R18/W08: 10-25-1995 St. Paul Civic Center - St. Paul, MN

[ph92]

 10/25/1995
ST. PAUL CIVIC CENTER
St. Paul, MN
SET 1: Ya Mar, Sample in a Jar > Divided Sky, The Wedge, Scent of a Mule, Free, Strange Design, My Long Journey Home[1], I'm Blue, I'm Lonesome[1], Chalk Dust Torture

SET 2: Reba[2], Life on Mars?, Cars Trucks Buses, Mike's Song -> Breathe Jam -> Sparkle > Weekapaug Groove, Suzy Greenberg[3] > Crossroads

ENCORE: Fire

[1] Acoustic.
[2] No whistling.
[3] Unfinished.

Notes: My Long Journey Home and I'm Blue I'm Lonesome were performed acoustic. Reba did not have the whistling ending and Suzy was unfinished.

Here is a remastered AUD from the spreadsheet. And I know the Reba was on a FTA or Live Bait at some point. I just can't remember which one.

Tough choosing between all my "go to" shows. Found a lack of 95 concerning in this round :hereitisyousentimentalbastard

[anthrax]

thanks for the link.  i didn't have the remaster.

reba is on livebait 12 per khalpin's spreadsheet.

[ph92]

thanks for the link.  i didn't have the remaster.

reba is on livebait 12 per khalpin's spreadsheet.

Oh I don't have that spreadsheet, can you link it?

[ph92]

Was only able to make it through set I before it popped off at work.

Set I
Ya Mar: Nice vibe to get the show going
Sample: Quick little energy boost, nice high energy solo at the end to get things going into -
Divided Sky: Standard composed section, the band is so tight during the fall 95, ripping solo with some machine gun action in the jam
Wedge: Standard version, I always welcome this song.
Mule: Time to get a little strange, nice little vocal infused section from Trey, Page's section is nice and dissonant. Pretty solid version, not much interplay between the members
Free: Keeping that energy going, love these 95 versions, love the dark and heavy ambience. Heavy on the "space" effects and Trey making ample use of his leslie. Nothing too out of the ordinary
Strange Design: Standard
My Long Journey Home: Fun, acoustic. You can hear the crowd loving the bluegrass
Blue and Lonesome: Keeping the hootin' and hollerin' going.
CDT: Absolute rager, blistering hot version. Tight playing and some nice tension an release into a big peak

[Caravan2001]

Great choice, looking forward to it!

[khalpin]

thanks for the link.  i didn't have the remaster.

reba is on livebait 12 per khalpin's spreadsheet.

Oh I don't have that spreadsheet, can you link it?

http://week4paug.net/index.php?topic=19982.0

[khalpin]

YaMar - Never a bad way to open a show.
Sample - Standard
Divided Sky - Lift off.  This is a sure way to fire up a crowd.
Wedge - Nice little rarity here. 1 of only 2 from Fall 95.
Scent of a Mule - I'm a fan.
Free - The most played song of 1995.  It was hard to miss this one.  Pretty standard here.
Strange Design - Always liked this tune.  Gives Page the spotlight for a bit.
Long Journey Home/Blue and Lonesome - One great thing about listening to 95 is the "no mics" is a thing of the past.  Two of the better bluegrass tunes right here.
Chalk Dust - And then to the rawk.  They get a bit of tension going with this one for a while in the solo.  Almost dissonant.  Not just a typical rockin' Chalk Dust.  I dig it.  Nice cap to the set.

Reba - Minor gaffe at the beginning of the composed section but it's solid from there on out.  The jam is pretty much pure bliss.  It's a really long one, but unfortunately it had to end sometime. 
Life on Mars - Such a great tune.  Phish introduced me to it later this tour.
Cars, Trucks, and Buses - Another Page tune that I've always liked.  Good placement.
Mike's - Here we go.  I just eat this shit up.  So good.  Rage...reel it back a little...rage more...repeat.  They go into the F jam but Trey heads over to the mini-kit and leaves it to Mike and Page to carry it.  They carry it off to some magical, cartoonish fairyland.  Would be curious to see what Kuroda is doing here.  This shit is just nuts.  It peters down and slowly morphs into some dark, somber spacy ass shit.  After a couple minutes, whether by intention or coincidence we end up with an instrumental take on Floyd's Breathe, which is just glorious.  (Was it in the soundcheck?)
Sparkle - Back to reality.
Weekapaug - Certainly can't complain about this one although it doesn't quite measure up to other 95 Paugs.  Still solid.
Suzy > Crossroads - Even though they pulled this off two weeks prior, this version crushes the 10/11 version.  Must've been so much fun for those in attendance.  One more reason to love Phish.
Fire - Who cares, after that set. Fishman could've farted into the mic and walked offstage, I'd be fine with it.

I made a point to avoid looking at the setlist.  I remember this show having a couple highlights but couldn't place them other than the Reba.  I gotta admit, I was feeling the first set as being a little too songy, but man that second set delivers.  I just absolutely love that Suzy>Crossroads.  Nice pick!

[ph92]

Set II
Reba: For me, this is the highlight of the show. Mostly why I picked this show. But nice mellow sections from the whole band to get the jam started. Sounding very in sync here. Slowly build into fiery multi-peak bonanza. Machine gun Trey in full effect.
Life on Mars?: Standard, in regular rotation this tour. Now a bustout. Nice breather.
CTB: Picks up the energy up a bit again. Nice interplay between the band, Page shines here
Mike's: They get right into it, ripping 1st jam. This jam is definitely well played, and goes deep. 1st jam is pretty standard, but this version shines in the second jam. Deep and exploratory, this jam is the style I immediately think of when I think of Fall 95. There's just not enough, but it ends eventually.
Sparkle: Meh, not my favorite tune, and a strange non-standard Mike's Groove middle song.
Weekapaug: This brings that energy right back up. Real high energy playing, I eat these 95 Paugs up. They stopped shredding paugs as much as time went on.
Suzy: More rock! Pretty standard version,
Crossroads: No stop just more rock, you can hear the crowd erupt. Trey takes a nice solo here and finishes up the set with non stop heat.

Encore:
Fire: Trey just wanted to shred more, and the crowd eats it up. Pretty standard version.

Of course set II is the winner here, but I love this show because of the nice flow and that awesome Reba and Mike's. There are definitely better shows from this era, but I like how we get a taste of a lot of different phish play styles. Not to mention the energy is palpable through the whole 2nd set. Just reinforces my theories on how great midwest phish is.

[emay]

ya mar openers are always fun, doesnt look like there has been one in 3.0.
sample > dsky is on point. Gets energy moving.
wedge cool spot, keep the crowd moving.
Mule, I liked treys guitar skat like vocal jam. Trippy peak and middle section.
breaks into free which rages
strange design for a little breather but I do really enjoy this song.
my long journey home is prob my fave bluegrass they do at this time.
blue and im lonesome too is good too
cdt is a nice rager ending.
nothing too crazy in set one but a well played 95 set for sure.

[anthrax]

This is the perfect sample of a fall '95 first set complete with excellent song selection.  The songs are all well played, but nothing really stands out as an all time version.  My first show was 3 days earlier, and it was so much fun to see an amazing band riding their wave upward in half full arenas.  They were too big for theaters, so they were put in the biggest gymnasiums available on college campuses throughout the midwest.  It's not an easy jump from theaters to arenas.  A lot of bands who are great in theaters can't command the attention of an entire arena.  Phish was at home in large venues, even if they were half empty, and this was a major sign that their arrow was still pointing up.

For me, Reba doesn't ever make or break a show, with a few exceptions.  This is one of those exceptions.  The Reba jam just keeps climbing to amazing levels.  Life on Mars is probably one of the weirdest cover song choices of any band, which makes it perfectly Phishy.  The Mike's is a classic '95 version, which is a huge compliment.  It's rare that Phish dips into the Pink Floyd catalog (Great Gig in the Sky excluded), so when they do it's such a treat.  I was eating up this Breathe jam yesterday, sitting about a foot away from my speaker with my eyes closed just soaking it all in.  The segue into Sparkle doesn't look great on paper, but it worked for me here.  Add Weekapaug and you have the meat of the show that doesn't disappoint.

I don't know if there was an issue with curfew or what, but Trey chops off Suzy to go straight into a short Crossroads followed by an encore that was under 5 minutes.  Either way, the ice cream desert doesn't negatively impact the main course, so it's a moot point.

This was a treat to listen to.  Even though Phish's song selection wasn't really made for hardcores to tour with them for weeks on end, if I could go back to 1995 and catch most (or all!) of these 10 October '95 midwest shows, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

[emay]

reba starts out super tight. jam starts out nice and has a great peak. I prefer the 10/21/95 Reba but this one is good.life on mars - hellz yeah, vocals are strong on this one too.CTB - nice loose version after jammin out that reba.mikes - here we go. Trey starts it out pretty quick, love some '95 mikes songs. He throws some more fun riffs in there. 1rst jam comes flying out the gate. some nice delay, distortion and whammy effects from Trey. trey on the mini kit a little. gets super spacey, almost 2001-ish. the transition to breathe jam is really sick. I would have been going crazy seeing this live. Trey hits the modulation notes and its perfect. The smokes clears and they come out with Sparkle. Dont mind this placement in the set. Weekapaug starts out perfect too. nice tight funk in the weekapaug. Good Mikes Groove for sure.Suzy keeps the party going and crossroads is a rockin closer. Fire encore is  fall 95 would have been amazing to be on, some great nuggets in pretty much every show.