R7/W01: 08-06-1997 Riverport Amphitheatre, Maryland Heights, MD

[khalpin]

First time hearing this one and am ignoring the setlist, so I'm going in cold.

NICU: I like this as a summertime amphitheater opener. Dance fest! CACTUSSSSSSSSSS. Good way to kick things off.

Stash: Right away into this, huh? I like, I like. Jam was well-played all around. This review is going to be fun after listening to almost exclusively 3.0 for the past couple weeks. Comes to a nice climax/resolve without any extreme fanfare. A bit of tooling around and then back to the outro.

Beauty of My Dreams: Bluegrass time. Nice little solo spot by Trey.

Twist: Pretty slow version. Gets going about 7 minutes in for short while but doesn't really get "there".

2001: This oughta be good. Nicely done, getting to the first verse after about 3 1/2 minutes. In between the first and second verses is where it's at. I'm feelin' this one. Closes out nicely and into:

AC/DC Bag: I like this middle section. Everyone throws something in and backs off for a bit to let someone else throw something in. "Oh yeah, well how about this?" "Yeah, and maybe some of this!" "Don't forget this, too!" Starts to veer away, but they bring it back to a climax, although it never hits double-time. It's not one of those Bags. I dig it, though.

YaMar: Pretty much what you'd want and expect from Yamar. I particularly liked Trey's staccato solo towards the end. Tasty stuff.

YEM: Not perfect, but solid pre-nirvana. Nice 2001 tease by Trey. I probably wouldn't have noticed it if MiamiPhish hadn't mentioned it.  Post-WUDMTF is an effects jamboroo, with Trey, Mike and Page all laying it on thick.  Kinda jumbled at points, but cool otherwise.  Groove gets pretty awesome and then Trey goes back to a normal tone and rocks out at 14:00.  Then the B&D is filled with funk and Mike's tone is similar to his 3.0 Boogie On sound.  Vocal jam closes it out.

Real solid set.  I'm sure everyone in attendance was quite pleased to say the least. 

2nd set tomorrow probably.

and set two....

Jim: Pretty standard in its placement but not in its execution.  It goes the familiar route until about 7 or 8 minutes in, where it gets a little spacy.  The next couple minutes seems to be filled with Mike and Trey kind of testing the waters, all while enjoying the jam at the same time.  Some real nice stuff in there.  This one could've gone ten different ways had they locked onto any of the themes that came up during this 5 minute spacy section.  Trey takes the lead ~12:00 and everyone comes along for a little bit, but then it stalls.  Whoa!  Blues jam out of nowhere.  And into:

My Soul: The segue is notable.  Good playing, but straight blues numbers don't do much for me.

Ghost: Still early in this song's life cycle and the composed section wasn't as polished, not that there were f-ups.  It just wasn't immersed in funk yet.  Mike's slappin' all over the place once the jam starts.  Trey starts to rock it out a couple minutes later and then they back off a bit and Trey starts in with the wah and Mike strays from the slappin' and takes more of a lead role, tinkering with a melody.  Then ~10:00 we see more of the Ghost that I'm familiar with starting to take shape.  The spacy funk rears its beautiful head.  Most enjoyable.  Wasn't expecting it to end like that, but I guess they were done with it.

Caspian: Bathroom break for me.  Although, at Camden, everytime I went to make a run for the bathroom/beer, I caught myself and said "You're seeing Phish again.  Why waste a second of it doing something you can just do at setbreak!"  And I'd turn around and go back to watch the show.  No more breaks for me.

CTB: Always liked this one.  Good tune and Page gets the spotlight for a couple minutes.

Sample: Is what it is.  Nothing bad, nothing great.

Antelope: A welcome addition to any set and works great here, too.  Some nice playing to start off by all.  It gains intensity and then backs off a bit.  At 5:00 Trey starts with the staccato, off beat chords and Fishman goes with it, creating a reggae feel.  They abandon that for a little bit and slowly return to a normal Antelope feel.  Trey seems to be quoting a theme ~6:30, although I can't place it.  A small peak at 7:15 and then a nice one a minute later.  At 9:20 it starts to get dirty.  Nice climax.  Goes into the Makisupa nicely.  Theramin solo!  Nice Antelope.

Julius: I'm a big fan of this one for an encore.  I love that swing feel in the rhythm.  Good way to finish it off.

Another solid pick from Aug *¡DYNAMITE!*.  Great first set and a nice second set to follow it up, too.  A-

[G. Augusto]

Why do I get the feeling that this group might only be us 5?... :wink:
Good work on getting these reviews done so soon!

[Superfreakie]

Why do I get the feeling that this group might only be us 5?... :wink:
Good work on getting these reviews done so soon!

I will join if you like. I imagine I have all the shows that will go up (unless you have an unreleased goodie); so if you need another, well I am in. I will just need to learn how to use sendspace.

[rowjimmy]

Why do I get the feeling that this group might only be us 5?... :wink:
Good work on getting these reviews done so soon!

I will join if you like. I imagine I have all the shows that will go up (unless you have an unreleased goodie); so if you need another, well I am in. I will just need to learn how to use sendspace.

I think we have all the submitters lined up for the next few weeks until tour but please feel welcome to join in the discussion and offer a review.


and re: Aug's original post, I'm so used to not reading this section that I have to remind myself to check it out.

[cactusfan]

being summer '97, this show is of course up there.
but relative to other summer '97 shows, i think it's one of the weaker ones.

set I: i love the YEM, and the Stash is hot too. the Twist > 2001 > Bag is groovy and all, but it just feels a little lacking to me. and the Ya Mar feels oddly placed.

set II: nice Jim > My Soul, but not nearly as nice as the same pairing from 7/22. ghost is groovy, never really takes off or goes anywhere. love the Antelope.

so a solid B, i'd say. when compared to the rest of the tour. now, compared to '09...