SET 1: NICU > My Soul, Dirt, David Bowie, Frankie Says > Possum, When the Circus Comes, Gotta Jibboo, Fluffhead
SET 2: Boogie On Reggae Woman, Heavy Things, Tube, Back on the Train > Mike's Song > McGrupp and the Watchful Hosemasters, Prince Caspian > Golgi Apparatus > Weekapaug Groove
ENCORE: Rocky Top > I Am Hydrogen > Julius
There are a number of musical thermometers for how Phish is feeling about their music at any given time. Quantitatively, you can count up the number of songs per show or set, the number of segues (even tally > vs. ->, if you’re a true sicko), or the number of bustouts. On the qualitative side, there are spongy songs such as Tweezer or Gin that adapt to the improvisational ambitions of different eras or songs such as 2001 or Tube that go longer or shorter based on their current levels of patience.
But I’d like to propose a new metric that is a mix of both numerical and descriptive factors – the content of a Mike’s Groove. For the band’s first decade, they pretty much played Mike’s Groove the same way every time, Mike’s > Hydrogen > Weekapaug. In 1993, that rule started to loosen up at the same time the band started experimenting more broadly in their shows and setlists, and by the end of the year you were as likely to get a surprise in the middle as you were to get element #1.
The insertion of Simple in 1994 pushed the envelope even further by turning the default trio into a quartet, and through the late 90s, they packed the space between Mike’s and Weekapaug full of more and more songs, sometimes using them as thematic bookends for entire sets as show flow became more of a focus. Even the opposite approach, the rare direct Mike’s > Weekapaug, could make a statement about a performance’s intensity and willingness to flaunt norms.
Viewing 1999 through this lens pretty much tracks with some of the trends we’ve covered already. After Hydrogen returned at the end of ‘98 from a year-long semi-retirement, the summer tour brought the original trio out for a couple more spins, a revival that carried over for the Groove’s first fall appearance at a pretty by-the-numbers Shoreline show. In Las Cruces, they subbed in Train Song for the Hydrogen spot in the quartet version, a fairly 1-for-1 substitution in a stolid, straightforward show. The Memphis Mike’s Groove was as inventive as the show’s big jams, weaving in the weirdo chant trilogy of Catapult/Kung/I Didn’t Know where the funk breakdowns or instrumentals usually go.
And tonight’s final Mike’s Groove of Fall 99 is…just plain baffling. After a Mike’s jam where Trey’s keyboard distractions suck all the energy out almost immediately, McGrupp emerges from an ambient finale. The traditional Gamehendge finale is very cool to hear after a 70-show layover, but they double down on the mellow middle by chasing it with Caspian. Then instead of ramping back up with a set-closing Weekapaug, they detour into a very out of place Golgi. Compounding the zig-zag confusion, they sneak Hydrogen into the encore between Rocky Top and Julius – the only time between 10/31/87 and 4/20/24 that the instrumental was played outside the confines of a Mike’s Groove.
This turbulent ride is again representative of the show surrounding it. One would hope that the first two-day rest of an unrelenting tour and the return to the opening site of the pivotal Island Tour would refocus the band. But the first night of this tour-ending New York foursome is just as muddled as the shows that preceded it. It’s a little sloppy – check out the molasses starting tempo and awkward mid-song adjustment in the BOTT that precedes this Mike’s Groove – and a lot uninspired. I know some of you weirdos like it, but I remain convinced that any show post-1997 that drops a My Soul early on means they’re out of sync, given that it’s such a frequent soundcheck favorite. The longest jam of the night, in Bowie, does very little with that real estate; most of the runtime makes me want to poke it with a stick.
So in a show where, for whatever reason, they just don’t got it, they instead try to force it with left-field Mike’s Groove filling. That’s where the thermometer theory finds its ground-truth – when the band is locked in and thinking out of the box, it feels almost effortless for them to take the choices within Mike’s in new and unexpected directions that still function. But when the mood is awkward and they’re pressing, the classic bookends can find themselves wrapped around some clashing ingredients. Tonight’s version of Phish’s signature suite is symptomatic of a tour that hasn’t managed to come up with a convincing thesis in time for its grand finale weekend.
I was thinking about the Mike’s Groove after following this tour along with the MC Phish Crit. Listening to this show yesterday and the train wreck (no pun intended with that BOTT) of a show that it seemingly was from my perspective listening 25 years later really got me daydreaming and thinking about other things. Mike’s Groove is this great direct communication link with the audience and fans. It’s like the Simpson’s beginning sequence/theme song opening. There are a bunch of things that change like Bart writing on the chalk board and the item rung up when Maggie is passed through the scanner, or what Lisa plays on Sax during rehearsal, and then the epic crescendo when the whole family sits down at the tv. Like the Simpson’s opening sequence, Mike’s Groove always has the potential to mimic this kind of conversation or reveal little inside jokes to the audience of geeked out fans that we all are. So I thank you, Rob, for delving into the science of Mike’s Groove today. Can’t wait for this tour to be over - it’s unpredictably breaking my mind.
I got on the bus in '92, but never heard any '99s until relisten made it easy to check them out. My local taper moved out of town, and tape trading started failing that year. A couple of times I sent shows out and got nothing back, and I remember getting 2 blank tapes back with a note to the effect "Sorry dude I can't do it". Whatever was going on with the band that year had infected the fan base, or maybe it was the other way around. These reviews just reinforce my take on the era.