From: Charlie Dirksen
10/22/95 Assembly Hall, Champaign, IL (Rvwd 11/95) Thanks to Chico
Lippman for this PHHHAAAAAT Neumans
inspired DAUD. Very upbeat opening segment, otherwise very straightforward.
The jamming isn't more pleasing than usual...
still, a curiously gripping opening. Ebeeneeeezer at 3:47, and then
the jam segment begins. This opening really smokes! Trey is
FIRED UP!!!! He just funkily grooves on quick little riffs, and Page,
Mike and Fish establish a steady and quite engaging
groove. HOLY SHIT! About two minutes into the jam segment, Trey starts
climbing in very dramatic, almost TweezeRep
fashion, and the others join him! Very triumphant -- a most jubilant
version! At about 8 minutes, this exceedingly fiery and
captivating Tweezer jam (easily one of the greatest first few minutes
of the jam segment I've heard from this year) drops down a
notch into a more stealthy, mesmerizing, and ominous jam. Trey is noodling
away eeriely, and Phish goes into a variation of the
"Montana" sort of drum-beat (from the Bozeman Tweezer, on ALO). DAMN!!
Indeed, at 9:40 or so, they are jamming in a
Montana-esque groove, that is almost the exact same groove that occurs
in the 6/17/94 Tweezer after Johnny B. Goode! Great
stuff.. ;^) From about 9:40 on, for about 30 seconds, they mimick the
6/17/94 Montana-esque jam .. THIS IS
SPECTACULAR!!!! DAMN!! This is the best Tweezer I've heard all year
for damn sure by this point, if not one of the
greatest versions I've ever heard so far. DAMN!! OH MY GOD!!! This
funky jam creatively and cleverly climbs ever so
steadily (from an already Seriously Rockin' Level), building up into
some of the most awe-inspiring jamming I've ever heard
Phish do!! HOLLLLLLY CHRIST!!!! Trey is wailing majestically along
with the others in this kickass jam, practically playing
JBG at one point. I am F*CKING SHAKING HERE, FOLKS!! This is THE SHIT!!!!
Ok.. must maintain my composure and
lucidly communicate the magnifiscent glories my auricular nerves are
bearing witness too.. Damn!!!! Trey is tripleting up to
heaven around the 14 minute mark! He is just leaping left and right
out of these sick riffs! At 14:34, _The Note_ Occurs!!!
Neat!! Haven't heard this in quite some time. The note occurs. "The
Note" is that which signals the dying out of the jam
segment, which they haven't, to my knowledge, done ALL YEAR! They steadily
fade out the tweezer jam segment... At 15:20
or so, Fish segues the beat masterfully into a Makisupa rhythm, and
Page, Mike, and Trey play spacey stuff ... until at just
around 16 minutes Makisupa comes in. A gorgeous segue (or, for those
of you frightened by such terms, "transition" (!) .. when
Phish starts a tune immediately after another tune, even if on the
next beat, this is NOT, I repeat NOT, a segue or a transition.. it
is an "Immediate start of the next tune"). DANK. At one point in the
Makisupa, Trey whispers "Khadafi in my bed.. Paluska on
my head." He also whispers "Goldstein on my head.." "Let's hear one..
for Fred." ;-) Fun version... but shorter than Spokane by
a few mins (not nearly as spacey as Spokane, too!) I've heard three
from this Fall, and this Champaign version is the most
humorous by far.. (it, like the others, is complete, unlike Sugarbush
and Red Rocks last summer, and some in previous years,
where the jam segment segued into something else and there was no concluding
verse).. Ok, enough of this. Suffice it to say that
this was one of the most incredible versions of Tweezer I have ever
heard. I wish I could listen to it again, but I am taping it for
Dan "Rift-hater" Purcell. 9.0 rating. You can have your 5/7/94. I'll
take this mere 15 minute version over that whole damn set.
What the hell were the guys ON for this?? What did they eat before
this show??? This is an AMAZING VERSION of
Tweezer.