From: Charlie Dirksen
5/16/95 Lowell Memorial Auditorium, Lowell, MA I still get a kick listening to this show... the Theme from the Bottom is
perhaps my favorite version. And this Reba is one of my favorite Rebas for certain, given that intensely teary-eyed repetitive
theme that they jam on in it (led by Trey). The YEM opening isn't that smooth. Trey has some trouble getting started in the first
30 seconds (I don't know what the problem was.. maybe monitor trouble or something, but he doesn't play cleanly at all). The
pre-Nirvana build is nice but nothing unusually grand. Nirvana at about 3:20. Nirvana section is ok, Mike's solo-section is
Curious (not terribly exciting), and the pre-charge is fine. First shot at the Note is hit solidly around 5:26 and Trey jams well
about it. The second Note is sustained flawlessly. "Boy" at 6:48. BMGS/WUDMTF segment standard. Not very exciting or
even that groovy. At 9:06 the tramps jam begins with Mike signaling and Page noodling. Decent section. Page is reasonably
active but doesn't really tear shit up at all. Somewhat dull, frankly. Jam segment should start at about 11 minutes, but Trey lets
Mike and Fish jam a bit first. He comes in noodling around 11:10 or so, extremely quietly. It is just him and Fish for the opening
(like many YEMs of 1994) of the jam. Trey is extremely fragile in his noodling (which is in the low octaves, and is fairly
melodious). Fish is also very precious on the drums... Really not all that exciting, like this review. Around 12:15 Trey repeats a
two-note "theme" or sorts for a little while and then finds a lil melodic theme that's more note-heavy and repeats THAT for a
little bit. Still, around 13 minutes, when Mike softly enters, the jam is still very mellow and doesn't really go anywhere. Trey is
staccato-noodling all over the place, for certain, hitting some frets here and there, too, but nothing "exciting" or "dramatic" at all
occurs, until at about 14:05 or so when the intensity finally increases and a Real YEM Jam starts up within about 20 seconds.
The jamming around 15 minutes is very pleasant, typically Phaaat YEM jamming, but nothing exceptional occurs at all. The final
minute of the jam is excellent, very powerful... maybe pushed out a little... but not much. Bass and drums at 17:30 after a
drawn-out spacey intro to the segment. Mike is fairly mellow in here with Fish, and though he plays some phaaat melodic
themes, it really isn't all that sweet. He stays relatively in the same octave and doesn't appear all that thrilled... it certainly doesn't
RAGE as this section often does. Fish is reserved as well. At 18:38 the closing WUDMTF segment kicks in, and the vocal jam
readily ensues. I'm sometimes very sick of vocal jams, and this is one of those times. I can't "review" these for shit, as you
know, which doesn't help matters. This vocal jam is pretty melodious, and there's some pleasant harmonizing (well.. enchanting
harmonizing). Nothing unduly strange occurs, however. Total time 23:19. This YEM was basically a C Reasonably good,
straightforward version. Not terribly interesting, or long, in light of many other versions, but still contains some meritorious jams.
Solid. Well.. the closing minute or two of the jam segment was enough to give this a C+, I thought. Still, not a very impressive
version at all in light of versions from 1994-6, in my opinion. Note, however, that it'd been over 4 months since Phish had
played *live*... (although this helps make the Reba all the more impressive, imo!) two cents charlie