europe 97 wins my nomination as best tour for the boys, so this show is a banger in my eyes. check this shit out on the youtube.
fish is lookin hairy, disgruntled, and all-together badass; trey, the same ginger-bearded, marvin the martian donning wildebeest we all know and love. (perhaps a little zombieish as he jumps on his own little drum set during crosseyed and painless.) on paper this show seems a little song-based, maybe due to a tv airing, but it nonetheless has some supreme jams.

set numero uno: nice little debut as an opener with beauty of my dreams..i'm always a dancin' man when it comes to cavern, and waste is a beaut. dirty tweezer; page and mike layin down a smooth groove initially, leaving trey to take this one over halfway through and go metal apeshit on germany.

dos: free is quite a journey, with trey's drumset adding some extra texture there. next to halloween 96's, this is probably my favorite Simple; just, heavenly. when the circus comes, you're not gonna jump up and head-bang, but it's still my favorite slow song. big jam to end the show was a dainty david bowie fit for a ballerina. page sets the pace coming into the jam, turning mr. bowie's 40th birthday celebratory tune into quite a tear-jerker, which builds and builds with the assistance of trey, who once again poops all over the german crowd, until this compact bowie peeks with grace.
lovin the theme encore, trey executes like tom cruise on a seemingly impossible mission to melt face.

only negative i could muster, once again, is that there seems to be a high amount of typical encore-esque, "piss-break" songs peppered throughout. but hell, its phish.

highlights: set 1: crosseyed and painless, tweezer

set 2: free, simple, bowie (theme encore)

I picked set II of this show up in Jay, Vt from a ski instructor and listened to it the whole way home to Upstate NY (at the time). One of best overall sets and the Good Times with the Tweeprise teases... to die for. Great show!

Rating: 7/10 Deutschmarks

Highlights: Crosseyed, free, steep->Bowie, Theme

The energy at these Europe shows continues to be way up there!

Set 1:
Nice start to the show with Beauty of My Dreams. Good way to start a show, and apparently it was the debut!
This is a pretty good Melt, but doesn’t do anything super memorable.

The first highlight of the night comes with this Crosseyed, which is played at the right speed: fast. Fish messes up the lyrics and actually totally restarts, which is rather humorous, and then the jam gets kind of out there. It feels a little but like a turning point of the tour, as it gets pretty weird, but rather than going on as long as I wanted it to, it cuts off early. Still, nice micro jam!

Guelah works in the spot. Nothing wrong with a good Guelah. Ginseng is Ginseng. I like it as the song before a good Tweezer.
Compact Tweezer here that doesn’t go out there, but is perfectly solid.
Waste is nothing special, but if you like Waste (and I do) this is a good spot for it.
And then we’ve got the set ending fake out! Cavern! But instead of ending on Cavern we move straight into Chalk Dust! This is a rocker ending to the set, and the CDT is slightly slower than the one from a few days earlier, but possibly better.

Set break: about 15 minutes.

Set 2:
I love Sample as a set opener, and this one is played well, but CTB kind of throws off the energy.

Free, however, picks it right back up, and this is an excellent Free. The jam is quite good, and not totally typical.
Sparkle is Sparkle. Nice placement.
Simple does some great type 1 before quieting down and -> Circus.

Swept Away> Steep -> Bowie is a fantastic sequence, with Steep dissolving into the hi hat intro. Really great Bowie that feels a lot longer than its 13 minutes.
Loving Cup > Tweeprise works quite well to end the set.

Encore:
A really well played Theme starts the encore in a spot I wouldn’t expect to see it. Could have ended right there, but Trey’s gotta Trey, so we also get Johnny B Goode as a final farewell before the end of the night.

I quite enjoyed this show, and will probably go back to Crosseyed and Bowie at least a few more times.

I think this show might be a little too highly rated due to the fact that it IS on Youtube (which is fun to watch, no doubt).

Overall the show continues the great-but-not-outstanding theme of the previous two nights, although this show does feature a more interesting setlist.
CrossEyed->Guelah is definitely fun for a 1st set, but nothing too crazy happens. The Tweezer is actually my 1st set highlight. Standard type-I but hits a nice peak near the end.
Set 2 Setlist is more blah and doesn't have much to recommend.
As others have mentioned, this Theme is perhaps one of the best ever performed. Nothing crazy happens, but Trey absolutely nails his solo.

Watch the YouTube, but go to later in this tour for the real fireworks.

PHISH, SUNDAY 02/16/1997
ALTER WARTESAAL
Cologne, Germany

SET 1:

Beauty of My Dreams[1] Standard.

Split Open and Melt: Standard.

Bouncing Around the Room: Standard.

Crosseyed and Painless: Such a train wreck, lol. >

Guelah Papyrus: Standard.

Ginseng Sullivan: Standard. >

Tweezer: Standard.

Waste: Standard. >

Cavern: Standard. >

Chalk Dust Torture: Standard.

SET 2:

Sample in a Jar: Standard. >

Cars Trucks Buses: Standard.

Free: Standard.

Sparkle: Standard. >

Simple: Standard. I guess Trey just got bored with this jam and sort of turned on a dime and took them into Circus, caught Page by surprise a bit ->

When the Circus Comes: Standard.

Swept Away > Steep: Standard. ->

David Bowie: Standard.

Loving Cup: Standard. >

Tweezer Reprise: Standard.

ENCORE:

Theme From the Bottom: Seems to have a little extra mustard. >

Johnny B. Goode: Standard.

Summary: Very average show. 3.5/5

Replay Value: None

[1] Phish debut.

This show was rebroadcast on German television and featured the Phish debut of Beauty of My Dreams.
JAM CHART VERSIONS
David Bowie