, attached to 1985-03-04

Review by Dunwoody

Dunwoody This is a surprisingly good recording, albeit evidently an incomplete one. Anarchy is fun, but not much more to say than that. Camel Walk has Jeff on vocals, and is the same groovy tune we know and love today, except that it has additional lyrics, a slightly different "jam" section in the middle, the dual guitars allow for a bit more action from Trey during the verses, and there's a little break for a short Mike solo. It's also a bit funny to hear Jeff note that they've been playing the song for a while, but had never seen anyone dance to it before (hard to imagine today!). I've not heard other Camel Walks from before this show, but this one has a really nifty brief DEG-like quote (it's not DEG) that goes into a dual-guitar Zeppelin style build that drops back into the groove before the closing chorus. I'm not sure if that was typical for the era (it sounds rehearsed, so I think it probably was), but it's worth checking out.

It's hard to comment on Fire Up the Ganja. It starts out with a heavier reggae influence than would be suggested by saying it's FOTM with different lyrics, but by the time the lyrics begin, yeah, it's pretty much FOTM with different lyrics -- though in between and after the "verses," the heavy reggae picks up again. As far as the Phish part of this goes, if you've heard any of the Phish versions of FOTM, you're not going to find much here you didn't find there, and candidly probably a bit less. Rather than long instrumental passages, it's heavy on the vocals and a little crowd singalong.

"Skippy" is full-on McGrupp, though without Page it has a very different feel. For his part, Trey doesn't sing this at all -- he essentially makes it a poetry recital with musical background, and it's all presented as a single verse. That sounds worse than it is; it actually works well I think. After some harmonics work toward the conclusion of the composed section that mimics Page's lines today, the tune drops into a brief spacey jam segment that coalesces into a Pavement-y passage and peak that really, really works. From there, it drops down to a quiet passage that gives Mike an opportunity to shine a bit, and it's remarkable just how much like modern Mike he sounds there. The band builds it back up from there and doubles the pace for a completely new passage that features some ferocious guitar work. A return to the McGrupp chords brings the tune to a close. It's wonderful, and 100% worth checking out (and not just for novelty's sake).

We wrap up with Midnight Hour, which judging from Trey's statement following it closed the set, not the show. I can't tell who sings it (I thought Trey sang earlier versions, but this is making me question that), but I love Phish's take on this tune. This one is played a bit closer to vest than others, but it still shines.

All things considered, the only parts of this show that are really run-don't-walk quality are the Camel Walk and McGrupp. But, the sound quality is high enough that it's worth giving a listen to the whole thing if you have 40 minutes or so.


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