The guy above who reviewed this show is right. There were a lot of suburban high schoolers there. I was one of them. I had just graduated High school. My best buddy calls says he's got 'goodies for the mind'( it was my first time for TWO things this night ;-) ) and tix for phish. do I wanna come? I had maybe 5 Phish tapes at this point and a bunch of Dead and at this point still thought The Dead was where it's at.
Jones Beach Amp is a pretty place to see a show . you looking at the stage look right into the ocean behind the stage. but the security there has gotten worse over the years. These shows were probably the last where you could drink in the parking lot there . I think they have stopped serving alcohol altogether there or was never allowed. It didn't matter to me I was doing just fine:-)
the Axilla at the time seemed to me out of place with the mood because people were still coming in. Foam hit that sentiment perfectly . It turns out to be 11 minutes long. Some real good examples of the band listening to each other here. There's a general rule to the band that the quieter they bring themselves in the beginning of the jam the louder and crzier than jam will get. Its not a hard and fast rule but I've yet to come across a jamm where Trey will bring the band to silence and the jam doesn't end on fire. This Foam is the band stretching out .and by this time everybody was in for a dramatic Fast Enough for you. One of my fav ballads in all of music. the sun was going down but it was still sort of light outside so the lights were'nt a factor but you could still see the water behind the stage and the song fit perfectly.
Trey's tone is sorta muddy and whiny but sharp and definite. Like a saxaphone. My mom always said saxaphones sound like a man begging and here Trey's guitar sounds like a man begging.
REBA! From here on in this show is classic material. Filling out this setlist on j-card was a pleasure! the orchestrated part is played perfectly. the crowd was into it and it was getting dark so chris could play some too! the staggered chase like part right before the jam was perfect and then the jam and guess what happens he brings the band down low. It almost sounds like the 6/23/95 reba and tis because of the decision by Page to use the rhodes in the beginning of the jam.
the waterloo 6/23/95 reba is amazing. This is ok. by itself Its fantastic to start this show for reals. No whistling
PYITE. Another good sign. Every time I've seen a PYITE it was a great show. solid. By the time Stash started it was almost dark and the water was reflecting lights.
Again flawless written section. Very creepycomputerrock I call the written part of Stash when its played loud and Trey's guitar tone is how it is on this tour. Trey immediatley gives the jam a theme . No real noodling. Trey and mike just see who can rock that theme on its ass. They get into an atonal groove with Mike repeating a figure and I just remember hearing air and thinking "what song is this?!?" then Trey throws out the theme again in another key and Mike takes that and gets you atonal latin rockin. PAge and Fish are laying that flying building of metal sound they perfected in '94 and then Trey screams us back into what we know is Stash! Then its Fish who loses it on the toms. Its like a robot falling down a mountain and we're in atonal rock space again until Trey screams us back in by holding a notes for almost a minute while Mike tries his best to pull us back into that robot falling down a mountain and Trey finally stops pushing pedals and delivers one of my favorite endings to Stash. operatic . scary. AWESOME. One of the best Stashes ever!
Then Fluffhead. its dark at this time. Im off to the right side of the amphitheatre right next to the water. Me and my friend had dance our way to an open area. So happy we did. This was my first religious experience at a concert
Every time they said Fluffhead my head floated into the water lol
By this time the crowd was super pumped and the powerful pills part even on listening to the recordings had an extra oomph to it.
TheFluff's Travels starts out s little sloppy Trey makes up for it though. He nails the Chase parts with Page ( who never seems to flub these parts lol) I remember somehow Chris lighting the friggin water behind the stage , on purpose or not it made this song feel like its own universe. The spotlight on PAge for a solo then the madness befor Check it out lol Jones Beach is a very cozy place. At this point it felt like we were in a jazz club in the downtown NYC . This was really page's show especially when you hear the Gumbo in the second Set. He kills all his solo on Fluffhead though. He sounds amazing. During the bundle of joy you feel the crowd wanting to just explode. Wipe those Fluffballs off your head!! we went bananas. Fish let us know from the start they were going to rock this one straight with his high-hat which they did. On tape its an alright jam. The Clifford Ball Fluffhead is my fav. In person it was outstanding then right into Chalkdust.
the last two songs took up 30 min . you should almost see this jam as a continuiation of Fluff's. Trey again goes right at it. he was quick with the themes and Page was just perfect as rythm piano laying a backdrop that trey just was bouncing off of wrapping around. we danced pretty hard. The band was on fire.
Second Set. Sample into poor heart is an opening you can live with after that first set. What follows is a MONSTER TWEEZER. clocks in at 30 minute with a DAve's Energy Guide in the middle. the first since 91. and a cannonball jamI had no idea at the time though. I just thought they were having the time of their lives on stage. I had moved closer aand to the middle. The whole place was bumpin' on some real positive energy lol Page went to his clav early . You could hear how funky they COULD get (and will 2 years later)
keeping with Trey's moaning guitar tone, he takes us down a slow groove in the beginning and Mike says I've had enough of that lol they clumsily follow Mike and then basically stop playing, while they figure out where all this is going ;-) this is literally jamming. I was definitley in the right frame of mind for this. It made sense and flowed a lot more when I was there. on tape its a disjointed, clumsy,music experiment. Fish drops a beat at the 13 minute mark and something resembling a song springs up with Trey coming up with a sick lick it almost sounds like they are about to go int Free but trey and fish hit on something and the band follows. Trey strums the guitar like the beginning of Llamma and fish kicks a quick beat and they ride this as they should because it was cool. It gets into 97 territory then into a a sick (what I now know is ) Dave's Energy Guide. I'm pretty sure this is the part of Tweezer I remember flowing lol .On tape its sorta similar to the stash jam in the first set. from DEG it gets weirder .then into a Cannon ball where try actually sings some words.
The Gumbo I remember being all Page. he killed the end. the crowd was jacked
This Sparkle made sparkle my favorite song for years.
High Energy Suzy.
The Sweet Adeline was awesome. The only other thing they could've done tonight was switch instruments