i posted this review to rec.music.phish on 10/25/95

Subject: 10-24-95 Madison, WI

I. My Friend, My Friend, Paul and Silas, The Fog That Surrounds,
Fee> Llama, The Horse> Silent in the Morning, Demand, Maze,
Wolfman's Brother, Acoustic Army, Prince Caspian, Split Open and Melt

II. Julius, Theme From the Bottom, Bouncing Around the Room,
You Enjoy Myself> Sleeping Monkey, Run Like an Antelope, Contact, Cavern

E: A Day in the Life

set I 73 minutes, set II 85 minutes

7:57: The Boys appear.

My Friend, My Friend (8 minutes)
I like this opener. It is a pretty evil song and it was well done.
To add to its overall wierdness Trey early on used his mic stand as a slide.
They played the mood perfectly and it was well complemented by the lighting.
All in all it was pretty straight forward. Not as tight as usual but still
a great way to start off the show.

Paul and Silas (3 minutes)
Splendid contrast and a very nice transition. Reminded me alot of those
Llama, Poor Heart openings. They start off kind of scaring you than bring you
back in with something simple. The crowd really seemed to love this song.
Not much else to say about it though.

The Fog That Surrounds (6 minutes)
With the end of Paul and Silas Trey walked towards Fish shouting Fee. Just as
he got back to his spot Fish started the drum beat, Trey interrupted saying
"wait let's do this one first" and he introduced The Fog That surrounds.
From beginning to end it felt like it was going to fall apart. There were
definite tempo problems. Trey looked utterly confused and seemed to ponder
what could possible be the problem, he never seemed comfortable with the whole
song. They all seemed glad when it ended. Couldn't really hear Fish's verse
either.

Fee (7minutes)
As far as Fee's go this was excellent. The crowd really got into this one. You
could tell who was at their first show Again great lighting. really spacey
very electric end. Trey went crazy playing with his pedals and buttons or
whatever. He looped a couple riffs and tap a drumstick on his guitar over them
pretty strange. lasted about a minute before they all looked up to Fish to
start Llama.

>Llama (5 minutes)
Nifty transition, perfectly executed great song to follow Fee. I'm constantly
amazed at the construction of the sets. It is like an emotional roller
coaster, one minute you as happy as Fee the next your a little angry and
jumping up and down. Real crisp, i think they fed really well off the energy
created by Fee and seemed to settle into a groove with this one.

The Horse> Silent in the Morning (6 minutes)
Beautiful, excellent move from Llama. Very calming.

Demand (2 minutes)
Interesting

Maze (10 minutes)
Wow! Well I would probably say wow to just about any live Maze. I really love
the organ and this could be Page on the organ at its best. The reason this is
one of my favorite songs is because you really feel like you're in a maze and
you dance harder and harder trying to get out. Page went crazy, He ebbed and
flow with fat chords beautifully. I really love the way he plays very
harmonically, vertical rather than horizontal. It just all comes together
here. Trey seemed very pensive in his solo following Page's. He did a good job
of complimenting Page's solo, by contrasting it in just the right way. Very
deliberate in his playing. This one just kept going and going, just when you
thought it couldn't get any more intense, it did. just awesome.

Wolfman's Brother (4 minutes)
Nice vocals. Page and Trey seem to have some soul in them
Short and sweet.

Acoustic Army (3 minutes)
First time I've seen this. I really liked it, not so much because its a good
song but because it is unique and they seemed to be really enjoying
themselves. Fish is quite funny. He was concentrated so hard on strumming is
two or three notes. Trey would look over at him and grin that huge grin we all
love. They just seemed like a big happy family while playing this one. Mike
almost smiled even.

Prince Caspian (4 minutes)
This is a cool song. It has great potential i think. Althought they didn't
really exploit this potential it was good. Very tight. Even pretty moving.

Split Open and Melt (15 minutes)
Awesome! This is my favorite song for this very reason. This one rivals
6-17-94 in its insaneness. I don't know what exactly it is about this song but
it just eats you up. Takes control of your body. While alot of people were
standing still (maybe in awe) i felt like i had no control, The four members
of this band are pulling me in four different directions. Love the new tempo
after the soft vocal part (still not really certain of it, is that 3 measures
of 4/4 than one 7/8? if you know send me some mail) it only adds to the
confusion. They take this one so far and still stick together I'm just amazed.
Fish leads this one beautiful. I think this is definitely one of his songs.

9:10 "Don't go away we will be back in 15 minutes" -- Trey

9:45 audience castles queen side (o-o-o) Phish retakes the stage

Julius (10 minutes)
not exactly Timber Ho! This was another crowd pleaser. Not quite the same
without the horns but pretty good nonetheless. Love the walking base line.
Nothing really special emerges, just sort of an extended version. Song ends
with something really funny i guess, not quite sure. Trey was laughing his
head off. And it must have been really, really funny because mike looked over
at Trey and cracked a beautiful smile. Nothing fancy, and even though it was
short it was a smile. Really inspiring to see. Wonderful Page this song too.

Theme From the Bottom (10 minutes)
I don't know how much i like this one. It is kind of repetitive and not very
melodic which together equal boring. Nice lyrics, good jam in the middle but
not very memorable. I suppose it was about as good as that song gets but i
personally would shelf it, maybe for ... say Tube ?

Bouncing Around the Room (4 minutes)
Another crowd pleaser. Like to see Mike sing. Glad it was short.

You Enjoy Myself (25 minutes)
Really cool! Great Jam. Trey went nuts, did the little percussion deal under a
Page Keyboard solo. Retook the guitar with a drumstick and just as i was
thinking very Hendrix-esque they play a little foxy lady. It might have been
going right when Trey picked up the guitar again but I'm not real sure. Very
cool though. Coming out of that jam I could have sworn they were going into
Frankenstein. Must just be natural when I hear Page on that keyboard.
All in all it was a good jam, good percussion stuff. Mike seemed inspired and
Fish was excellent. They each had their moments. Then the vocal jam...
I was seriously scared. It was just an evil jam, lots of evil laughing
combined with just the white lights from the bottom nearly frightened me
to tears.
They ended the vocal jam beautifully with the opening chords to Slepping
Monkey just as Trey strapped on his guitar.

>Sleeping Monkey (4 minutes)
I was really excited to see if the rumors that fish's voice has really
grown and matured. Well, maybe this isn't the best song for that. He was
really struggling, more so with this than the guitar during Acoustoc Army
He did however stand up and give it his all, was even saluted like the
American flag by Trey and Mike. It was a beautiful transition and a lovely
effort. I still wonder about the meaning of this song though...

Run Like an Antelope (20 minutes)
Wonderful song! Wonderful version! Reminded me alot of the Melt earlier.
Very insane, lots of energy, wonderful solos. It was just plain thick,
sick even. Another one of those songs that silences many people. Incredible
climax, beautifully constructed and the release to just the drums is
inspiring. You can feel the audience heave a collective sigh.

Contact (5 minutes)
Cool. Really cool since i thought Antelope was the set closer.
This one is fun to hear. Like most of the rest of the night it was
pretty straight forward. Standard you could say. Near the end, Page Trey and
Mike put their hands up and waved them back and forth, the whole audience
joined in quickly and the boys chuckled at the cheese.

Cavern (5 minutes)
Set closer (strange) seen it done it, but it doesn't take away from the fun.
Great song, very tight, straight ahead, lets wrap this up.

11:20 Boys take a 3minute break. Come back on for the Encore

E: A Day in the Life (7minutes)
Loved it. I think the Beatles have really been outdone here.
Page is spectacular. Trey is wonderful. Just a great way to end the show.

The show in general was pretty good, it had its outstanding moments, Melt,
Maze, YEM but the rest was pretty standard. Not too fancy. I guess it comes
with the territory. The college crowd, large crowd, most of them there
probably for there first time, gotta hear Fee, Bouncing, Julius, Llama,
Cavern..etc. this sucked for me because i was hoping to hear the new ones,
guess i'll just have to get some tapes

Strangely though (or maybe not) about 5 people passed out within 5 feet from
me. One I actually caught. Two had to sit down (before the show) to avoid what
had happened to their friend, and still two more left the crowd. It seemed to
me that it was the heat and alot of bad air mostly. But i wonder about the
little group in front of me, it seemed that 80% of that group had problems.
Take it easy, and take care. You are supposed to have fun.

I was actually pretty proud of the crowd. There weren't tons of drunk frat
boys, and they were very peaceful and genuinely quiet during the quieter
softer songs. It was really only at handful at all that were inspired to
yell over Fish's lyrics, or acoustic army. Met some really nice people too.
And all this talk about the Phish scene taking a dive. Maybe it is due for a
rise

Thanks for reading. Wish i could get to more shows and do this more often.
Love,

Jacob