Context Specifics

7/6/96, Pistoia, ITA, Piazza Del Duomo

SET 1: Also Sprach Zarathustra > Reba, Poor Heart > A Day in the Life > Maze, Harry Hood

Listen

It occurs to me that I’ve been kind of harsh on the boys so far, given that they are performing under exceedingly difficult circumstances. In addition to the time limitations discussed yesterday, Phish basically have not played any shows in the last six months, spending the time either on vacation, in the studio, or indulging in side projects. They’re forced to rediscover their sea legs with all the inherent disadvantages of an opening act: an unfamiliar stage setup (with Fish occasionally at the back instead of four-across), inconsistent sound (see the glitch in today’s Reba), and, presumably, disinterested audiences if not empty seats. 

Credit due, then, that they seem to have already figured it out somewhat by night 3 of their Santana-supporting European vacation. Tonight’s 44-minute set just about maximizes what Phish can accomplish on that limited canvas; it sounds like the first half of a pretty good second set instead of the middle of a mediocre first set. There’s an excellent 2001 opener, starting to show signs of the expansion that will finally occur later in the year, dropping into an exquisite Reba. Instead of whistling, Trey charmingly attempts some Italian to explain that his grandfather emigrated from the country to America. Maze provides a solid dose of the more aggressive and noisy Phish, while Hood — somehow never played during their previous 1992 span as an opening act — is the perfect encapsulation of the Phish emotional climax, an ideal teaser for what you might experience at a “real” show. 

It’s also the first (maybe only?) show where we have some video documentation of what Europe 1996 looked like. The visuals help frame a set that might be otherwise forgettable. And it looks like...a pretty normal Phish show, with Page’s Leslie speaker a-whirlin’ and Trey’s megaphone and mini-kit at the ready. A suns-out, guns-out Trey is headbanging like its Fall 95, and most of the usual Maze light cues are hit — presumably Kuroda’s on the light board, a luxury that wouldn’t be typically offered to opening acts. 

Through the dusky VHS quality you also get a sense of how unique the environment was for this and other July 96 shows. The first two nights may have been in stadiums designed for calcio, but tonight’s performance is on the Piazza del Duomo of Pistoia, essentially a town square adjacent to the 1000-year-old Pistoia Cathedral. And though there’s no mention of it on phish.net, the set was actually part of the day-long Pistoia Blues Festival, complete with overnight camping (thanks to the Europe 1996 Tour Facebook group for that and many other info nuggets).

“The tapes don’t tell the whole story,” is one of the most well-worn jamband cliches, but extra true nonetheless for Phish’s late 90s European swings. At a time when the band’s American venue circuit was starting to homogenize — corporate-named sheds and arenas, differing only by the crappiness of the sightlines from the lawn/cheap seats — the European tours offered a refreshing dose of Old World weirdness. In a span of three days, they would play at the site of the 1990 World Cup Final, a town square dating back to the Middle Ages, and a Milanese water park. If the music onstage was unremarkable, the setting filled in the rest.

But it’s also possible to over-romanticize the environment. According to the tour recap written by Stephanie Finz in the Clifford Ball newspaper: 

“My own personal experience was that the people there were very rude and unkind. I heard people booing them standing right near me, but others didn’t have that experience. Overall, I did not enjoy Pistoia because of the crowd and the weird scene.”

Finz’s dispatch also mentions that the Italians booed the unamplified Sweet Adeline in Rome the night before, suggesting a streak of foreign-language hostility that isn’t apparent on the audio. Even Phish in their best form to date can’t win over those impatient to see “Oye Como Va,” and to be fair, Reba and Hood are always going to be a strange fit for a “blues” festival. But if converting Europeans was a stretch goal to the less ambitious mission of getting warmed up for the year in picturesque surroundings, tonight’s show is a step in the right direction.