HAMPTON COMES ALIVE

Before Phish started releasing their many volumes of live albums, "Hampton Comes Alive" was only the 3rd live album from the band. Word was getting around that the best way to experience Phish was in a live setting, and people were demanding to get as much live recordings as possible. Released in 1999, between "The Story of the Ghost" and "Farmhouse" studio albums, this 6 CD set was released. It contains some classic songs from the band, several never before recorded Phish tracks and a heaping helping of unexpected covers, but these were all tracks that had been played in live settings before, just mostly not heard by the public.

The live setting is the Hampton Coliseum in Hampton, Virginia and contains 2 full concerts recorded on November 20 and 21, 1998. Many bootlegs of complete Phish shows were circulating, but this was the first time full shows were available officially as the other two previous live albums were taken from different and partial shows. For the person that is interested in getting into Phish's live discography, it is a great entry point and captures the excitement and fun of a Phish concert (without all of the smoke of course).

There are 44 tracks spread across this album, 20 of which are covers, some pretty good, others hilarious attempts which demonstrates the band's fearlessness to make fools of themselves to please their fans. This collection contains "Rock and Roll, pt 2" to open the set up, Ween's "Roses Are Free", Hendrix's "Bold as Love", Will Smith's "Getting' Jiggy Wit It" and ending it all with the kooky version of "Tubthumping" from Chumbawunba, all of the covers sung by drummer Jon Fishman. Most of the other tracks are sung by guitarist Trey Anastasio.

Among the Phish classics are excellent versions of "Guelah Papyrus", long and sweet jammy versions of "Split Open and Melt", "Bathtub Gin" and "The Divided Sky", a catchy rendition of "The Mango Song" and a rousing version of "Free". Some of the classics are also faithful renditions that are quite similar to the studio versions, while others like "Roggae" and "Meat" are quite a bit different from the studio cuts. The best part, however, are the less familiar tracks which were previously not available in a recorded official format, especially the excellent "Possum", the experimental "Big Black Furry Creature from Mars", and the concert favorite "Harry Hood".

Though it might not be the best of their live albums, it is quite an excellent collection perfect for those somewhat familiar with their music, but still haven't had a chance to hear them in concert yet, whether in person or live recordings. Some of the edits are obvious, but they all come only between the numbers, so a lot of the audience participation and cheering is cut out as the set concentrates on the music of the concert, and that is quite okay. This is definitely a worthwhile live set to have, and the production is very good, much better than the bootlegs and some of the other live albums.