phishcrit

4/22/93 - CLEVELAND, OH

OK, here goes #phish project show 55: 4/22/93, Cleveland, OH, Agora Theatre. Might have to split this one in half.

4/22/93: Opening the show with a cold-start Suzy (no Oh Kee Pah) and a Sparkle = somebody needs to wake up, either the band or the crowd.

4/22/93: Nice gentle swells of feedback by Trey to kick off this Reba jam, builds to multiple peaks. Still pretty linear, but well done.

4/22/93: There’s something awkward about these Spring ‘93 Chalkdusts…maybe just due to being slotted mid-set more often than not.

4/22/93: Twisted Stash spends a good long time knee deep in dissonance, peaks, then hits a horror-movie coda before dying in a whisper.

4/22/93: Song lengths for Reba (14.5 min) and Stash (12.5) suggest times are starting to stretch out to Golden Era length. #zzyzx

4/22/93: Two Rifts in two nights, eh? You guys know Columbus and Cleveland are only 2 hours apart, right? #thosewerethedays

OK, resuming #phish project 4/22/93 this morning with Set II. Sorry for the long setbreak, folks.

4/22/93: The energy from a pretty psychotic Llama opener is quickly buffered by Bouncin’ - despite Trey yelling “ROCK OUT!” at the end.

4/22/93: Lot of playfulness in the composed portion of this Tweezer, more like a late-90s version. But jam is old-school atonality/slowdown.

4/22/93: Oooh, a pretty thorough Vibration of Life explanation/demonstration in the YEM ambient section. I feel recharged. #7beatspersecond

4/22/93: Y’know, hearing the Vibration of Life on tapes might have been my first exposure to Drone as a kid, jokey or not.

4/22/93: A long segment of this YEM jam is just Trey and Fish. Not particularly interesting. Taking turns soloing is no fun.

4/22/93: Very close to a full-on “Lovelight” tease in this vocal jam - “lay it down on me” instead of “let it shine on me,” same meter.

4/22/93: Fish asks the crowd for suggestions to replace HYHU, songs that he might hate as much as Argent’s - “We Got the Beat” is proposed.

4/22/93: Tweeprise like an afterthought, so far away from the fireworks grand finale it is today. Wouldn’t ignite in a theatre, I guess.

4/22/93 verdict: 1st set carries over some of the momentum from last night’s big Melt, but 2nd set sounds tired, light on ideas. Long tour.