Subject: 10/17 Setlist and Review
From: dnooter@haverford.edu (Dan Nooter)

Hey y'all,

here's the list...

10/17/96  Bryce Jordan Center, PSU, State College, PA
1:  ASZ -> Funky Bitch, Sparkle, Tweezer, Theme, Talk*, PYITE, Character
Zero, A Day in the Life, Tweezer Reprise
2:  Ya Mar, Chalkdust Torture, Bathtub Gin, Scent of a Mule, ree, Lizards,
Star Spangled Banner**, David Bowie
E:  Golgi

*Trey on acoustic
**a capella

...and here's the review...

Prologue

It was a loooooong drive to the show; there must have been some HUGE
ccident on the highway towards the beginning of the trip, because _four_
fire trucks and two helicopters passed us (my friend Dave and me) while we
sat. We were finally able to make it to a smaller state road (which was
also accident laden) Pennsylvania drivers suck, is the long and short of
it. Anyway, we tried to maintain about an 80 clip, and made it to the lots
at 7:45. I sprinted to will-call to see if a friend was there that I was
supposed to meet at 7:00. (Are you reading this Allan? How long were you
waiting? I'm sooooooorrrrrrrryyyyyyyyyyyy.......). We made it to our seat
just seconds before the lights went down, which was very convenient...

First Set

ALSO SPRACH: A lot like most others you've heard. At this point, the main
thing this has to offer for me is the spectacle of Chris' lighting --
which was good, but I've seen better. Ditto on the ASZ in general. The
only thing the kept going through my mind is "I have to use the bathroom
sooooooooo badly... Do I dare?"  chose to stick it out. Wisely, for ASZ
was followed by 
FUNKY BITCH: Yessssssss. Much better than the Red Rocks version (the only
other one I've seen). Very good version. I can't say much more, because I
couldn't concentrate much, because I REALLY needed to pee. I turned to
Dave after the song and said "please let them play Fee now so I can just
piss." 
SPARKLE: Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Truly one of the most satisfying pisses
I've ever taken. It lasted almost the whole song. One of those looong
sloooow pisses that seems to warm the entire breadth of your body and
nuzzle against your very soul (no...I didn't pee my pants if that's what
you're thinking...cut that out! ;). Anyway, with slight fecitiousness, I
claim Sparkle to be the highlight of the show.
TWEEZER: Well, it was awfully nice to get a first set Tweezer, and it is
my fave Phish song, but this version really didn't go anywhere. Rather
lame version. The jamming was _very_ indicative of Summer '95 jams -- no
real melody, but rather the layering of sounds in some spacey bricolage.
It sounded a lot like the very end of the Theme jam, and I kept expecting
them to break into "From the...From the...From the..." Right at the end,
Trey seemed to break out with this cool theme, but then the song ended in
less than ten seconds. Booooooooo. 
THEME: A good version, but a buzzkill after what looked like the germ of
an interesting Tweezer jam. The Theme jam, esp. at the ending, felt like
deja vu. HAven't I heard this before. Ah yes... it was nary five minutes
ago... Good ending, tho'. I do love this song.
TALK: Very nice. Trey on acoustic. I really like this song. But there's
not much to say about it.
PYITE: On the ride up, I named this as three popular songs I could be
happy never hearing again live (Wilson and Chalkdust were the others). It
was actually good as PYITEs go, mainly on account of some great jamming
from Page at the end of the song. Otherwise standard.
CHARACTER ZERO: Ooooooooh yeah.... How can you not love this song? At the
end they started singing something while the music faded out. Any ideas
what they were singing? Anyone???
A DAY IN THE LIFE: Okay.
TWEEZER REPRISE: Good first set closer. 

Set Break:

Wandered around; met the denizens of #phish; returned to my seat.

Second Set:

YA MAR: Good version I guess, but a better first set opener. For whatever
reason, I wasn't in the mood for this song last night.
CHALKDUST: Bwahahaahaaaaaa. "Need a teleprompter there, Trey?" Trey did
absolute violence to the lyrics of this version of CDT. He just butchered
them. Most of the verse was just Trey (gosh...I almost wrote Jerry)
strumming along, mummbling slightly, searching in vain for the lyrics.
Trey not only confused what he could of the ending, but he also did a good
job of confusing the beginning and middle. When the "Most Ironic Lyrics
for Trey to Flub" thread comes around 15 years from now, I'm going to be
voting for this one. The jam was actually pretty good despite all that.
Easily the night's comic relief.
BATHTUB GIN: Jammed for a while, but to nowhere in particular; showed
promise at first, but faded; fun at the time, but forgettable. Nor did it
have an ending. It just stopped. The band seemed somewhat confused.
SCENT: The highlight of the night (musically, as opposed to generally,
which I've already said was Sparkle). Great looooooong jam from Page.
Instead of following in typical (?) Scent fashion, however, Trey started
this ultra-simplistic staccato theme that he sung along to on guitar. As
he started it up, it sounded just like that memory gam, Simon. For a not,
then two, then three, until he built up this theme. It wasn't
awe-inspiring, but it was pretty neat. Page's rebuttal incorporated the
rhythm of Trey's theme. Nice. Mike seemed to do some Kodaly exercises
before breaking into the third verse, which was standard.
FREE: A little of the new Free; mostly the old Free. The lyrics were sung
in the slightly more metrical version on the album, and the _very_
beginning of the jam seemed like it was going to follow the album version
(which might have been cool, I thought). But then it went into usual
Free-ville, which Trey on the percussion and effects. It wasn't
particularly good tho' (and this from someone who thinks the 30+ min
Landover Free is the best thing Phish has played.) I was bored. Next.
LIZARDS: Next. [Trey had some feedback problems, which was the only
difference between this and any other Lizards.]
STAR-SPANGLED BANNER: This got the most enthusiastic crowd reaction. Trey
commented that the Lakers had called up the band and arranged for them to
sing this before a game in Dec., and that they'd practice on us. It was
done pretty well, but it was hard to hear since NO ONE STOPPED SCREAMING.
(GRRRRRRRRR!!!!) I guess some people were transported to a basketball
bame, where no one actually listens to the national anthem, as if it's
incidental background music. Come on, people, sho a little respect. While
you're at it, show some at the games you go to. Geeez.
DAVID BOWIE: Standard opening. The jam started off _really_ good. Slooooow
paced, but it sounded like the band was playing cohesively and feeling out
their space. This could have been a very good Bowie (tho' not as good as
the majestic version from Red Rocks) if Chris hadn't screwed it up. I
guess Chris got bored with Bowie foreplay, because he started this bright
flashing white lights going against the manic purple background, and the
band had no choice but to follow along into this manic jam, foregoing
verything they had built up so brilliantly before that. Baaaaaad Bowie.
_Bad_ job Chris. And I'm usually a big fan of Chris' work; but he blew it
tonight. Huuuuuge buzzkill; the end of the Bowie was trite, and left a bed
taste in my mouth. 

GOLGI: Before they cme out, I turned to my friend and said "please not
Golgi or Fee". Alas. Pretty good, as Golgis go. But amazingly like other
Golgis which we;ve all heard way too many times. The only Golgi I really
like is the 11/12/94 version (after that best-ever Harry), for its
chairoscuric dynamic changes. As for this Golgi....standard, as you'd
expect.

Definitely a below average show. Nothing stood out, and it's certainly not
worth getting the tapes. The problem is that no song really was good all
the way through. The Bowie showed the most promise, but really died once
Chris put on those stupid lights. A Good first set, tho'; better than the
second, for certain. But if you missed this show, you didn't miss much...

See y'all at MSG,

New Potato Caboose Squirrel =^)

******************************************************************************
*   "A lovely view of  **      Daniel Nooter      ** "Don't you see
anything *
* heaven but I'd rather **  18 Hannum Drive #1B  **     that you'd like
*
*    be with you"--Dead  **  Ardmore, PA  19003 ** to 
try?"--Phish  *
******************************************************************************
:-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-)**      SMILE!
**(-:(-:(-:(-:(-:(-:(-:(-:(-:(-:
                            *******************