Review: Phish Vegas 96

I had a week to let Phish Vegas 96 soak in. I played in the background all week as I wrote.

Disc 1 opened up with a high energy Wilson. Other highlights included a rare Peaches en Regalia (a Frank Zappa cover). Trey was teasing something during the first few minutes of 2001 and I could not figure out what it was. The 2001 started out mellow and picked up. Their album Picture of Nectar featured a lot of fast songs... and the boys busted out Poor Heart (prior to 2001) and then a frenzied Llama before they embarked on a 25 minute YEM. This show was before the Year of the Funk, but there were times you could hear some funky elements in their jam out of YEM. In their vocal jam, they say something like, "Donuts. I love donuts."

After YEM, Page woke up and unleashed Cars, Trucks, Buses which was always a big favorite of mine. The first disc and first set ended with a one-two punch of Down with Disease and a fatty cover of Edgar Winter's Frankenstein.

Disc 2 is probably my favorite out of the bunch and started off with two high energy songs in Julius and Sparkle. I always felt that the only downside to the Year of the Funk was that the boys lost their passion to slay certain songs like Sparkle. Any version post 1997 just don't have that same buzz, emotion, and frenetic energy of the version in 1993-1996.

Mike's Song is my favorite song on the CD and represented everything I dig about Phish in those nine minutes. I always preferred the Mike's > Simple segue instead of a Mike's > Hydrogen and they didn't disappoint in Vegas. They tossed in Harry Hood after Simple to mix things up and the fifteen minute version was a warm and mellow journey before they closed off the entire Mike's Song sandwich is a sizzling Weekapaug Groove. About six minutes in they pull off some serious the start-stop jamming. The disc ended with a bong-rattling cover of Led Zeppelin's Good Times Bad Times. Loved the bit when Page sings, "I know what it feels to be alone!"

I was a disappointed with Disc 3 which featured Les Claypool and a slew of Elvis impersonators. I'm always a fan of random Fishman hijinks but I guess this was one of those instances... where you had to be there. The Suzy Greenburg > Susie Q was interesting, but not strong enough to get me excited about that particular disc. I noticed that the last couple of days I ignored Disc 3 outright.

The most overlooked item was the extra disc of performances in November of 1996 leading up to the Vegas show from gigs in Michigan, Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee, and California. It's a short five disc release called Road to Vegas and featured Split Open and Melt, Tweezer, Bathtub Gin, Simple, and Amazing Grace (including a segue into an instrumental version). The one song that stood out was a 16 minute version of Simple. If you can, go hear it for yourself!

Everything on that extra disc was top notch and it was a nice addition that you got when you ordered the package deal on Phish.com. A special limited edition concert DVD was also included. The production value was nothing special and it appeared to be shot with one hand-held video camera from the soundboard area. The entire Disc 3 was featured and you can view the hijinks with Les Claypool and all the Elvis impersonators. The DVD also included versions of 2001 > Llama and the sick Mike's > Simple > Hood > Weekapaug sandwich.