest couple of states :-)) to
where it is now, which suffice it to say borders on "heavy"
(15 shows in '97). Call me a newbie, if you wish.

And '97 Phish began for me on a lovely June weekend in Dublin,
Ireland, 6.13 & 6.14.97. That weekend stands out as one of my
favorites during my short 32 years on this planet. I've been
known to gush about these shows at almost every opportunity,
and then a friend recently pointed out that I had never given
the shows a proper review. The following is my too-long-winded,
probably not-that-interesting, belated attempt to rectify that...

Before the music, first a few words about the venue, and the
general state of the scene.

Venue. SFX stands for Saint Francis Xavier, and I presume it is
a sort of community/church recreation center when not hosting
shows. Everyone reading this has been in a High School gym.
Imagine it with dark walls, remove the hoops, and that is the
whole venue! No longer or wider than the length of a basketball
court, and that includes the stage. When you first walked in the
door at the "back" of the venue, to your left was Paul and Chris's
rig, to the right is the beer stand (fresh Hieneken and Murphy's
on tap, "2 pounds fifty"!) and about 80 - 100 feet TOPS in front of
you is the stage. The tapers "section" was demarkated by 4 pieces
of masking tape, pretty amusing. What few staff members were all
exceedingly friendly, as was just about everyone you would run into
in Dublin.

[Disclaimer: If you are adverse to stories of drug use, please skip down
to the setlist and review for 6.14...

Saturday was great, I was determined to get some tourism in, and visited
Christ Temple Church, Grafton St., St. Stephen's Green, Guiness Brewery
and such. About 4 in the afternoon I run into 2 Americans I had briefly
puffed with the night before. We decide to make tracks towards the venue,
but decided first to kick it in this -really- cool bar they had found, very
close to the Ha'Penny (sp?) bridge over the River Liffy. We procede to get
rather shit-faced, and barely noticed that we'd spent a good few hours
drinking, before we motivated towards the venue. We had to stop at their
hostel, and, well, we stopped at another pub on the way after that!
(when in Rome....). So we arrive at the venue, um, on the drunk side of
life. Before I go in I somehow recall that I have an extra ticket; time
was short it seemed and I wanted to just get inside and so I say "who
needs a FREE ticket?". It is quickly taken by a very appreciative Irish
person. Before I go in the building, though, this guy comes up to me and
says "hey, that was incredibly cool of you to kick down that ticket...
want any shrooms?" I politely declined, but he says "free, just like that
ticket". Well, OK I say!, and in the venue I go.

So like I said, I've got a serious alcohol buzz going, and my judgement is
accordingly impaired, and I eat about an 1/8 oz of shrooms, and then
procede to walk around the venue and pass the rest out to whomever looked
interested (you're welcome!). I've been doing psychadelics at different
shows for 17 years without incident, but this was a temporary mistake:
these were -very, very, very good- shrooms, on top of about 8 - 10 drinks.
Uh oh. Most of my first set "recollections" are via the tapes, though by
second set I was cool and all memories are, er, rather "vivid". My strategy
when I realized I was having a hard time: I wanted a place where I wasn't
going to be disturbed, so I went and sat right in front of the tapers
"section" where I knew everything would be nice and still! An extra-special
thanks to all the folks in the tapers section who caught on to my moderately
sketchy predicament and were quite kind and provided soothing company...
Mia, Wes, Mike, Pat, et cetera (and others un-named who also engaged in
my bag)! Once my system had settled down a bit the second set was pure
joy, psychadelic, spiritual, musical harmony. Enough said ].

Phish, 6.14.97, SFX Centre, Dublin, Ireland

I. Down w/Disease, NICU, Dirt*, Talk, My Soul, CTB, Limb by Limb, Bye Bye
Foot*, Free, Caspian

II. Twist Around*, Piper*, I Saw it Again*, Fooled by Images*, Dog Stole
Things, Waste, Bowie, Cavern

E: Circus, Rocky Top.
* = First Time Played

Nice spacey intro into Down with Disease. Cool, compact, no real hint
of the intense spaces this tune would provide later in the Summer and
Fall, but solid nonetheless and a nice opener. NICU was short and sweet,
and much more, I dunno, fluid, than the "harder edge" that this tune
has seemed to acquire lately as a set opener.

Dirt is next, we expected more new tunes and here they come! Who knew
at the time this would be such a centerpiece of imagry for the tour: dirt,
worms, et cetera? Into Talk, with a Trey guitar swicharoo I believe.
Another "perfect for the venue" song, which I had hardly appreciated
outside the more relatively sterile confines of Billy Breathes, but was
really well done here. My Soul is another "not among my favorite" tunes,
but this packs a lot of "honest" energy, high on the dancability scale
in retrospect (I was otherwise occupied with keeping things together,
alas). A pleasant CTB follows, with Page ripping jams as per usual.

Limb by Limb is the first repeat; I was still ("still" meaning I
had a full 24 hours to digest the tune!) thinking of the song
as "limbo" at the time; like "I come ungled while in mid-air, I'm in
limbo, limbo..". Kmo clued me into the actual name in London two days
later, I think I was the last person on tour to get it, doh! Anyways,
every time I listen to this I gain a greater appreciation for the
version, it -really- kicks and lays even more a solid foundation for
the peaks this tune acheives during the Summer and beyond.

Trey: "thanks, that tune was called "Limb by Limb". The next tune we're
going to do for you, it's another new tune and it's my absolute favorite
of the batch, it's written by our very own Jon Fishman (cheers), it's
called Bye Bye, Foot". Yet another (are you sensing a pattern here?!?)
"perfect for the venue" tune, which was quickly abandoned after a few US
shed versions; I remain hopeful it will appear again, but reservedly so
considering the noise factor of US crowds. At it's essence it is a pretty
sappy love song, but it just carried so much energy in its virgin form,
very pure. Sappy for sure, but I'm a romantic at heart ("where I
end, and you begin, I want to find that line, and cross it back and
forth, until it's erased, via footsteps, via footsteps, via footsteps")!

The Free that follows is no sloutch, and turns on a dime the vibe of
Bye Bye, Foot, back into a pretty serious funk... talk about collaborative
jamming! Mike is on FIRE and he and Fishman are laying the groove so
thick you couldn't cut it with a chain saw, and Page and Trey are holding
the other side of the stage with this intense interplay, Page moving
towards a heavy synth action (these would be the casio-looking devices
top right -&- left on his rig, for those scoring at home). Funk me,
funk me, funk me! The Caspian set closer was also nice, with an especially
pleasant and extended intro section. Yep, you heard it here, a Prince
Caspian that I really enjoy! This tune has it's place, I just wish it
wasn't so prominent in the rotation, especially at critical points of key
shows. This is cool though, especially in range, as Page is really able to
"bring it down" in his ending solo. Great, great set!

Well, as mentioned earlier, I was still on quite an "adventure" in my mind
during this setbreak. While it was very reassuring with all the company,
and was a nice rest for the boogie that was to follow, it was, without a
doubt, mentally, the longest setbreak in all my years of seeing shows
(including 100+ shows of the "other" band). I was very relieved for the
lights to go down for...

Twist Around! Yet another "quiet", harmony-filled intro (anyone could have
easily guessed it would be a country tune from the intro) for a brand new
tune, wow, what a shocka :-)! Let me say this: that man Trey knows how to
have a good time, and all the evidence you could ever need is his
expressions throughout this tune. Page RIPS this tune up, check it out...
Ding! Piper follows, and, well, it is hard to really give this debut any
justice, I really have developed a very personal, special relationship with
this tune that all began this night; while much like Vultures the night
before in that the tune is challenging and  requires a lot of attention,
I was immediately "zoned in" on this one. I dunno, how does one describe
the IT feeling? Others have done so with far more eleoquence, I'll just
leave it alone.

I Saw It Again. Well, whatever they saw the first time must have been the
shit, because when they saw it again they came up with a pretty darn cool
tune! Can I have a Black Sabbath head-bob from the congregation? Some
screaming taboot? I SAW IT AGAIN! I don't tire on the repititiousness
of this tune, I think it has its place and is not overdone, it really
creates a different vibe that I have no problems with -at all-!

Fooled By Images. Now, I fully understand why this tune would not
have been appropriate for a modern-day US audience, but I am a bit
baffled by why it was declared DOA before any other attempts to perform
it in Europe. And this is pure speculation, but it almost seems like
there was more to this tune and it came to an abrupt hault, like
someone gave a cue to bail. I reckon I'll have a long time to speculate
though, as this tune seems 6 feet under.

Waste follows; man, did this tune ever develop in a year! Compare and
contrast this version with, say, Cliff Ball, wow. I'd really like this
tune to be explored more, especially in the slot currently occupied
exclusively by Caspian (gee, the second somg of this bunch I feel that
way about, along with Billy Breathes); a little cheesy perhaps, but I
love this as a perfect Phishy ballad. Yup, call me a sap!

Bowie. My favorite Phish tune. In this tiny venue, in Dublin, Ireland,
experiencing maximum "funny stuff" with 600 of the coolest Phishheads
you could ever assemble. You got the right one baby, uh huh! Most
commentary on this intro focuses on the little russian folk dance Trey
does, but two things about that: 1) before that, there is a distinct
King Crimson riff during the intro, I haven't quite pinned it down to
an exact jam, but it is from the Discipline/Beat (81 - 83) era, but it
is definately there and 2) the folk dance was most certainly a crowd
creation, not band; it was pretty intense, the only thing I've compared
it too subsequently  was the "MSG rock" where the whole building shakes;
that took 20,000+ people, and this was at ground level with 600 people.
Suffice it to say the joint was jumpin', energy level at 110%!
No real need to comment on the rest of the Bowie, just get it; no, it
isn't of 12.29.94 proportions, but it stands quite well on it's own,
thank you very much! When it didn't end the set, I was pretty shocked, in
a pleasant way, to get Cavern. While this is a balanced jam in some
respect, the way you spell FUNK in this instance is P-A-G-E. Give the
director a serpent deflector, and get the fuck out of the way as Page
delivers the serious funky-funk. There are IMHO better Caverns on record,
but none that I was ever a personal witness to. Take a bow, gentlemen...

Circus -> Rocky Top encore. Cool, mellow followed by up-tempo Mike tune,
I'm thrilled, exhausted, exhilerated! Paul ditches the "your cheatin
heart" for some traditional Irish folk outro music, to accompany a quick
sweep of the venue, apparently everyone had better places to be :-)

After, I run into the person I had kicked-down the ticket to, and much
to my delight I got to hang out with him and his friends, some -Irish-
hippies (I was wondering when or if I'd be able to hang out with some
people other than Americans, no matter how cool the Americans were!),
a delightful group of folks from Galloway, a college town on the western
Ireland coast. They decide I'm I fine candidate for temporary adoption,
and let me tag along for a pub crawl down O'Connell St. which culminated
about 3:30am. I really wish some of those folks would read rmp and say
hello!

The next day, after a nice, SOLID sleep, I was off to a beach town named
"Bray", which was glorious, and it was the day of the Irish national
football championship, which I watched in a family pub atmospohere
(drinking soda water after the last two nights, thanks very much!),
before heading back to Dublin for yet another solid rest before Monday's
travel and show in London.

So, if you have endured my rantings, perhaps you are interested in the
tapes. My tapes are out from B.P., thanks Brian! and the lineage is
Wes's AKG 414>Oade>SBM-1 -> Brian's patched DAT -> my analog -> your
analog, so I guess in common dialog yours would be DAUD/2. Suffice it
to say that, especially considering the quiet crowd, the sound on these
tapes are just incredible. I'll take as many people as I can depending
on the response, though I can't imagine it will be that big considering
how long-winded I've been. I'd appreicate it if the people who get tapes
from me extend a similar offer, and I'd also appreicate it if any of the
boatloads of people I've already spun this for in the past year would
make an offer at this time so that these shows may circulate more.

In short: 6.13 & 6.14.97 Dublin are good shows :-). Cheers,

-Phillip