From: Charlie Dirksen
12/9/94 Mesa Amphitheater, Mesa, AZ (Rvwd 10/95) The opening segment is standard, outside of a 'lil more engaging
Ebeneezer-screaming than usual for late 1994 versions. The jam segment begins with a lot of off-time fills from Fishman, and
jazzy stuff from the others in accompaniment. Fish keeps the standard Tweezer rhythm, but simply applies more off-time
elements than he ordinarily would this early in the jam. The first couple minutes of this jam are, unfortunately, not terribly
coherent -- a lot of scrambling and chaos. It works, though... it doesn't sound dissonant or fudgy; they are clearly listening to
eachother, and playing off one another's improv. This is no "spacey groove" ... At around 7:25 or so, Trey is saying something..
what the hell is he repeating. I don't understand what he keeps..saying.. Mike joins him. This is odd! I don't know whether this
is a tease of another non-Phish tune or ... The jam at this point (9 mins) is still in a somewhat discordant, but funky, groove. This
is as much jazz as it is rock, I suppose. A true fusion of the styles. Fish is still maintaining the proper tweezer rhythm until 9:35 or
so, when the jam slips into a spacey interlude. Weird effects from Trey.. Mike is the only one really prominent. Weird single
note sustain stuff from Page.. very eerie.. Fishman hangs loose on no particular groove (very off-time). Very, very spacey
around 11 mins.. there's a moan from someone at 11:50 or so. Fish starts picking it up (but stays quiet.. he's restless!).. more
freakish moaning from someone. Fish starts quietly wailing around 12:20.. Trey is sustaining a chord.. but then breaks into a
quiet but fierce jam around 12:40. He lets loose some quick Hendrix-esque jams. Still eerie and genuinely queer at 13:15. Very
intense. I wish all of Phish's spacey sections were this active! ;) At 13:28 or so, Trey starts jamming on a groove, and Fish and
Mike key into it. The beat moves up a notch. Page comes in around 14 on the same somehat quiet groove. Is this gonna build?
At 14:27 Fish breaks it out!! Yes!! They start jamming again. Very jazzy feel to this jam around 15 mins. Page is using a sound
that Herbie Hancock often used.. this is a truly jazzy jam at 16. Ya know Fish is lovin' it! Starts slowing down though pretty
soon.. doesn't build. ;( Gets quiet... At 16:50 Fish does a somewhat more upbeat Flip/GlideTwo sortof bluesy beat for ten secs
or so. At 17:15, the groove is jazzy, but gets a bit bluesy within about 30 seconds... I've never heard a Tweezer jam anything
like this stuff, folks, fwiw!! At 18:30, Fish and Trey quit, and it's just Page and Mike. Mike is hitting a few notes, but not much.
Page as well.. just notes here and there. No theme. Extremely loose ... Trey and Fish come back in, also just hitting a note here
and a note there. Very eerie and strange jam. Quiet. Not even Bangor and Bozeman -- with their spacey sections -- compare
with this curious spactive jamming (spacey yet active). At just after 20 minutes, all of them seem to start fusing together.. no Fish
until 20:35 or so (he starts a slow, building beat), and Trey and Mike sustain until about 20:50 or so, WHEN THE JAM
CLEARLY HEADS INTO SLAVE!! Wow!!! This is the first Slave jam in Tweezer! At 21 minutes, it is ALL SLAVE!!! (the
ending, climbing, soaring Slave jam that we all know and love!) YES!!! This was soooooo cool a transition, too, btw.. wasn't
hinted at.. Trey just broke into it and led the others into it, too. The beat for this is not the typical Slave beat for most of this
tease-jam (it is more of a Theme-jam-segment-beat, closer to tweezer than to Slave). At 22:30, Fish kicks the tweezer beat
back in, and Trey still plays Slave for another ten seconds or so with Mike and Page, and then everyone segues into a
tweezeresque jam. The Tweezer theme returns at 23 minutes, and the closing Tweezer jam unfolds. The jam at 23:40 is quite
funky and jazzy, with everyone doing tweezeresque sorts of riffs. Trey makes a diversion for a little bit, but returns at 24 mins or
so to the Tweezer theme. At 24:26 the dying out of the jam segment begins (the typical tweezer ending! haven't heard this in
awhile, after having reviewed all those '95 Tweezers!). Just dies out in typical fashion. McGrupp's kicks in at 25:33, after a few
seconds of nothing. Total time 25:29 for this great version of Tweezer. Too spacey for my tastes for too long, though, hence it
only gets a 7.0 rating (still well above average, mind you..). (B+) It ain't as nice as 6/17/95, though, or the tweezer-sections of
12/1/94, for that matter. Never heard any other Tweezer jam segment quite like this Mesa one, though.. it is, indeed, the only
one I know of with a SEVERE Slave jam for a minute or two (Mud Island 6/14/95 also has a slave-like jam/climb for a few
minutes)! If you are a True Tweezer Fan you should definitely get this (and if you are interested in hearing Phish get into
somewhat more jazzy grooves, check this version out.. it ain't Miles Davis, but it definitely smells of jazz here and there).
Serious "Star Wars"-theme jam in the Antelope of this show, taboot!! two cents charlie