R7/W04: 05-03-1993 State Theatre - New Brunswick, NJ

[PIE-GUY]

Phish
03 May 1993
State Theatre
New Brunswick, NJ

disc 1:
1.Buried Alive
2.Rift
3.Weigh
4.Chalk Dust Torture
5.Esther
6.Split Open and Melt
7.Colonel Forbin's Ascent->
8.Famous Mockingbird
9.Possum

disc 2:
1.Lawn Boy
2.Cavern

set 2:
3.AC/DC Bag->
4.The Curtain->
5.Tweezer-> Manteca-> Tweezer->
6.Contact
7.It's Ice->

disc 3:
1.McGrupp and the Watchful Hosemasters->
2.Runaway Jim->
3.Big Ball Jam
4.HYHU-> Love You-> HYHU
5.My Sweet One
6.Tweezer Reprise
7.Encore break:
8.Memories *
9.Amazing Grace *
10.Highway to Hell

This show holds a special place in my heart - I brought my Pops with me! He'll be joining me in Chicago for his 2nd show. Anyway, I am not the BT geek most of you are, so here is the best I can do for lossless source. If there are no seeds on any of the torrents, hopefully one of you can hop on and help. My source is the spreadsheet at 128 (which, frankly, sounds worse than the cassettes I've had of this show since 1994).

lossless - there are 3 sources, though one is a SBD of set 2 only:
http://db.etree.org/shninfo_detail.php?shnid=3598

Lossy:
http://www.mediafire.com/?lj4m2wwiy4x   http://www.mediafire.com/?nmnxkmm5zhm

Submitted Reviews:

1- August
2- Khalpin
3- RJ
4- Pie Guy
5- MiamiPhish

[khalpin]

I don't think I've heard this show since the cassette days, so this should be fun.

Buried Alive: Love this as an opener.  I like how Page starts it off.  Wasn't his father at this show?  Would make sense, since he only lived about a half hour away from Brunswick. 

Rift: Some more energy to keep things moving.  Man, they were so tight back then.  Great version, despite getting a little out-of-sync towards the end.  Still finished strong, with some added excitement from Trey.

Weigh: Again, tight as hell.  Real nice solo spot from Page.  With Woody Woodpecker teases from Trey to close it out.

Chalkdust: Right back with some more energy to keep the Rutgers crowd hoppin'.  Some lightning-fast playing by Trey ~4:20.  My fingers will never be able to move even half that speed.

Esther: A tinge of secret language at the beginning.  Always been a big fan of this one.  The middle section was perfect until around the 5 minute mark where it hit a snag.  Still boggles my mind how they can/could play like that.

Split Open and Melt: A mid-first set jam vehicle is a wonderful thing.  Loving the setlist so far.  Good job on the harmonies here.  I like how Fishman drops in and out of the jam.  Sweet, sweet dissonance.  I wish Mike was louder in the mix but Page is pretty audible, which is pretty rare, so that's kind of a nice treat.  By 8 minutes in, this one's got a full head of steam going.  Great stuff.

Forbin: His tired feet were buried in the Quagmire.  Giggity, giggity...oh yeah. Trey rambles on about nonsense for a couple minutes and then:

Mockingbird: Nearly impossible to play this one perfectly, as is proven here, but it's still pretty awesome.  No way in hell could Trey pull this off today.  Love hearing this. (This combo has always eluded me live)

Possum: With Mockingbird teases.  Rippin' version.  Way to close out the set.  At least I think it's the closer.

Lawnboy: Nope, still more to the set.  Page takes the solo spot.  He's having a nice night.

Cavern: Here's our closer.

A nice first set with real solid playing.  Mostly composed music but with a couple jam tunes in there.  Now I'm eager to hear the second set. 

Although I'm going to leave work soon, so I'll just post my first set review and will get to set two over the weekend.

[rowjimmy]

Slow down!
At this rate we'll be ready for the next one by Tuesday.
:wink:

[Gol D. Roger]

Torrent (Aud & SBD) is still alive: http://bt.etree.org/details.php?id=525037

[khalpin]

And for the second set...

AC/DC Bag: Always a good way to kick off a set.  Nice jam.  As a side note, this second set soundboard sounds real nice.

Curtain: Mike sounds great at the start of this.  Way to keep the set going.  Lots of reverb on the vocals, great harmonies.  That "As he saw his life run away from him" part is glorious here.  Really well played.  I very much enjoyed that one.  Right into:

Tweezer: Right into it.  Awesome!  You know things are looking good when the jam section starts out in between verses.   They waste zero time going into this jam.  "I Feel the Earth Move" jam there.  Sweet.  As they move away from that, Page starts a chromatic descending run that Mike picks up on and they then run with that.  Then ~8:30, Trey and Mike are trying different harmonies with each other's instrument.  Good stuff.  Then it starts to break down and there's a seemless segue into Manteca.  They stick with the Manteca feel and play around with it for a little bit and there's a nice segue back into the Tweezer theme.  Again, Mike switches things up with an alternate progression, but they decide to end it instead of running with that new theme.  Nice Tweezer.

Contact: I'm a fan.  Page gets a chance to shine some more with his solo spot, while Mike funks it up in the background.  Nice!

Ice: This set just isn't letting up.  Trey had a couple minor gaffes in the middle there.  The middle section is a little strange, as Fish does the woodblock, clock-ticking thing and it's mostly silent otherwise apart from some ambient sounds thrown in by Page.  For a second there, I thought they were about to bust into Echoes when Page hit that popping note.

McGrupp: Opens with Page still dropping those "pops".  Still loving the setlist.  I've never been a big fan of the first half of McGrupp(it just doesn't seem to work), but the second half rocks.  Page gets a nice solo spot and they return with a nice burst of energy.  And right into:

Runaway Jim: Didn't see that one coming.  Strange placement.  This one seems to be a little faster than normal, which I like.  Nice version.

BBJ: Skipped it.

HYHU>Love You: Fishman's antics.  Everyone's having some fun here.  One of the reasons I love this band so much.  And with a pretty cool ending to the vacuum solo, too.

MSO: It took a while, but bluegrass finally makes its way into the show.

Tweezer Reprise: Always awesome.  Way to finish out the set.

Highway to Hell: Close it out with some good energy.


This was a fun listen.  Haven't heard it in probably 10 years.  A nice example of the boys right before there jams would really take off, but their playing for the most part was really tight.  I just saw that they did Memories and Amazing Grace, as well, but it's not on the soundboard.  They pretty much covered all of their genres in this show.  I'll say A-, with the highlights being Split Open and that Curtain>Tweezer>Manteca>Tweezer.  Nice pick Pie-Guy!  Thanks for getting it out early.

[MiamiPhish]

I have started listening to this show, and writing my review, which I hope to finish tomorrow, but I just wanted to say that so far this show has been hot hot hot.

[rowjimmy]

I'm actually working on set two right now... Really enjoying it.

[rowjimmy]

1993-05-03

Quick note: although I won't say I listened blind, I did not scan ahead on the setlist as I listened and so, I generally dd not know what was coming next until it got here...

Set 1
Buried Alive is a killer warmup like the drum roll before the grand prize is announced

Rift is the real opener and it smokes. Go Page

Weigh flops about a little more loosly than it should. It doesn't feel right.  Page takes another great solo in here and Trey's is good too. Woody woodpecker riff at the end from Trey

Chalkdust Rawks of course. 

Esther is a beauty

Melt - allow me to take this moment to comment on the depth of the bass in this particular fileset. Mike thumps. Cool groove on this jam. The recording is driven by the keys but Trey's keeping it tight until mins and now he wants to tear faces right the fuck off. Great finish. 

Col Forbin dragged his weary shitass up the mountain with much thunder and crumbling rocks. Nice aknowledgement of the Forbin sign during the funny gas story before the VOL. People sure were rowdy during this VOL. Quality narration; just add drugz. Page is cracking me up with his Star Trek riff. 
Mockingbird - ser bizness. Well done. Gets up; rocks out; and stays just on the hippy side of shredtastic. 

Possum has a cool Mockingbird riff from Trey in the intro. Rockin version. How do people not like this song?

I guess it would have been short but the set still felt complete after Possum so now for gravy:

Lawn Boy is dreamy. That ending vamp is silly though

Cavern with split tease in the intro and some heady thump in my earphones. Rocks quick and out...

Set 2

Bag has the band way fired up. Trey is shredzilla and he's rising out of Tokyo Harbour
> The Curtain is great

> Tweezer shredzilla creeps ashore and feel the earth move under his feet. He also feels houses cars and slow villagers under his feet as he plods forth onto the land. Rockin danceparty version...
      
> Manteca! Nice. This does it's thing for a bit before cranking right back

> Tweezer. Shredzilla is tearing at the State Theater about to rip the joint down before somebody tugs his leash and the jam winds down like a record player in a blackout. 

Contact appears with Mike's beautiful intro.  Page has another great piano solo

It's Ice is great. Long break with Fishman tic-tocing; really long. Great reprise after that

> McGrupp is beautifully played. Page's solo break is really great (like everything else he's played on this show. The reprise is really powerful.  

> Runaway Jim - Trey just plain started this as everyone else was mouldering over the final strains of McGrupp. Fast paced from the outset, this one doesn't mess around. 
 
BBJ - Phish used to have big balls. 

HYHU > Love You - standard, rushed, with intros and vacuum solo > HYHU

MSO tears it up and wastes no time about it

Tweezer Rep reintroduces Shredzilla for a fleeting instant

Encore
Memories & Amazing Grace are nice

Highway to Hell is a perfect wrapup. You can hear the smiles and ironic sneers on their faces as they sing it and then shredzilla eats mothra and heads back to the hotel to raid the minibar. 


Sick show. Pretty much exactly what 93 oughta be. Rock, old school tunes, rift songs. And most everyhing is tight enough to turn dust into diamonds. 

Great pick.      

[PIE-GUY]

Phish
03 May 1993
State Theatre
New Brunswick, NJ

disc 1:
1.Buried Alive – Let Page start things off. Why not? He's got a gorgeous new piano to show off. This first tour with the baby grand was so cool. They had the cover open to really show it off. Buried Alive is so good. Trey just tears it up, too. This song is always an auspicious start to a show.

2.Rift – This song got a ton of play right after the album came out. I still loved it at this point, too.

3.Weigh – Ahhhh... I wish they didn't take this one out of regular rotation. It foreshadows the phunk that would come in 97 in so many ways. Reminds me of why I love Rift, the album, so much. I think I'll listen to it later today.

4.Chalk Dust Torture – short but sweet – rock and roll!

5.Esther – It's tough to imagine these days, but people really listened to this band intently when they played stuff like this. I don't see it anymore. I mean, the last Esther I saw was Vegas 2000. It just seemed to fall flat. This one is crackling with energy and the crowd is so into it.

6.Split Open and Melt – Just listening to this Melt vs. the 1991 Melt from RJ's pick is like listening to 2 different bands. Machine gun Trey right off the bat here. Page's grand is so out front in the mix here, too. This version always reminds me of the jam tagged onto Demand on Hoist. It's really intense and keeps building energy through the end. 

7.Colonel Forbin's Ascent->
8.Famous Mockingbird – Great narration. Kevin played this version during the "From the Archives" show at Bonnaroo this year. In fact, it's what had me thinking about this show lately and probably what led me to choose it for the show club. Pops was cracking up at the story being told – "When you go home tonight, you're not gonna remember what happened." It was only about year later that I started to become "jaded" and would use the narration as a bathroom break. But that this point in my Phish life, I was still a stary-eyed young Phish-head drawn into the storytelling.

9.Possum – love the start of this jam – Trey goes minor for a bit before it really takes off.

disc 2:
1.Lawn Boy – Page in all his glory.

2.Cavern – This was the era of knowing when you have hit the set closer. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

set 2:
3.AC/DC Bag-> more machine-gun Trey here. Pretty intense, really. Hard to imagine this ferocious Bag without swirling lights, but there were none back then. Just the old Minkins and Kuroda's fingers on the controls of the par-cans.

4.The Curtain-> And this is truly why I love this show. I mentioned that Pops was with me at this show (along with one of my best friends from childhood). They nailed Curtain so perfectly I get chills just thinking about it. At the big "Baby's Mouth" I remember looking over at my Pops and he and I both had shit-eating grins and chills running down our spines. It's a moment I cherish to this day.

5.Tweezer-> Manteca-> Tweezer-> I love this Tweezer. It's so loose from the start. The jam before the last verse is sweet with "I Feel the Earth Move" teases. You could almost think they forgot the final verse... But then its back into Tweezer for the Ebenezer verse. The second Earth Move segment includes some really tasty soloing from Trey. In fact, I'd call it an Earth Move Jam more than just a tease. He keeps it going for that long. Then it's back into a "typical" Tweezer jam that several minutes later slides into Manteca like it was headed there all along. Brilliant! I only saw 2 Mantecas and both were stellar (the other was Vegas 98). This one is unique because it really isn't Trey that leads the band into it. He just picks up on what Page and Mike are doing and says "ok let's do it." Then the jam out of that is all machine-gun again. And eventually back to what most Tweezers sounded like in this era, including the final slow-down ending... then right into...

6.Contact – Go Mike with a strong opening! This is the fun stuff that got all of us hooked back when there weren't that many of us. Once they crossed that threshold to big arena band, this stuff became sort of nostalgic, at least for me, but back then it was exactly what I wanted to hear! In fact my first introduction to Phish back in the 80's was this kid telling me I have to check this band out... they sing about the tires on your car!

7.It's Ice-> typically great? Sure. And right into...

disc 3:
1.McGrupp and the Watchful Hosemasters-> Page on the Rhodes in the very beginning – or is the organ? I don't know but it's cool.  Then Page's piano solo is so mellow and so nice. He is so proud of that new piano! This solo was another thing my Pops really enjoyed. He was blown away by Page, actually.

2.Runaway Jim-> I laughed at the two dog songs right in a row. Late 2nd set RunJim is greatness, as far as I'm concerned. More machine-gun Trey.

3.Big Ball Jam – Doesn't translate well on tape, but it never did. It's a bit like listening to a baseball game on the radio with no announce calling the plays... Oh well. Lotta fun in the theater days!

4.HYHU-> Love You-> HYHU – Shenanigans. Who doesn't love shenanigans? Fish introduces everybody including Stephanie at the merch table who sold a lovely shirt to me that night. Page tries to shut him up with a return to HYHU before the song he even gets to the vacuum. "Hey, they're doing this on purpose."

5.My Sweet One – love it

6.Tweezer Reprise – I just love Mike's opening bombs! Oh and another thing Pops loved was the Beatles-esque bow at the end of the set.

8.Memories * - one of the quietest crowds for this segment I ever saw!
9.Amazing Grace * - they decide to do 2 songs since the place got so quiet. This got harder and harder as time went on. 

10.Highway to Hell – RAWK!


I love this show for obvious reasons. It has a special place in my heart for the memory of Pops dancing to the Phish. He compared the energy in the room to the Beatle-Mania of his youth. Just seeing that many young people with that much excitement made him really happy. So, it remains one of my favorite shows.

Plus, I miss the days of seeing the boys in beautiful theaters where we just don't seem to belong. I remember the sound being just extraordinary in there. Total capacity is 1827. Check out the view from the balcony in this virtual tour:

http://tours.jerseygirlvirtualtours.com/public/vtour/display/5208

I give this show an A+ for the memories, the Curtain, the Tweezer-Manteca-Tweezer, the Forbins-MBird, the Melt, the Highway to Hell, the McGrupp, and the Buried Alive... in that order! Thanks for reading and thanks for listening!

[MiamiPhish]

5/3/93
PHISH

I:  

Buried Alive – Nice way to start a show, this one has gas!

Rift – Rockin' 1 2 combo

Weigh – Sing it Mikey!

Chalkdust Torture – Dance fest continues.  Fish and Trey are on absolute fire!

Esther – Seeing as the band is on fire, this one should be really good.  And it is, awesome.

>SOAMelt – I'm in love with this setlist right now.  Hope this one rages.  Pretty much exactly what I want from a Melt, psychedelic, confusing, uncomfortable raging jam – great Melt.

Col. Forbin's – Nicely played, story time by Trey.  Vibration of life, I guess, doesn't really translate well to tape.  Long story

->Fly Famous Mockingbird – Some awesome soloing from Trey, really high energy, sounds like the roof is gonna come off the place!  

Possum – Chaotic lead in with Mockingbird teases.  Smoking, as expected.  This month of Phish deserves the credit it gets, if not more, just raging playing throughout the month and no exception here.  

Lawn Boy – Chairman of the boards.

Cavern – always a nice way to end set I.

II:

AC/DC Bag -  Pretty rad 'Bag man!

The Curtain – Absolutely beautiful intro, gorgeously played.  Rockin' version!

>Tweezer – Just awesome jamming about here.  Percussive led segue into

->Manteca – Crab in my shoe mouth.  Trey led segue back to

->Tweezer – I love this kind of focused, raging jamming.  Drop into E and the jam dissipates.  

Contact – Very nice.

It's Ice – one of my favorites.  Spacey middle jam, very not exciting in fact, bummer.

>McGrupp – This has been an awesome setlist so far and it continues here.  Page solo in the middle, nice McGrupp!

>Runaway Jim – Pretty standard far for '93, a little machine gun Trey at the end, nice.

Big Ball Jam – WHAT THEEEE

HYHU

->Bike

My Sweet One – hyper speed.

Tweezer Reprise – awesome per usual

Highway To Hell – high energy, what more can you ask for?


So I actually listened to this show in reverse, by accident, starting with Set II and ending with Set I.  Needless to say, I was really impressed by how on fire the guys were for the first set (doh!) and a rare set I tweezerprise, no way!?! haha.    Even still, I didn't "come down" for set I, it was still raging, tight and packed full of choice tunes.  Highlights for me were Esther, SOAMelt, Forbinbird and of course TWEEZER, not to mention McGrupp and It's Ice.  This show had high energy, a GREAT setlist, choice tunes in BOTH sets and contained some FIERCE jamming, especially in the very focused Tweezer -> Manteca -> Tweezer.

I'm gonna give it an A-.   A setlist and A- playing make for an awesome show.  I think I would've given it an A+ if I had been there in person, some things just didn't translate well to tape.  Awesome pick, though.

[G. Augusto]

Buried - Opened my first show, too! Really like Page's intro on this. Theme of the night...FAST!

Rift/Weigh - Do these guys have a new album out or something? Rift was almost note perfect and a little Woody Woods to close out the duo.

Chalk - What you would expect from a '93 Chalkdust. Nice placement which keeps up the pace.

Esther - Some Secret Language during the intro. Showing the weirder side of the band.

Split - Fresh of the heels of THE Split in Columbus, this one comes correct with similar energy. I like how Fish drops his snare for a bit and leaves Trey out there, still going off. Pretty rocking version.

Forbin/Bird - GAS! They really were gassin'. Always odd to see how the first timers handle the narrations. Ultra slick version of M Bird.

Possum - Some sweet M Bird teases by Trey during the intro. Really a shragin' version with old school Trey tearing it up and down your block.

Lawn/Cavern - In closing fashion.

ACDC - Threw on the SBD for this set. Very cool breakdown section which left a lot of space for each member. More SHRAGE!

Curtain - Odd placement but played well.

Tweez/Teak/er - FAST! Actually, the speed it should be played at, IMO. Plenty of "Earth MOves" teases. Love how the jam is taken over by the "tease." Love it! The segues in and out of Manteca are butter. It really just kinda popped up in there with no real hint that someone was trying to tease it. The return to the Tweezer theme is fantastic. First time hearing this show and this is an A+ Tweezer!

Contact - Mike has some fun with the intro and has an ultra funky breakdown.

Ice - Little iffy on some composed sections....

McGrupp - Not a McG fan (the person) but this one is great. Awesome Page section.

Jim - FAST! Odd placement.

BB - Jam

Love You - They're pulling out all the tricks tonight....

MSO - BBJ again?! OIC. It's MSO. Uh....Page? Vocals? He then makes up with a killer solo.

Rep - Of Tweezer proportions.

Memories/Grace - Nice and low with really loud crowd noise is how I like my tapes.

Highway - Perfect cap to the night.

Welp, they kinda coasted after the great Tweezer, but it was still solid, nonetheless.
I give this one a meaty B+/A.\a

[blatboom]

First time hearing this show

:-o