Oblivious Fool is Shafty

Today we've got the same song twice again, but not. Huh? It's Oblivious Fool (which was and might still be called Olivia's Pool) from 6/25/97 in Lille, France. That clip also has an early version of Dogs Stole Things on it following the Fool. Now you'll see and hear that Oblivious Fool is a sort of uplifting little diddy in a bluegrass type Phish style:

Fast forward a year later... the lyric remain the same but the song is now called Shafty and has a totally different musical structure beneath- dark, deep thick funk- reworked to fit in with the style of the Story of the Ghost album. This Shafty clip is from the Island Tour in '98, where Phish played Nassau Coliseum in Long Island and Providence Civic Center in Rhode Island. This is from the final night of the 4 show mini-tour on 4/5/98 in Providence. It's hard to say which I like better, they both have their merits.. maybe Shafty:

Mmmbop: Like an 11 Year Old Sex Machine

Phish.com calls this the rare example (maybe the ONLY example?) of a Phish soundcheck that is better known than the actual show. This soundcheck was open to the public and is some of the loosest most carefree fun Phish you will hear (click for pics of the limbo karaoke contest!). Check out the setlist for the soundcheck courtesy of Phish.net:

07-06-97 Spiaggia di Rivoltella, Desenzano (Brescia), Italy

Soundcheck: Jam, Oblivious Fool, Beauty of My Dreams, Hell's Bells (attempt)*, You Shook Me All Night Long#, MMMBop^, Another One Bites the Dust (Queen)$&, And It Stoned Me (Van Morrison)$, Only Shallow (My Bloody Valentine)$, Day-O

*As the show is outside (on a beach), bells ringing at a nearby church prompt this attempt at this AC/DC tune. #Sung by Fish after Trey can't remember the words. Trey makes a comment afterwords about writing just one song like this one. ^Hanson cover, sung by Fish as James Brown ("Like an 11-year-old sex machine"). $The Soundcheck Limbo Karaoke Contest (sung by audience members). &Sung as "Another one rides the bus".

Today we've got a video of the MMMBop, which is just hysterical. Trey (in his oft-worn eyeball top hat shirt) looks like he's having blast. Fishman, unfortunately blocked by fans' heads here, is doing his typical crown prince/court jester. Page looks mildly amused. Mike- are you there? So here ya go-Phish doing James Brown's version of Hanson's Mmmbop. Take it to the bridge.. 23 times...hit me....116 times:

Phish: It's an Udder Ball: 12/31/97

Phish: It's an Udder Ball. Sure everyone's seen the footage from Bittersweet Motel of the MASSIVE balloons dropping after midnight on 12/31/97 at The World's Most Famous Arena: Madison Square Garden. But what they don't show you is even better... the scoreboard above the center of the arena was covered in a dome shaped cloth screen the whole night and images were projected onto it. These were the same images Trey was talking about the night before during Harpua- eggs, olives, etc. The images danced and gyrated to the music. Finally just before midnight all the images came together to form a giant olive loaf, which morphed into a pig into the Statue of Liberty and eventually into Baby New Years. Then the screens ripped open at midnight and the big balloons fell out. Here's some good footage (1st minute is bad though) of the NYE madness:

And of course, a Happy New Years to all the Phish Phans out there!

Drinking Gin from a Hose at the Great Went

Here's a doozy for ya! The greatest Bathtub Gin of all time? Maybe. This video is from 8/17/97 at the Great Went, Loring Air Force Base, Limestone, ME. In case you're wondering where that is exactly, it's way up there in Maine. Waaaay up there:

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The first few minutes of this video is the "Art Jam" where each member of Phish painted on some wood which was later passed through the crowd and nailed onto the large 50 foot tall art tower which consisted of pieces that fans had painted throughout the festival. You can see Fishman painting at 2:00 in. The tower was burned down in a giant bonfire at the end of the show (and on a personal note, "sure let's meet by the big sculpture after the show" sounded good before the show but it turned out to be a poor choice of meeting places since the entire crowd seemed to head towards the fire...) Part I:

Part II is where the jam really gets going...at around 2:30 they really start hitting that smooth hose jam that is just free and gorgeous... that little repeating riff Trey starts playing at around 3:15 is the essence of Phish, just finding a little groove and expanding it into something bigger than the sum of it's parts culminating in the big peak at 7:10 before heading into the next song (no closing Gin chords). Epic. Confirmed.

Detroit 12/6/97 Izabella Gets Funky

Yesterday was this show at Detroit's Palace at Auburn Hills' 10th anniversary (wow has it been that long?!). Great stuff. Phish takes a Hendrix rocker and somehow turns it into a stop/start funkfest in typical Fall 97 style.
Just for bonus kicks, here's Jimi doing Izabella live from Woodstock: