In honor of this program's one-year anniversary, tonight we play the only birthday show your Helping Phriendly radio hostess ever went to: Nov. 14, 1998, at The Crown in Cincinnati, Ohio. There are no special guests or surprise bust-outs--but it's a great listen from beginning to end. Set One is a pot set to boil, heating up song by song. And Mr. Fishman's vacuum solo in Sexual Healing during Set Two is one of his sweetest...
Here is the setlist:
Set I: Funky Bitch, My Soul, Reba, Bouncin', Tweezer > Moma Dance > Sparkle > Character Zero
Set II: Bowie, Something, Piper, Golgi Apparatus, Guyute, Hold Your Head Up > Sexual Healing > Hold Your Head Up, YEM, Julius, Hello My Baby
My phriend Matt described this show as "Xanax-y", and I wonder if that's a compliment or complaint? True, the sound rolled along spacey and strangely - but isn't that part of the phun? And the Reba, ah the Reba....it's simply marvelous, even without the whistling.
Both saxophonist Peter Apfelbaum, whose tunes opened for the Grateful Dead throughout the early '90s, and legendary banjo player John McEuen drop in on this one! So tonight, it's Phish ... PLUS strings ... PLUS sax ... and it's awesome!
Harry Hood to OPEN?? Where is this night going! You can feel good--I can feel good--good about Hood ... and everything that comes after. I promise, you will not be disappointed by this excellent show from Dec. 11, 1999 at the Philly Spectrum in Philadelphia.
One lovely October evening in Atlantic City, N.J.--completely out of the blue--Phish went Zeppelin. And it was quite the symphonic sound for ears to devour with delight! Although it wasn't a true musical costume ... who freakin' cares? Great, great show. Check it out.
Just because I was there does not mean I can't be impartial when I say that this was absolutely the best triad of shows this year. The sweet and gnarly sounds of Phish ricocheting from hallowed wall to hallowed wall at our beloved Bill Graham Civic Center? Um, let me think about that for a minute ... Oh yes, a tremendously good time was had by all present in person and at home on couch tour. Tonight, we play August 17th, otherwise known as Totally Debaucherous Night One.