, attached to 1996-08-16

Review by spreaditround

spreaditround Attended.

SET 1:

Chalk Dust Torture: Lightning fast in the intro. Maybe that is because I have just listened to the first 7 of summer tour 2023? Pretty Standard version.

Bathtub Gin: Trey is magnificent, as is Page. This is burned into my memory!

Ya Mar: Such a beautiful, delicate Trey solo. It’s so, so good.

AC/DC Bag: Great little jam, Page and Trey sound great. Can hardly hear Mike at all. >

Esther: What a perfect juxtaposition from that raging little jam in Bag to this. Phish is great! Great version right here, Trey sounds amazing.>

Divided Sky: The perfect follow up. We all got very rowdy during the pause, what a moment that was!

Halley's Comet: Standard version, but sinister and dark effects at the end that lead nicely into… >

David Bowie: Strong, straight forward version.

SET 2:

Split Open and Melt: Gets very, very intense.

Sparkle: Standard. >

Free: Felt very psychedelic at the time. Not as much on tape, kind of had to be there.

The Squirming Coil: Beautiful version, Page was great.

Waste, Talk, Train Song, Strange Design, Hello My Baby – Having just seen this basically at Deer Creek, it was kind of old hat.

Mike's Song: The first jam is strong but doesn’t exactly break any new ground. The second jam though is super intense – very hard rocking and no breathers whatsoever. Everyone sounds great but Page is especially on fire to compliment Trey. Stellar version. Trey, Mike and Page all vocalizing over the top in the late 14’s, Fish comes in after a bit too. Page starts funking it up but then realizes Trey is about to go for Simple and gets back on the baby grand ->

Simple: This one has some serious Trey pornofunk working in the last 90 seconds or so, sounds straight out of 97. Too bad they didn’t keep rolling with this. ->

Contact: Standard. >

Weekapaug Groove: Smoking version that gets nice and funky towards the end. Page definitely owns and crushes this.

SET 3:

Makisupa Policeman: Trey whispering Mr. Sausage in the late 7’s and beyond, lol. >

Also Sprach Zarathustra: Perfect placement! Nicely jammed for the era. >

Down with Disease: Outstanding jam, they definitely stretch this one out – it was the longest version I had seen to this point. ->

NICU: Standard.

Life on Mars? Standard. >

Harry Hood For me, this was the defining moment of the festival. Very patiently jammed, they take plenty of time to build this one up and then peak it hard and then right into the fireworks. This remains burned into my memory. Thrilling for my then 22 year old self. -> Jam: Jamming along with the fireworks.

ENCORE:

Amazing Grace: Standard.

SET 4: Flatbed Truck Jam: Ethereal. Impossible to review, had to be there. We missed this; we were sleeping.

Summary: An all-time great show and experience. I knew I loved Phish before we ever made this trip. But this sent me over the edge. Everything was perfect and they played like they had something to prove - and they surely accomplished that. Phish.net has a rating of 4.546/5 (361 ratings) – and this is spot on as far as I am concerned.

Replay Value: Mike’s Song, Weekapaug Groove, Down with Disease, Harry Hood.


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