#Phish95 Review: 6.19.95, Noblesville, IN
Review written by RJ
Phish, 6.19.95, Deer Creek Amphitheater, Noblesville, IN
Set 1: Theme From the Bottom > Poor Heart, AC/DC Bag > Tela, Punch You In the Eye, Reba, Strange Design, Rift > Cavern > Run Like an Antelope
Set 2: Simple -> David Bowie, The Mango Song, Loving Cup, Sparkle > You Enjoy Myself, Acoustic Army, Possum
Encore: A Day in the Life
This show was featured on the 2nd episode of the Helping Friendly Podcast, which you can check out here.
Opening up with “Theme” was a great call for this show. In the other shows of Summer ‘95 that opened up with new songs (2 shows opening with “Don’t You Wanna Go” come to mind), they portended good things. This “Theme” is soaring as an opener, and Trey in particular hits some very high points.
How great is it to hear “Tela”? Oh, you jewel of Wilson’s foul domain. Please, Phish, just play this song all the time.
Halfway through the “Reba” Trey gets into a nice groove, more dancy than most versions of this song. It then goes through a little bit of a rough transition to the main “Reba” theme, but finishes beautifully, with just the right amount of Trey and Page co-peaking. Co-peaking. That’s a word.
Then into “Rift.” Page remembers the words right off the bat, but not Trey. He gets in around the end of the 2nd verse, and picks it up from there. I think this set them off a bit, and after a fairly standard “Rift” they bust into “Cavern,” complete with Trey vocal jamming on the jam over the verse.
Classic mid-90s transition of “Cavern > Antelope.” And one of the all-time best 1st set closers. And this is a hot version. Fishman keeps the jam moving forward, quickly, and Page adds some synth flavor into the tension-building portion of the jam. The intensity picks up quickly, with Page, Mike and Trey all kicking ass at once, until Trey lifts them back up to the theme of the jam. Fishman and Mike even try to bring it into the breakdown once, unusccessfuly, before Trey eventually gives in.
Nice set. And Trey says “We’ll be back in 16 minutes.” What a hilarious man!
Good “Simple” opener (@surrenderedflow says it’s a sin to skip this and go straight to “Bowie,” so consider yourself warned), at about 6 minutes it doesn’t give a ton of time to get going, but then into the set highlight, “David Bowie.” Sometimes I feel like all I do is talk about this song. I guess things could be worse.
Trey starts the effects and spaciness before the first hints of “Bowie” even appear. In all the great versions from ‘94 and ‘95, you can hear that the intro to this song provided a palette for all 4 of the band members to experiment with. There’s some funky spaciness from Trey, some organ from Page, a few odd bass notes from Mike, all before the intro to the song.
About 6 minutes into the jam there’s a really creepy exchange between Page and Trey that reminds me of the Friday the 13th movies or something, then Trey drops into a reverb-drenched “Mind Left Body”-esque riff, with quiet support from the rest of the band.
All beauty up until about 10 minutes, when it starts to get noisy. The next 5 minutes are a fun but boisterous jam, with points of beauty in between the noise and distraction. Between 16-17 minutes there’s ALMOST a start/stop jam, except for the fact that Fishman won’t stop banging on the goddamn drums! Then, just before 18 minutes, Trey hits on a riff that brings them back toward the “Bowie” theme, which I can’t really explain more articulately than that.
The last 5 minutes of this journey take us to the peak, the trill, everything you’ve come to expect from a wonderful “Bowie.” Listen to this one.
Phew, cooling down over the next few songs we get a lovely “Mango Song,” a lovely “Loving Cup” and a, yes, lovely “Sparkle.”
The “You Enjoy Myself” is also worth mentioning. This is a good Phish song. This version is good! Page’s breakdown is particularly nice, and this is 1995, so Trey’s solo is sort of blistering in that way that only ‘95 is.
Also, evil “Possum”!!
