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From: 92mdb@vax.cc.williams.edu (Hayduke lives!)
Subject: UNION show!!!
Date: Tue, 19 May 1992 03:50:00 GMT

YEEEEEEEEHEHHEHEHEHEHEEAAAAAAWWWWW!!!!!!!

Well, the union show that I returned from about 20 hours ago was 
about the best show that i've been to (it was my 17th).  First off,
the show started at 9:30 and ended at 12:50 with one 30-min break.
There were TWO henrietta numbers (I didn't know--with trombone,
Honey Love with a virtuostic vaccuum solo).  And Possum was an
eighth heaven of sorts.  Here goes (with apologies to dave who
already reviewed the show...but hey, why not?!):

Dave and I rolled into Union at 7:45, intent on making our 8:00
ticket connection (Thank you Will!!) and intent on getting our
three ticketless friends into the show.  So we made it to the 
student center where we sighted the band.  Couldn't believe it:
there they were in the snack bar with table cloths and waitresses
while everyone else was pigging on nitrate snacks, oblivoius to
the aura in the center of the room.  But we decided to leave them
alone:  hey, if I had tons of fans, I wouldn't want them telling
me how great I was all the time....WHAT AM I SAYING?!?!  Why didn't
I say something.  Ah well...

So we got the tickets; our friends sort of budged in line (I didn't
have *anything to do with this!) and we headed on into the show.
I was a little apprehensive about the sound, since this WAS a hockey
rink (and we all know how clear the announcements are at hockey games:
BLLUURRBBLLE  GLLLLOOOBLLELLE FWESDIDFKD EEEEEEEE AJDSFASDFJS).  But
of course, I need not have worried:  always trust the root doc. Side
note:  they had an extra set of speakers about halfway back in the 
crowd.  GREAT IDEA!!  especially for a hockey rink. Has anyone else
seen this?

I don't have a setlist.  I thought about it, but I had no pen, and
my memory was not that good after a 3 hour show.  So here's my
highlight tape:

Llama:  Yes!  This really got the crowd moving and dancing in a 
        frenzy.
Col Forbin's Ascent with narration:  "Picture this floor.  It has
    been replaced by ice.  Now the walls fall away.  and the floor
    starts to tilt!!  It's tilting!! You're trying to hold on but
    you're slipping and sliding!! (wild cymbal crashes)  Now you're
    falling through space (really quiet music).  And it's totally
    dark, except for one tiny speck of light, which has gravity.
    And since it has the only gravity around, you are pulled toward
    it.  You see that it's a planet, and you are falling faster toward
    it.  And you're falling into it!!  It's flying at you!! You're
    beginning to burn up in the atmosphere!!!  (lots of cool drumz)
    Oh no!  But suddenly...but suddenly you're parachute opens.
    You're in a forest with a huge mountain...."  And then he 
    continued with the story as we all so well know it.
Sweet one:  hey I don't know about some of you, but all of *us*
    were doin' sum reel gud skware dancin'.  Spessially sum good
    arm un arm an' doe-sIIDe-doin'.  
Reba:  Need I say more?
Chalkdust:  jams like you never heard before.  Solos of well, lets
    just say that most of Trey's solos could make excellent narration
    for alt.sex.stories (not that I read this, mind you...).

Set II:  Dave and I moved against the grain so that we could be
    closer to the front.  Like so many gigs that I went to back when
    I first got into phish, the stage was low, and the floor was flat.
    Not much of a problem back then, but then again, there were
    fewer people into phish back then!!!  BTW:  this is one reason
    why I like this show so much.  I really would have enjoyed
    going to the orpheum the night before (law and order) and
    then going to Union for the fun small show (chaotic system).
    It really did remind me of some of those frenzied small early
    shows.  And it still works!!

POSSUM!!!!  I could write my music theory final on this one performance
    alone.  Ok:  start off with some good old fashioned fun.  Just
    a touch of goofing around (trey and mike were running around the
    stage).  Then add the language:  D'OH!!  Fall Down!!  Grab wrist
    and yell "aw fuck."  Then start sampling songs; begin with 
    "Rocky Mountain Way (there's your mental block, Dave!)"  Then
    add LA woman.  Now get fishman to stop that 16th note rhythm,
    and start the song.  Keep playing LA woman over that.  Somehow,
    get thru verses 1,2 and chorus.  Now blow everyone away with 
    an unblelivable solo and light show.  Solo:  start by sampling
    china grove (doobies) right off the bat.  Now noodle for a 
    while and stick the lick from It's ice in there (yep, trey
    sampled his own stuff!!).  Now build it to pre-orgasmic levels.
    Then to orgasmic levels (see, I told you it fits into alt.sex).
    Now do one of those build to the really high note runs, and 
    end on a high note for divided sky solo.  Now play that melody.
    Then build it up to ultra orgasmic levels.  Then somehow take
    it higher.  Extraordinary.  I have no more words for it.  One
    of my friends said, "What was with the jammin possum?"

Sanity:  YES!!  Really funny.  Especially when trey and mike climbed
    up on the speaker stacks and did the heavy-metal dude sign.

HARRY HOOD:  It's about time I heard this again!!

And no, they didn't even end the set with Harry.  They went into
    the most rocking cavern that I have ever seen.  I mean, people
    were going NUTS!!  

E:  Lawn Boy, Good Times/Bad times with Fishman going absolutely
    bananas on the set.  

To give an idea of the amount of water I danced off (and the venue
wasn't really that hot), I guzzled one of those cumberland farms
64oz cokes and didn't even have to pee!!  Ok, sorry for the
grossness.  Well, I'm off to bed (came home from phish--->go
finish thesis=no sleep).  See you all around!

--Mikey 

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From: JOHNSORN@bcvax1.bc.edu
Subject: 5-16, 5-17 and other stuph!
Reply-To: johnsorn@bcvax1.bc.edu
Date: Thu, 21 May 1992 06:06:07 GMT

Hey phellow netters!
        Well, Ed Lee said that he'd post this if I didn't, and I haven't
seen 
it yet. So here it is...

5-17-92 Achilles Rink:
Union College: Schenectady NY
Set One:
Landlady
Llama
Colonel Forbin's Ascent
Narration (description previously posted)
Fly Famous Mockingbird
My Sweet One
Reba
I Didn't Know (Henrietta on trombone)
Stash
Mango Song
Poor Heart
Chalk Dust Torture

Set Two:
Curtain
Possum (w/ all five signals!!!)
Guelah Papyrus-> Asse Festival-> Guelah
The Squirming Coil (with Happy Birthday Page <- sung by the crowd)
All Things Reconsidered
Brother
Sanity (Trey climbs stack and jumps off)
Cold As Ice->
Love You (w/ vacuum during which Henrietta says "She's breaking up!...")
Quick Hold Your Head Jam (it may have been Cold As Ice, but it sounded
like
        Hold Your Head)
Sparkle
Harry Hood
Cavern

Encore:
Lawn Boy
Good Times, Bad Times

        As far as the show went, it was the hottest I've seen. According
to 
Trey, Possum was the hottest they've ever played it, "There must have been
at least 5, or 6 different songs in it!" During the piano solo in
Squirming
Coil, Trey put his guitar down, and went towards where Fishman keeps his
vaccum
cleaner, and comes out with a birthday cake with a 29 on it and motions
for the
crowd to sing Happy Birthday to Page. Then during the Cold as Ice, etc.
Fishman
announces a happy birthday to page, that "the baby" of the group is Mike,
whose
birthday is either June 1st or 3rd (I couldn't make out which it was).
He also announced that Trey is 29, which didn't appear to be true
especially
with Trey asking Fishman, "You don't know how old I am?" He also mentioned
that
Paul is the oldest, and keeps getting more powerful as he gets older. The
other
highlights seem to have been covered already. The following I think should
go
in the Stories Phile:
        On our way back from the Orpheum show, my friends and I stopped at
the 
first rest stop on the Mass Pike to get something to eat and so one of my
friends could use the phone. This was approximately 1:30 AM. After waiting
in
line for our food for practically 15 minutes, we went back to the car to
eat.
While we were eating, a beat up old Chevy Impala pulls in next to us, with
Vermont plates an an Aquarium Rescue Unit bumper sticker on it. Had it not
been
for the sticker I probably wouldn't have made anything of it. When the
driver
got out of the car, I thought to myself that he looked really familiar.
Then it
came to me, it was PAGE!!! My friends and I followed him into Popeye's, so
as 
possibly talk to him, and ask him for his autograph. He seemed extremely
surprised that someone actually recognized him. While talking to him, one
of
my friends brought up the fact that I had been telling them about the
Union
College show and how I wasn't sure if I would be able to get a ticket, 
especially after no one answered my ticket grovel. Page then asked me for
my 
autograph, and said that if I had any problem getting a ticket, then go
talk to
him. He also mentioned how he thinks that the net is a great idea, how we
have
been so generous with all the tapes we've given them, and how we should
give
clothes to the crew since some of their clothes were stolen along with
Mike's
bass (suggestion to Matt Lawrence - net T-shirts for the crew and the
band?
I'm willing to pitch in)
        The next night I had no problem getting a ticket. After the show,
Mike
came out looking for the big knife to use to cut Page's birthday cake. I
asked
him if there was any way I could talk to Page/meet the rest of the band,
and he
said he'd send Page out. Both Page and Mike came out. I talked to Mike and
Page
and got a picture with him since none of my friends would believe that I
actually met him. While talking to Mike we learned about the former
guitarist.
His name is Jeff, and he found God and thinks that their music is Satanic.
Then someone asked him if it would be possible to go kstage. Mike and Page
didn't have any problem with that. So we got to meet the rest of the band.
While back there, we had some of Page's birthday cake and talked with the
rest 
of the band. While back there I asked Page if I were to send himtape of my
band, and included a SASE, would he comment on it (in the letters column
of the
newsletter, they mentioned that they would personally reply to letters
with 
SASE's). He told me that no, he wouldn't do that. He'd tell me in person
what 
he thought the next time he saw me. When that will be, I don't know.

Sorry to take up all of the bandwidth, I didn't think tha this would be
this
long.
                                So Long, and Thanks phor All the PHISH,
                                        Robert Johnson
                                        johnsorn@bcvms.bc.edu

PS. Matt and Carl - Trey said that they did get the mangoes. I guess that
        explains the Mango Song the next night.

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