From: Jesse Appleman <[email protected]>

4/14/93 American Theater, St. Louis, MO 
Posted to rec.music.phish 2-2-97

Welcome to the first edition of the Stash Files. I�ve been wanting to start a song review in the vein of Charlie�s YEM, Tweezer, and MikeS files, Victor�s AIR, and Benjy�s Gin. I picked Stash because it is rarely analyzed or discussed on r.m.p, and I�ve always loved Phish�s jazz influenced songs (Landlady, Magilla, etc.).

I don�t have the entire 4/14/93 show, but just this Stash as a filler at the end of 8/16/96 Set I. The sound isn�t great (the filler is AUD5), but definitely listenable. I can�t vouch for the rest of the show, but the setlist includes Tweezer and YEM->Harpua in the same set, so it can�t be *all* bad ;-). If anyone out there has this show, let me know if the whole show is equal to this Stash. I will explain the new terms I use throughout the review.

Intro is standard. The main melody is nice and tight, no flubs. This was before the audience clapping thing, so Fish fills in those pauses with his trusty cowbell :-). The composed section continues, nothing unusual, but absolutely no flubs at all.

1:30 -- Lyrics start. Trey sings quietly at first, but gets louder after the �Yanked on my tunic and dangled my stash� lyrics.
1:50 -- The Wail starts. The Wail is after the �Cried to his cohorts� line, where they sing that melody (not words, just a melody) a couple times. Page is up high on the B-3, nice drum fills here.
2:08 -- The Climb. This is where they repeat the same melody with slight variations, with ascending key changes. The Climb has no noticeable flubs, and ends at 3:00.
3:00 -- We�re back with the main melody again.
3:43 -- Singing starts again. Still nothing unusual, but nice and tight.
4:01 -- Maybe So, Maybe Not starts here. Music builds in volume until...
4:40 -- Jam starts, fairly normal Trey noodling in here.
5:15 -- Maybe So backup singing fades out, and the music comes down quietly.

Everyone is very quiet here, with Trey repeating a theme that lasts and lasts and lasts... he is still toying with it at 6:10, but varying slightly. This is already an unusual jam. They are still on a latin jazz theme here, but definitely not the normal Stash chord progression. Instead, Trey stays with this theme, changing keys back and forth. Very cool stuff here.

Everyone is still fairly quiet. They get louder for a moment around 7:00, bring it back down, and then increase the volume again. That original theme was gone. At 7:50, were back to normal stash soloing, with nothing very atonal or �wrong� sounding. Trey finds another theme around 8:50, but departs quickly from it.

At 9:04, the volume goes down drastically. Very unusual for a Stash at this point. Fish is just lightly tapping cymbals, and Page is more prominent at 9:40 or so. At 10:00, everyone has disappeared except for Fish and Trey is hitting a high note on the �doc, but muting it. Delay pedal is on at 10:20, albeit very quietly. Mike and Page are all but inaudible here. All that I can hear is a very beautiful repeating melody on Trey�s digidelay pedal, and Fish�s very quiet cymbal tapping.

At 10:30, Trey starts �singing� Kung on top of the delay and cymbal tapping stuff. The ominous sounding delay melody building up and getting louder throughout kung combined with the words of Kung building up create this spooky effect that needs to be heard to be understood. I�ll try my best to transcribe it.

Kung. Kung. Kung. Kung. (At this point, Trey turns his delay volume slightly up and Fish starts to get louder, but everything is still very quiet). Rich in minerals. Kung. Rich in mirth. Hang well, ye martin land. Will you come, a pedestal? Fervent fourth, near fervent fifth. (Trey is talking loudly now, and Page is noodling with treys delay theme). We call... Upon... Your pulse! (Long pause here and Fish begins loudly beating his toms) Can we stare? Can we stall? We can stage a runaway golf cart marathon! Stand up! Stand up! Stand up! Stand up! STAND UP! (Trey is screaming now, the whole band is getting louder, lots of energy is building). STAND UP! STAND UP! STAND UP ON YOUR HEELS AND CALL!!! (The whole band is singing now). From the hills! From the hills! From the hills! From the hills! From the hills! From the hills...

Trey starts altering his delay theme and singing over it. Everyone is getting louder now. This is really spooky, folks! Go dig out your copy and listen! At 13:40 everyone is using the methods (I assume) that they learned with the �Hey!� exercises to create an interweaving bed of sound. At 13:45 they go back into a typical stash jam. The Maybe So Maybe Not singing starts almost immediately, at 14:05. I wish that they had stayed with that amazing interlocking theme coming out of Kung! It was pure hose there for a moment! Trey is screaming FROM THE HILLS! in between the Maybe So Maybe Not�s. Incredible energy here! End at 14:55. 


I�d give this one a 8.5. There was nothing really
incredible musically (other than the minute or so
after Kung), but the fact that it included Kung, and
the incredible energy between the band and crowd
give this one points. 
Let me know what you think about the first Stash File. Should I continue this, or was it lame? Just in case you�re wondering, I�m 14 years old, a high school freshman, and I have 150 hrs of Phish. I am definitely not a poser samplehead stereotypical high school fan.

Peace,
Jesse