, attached to 1988-07-12

Review by SplitOpenAndMule

SplitOpenAndMule This show deserves reviews and recognition. The audio quality on the Spreadsheet and phish.in is pretty good for this era, and the band is especially on. No bad songs or playing, and several highlights I'll mention here:

Sneakin' Sally has a great first jam, and a very extended and engaging vocal jam.

Peaches en Regalia has several silly Happy Birthday teases. If you have any friends who love this song, play this version for them on their birthday.

YEM is one of the best versions to date. Page plays a great organ solo, and Trey shreds his solo. During Trey's solo, the whole band falls into a new rhythm and progression they repeat several times, entirely unique to typical YEM fashion at this point. If it were played in 2013, the crowd probably would have wooed. It could be considered a Flashlight (Parliament) tease, but I think of it more as a full band jam on the Flashlight theme. They ride that out a bit before seguing smoothly into another funny and fun, concise vocal jam, one of the first with a distinct lyrical theme: "Why should I feed you?"

A funny IDK closes the set, "in a new key tonight, Ab, for those of you who are concerned," Trey says. I think this is the first entirely acapella version of the song. Mike usually plays bass, but here, the band keeps the vocal jam theme going by providing an entirely acapella rhythm section to Fish's terrible (read: terribly funny) trombone solo. The trombone actually sounds like a vacuum at times.

A few very well-played Jazz tunes start off set 2 in Blue Bossa and 'A' Train. Good simple segue between 'A' Train and Timber, as well as from Fluffhead > JJLC. Trey really rips into a very bluesy JJLC. Unfortunately, the tape cuts after Trey's solo, and misses Makisupa as well.

Then we come to Slave, a seriously fine Slave for any era of Phish. It's one of the longest to date, and contains great full band interplay, from a very quiet and beautiful start of the jam section to a raging finish.

AC/DC is firey, and the Roll Like a Cantaloupe is incredibly strong, with a lot of heavy dissonance in the jam. The outro lyrics are sung/told very well, including giggles from the band when they finally get to the refrain. This is a great version of Cantaloupe, especially if you've never heard it before.

Overall, this show features very tight playing with better control of dynamics than most shows prior. A good mixture of silliness, some patient, pretty moments, and a lot of heavy rocking and rolling... like a cantaloupe.


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