10/30/1985 Hunt's, Burlington, VT

This is a commonly traffic-ed early show from Hunt's. The show contains both Jeff and Page during a rare period in the band. It's important to point out that at this stage, Page had recently joined the band (first sit-in performance 5/3/85 at UVM's last day party and first official performance just a month before this show) but Jeff hadn't quite gotten the boot just yet. What is quite noticeable is the difficulty with which these two members have in finding their own voice within the mix. It's essentially as if the band has not one but two rhythm sections, and neither knows whom should play what. This is most noticeable in the nascent Possum.

The show starts off with the first Harry Hood ever. Trey explains "this one is the story about the man who lives directly across the street from us." He also elaborates on how it is the story of Harry's "vacation across the globe, to the sunny beaches of Greece", a reference to Trey and Fish's escapades eating acid in Greece (explained in the Phish Book); as well, Trey references Brian Long, his roommate, along with Fish, at the time.

The version has some the same 'general' structure as today. Page is pretty quiet throughout the mix and hasn't really written his parts into the song yet. Particularly, the building 'one-two-three' section is intact, but the Trey solo-breakdown after that is without a Trey solo, has Jeff playing a lower-toned solo (or maybe that's trey with a weird pedal), and lasts several measures longer than today. It stretches on quite long, but eventally makes it to the start and stop section. The Jam on this version is quite noisy because there are so many voices in the band and there is no ending solo. At the end, Mike says "one day they will pay us to do that, I know it", which is funny in retrospect.

Dog Log follows and Page's contribution is noticeable here. Possum, the first version ever played, is incredibly different - the tempo by Fish is essentially the same as Dog Log played before it. Jeff is on vocals, with Trey kind of moaning in the background. Instead of a Trey solo, Page "shows [us] the way". This is the weirdest Possum, maybe, ever, or, as Jeff says "just a little ditty I wrote...what the heck."

Before Slave, Trey references the previous Goddard show that the band couldn't play because they were apparently too incapacitated to perform. Mike, however, says 'deja vu', which is pretty funny. Slave is notable just because Page's contribution noticeably edges Jeff's previous role out.

Sneaking Sally follows, with a vocal jam in the middle, with Trey, Mike, and Jeff singing their parts. 'I Wish', a "dance song", the Stevie Wonder cover comes next. Mike chimes in "hippies have a right to dance too", which is apropos, since this is probably the best song of the night. They do a pretty good job with this one, including a nice solo by Page.

The Allman's 'Revival' is appropriate for the 2 guitar lineup, but isn't particularly noteworthy. Prior to Alumni Blues>LTJP>Alumni, Trey pitches the radio station at UVM that he used to DJ for - Alumni is actually pretty good, considering the chaos in the band.

The best part of the show, however, is Prep School Hippie. This rare early gem is the shining part of this show. The band nails it and the bridge is definitely a Phish mini-jam that everyone should hear. It's very McGrupp-esque. Skippy closes. It is much better than the 1984 Nectar's version with the Dude of Life, and at this point, is pretty much McGrupp with different lyrics. The jam at the end, however, is much more Allman's-ey than what you'll hear these days - likely a holdover for the fact that there are 2 guitars in the band.

Overall, an early show with some funky early versions of Phish classics. The band is still trying to figure out their style, and the dynamics between the members. It's almost like they can't decide whether Jeff or Page should play particular parts. There's some good banter and Prep School Hippie is worth a listen (particularly because it is the lone version without a Trey solo and has a wonderful chord progression in the bridge), as is "I Wish". The Sound Quality of most versions is quite poor, though, so be prepared for some serious tape hiss!

Fun early show, good to hear the band honing its craft and the early arrangements of some of these songs are delightful to hear. Highlights:

1) Harry Hood: The Mr. Minor jam is indeed a little different from the more familiar incarnations of Hood. Mike's bass is particularly nice and thumpy in the mix. The jam after the Mr. Minor section is sublime but too brief. None of the build up of more 'classic' Hood jams.

2) Dog Log: I am an admitted sucker for this song, but this one has a little more oomph than most I've heard. The little jazzy jam in the middle freaking rocks! Nice execution and a wonderful ode to dog shit

3) Possum: This version is bouncier and more honky tonk than the version we've come to know and love. It's a cool rendition and worth checking out. It kind of reminds me of the 2013-10-26 version they played when Kenwood Dennard replaced Fishman on drums.

4) Sneaking Sally: Really funky early take oon this beloved cover tune, and as the show notes indicate, the vocal jam on this one is particularly electrifying. Great execution.

5) Alumni>Letter>Alumni: I love these slower takes on this tune. The funk just oozes out of every corener, and its played with infectious cocksureness.

6) Prep School Hippie: My first time hearing this tune, its got a nice arrangement and catchy. Bust out potential aside, would love to dance to this tune at a show.

What a striking difference from the 10/17 show. A huge part of the difference being the giant batch of fresh new songs. Hood is very good in it's infancy. Possum although extremely different from what it would grow to become is still pretty interesting. Slave is really excellent, unfortunately Trey's solo gets cut really short which to any fan of Slave is a disappointment. I Wish besides the super flubby lyrics is actually very well played and as they hoped very danceable. Prep School Hippie is also pretty nice. Of course like many of these early shows Skippy/McGrupp is the highlight. There is a consistent traceable growth in the jams that come out of it, and this is the best one yet.

Overall the best Phish show yet!

So we start here with a surprisingly complex and thought out Harry Hood. It is radically different than the finished product in many places, while incredibly similar in others. I've been listening to this embryonic stuff in date order and this is the first glimpse of what Phish would become. I can't say enough good things about this track.

Dog Log is its typical silly self and serves as an opportunity to launch us into a primordial Possum. This thing sounds nothing like it's modern incarnation. Aside from similar words and the three part harmony in the chorus, this song as played here has the same gait and chord structure as the Dog Log that preceded it. A truly fascinating glimpse of evolution at play.

Slave just keeps on maturing, and the version presented here is very much the same beast that you would hear at a modern Phish show... it's just not as smooth and refined. In other words, the heavy lifting is finished at this point... now begins the game of finesse.

The arrangement of the Robert Palmer song Sneaking Sally is also very similar to the way that the band still plays the song. Of particular note is that Mike bass sounds very funky indeed... a precursor of some of the deep funk from the late 90's. I suppose this makes sense since fans of early Robert Palmer undoubtedly know just how funky those albums were!

I Wish takes us back to the fact that this is a bar band playing bar band music... a wholly forgettable cover version.

Revival is the old ABB song, and Phish does an admirable job of covering this classic. Nothing groundbreaking... just enjoyable.

Alumni has matured to the point that it is a very competent blues improvisation piece. And Jimmy Page makes for a very clean and crisp bridge in the middle, complete with a shift on a dime change in time signatures.

Prep School Hippie is a real standout piece on this tape. I'm really kind of surprised that this didn't survive into modern sets, although they could have re-written some better words. The musical composition here is remarkably sophisticated for this nascent band.

I'm a little confused about Skippy here, though, since 2 weeks earlier it was played as McGrupp. I don't know if there is a bad date going on, or whether they simply waffled back and forth on how to approach this track. But in any case, this is a nicely maturing piece of music that, as you know, would become a part of the Phish long term story.

This is a really listenable and likeable show!

All their shows in the 1983-1986 era were rather short even the 3 set shows were mostly covers of the dead or other bands because they were trying to make a name for themselves which makes sense
All to say that Harry Hood is amazing from the gate This is the debut of the song that got me hooked on Phish! I also loved MFMF Dirt Horn Petrichor Slave Back on the Train Gotta Jibboo Fluffhead and Lizards those were my favorite songs and still are mostly Now I love Maze Piper Chalkdust Torture Sand more than those but at the time those were my favorites
I now realize they always play their best versions of any given song on the live debut Life beyond the Dream was only played amazingly at Blossom 2019 debut HH has been played amazing since but this first version is also jam worthy even Joy was played well the first time at Camden a really shitty slow song was played best the first time Wading in the Velvet Sea played best at its debut 1997 in Europe Phish plays their best versions of songs from the gate I suppose an exception would be Show of Life an amazing song and great show closer or Encore played best not the first time but the 2nd time 6-11 was good but 6-19-2010 was better that show sucked in all but the Show of Life was EPIC another exception is Friday a song most fans hate like TTE a song that all fans hate like Petrichor I actually love the rain falling in Petrichor but agree that Time Turning Elastic is just boring like Sugar Shack or Let Me Lie really boring songs like Miss You or More I actually love the song More because I totally agree w the lyrics but most fans do not because they are atheist idiots who love Darwin not Jesus and the only songs i abhor by Phish are Friends Lifeboy Bug and Death Dont Hurt Very Long simply all lies I love Simple the song i amazing but simply those songs suck ass
Harry Hood Possum and Sneaking Sally make this SHORT show amazing !!! and worthy of listening to backwards down the number line of time