8-3-98 Deer Creek, Noblesville,IN


compared to the nite before i thought this show was well short of
topping  either of last nites sets.  Wedge was probably placed in the
worst spot possible, but it was good to hear it. Ride captain ride was a
fucking unreal treat for me and my kind brother miguel.  It took us
about 15 secs. to realize what they were playing but once we did, we
went pretty bizerk! The bike was hilarious and it was pretty obvious
that the boys were just trying to enjoy themselves, not rage with the
intensity of the nite before. I thought that they should have played a
YEM or a cavern or a something to bring the energy level back to what it
was in tube.
In other words i was glad to hear halley's, ride captain ride, bike, and
the wedge but i wish they would have been in different spots in the
setlist.



Good evening. Following a hyped 8/2 show and some good vibes amongst the
phans, I was really looking forward to this show. I had great seats
(Section C, right side, row E), perfect for studying Fish, my personal
hero. For all of you wondering about the Phish connection with other jam
bands like Ekoostik Hookah, I was hanging out before the show and I
spotted Hookah's Ed McGee (the rhythm guitarist/singer, NOT the one with
the really annoying voice). He talked about the upcoming live album,
Hookahville, and said that he "hadn't been to a Phish show in a while."
Pretty cool. Anyway, Phish also played... 

        Monday, August 3, 1998 DEER CREEK - "Holy shit! Hold Your Head up!!"

Rhinocerous: Continuing with the trend of slow songs and first-time
covers for openers, this one sort of plodded out. I probably would have
enjoyed this more had I not been spending so much time trying to
remember where I knew this song from...

Halley's Comet: Yes!! I hear this song so infrequently that I can't help
but hope for it. Very cool a cappella part with Trey really getting into
it. Aa for the jam...I read that some people really liked it and some
thought it did nothing. I'm more inclined to agree with the latter
viewpoint. I'll check it again when I get the tapes, but at the show I
was unimpressed with this jam. 

I Didn't Know: The Nancy Taube 1-2 punch, eh? Good version. I believe
Fish played the vacuum solo in Dorian mode, while instructing Page to
back him in d minor, which I find to be the saddest of all keys.
Anyway...

Ride, Captain, Ride: No. It can't be. Wow. It is. I've only heard this
once before (on tape). I'd much rather hear Phish hit me with a great
jam, but breakouts like this are lots of fun, too.

CTB: Great crowd reaction. I love hearing Page shine like this.
Excellent choice.

Moma Dance: Yes!! I was expecting this, since it's been in heavy
rotation this summer. This funked HARD. This entire song, like Ghost, is
a mo-fo funk THROW-DOWN. Maybe this wasn't the best version, but it was
exactly what I needed.

Strange Design: "And now, for your Top 40 pleasure..." Nice break here.
Ahhhh, Page sing. And the set-closer is...

Character Zero: Doh. Haven't we heard enough of this already? Actually,
this was a nice, high-energy version. However, like too many songs on
the Alpine-DC tour, my impression was that it was stopped short before
it really got out there.

The CTB and Moma Dance plus the Captain breakout made for an enjoyable
set, though a little thin. I was hoping for more in set II...

Gumbo: Cool opener. This is a perfect example of how the funk has bled
over into non-funky song (Wolfman's is another). Though I miss Page's
ragtime solo to end, the jam more than made up for it. Great jam here!
Very funky. If anyone watching this show had any doubts that Jon Fishman
is one of the most creative drummers out there today, this should have
assuaged them.  

Axilla: Yes! Great follow-up to a mellow funk jam. This rocked HARD. A
great experience.

Limb x Limb: Again, good placement. I was expecting this one, too. 

-> Taste: Haha. Kidding. Limb jam does sound an awful like Taste,
however. This was quite a jam. Fishman was, again, incredible in this
tune. Awesome drumming. Anyway, this jam went places. Good lights, too.
The best jam of the night, besides the encore, I think. 

Meat: A good aside. Nice tune actually. I love that little start/stop
syncopated lick. They stopped, had a conference, then played sort of a
"Meat Reprise." 

HYHU->Bike: Bum, bum, bum, bum-bum, Bum, bum, bum, bum-bum...No. It
can't be. Yes it is! As Trey took a seat at the drums (looking quite
foolish, I must add), the crowd went nuts! Fish said something I
couldn't understand, then the band segued into...Bike! Yes! Fishman is
just a hilarious troll when it all comes down to it. Wow. When he went
to the back of the stage as Bike ended, I thought he was gonna get
naked. But he didn't, which was probably a good thing. Anyway, a moment
I'll never for get.

Tube: Yes! Definitely on my wish-list. A solid version, not nearly as
good as the 12.7 Dayton version from last fall, but who's complaining?
Good segue into the 12/8 blues/Hendrix part. Especially since the next
song was the closer, I wish they'd have stretched this out.

Wedge: Great to hear, but I hoped it wouldn't close the set. A solid
version. Why couldn't they extend this? Anyway, this set was leaving me
feeling a bit under-nourished. As my friend Mike mentioned that this set
was about as short as last night's second set, which was followed by a
Hood encore, we were hoping for an Antelope...

When the Circus: At least they played this BEFORE Antelope...

Antelope: Yes! I expected the crowd to go a little nuts when Trey
started this one up, but actually everyone sounded a bit confused (I
went nuts). Fishman also went a little nuts on his jam blocks during the
intro, to the point where Trey looked over and laughed. I was so hyped
during the jam segment. VERY intense jams here. Awesome lights, too.
Wow. We all, of course, went nuts for "Set the gearshift..." What an
incredible way to end the Alpine -> DC run. Honestly, this Antelope
brought this show up to above-average for me. Awesome. Mmmm, nuts.

Anyway, a decent show. Lots of cool songs, but again, not much of it
stuck. For what it's worth, the first  night at DC was my favorite of
the run, with Alpine and second DC close behind. My overall impression
of Phish in summer '98 (forgive me for making such a judgement on the
basis of only 3 shows) is that the whole vibe of "Phish is really
exploring new ground and playing mind-blowing jams" felt last fall was
not very strong here. The band is as tight as ever, but they just didn't
seem to stretch out much musically. The sets were not coherent; they
didn't flow together very well, and the jams were not well defined with
a few notable exceptions. Also, the funk wasn't even that prevalent. Is
Phish stuck in transit as they move to a new
direction? I don't know. Anyway, I don't mean to give the impression
that I was dissapointed. Phish is still the greatest band on Earth, and
these shows were a lot of fun.

Thanks for reading!

Later,
CDH



I: Rhinoceros*, Halley's Comet**, I Didn't
Know***, Ride Captain Ride, Cars Trucks
Buses, Moma Dance, Strange Design,
Character Zero (65 min.)
II: Gumbo, Axilla I#, Limb By Limb@,
Meat, HYHU > Bike% > HYHU, Tube, The
Wedge (56 min.)
E: When The Circus Comes, Run Like An
Antelope^ (20 min.)

*Smashing Pumpkins cover, first time
played
**w/ extended jam
***w/ Fish on Vacuum
# w/ "Axilla II" ending
@ "second pause" before solo
% w/ vacuum
^ Trey says, "Been you to have any spliff?"

Last RIDE CAPTAIN RIDE - 12/30/92 (486 shows!)
Last BIKE - 11/7/96 (128 shows!)


RHINOCEROS - When it started, it
sounded pretty cool. But I was 
thinking, "What is this"?? At
first I thought it was a new
Phish tune, but neither the
lyrics of melody were coming
to me. Then, after a couple of
minutes, I caught somebody near
me on the lawn who was singing
the words and they told me it
was a Smashing Pumpkins song.
I figured that explained why I
wasn't familiar with it, me
being about the furthest away
from that band as you can get.
But the song sounded pretty
good, and even though I had not
heard the original version,
I sure was liking Phish's version.

HALLEY'S COMET - I was hoping
for a PYITE or something 
completely stellar and 
fast-paced for the band to
go into at this point, but 
"Halley's" was grooveable for
me & I enjoyed it. I really
enjoyed the jam they went off
on for a while, but I was more
surprised than anything else
to hear the band go into the
first few words of:

I DIDN'T KNOW - Halley's
into IDK? I thought this was
some sort of sick joke. It
was neat and interesting, but
here I was three songs into the
show and I still hadn't heard
any killer Phish originals (but
I had heard a pretty enjoyable
jam in Halley's.) IDK was fun
as usual, and Fish's crazy
vacuum solo had me laughing,
so I started to wonder if maybe
the band wasn't going to be
so epic-based as they
were the night before at Deer
Creek. I thought maybe they
were just trying to have fun
up there...

RIDE CAPTAIN RIDE: ...and, I was RIGHT
when they busted out their almost-
forgotten cover of this tune, which
I recognized instantly. I knew the
band hadn't covered it in a while.
It didn't really do a whole heckuva
lot for me, and what I needed was
a good jam or epic. But it was only
four songs into the first set, I
sure as heck wasn't gonna start 
ragging on the scene yet.

CARS TRUCKS BUSES: A pleasant
move. Page's handiwork is always
gladly accepted by my ears at
shows, and CTB was the first
piece I heard that really made 
me glad I had picked up the 
second D. Creek night's tickets.
Some really fine keyboard jamming
made the perfect segue into the 
jammed-out funkyness of...

MOMA DANCE: I hadn't heard this
song before this night, so I
didn't quite know what it was
until hearing the refrain. This
night the band played it out 
with a really long intro, and
so I finally was able to recognize
it as "Black-Eyed Katy" with lyrics.
A crowd-pleaser, I can see this
song being in heavy rotation on
Phish sets for a few years. I
could really tell the band
seemed to be having a lot of fun
up there jamming to these laid
back songs. So it was no surprise
they kept the mood up for at
least one more song.

STRANGE DESIGN: This beautiful
piece left over from "Billy
Breathes" sessions really had
me singing along. I had heard
it on many tapes but was kind
of surprised at its triumphant
return since its abandonment
from such heavy rotation
in '95-'96. Too bad the band
hadn't decided to include it
on the album, it sure is a 
peaceful & tranquil number...

CHARACTER ZERO: This being 
probably one of my most
over-played Phish songs, I
know it front and back
but yet have not grown 
sick of it. Probably the
biggest highlight of the
first set, the band had
it going on especially with
the jam, as Trey took the
song to new heights with
a wildly explosive guitar
solo. Kind of saddened me,
not because of they chose
to play it, but because
Character Zero is a famous
choice for a first set
closer, so I knew this
would probably be it for
30-40 minutes. And I was
right... but what a killer
jam to end such a fun set!
According to my watch the
set totaled about 65 minutes.

GUMBO: One of those songs
that's always good to hear,
the words to Gumbo were
fun to singalong with and
the jam out of it was great.
But the energy of "Character
Zero" had left me wanting
more of that urge to get
down heavy, which I would
get in a matter of minutes
with the head-banging
assault of...

AXILLA I: YES! I couldn't
help but dance like crazy
to the drum & guitar barrage
that encircles this song. The
lyrics are quite a bit more
zany and mysterious than those
of Axilla II, yet because the
music is basically identical,
I didn't know which words I'd
be grooving to until hearing
"I dropped the buzzard in
the sand..." Makes me wish
for an Axilla > Axilla II,
oh well... maybe someday! 

LIMB BY LIMB: The band paused
for a minute right after the
long refrain which made me
think they were ending it
early. Then the solo just
came in without warning and
left me really puzzled. Except
for this, it was basically
the standard live Limb By
Limb. Nothing too exciting.

MEAT: I was glad to get to
hear this crazy funked-out
Mike song. It does really make
a good sequel to "Ghost" (which
I've heard was the band's purpose
in doing this song...) It seemed
pretty short, but the craziest
thing about the song was how 
the band would end it, pause for
a minute or two, and then go back
into it. I thought twice throughout
the song it was over! It's a 
really fun piece of music, though,
hope to hear it on the new album...

HYHU: When the notes of "Hold
Your Head Up" came on and I saw
Trey and Fish change places, I got
extremely excited and couldn't wait
to hear what Fish would do. It seemed
like the band really was going crazy
tonight, and I mean CRAZY! But nothing
I had ever heard in the world that Fish
had done compared to what he would do 
with...

BIKE: From the Syd Barrett-Pink Floyd
days, this crazy song was hammed up so
much by Fish that everybody in the
place was dying with laughter! The
most unbelievable thing about hearing
this was that my buddy next to me had
told me before the show, very
nonchalantly, "They are going to play
BIKE." I knew, of course, he was only
kidding, as the song hadn't been played
in about 2 years, and what were the
chances they would pull it out tonight?
Either my buddy was psychic or had
connections, or it was just part of
the fun and mystery which is Phish (and
especially Fish.) I was screaming 
throughout the whole song to my buddy
at how unbelievable (and hysterical!)
the whole thing was! Fish took up his
vacuum again (saying something like,
"I just can't stay away from the vacuum
tonight!") and got so much laughter &
applause that I knew this show definitely
redefined the word FUN.

HYHU REPRISE: Fish ran all over the
stage, really hammed it up, after which
Trey called him "Bob Weaver". I was
going crazy and as far as I was concerned,
the night had already been set in my
mind as so special it was groundbreaking.

TUBE: And just to make sure everybody
in the place wasn't dead from laughter,
"An asteroid crashed and nothing burned!"
came from the mouth of Trey as the band
got back into a heavy boogie with this
song. The jam was great and I was dancing
like crazy.

THE WEDGE: Wow! Wow! Wow!!! Couldn't
believe they chose to end the set with this
song! It was played near-perfectly, and I
think was a real good way to end a really
great set, and night in general! 
This set I timed at about 56 minutes.

WHEN THE CIRCUS COMES: I know this is
a popular encore cover for the band, it
has sad lyrics on top of a soothing melody.
Not what I would request for an encore, but
the band would not let us down that night.
The last few notes of this ballad trailed
off into the beginning notes of the epic...

RUN LIKE AN ANTELOPE: This song is the sole 
reason the night was a success. An unbelievable
jammed out intro, a crazy middle section and
a non-stop build up right before the "Marco
Esquandolas" breakdown. The band had it
on "MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE" with this one. Trey's key
phrase tonight was "Been you to have any
SPLIFF, man???" which had quite a bit of
audience response and had me smiling. "SET
THE GEARSHIFT" was high energy and when they
hit the last chord of the song, I couldn't
help but have a non-stop smirk on my face.
"Ride Captain Ride". "Meat". "Bike".
"Rhinoceros". "Antelope". WOW, WHAT A NIGHT.

In Summation: If you're wanting a very
fun show with less epic value and more
musical craziness, get these tapes. The
jams out of "Zero" and "Antelope" make
it worthwhile from a full-throttle
musical standpoint, but otherwise it
is more or less a collection of a killer
band having a laid-back, good time on
stage.



        Just got back from the shows and was overwhelmed. I was getting kind of
worried what they would play at the Creek since  they played a lot of
good stuff prior to the shows. But I was not dissappointed afterwards.
        The scene was and is the best of all lots. Maybe with the exception of
Hampton. Surprisingly, tickets were not hard to come by at all. People
couldn't even get rid of lawn seats for less than cost. And the people
were nice and friendly as always. Now on to the show.
        
Rhinoceros- A feedback build up and then the solid 4/4 beat just like on
the CD to start. I didn't know what it was til Trey started singing, and
then I knew. I've been a fan of SP for a while so I knew the song. There
version I would say was not as good as the original, but definitely a
nice change of pace. Trey's vocals didn't match the soft,girly sounding
Billy Corgan and Fishman is no Jim Chamberlain. But a good version
nonetheless.

Halley's Comet- A long conference between members and then Gordo kicked
it. The place went bonkers. A great version. Ranks up there with
Hampton. A great jam at the end and very solid all around. The jam
slowly melted into nothing and then...

I Didn't Know- Another crowd favorite. With Fishman on vacuum it was
hilarious. What is up with his hair anyway.

Ride,Captain,Ride- Very solid. Page was getting off big time. I love
this tune and am glad I had the chance to see it. The crowd was really
into it now and they knew that we were ready for a huge show.

Cars,Trucks,& Buses- I've never heard the crowd roar as much for this
song as I heard it that night. It was placed beautifully in the set.
Page would not let the song end. He just kept pumping the keys. Never
really liked this tune. But liked it here. 

Moma Dance- I had heard this on one of the Europe tapes I got before the
show and thought, WOW! It is Black-Eyed Katy with lyrics and some zip.
It really rocks. Especially, towards the end. This will be a crowd
pleaser to come.

Strange Design- I had been waiting for this tune. And this set reaffirms
Page's strength to the band. He carried this tune. It was a bit
different from past versions I have heard. A bit spacey. And Fishman and
Page kept fighting with the rythym the whole song, but it was great to
hear.

Character Zero- People have expressed I desire for less of this song,
and I tend to agree. But I also say if it placed well in the show it can
be very energetic. I would say it was the latter. The crowd went
bolistic. And Trey did not disappoint. The jam was stellar and climaxed
to end the set. 

Set Two


Gumbo- This was another great change of pace. I like this song a lot.
And when it opens a show it is better. A great solid version. A very
long spacey jam at the end. It kind of reminds me of Wolfman's in that
respect. The jam got really dark as Mike was leading the way. And as the
jam came to an exhillarating climax it stopped and then...

Axilla- The pulsating drums of Fishman. I thought I was gonna get caught
in a mosh pit, but luckily I didn't. I don't know why some fans don't
like this tune. Maybe, it is because it resembles nothing like what
should be going on at a "hippie show" or maybe cause it is so fast.
Anyhow, the crowd seemed to rock out to it and so did I. The end jam
melted into....

Limb x Limb- Starting to be a crowd pleaser, this version did not
disappoint. The rearrangement leads to more jamming and they did. The
jam was a bit lost for awhile but was picked up again by Mike and then
slowly just melted away and stopped.

Meat- I heard this song on a Europe tape and was ready for it. This is
an incredibly funky tune with some start/stop intracacies. You think it
is over and then right back into it. It was funny cause they stopped,
conversed about what to play next and then went back into Meat. When the
song ended it went right into HYHU.

Bike- Fishman came out and the roar of the crowd was deffening. I had no
thought on what he would do since he hasn't come out in a while. But
"Bike" was a pleasant surprise. Fishman said he couldn't get enough of
the vacuum so he was up there again. If you have never heard this tune,
it is the funniest thing in the world. And Fishman was hamming it up.
Big thrust motions and funny facial expressions and just overall making
a fool out of himself. Back to HYHU and Fishman started running around
the stage taking his kudos from the crowd.

Tube- a big conference on what to play. Every member had some input. I
think they got to all the tunes but played this one first. The new and
improved funky version is quite nice. But I prefer the solid, structured
old rock version myself. The jam was tight. But I felt it could have
been better.

Wedge- No way. Phish has been fiddling with this song for years. Not
sure on how to jam it or where to put it in a set. I think this is the
first time they have ended a set with it. It was great to hear. No mess
ups. A real great tune to here in the middle of cornfields. The end was
repetitive, and I think Trey said, "Well, whatever and thanks for coming
out tonite". 

Circus- I think people were ready for a mammoth encore. Maybe something
rare or something. When they started this I felt as though people were
let down. Maybe cause Rocky Top might be coming next and that would not
be cool to end a great show like that. This song was very slow in tempo
and was decent. I liked it.

Antelope- Now it was on. If you ever get this tape. You have to hear
this Antelope first. It will blow your mind. They climaxed like 5 times
before going into the marco part. It was complete pandamonium. The light
show was crazy, and had everybody worked up. Then Trey kicked the
"spliff" reference and busted into the drum role. What an ending and
what a show. Personally, not as good as some I have seen but definitely
up there in the top 5.

peace
scott