From: "J. James Gray" 
Subject: REVIEW: 11/3/94


    Oh yes, about this one, 11/3/94 - I saw this show but I 
left my personal judgements out of it since I wasn't very happy 
with what I saw in the crowd.
11-03-94 The Mullins Center, UMass, Amherst, MA

Geneology     : Third generation, DAud
Tape Quality  : Minimal hiss - lots of audience, lots of singalongers(grin)
                Would be EX+ quality if the crowd were a bit more relaxed.
Tape Rating   : C+
Show Quality  : B-
Overall       : C+
Highlights
      Set I   : Wilson->Peaches.  gotta love it.
                Split Open and Melt
      Set II  : CREATURE!!
                ACOUSTIC My Sweet One encore!

Reccomendation: A good, ass-kicking show if you can get past the crowd noise
                on the first set.
                (I attended this show, by the way)
Set I:
Fee
Divided Sky
Wilson->
Peaches en Regalia
Glide
Split Open and Melt
Dog Faced Boy
Sparkle
Down With Disease

Review of Set I:

        Opening with Fee will always get 'em wet.  Lots of screaming, lots of
singing along a halfbeat behind the band.  A bit annoying.  Then they break
out Divided Sky and the crowd woohoos through the intro.  A very dramatic
Divided Sky, purposeful and strong.  ...and the crowd goes wild!...  The band
pauses for near a full minute before the opening note of Trey's solo.  You
expect something to bring it down a bit here, but nah! not tonight!  They're
out to give this crowd the show they expected to see-nothing wrong with the
occasional crowd-pleaser every so often...uhh..cough.  From a particularly
hot Divided Sky to Wilson.  The crowd loses it entirely. (I wouldn't mention
the crowd's reaction so often if it weren't so prominent on the tape.)  Yaaa-
aaaaah! wooooooo...  Trey races through Wilson just to (I think) get to
Peaches.  Excellent choice.  Clearly the highlight of the first set.  "Woman's
voice: 'Peaches en Regalia.'"  Thanks for the tip, honey.  Crowd mellows for
Peaches-you can actually enjoy it.  Very sweet.  But then, as if I even need
to tell you (no, not DwD...YET), Glide.  Whistle..wooooo... A tight, strong,
very much in-control Glide into Split Open and Melt.  Go fishman!  Tempo's
a bit fast-but it matches the crowd's enthusiasm.  A quick-paced jam during
SOAMelt, Page keeps it true to the original melody then follows Trey into the
jam leaving Mike to retain the melody and he does for a bit.  Page takes it
back from Mike then Trey jumps in with a faster solo and Page backs him up,
leaving the original SOAMelt in Mike's safe-keeping.  Mike opens it up a bit
but you can tell it's not entirely gone.  The pace comes down and everyone
comes in together for a strong, rhythmic jam - then the tape ends. argh! :)

Ok - for those unfamiliar with my review style, this is what I consider the
'Opener':  The first side of the set one tape.  A good showing-lots and lots
of energy.  A pretty good time so far... The SOAMelt jam ROCKS!  there's still
some promise left to this otherwise crowd-pleaser.

        Set one resumes with the SOAMelt jam: slow, rhythmic, mechanical.
Trey brings some licks in, very slow, easy, dirty...before soloing it back to
SOAMelt.  Whew!  Wow.  Crazy 'Melt!  Next: Dog-Faced Boy.  A very happy Hoist
crowd sings along - in much better time than they did Fee. :P  Applause for
Dog-Faced Boy carries right over into Sparkle.  Ohhh, c'mon guys! Sparkle?
Well, take solace in the fact the boys wouldn't give us this poppy first set
unless they planned to wipe the floor with us second set.  But we'll see...
Set one's not over yet.... A light-speed Sparkle - a happy crowd.  What's next,
guys?  Something from the archives to close the set, whattaya say?  Yeah,
they won't let us down!!  Wrong-not tonight.  Set one closes with Down With
Disease and a minor jam.

Intermission:
        Ok, I feel better now.  I took a break to watch Letterman.  I've got
a bit of a headcold and I'm a bit cranky.  I've been sucking down grapefuit
and orange juice and I don't have the energy to get to the liquor store to
buy vodka.  phuck.  so I'm taking it out on my dear review readers. :P bah.

Set II:
Also Sprach Zaruthustra >
Simple
Poor Heart
Julius
You Enjoy Myself->
Vibration of Life->
Big Black Furry Creature From Mars
Harry Hood
Cavern

E: My Sweet One (Acoustic quartet)
   Nellie Cane (Acoustic quartet)
   Amazing Grace (a capella)
   Highway To Hell

        Set Two starts.  The taper tells a whhoooohoooer, "Hey guy, shhhh,
!" kinda of thing.  cool.  Set Two Opener: Also Sprach Zaruthstra,
aka, 2001.  I love this tune.  Strauss is king.  The real question, though,
is: what's next?  The boys have a lot of making up to do after that first set.
We're all pulling for them - C'mon Phish!  and the verdict comes in: Simple.
Standard Simple followed by Poor Heart, then Julius.  Hmm.  Lots of energy,
lots of excitement.  Everyone's having a good time.  Then! YEM.  You can only
think, "Oh yeah - here we go."  The Vibration of Life!  Trey makes a joke about
getting too much of the Vibe and you'll end up looking like Fishman.  Back
into YEM.  Very tight; even tempo up into the crescendo.  Mike and Fish are
locking particularly nicely before and through the vocals.  Mike and Page
play off one another a bit then pause as the crowd claps together.  Mike
pulls it back around and Trey comes in with some support.  Mike and Fish hold
it together as Trey solos back into YEM.  Finally, the vocal jam.  I love
vocal jams when they're good and hate them when they're not.  I like this one.
Unfortunately, the tape flips occurs just when the jam is going somewhere.
Argh!  This particular jam rocks, actually.  They start doing an engine kind
of thing - most cool - RIGHT into CREATURE!!  YES!!  Phucking sick Creature.
I'm normally pretty reserved at shows but when they break out Creature, I go
nuts.  A little whoohooo here is forgivable. :>  Almost mandatory.  This IS
a pretty sick Creature, too.  Most definitely the highlight of the second set
so far.  What do they give us next?  HARREEEEEEE!!  Yeah!  A strong, straining
intro.  Tight rejoins into the solos.  Lots of energy for the vocal backings.
I could swear I heard some guy yell, "Sugaree!" doh.  Maybe he said Harry.
shrug.  They bring it down a bit - very mellow.  Trey has some fun with a
light solo while retaining the original melody.  They all come in together to
round off the song following Trey's lead.  A very Harry-jam.  Not much in the
way of exploration but makes for a pretty good Harry.  Not quite a ranking
all-time Harry, but refreshing.  To close it off, Cavern.  Ok, we can give
them that.  It was a pretty sick set.  Very strong, deliberate Cavern. Tempo's
a bit fast, Fishman's pulling it a bit early and  Trey misses some of the
ending lyrics due to the speed.  Whatever you do, take care of your shows.
Thanks alot, everybody, we'll see you guys SOON!  Cavern closes set two.

        First encore.  An acoustic My Sweet One.  The crowd loses their
collective shit.  "Holy SHIT!" is heard from a phan - expressing the feeling
of the entire audience.  Lots of singalongers and clapalongers, but it's
cool - everyone's having a real good time, enjoying this rare treat.  Ultra,
ultra-cool.  They remain up front with the acoustic instruments for Nellie
Cane.  Someone yells, "Do the white album!"  Everyone laughs.  The clapping
along drowns out the band for a bit before everyone figures it out and
mellows.  Nellie Cane comes off okay so they head into Amazing Grace.  Fun for
the whole famnily.  It's really amazing (ack, pun) this same insane crowd
from the first set could quiet down for Amazing Grace.  Unbelievable.   Last
encore: Highway To Hell!  Yeah!  Phish's way of saying, "alright - you want it,
we can give it to ya!" and they do.  Highway rocked the place then everyone
left.

11/03/94 Review
- J. James Gray
untimed@gold.mv.net