Set One Notes:
Wedge is a solid opener, certainly a warm-up, knowing what Fall ’97 openers are capable of, good nonetheless. “Always love a Foam!”, says a friend. The song twists and snakes its way to a peak before giving way to Simple. This placement in the early first set is promising, as we get that familiar soaring lead-in to the jam, entering the Simple bliss-world, floating on audio waves until TMWSIY appears. This is an interesting take, very “improvisational” in the first half, before tightening up, providing so more since flotation in this part of the set. Avenu Malkenu gets the place moving, before we get to the classic, rocker, The Sloth, keeping the Gamehendge-thing going. Ginseng Sullivan is my favorite “bluegrass“ song to get, and Saw It Again, turns things freaky-dark and foreboding. Horn is a great cold weather, hockey arena song. Water in the Sky is nice, can’t say much else. Bowie has a nice spacey extended intro, with feedback and pulsating Mike, with an explosive drop into Bowie-proper. The jam starts out low and mood, Mike’s low notes sound like absolute thrusters, pounding away on this Spreadsheet AUD. The intensity takes my mind to some dark, harrowing places, with the build-up to the peak being truly tense. The release is cathartic, capping the biggest jam of the first set.

Set Two Notes:
Runaway Jam drops. Trey makes some comment about Talking Heads last night. Things cool down, stays low key for a bit, searching, Fish picks up on Trey’s wah-chunks, builds up steam to get Neo-Hendrixian, pounding rhythm section and piano, before cooling off into jazzy low-key flow-funk. Page starts swirling, Mike introducing notes of melody and passing the melody to an octave-strumming Trey. The jam makes a bluesy turn, starting to build on a moody ascending riff that Trey starts to drive outwards. Huge note waves are laid over the crowd, the pace quickening as the hose is opened, a rocking peak section is reached with shreddy Trey, before the jam drops down into choppy wah-funk. Soon, things get tangled and tense, evoking ’94-’95-style weirdness. The moment soon passes, open waters reached. Audio-aurora borealis fills the Centrum, weightless, floating and twisting overhead waves. A center of light appears, drawing the listener upward, floating into peaceful serenity. Tension begins to creep in. Foreboding, pitched-down riffing, demented cosmic arpeggios, the feeling of bad-trip late night radio. The groove is stuck in mud, Fishman 2000 dragging the groove through the haze with forceful pounding on the open hi-hat. Soon, the big rock and roll catharsis starts, Mike hurling balls of bass-plasma out into the Centrum. This is just fantastic jamming, moody rock and roll release, nothing but guitar, bass, piano, and drums producing a wall of heavy, soaring sound. The jam fades into swirling oblivion, becoming strange, AI-fever dream jazz renderings, pushing ahead to twist-up around Fish’s cowbell. The jam is soon very knotted and volatile, bursting with tangled energy, becoming a rolling, confused creation, Page jumping along Trey and Mike’s musical stalactites and stalagmites. Trey pushes for Weekapaug, and the whole band locks on. This soon melts into classic lean cowfunk, Superbad Trey, pushing toward a neo-Hendrixian peak. We get a return to the Weekapaug jam, hitting yet another peak. Jim fades out into glitched guitar feedback, Strange Design emerges. SD is a great landing pad, having just traversed such a strange and disorienting musical landscape for the last hour. “Just relax, you’re doing fine.”, Page assures the listener. By the time Hood drops, I’m thinking, “Wow, what a show, man… Hood, after all of this?” Mike is pounding away in the intro, the Modulus going full earth-mover on this AUD. The intro section settles into hypnotism until “Harry!” bursts through. The jam is very relaxed on this Hood, which is soothing, allowing calm contemplations and considerations of possibilities in an uncertain future with minimal anxiety. What a great contrast to sooth any latent tension from the weirdness that may have been encountered during that Jim. I have to imagine that that Jim caused a freak-out or two, or at least an especially- “What is going on right now?!”-type experience for a few. Caspian follows, just icing at this point. It's Fall ’97, so Caspian rages. Suzy’s start is botched, Fish thought Trey said Golgi. Mike lays down the slap-and-pop funk for Page’s clav, Trey scratches the shit out of the rhythm before Page takes an extended solo, Trey on wah-guitar, Mike slamming the rock bottom of the frequency range. Fish gets his “favorite song” for the encore in Buffalo Bill. What a truly strange song, man, and yet I always am down for one. Fish takes a drum solo, leading to some Moby Dick riffing, which soon turns into a full on take on Moby Dick. These guys are definitely having fun tonight. Fire prompts a “Fucking rage!” comment from a friend, Rockstar Guitarman burns the place down one more time to close the night.

You already know the story of this show, it’s all about the Jim. No one would fault you if you skipped to the Jim. Get situated and prepare to settle in if you really want to get the most out of this one. Might as well listen to the whole S2 and Encore while you’re at it. Every Phish fan should probably take a listen at some point.