Greetings Everyone,
 
Welcome to the second edition of AIR!  I have been away on vacation so
that is the reason for my lack of posting after the initial post.  I
received a lot of encouraging comments from you all so I would like to
continue the thread.  I would really like it if you all could write to me
and tell me about your fav version of antelope so that I can take a crack
at reviewing it, or I really would like to see others review this song as
well... (I saw one the other day that was pretty good, thanks Fitz).  

I chose 8/06/96 as today’s subject because I thought it would be cool to
touch on something relatively new.  Here is the complete info:

8/06/96 Red Rocks Amp.- Morrison, CO
Set I (third night).

Antelope--  Intro is first noodled by Trey and shortly thereafter Mike
picks it up.  Page is right on it, and the intro develops into a bizarre
format that deviates from the standard.  The intro is short as the boys
push to the opening theme at:

2:06  Bam, Bam, Bam, Bam!!  Trey is sustaining a sweet feedback tone for
half a minute instead of the usual licks and the tempo is a bit faster!
The Trey trill comes around 2:35 and the key change to E minor at

2:40  The whole opening theme is a bit rushed, and although very together,
not the best I have heard by a long shot.  Trey drills and builds the E
minor jam as Page is right behind him, but nothing spectacular or spacy,
until...
4:45 the jam picks up when Mike kicks in the second gear.  Trey and Page
develop and semi-spacy session and then Trey rips into the whole thing at
around 6:15... but still nothing too great... a lot of very tired sounding
and repetitious workings.  Trey has tried to take the jam higher on two
occassions only to fall off a few seconds later, pretty dissappointing
thus far imo.  

Finally, at 8:14 Trey gives it another shot with a screaming riff and this
time it clicks!  Page is going nuts!!!  Mike is working with Fish to keep
the backbone together and Trey is feeling the effort of his bandmates...
wow!!!! Things are building, a climax is in sight!!!! But then a sharp
closure right before the peak and...  sweet...

Pre-Marco-Mike-Groove at 9:31-- Mike is laying it down and Trey adds some
very funky chording to keep the mood right and then --
10:09 Trey: “Twenty one year-old Phish-fan Marcus Esquandolas”
(Definitely in reference to the riot the day before where a local
newspaper quoted a guy saying something to the effect of, “Go away you
slime!” to some cops at the riot.  The reporter mistakenly understood his
name to be Marcus Esquandolis.)
The crowd goes ape-shit at this point, recognizing the reference and the
groove continues with:
“Would you happen to have any...  (pause)... Spike... MAN?”  (something to
that effect) at 10:20.

Kicks back into the opening theme jam at 10:29...
Run, run, run, run, run....
11:00  “Set the gearshift into the high gear of your soul!
You’ve got to run like an antelope, out of control!”

A couple of resounding choruses of “Run like an Antelope out of control!!”
to close the song, no jams or continuations.  

End of song at 11:58, end of set.

All in all, exciting because it was new and at Red Rocks and all, but the
setlist previous to this song probably tired the boys out a bit and it
really showed especially at the beginning of Antelope.  I see what they
were going for: a totally explosive cap to an incredible set, but they ran
out of steam it seems.  I don’t really like to grade performances because
everyone has their own take and experience, but I wouldn’t add this
version to my collection of the top five or anything.  The Marcus
reference was pretty fun though!  Trey was really showing there that he
keeps up with what is going on with the fans, and well, I bet he even
surfs the .net for the news just like us!  Anyway, until next time, next
show, next Antelope,
ciao,

Victor Szalvay
AKA, Captain William Prichard