Date: Wed, 13 Aug 97 14:55:56 -0700
From: Janet Kirby jkirby@pop.state.il.us
Subject: 8/10/97 deer creek

just got back from two amazing shows, first heres the first night review:
8/10/97 Deer Creek
As always, deer creek had a jumpin lot, best ive seen, and vending was 
full in swing. It wasnt as nice as last year weather wise but at least it 
was 100 degrees. Oh well, the show got started about 7:30 ish and opened 
with a very nice suprising Bathtub Gin after a nice jam it led into an 
always fun Sparkle, then Down with Disease which was very nice. Dirt was 
next which was cool. Cars Trucks and Buses was a suprise but Page was on 
it. Billy Breathes made me smile, this was a first and very mellow. Next,
Yes! Split Open and Melt, always a pleasure to jam to this. Fishman sang
the next tune, Bye Bye foot i believe and it was good i think? Ginseng 
Sullivan was very nice got me in mood for.....HOOD!!! What a set closer!
They jammed out  and i stood in Awe, very nice set. Trey repeated 15 
minutes again and again at the set break just as he did last year and was 
off by about a 1/2 hour again, oh well
Set 2 :
Cities, a first for me and the jam just would not quit, lasted about 20 
minutes, very nice led nicely into...
Good Times Bad Times: Yes!! love zep, and phish did a great job with it, 
and it caught everyone off guard, then page went to his theramin again 
and did some better work than riverport and then things got nuts.
With page on the theramin, Mike went to the keys, and fist and trey 
jammed on fish's drums. This switching lasted @ 20min then fishman put on 
a sprots coat, and grabbed the guitar and led the boys through an 
appropriate Rocka William (corn), then the high hat...wierdness, Bowie or 
Maze??? it would be bowie but they teased us for @ 10 min before breaking 
into a splended bowie, better than last years IMO.
E: Cavern : always nice to pack up to and take care of my shoes to
Overall better than first night last year, but not second nite, overall
Id say an 8.5 on scale to 10
great show, great night, great campground
Peace
Paul Pearman 

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From: silton.1@pop.service.ohio-state.edu (Scott Silton)
Subject: Deer Creek Run Review
Date: Tue, 12 Aug 1997 21:05:34 GMT

Just returned after a great two nights amongst the corn.

Sunday:

Bathtub: Choice opener, totally unexpected.  A nice, upbeat jam that sort
of 
dissolved aimlessly into

Sparkle: as usual (fun to dance to).

Disease: A totally SICK version of disease.  The jam got better and better
and 
better.  I'll wait to hear the tapes before officially calling this a 
hose-worthy jam, but in any case I was totally blown away while at the 
show.  Fabulous entertainment.  The set was a half hour old after this
tune 
(and sparkle's only 3 minutes).

Dirt:  Finely played, but upon a second listen this song really doesn't
have 
much to offer except Trey's gorgeous lick in the second half of the tune.

Cars, Trucks, Buses: A stellar version.  Miles ahead of the Tinley show.
Page 
went OFF!  At first I was dissapointed to hear this one, but when it was
over 
I was smiling.

Billy:  Trey mangled this tune in at least 2 places.  Oh well.

Split Open ->Fracture-> Split Open.  I seem to be the only one who
recognized 
this at the show.  The normal split open jam dissolved and then was put
back 
together through a King Crimson song ( I believe Fracture from Starless
and 
Bible Black).  The ending was at super speed!  The happy kid in front of
me 
called this "the jam of the night" although I still prefer the Disease.
Very 
cool Split Open!

At this point the set was more than an hour old so I figured it was over.  
NOPE!

Bye Bye Foot: No comment (I'd never heard it before, I wasn't too thrilled 
with it but cannot evaluate it on a first listen)

Ginseng: good placement in the set, fun, typical.

Harry: Great placement in the set!  And an above-average version for sure.  
Wonderful way to close a totally amazing set.  Get this tape!!!!

Set II:

Cities: Nice opener.  The Talking heads song was played perfectly.  The
phish 
jam that came after it was in the vein of Tweezers and Bowies from 94-95,
and 
frankly, I hardly noticed that 25 minutes had passed because they did some 
interesting things with the improv.  The long winded phish at its best.
The 
segue into 

GTBT: was perfect.  Again, the Zep song was played note-for-note, but
there 
was another tremendously long jam at the end that went on for a long
while.  
This was much more spacy and boring than the Cities.  They began to switch 
intruments as Page played with his Theremin, and people were calling for a 
Rockowilliam.  As it turned out, Rocko was forthcoming, but not until
several 
more minutes of spacy nothingness.  I thought this was the long winded
phish 
at its worst.

Rocko: Fine, and totally appropriate given the "children of the corn 
reference".

Bowie: the hi-hat part at the beginning was stretched out for 5+ minutes.  
Some of this might have been interesting, but at this point I was craving 
something familiar to hold onto.  Thus, the composed part of Bowie was
pretty 
sweet once it came.  Overall, the jam had its spacy moments as well as its 
funkier moments.  The ending bit was handled well.

e: Cavern.  Its weird how a high energy song that everyone knows and sings 
along to can bring a show down, back to reality.  I don't mean down as
bad, 
I mean down, like a cool-down.  All the concentrating required by the
improv 
evaporated into the night.  I think I felt better about the GTBT because
of 
the Bowie and Cavern.  I will explore setlist placement psychology in
greater 
detail another time...

This set is worthwhile because of the Cities.  Otherwise, not much to
offer 
IMO.