--------------------------------
Dan Hewins
hewins@cec.wustl.edu 

The next day we went in when the gates opened and
did the sprint to the stage, I was not in shape for
this so Alan and I caught up to Dan who had a spot
pretty close up. This was all good except I forgot
the cards so were more bored than before. Also the
sun was out more than the day before. To reiterate,
Sunburn: bad.

The first set was full of crowd pleasers. Suzy, Fee,
Sample, Lizards, Reba. I liked this set very much
though. I liked the Old Home Place. Did Mike write
that song? The lyrics can be pretty funny maybe.
PYITE is a favorite of mine. The rhythms in the
opening part are always different and Trey's leading
the way. I like versions of this one from 89 too,
the ending's different, listen to one if you haven't
already. The Reba was very nice and I liked the
Taste too. One syllable song titles: Taste, Free,
Waste, Talk, BBFCFM. Page has been given more
freedom now, Taste, 2001, beginning of Bathtub,
Free. I like it, good stuff. I like Cars, Trucks, &
Busses a lot. Fee I could do without.

Set break we go back to the car and chill to the
sounds of the Clifford Ball Orchestra over the air
waves. We came back to the "compound" towards the
end of the classical set when I notice a very cool
thing. There was a part of the music that built and
built up to some high point and people around us
were cheering. The coolest thing about having this
kind of crowd for this kind of music is that you get
a reaction. I have never heard people cheer for
classical music while it was being played, people
always seem to wait until the piece is over but not
Phish fans, they cheered right when it was
happening. I thought that was very cool. Well, all
this and we basically had a whole show ahead of us.

The first set of the evening I think was my favorite
of the day. I love the Curtain, this one seemed to
have so much energy too. Runaway Jim was great too,
the jam went somewhere and never came back but it
had something to it that I can't describe. Towards
the end it was not typical Runway Jim but the energy
was there and they somehow managed to cap it with
the ending riff and the ending lyrics. Jim: good.
It's Ice was sweet! The middle part was awesome!
They went somewhere different from the very start
and had the coolest little jam there. I usually
think I can tell when they go back into things like
the end of SOAM and that I can notice other little
signals they do but the reentry to Ice took me
completely by surprise. I was digging the jam so
much I wasn't paying attention. Yeah man. Brother
was sweet. I have been waiting to hear this tune
forever and the Letterman-esque Ben and Jerry spot
was funny as anything. I would like them to keep
this one out and really start work on it again.
Fluffhead was great as usual and followed by
Antelope like Red Rocks 6/11/94, all right. I like
this combination because Fluffhead is all written
except for the jam at the end and Antelope is all
jam except for a written part at the end. They're
complimentary tunes. Now, I don't know about the
acrobatics during Antelope and the Tweezer later on.
I thought this was interesting at first but also
very weird. The woman on the rope was not really a
pro and what she was doing didn't really have much
to do with the music being played. It also took my
attention (and maybe the band's) attention off the
music and I find that a bit disappointing. I bet the
tapes will reveal a less than exciting Antelope. The
Slave had a hard rock interlude where Trey normally
screams and I liked it. I think Slave could just end
with Trey playing the chords and picking through
them. When he hit that high note he made it sound
like Possum and we have all heard that before. It
could just end with the huge build on chords.

Set break, we stay up close and sit and wait for
more musics.

Wilson, dunun dunun, Wilson, dunun dunun. Then came
Frankenstein; I like this one, always have, always
will. SOAMule was cool. At forst I didn't think I
wanted to hear it but Page's solos were good and
Fish's solo was really good. It was good to se Trey
give that to Fish. My friend asked on friday if Fish
had ever taken a drum solo and I said that I didn't
think he had. Here's one and a good one at that.
Tweezer was ornamented with people on big
trampolines. The guys were wiping out because of the
strobe lights. They were better when the strobes
ended. They weren't jumping in time with the music
but maybe that's too much to ask. The band seemed to
disregard the jumpers and play so the Tweezer was
better than the Antelope in my opinion. Still weird
though with the acrobats. It seemed like they
wouldn't stop when the song was winding down either.
Oh well, A Day in the Life, Tweezer Reprise.

Encore was Harpua and the plane was early with the
trail of sparks. Harpua had no Oom pah pah or an
end. They just stopped and left a trail of repeating
effects. No big flashy end, just a tapering, winding
down. Interesting to have that for the walk back to
the car.

To sum up, Clifford Ball: good. Free water, lots of
music, many people, good food, Ball Square,
Airplanes, the whole theme, the radio. All good.

I missed Timber Ho! and YEM, would have liked to
hear those.

Now back to what I said I would continue later. Have
I seen and heard too much Phish? I'm beginning to
think I have. I listened to Phish like I have been
taking a class on them. I listened to every song
they have performed save a few and listened to
changes they have made over the years. I think I may
have exhausted what I need to know about them. Don't
get me wrong though, this is not a non feeling kind
of thing either. I love what I listen to. Take some
of these for example: 4/7/92 Rift; 4/18/92 Antelope,
Possum, Harry, Divided Sky; 8/2/93 Bathtub Gin;
7/21/91 Runaway Jim, Tweezer; 4/16/92 Mike's Groove;
11/8/91 Weekapaug; 10/31/94 Simple. There are so
many more that I love and that give me a great
feeling. I just find myself getting bored with some
of the jams nowadays, especially Possum. It's the
same thing over and over again. Maybe I expect too
much variance or something, I don't know. I am eager
to hear the new album and I will always be
interested in that but maybe I'll only go see
Halloween next fall and that's all.

Warning: Shameless grovel. If anyone has good tapes
of this, I am interested. I have much to trade.

Most of all: Thank you, Phish, for an incredible
weekend!

If you made it this far then you have an incredible
attention span. Thanks for reading this and If you
have anything to say please do. Any comments are
appreciated. mail me at hewins@cec.wustl.edu


Dan Hewins
hewins@cec.wustl.edu