On a cold snowy evening in the high peaks area of the Adirondack Mountain chain Phish was playing the second of a two night stand in the little village built for the 1980 winter Olympic Games. The band's music had really been pushing the envelope that phall. The ability to tap into divine energy and release it with such intricate expression had grown to new levels. Fifteen years after the miracle on ice the Olypic centre saw a miracle of music. All there was inside the venue this night was an ocean of consciousness. Each of us contained a wave that moved the body around with our unique expressions. There was a letting go that allowed for the miracle to manifest. The source had reclaimed its individual pieces as its whole self again. Our body/minds became only vehicles for the animating light of exsistence to have a dance in the world of form. Can still remember that Tweezer reaching into the back of the soul's dark freezer, holding the shaking fear against its body until it became still. It said now let it out, let it all out into the light. Bursting forward was the reprise of humanity; The sliver was gone, oh God was it gone...

The first set pretty much peaks with your typical (that is to say, played with fire-breathing intensity from opening section to JAM OF DOOM to Rye Rye Rocco) '95 Antelope and a fine Stash; the second set is the usual tremendous December '95 hammer-and-tongs stuff for the first half, until a really beautiful, mellifluous Hood brings one highlight and a *massive* Tweezer brings the other, with a jam right out of the gates that you practically need to take shelter from (Fish, in particular, is hammering his drums so hard it's like he's trying to elicit information from them). You don't need me to tell you that December '95 was a great, if not THE great, time for Tweezer (*every* 12/95 Tweezer is bolded on its jam chart - how crazy is that???), and this Tweezer is every bit as powerful as New Haven and Binghamton and the rest; plus, the ending here is pretty neat, as the jam melts away and leaves Page alone to display his chops before segueing neatly into Tweezer Reprise. You can throw a dart and hit a good show in December '95, and while this isn't a top of the mountain show, the Tweezer and Hood alone are worth the download.

Simply put this show is one of the most underrated shows of all-time. 12/17/95 doesn't get the props it deserves because of all the other jewels contained in that month & year (Hershey 12/1 - MSG 12/31). This should be part of a top ten list of all-time underrated Phish shows. Heck just do a December '95 show rankings list.

The first set is fine and chock full of perfectly placed 1st set nuggets, but the flow of this entire show is what stands out to my ears. This was the last show before the break, wherein to think of how many shows they played in '95, you could very well say they might have been as practiced, crisp and sharp as they have ever been. Dare I say that that for the entire month of December, they may have been playing at a creative peak of sorts. The transitions that tie the seven songs between Maze & Reprise together are undoubtedly some of the most creative and thoughtful which I have ever heard. The 2nd set was highlighted by Hood, which was pure magic.

SET 1: My Friend, My Friend > Poor Heart > A Day in the Life > Run Like an Antelope, The Mango Song > Tube: Standard, but incredible setlist and exceptionally well played. >

Stash: Incredible, hang on to your butt because this one is not for the weak.

The Lizards: Standard.

Chalk Dust Torture: Rocks big time, would relisten!

SET 2: Bouncing Around the Room: Standard. >

Maze: Elongated a bit too far but the payoff is HUGE. Trey goes off.

Free: Standard. >

Also Sprach Zarathustra: Huge wall of sound built up and sustained through. 2:18. Trey builds a nice theme before going into his typical part. He continues to return to that throughout. Excellent 2001! >

Harry Hood: Mike and Trey interplay in the soft middle jam is outstanding. Bit of a false climax in the late 13’s. Gorgeous climax at 15:20. Goosebumps for real here folks. Fishman is incredible in this one – especially in the last few minutes. >

Sparkle: Standard. >

Tweezer: Nice heavy Trey riffs out of the composed section. Very classic rock sounding. Very choppy Page and Mike led breakdown in the 14’s. Page solo in the 15’s akin to a Coil solo almost. In the late 17’s it almost sounds like he is about to go into Sea and Sand. Dude yelling for Ride Captain Ride at 19:02. You can hear this creaking sound on the source that is on Phish.in, it’s either someone winding a camera or someone sitting in a rocking chair in the tapers section, lol. Absolutely exquisite 4-minute Page solo, very unique way to close out a Tweezer and then… -> Tweezer Reprise: Played 306 times. Only 6 times has been paired directly with Tweezer coming before it – just 2%!!! This was the second to last time (6.21.04).

ENCORE: Hello My Baby:

Runaway Jim: Super rare in the encore slot. Only 9 times did this ever happen and this was the second to last time (12.12.99). So of the 396 they have played Jim, they have only encored with it 2% of the time they played it! To take these one step further, of the 9 times they encored with Jim – they never did that at a tour closing show – until this night! Standard version outside of the unique encore aspect.

Summary: What an incredible way to end one of the very best tours of the bands career, Hood late in the set AND Tweezer and Reprise? They left the Olympic Center a smoking crater where the venue used to stand. Absolutely brilliant! Replay value: Stash, CDT, Maze, 2001, Hood and Tweezer. This show is a total smokeshow and seems to fly under the radar somehow? Not sure why that is, it’s strange to me. Happy to rate this as a 4.5 out of 5.

December 17th, 1995 was the second and final night of my first-ever multi-show run with Phish, as well as being the closing show of the band’s winter tour. I think this might have also been the first time I was staying in my own hotel room for a concert. I was staying at the Howard Johnson’s just a short walk from the venue and it felt great to have a place to call home for the two nights. The days of sleeping in my car after a show or being part of a hotel wookstack were far from over but this at least marked the beginning of the more mature concert traveller I was to become.

I remember this show very, very clearly. My friend JP had come to Lake Placid for the second night (to date his only Phish concert) and he bought a ticket from someone at face value (maybe around $20?) at a pre-party in the hotel. Imagine his disappointment when we found free tickets literally on the ground as we walked to the show. I remember a tree near the front door of the venue that had dozens of unused tickets for the evening’s performance dangling from it’s branches.

The show opened with My Friend, My Friend which made us laugh as my friend (my friend) JP had been singing that very song including any number of twisted lyrics as we walked through the small parking lot before the concert. Then the band played Poor Heart – one of my early favourites – and the whole room got jumpin’.

And then they played A Day In The Life and here I was standing next to JP, the biggest Beatles fan I know. I had no idea that Phish covered the tune but we both recognized it from the first chord and we were both enthralled right through to the last chord. The first set also included Stash, Mango Song, The Lizards and closed where they often opened, with Chalkdust Torture.

Add in Maze, Harry Hood, Sparkle and Tweezer in the second set and you have a prodigious collection of my favourite Phish songs all collected in the same concert. Throw in the unique Phishy quirkiness that was the giant Band vs Audience chess game that ended in a stalemate during the unprecedented multi-move setbreak…all-in-all the whole night was such an incredibly great time. And walking back to my cozy little personal space after the show really helped to cement this new lifestyle that I was starting to embark on with relish.

Come to think of it, I probably had a bit of a wookstack going on in my room after all. There’s no way I could have afforded anything as fancy as a HoJo’s back in the day without splitting it about fourteen ways. Funny how people with dogs never felt like they had to pay extra.

http://www.toddmanout.com