------------------------------
Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1998 01:11:19 -0600
From: balocchi dino wayne
Subject: 11/6/98 - Madison Review (long)
...Madison is a great town and I really dug the atmosphere...seemed laid
back. My only problem is how they don't sell carry-out alcohol past 9 pm.
The bars must make a killing since its the only place to drink after 9.
Anyway on to the show
Opener;Possum-I was thinking maybe a bouncin since they have not played
this too much at all this year or maybe Theme (haven't played that yet
either this fall) but I was definitely happy with Possum. I could have
swore I heard a Love Me two Times tease in the very begining of build up.
Anyone else hear this? Solid version nice and tight I thought. Again,
light show is looking great (great job Chris).
...Wilson. I've been fotunate enough to see this tune three times now and
it has really grown on me. There was a heavy metal jam in this...short
but sweet...always a fun concert tune...perfect for the arena.
...this somewhat segues into Roggae. I've heard this song twice in
concert and I dig it. really mellow yet dancable and very catchy. The
only problem is that they are playing the living shit out of it(half of
the shows this fall). Hope it doesn't get to be bouncin like.
Maze- pretty good maze. I though it was somewhat sloppy though. Page had
his shit together but Trey could not get his rhythm part right and all of
them had some confusion on the peak part of Trey's solo. Other than that
I like how this song is being played these days...not too often...but not
too sparingly.
...Meat-this was better than when I heard it at Deer Creek. The pause
part was very cool. Band interplay was cool with Trey doing a little
solo(by himself) and the band following him up.
Sparkle-the only thing I can say about this tune is that I guess its fun
in concert. Besides that I don't really care for the tune.
Split Open and Melt- Hell yeah! this tune kicks ass...probably one of my
favorite phish songs ever. This version was stellar as it was executed
well in the composed part. Mike and Fish were unbelievable in the funk
jam. The jam segment starts out with some incredible funk. Trey and Page
start in on the Funk theme and get the other two involved. This was deep
funky too. It seemed that Chris was doing a little light solo during this
too. Finally, after about five or six minutes, the boys return to the
ending theme and totally rock the hell out of the ending. Total, about
15-18 minutes of SOAM. Very pleased.
Set break was filled with what I thought was very positive vibes
and people were generally happy with the first set, as was I. I walked
around on the 3rd balcony looking for old friends(only saw one) and filled
up my water bottle-always tasty. I was thinking maybe a Stash, Taste, or
again, Theme, maybe even TMWSIY>Avenu>TMWSIY. My hopes were high I guess.
Set II
Makisupa...what a pleasent suprise! I love this song and its always fun
to hear whether your listening to it on tape or at the show. Key word
cracked me up. "University Rent-a-cop." Oddly I've never heard Makisupa
end like this, very abrupt....I don't think it deserves a >.
Funky Bitch...hearing this as a second song really pumped me up. I
thought it was placed in an odd place so I thought they would jam like
crazy...not the case. It was great though and Trey did a grat job soloing
but this would come back to haunt him later.
Simple-wow, compared to the first few versions of this song Simple has
turned itself into a monster song to jam on ambient or not (ala Went or
Alpine '97). This version was very melotic and flowed very well. But the
"trance" jam was a moment I will not forget. I was standing in amazement
at the music and the picture(lights and stage presence of the band) and
thought to myself,"what a beautiful picture Phish has painted." I was
really in awe and the funny thing was that the girls sitting in front of
me were saying while it was happening "Is this such a beautiful picture-I
can't belive it." I was like "you stole the words right out of my mouth."
I know it sounds cheesy but I was very cool and very "hose" like. It was
great moment and, in the meantime, I thought they were going to play
TMWSIY but I was terribly wrong. The worst thing that could have possibly
happen did. they started in on...
Prince Caspian...I'm sorry middle of the second set and flowing so
beautifully why break out a song that can bore the hell out the audience?
It was already slow with the ambience so why more slow shit? It guess I
never gave it a chance but after a while I at least took it for what it
was worth. The best think that happened during this song was the naked
dude getting on stage. Funny as hell because the band recognized it too.
Caspian had way too much rock star Trey since he had already took two
solos in Funky Bitch and one in Simple. Caspian must have gone on for 10
minutes I swear. And then...
Fluffhead... I can hear fluffhead anytime and is fun as hell also. The
only problem was that overall sound was kind of redundant(great word)
considering the vocal part of Fluffhead is the same as all of Caspian.
However, thats ok I don't mind that. The thing that really bothered me
was the fact that Trey completely forget the compositional parts of Fluffs
Travels and the rest of the song. I saw him look over at Page at least
three or four times in total frustration as he forgot whole parts of the
song. This was the beginning of the Bad vibes I started feeling from the
band and the audience. It seemed that Trey's flubs threw off the whole
band as Fishman had some problems and so did Mike. The ending jam was
short.
HYHU>Bike>HYHU...I really think this shit is funny but like I said I was
somewhat concerned about what the hell happened in Fluffhead and how it
affected their decision on how the rest of the night was going to go.
Fishman was going around being a complete goofball and that was hilarious,
really it was. And when he forgot the lyrics I was just like "make up
whatever" and he did which was funny.
Hood-I really love this song and it was one of the first songs I ever
heard from Phish and I was blown away. However, I got the feeling that
the band was just doing this to make up for the Flubhead. Jam section was
cool but I just have to say something...STOP THROWING THE GLOW STICKS!!!
WTF, would you like your equipment to be thrown at! They are giving us
the gift of music and playing a great jam and you want to whip glowsticks
at the band? Most bands would just say fuck you and leave. It was
rediculous. At one point I saw Trey catch a stick and throw it back at
the crowd. Some would think that he would be provoking it...I don't think
so. I think he was saying "please don't do this, we are trying to play
here." Then later one almost hit Mike and then another one hit a
microphone I don't know which one but you could clearly hear it.
Afterwards, it seemed like the band hurried through the jam and finished
for the night. Then as they were walking off stage, another glowstick was
thrown at the drumkit. Come on, grow up. We don't have to throw them at
the band...at each other not at the band please. I like Hood...don't make
it disapear from the rotation.
Encore BOAF-ahh! This is what we get for throwing that shit at them. OK
version of a rocker. Listen to 4.4.98 and tell me a better version.
Hello My Baby-is hello my baby. sweet and nice.
Overall, I enjoyed the show thoroughly until the Caspian. Like I
said bad vibes after this. When I was walking out I didn't hear anybody
saying "wow or that 2nd set rocked!" People just seemed quite and kind
of confused. I don't know, the first set was really fun and the Simple as
I said was unforgetable, but as a whole it was average or a little above
average. But hey, when you go and see Phish, its alrealy great so I'm
speaking relatively.
more than .02 cents
Dino looking forward to Monday night UIC!
------
11/6/98 - Kohl Center, Madison, WI
All I can say is SIC, SIC, SIC Mad-town had the goods that night and I
didn't go away dissapointed at all. The Possum opener got us gruven
right away. Wilson is a great tune but for those of us in the Mid
West area, we've heard this song alot and I could've heard something
else, however it still ruled. The Maze was the best I've ever heard,
the jam took the song places it never went to before and Split Open
and Melt had the phunk going. (Angie I'm glad you got your Sparkle,
finally).
The second set put me on my ass! Makisupa was great to start with,
Phish doing the Reggee thing is superb. Funky Bitch is always a treat
to hear, one of my favorite tunes and everyone got moving during this
one. The Simple was fantastically put together and jammed great into
Caspian. A very pretty jam in Caspian (the naked guy made the crowd
nuts). My highlight of the evening was the HYHUBikeHYHU I love to
see Fishman on the vaccum and Bike just fucking rules anyway. Then
the unbelivable magic of Harry Hood happened. The song is just
perfect to me in every aspect and this time was ot wreaked by the
glowsticks, there were some however, but not enough to create a great
light show, but small enough amount to not cause a problem. The
encore was good but just beat this song into the ground because I do
think it is a phunky tune but could become another Bouncin'.
Overall the musical intensity of the show was incredible and looks
like the fall tour is picking right up where Lemonwheel left us off at
August. Can't wait to see what they do next.
Andrew
The drive from Chicago was not a difficult one. We arrived in plenty of time to park
at my brother and sister-in-law�s apartment and walk the two miles to the Kohl
Center. It was cold outside and there didn�t seem to be much going on in the parking
lots. The Kohl Center is brand new and very clean and spacious. There are some
very interesting glass sculptures on the walls inside the main doors, which I�m sure
many Phans enjoyed.
Shortly after entering we heard the crowd go nuts and saw that the lights had gone
out. The piano intro to Possum started and we franticly search for our seats. We got
settled into our seats directly across from the stage two rows up from the very back of
the first level about three minutes into Possum and I prepared myself for what I
figured would be a high energy set. Possum was very well played but was not a
standout version. It is a good opener, though, and all it takes is an average Possum
to get the crowd excited. And they were.
Wilson followed, and continued what would become a trend for this set: very tight,
well-played, but standard versions of songs. Roggae is new enough that I am still
excited to hear it, but from the four versions I�ve heard, it doesn�t seem to cover
much ground improvisationally. A beautiful song, though. Maze and Sparkle were
both very tight and very high energy, but somehow, something seemed missing, as
though the band were on autopilot. Meat (played between Maze and Sparkle) is not a
song I would miss if I never heard it again. The one chord repeating just doesn�t do
anything for me, and the false endings are quite annoying.
It wasn�t until the jam section in Split Open & Melt started that I felt I was hearing
something fresh. I loved this song when I seemed to see it every other show in 1996,
but since then I hadn�t seen it live and I forgot what a great song it is. It is played a
lot differently now, but it�s definitely still a great song. The jam in the Madison
version wasn�t as dissonant as some of the older versions were, and it was much
funkier. This version was jammed out very, very well, with Page leading the way.
Trey was mainly laying down a choppy rhythm line, there were none of the rock star
heroics a la Split Opens of old. But this slowly building jam was as captivating as
any version I�ve heard. Those who aren�t fans of Phish-funk might not agree, but
this would end up as the highlight of the show for me.
I was very surprised that the set ended there, though. Clocking in at just an hour,
they don�t come any shorter than that. At set break, we camped out in the
far-from-too-crowded hallway, and noted how young the crowd looked. I have
never seen a younger crowd at a Phish show. At 23, I actually felt like a graybeard.
Makisupa Policeman opened the second set and really failed to get me too excited. I
think this is a really fun song, but I like it better in the show opener spot, where the
pressure is not so great. This version just seemed a little empty, even more so than
the first set tunes. This trend continued with the following tune, the least exciting
Funky Bitch I've ever heard live. Granted, it�s pretty hard to ruin this song, but it
didn�t come close to either version I heard this summer, at Alpine Valley and Kansas
City. I don�t know if they played it at a slower tempo or what, but it just seemed to
sort of peter out at the end in unexciting fashion. A lot of people seemed to enjoy it,
though.
Simple followed and hooked me for the first time in the set. It was a good version
and the enthusiastic crowd seemed to be into it. I found the ambient jam out of
Simple to be pretty for a little while, but it lasted long enough to eventually fall into
the boring category. Just as the chords for Prince Caspian became recognizable, the
spotlight shone only on Trey and he played the opening lines in dramatic fashion. It
has become very clear that Trey loves this tune, and if they played it every time as
well as they did in Madison, I think more fans would like it, too. This was a great
version.
A couple minutes in, a naked guy climbed on stage and danced around for a second
before security pounced on him. Apparently Trey gave him the little fist pump to
show solidarity, but I did not see this. In any case it was pretty funny and really
seemed to wake the band up and send the crowd into a higher gear. Trey slipped into
his Rock-Star-Trey persona for a little bit, overplaying and straying from the rest of
the band, but he returned to more reserved, excellent playing to finish what was the
best of the six Prince Caspians I have seen live.
But even the best Caspian ever can�t make a set by itself, so after a standard (i.e.,
good) Fluffhead, the band turned to Fishman to see what he could do. I thought for
sure we would get Cracklin� Rose, since Neil Diamond had very recently played the
Kohl Center, but instead we got Bike. This is always a fun song to see, and this
version was great. But personally, I would rather hear something of more substance
than this. Some people love Phish for their onstage antics, Fishman vacuum solos
included. I love Phish for other reasons. So, while I enjoyed Bike, I�m quite sure
that there are many, many people who enjoyed it more than I did.
When Harry Hood started I knew the crowd would be in for a test of sorts. Could
they keep the glowsticks in check? There had been a few sticks tossed around here
and there, but not many at all up to this point in the show. But after the �Thank you
Mr. Hoooood� part, the lights went out like they always do, and the glowsticks came
out. It definitely was a pretty weak glowstick war, though, and it looked like a lot of
people on the floor were actually catching them and setting them down rather than
throwing them back out into the crowd. All in all, the crowd behaved pretty well.
As for the Hood itself, it was pretty weak. The jam seemed sort of short and forced,
and the entry to the �You can feel good about Hood� was flubbed a bit. It�s a shame,
but the opening notes to Harry Hood used to mean so much more to me than they do
now. Part of it is because the song follows such a standard jam (starts here, builds,
ends there) and part of it is because they just don�t play it like they used to, with the
awesome release point. But when it�s played well, it still can do wonders for a set.
This version was nothing special. (At the risk of making this show sound terrible,
I�ll say it�s the weakest version I�ve ever heard).
Birds of a Feather was sort of predictable as an encore for the college crowd, and was
played very well, complete with the sort of great jam that characterized summer
versions of this tune. Opinion varies widely on this song, but if you like good
versions of it, then this one would not have been a disappointment. Hello My Baby
was a nice treat, and put the show to a fun close.
In general, this is the sort of show that you want to hear on the first night of four
consecutive shows. It offered a lot to improve upon, although they had played very
well. It just didn�t seem that they had taken any risks. It seemed like sort of a bland
radio-friendly version of Phish, offered up as an attempt to please the younger college
kids. I was very pleased in the behavior of the crowd, though. I didn�t see too many
glowsticks hit the stage, and avoiding the lot scene before the show will do wonders
for your impression of the crowd.
I knew we definitely still had the weekend�s best show ahead of us, but I didn�t know
when it would be. My money was on Monday, but I�d have to wait and see.
Jon Murphy
jonmurphy@mailcity.com
Here goes.
I drove into Madison at around 4:30, and it was going to be a cold one.
While driving around to find a parking spot, we drove past the KC, and
there were people out on the front lawn either playing football or
ultimate, I couldn't tell. Anywho, found a parking spot and bummed
around State Street, ate, and headed back for the KC. The closer and
closer we got, the more you could feel things. It was pretty laid
back,
all the way up to the doors. A couple people were begging for tix
right
outside, even one girl standing on top of a garbage can saying that she
would "dance the night away for you". Not me, sorry. So we get in,
and
the outside security was pretty nice actually, they redirected people
to
shorter lines, the pocket-cavity search people were nice, and I didn't
see a whole lot of problems.
Our seats were SO GREAT, hate to brag, but these were good. Got them
through TM too, I won't bad mouth them until I get taken by them.
Section 108 row 8, basically 8 rows from the floor, in front of Page.
I
was happy. They didn't open the doors until 6:20, so we found out
seats
by 6:30. I worked something out with someone who was patching in with
a
taper, WOO HOO! Thanx tito! The preshow music was very weird---at
first, they had on this Tori Amos-sounding CD, very dark and eerie.
Then after that, this pure jazz CD was played, really reminded me of
the
theme from "Full Monty". Then this country metal rock music came on,
soooo appropriate for Madison. It was funny, a few times, people would
just start cheering for no reason and then they would get the whole
place jumping---and this was at around 7:00. Hee hee...
The show finally starts, 2 minutes before 8. Not too bad.
Congrats to Crapulence, who kind of called the opener, he said that
they'd open with something like Possum or Sloth because the state
animal
is the badger, and they'd keep it on a mammal theme. Good call.
Hmmm...the guy next to me noticed that Fish had his Vaccuum out
tonight...just keep that in mind...
Possum---9 mins---it rocked, Trey hit some good high notes, good warm
up
song. They kind of flubbed the part at the end, when Trey starts,
"Whoa, Possum..." and they all follow, And then they bust out and Yell
"POSSUM!", on the first one, somebody was a tad late, but it wasn't too
bad...I loved it, great lights on everything too. No glowsticks.
Wilson---6 1/2 mins---I was kind of disappointed to hear this, and I
was
really dreading a full out heavy metal jam, and thank God they kinda
skipped out of that. Trey started it, and then quickly kicked out.
Could have been worse, it got better. Still no glowsticks. Sequed
right
into
Roggae---7 mins---Standard album version, but I was glad to hear it.
It
really summed up the vibe going on---laid back and just kinda surreal.
Trey was kinda swinging back and forth at the end while playing, he did
it all night. They were all really enjoying themselves.
MAZE---11 1/2 mins---Wow. Even though this is shadowed by the SOAM,
wow. Page was a mad man. His solo---he was in the middle of a great
inspirational solo on the organ, and Trey and Fish wanted to kick out
and start the jam, and Page just kept on going. It was hellarious,
trey, mike, AND fish were all just staring at Page, he even stood up
and
went at it for longer after Trey wanted to move on. They just all sat
looking at him. It was great, and this Maze is the best I've heard in
one long time. The jam got real far from a maze jam in the middle, and
I was positive that they were going to jam into something else, but
they
brought it back. Oh well, it was a great Maze. Still no glowsticks.
Meat---5 mins---This one is a definite keeper, had me confused though!
They would get to the ending, stop for about 10 seconds, and play it
over, but Trey would have a new solo in the ending. I was timing each
song, and I stopped my watch about three times because the pause was
soooo long, I thought they'd ended Meat. It was good though. Not a
glowstick in sight.
Sparkle---4 mins---Typical Sparkle, insanely fast at the end, fun. No
glowsticks.
SOAM---I knew that they would bust this one out sooner or later, first
on fall tour! It was excellent. Trey and Page had the funk thing
going
on in the jam segment, and they played with that until the ten minute
mark. Then, it was fascinating, and I didn't know that this was
possible---Chris was really doing a beautiful job on lights as usual,
and towards the end of the funk jam, put them on the seating towards
the
back of the stage. That got everyone back there going, and it was a
pink light onstage, with Chris doing spinning lights of every color
imaginable behind them. It was so cool. Then he kicked back to the
stage and in front of the stage. At first, he slowly changed colors on
stage and in audience, then a little faster, and then boom! CHRIS
TURNED UP THE JAM. CHRIS KNOWS THE SECRET LANGUANGE, AND DID IT WITH
THE LIGHTS! HE SINGLE HANDEDLY CHANGED THE FUNK JAM INTO THE ENDING!!!
It blew me away. I was in awe. I was hoping that they'd do another,
but they ended it with SOAM. Not too bad, but a short set. Still not
a
glowstick in sight. Beautiful.
FIRST SET----61 mins.
My highlight---Possum, Maze, and SOAM
My downer---Wilson, shortness of set
At set break, I tried handing out some UNO cards, but a lot of people
were too stoned to realize what I was handing out. Bad choice to do it
at setbreak in the lobby. Security was going around asking individuals
to put out their cigarettes. yeah. Good call. 40 min. setbreak, got
rid of all my UNO cards in the two sections next to me!
Congrats to Tone for calling a Makisupa second set opener!
Makisupa---5:33---awesome. Trey had on his Pepe LePew shirt, so hey, a
skunk theme was appropriate tonight! I didn't catch the keyword,
because everyone started cheering after "I woke up this morning..."
and
I just caught something about Madison Police. A good Makisupa, not
too
standard though, didn't have the Page solo, where they stop, he plays,
and they kick it to the bass line again. My friend Joe says that he
heard a STIR IT UP tease??? I heard something, from Mike and Trey, but
it could have been the language. Oh well, great opener. No glowsticks.
Funky Bitch---6:20---Good jam, I think Trey's guitar was either louder
in set II, or he just hit more high notes. Great jam, no glowsticks.
Simple---13:17---This song alone changed the entire set. It was
standard until the jam part at the end, it just kept dissolving and got
softer and softer, then became an ambient type jam, a la Lemonwheel,
like in the beginning. So surreal and beautiful, soft, awesome vibe.
I
didn't know what they could jam into that would keep the vibe like
this,
but Caspian captured it beautifully. No glowsticks, still! Segued
into---
Prince Caspian---11:22---I started timing this song as soon as I heard
the first sign of Caspian. It was a good version, excellent solo, and
a
naked dude jumped up on stage! It totally was the vibe going around
though, I wasn't real surprised! The music just made you feel so free
and made you want to run up and down the aisles with your hands in the
air. Trey saw the guy and pumped his fist, and everyone cheered for
about 2 or 3 minutes, Trey just kept on hitting the notes. No
glowsticks, segued into
Fluffhead---14 mins---Standard Fluff, I didn't hear any noticeable
flubs, and good build-up and release. Standard song, as always, but I
was glad to hear it. And the best part, STILL NO STIX!!!
THEN THINGS GOT WEIRD.
HYHUBIKEHYHU---10:30---After Fluff, Trey unplugged his guitar and RAN
over to Fish. I thought that they were going to do acoustic, and
groaned because it was waaaaaay too late in the set for that. But Fish
gets up---and the vaccuum that sat on the drum pedestal all night was
used. Oh baby. Fish gets out there, Trey took drums, and Page, Mike
and Trey started playing a rough HYHU. Fish is running around like a
mad-man in his MUMU, swinging his vaccuum hose around to the beat. It
was funny. Then he got on the mic, and said, I'm gonna play this song,
callled Bike. I thought he said "Brock" or something, and my friend
thought he said that he was going to cover Beck. Then I heard the song
start, and I knew that it was BIKE!!! It's a funny Fish song, and he
had
an insane vaccuum solo. About 2-3 mins long! At one point, everyone
just stopped playing and watched Fish. Then he stopped, did the last
verse, and then he announced His band!!! He said, "This is my
band...The drummer, on drums. The bassist, the organ player, and ME!
Jon the vaccuumist." I think that's what he called himself, it was
real
noisy, hard to hear. Then Trey kicked it into a beautiful HYHU, Fish
took at least four Fish-bows, y'know, all the way down to the floor,
one
to the back crowd behind the stage, and three to the front of the
crowd.
He even ran around and hugged the soundman on the side of the stage.
(Who is that there, anyways? Paul?) I seriously thought that he was
going to shine the crowd in honor of the other dude, but no such luck.
thank God... :) Fish thought they were done, and started running back
to his kit, and then Trey just smiled and kicked it into another verse,
and Fish got an ear to ear grin and ran back to the front of the stage
and took yet another bow. It was so crazy, if you weren't there,
sorry,
but you missed out. It was great. Trey got back to the mic with
guitar
and called Fish, "BOB WEAVER, ladies and gentelmen." That's been his
knickname as of late I guess. STill no glowsticks.So I thought that
they were going to kick it into Antelope for the closer, but hey, I'll
take...
HARRY HOOD---I guess they decided to play it because not ONE glowstick
had reared it's ugly face that entire evening. They started the song,
and I saw two come out right away, but not being thrown, just held.
Standard hood, then the glowstick war segment, and they all came out
then. But there weren't too many, and a lot of softer circular ones.
I
was glad to see that. The lights gradually turned off, and a small
glowstick war ensued. The first one headed for Trey, and I thought,
Great...But to my shagrin, he caught it, smiled, and gently tossed it
back into the audience. The whole crowd cheered. Then some idiots
thought it was cool, and one hit a speaker and made a hideously loud
noise, but other than that, it wasn't too bad. Thanks to those WHO
HELD
THE GLOWSTICKS AFTER THEY CAUGHT THEM, I could see that there were a
lot
of people who did, because the number of sticks being thrown gradually
diminished. Not too bad. They finished the song, bowed, and walked
off
stage.
SET II---
78 minutes
My highlights---Makisupa, Cool vibe from SimpleCaspian, and BIKE!!!
Hood was good too.
Lowlight---Sad to see the glowsticks, but it wasn't all that bad...it
was a well-behaved audience.
ENCORE---
Birds---I was disappointed to hear this as an encore, but I knew that
they'd play a two song encore after this. Standard. No
glowsticks---the audience got the clue!
Then they all came out and bowed. Trey went back, and then someone
brought out their a capalla mike. I screamed, I thought they were
gonna
do Freebird, but they did
Hello Ma Baby--It was neat, and a great ending to a great show. Wow.
I
love phish. Encore was 7 minutes.
I always love getting e-mails, so what did YOU think of my reveiw or
the show??? Let me know!
-steve
phishhead99@hotmail.com
www.tapetrading.com/lists/p/h/phishhead99@hotmail.com.html
Kohl Center
Traffic wasn't too bad getting into town. The lot wasn't much to comment
on, but it's always cool to go to a show at a big school and hit a
campus bar before a show. Kohl arena is one of the larger arenas and is
very modern. I couldn't believe they didn't sell beer inside though,
especially because it's in the drunk state of Wisconsin. On to the show
here:
Possum: Great opener. Got the energy level up right away. Trey didn't
really go off too much, it was more of a whole band Possum, awesome
nonetheless.
Wilson: Another great song at the start of a show, crowd really got into
this one.
Roggae: I've heard mixed reviews on this song. I really like it though.
A very nice mellow jam toward the end, and the harmonic vocals
throughout this song are very nice.
Maze: this was the best Maze I've ever seen. Trey really went off
toward the end, and it's always great to hear Maze on Fall Tour with
Chris' light show.
Meat: What I like about this song is how they change the rhythm through
out the song. Only the second time I've seen it, so I am not really sure
about it all together. After the song, Trey looked at Fish, and I read
his lips say Split Open and Melt. I freaked out my friend and said,
"watch, Split open right here"
Split Open: My first one at a show. Not a big fan of this song, but I
really liked the way Page brought out the funk toward the end of the
song
Overall, 1st set was above average (60 minutes)
Between sets, I saw actual full-clothed policemen walking on the floor
and escorting people out the of the arena. Furthermore, there were tons
of security guards on the floor, I mean probably one security guard for
every five people.
2nd Set
Makisupa: Yes, very appropriate. Trey's call was "University
Renta-Cops" I am sure he was referring to what I just mentioned
Funky Bitch: awesome. Trey went off on this one too. Of Phish's
covers, this one has to be one of the best. Trey was having a lot of
fun with this one
Simple: Standard Simple, but a nice little eerie jam into
Caspain: I haven't heard this one since Summer 1997, it was kind of
hard to spot at first. I thought it might have been Piper. To me, this
was the song of the night. As the band went right into a jam after the
lyric portion of the song, a naked guy ran onto the stage, which got the
crowd going. Even Trey raised his hand in support of the guy, the crowd
went crazy. The whole band went into an intense jam, like none I've
ever heard with this song. It's nice to see them bring this
back,especially in that fashion.
Fluffhead: your typical awesome Fluffhead. This song is always played
the same, so tough to comment on. Great nonetheless. I saw Trey put his
guitar down after the song, and I figured this couldn't be the end of
the set. No he was going to the drum set, as Page was hitting the notes
of
HYHUBikeHYHU: Fuck Yeah, this is what makes this band great, when they
do stuff like this. Fishman had the crowd going nuts, running around
the stage. Trey went nuts on the drums too.
Hood: I knew it was coming, and even told my friends. You just knew they
couldn't go another show without playing this song, especially when the
energy level was so high at this point. Great Hood, nice glowstick
war. Trey even caught one and through it back into the crowd
E: Birds: I like this song a lot, but man I hope they don't beat it into
the ground
Ragtime Gal: First time hearing it, always nice to hear the boys go
a capella
Second set and Encore (approx. 80 minutes)
Overall: 2nd set stold the show here. The energy level throughout this
set stayed at a consistent high. Can't wait for UIC. -Bill Young
The Kohl Center was the Shit! The guy running on stage was a lot better
of an idea than throwing those damn glowsticks at Pages piano. Trey may
have caught one but i think it was to symbolize that they are sick of
those things being thrown at the stage. Lets face it, Sticks are for
Pricks. When the lights are turned back on during the end of Hood your
suppose to stop throwing them. People need to learn because they left
the stage pissed off again. It is becoming a problem because They are
up there playing for us. Please, if you throw those things, throw them
away from stage.
P.s. Did anyone else go to the Angelic on thursday night? We were
serving drinks to Fish and Trey all night.
-Mr. anti-glowstick
I drove into Madison at around 4:30, and it was going to be a cold one.
While driving around to find a parking spot, we drove past the KC, and
there were people out on the front lawn either playing football or
ultimate, I couldn't tell. Anywho, found a parking spot and bummed
around State Street, ate, and headed back for the KC. The closer and
closer we got, the more you could feel things. It was pretty laid
back,
all the way up to the doors. A couple people were begging for tix
right
outside, even one girl standing on top of a garbage can saying that she
would "dance the night away for you". Not me, sorry. So we get in,
and
the outside security was pretty nice actually, they redirected people
to
shorter lines, the pocket-cavity search people were nice, and I didn't
see a whole lot of problems.
Our seats were SO GREAT, hate to brag, but these were good. Got them
through TM too, I won't bad mouth them until I get taken by them.
Section 108 row 8, basically 8 rows from the floor, in front of Page.
I
was happy. They didn't open the doors until 6:20, so we found out
seats
by 6:30. I worked something out with someone who was patching in with
a
taper, WOO HOO! Thanx tito! The preshow music was very weird---at
first, they had on this Tori Amos-sounding CD, very dark and eerie.
Then after that, this pure jazz CD was played, really reminded me of
the
theme from "Full Monty". Then this country metal rock music came on,
soooo appropriate for Madison. It was funny, a few times, people would
just start cheering for no reason and then they would get the whole
place jumping---and this was at around 7:00. Hee hee...
The show finally starts, 2 minutes before 8. Not too bad.
Congrats to Crapulence, who kind of called the opener, he said that
they'd open with something like Possum or Sloth because the state
animal
is the badger, and they'd keep it on a mammal theme. Good call.
Hmmm...the guy next to me noticed that Fish had his Vaccuum out
tonight...just keep that in mind...
Possum---9 mins---it rocked, Trey hit some good high notes, good warm
up
song. They kind of flubbed the part at the end, when Trey starts,
"Whoa, Possum..." and they all follow, And then they bust out and Yell
"POSSUM!", on the first one, somebody was a tad late, but it wasn't too
bad...I loved it, great lights on everything too. No glowsticks.
Wilson---6 1/2 mins---I was kind of disappointed to hear this, and I
was
really dreading a full out heavy metal jam, and thank God they kinda
skipped out of that. Trey started it, and then quickly kicked out.
Could have been worse, it got better. Still no glowsticks. Sequed
right
into
Roggae---7 mins---Standard album version, but I was glad to hear it.
It
really summed up the vibe going on---laid back and just kinda surreal.
Trey was kinda swinging back and forth at the end while playing, he did
it all night. They were all really enjoying themselves.
MAZE---11 1/2 mins---Wow. Even though this is shadowed by the SOAM,
wow. Page was a mad man. His solo---he was in the middle of a great
inspirational solo on the organ, and Trey and Fish wanted to kick out
and start the jam, and Page just kept on going. It was hellarious,
trey, mike, AND fish were all just staring at Page, he even stood up
and
went at it for longer after Trey wanted to move on. They just all sat
looking at him. It was great, and this Maze is the best I've heard in
one long time. The jam got real far from a maze jam in the middle, and
I was positive that they were going to jam into something else, but
they
brought it back. Oh well, it was a great Maze. Still no glowsticks.
Meat---5 mins---This one is a definite keeper, had me confused though!
They would get to the ending, stop for about 10 seconds, and play it
over, but Trey would have a new solo in the ending. I was timing each
song, and I stopped my watch about three times because the pause was
soooo long, I thought they'd ended Meat. It was good though. Not a
glowstick in sight.
Sparkle---4 mins---Typical Sparkle, insanely fast at the end, fun. No
glowsticks.
SOAM---I knew that they would bust this one out sooner or later, first
on fall tour! It was excellent. Trey and Page had the funk thing
going
on in the jam segment, and they played with that until the ten minute
mark. Then, it was fascinating, and I didn't know that this was
possible---Chris was really doing a beautiful job on lights as usual,
and towards the end of the funk jam, put them on the seating towards
the
back of the stage. That got everyone back there going, and it was a
pink light onstage, with Chris doing spinning lights of every color
imaginable behind them. It was so cool. Then he kicked back to the
stage and in front of the stage. At first, he slowly changed colors on
stage and in audience, then a little faster, and then boom! CHRIS
TURNED UP THE JAM. CHRIS KNOWS THE SECRET LANGUANGE, AND DID IT WITH
THE LIGHTS! HE SINGLE HANDEDLY CHANGED THE FUNK JAM INTO THE ENDING!!!
It blew me away. I was in awe. I was hoping that they'd do another,
but they ended it with SOAM. Not too bad, but a short set. Still not
a
glowstick in sight. Beautiful.
FIRST SET----61 mins.
My highlight---Possum, Maze, and SOAM
My downer---Wilson, shortness of set
At set break, I tried handing out some UNO cards, but a lot of people
were too stoned to realize what I was handing out. Bad choice to do it
at setbreak in the lobby. Security was going around asking individuals
to put out their cigarettes. yeah. Good call. 40 min. setbreak, got
rid of all my UNO cards in the two sections next to me!
Congrats to Tone for calling a Makisupa second set opener!
Makisupa---5:33---awesome. Trey had on his Pepe LePew shirt, so hey, a
skunk theme was appropriate tonight! I didn't catch the keyword,
because everyone started cheering after "I woke up this morning..."
and
I just caught something about Madison Police. A good Makisupa, not
too
standard though, didn't have the Page solo, where they stop, he plays,
and they kick it to the bass line again. My friend Joe says that he
heard a STIR IT UP tease??? I heard something, from Mike and Trey, but
it could have been the language. Oh well, great opener. No glowsticks.
Funky Bitch---6:20---Good jam, I think Trey's guitar was either louder
in set II, or he just hit more high notes. Great jam, no glowsticks.
Simple---13:17---This song alone changed the entire set. It was
standard until the jam part at the end, it just kept dissolving and got
softer and softer, then became an ambient type jam, a la Lemonwheel,
like in the beginning. So surreal and beautiful, soft, awesome vibe.
I
didn't know what they could jam into that would keep the vibe like
this,
but Caspian captured it beautifully. No glowsticks, still! Segued
into---
Prince Caspian---11:22---I started timing this song as soon as I heard
the first sign of Caspian. It was a good version, excellent solo, and
a
naked dude jumped up on stage! It totally was the vibe going around
though, I wasn't real surprised! The music just made you feel so free
and made you want to run up and down the aisles with your hands in the
air. Trey saw the guy and pumped his fist, and everyone cheered for
about 2 or 3 minutes, Trey just kept on hitting the notes. No
glowsticks, segued into
Fluffhead---14 mins---Standard Fluff, I didn't hear any noticeable
flubs, and good build-up and release. Standard song, as always, but I
was glad to hear it. And the best part, STILL NO STIX!!!
THEN THINGS GOT WEIRD.
HYHUBIKEHYHU---10:30---After Fluff, Trey unplugged his guitar and RAN
over to Fish. I thought that they were going to do acoustic, and
groaned because it was waaaaaay too late in the set for that. But Fish
gets up---and the vaccuum that sat on the drum pedestal all night was
used. Oh baby. Fish gets out there, Trey took drums, and Page, Mike
and Trey started playing a rough HYHU. Fish is running around like a
mad-man in his MUMU, swinging his vaccuum hose around to the beat. It
was funny. Then he got on the mic, and said, I'm gonna play this song,
callled Bike. I thought he said "Brock" or something, and my friend
thought he said that he was going to cover Beck. Then I heard the song
start, and I knew that it was BIKE!!! It's a funny Fish song, and he
had
an insane vaccuum solo. About 2-3 mins long! At one point, everyone
just stopped playing and watched Fish. Then he stopped, did the last
verse, and then he announced His band!!! He said, "This is my
band...The drummer, on drums. The bassist, the organ player, and ME!
Jon the vaccuumist." I think that's what he called himself, it was
real
noisy, hard to hear. Then Trey kicked it into a beautiful HYHU, Fish
took at least four Fish-bows, y'know, all the way down to the floor,
one
to the back crowd behind the stage, and three to the front of the
crowd.
He even ran around and hugged the soundman on the side of the stage.
(Who is that there, anyways? Paul?) I seriously thought that he was
going to shine the crowd in honor of the other dude, but no such luck.
thank God... :) Fish thought they were done, and started running back
to his kit, and then Trey just smiled and kicked it into another verse,
and Fish got an ear to ear grin and ran back to the front of the stage
and took yet another bow. It was so crazy, if you weren't there,
sorry,
but you missed out. It was great. Trey got back to the mic with
guitar
and called Fish, "BOB WEAVER, ladies and gentelmen." That's been his
knickname as of late I guess. STill no glowsticks.So I thought that
they were going to kick it into Antelope for the closer, but hey, I'll
take...
HARRY HOOD---I guess they decided to play it because not ONE glowstick
had reared it's ugly face that entire evening. They started the song,
and I saw two come out right away, but not being thrown, just held.
Standard hood, then the glowstick war segment, and they all came out
then. But there weren't too many, and a lot of softer circular ones.
I
was glad to see that. The lights gradually turned off, and a small
glowstick war ensued. The first one headed for Trey, and I thought,
Great...But to my shagrin, he caught it, smiled, and gently tossed it
back into the audience. The whole crowd cheered. Then some idiots
thought it was cool, and one hit a speaker and made a hideously loud
noise, but other than that, it wasn't too bad. Thanks to those WHO
HELD
THE GLOWSTICKS AFTER THEY CAUGHT THEM, I could see that there were a
lot
of people who did, because the number of sticks being thrown gradually
diminished. Not too bad. They finished the song, bowed, and walked
off
stage.
SET II---
78 minutes
My highlights---Makisupa, Cool vibe from SimpleCaspian, and BIKE!!!
Hood was good too.
Lowlight---Sad to see the glowsticks, but it wasn't all that bad...it
was a well-behaved audience.
ENCORE---
Birds---I was disappointed to hear this as an encore, but I knew that
they'd play a two song encore after this. Standard. No
glowsticks---the audience got the clue!
Then they all came out and bowed. Trey went back, and then someone
brought out their a capalla mike. I screamed, I thought they were
gonna
do Freebird, but they did
Hello Ma Baby--It was neat, and a great ending to a great show. Wow.
I
love phish. Encore was 7 minutes.
I always love getting e-mails, so what did YOU think of my reveiw or
the show??? Let me know!
-steve
phishhead99@hotmail.com
www.tapetrading.com/lists/p/h/phishhead99@hotmail.com.html
Traffic wasn't too bad getting into town. The lot wasn't much to comment
on, but it's always cool to go to a show at a big school and hit a
campus bar before a show. Kohl arena is one of the larger arenas and is
very modern. I couldn't believe they didn't sell beer inside though,
especially because it's in the drunk state of Wisconsin. On to the show
here:
Possum: Great opener. Got the energy level up right away. Trey didn't
really go off too much, it was more of a whole band Possum, awesome
nonetheless.
Wilson: Another great song at the start of a show, crowd really got into
this one.
Roggae: I've heard mixed reviews on this song. I really like it though.
A very nice mellow jam toward the end, and the harmonic vocals
throughout this song are very nice.
Maze: this was the best Maze I've ever seen. Trey really went off
toward the end, and it's always great to hear Maze on Fall Tour with
Chris' light show.
Meat: What I like about this song is how they change the rhythm through
out the song. Only the second time I've seen it, so I am not really sure
about it all together. After the song, Trey looked at Fish, and I read
his lips say Split Open and Melt. I freaked out my friend and said,
"watch, Split open right here"
Split Open: My first one at a show. Not a big fan of this song, but I
really liked the way Page brought out the funk toward the end of the
song
Overall, 1st set was above average (60 minutes)
Between sets, I saw actual full-clothed policemen walking on the floor
and escorting people out the of the arena. Furthermore, there were tons
of security guards on the floor, I mean probably one security guard for
every five people.
2nd Set
Makisupa: Yes, very appropriate. Trey's call was "University
Renta-Cops" I am sure he was referring to what I just mentioned
Funky Bitch: awesome. Trey went off on this one too. Of Phish's
covers, this one has to be one of the best. Trey was having a lot of
fun with this one
Simple: Standard Simple, but a nice little eerie jam into
Caspain: I haven't heard this one since Summer 1997, it was kind of
hard to spot at first. I thought it might have been Piper. To me, this
was the song of the night. As the band went right into a jam after the
lyric portion of the song, a naked guy ran onto the stage, which got the
crowd going. Even Trey raised his hand in support of the guy, the crowd
went crazy. The whole band went into an intense jam, like none I've
ever heard with this song. It's nice to see them bring this
back,especially in that fashion.
Fluffhead: your typical awesome Fluffhead. This song is always played
the same, so tough to comment on. Great nonetheless. I saw Trey put his
guitar down after the song, and I figured this couldn't be the end of
the set. No he was going to the drum set, as Page was hitting the notes
of
HYHUBikeHYHU: Fuck Yeah, this is what makes this band great, when they
do stuff like this. Fishman had the crowd going nuts, running around
the stage. Trey went nuts on the drums too.
Hood: I knew it was coming, and even told my friends. You just knew they
couldn't go another show without playing this song, especially when the
energy level was so high at this point. Great Hood, nice glowstick
war. Trey even caught one and through it back into the crowd
E: Birds: I like this song a lot, but man I hope they don't beat it into
the ground
Ragtime Gal: First time hearing it, always nice to hear the boys go
a capella
Second set and Encore (approx. 80 minutes)
Overall: 2nd set stold the show here. The energy level throughout this
set stayed at a consistent high. Can't wait for UIC. -Bill Young