From: Charlie Dirksen
6/20/95 Blossom Music Center, Cuyahoga Falls, OH This was a nice venue.. I liked the shade trees at the top of the
hill/lawn... and the natural bathroom, which was handy, until Law Enforcement realized that there were people efficiently and
harmlessly relieving themselves, and so had to take control of the dangerously reasonable situation... MikeS is standard in the
opening, and the tramps segment comes in at the usual time, and is standard. Mike is unduly active, but Trey does the typical
off-key sustain, eerie sort of stuff that bores me nowadays. Post-tramps jam comes in early at 5:16. It is surprisingly more
harmonically balanced than usual!! It sounds dark, funky and eerie as usual, BUT Trey employs some spooky effects, and Page
funks out on the Clavinet (with Mike providing an excellent base), AND it just really blends well! It sounds like it has a plan,
even though it never does... At 8:30, the jam is still in this spooky mode.. Trey is still utilizing weird, sustained, spacey effects..
until 8:49 or so, when he starts chording viciously with malicious intent. This jamming starts sounding like it will eventually build
into the MikeS Ending Jam, but it doesn't really build. Maintains the same energy level and feel for a bit. At 10 minutes Trey
finds a theme that at first sounds like it might become a pure Mind Left Body theme, but doesn't. He drops it pretty quick (after
two touches on it), and messes around with the band. The jamming in here 10-11mins is great -- very upbeat and exciting.
Complex. Interweaving counterpunctual jamming.. Similar in form to Dave's Energy Guide at times, too (but it is NOT DEG!!).
Really, the jamming in this MikeS post-tramps mode is some of the best I've heard up until this point (12 mins), HOWEVER,
beginning about twenty seconds later, the jam goes into a slow march of sorts (picture a slow, plodding march...). Page, Trey
and Fish all come in at the same time on a chord on the downbeat of each "step" so to speak, in a slow march fashion (I can't
describe this... one of you music majors step in here). Mike solos over the top of them. Very Floyd-like soloing from Mike in
here. Mike is just mesmerizing at this point (13 minutes). The jam is still in this slow march rhythmically... until nearly 14, where
Fish plays games with the rhythm (and the jam sounds like it will go into Makisupa.. (14:30) at the show, I remember screaming
at this point, thinking Makisupa.. and then being really embarrassed when it wasn't played.. because I'm silly like that).
ANYWAY, the ending to this MikeS was drawn out much longer than it should have been (pretty much the slow march crap..
until the very very end, when it sped up, but was still in this every band member chording at the same time sortof mode... I'm
sorry, but this "jam" got old with me pretty fast, even at the show). This stops around 16 or so, and the jam gets extremely
spacey, with effects from Trey and sustain from Page and Mike (and an evil laugh from Fish around 17:35.. then another at
17:46). Very spacey and lame at this point (18 minutes), unless you enjoy space, in which case you would dig this (it is a lot
more exciting SPACE than the Dead usually gave us! fwiw). Occasional drums/cymbals from Fish, sustain from Mike and Trey,
and just haphazard piano from Page.. you've heard SPAMMING before. At 20 minutes or so, the jam segues into a beautifully
spacey, melodic fantasia, that becomes Contact. (there was no typical MikeS Ending Jam to this version, unlike Red Rocks..
another 20+ min MikeS) This segue into Contact out of the spacey jam is another killer Phish segue, which, if you have yet to
hear, you very much ought to, especially if you consider yourself a segue afficionado. It isn't every show or even every other
show that Phish lets a segue this gorgeous (fwiw, see also the segue into Contact out of Ice at Spokane 10/7/95.. oh, and also
fwiw, Ice fans should check out that Spokane version.. it has my favorite jam in the middle of Ice..(the only part of Ice that
changes version to version..)). Contact is typically great, with Trey laughing at Mike's lines in the last min of the version.. (Mike:
"Should.") At 27:30, Trey starts chording (Fish kicks in the Weekapaug beat), and well, it sounds hideous. Mike starts funking
out, trying to get a solo in here, but Trey keeps chording Weekapaug, and so Mike doesn't get his solo in here (I can hear him
going crazy beneath Trey, though). This pissed me off at the show, and pisses me off even more on tape. Trey should have just
stopped playing the opening chords to Weekapaug and let Mike have his solo (everyone else was playing the opening right..
although Page did come in along with Trey.. and made it sound even worse.. hmm... Page was probably trying to help redeem
the opening though.. to perform a rescue). This opening to Weekapaug is HORRIFYING. Just a terribly messy, vomit-inducing
opening.. it really pisses me off (or can't you tell!). As far as this Weekapaug goes, it is difficult for me to look at it
fair-mindedly. Trey's jamming in the beginning is fine, but he completely drops it after only a minute or so. (!) Just very lame.
Lots of Weekapaug theme in here, too, which is strange (usually they just jam and visit the theme only at the beginning and at
the end). I mean, they just didn't really get into this Weekapaug, likely because of the sloppy opening. Or, I take it back. TREY
didn't get into this Weekapaug, and it is obvious. At 30:48 the jam relaxes, as if to go into a "quiet mode" (and Mike plays like it
should.. and Page), but Trey keeps playing the same two stinking chords over and over again. Just extraordinarily poor, given
what he is capable of. At 31:20 or so he finally stops the chords, and starts soloing, but it just sounds extraordinarily
disagreeable. Really, just painful at times to listen to. Up to this point, this has to be one of the lamest Weekapaugs I've heard
****ever****. At 32 minutes, Trey starts waking up, soloing a bit more melodically.. finding a theme. Wow! Now this is more
like it!! At 32:30 he seemed to be going somewhere.. Suzy Greenberg-esque jamming at 32:47 or so... At 33 minutes the jam
gets more exciting, for damn sure, with some especially fearsome drumming from Fish in here (it is as if he just takes over from
Trey or something, for a little bit! ;-). Trey gets his act together (sortof) for these last few minutes (drumming from Fish
REALLLLLY smokes in here, fwiw). I mean, it sounds better than he did earlier in the jam, but he has clearly given up on this
Weekapaug. He kinda chords and sustains out around 34 mins and just loses it. Talk about not being able to get into a groove..
god damn! Page and Mike are doing their jobs, Fish is very near complete derangement (which is good), and Trey just ain't
there. I don't know what to say in here, except this is one loser of a Weekapaug, in general. Trey's jamming between 35-36 is
just bewilderingly carefree. It is almost as if he isn't paying attention to the others ONE DAMN BIT. Just in his own world. At
36:20, Trey sustains out and the jam quiets down a lot (again). At 36:45, no Trey at all.. but then he comes in chording yet again
on a wholly non-Weekapagian theme. God damn is this Weekapaug screwey... and then it segues into the Hold Your Head Up
Theme at around 37:15!!! (at the show, by this point, I was already sitting down with my head in my hands, in a state of titanic
despondency) A spectacularly abominable ending, but one that comported with the worst Weekapaug Groove I had ever heard
in my life. It is most unfortunate that I heardeth this Weekapaug **live**. If only Trey had goest into some reasonably
Weekapaugian jams. This version is so bad that it belongs in a special category with a new rating: WTFWTD What the f*ck
was Trey doing. (just kidding). Well, I really liked the jamming in the Mike's Song before the ending, and Contact was smooth.
Weekapaug was absolutely hideous, though, and seemed to go on FOREVER, taboot. I still recommend getting it, if only to be
awed by how bad Trey can be when he is off. (the others were great.. especially Fish.. he was really wigging out at times in this
Weekapaug! kickass drumming!). C+ rating. It would be an injustice to give this complete MikeSGroove an Awesome "B"
rating, even though MikeS and Contact are/were very engaging (the Weekapaug is just THAT BAD, FOLKS). Feel free to
add your own two cents, but I encourage everyone who has this Weekapaug to goest hastily and give it a careful listen. And to
anyone whose only *live* Weekapaug is this one: be merry, for the next Weekapaug you hear *live* (probably in the Fall) will
make you see ICCULUS!! Weekapaug really never gets as bad as 6/20/95. !%@#^#