From: Charlie Dirksen
11/25/94 UIC Pavilion, Chicago, IL Another crispy DAUD from JR Trimpe (thanks, JR). This is an, uh, interesting set, fwiw.
A great setlist, but... I'm sure this set was great to see and hear *live*. MikeS opening segment is standard, and the tramps
segment comes in at roughly the usual time. Trey's jamming in the jam segment is unusually fierce and melodramatic, a hell of a
lot more interesting than most Mike's Songs. Is he on the tramps for this?? I expect not, given the ferociousness of his jamming
(forget the off key sustain crap.. it really ain't here). He truly WAILS in this one, folks. The jam gets psychotic around the 5:40
point or thereabouts. Trey goes into chaotic distortion mode (uses some effects). The jam breaks out of this insanity after a few.
This is a ***hot*** Mike's Song, people! Trey is still wailing away at 6:50! At 7:01, the Mike's theme ending jam begins, and
the post-tramps segment cuts in twenty seconds later.. and then Simple at 7:30. What a sweet Mike's Song! Those of you who
have this show, take a listen to this MikeS. This is exactly the kind of MikeS that gets my blood flowing (and now, listen to
11/4/94.. notice a difference? 11/4 is precisely what MikeS more often than not sounds like.. blah blah blah.. not much action
from Trey, the usual from the others.. but 11/25!). Simple is nice. A straightfoward 1994 Fall version. Well-played, harmonies
were more/less on (sounded strained at times.. well, Page.. since he's trying to sing that high.. yikes). The Simple jam segment
opens up at 11:25 with some sweeeeet licks from Trey, and spectacular accompaniment from the others. At 14 minutes, the
Simple "jam" has -- even though Fish has maintained the Simple rhythm -- become rather distorted and semi-spacey, with a lot
of intensely sinister licks from trey. Some BBFCFM teases (basically) from Trey at the 14:45 point and thereabouts (he chords
away as if to start BBFCFM). By 15:30, Fish is screwing around with the beat (kicking it in here, dropping it there.. lots of
active fills), and Trey is just playing games with his effects. It sounds blah to me (like he's just tooling around). At 16:15, the jam
is in a very spacey mode, with an occasional cymbal from Fish, and echo-y effects from Trey, and frankly, some curious noises
from Mike and Page as well. The jam at this point (17 minutes) sounds extraordinarily Floyd-like. Reminds me of LIVE AT
POMPEII.. some moments therein. Occasional chording .. short stop/start builds from all band members together. Yooo-hooo
from Fishman.. ;^) Jam starts getting more dangerous and frightening.. miscellaneous activity from everyone. Around 18, a
theme sortof develops out of Trey.. but, will he do anything with it? No. Still basically in an 'every band member for himself'
mode at 18:30, but then, after about twenty seconds and some sustain... a groove develops that is ridiculously %crazy%. Fish
kicks in a beat (18:50).. everyone else plods along. Very Velvet Underground-esque at the 19:30 point. Another Yooo-hooo
from Fish at 19:50. (FWIW, this should be a 'JAM' on the 'ole setlist.. inbetween Simple and Harpua.. this ain't either song, in
all fairness to both). At 21 minutes, the jam is still in this theme-less, kinda BEWILDERING mode. I guess they were
re-hearsing for the Bozeman Tweezer ;^) (which sounds enormously better than this). WOW!!! OOM PAH PAH at 21:39.
Just jumped right into Harpua. Holy shit!!! This must have been great at the show ... Chico? Mark? I mean, to go from this
kinda bogus, haphazard "jamming" into Harpua!? Niiiice. "Welcome everyone and happy thanksgiving." It is a traditional
thanksgiving Harpua of sorts. I won't get into too much detail, except that there is a fantastic but awful scream that shook the
rafters of the town, and a beam of ugly red light coming out of The Old Man's mouth (aka an 'angry beam of vocal hatred') ...
Not to mention a swath of death and destruction. What were the green -- and red -- love beams all about, anyway, that had the
crowd up in arms? Did people have those damn laser pens? Fish: "Trey -- someone's beaming love at you." Trey jumps right
into 'Poster Nutbag' without prior fanfare and buildup (I suppose the love beams were, uh, annoying)... No musical tease
(Jimmy was apparently not listening to anything worth teasing). "Look! The angry red vocal hate beam is gone!" ;-) ;-) ;-)
Bwaaahahaahaha.. This is a lively, joyous Harpua (too bad, as Mr. Purcell noted, that the '95 Harpuas were so lame). Harpua
ends at 37:30, and Fish kicks the Weekapaug drums right in on the next beat. No opening Mike solo to speak of, really.
There's a little something here, just nothing much. It reminds me of what little Mike did on 12/31/95 at 'paug's opening. Just
didn't feel right to him, I guess. Page makes a rare mistake in the opening few Weekapaug chords. Hmm. Did I hear that right? I
have a hard time believing that Page actually erred. It more likely was Trey clashing with Page. I was too busy typing and not
listening as intently as I should have (unless it really was Page who fudged a chord! DOH! I guess he isn't infallible.. well, then
again..). Fish actually speeds this Weekapaug up slightly during the jam segment around 39:40 or thereabouts. This is a QUICK
Weekapaug, fwiw. Damn. The jam segment has a lot more action from Page it seems, then Trey.. and then it drops into a "quiet
mode" at nearly 41 mins. Fish maintains the groove, as usual in such modes, but the jam just drops back a level. Page funks out
a bit on that Clavinet or whatever you call that thing. I don't have much to say. Good, solid musicianship from everyone, as
should be expected, but no teases of other tunes, and no special theme jamming really, although I suppose Page gets into a
theme of sorts. At nearly 44 mins, Trey finally comes in over the top with some action, but nothing awe-inspiring from him,
really. At 44:33, Trey starts chording as if to go into a Suzy style of jam, or even "Can't you hear me knockin"... but nope..
drops this quick, unfortunately. The jam is frankly pretty lame in here -- 45 minutes. Mike is wailing, though.. harshly throwing
out some repetitive lines. Trey seems more interested in making crazy noise and effects than really wailing. CHRIST, I mean
what the.. At 46:19 Trey finally breaks out of this just **NUTS** mode of utter chaos into some reasonably harmonious
closing Weekapaug licks that are indecisive.. what the...scratch that.. he didn't revisit Weekapaug.. At 47, jam is still darn
foolish... Trey hits the Week chords finally at 47:18. Closing jam segment comes in at this time, and kinda becomes
Harpua-esque in the ending jam. Fish kicks in a Sesame Street theme rhythm (Kim Hannula mentioned this at one time.. the
jam, because of the rhythm, sounds similar to the Sesame Street theme, but with no actual tease of that theme.. I think the band
was thinking a more Happy Harpua sort of rhythm..and a Mango transition), and Mango comes in at 47:48 or so. Mango kinda
leaps in.. Trey just starts playing it. Well. I didn't really like that Weekapaug, which is very unusual, because I usually worship
this song. This was honestly the lamest version I've heard in some time. Too WEIRDED OUT for my tastes. I don't know. If
someone really likes it, have a go at a more reasonable review, but it just wasn't that melodious at all. Period. If you are looking
for a typically harmonic and gorgeous Weekapaug, don't look here, because this one WAS JUST PLAIN STRANGE, and just
didn't really sound that great to me, although it was admittedly jazzy at times (just not that great, given what I've heard Phish do
when jazzy..). Trey seemed more interested in raising hell in a dissonant and spooky sort of way than in actually playing
Weekapaug. If you are fond of scary and somewhat noisy Phish jams, get this Weekapaug. If you are disgusted by Dangerous
Phish Improv, stay away! SUch jams have more in common with the Brown Spittoon than the Golden Hose.. I'm not going to
analyze the rest of this set, except to say that Antelope was a typical Fall '94 great version (much better than 12/30/95, fwiw!).
I'm going to put the 47:48 time, though, in The Summary, since I think it is important to include the Simple, JAM, and Harpua in
this timing (no Horse Silent crap in here.. ;^). This was an exceptionally weird "MikeS Groove," I will grant, but as far as
listening to it again, well... I'm eliminating tapes from my collection and this will be one of them. Just TOO BIZARRE for me. If
this bothers you, I'm sorry. This jam didn't really move me, and nothing in this set is so above average as to warrant keeping
(I'm going to try to liquidate hundreds of hours from my Phish collection). Strangely, I enjoyed the Mike's Song, but the
Weekapaug was lame, a great disappointment, as was the JAM preceding Harpua. Nothing even CLOSE to the
SYMPHONY that 11/16/94 is (right, Mr. Witt?). Given the fact that Harpua came between Mike's and 'paug, I am compelled
not to take this whole crazy, long JAM lightly. So I'll give it an AWESOME rating, i.e., a "B", out of respect for those of you
who I'm sure think this was spectacular Phish. I still say the Weekapaug is poor, as is the JAM before Harpua, and anyone who
has been reasonably appreciable of my taste in jams should take note. There are simply no 11/16/94 or 12/29/94-2 hose jams
in here.. just chaotic, significantly more experimental tweezeresque sorts of jams. The Mike's, Simple, and Harpua are all fine
versions, if not arguably above-average versions (slightly..), though. But nothing is so good as to prevent me from passing this
one on. two yen charlie