From: prbyers@ix.netcom.com (Phillip R. Byers)
Subject: pHiL's 8/6 Review

hey everyone-

its about 1AM mountain time, but I just can^Òt sleep after this amazing 
show... first of all, let me say this: these four shows will go down in 
phish history. period. the last three nights have been so insane that I 
can BARELY put them into words...

ok, i^Òm a dumbass and left my notebook in the car... i^Òll go get it... 
ok, i^Òm back...

here^Òs the list with highlights:

makisupa policeman- HOW APPROPRIATE! after the phish phans and their 
run-ins with the law last night, this was a perfect opener. everyone was 
smiling, dancing etc... lets talk about crowds- tonights crowd was the 
best by far. monday^Òs sucked and Sundays was ok (probably just because 
it was the opening night) but I mean it when I say that this crowd was 
ready to rumble...

rift- ok, this (for me) was the highlight of the show. standard rift, 
but the thing is this- as soon as they started playing it, the place 
went crazy. THEN... right before page says: ^Óand silence contagious in 
moments like these...^Ô trey (very deliberately) stops, looks around, 
points to the crowd and says: ^Óthis is red rocks, this is the edge.^Ô AT 
THIS POINT, I THOUGHT RED ROCKS WAS GOING TO BLOW UP! the crowd went 
absolutely bezerk. I mean fuckin CRAZY...

suzie greenberg- after the whole trey ^Óred rocks^Ô thing, everyone was 
excited enough. but when they started suzie, the crowd excitement was 
transported to a new level. the suzie had a simple tease too which was 
cool, because next they played...

simple- standard and actually NOT that tight. but still exciting. the 
boys were playing the crowd like a cheap violin...

theme from the bottom- theme was standard musically, but the sky, the 
clouds and the general excitedness made theme an excellent choice for 
this slot. they needed to slow down sometime and this was a perfect slow 
down...

lizards- standard, but good. once again- the boys were pumping up that 
crowd...

dinner and a movie- AWESOME! I was so excited (having never seen this 
live). the crowd was really into it and the boys looked like they were 
having a great time.

horn- standard. actually, I went to make a call. please don^Òt flame me. 
I didn^Òt know what I was doing...

antelope- antelope jammed HARD! they took antelope to new levels. but 
thebest part was the end. trey says (mocking the tv and newspaper 
stories about the phan trouble in morrison) ^Ó21-year-old-phish-phan 
marco escuandolas.^Ô once again- THE CROWD WENT NUTS! 

setbreak- ok, the setbreak was great because by now, there was 
consistent lightning nearby. close to the end of the break, the 
lightning was starting to thunder and the crowd was getting nuts again. 
BUT THE BEST PART OF THE SETBREAK WAS: tom kennedy (who I had met 
earlier in the night) grabs darius zelkha and they both come up to talk 
for a bit. I was SOOO excited (i^Òve never met a netter before). so we 
talk for a few minutes and then they tell me: ^Óyeah, we^Òll save you a 
seat tomorrow, we^Òll be in the front row, come see us. we^Òre getting 
here a 7AM.^Ô so tomorrow, tom, darius and I will be in the front row 
(somebody pinch me).

the curtain was the second set opener. it was a standard version. 
nothing too spectacular, but the crowd was really into it. btw- if you 
haven^Òt noticed yet... the crowd was what helped this show be what it 
was.

tweezer- tweezer had a tease, but I don^Òt know the name of the song. i^Òm 
sure someone will post it. this version was jammed out. wasn^Òt too long 
though. I called it the ^Óperfect tweezer.^Ô

prince caspian- for those of you wondering what the ^Ónew arrangement^Ô 
is... there was a little intro instead of the standard bust in. but the 
really cool part is that there was a LONG JAM after the main segment. 
i^Òd say that caspian is shaping up to be a jam staple. 

a day in the life- ok, by this point, it was starting to drizzle and 
lightning was EVERYWHERE. I swear that I was having a religious 
experience. the rocks, the lightning, the city lights, the music 
AHHHH!!! it was amazing.

BBFCFM- standard, but great. if you know what the lights are like during 
BBFCFM, imagine what it must be like with LIGHTNING on top of that. trey 
played his guitar with his teeth too. the place was rockin^Ò.

purple rain- I swear, I almost cried. it was beautiful. the rain was 
coming down steadily at this point and fishman was belting out purple 
rain. the crowd had become transported to another dimension. 9000 people 
staring up at the sky, feeling the rain and listening to fishman. what 
else is there?

harry hood- DARIUS ZELKHA(SP?) AND TOM KENNEDY DESERVE AN AWARD. per the 
flyers they passed out, the crowd chanted HOOD! after trey would say 
^Óharry.^Ô the ENTIRE crowd was chanting. it was just like wilson... the 
best part though was that trey was BLOWN AWAY. after the opening 
segment, he through his fists in the air (as a little thank you). I 
almost had a heart-attack...

tweezer reprise- awesome closer. the boys capped this show (and set) off 
perfectly. it was fairly standard, but ALL reprises are great...

encore:

johnny b. goode- this was the shit. not only do I love this song (having 
performed it myself) but 8999 other fans love it too. the crowd was 
chanting ^Ógo go... go johnny go go.^Ô at this moment, I DID have a heart 
attack.

immediately after the show, it was like everyone had been shot. people 
were stunned. everyone was talking about the show and what else could 
possibly be in store. we^Òll find out tomorrow.

so then- I hang around for a while to try to catch a glimse of the boys. 
its about an hour after the show and i^Òm getting ready to go when some 
people come out from backstage. so I say: ^Óhey, could I have your pass.^Ô 
so the dude gives me his backstage pass!!!

so I went backstage. met fishman. he was keeping about 20 people 
entertained. talk talk talk talk talk! got fishmans autograph, said 
hello to mimi, grabbed a beer and then left. trey, mike and page were no 
where to be found (but then again I did get back there late.) on my way 
out, I catch a glimse of page walking into this room, but I didn^Òt try 
to get his attention. interesting thing though- there were some people 
sitting on the ground in the room and they were smoking. I assume that 
it was phish^Òs private lounge or something. i^Òm sure they were 
celebrating the awesome show 8-)

that^Òs all from colorado. here^Òs the abridged version:

August 8, 1996; Red Rocks Amphitheater, Morrison, CO
I: Makisupa Policeman, Rift*, Suzie Greenberg**, Simple, Theme From The 
Bottom, Lizards, Dinner and a Movie, Horn, Run Like An Antelope***
II: The Curtain> Tweezer> Prince Caspian, A Day In The Life, BBFCFM, 
Purple Rain, Harry Hood, Tweezer Reprise
E: Johnny B. Goode

peace all- see you tomorrow night...
pHiL

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Date: Mon, 08 Sep 1997 01:54:47 -0500
From: hplc 
Subject: Review to 08/06/96

08/06/96 Red Rocks Amphitheater, Morrison, CO

by J-rish,

I think this review will give a different perspective than others for
this show, seeing as how it was my first time to catch Phish live.  I
live in Dallas and don't get the chance to see Phish all that often, so
I had spent a few years learning as much as possible about Phish live
without actually experiencing it.  

This was my only night of the Red Rocks run, yet I was still stationed
in the area for the week.  My buddy Ryan and I got into the show as soon
as the gates opened and found ourselves sixteen rows up, right in front
of Page.  Since we had three or so hours before Phish was expected, we
made some new phriends.  Everything going good so far.

Makisupa:
Around 7:45 or so, they walked out of the rock.  It was great.  The
energy in the crowd was way more than I anticipated.  They suited up and
out came Makisupa.  Nothing could have pleased me more, especially after
being in Morrison the night before.  Trey pounding on the mini-kit, the
sky-line of mountains and beautiful mountain scenery, and "doing just
like Bobby Brown, I ate my breakfast and I lay back down!"

Rift:
Anyways, they didn't let me catch up to my heartbeat before rippin into
Rift.  Tight as hell, and some guy to my right mouthing every note
during the part where Trey goes nuts with 8th's and 16th's.  I tripped
me out.  Pushed off the edge...Trey waits, and waits, and
finally..."This is Red Rocks, this is the Edge!" I knew this was going
to be something special...

Suzie:
Again, no time for a breath, or to look over at Ryan and just say "Oh my
God!"  Straight into Suzie and what a good time it was.  By now I had
gotten over just being here and gotten my groove on.  Page (my favorite,
when he is 'on') is kickin ass and I'm startin to space off when
suddenly I here the cords to Simple.  I wished...

Simple:
...wish came true!  Just a classic, nothing spectacular but more than
enough to keep the flow going.  All we needed now was a big one, you
know, the epics.

Theme:
Beautiful.  Perfect to calm down to.  I decided to take my eyes off the
stage for a minute and take in the scenery once more...this time set to
music.  For those of you who haven't been there, it's incredible.  A
massive slab of rock on either side of you and the stage built right
into another chunk of rock.  Behind the stage is a breath-taking skyline
of mountains and city lights.  Go there.  The harmonics at the end
brought me back to the show and it was time to move on.

Lizards:
As soon as I recognized what they were playing (a few seconds lasts a
while), I when ahead to the 'jam' in the middle.  Possibly my favorite
out of the Gamehenge saga.

Dinner & a Movie:
RANDOM.  Wouldn't have guessed it.  Kick ass though.  I finally realized
what a good time the crowd was having.  The best part of this song was
turning around and seeing 9000 other phans moving in what seemed to be
syncronized dancing.  

Horn:
Pretty.  Not one of my favorites.  Zoned out during this one.

Antelope:
Probably my favorite of the 'epic' tunes!  I was hoping and grinning to
no end.  [sorry for those around me] The break down was just funky
enough and the 21-year-old phish phan line was too much.  Red Rocks was
out of control!  The place was wild and everyone was flying.  Thanx
trey...and thanx to whoever it was who gave the reporter Marcus as your
name!

Setbreak:
Took a second look at the flyers being passed around by the Phish.net. 
I am having a hard time if this occured before set one or set two (I was
having a hard time period, the best hard time though), but the flyer
suggested we all cry out the first line to Destiny Unbound as soon as
Page sat down, in order to hopefully get some sort of musical response
out of Phish...none.  But seeing Them smile was enough for the crowd.  I
do now that there was a marshmellow fight up front here and some guy a
few rows up was hysterical.  I laughed the entire setbreak....and on
with the show.

Curtain:
Nice...took the whole song for me to get back into the groove.  Not a
huge Curtain fan, but still lovin it.

Tweezer:
Just what I needed.  They didn't get too messy in the jam part (thanx)
and even pulled out Norweigan Wood.  Sounds ok to you, but we had the
Rubber Soul album playing in the lot earlier that day.  Way too many
coincidences (spelling?) for me.

Prince Caspian:
Not fimiliar enough with this song to notice the new arrangement that
apparently they started playing that summer, but still enjoyed it. 
Zoning off agian, watching the lights and so forth.  Float upon the
waves...

A Day in the Life:
Classic tune, but one with special meaning to me.  I pulled a tear
during this one.  Clouds forming and off a bit was some lightning. 
Uplifting...

BBFCFM:
A bit obnoxious I think...but Trey was hilarious...hauling ass around
the stage with his megaphone.  The lighning was near and choriographed
to the starts and stops of BBFCFM.  Definatly a sight to see.

Purple Rain:
Towards the end of BBFCFM a light drizzle fell upon Red Rocks and of
course Phish (especially Fishman) the first to seize the moment.  The
place was flooded with purple lights and a fat guy in the front sporting
a dress and an electrolux.  Yet another of those sights...

**Just after this song, there was a moment of musical silence (everyone
was screaming of course).  Suddenly, a loud crash of thunder exploded
over Red Rocks and the again the place went absolutly balls-to-the-Wall
nuts.

Harry:
Oh, man...the netters won again.  When you say Harry, we say Hood.  It
was massive.  All 9000 were shouting back at Phish..."Hood!"  But then
in the Chill Part, I started thinking about going back to a wet campsite
(chief Hosa!!!) and I became fungally bummed out.  I actually considered
leaving (not too hard) but instantly Phish sang: "don't ya feel good,
good, good about Hood!"  I was back in action and nearly cried again. 
The joy (for lack of a better word) was more than I could handle. 
heaven.

Tweeprise:
Nothing could have ended the set better.  What a rocker.  It was over
and I was exhausted.

Johnny B. Goode (encore):
The place went up like a light.  Holy shit, this put tweeprise to bed. 
Everyone around me (including some 45 year-old-man who tripped the night
before for the first time in 9 years) was singing along.  What a blast.  



Well, it turns out that when Ryan and I were driving back to Chief Hosa,
the rain had not hit the campgrounds.     ;)

Jeff Irish
hplc@geocities.com
http://www.geocities.com/bourbonstreet/4473

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