FYI-This review is more about the scene than the music.
I was 11 years old, and my family and I stayed in the Burlington area every year for a few weeks during the summer. Apparently we heard the music from the playground area of Battery Park and wandered over to have a look. I had no idea at the time who or what I was watching, which is crazy considering the love for the band that I have now. The only reason I remembered this show was from some photos in a family album I saw recently, then the memories came flooding back!

Someone alluded to the dust in the park, and that was certainly the case down front as a bunch of people were jamming out and kicking it up. I vividly remember Contact as the closer with the horn section, and its catchy "Sesame Street" esque sing along quality. A very festive atmosphere all over town that day, as the crowd spilled over to Church Street afterwards where we had dinner at an outdoor cafe. My first show ever, if you can count it as such!

One of the more famous early shows I attended, and also taped. There was only 2 or three other tapers besides myself. I remember making a lot of copies of those tapes before sound board tapes turned up years later. Anyway back to the show, which I believe was announced that day, or possibly the day before. I remember a friend came by my apartment that morning, and said Phish would be playing a free show in Battery Park. My apartment was across the street from the park, so there wasn't any travel involved. I got there at least an hour early, and was able to record the Alumni Blues sound check. I was about 30 feet back, dead center, the perfect spot for taping. More people started to turn up after the sound check, and by show time there were at least 500 people in the park. I liked the addition of Giant Country Horns, and was thrilled to finally get to hear Flat Fee. I don't really remember the dust cloud, but it was a dry and sunny day. It really was perfect weather for an outdoor show, and the Battery Park band shell has pretty good sound. I really loved The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday jam, I think this show was the only time I saw them play it. It was definitely a "bust out" show, Touch Me was a first timer, and Flat Fee hadn't been played in ages. I remember thinking the show could have been a bit longer, it was about 2 hours long. But, otherwise it was a great day, and it was free even, it's hard to beat that.

4.29 Stars.

A group of horn players called the Giant Country Horns sat in with Phish for the summer shows between 7/11/91 and 7/27/91. The horn section, named after “Giant Country" white bread added new arrangements to the line up. The original trio included Dave Grippo (a music teacher from Burlington, Vermont) on alto saxophone, Russell Remington on tenor saxophone, and Carl Gerhard on trumpet. They had mini tramps and wore white tuxedoes. This is also one of the first Phish tapes that I got my hands on.

Phish is introduced and they start into Oh Kee Pa. Very ceremonious. Then Suzy Greenberg. Enter GCH with the horn lines. The Divided Sky that follows is very memorable and has some of the best sustain I’ve ever heard Trey get on a Divided Sky. Tube Screamers x2 plus Languedoc custom guitar! This version is definitely on my top ten Divided list. Flat Fee is a long extinct song that Trey wrote while learning from Ernie Stires, a Vermont based composer and musician. This is one of the most overtly jazz songs that I’ve heard from Phish that wasn’t a cover song. Followed by My Sweet One; a blue grass song. The band shows their versatility with the additional musicians and the new horn charts that are added. It probably required a fair amount of rehearsal. Stash, The Lizards, and The Landlady finish off the set. The horn lines work in some places, and not so much in others. This is the first show that the GCH played with Phish, so the first set has a few bumps, but nothing to make it noticeably bad.

Set II: Let’s go out to dinner and see a movie. The part at the beginning is played by the horns. I’m not sure what I think. Listen to it yourself and see how it sounds to you. The trumpet work by “Gears” Gerhard is sounding great in this version. Cavern with lots of horns backing the song. TMWSIY (the theme song for Gamehendge) is next. This is a song that they would play once in a while until the late ‘90’s. Now it has all but disappeared (as I write this at least). Avenu Malkenu is in the middle. Mazel tov! This is another song that has disappeared these days. The vocal harmony they offer up for this prayer is divine. The Mike's Groove that follows is one of the best of 1991. Another reason to check out this show. HYHU > Touch Me (debut)> HYHU. This is a song that was played strictly with the GCH. Henrietta serenades the crowd, with the Giant Country Horns sounding huge. Nice solo work by “The Truth” Grippo. A monster Frankenstein finishes the set. Great saxophone backing.

Two songs by Mike Gordon for the encore. First a nice Contact, and then BBFCFM. They finish the show by threatening the crowd with death based on the insane assertion that the phans are extraterrestrial beings. I mean, why do you try to kill us? Just cause we’re a big black furry creature from mars?

Mike is on fire this show, Page sounds great on the organ, and Trey and Fish are right there as well. If you’re collecting shows, definitely get this show. A fine example of why the ’91 GCH tour is so outstanding.

This is a fairly strong show for the structure of this particular tour. Not everything gets nailed flawlessly but this is just the beginning!

After listening to the following nights famous Colonial Theater show so many times. I find this show to be the perfect foundation or stepping stone for it. Several of the shows played the following night are also played here. The following night be the far more primed up version.

The first set has the horn standard songs like Suzy Greenburg and The Landlady. But it also has some cool songs like Stash and The Lizards that are excellent with the horn addition.

Dinner and a Movie is also one of the Horn happy songs that meshes so well with these shows, and although not as vicious as the following nights show opener is still pretty cool. My favorite part of this show would have to be Avenu Malkenu. with the addition of the horns it just sounds superb and exactly as it should. Now in my opinion the rest of this set is somewhat sloppy. They have issues getting out of Mike's into Hydrogen. Page steps in too soon in the Weekapaug Intro. Touch me is also fairly sloppy and not quite as strong as the following nights, this is more forgivable since it's the first time played.

Fairly standard encore

Overall not on par with the following night. But not necessarily a low caliber show.

7/11 Crispy dSBD for night 1 of the GCH tour. Not much audience in the mix so it does come off a bit flat.

DJ Mike Luoma from WIZN FM introduces the band to the stage. They get the tour underway with an Oh Kee Pa>Suzy opener. Trey introduces the GCH during Suzy. Beautiful Sky. The first Flat Fee in 3 years gets dusted off for the GCH tour. Stash and Lizards sound fantastic with horns. Fish starts up Cavern before the Landlady closer.

DaaM starts off set 2. TMWSIY>Avenu>TMWSIY is well played. Mike’s has a short but sweet little second jam. The Lizard Queen treats the Burlington crowd to the debut of Touch Me. The first Frankenstein in a year and a half makes an appearance to wrap up set 2. Contact>BBFCFM ends the evening on a high note.

This was a cool show to stumble upon that day. The sun set behind the stage as the band played - with Lake Champlain and the Adirondacks framing it all. Frankenstein blew my mind.

But there's more context that needs to be reported here. This date reflected the end of the Rainbow Gathering in the Green Mountains. So Burlington, and Battery Park, was inundated with a very special group of people. Even for Burlington, there were a LOT of hippies dancing in Battery Park that evening.

Check out the Forest Service notes on the gathering here:
http://welcomehome.org/rainbow/sites/vt91/fs/91vtrep.htm

Dust- there was a cloud of dust that rose up from the dry summer dirt in the park that floated like a cloud over the dancing crow.

Dust- there was a cloud of dust that rose up from the dry summer dirt in the park that floated like a cloud over the dancing crow.