phishcrit

5/8/93 - DURHAM, NE

Here goes the Black Friday special - 5/8/93, Durham, NH, UNH Field House. The last show of Spring Tour ‘93 proper*. #phishproject

5/8/93: (* - not counting Laguna Seca Daze as Spring Tour)

5/8/93: If you are unfamiliar with #phishproject due to its dormancy, here’s my (nearly 2-year-old!) summary: bit.ly/9FLDYB

5/8/93: Opening quartet infused with some last-show pep while remaining standard. Some nice off-script jazz-chording in the Guelah intro.

5/8/93: Nice bit of SBD (cop it at LivePhish.com) under-the-hood insight - Trey scatting a counter-rhythm to the Mound drums intro off mic.

5/8/93: Annals of Phish fan behavior - instead of clapping during the Stash pauses, there is a coordinated high-pitched yelp.

5/8/93: Stash jam deftly poised on the border between type I and II - keeps returning to chord progression then darting back to freedom.

5/8/93: Especially like the pointillist > drone segment pre-Kung. The return into Stash isn’t quite as triumphant as 4/14/93 though.

5/8/93: Beautiful, quiet riff by Trey for 1min starting around 7:50 of this Reba. Love hearing the other 3 color in the space around it.

5/8/93: Wouldn’t be a tour closer without the traditional crew thank you speech. No music other than one Page “Charge!” tease.

5/8/93: “The guy who throws the big balls out, Brad, sitting over there. Big ball thrower.” cc @trey_talks

5/8/93: Say goodbye to Ellington’s Satin Doll, last performance ever. Would be really surprised to see it come back.

5/8/93: OK into Set II, which starts off with a Hall of Famer. First time Bowie opened a second set on this tour.

RT @GuyForgetOPT @robmitchum Interesting how Bowie used to appear mostly in 1st sets. 5/8/93 was really the start of the 2nd set Bowie trend.

5/8/93: Ironic how Page takes most of the Jessica teases (and boy do they sound creepy). Also, “Get Back” secret language!

5/8/93: Both Stash and Bowie dropped immediately into free jamming out of the composed segments, a rarity at the start of this tour.

5/8/93: The gradually accelerating tempos in this Bowie before and after Have Mercy are just the most exciting damn thing.

5/8/93: According to my records, this is the 2nd-longest “Horse” of tour (3:03) after 4/18/93. Pretty nice.

5/8/93: Nicely extended “metronome” section in It’s Ice, with the King Crimson riff that inspired Dave’s Energy Guide.

5/8/93: 6 minutes of full band jamming after Page’s Coil solo is a pleasant surprise, though it’s a bit standard-bluesy for my taste.

5/8/93: Dug the transition from Mike’s > Crossroads much more than the actual cover. I liked hearing the riff ping around the instruments.

5/8/93: 4.5 minute Weekapaug to close out a tour full of great ones is kind of a bummer, but Amazing Grace jam over the drums is v. neat.

5/8/93: And AC/DC Bag closes out a run of 71 shows over 3 months, 5 days in 60 cities and 32 states. (Took me 2 yrs, 3 mos to cover).

5/8/93 verdict: The classic Bowie (+ lesser-known Stash, Reba) nicely sum up what was learned in early ‘93 and preview the summer to come…