Category Two
SET 1: Sample in a Jar, Also Sprach Zarathustra > Poor Heart, Taste, Dogs Stole Things, Theme From the Bottom, Swept Away > Steep > Limb By Limb, Dirt > Harry Hood > Chalk Dust Torture, Samson Variation, Twist > Cavern
ENCORE: My Soul
Despite their myriad differences, the overseas summer voyages of 1996 and 1997 do share one itinerary overlap: the occasional stop on the busy European festival circuit. The year prior, Phish played one-setters on multi-band bills in Italy, Belgium, and France. On the return trip, they’ll play five: two back-to-back in Germany, the esteemed Glastonbury and Roskilde festivals, and one charmingly called Dr. Music. These appearances tend to be among Phish’s safest, with the band acknowledging that their idiosyncratic sound makes them weird neighbors with either traditionalist jazz and blues bills or the alternative rock-focused fests of the late 90s.
The 1997 Hurricane Festival, the first of a revival that continues on to this past weekend, was closer to the latter. The year was headlined by INXS, Rammstein (natch), Bad Religion, and Midnight Oil, with down-bill appearances by Primus, Daft Punk, 311, Ani DeFranco, Son Volt, and future Phish coverees…Chumbawumba. If you want a measure of Phish’s European popularity at the time, they made it to the third tier of font size – equal to Primus, bigger (for now) than Chumbawumba. They played at night, but they were definitely on a side stage, “a big tent that was open all the way around,” says Scott Shannon in my Pharmer’s Almanac.
What happens when the no-fucks-given attitude of Summer 97 meets the pressure to attract — or at least not alienate — curious fans who were there to hear “Beds Are Burning” and “Never Tear Us Apart”? It’s a stalemate. Despite their mid-level status, Phish are given nearly two hours to play, which allows them to split the difference between accessibility and their self-improvement priorities in a long single set.
So: Sample opener, a bunch of songs from the newish album available at your local record shop, reliable crowd pleasers Hood and Chalk Dust and Cavern. But also a gaggle of new tunes, including the debut of oddball Samson Variation and a Twist that spirals past 18 minutes, just when you thought it was safe to phone in an essay about a routine festival show. For a song that was debuted only seven days ago and was written only a month or three before that, it’s remarkable growth. Even within one jam, the rookie shows its versatility, getting a hard-rock solo, a brief flirtation with cowfunk that morphs into sparse blues, interrupted by an ambient tidal wave before a blues reprise.
The other noteworthy event of the set is, somewhat disrespectfully to the German-speaking audience, in the between-song banter. After the sixth Limb By Limb in as many shows, Trey teases Fish and then acknowledges his drum part, saying “in Fish’s defense, I wrote that beat out on a drum machine. I thought it was humanly impossible and then I gave it to Fish and he did go and learn it. He almost knows it.” You can hear that original robot beat on Trampled by Lambs, and it is inconceivable that Fishman was able to recreate it…oh, and then sing backing vocals over the top. It’s no wonder that they arranged the song to end with that feat isolated, the closest thing to an earnest drum solo that Fishman would ever allow.
Between Twist and Limb by Limb, it’s a marvel that these songs have already matured, and testament to the ability of Phish, as a collective entity, to interpret and enlarge the songs of Anastasio/Marshall. As I’ve said before, Trampled by Lambs and Pecked By The Doves documents a bunch of songs in sketchbook form, even as it lays out the foundation for Phish’s 97-99 peak. But it took the full foursome to flesh them out, which they did so rapidly that the band felt comfortable playing these songs to an audience of people unfamiliar with Phish, even making them the most vibrant and memorable part of the set. It immediately separates this year’s festival appearances from those of the past – a Phish survey that previews the future, instead of just summarizing the past.
