From cdirksen@earthlink.net Sat Sep 12 23:35:40 1998
Date: Wed, 01 Jul 1998 21:32:38 GMT
From: cdirksen@earthlink.net
To: dan@netspace.org
Newsgroups: rec.music.phish
Subject: *7/9/97 LYON ENJOYS ITSELF*

7/9/97  Le Transbordeur, Lyon, France

Finally!!  I've been meaning to half-assedly review this for a long
time now.

Trey isn't too tight in YEM's opening, but he makes up for it later.
Good spacey, echanting pre-Nirvana section.. Nirvana at 3:59.
Well-played.  Page sounds great on the piano!  I love the sound of
these tapes (NAK 300 guns, surprisingly good..).  Mike's solo section
is ok.. pre-Charge is strong.  Trey teases Down with Disease in the
jamming following the first shot at the Note (he's never done that
before in YEM).  Trey nails the second shot at the Note and sustains
it well.

"Boy" at 7:18 after a hearty scream.  Good BMGS/WUDMTF segment..
tramps jam is strong.  Very groooovy.. Page plays really well, and
Trey chords along to the rhythm.  Crowd starts going crazy around
11:13 for no apparent reason, so I assume Bela Fleck and the
Flecktones show up on the scene.  Yep. :)  Bela takes a solo around
11:30.. Fits right in to YEM, fwiw.  Trey is just playing rhythm
guitar in the background. Bela is still soloing around 13 minutes
(everyone accompanies him well)  At 13:24 someone begins soloing on
sax.. Is this Jeff what's his name, Bela's sax player?  I guess so.
It's good.. Fish continues to pound out a straight YEM rhythm btw, so
the groove keeps its YEM form (given all the activity on stage, it
reminds me a lot of the 5/5/93 YEM with ARU, naturally).

Futureman goes off a bit around 15:15 with that stupid synth drumitar
thing. Mike is funking away underneath everyone, presumably with
Victor, but I can't make Victor out.  At 15:55 the groove builds
strongly.. tension and release at about 16:15 or so.  After the
release, Bela and Trey jam a bit more together (interesting interplay
between them for the entire version, btw).  At 16:50 I don't know
what's going on in here.. mellow jamming.  No one is taking lead,
though.  Trey asks for PIERRE.. Where are you Pierre.  Trey then
introduces the guests.  Futureman. (takes a lame "solo" on that
stupidrumitar) Greasy Troll. (Fish.. Fish and Futureman jam together..
it isn't all that great imo)

Victor Wooten on the bass. :-)  (he's got to be my favorite bassist..
the Jimi Hendrix of Bass Players.. see him AT ALL COSTS!!!!) Victor
takes a good solo, but I've certainly heard him tear it up even more
impressively than this. At 21:53 Trey introduces Jeff COFFEN, on the
tenor sax.  Jeff takes a cute little solo (his playing in this YEM,
btw, is excellent, especially considering that he'd probably never
heard YEM before walking on stage).  Nice little solo from him. Trey
plays some accompanying licks in here (23 mins) which I would swear
are straight out of a Grover Washington Jr. tune.. one I can't name.
The jam starts kicking ass again.. nice soloing from Jeff!  And of
course Mr. Flecktone himself on the banjo. (electric banjo, complete
with misc. gadets/effects)  Bela teases a tune around 24:45 that is a
traditional bluegrass number, I believe, and one which Salmon plays
regularly I think, too.  The jam starts picking up as Trey grooves
along with Bela! =^]  Nice interplay between them, too.  BTW, I can't
hear two bass guitars in this jam.. did Mike leave the stage for this
jam???

At 26:03 the jam drops back a bit but Trey keeps it up (Page
accompanies a bit).  Fish cuts back the drums, though.  Great
interplay between Bela and Trey in here (26:30). =^]  They keep in up
for a couple minutes.. :)  It could be more tight, though.  At 28 mins
the drums kick back in more forcefully, as does Victor..  The
interplay between Bela, Trey and PAGE is just wonderful..

At 29:55 the jam begins quieting down a bit.. gets more spacey,
actually.  Fish starts playing with the rhythm a bit.  The jam gets
very Un-YEM-like.. :)  Meanders.. Trey is still very active and
repetitive, though.. as is Bela.

Twirling, dizzying, somewhat enchanting groove around 31 minutes..
somewhat aimless, circular, until at about 31:35 when the jam appears
to begin taking on more of a Plan.. at 32:10 Bela starts playing
something.  Possibly a tease of something (?). Trey joins in.  Fish
slows the beat down a bit.  The jamming around 32:45 sounds kinda like
"A Love Supreme" but without actually teasing ALS.. beautiful jam in
here, imo, that sounds like it must be teasing Some Tune.. one that I
can't name (33:30).  Whatever tune it is, it is one that everyone
appears to know. (except me) Ok, after 34 minutes I definitely hear
MIKE GORDON on bass.. At 34:35 or so, Trey kicks out some funky rhythm
chords and Fish alters the rhythm ever so slightly.. and the segue
into Ghost clearly begins.  At 35:12 they start singing the Ghost
lyrics..

This is one of those YEM's that is a hell of a lot of fun.. but
listening to it critically, I can't give this an "A" in good faith,
given that it is not really fair to compare it to other YEMs. I'd still
recommend that people check out this show.  Really awesome jam in the
SOAM in the first set.  N/R for this YEM. (definitely worth hearing if
you get the chance, and easily one of the "best" imo)

two cents
charlie


p.s.  If you want to check out more YEM reviews, go to
http://www.phish.net/hpb/yem.