From: "Lenny Stubbe Jr." 
Subject: 12/14/95 Review

12/14/95 Broome Co. Arena, Binghampton, NY     (Lenny Stubbe Jr).

     The prospects of seeing Phish in Binghampton were truley great.  
First of all Phish has a record of playing some great shows here (3/20/92, 
11/23/92, 4/9/94), and secondly, Binghampton is a nice humble small town, 
compared to seeing Phish in bigger cities like Detroit, Pittsburgh, 
Cleveland, or New York, seeing Phish in Binghampton is like a breath of 
Phresh air.  The venuse also being half the size of The Palace, Pittsburgh 
Civic, & Knickerbocker also made for something to look forward to.  There 
was the usual ticketless bunch, with many off them looking for freebies.  
Which doesn't neccesarily bother me as it does most others.  There was the 
usual December snow on the ground which offered poor traveling conditions, 
but what do you expect when the East coast part of the tour is scheduled 
in DECEMBER!  The show opened to my suprise, with Suzy Greenberg, I forget 
what I was calling for at the time, but I know it wasn't Suzy. It seems to 
me when looking thru the setlist that they have really been shuffling up 
the openers, which is really great.  Suzy rocked her usual self and then 
came Llama which I believe was done in Portland, but it was my first of 
the tour which made it a welcome selection.  My first Horn come next, it's 
great to hear the sweet rare tunes, Trey had the solo down pat.  then came 
the now all too rare favorite Foam.  This is one the their truley best 
songs, it really shows how tight these guy's are.  During Page's piano 
solo, Trey got on the mini kit, which I really like, but usually during 
Foam when Page is doing his thing, Trey supplies the little rythem licks 
that lead into his little guitar noodling, well as I was watching, it 
seemed Trey had trouble adjusting from setting down the drum sticks and 
starting up his solo, usually he already has the groove from already being 
on the guitar to start his solo, it seemed to be a bit awkward for him, 
but then when he got going, it was truley a gem.  My first prediction of 
the night came next, Makisuppa, Trey's line this time was, "woke up at 
1:11, rolled over, Kadafi in my bed, ....so i smoked a joint with him",  I 
don't know where he comes up with these ones, it made for a true memorable 
moment.  Another jammin Split Open & Melt came next, this tune is always a 
keeper.  Next came another treat: Tela, another favorite of mine.  
Taste/Fog came next.  While I'm not a big fan of Fish's new addition to 
this song, the jam is a great.  I think Taste was great over the summer, 
so I say if it's not broke, don't fix it, but i guess there's nothing 
wrong with adding on to it.  A rare My Sweet One, and a rockin 
Frankenstein closed the set.  

     Set two opened up with the not anymore rare Curtain.  This is a GREAT 
second set opener, I like it ALOT better here that early in set one.  Now 
is where the *MAGIC* begin's.  Well, what happens the rest of the set is 
one of the big reasons why I come to see Phish.  Tweezer was GREAT, this 
is probably their best improvisational song, it give's them a chance to 
really experiment with different jams, and where to take things.  Flowing 
non stop out of Tweezer came Timber Ho.  What I liked so much about the 
Dead was their ability to connect songs, without bringing them to a 
complete stop, this set proved Phish can also master this art, now if they 
would only do it more often, we'd have more set's like this.  Timber Ho 
was unfinished, some people called it a Timber Ho Jam, but I say no way, 
Trey sang 2 verses, and skipped the last, that's enough to call it Timber 
Ho.  In my opinion, to call a song a jam, there would have to be no 
vocals, just a jam on the theme of the song.  Tweezer flowed right back 
out of Timber for some more jamming.  As the jam slowed down, Trey Mike 
and Fish marched over to Page while he supplied the background music and 
they did a Keyboard Army, it was my first time seeing this and I liked it 
better than Acoustic Army, they put out a real nice Keyboard Jam.  This is 
where you can say was the only time that the jam's stopped, even though I 
believe Page was still noodling while they went back to their instruments. 
 I saw Trey lean over to Mike and say something to him, then right away 
Mike stepped up the mic and stared the "ba boop ba ba bado ba boop",      
 Halley's Comet, what a choice!  this one jammed harder than any Halley's 
that comes to mind.  It was a nice long extended jam with alot of nice 
moments.  This jam led right into NICU.  Normally NICU comes to a complete 
stop, but nope, not this night, Trey didn't let this one, he went right 
into his one groove, they did some more jamming, and then came the sweet 
guitar intro to Slave to the Traffic Light.  THE ABSOLUTE MOST PERFECT 
SELECTION FOR THE MOMENT!  Ok I admit I was a little suprised because they 
did do it in Albany, and I did see it in Niagara Falls, and I haden't 
caught a Harry in a while, but Slave can NEVER disapoint.  Why I thought 
this was an incredible Slave, way better than Albany, but to say it was 
better than the first set Slave in Niagara Falls would be reaching, only 
because the one in Niagara Falls was truley a bit more special for reasons 
that make it hard to put into words.  But this Slave truley shined, and 
the perfect place for it is to close a second set.  The jam is such a 
monster it would be an injustice to follow it up with anything.  When they 
finish this one you just want to say "please stop, I'm not worthy, just 
set your instruments down and let us smile, and then come out for the 
encore".  And that's exactly what happened.  When they came back for the 
encore, Trey said their gonna play this next one for the guy holding up 
the sign, he said something like: "you not only have to bring signs, but 
you have to bring signs for song s that we want to play, and this happens 
to be one" and then he added, "but we can't play every sign", you knew he 
had to get that one in.  While I hoped it would be Destiny Unbound, 
actually I thought for sure it would be Destiny cause I was told someone 
had a Destiny sign, it was Axis: Bold as Love, my first, and I definate 
treat.  Why I'm no favorite of them doing covers as encores, this was an 
exception.  A perfect cap to an extra special night spent with Phish.

     Final thought's: There were some people who said that the jams before 
and after NICU that connected the songs was a Tweezer jam, I disagree, 
there was no significant sign on a Tweezer, no tease, no hint, I can say 
though it would be correct to label it Halley's->Jam->NICU->Jam->Slave, 
but I just just deemed it fine to label my tapes Halley's->NICU->Slave.  I 
do say though that the only time in the set where an arrow connecting 
songs wouldn't be right is after Keyboard and before Halley's.  Other than 
that the whole set was a non stop Jam fest.  I compare this second set to 
5/7/94 second set, but I like this one *ALOT* better.  You can say all you 
want about the Holiday shows and Halloween, and shows with Horn's and 
shows with special guest's like Warren Haynes, and show's with the all to 
rare Forbin or any Gamehendge show, but this one was *VERY SPECIAL* in my 
opinion, it was Phish going up on stage and supplying that ever so special 
element of suprise, they not only suprised us with the great song 
selection that they do at every show, but this time they suprised up with 
the most tightly amazing phenominal second set you'd want to hear.  One 
only hope's that they won't be too big for Binghampton next year!

lstubbe@buffnet.net  
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12/14/95  Broome County Forum, Binghamton, NY (Charlie Dirksen)

	First set is extremely well played, but no versions stick out as
especially pleasing to ME.  Second set, though, is one of my favorite sets
of Phish and is one giant segue.   Curtain-> Tweezer-> Timber Ho->
Tweezer-> Keyboard Army, Halley's Comet-> JAM!!!!-> NICU-> JAM!!->
***SLAVE*** and a great Axis (E).  If you get anything from 1995, get this
set and 12/31/95 and you'll be just fiiine!