LIVE PHISH 17

This is an OK Live Phish. Not great, not bad - just OK. There are (as with most Phish shows) some great moments, but the snare drum sounds like it has a loose snare on its bottom head for most of the show, and it probably could have been mixed a bit better.

The opening show of the 1998 summer tour finds the band in loose and laid-back mode. The subsequent tour would see many shows that relied primarily on the "ambient jam" experimentation that was the logical progression from the previous year's "space phunk" approach to their jamming. In addition, Phish would cover a range of obscure and interesting songs (often a new one per show) for the month of August (from artists ranging from the Smashing Pumpkins to the Grateful Dead to Led Zepplin to Elton John, etc.), which gave the whole tour a special place in the group's celebrated live catalog.

The first set is generally mellow and funky. Highlights include a bouncy Moma Dance, and an ambient, atypical jam out of the short compositional show-piece Horn that flows into an average Chalkdust Torture. The real fun, in all honesty (and in typical Phish fashion) comes in the second set.

Kicking off with Loving Cup and a rousing Limb by Limb -> Simple combo (with some emotional jamming in the former), a slow and gooey Tweezer emerges plods along with synthesized ambiance and airiness, melting into a brief but entertaining "California Love" jam with the chorus of the hip-hop classic quietly mouthed over the groove. This flows back into the conclusion of Tweezer, which then ends up in the open-ended psychedelic rocker Free. Disc Three (still set 2) is generally average (always great to hear Harry Hood, although this version doesn't take off like the immortal Hoods of the 1994 -1995 era), and the concert rounds out with the fan-favorite Wilson and a fiery Tweeprise (Tweezer Reprise).

The real gem here, however, is the filler. The Bathtub Gin from a warmed-up band two weeks later on 7-29-98 in Missouri, is both long, explosive, funky, plucky, loud, bouncy, groovy, soaring and all points in between. a truly wonderful representation of the 1998 sound and a high-point in the Summer tour.

Grab these discs for these combos:

Disc I: Horn->Portland Jam

Disc II: Limb by Limb->Simple->Tweezer->California Love->Tweezer->Free

Disc III: Bathtub Gin (filler)

By the way, the liner notes are from Mike's journal at the time, indicating that he was...ahem...eating some brownies before the show (as likely were the whole band). Sort of explains the slow, spacey nature of the material this go 'round.

Enjoy!