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R17/W05 04/17/1992 Warfield Theatre, San Francisco, CA

Started by PIE-GUY, February 10, 2014, 04:28:28 PM

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PIE-GUY

Well, I'm the only person who has (so far) bothered to review last week's selection. Nonetheless, it is Monday. Here is this week's show:

Friday, 04/17/1992
Warfield Theatre, San Francisco, CA

Set 1: Runaway Jim, Foam, Sparkle, Stash, I Didn't Know, Cavern, Reba, Maze, Bouncing Around the Room, The Landlady > David Bowie -> Catapult -> David Bowie

Set 2: Brother, You Enjoy Myself, Fluffhead > The Squirming Coil, Tweezer, Uncle Pen, Cold as Ice > Cracklin' Rosie > Cold as Ice, Tweezer Reprise

Encore: Golgi Apparatus

Notes: Bowie included All Fall Down, Random Laugh, Simpsons, and Oom Pa Pa signals, as well as the debut performance of Catapult interwoven with Bowie's closing segment. The curtain rose at the start of the second set to reveal Steve McConnell sitting in a large bathtub on stage. As the band played Brother, band friends and crew members danced across the stage and jumped into the tub with him. Widespread Panic opened.

http://www.phishtracks.com/shows/1992-04-17



http://phish.net/setlists/?d=1992-04-17


I've been coming to where I am from the get go
Find that I can groove with the beat when I let go
So put your worries on hold
Get up and groove with the rhythm in your soul

natronzero

#1
I've totally dropped the ball on the last 2 weeks. Listened to both shows a couple times each, but due to some work chaos I've been sorting out and just general busy-ness at home, I just haven't made myself type up reviews for them. Excuses excuses... :wink:
Anyway, I hereby swear I'll be rectifying that shortly, and I'll be ready to post a submission of my own next Monday.

Edit: Also, nice pick!
I'd rather dwell in some dark holler where the sun refuses to shine, where the wild birds of heaven can't hear me when I whine.

emay

love the early 90s picks.
hopefully get to this today.
got some wilco on now and some white denim up next

khalpin

Sorry to troop on in, but I hadn't heard this one in a while and had nothing queue'd up while working from home this afternoon, so I threw it on and took some notes.

Runaway Jim - The bass drum is certainly very present in the mix on this soundboard.  This one gets you movin'!  Good way to kick things off.
Foam - Let's face it, you can't get much tighter than this.  It's spot on...with nice solo spots from Page and Trey.  Soloing over those chord changes like nobody's business.
Sparkle - Standard
Stash - Cool jam that gets fiery. 
I Didn't Know - Doug!
Cavern - Pretty standard with some nice embellishment from Trey.
Reba - Tight composed section.  Smooth jam that gets a bit expiremental about 9 minutes in and then reverts back to a more standard Reba jam.  Quality peak.
Maze - This one that I would've loved to have caught in a small room.  Trey is on FIRE.
Bouncing - Standard
Landlady - Well played.  Goes right into>
Bowie - Finishing off the set on a high note.  This jam wastes no time.  They're all listening to each other and bouncing shit back and forth.  So, so good.  They drift off the map into uncharted waters for a few minutes and then return around the eight minute mark, only to veer back out some more.  Then a triumphant return which includes the debut of Catapult for a climactic finish.  What a great Bowie.

Brother - Always a welcome tune, complete with bathtub.  Trey rages on this.
YEM - Solid composed section.   I love that little riff Trey does ~11:45.  The jam is really hot albeit pretty short.  They get to the B&D segment less than 13 minutes in. 
Fluffhead - This set is getting pretty serious.  The subtlety of the "powerful pills....Oh yeah" is rather amusing.  The rest of it is super tight. 
Squirming Coil - Well played.
Tweezer - Here we go.  By seven minutes or so, this one's got a full head of steam.  Quite a few peaks scattered throughout this one amidst the dissonance.  Nice version.
Uncle Penn - Finally, they give us some bluegrass....deep into the second set. 
Cracklin' Rosie - Switching up genres again for some Fishman nonsense.
Tweeprise - Hot finish to the set.
Golgi - Aaron Wolfe would be proud.

What a great show.  It's got great playing throughout and features tasty versions of Reba, Brother and especially Bowie.  It must've been a blast seeing them at a tiny venue with General Admission.  I don't listen to '92 often enough.  I really enjoyed hearing this one again.  Nice pick. A-

mbw

Quote from: khalpin on February 14, 2014, 03:54:36 PM
I don't listen to '92 often enough.  I really enjoyed hearing this one again.  Nice pick. A-

all these april 92 west coast shows are incredible.

PIE-GUY

Friday, 04/17/1992
Warfield Theatre, San Francisco, CA

Set 1:

Runaway Jim - immediately you realize this is a great SBD, but you also notice Page hasn't yet stepped up to the baby grand. That old fake piano sound is noticeable at first, but it melts away and just sounds natural by the end of this Jim.

Foam - yeah, this is why I fell in love with Phish back in the day. So tight and fiery. Trey just owns every second of this thing.

Sparkle - The crowd ate this shit up back in the day. Venues crumbled under the stress this song would cause.

Stash - Anyone remember the choreography that went along with tune back in 1992? I do. I can still picture Trey and Mike doing their thing. Anyway. Great Stash, to say the least! Scorcher!

I Didn't Know - Always fun!

Cavern - I love the reverb on Fish's snare in these 92 recordings! So prominent here.

Reba - It's not just the drums - listen to reverb on the vocals, too! Page, mostly, but it's like he's in a medieval cathedral with that echo! Solid Reba, too.

Maze - Man, I used to love this tune. The tension built up in Trey's solo is out of this world.

Bouncing Around the Room - This Bouncin' really smokes!  it starts off with just Fisman drumming; after a few bars Mike joins in.  In another few bars the lyrics start. The music continues to be just Mike and Fish, until Page does a little trill on the piano and then joins in. If Trey is hitting chords or playing at all, you can't tell.  His subtlety is amazing!  After two verses, Mike starts singing his "That time then" part.  Soon thereafter, Trey starts singing his part. After Trey does his part twice, Page starts singing "I awoke" with great emotion. In about
a minute, Trey starts playing this incredible triplet thing that repeats over and over. Eventually the singing stops and Trey's triplets are all that is left.  Incredible!  Get this tape!

The Landlady > solid!!

David Bowie -> Catapult -> David Bowie - This is the shit. Always has been one of my favorite Bowies. Haven't heard it in a while, either. Almost forgot how good it is. Sofa King Great!!!! From the fun intro with secret language, to the tight composed sections with serious echo on the vocals for full trippy effect, to the stellar building jam, to the crazy debut of Catapult. This Bowie has it all. I repeat - SOFA KING GREAT!!!!

Set 2:

Brother - Rock and/or Roll. I love these Brothers. All machine gun Trey all the time!!

You Enjoy Myself - Not all the great, but this is one of the vocal jams I never skip. I love it. It's fantastic!

Fluffhead > This is really why I picked this show for show club. There's a lot of shit talking about 3.0 and the lack of "jams" on many nights. This show contains no monster jams (of course... it's 1992) but this Fluff has so much energy and precision it stands as the absolute centerpiece of this second set, imo. This is the meat and potatoes. This is why people paid $15 to see Phish on this night in 1992. This is why I still see Phish today.

The Squirming Coil - nicely played - acutely aware of the electric piano during Page's outtro.

Tweezer - There is a whole funky mid-section of this jam with Trey just playing these funky chords and not soloing at all. It's fantastic. The rest is pretty typical early Tweezer jamming.

Uncle Pen - Bluegrass glory - fast and furious

Cold as Ice > Cracklin' Rosie > Cold as Ice -  "The paint's coming off, but can you still read this?" - a reference to his cymbals which read "BAH!"  - Also, Cold As Ice went away pretty soon after this, right?

Tweezer Reprise - Rock!

Encore: Golgi Apparatus - "We only got 2 more minutes!"


I picked this show because these tapes got more play time in my college life than almost any other album or show by anyone. The Bomb Factory set may be right up there with this show, but I'm pretty sure this show was #1.

That said, I haven't listened to it in years, but I still seem to know every nook and cranny of this one. I found myself even singing along with the YEM vocal jam. WTF? How is that even possible?

An all-time classic Phish show, in my book. Just a perfect show start to finish. No low points at all. Plenty of peaks. Tight tight tight. Phish playing for their lives out there!! I give it a solid A.
I've been coming to where I am from the get go
Find that I can groove with the beat when I let go
So put your worries on hold
Get up and groove with the rhythm in your soul

natronzero

4/17/92

At one point in my life, this week of shows was some of my very favorite Phish, and Spring '92 was maybe my favorite period. The performances are SOOOO tight, great-sounding SBDs abound, and Phish had just emerged from what I think of as the practice years (basically '90 and '91, where they had reined in some of the loose jammyness of the '80s and really worked on their precision, although there are certainly some very experimental spots in both of those years). They were a tight, practiced machine, and ready to get nuts. Over the years, my taste has changed, and I lean more towards the bigger, atmospheric, exploratory later years (more often than not these days it's long jams that I can jog to), but this period holds a special place in my heart. I had a great time going back and hearing this show that I had heard so many times before, but hadn't touched in years.

Set 1
RUNAWAY JIM – Clean and precise version, nothing atypical.

FOAM – Getting warmed up, very nicely performed. Clean and precise. Some growly vocals from Mike in the lyrical return at the end.

SPARKLE – Starts a little more subdued than they tended to do in later years I guess. Pretty much stays cleaner and less chaotic than some later versions. I like it, but I also like the less controlled versions. Was a little surprised by the old lyrics ("from the tree"), thought they had changed it by this point, but I haven't listened to many shows this old in a while.

STASH – Listened to all of this on headphones, and it's on this track that I started noticing Page panning from ear to ear – very cool and trippy, and he continues to do that throughout the show. There are some proto-"WOO!"s in what would become the clapping part a few years later. Fairly standard version, still a young song.

I DIDN'T KNOW – Doug! DOUG! DOUG!!!  Also notable, I think this is one of the most musical and technically impressive vacuum solos Fish ever played.

REBA – Seems a little slow, but it's absolutely note-perfect. Everyone's tone is crystal clear. They bring it waaaay down at the start of the jam, Trey and Page playing off each other beautifully. They get into a repetitive drone thing that's cool for a few seconds, then back into the real jam. Trey's tone shifts to a sort of nasally overdriven thing and they play around with swelling in and out as a unit. Jam picks up a little, then builds to a peak in a fairly normal way, but then all of a sudden it's full-on Machine Gun trey! Excellent ending, then whistling.

MAZE – A little slow as well. Very clean intro. Trey's first solo sounds a little like he's still figuring out what to do with this song. I don't know what that airy, calliope-like tone is that Page is using for his solo, but it sounds freaking awesome! Fairly subdued jam, for Maze, they're definitely still figuring it out. Surprisingly atmospheric feel to this. Jam picks up a bit, Trey takes his next solo, and it shreds. Seems like a fairly short peak. Sparse, atmospheric return to the harmonic intro theme, and it's done. Interesting.

BOUNCING – Seems like the drums at the beginning are extended an extra bar or two, not sure. Pretty mellow version.

LANDLADY – I don't want them to drop PYITE, but I'd love it if they brought this one back every now and then. Trey does sound a little out of tune though.

DAVID BOWIE>CATAPULT>BOWIE – This has always been in my short list of all-time Bowies. Secret Language signals galore in the intro, some heavy jamming and then right into the song! Already intense! Composed parts are played about as masterfully as can be imagined. Loong pause before hitting the first chords of the jam section. Some exploratory and harmonic lines from Mike right in the beginning, Page playing along, and right after that, Trey and Mike start doing these lead lines in perfect sync with each other, mirroring each other perfectly! Band is communicating ASTONISHINGLY. They waste no time at all getting into some very experimental shit after this, and moving as one unit. I love the bigger, arena rock-style jamming of the 2nd half of the '90s, but in my opinion, that is what did away with this type of intense communication, and turn-on-a-dime jam style that exemplifies '92 through '94. so then they're taking it to the peak...the fast picking run that Trey does after the first trill is like woah... Next 2 times he opts for some noisy feedbacky stuff instead, and then the fourth time, it's Catapult. I think this was a surprise, and not planned. Amazing Bowie, and actually kind of short considering the ground they covered in it.

Set 2
BROTHER – Always fun. Scorching solo.

YEM – I like the shreddy part right before the ascending part leading to "Boy!". Some cool stop-start jamming, and a great vocal jam (picka-pyooo, Hamdi, goo-Magoo, and Chicken Fried Goam (?) are a few of the highlights).

FLUFFHEAD – Typical, great Fluff. "Life is just a bundle of joy" is sung about as clearly as I've ever heard.

SQUIRMING COIL – Last chord of Fluff goes straight into the first chord of Coil. Very nice. Typical strong version, relatively short piano outro.

TWEEZER – Chaotic Uncle Ebenezer, some funky sparse shit at the start of the start of the jam, and then it's rock-peak city from there on out. Atonal ending bit. Great early version.

UNCLE PEN – My favorite country tune they do. Just fire and precision.

COLD AS ICE>CRACKLIN' ROSIE>COLD AS ICE – Definitely one of my favorite Fishman covers. So good.

TWEEPRISE – Slightly strange transition from the last song to this.

GOLGI – Pretty standard

Just a wonderfully played early '90s show, and a true classic. As I said before, this era is not really my favorite anymore, but at one time, this was an ideal show for me. Jam highlights are the Bowie and the Tweezer, and the Reba definitely has its moments.
I'd rather dwell in some dark holler where the sun refuses to shine, where the wild birds of heaven can't hear me when I whine.