**Edit to Add: See the comments from a reader, the first track may not be from Wendell session. I am looking into it. Anyway, I’ll leave the post up so the tracks can be heard, but I might be fully wrong on the source. Stay tuned!**
**Edit to Add Part Deux: Please disregard original post. The first track, now amended to read 1995, was recorded sometime in early 1995, not 1990 as originally posted below. Thanks to Kevin Hollo for bringing my lack of fact checking to the forefront! Either way, I think both versions are worth a listen or two.**
Here’s another quickie post from the Wendell Studios session….This is the Strange Design from that session, 5 years before it made it’s debut on stage. I never realized it was such an old song. While we’re on it, I’ve included the studio version of Strange Design that was recorded for the Billy Breathes album but was cut from the LP and only made it onto the “Free” CD single… This song really hit home for me on New Years ’95…Other times, not so much, but depending on your mood it can be great (kinda like Waste)…I think the studio versions are pretty interesting (I especially like the ’96 version) and it’s cool to hear the progression…
20 years later, I’m still upside down….Boom! Time to break out the big guns. This show takes no prisoners. A complete and total onslaught straight to the dome. A psychedelic hoedown of astronomical proportions. There are certain shows that demand inclusion in anyone’s Top-5 Attended list: New Years ’95, Amy’s Farm, Big Cypress, Binghamton ’92 (or ’95), Halloween ’94, the list goes on. There are about 10 shows that make the rotation in my Top 5 attended list, but this show is never, ever, excluded. Can’t believe it has been twenty years. I am being 100% truthful when I say that this show, particularly what I experienced during the strobe lights of Mike’s Song, changed my life forever. Mike’s Sanity Sloth Mango? Are you kidding? It’s a miracle I made it out of the show alive. It sounds like I am joking, but I’m not. The Forum was a pretty nondescript venue but intimate and the sound was incredible. We were in the 11th or 12th row, dead center, and it was just a sheer wall of deafening sound. This show was loud as fuck. This show happened to take place on the Vernal Equinox (which today is too).
Out of the gate, the Wilson is highly psychedelic. Next the band slams into a tight Reba, playing like they’re out to prove something. The Reba jam is to put it mildly, glorious, albeit short. The perfect blend of that early discordant funk, with drive and melody. So tits. Every song in the first set offers more of the same. Highly charged playing that left everyone short of breath. The “alligator pit” Brother is probably my favorite all-time version and was the real start of the the brain bludgeoning. In my opinion, the song really came into it’s own in on the Spring ’92 tour. Glide and Rift are both spot on, really well played. The Fluffhead is letter perfect. Fishman shines throughout this whole show, and I really love his playing on this Fluffhead. The Fluff jam pwns. The segue into Maze is glass and gravy. Maze continued the slaughter and enters Brother-type jam territory and I think everyone was happy to get a breather with Lizards and the fourth ever version of Mound. A lot of people consider the set closing Antelope to be the crown jewel of this set and I won’t argue with them. Unbelievable. All I could see in front of my face during the set break was a bunch of pimento olives dancing with hot pink mexican sombreros. It ruled.
So they come out for the second set and Trey wishes a happy birthday to “Mike”. Everyone screams because they think it is Gordo’s birthday. Trey then goofs on a fan’s t-shirt before starting the Roundabout tease that leads into possibly the heaviest Mike’s I have ever seen. I know that is a bold statement, but this is a bold Mike’s and in my opinion, there are only a handful that approach the intensity of the 3/20 Mike’s. Keep in mind also that this was back in the day when they still used the tramps on Mike’s Song. The combination of ferocious jam, blinding strobe lights and Trey and Mike bouncing up and down like their lives depended on it is something I will never forget. I remember it like it was yesterday. I think I was seeing spots for like a week after this show. The way the snap out of it is so tight it needs to be heard to be believed (although I can’t believe anyone reading this has not heard it at least 500 times). They melt into Hydrogen with Trey doing that sweet volume knob swell thing and Page and Trey link up for a beautiful version. Weekapaug…again, another top-5 version for me, attended or not. Mike’s distortion for the opening bass solo is nasty as hell. I was still trying to get myself together from the Mike’s but there was no time for that. I had to go with it and worry about finding my brain after the show. The vocal interplay in this ‘paug and throughout the show just gets to me. This track is about as hooked up as you will ever hear any band get. Sanity was a welcome surprise and pretty fitting considering I really was losing my mind. I don’t think I really started to pull it together until somewhere around Cavern or Hood. Once again, the vocal jams and shout outs to band and crew make this version an all-time great. The vocal segue into Sloth, and Sloth itself only made things worse (or better depending on how you look at it). Mango probably helped smooth things out but I don’t really remember. It is great version. The rest of the show is solid, with a great version of Hood. The Possum gets a little drawn out with explanation of the Secret Language, but it was cool to hear it. The Fire is super solid too, but the set really peaked with the opening barrage of Mike’s through Mango. It was all good though, nobody was complaining by a long shot. A sick, sick, sick show to attend.
There is one main source of the show that circulates, and there has been lots of discussion over whether or not the source is a soundboard or a really great audience source. I think it is just a really great AUD as the venue/room sound is really apparent. As well, the person I went to the show with, The Duck, taped the show and his pull came out decent too. The links below though are of the usual source that gets passed around. It sounds great, regardless of whether it is a board or audience. We were in the 11th or 12th row and were sitting right behind B*g Ph*l (name changed to protect the innocent) who videotaped the whole show. He gave the Duck a copy a few weeks later and told him not to trade it so I am not sure if it ever really circulated widely. It is a great vid though and I would love to get my hands on it again.
For sample tracks, it was impossible to really single anything out from this show, and most people have probably heard it a zillion times anyway, but here is the Antelope and the Sanity. Enjoy!
The summer of 1992 was kind of a dry one for the fans. The band made their first foray into Europe opening a host of festival dates for the Violent Femmes and then came back to the US as the support act for Santana on their national tour (after some HORDE dates). Besides three headline shows in VA, the Coach House was the only other full, two set Phish shows we got to see. The Santana tour was decent and had some good/great moments (Stowe rules as does the Exodus from Finger Lakes), but for the most part the Phish sets were way too short and the 30-40 minute sets left little time for exploration. I saw a bunch of the Santana shows and while I fully appreciate Carlos and company, I think I saw enough Santana to last me a lifetime. No doubt that the guy is the man though.
I flew out to California to see my first Phish birthday show at the LA Greek Theatre and was then planning on heading to the Dead shows in Eugene. I hopped onto the plane, opened my USA Today and saw that Jerry Garcia was sick and the shows were canceled. Major bummer. At this point, I did not know the Coach House show was going on. I hit the Greek Theatre show with my friend Cliff and it ended up being pretty solid. Phish (who NONE of the California Santana fans knew) played a good set and I particularly remember jamming out to the Tweezer. I think I was the only one in the venue dancing. All the Latinos were looking at me like I had three heads. Between the Santana and Phish sets I ran into Kuroda on the way to the bathroom and he told me about the Coach House show that was happening two days later– I was stoked! The Santana set ended up being decent too– John Lee Hooker came out to play “The Healer” with Santana and it was pretty epic. I was hoping at some point Trey would come out and wail with Carlos and John Lee but no such luck. It was still a great birthday show. Better than Coventry but not as good as The Lemonwheel…..
Two days later, Cliff and I drove down to the Coach House from his place in Santa Barbara. On the way there I totally hit this old man with the car and knocked him down in the crosswalk, but that’s a whole other story. His wife was screaming but I think he was OK. Sorry. We got to the Coach House around two in the afternoon and there was already a pretty good crowd of California heads. Talked to the folks from the venue and they told me the shown was fully sold out. I begged and pleaded and pulled the “I came all the way from New York” bit, but they didn’t go for it. I ran into Andrew the tour manager and gave him the whole sad sack bit and I was in +1. Thanks Andrew! We milled about the parking lot a bit and I ran into Trey and started talking to him about the Santana tour and stuff….Interesting fact (to guitar players, I guess) was that we were talking about Carlos and his tone (he used a Boogie too, just like Trey at the time). Trey told me that Carlos had turned him onto some Russian amp tubes (Sovtek) and he was trying them out for the first time at this show. I like to think I can hear a slight difference in Trey’s tone but can’t be sure. I am pretty sure he went back to his old tubes shortly thereafter though, but who knows. It was still about two hours from showtime and Cliff and I needed to find some supplies. We met the scuzziest looking guy in the lot and he hooked us up with some sperms. Cliff was a little wary of the scuzzy guy so we met up with some preppy kid who gave him some recycle symbols. Surprise, surprise, the sperm knocked me on my ass. The recycles from the preppy kid were fake. Yeah scuzzy guy!
The Coach House was a pretty small place that hosted a lot of dinner theater but they moved all the tables out for the Phish show. The place was packed and I would guess there were maybe 400 people or so there. Ninja Custodian opened up with their fun brand of rock. I had seen them in Burlington and did not know they had recently moved to LA. Ninja Mike is a funny dude, so I always liked seeing them. Their set was decent and not too long. Phish came out with both guns blazing and you could tell they were psyched to finally play a headline show. The setlist sounds as good as it looks:
The show itself has a lot of nice little twists and turns. Just about everything is really well played and has a little something extra. The Buried Alive opener was hot, natch, and the Poor Heart has some really cool stuff inside of it too actually. Landlady is “for Carlos” and the Reba jam is a must hear. Rift is also one of my favorite all-time versions and the Wilson is also a unique version. Really, the whole first set is dope, ending with a solid Bowie. A lot of the California crowd were pretty new to Phish at this time and were just sort of finding their groove with the band. I think nearly everyone was a convert by the end of the first set. The second set is solid too with Tweezer and Mike’s leading the charge. Ninja Mike sits in for Terrapin, prompting some good banter and although everyone was yelling “Flintstones” for some reason, a short Somewhere Over The Rainbow gets dropped on the crowd. The previously mentioned sperm had me bugging the whole show but one thing I remember being so funny was when they played the All Fall Down Signal. Just as Phish had originally planned it, when they played it, I dropped to the ground. All of the people around me started crowding around me, asking me if I was alright and someone went to go get security to help me. It was pretty classic. Not a very under the radar show, but a classic nonetheless and worth revisiting if you have not heard it in a while. The drive home was very amusing and we made it back to Santa Barbara in one piece. Since the GD shows were cancelled we hiked into the Los Padres for an awesome camping trip and ate the rest of the sperm. It was a great time for sure.
The All Things Reconsidered is dead nuts on:
The first set closing Bowie is the goods too:
That is just a small taste though. If you have never heard this show, check it out for sure, it’s a worthy listen.
There are a lot of sources floating around for this show, including the soundboard. I got an amazing Schoeps source after giving blanks to a guy after the show. It was his first show and he taped over some GD masters (Vegas 92) to get the Phish pull. I had forgotten all about it and they showed up at my door like 3 months later. Sounded killer, I should probably transfer them. Anyway, this MP3 source sounds pretty good too though:
backinmydaydotnet 