PHISH, THURSDAY 07/09/1998
ZELESTE
Barcelona, Spain

SET 1:

Carini: Trey’s story about Carini getting injured tackling a stage crasher at last night’s show is funny.

Boogie On Reggae Woman: Standard. >

NICU: Normal version except they end the song. A few seconds later Trey noodles around for about 20 seconds.

Split Open and Melt: Solid, aggressive version. Hard charging and straight ahead. Good stuff.

Meat: Excellent jam here – has good momentum and pace to it. Cool theme too. Would recommend.

Poor Heart: Very spirited version for sure, everyone playing hard on this one!

Tweezer: The jam kicks off with lots of pornofunk strumming from Trey and Mike coming in loud and dropping bombs throughout all this. That goes on up until the ten minute mark. Just three minutes later and this has evolved into a hard rocker. By the mid 15’s this jam, and the crowd have been whipped up into a full on frenzy. The Wolfman’s stuff starts at about 16:22. Fishman is a beast during this segment! Things are gradually settling down at 17:15 and they are done exactly one minute later. Highly recommended, outstanding version.

Hello My Baby[1] - Standard.

SET 2:

Drowned: Hard core rager that settles at about 13:00 to a very loud ovation. At about 13:15 they find one of the sickest themes. It has a Real Me feel to it. Mike is absolutely destroying his bass! Incredible stuff. They rock that for a minute and a half. Things stay loose and funky for about a minute but then at 15:37 it sounds like Trey would like to get back to Drowned proper or Jesus Just Left Chicago (for a brief moment). This Drowned is an easy all timer and I would highly recommend it. That theme they found at 13:15 is just amazing in the moment, a real nod to their improvisational prowess to be able to pull that off. Curious if anyone sort of hears that Real Me backbone to it? ->

Theme From the Bottom: This version does have some extra mustard, enjoyed this one. Once the last real note is played they create this big wall of sound that they maintain for about 45 seconds.

When the Circus Comes: Outstanding placement! Would have killed to have seen that incredible Drowned, smoking Theme and then have them drop Circus – had to have been amazing in a club this size. >

Scent of a Mule -> Blister in the Sun > Scent of a Mule: The segue into Blister really is amazing, totally out of nowhere. Had to have been practiced. Band and crowd having a BALL during this! Once they go back into Mule, they just crush the hell out of it. Impressive rock and roll. Crowd is going absolutely nuts after this. Would recommend.

Harry Hood[2] Great effects in the intro. The Drowned tease from Trey starting at 11:04 – seems a little forced and kind of unfortunate because this Hood felt like it had legs and this sort of undercut the effort. ->

Izabella: As expected.

ENCORE:

Chalk Dust Torture:

Summary: Strong, short show. They were on fire when they wanted to be. They turned it on when they needed it I guess you could say. Tweezer and Drowned are both all timers. 4.36/5 (75 ratings) is the current rating on Phish.net and seems very appropriate to me.

Replay Value: Meat, Tweezer, Drowned, Scent of a Mule -> Blister in the Sun > Scent of a Mule

[1] Without amplification.
[2] Unfinished.

In the middle of Carini, Trey dedicated the song to Pete Carini and told a story about Carini trying to tackle somebody who ran up on stage during the previous show. Tweezer contained a Fire (Ohio Players) and Wolfman's Brother teases from Trey. Hello My Baby was performed without amplification. Hood contained a Drowned tease from Trey and also was unfinished. Prior to the encore and before the final note of Chalk Dust, the crowd chanted "¡Olé Olé Olé!," leading to a tease by the band before leaving the stage.
SHOW RATING
Your rating:
Overall: 4.36/5 (75 ratings)
JAM CHART VERSIONS
Meat, Tweezer, Drowned
TEASES
Olé, Olé, Olé tease in Chalk Dust Torture, Drowned tease in Harry Hood, Wolfman's Brother and Fire (Ohio Players) teases in Tweezer