From: Charlie Dirksen
6/22/95 Finger Lakes PAC, Canandaigua, NY (Rvwd 7/95) (THE FLeeeezer!!)
The Theme from the Bottom to open set
two was, I believe, probably longer than most if not all of the ones
from the Summer tour, but, melodically speaking, wasn't as
wholesome as most that I've heard (not even competitive with Lowell's,
unfortunately.. still, after many Themes, one of my
faves). Beginning from the final chord of this Theme, there is a jam
that comes in that isn't 'Bottom and sure as hell isn't Tweezer.
Basically, the final note of the Theme from the Bottom is prolonged
and distorted. This elongation of the final 'Bottom (or
"Theme," if you will) chord/note segues into a digital delay loop groove
(to some extent), care of Trey. The jam is sortof spacey
at this point (about a minute or two into it), but soon develops a
"Third Stone from the Sun" Hendrix-like groove, which is
seriously fierce!!! This jam builds and builds, until it gets kind-of
into the same sort of groove as the jams which ended the
Gainesville Tweezer (a GREAT f*cking jam!), and which made up a part
of the Runaway JAM from Walnut Creek (6/16/95).
This fast and crazy groove segues into Tweezer (Trey is the first to
kick Tweezer in). I begin timing from this point, because
what came before was a "JAM," and no song in particular. The setlist
should read: Theme > JAM > Tweezer > Tweezer
Reprise. The reason that there shouldn't be another "JAM" between the
Tweezer and its Reprise is, simply, because every
Tweezer has a jam segment, and almost all of these segments do not
sound like the "Tweezer Theme". The fairly good JAM that
bridges Theme and Tweezer, again, doesn't count in this timing. At
first, after Trey initially plays the Tweezer theme, Fish's
drumz stick with the aforementioned JAM's groove, and don't become
tweezer-drumz for 15 secs or so. This is definitely a
slower Tweezer than usual by a full beat, probably, maybe even 1 and
1/2. The opening lyrics segment is otherwise normal,
except for this segue opening out of a solid JAM, some fun rhythmic
toying around, and excitement from the band... The
opening of this Tweezer's jam segment (comes after the Ebeneeeezer
lyric, btw, like them all) is EXTREMELY funky (MIKE
IS HOT!), snaky and Essentially tweezeresque. It really grooves around
the 6 min point or so on a cool theme from Mike in
combination with Trey. Trey starts on a theme around 6:45, which Mike
and Page get involved with, too, to some extent (it's a
simple, catchy theme.. not unattractive). Fish is still plodding away
along the ordinary Tweezer rhythm. The jam is really quite
good for these opening few minutes. There is tasteful action from everyone,
and everyone seems to be listening to each other
(they weave their own melodic jams through the fabric of a theme).
The jam finally starts to get weird around 9 minutes, but,
compared with many experimental Tweezers, this is really tame... This
is NOT the drastic demise of a good theme jam into
some quasi-psychedelic, dissonant swamp of a "jam." Rather, the jam
in characteristically Phish manner begins ever-so-slowly
falling to pieces; at least, this is what the jam is looking like around
10 minutes. Fish keeps returning with the typical Tweezer
beat after abrupt stops, though, so you just can't tell when the groove
will give way and some Spacey Bullshit Mode will fudge
the jam. At 11 mins, the jam really starts wailing (no breaks) and
Trey -- around 12 -- starts "Whoa-ing" (you know, like in the
Bomb Factory Tweezer). Actually, this part of the jam sounds somewhat
akin to the legendary GWAR segment of the Bomb
Factory Tweezer, but not nearly as fast. This funky tweezeresque groove
starts picking up steam at around 13:20, steadily,
steadily, and it builds itself phishosophically into a RAGING ROCK
AND ROLL -- but complex -- JAM around 14:20 or so!
This part of the jam segment is magnificent! Trey and Mike are just
wigging out, but listening to each other (where the hell is
Page?? I can't hear him.. oh there he is!). This jam is practically
Tweezer Reprise, I guess, but extremely quick and Not Quite It
(would need a few more notes to round out the TweezeRep theme). At
15 or so, Trey sustains a note, and you can hear Page
more clearly, with Mike jamming hard, too. Fish, btw, is going apeshit
at this point. This wild, truly awesome jam is still ON at
15:30, but by 16, it goes off-key and gets stuck. . . you know something
AWRY is about to occur. The next part of the jam,
which basically begins here, is quite Odd. Trey and Mike pluck away
(ok, Page too, to the extent that he "plucks"), over lots of
fast fiery snarework from Fish. This jam actually sounds cool for a
'lil bit, but it gets Old real fast, unfortunately. Phish is still in
this mode around 18. This isn't a chaotic bullshit jam, mind you --
everyone is clearly listening to one another. I think this is
another example of the 3 note improvisational HEY! practice session-thing,
which Trey has brought up in interviews. Just after
19 mins, this somewhat Fruity (and thus anti-tweezeresque) jam begins
to really flesh out. Mike starts repetitively grooving on
this snappy bass line. Then Trey starts speaking the words to MY GENERATION
around 19:40 or so. There are some
OOOHs from Mike. The jam is GREAT at this point, imo, although it sure
as doesn't sound anything like My Generation! Mike
"sings" off-key, with Trey, on My Generation lyrics (without actually
using the tune of the song). At 21 mins, after the curious
(but not BAD) My Generation jam, the groove is quite upbeat, and given
Page's fast chords and everyone's activity in general,
sounds somewhat like a really good *live* Doors' jam. Unfortunately,
this solid jam loses steam within about a minute. Indeed,
by 22, Moses is just twanging a cymbal here and there, and MikePage&Trey
are just sustaining notes haphazardly. Around
22:30 Mike drops a few bombs a la Lesh (that's PHIl leSH) prominently
-- nothing in particular. Trey comes in using the Leslie
(?) device, by means of which his guitar makes those watery psychedelic
sounds that we all heard last June (...to my HUGE
disappointment on LIFEBOY..!). Trey seems to use some other effects,
too, that mesmerize and work well in this
sort-of-spacey section. Fish is still around at 24:30, not banging
away constantly, but still periodically hitting stuff. This really
isn't THAT spacey, compared with parts of the Bozeman and Bangor Tweezers.
It is just a very laid back jam, really. This is
good background music for having a smoke (it is times like these when
I wish I still smoked). Around 26, Page comes in more
noticeably with some quick little 4 note licks. Soon, the jam DOES
get more spacey, with everyone seeming to haphazardly,
intermittently and carelessly do whatever they feel like -- randomly.
If they are paying attention to each other, it is only in order
to deliberately avoid making a groove or a melodic theme jam. Around
28, Fish starts a groove on the cymbals, and quickly
starts snapping his hi-hat in time (WAKE UP CALL). This is really all
the Space in this Tweezer, folks. If you thought/think this
was/is bad, stay away from the Bangor and Bozeman Tweezers. This was
QUITE ACTIVE in light of the spacey portions of
those versions. By the 30 minute point, the jam is indeed crazy, but
this isn't a spacey bullshit mode. This is a "f*cking absolute
mayhem mode." There are SCREAMS (I don't know who.. presumably Trey
and/or Fish). Fish's hi-hat is the only thing rational
(it is snapping time just fine, at least in the beginning), until it,
too, soon disappears in the Chaos that this "jam" has become.
Page and Fish just wail away, whereas it sounds as if Mike and Trey
merely twang a note or two, and sustain/distort the hell out
of 'em. I'm told that Trey around this time was running around the
stage, pointing the megaphone at various devices, presumably
for feedback purposes (and you can occasionally hear feedback..). While
Page and Fish continue to blaze away on their
instruments, Mike blows nothing in particular on a horn (it sounds
like short little vacuum blurts on the tape, imo). Around 34,
Mike toots the horn one last time, Fish's hi-hat snaps rationally,
and the what appears to be a real "jam" begins to take shape.
Mike pops back in on bass at 35 on a 3 note lick, then, within 30 secs,
Fish COMPLETELY drops out, and just Trey and a
little Mike & Page are all that are heard. QUIET plucking sort
of jam at this time; well, Page is actually playing bits on his keys,
and not plucking. It is quite a beautiful segment, really, around 36.
The jam is REALLY PAGE here, with a barely noticeable
Mike and a lil Trey. At 36:46, Fish returns verrrry quietly, not wishing
to disturb the beautiful theme that Page is apparently
developing. At 37 mins, Page is intensely into a melodic theme of his
own strange design, which sounds nothing like anything
I've ever heard him do (even in allll the many Coil solos I've heard).
No Trey. Just Page with a quiet Mike and Fish at this time.
At 38:30, this beautiful groove is still on the same Page-induced theme.
It is a simple, but sweet, theme. Trey sneaks quietly
back in, and this theme jam, formerly led by Page, but now led by no
one yet accompanied by all, begins to build as steadily
and magnificently, and with as much grace and gloriousness, as the
most esteemed Classical works of the Great Composers.
This climb is still going on around 41, picking up speed ever so gently.
The melodic interplay is fantastic at this point (41:30).
This jam is soooo sweet that it wouldn't surprise me if it actually
brought tears to some in the audience! This is POWERFUL
STUFF, here, folks (though not my favorite in melodious Phish jams).
The last five minutes of this tweezer jam segment didn't
climb like a Hood or a Slave, in which the jam builds into some incredibly
fiery and loud stew. This jam never really got "louder"
-- it just got more exceedingly harmonious as it progressed. To give
you a more precise idea of what this segment sounds like,
in part, especially towards the end of it (which occurs at 42 mins),
listen to the Beatles' "I Want You (She's So Heavy)." This
jam sounds frighteningly akin to the main theme of that Beatles tune
(an excellent tune, I might add), thanks primarily to Mike
and Trey (Mike actually teases the bass line of this Beatles tune note
for note, at one point, whether he knows it or not, and
Trey is using a guitar effect that is the same psychedelic, spooky
bell-like sound of the lead in the Beatles' tune). Also, at one
point in this final jam, Trey does a lick which is right out of Janis
Joplin's "Piece of My Heart," or whatever that song is called
(the lick that Trey does is not in the chorus of this Janis tune, but
is definitely something that is done by the guitarist in that song
more than once). ANYWAY, the aforementioned melodious jam ends at about
42 mins, at which time Trey just starts playing
the Tweezer theme in Tweezer Reprise fashion. This final segment is,
indeed, Tweezer Reprise, and is the only time that I know
of that Tweezer segued into Tweezer Reprise [Editor's note: see 2/7/91
and 12/17/95], instead of either returning briefly to the
theme and then dying out, or, as in Bozeman, returning briefly to the
theme but dying out more/less in an jam unrelated to the
Tweezer theme (or seguing into a completely different tune, of course!).
Total time, including the Reprise, is 44:42, which is
within seconds of the total time of the Bozeman Tweezer (although Bozeman
didn't have a Tweezer Reprise ending). What can I
say? I haven't given ratings to Bangor, Bozeman, Mud Island, Jones
Beach or this FLeezer, and I don't think they should be
ranked or compared with the rest of the Tweezers. These versions are
amazing improvisational Phish Works, and aren't
really akin to the Other Tweezers. If I had to rank them against each
other, I would definitely put the FLeezer above Bangor,
and Bozeman above Bangor, but, I could never put FLeezer or Bozeman
over the other. I dunno. Jones Beach I'd put around
Bangor, then the FLeezer Bozeman and Mud Island on the next plane.
In general, I thought FLeezer's ending jam was much
better than Bozeman's, given its harmonious theme, and the FLeezer's
opening jam was comparable in funkiness to Bozeman's
opening, but, well, Bozeman takes the cake as far as the rest of the
jam is concerned. The middle jam segment of Bozeman,
though very spacey at times, contains some very engaging grooves (see
"Montana" on the DLCD), much moreso than even the
delightfully pleasant FLeezer reviewed herein. The chaotic mode of
this FLeezer, around 32 mins, is also just crap in light of the
spacey section of Bozeman, which is quite engaging as a whole. Should
you hear this Tweezer? Well, if you thought the Bangor
version was ok, or actually good (even in part), then you should definitely
hear this. If you thought the Bangor Tweezer
completely sucked, then not only should you not seek out this Tweezer,
you should probably not spend any more time or $ on
things Phish, because you would then be wasting it (and perhaps even
spoiling the fun for people at shows who have to put up
with your attitude). Seriously, though, anybody who calls themselves
a serious Phish fan should get this. It is just that simple. two
cents charlie