PA problems bailed Trey out of what has to be one of the worst Divided Skys ever. And (sorry Trey) he started fucking up before the PA did on that one.

Other than that, it boggles my mind how underrated this show is. Show me another show with two 20 minute jams in one set that scores below a 3.0 average score. This "second set" is nothing short of amazing. Killer Jammed out Halley's, and an all-timer Mike's Groove with a great Mike's and a cool Weekapaug (complete with On Broadway jam) sandwiching a transcendent Simple that runs the gamut from blissful Simple jam to ambient atmospheric to uptempo rock and stretches for 24 minutes. Even GTBT gets a little extra jamming.

Don't blame Phish for the PA problems, this show is a winner.

4.25/5 grade A Phish

Awkward and anti-climactic for a European tour closer. The Halley's comet is longish, like 20 minutes and Mike is laying down this evil ominous backbeat while Trey messes with delay loops. Listen to this show if not just for this.

The AUDs of this tour are phenomenal! If you are in the fence about AUDs look into these for sure. I wouldn't trade mine for nuthin'. Of course, I taped em'.

3 stars. Not Grate, not bad. Listen to the Halley's and the banter.

I thought I'd chime in seeing as a lot of the reviews are negative and this show has a low rating due to the aborted first set. There are still some strong jams here that are definitely worth your time. Halley's is the epitome of mellow 98 funk. Trey keeps it pretty low key but I like what I'm hearing. Around 12 minutes in he drops the First Tube lick over a year before Phish ever played it. The jam eventually ends up in some Star Trek territory. Mike's and Weekapaug are standard for the era, but that means pretty good. They play Simple in the middle of the Groove and it drifts into ambience but brings some heat starting at 15 minutes. This segment is totally unique and the highlight of the show. Fishman brings back the First Tube beat for awhile and all is glorious. You should probably also listen to the Mike's from the first set for some context.

Also, the night before this an exceptional show (better than this one for sure). Tweezer, Drowned, Hood > Izabella. If you're reading this and haven't those, then good God, go for it right away!

To the best of my knowledge, the melody Trey finds towards the end of the Halley's jam will emerge at least two more times in '98. In Phish's next show in Portland, 7/15/98, their first American show of the tour, this melody will be integral to the jam that follows Horn; and we'll hear it again in the jam that follows NICU on 10/30/98. There may be other renditions of this melody, but those ones are for sure.

The last show of their 98 Europe tour had a few glitches to say the least. There were issues with the venue, which I don't think had seen anything like a phish crowd come through. I'm not sure they were prepared for such a thing. I heard some fans complaining they were raising drink prices as the run progressed. Then on this night the sound was going really bad. At one point they even tried playing with just the stage monitors. On some down time I remember Trey and Jon joking with each other, Trey even said, "Who's the guy that like to hang out with musicians? A: The drummer" ba da bump. I think Fish responded with something like "How do you slow a guitarist down? A: You put sheet music in front of him." Eventually the problems were worked out and we were treated to a rollicking second set. After the show I ran into Mike and Page outside the venue. A young woman was showing Mike how to do some dance there in the street. Eventually I slipped off into the Barcelona night. The next day I took the train to Sitges and met a couple of other phans from Lawrence, KS. Great time and my first trip to Europe!

Look, yea, set one is kinda a wash, but come on, if they had ONLY played this Simple and nothing else for this show, it’d still be at least a 3/5. Don’t miss out on this show, this Simple has that special sauce that meanders like a lot of the Europe 98 jams do, but has several different passages that develop into some amazing music and is a jamming style they don’t really run with for the rest of 98. The Mike’s Groove surrounding it is slick high energy type 1 playing.

Then we have the Haley’s which is again type 1, but is a long drawn out cow funk groove and peaks well.

Listening in on tape, this is closer to a 3.5-4/5, depending on if you can just get over the abbreviated length (which should be easy since there are plenty of other shows to listen to afterward).

I get it, tour closer, technical issues, it was probably a bummer to be there, but look at how they made the best of this show and what they managed to salvage. This is sitting at a 2.8 right now, putting it in league with Vegas 04, that ain’t right. Everyone should check out this set 2, it is still very much worth hearing.

My mind is also boggled that anyone would single this show out as a stinker. Even a bit boggled that the Halley's and Mike's Groove (the Simple in particular) aren't beloved, hall-of-fame tracks.

The DWD to kick it off is no slouch.... perhaps not fully loosened up for the head of the song but I've heard lesser Disease jams exalted by the "sophisticated" phans. But yeah, the rest of the abbreviated first set is simply problem-filled. Feel free to skip.

The Halley's is one of the greats in my mind. I remember when I first heard the version from 11/22/97, I was startled but thrilled to hear the jam not take off like a rocket ship (the traditional plan), but instead jump off a cliff and free fall into an abyss. This one is similar....it falls down into a relaxed trance-dance kind of groove that I'd think would appeal to the modern fan. I love this version.... it's right there with 11/22/97, the Great Went, 8/3/98, and 12/7/99 to me.

As others have noted, the Simple is as good or better than the Halley's, but the Mike's Song setup is really nice too. The Weekapaug isn't super special (although I like the On Broadway breakdown part) but the suite as a whole is also right there with many highly regarded Mike's Grooves. Ok, the Sample>GTBT is pretty mediocre by the standards of the day and not a very strong finish...some demerits there I suppose. I like Brian and Robert. This isn't a particularly special version and I could understand fans being underwhelmed by the choice for the encore if it didn't go into a quick but excellent Taste.

I don't know... I suppose the Halley's and Mike's Groove are the only essential tracks, but you've got over an hour of ELITE Phish right there. Plus about 20 minutes of DWD and Taste that won't disappoint either. FAR, FAR from a bad show. Don't overlook!

This is a show I'm unlikely to ever revisit again, especially in full, but not because it's a bad show (I've definitely heard way worse.) The PA problems are obvious and terrible and distracting. It's distracting on headphones and I'm sure it was a nightmare for the band, but they valiantly pushed through anyway. The loud pops from the PA impede on more than a few songs and I just can't see going back in on this when there's so much excellence out there without issue. That said, Trey bombed on Divided Sky badly. Like sooooo badly. When the wrinkles get ironed out it goes off pretty well, but given how good the rest of this tour is (especially Prague 2 and the Copenhagen run and Barcelona 2) I just don't see returning here.

I was soo let down by this show. Divided Sky was aborted but right before that, Trey flubs worse than I ever would want to hear...painful. The sound was messed up and it never was perfect. The venue sucked and Phish really started to show their not so smooth side during this tour. I was definitely not so stoked for the US shows after this run. Luckily Phish brought their "A" game when back in the states. This is one of my top 5 least favorites. Would have been better off hangin with Spaniards doing something Spanish...I suppose. Sorry if this is negative. You win some and lose some.

Must hear 20 minute Simple and Halley's with a First Tube jam and some awesome banter with the band taking shots at each other.

Part of my full run through of Summer '98, see here

Yikes, well this show is a tale of two halves. The first half is plagued by PA and other technical issues that threaten to completely derail the whole show. The band bails basically two and a half songs in due to PA issues and takes an early set break to try to figure things out. I know some are saying Trey screws up this Divided Sky before the PA shits the bed but I have to give him the benefit of the doubt here; Trey's playing is just fine before then and it seems like too much of a coincidence that he starts to crumble right around the time the PA system also gives out. Even when they return the PA continues to be a problem... but that doesn't prevent them from delivering some strong performances anyway.

The Halley's set opener starts off with some PA issues and a little shakiness on the band's part. But when the jam kicks in at around 7 minutes the band shows why they are the best in the business at this point in their career; some PA problems aren't going to shake that. Nice ambient loops to start, and then just excellent groove based jamming instigated by Mike that the band rolls right into. The smooth funk is easy to get lost in, until around 12 minutes where Trey starts teasing First Tube and bringing this one home. Nice ambient finish during the last two minutes as well. The band is stretching their musical muscles after the technical issues and the result is a nice jam to kick off the only real set this show has to offer.

After a nice Roggae the PA issues threaten to derail again during Sparkle. The band banters a bit again (bringing us full circle back to the first show of this tour) while the crew tries to assemble an acceptable setup. The band then launches into a 45 minute Mike's Groove that saves the entire show. The Mike's Song is solid and segues into Simple. All seems fairly normal as the band jams on the Simple theme until shortly after the ten minute mark... then Page starts to play with the theme a bit, and soon after Trey and Mike follow him. At that point the song starts to deconstruct. Just as it seems they are on the verge of fading out Mike starts to shift the bass line, and instead the band goes into a propulsive dark rock jam that feels like the antithesis of the bright and steady theme of the Simple that spawned it. This slowly edges into triumphant trilling from Trey as the band morphs and bursts into Weekapaug to the delight of the crowd. The Weekapaug itself is great, featuring several shifts to the song's theme and a jam centered around On Broadway before concluding. Standard renditions of Sample in a Jar and Good Times Bad Times brings the set to a fine conclusion. The encore is a microcosm of the entire European run; at times quiet and intimate (Brian and Robert) and other times full of energy and strong musicianship (Taste).

This was an unexpected end to a tour that had a lot of peaks and valleys. PA problems not withstanding, the band really rallies here with very strong versions of Halley's and Simple. For sure it's hard to say this run was as strong as the tours that preceded it, but the band that made those tours what they were is still very much here, alive, and pushing themselves further at times. And I feel like I've been remiss in not mentioning the audio recordings from this tour, all of which are stellar. This second set is worth listening to, as are a number of other strong sets from this tour, and the recordings of all of them sound great. Again, if you're tired of hearing the same Fall '97/Island Tour jams you've listened to over and over again there is a lot in this tour that can scratch that same itch in a way that maybe you've never experienced before.

PHISH, FRIDAY 07/10/1998
ZELESTE
Barcelona, Spain

SET 1:

Down with Disease: Tons of sound problems before and a few more briefly in the intro, big popping sounds. This DWD is a smoking Type I that they do finish.

Dogs Stole Things: Popping sounds in the intro. Standard version.

Divided Sky[1] - Trey has flubs that start at 2:37 that go until about the 3 minute mark. Some of the worst flubs ever from him. They stop playing at 3:44 as they are overwhelmed by the sound issues.

Mike's Song[1] - You can hear just how frustrated Trey is when he deep sixes it all to see if the techs can fix the problems.

SET 2:

Halley's Comet: More pops 1:20 into this one. This is a very chill jam, groove oriented with all four parts being equal. The loops Trey set up the beginning roll through the entire song. The First Tube tease comes into play at 6:42 on the Jam track on the Phish.in source. Pretty cool considering it obviously had not even been played yet. They shift gears in the late ten minute range – a sparse ambient jam comes into play. Tons of room to stretch out in here. Trey and Fishman ramp up the tension big time at 12:15 with Trey putting a heavy metal feel into play, but this is brief and then the song ends. Would recommend this version, would be a great jam to chill to late at night as you are drifting off to sleep.

Roggae: Standard >

Sparkle[1] - Aborted, Trey says he can’t deal with the popping again. He says they will play through their monitors, turn off the mains and this will have to be a quiet concert. Better a quiet concert than nothing. Then the joke telling begins, funny stuff.

Mike's Song: Solid, one jam version. They took out some of their frustration in this one with some aggressive playing. >

Simple: At the 12 and a half minute this one breaks into Type II territory. Deep space! Very heady territory. This lasts for about three minutes – the crowd gets a clap along going and this seems to spur the band into action as they get things ramped up. This theme from Trey – I know I have heard it before somewhere, but I cannot place it. Not a tease, but another jam I have heard from Phish before. This is super sick! This goes on until about 5:15. The heavy metal low key groove continues to progress and evolve. Fishman is incredible in the last couple of minutes of this and he is a guiding force in getting this one to segue eventually into Weekapaug. Don’t let the track listing fool you though, this is still the Simple jam until 1:45 into Weekapaug. Would highly recommend this Simple. I feel like it flies well under the radar. Couple of reasons for that – this show is underrated because of all the issues. Number two, it doesn’t have one big signature moment or climax. But the body of work is undeniable with tons of greatness throughout, 24 minutes’ worth. Great version!! >

Weekapaug Groove: Standard version other than the On Broadway stuff that starts at about 9:15.

Sample in a Jar: Standard >

Good Times Bad Times: Standard.

ENCORE:

Brian and Robert: Standard.

Taste: Rare placement, only the third time in the E slot, all 1.0 versions. This is a strong Taste.

Summary: It’s really too bad they couldn’t have gone to the monitors only solution much early. A lot of time was wasted but what are you going to do? Halley’s is very good and Simple is an all timer. But outside of that, tough way to end the tour. Would agree with the current rating on Phish.net of 3.046/5 (66 ratings).

Replay Value: Halley's Comet, Simple

[1] Aborted due to loud P.A. problems.

Divided Sky and Mike’s Song were aborted due to sound problems. The first set then ended early so that the crew could fix the P.A.. More problems arose during Sparkle, which was subsequently aborted. Trey asked the crew to turn the monitors around so the band could play through them. While they worked, the band told jokes. Trey even asked Fish to tell the Prison Joke, but the sound was fixed before it actually happened. The jam out of Halley’s included a First Tube tease. Weekapaug included On Broadway teases.
SHOW RATING
Your rating:
Overall: 3.046/5 (66 ratings)
JAM CHART VERSIONS
Halley's Comet, Simple
TEASES
First Tube tease in Halley's Comet, On Broadway tease in Weekapaug Groove