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:

Farmhouse in a Spaceship

Here's some Phish Farmhouse action from the Spaceship, the Mothership, the world's greatest concert arena except for the no alcohol sales thing- Hampton Coliseum in the home state of the personalized license plate-Virginia (seriously what's the deal there?). There's something about Farmhouse that I've always liked- besides the whole No Woman No Cry guitar line ripoff thing- I think it's the line "each betrayal begins with trust, every man returns to dust". That's some deep stuff there. This video is from 11/20/98-yep Hampton Comes Alive! Note the Fishman Viking horns getup. Warning it's a little shaky at times but then again who isn't sometimes. Maybe the cluster flies were getting to our cameraperson.

Phish Love: Love You, Love Me

Today we've got a Valentine's Day Phish Double Date for everyone. We'll start it off with some Fishman love. The first video is Love You (aka Honey Love), a Syd Barrett song. This performance is from 3/31/92 at the Blue Note in Columbia, MO. It starts off with the somewhat rare Cold As Ice (Foreigner) intro and outro for our favorite drummer instead of the more normal HYHU. Some humorous swinging introductions from Jon F. and then a thick vacuum solo in the middle. Nice.

The second part of our double is the much rarer Love Me (aka Treat Me Like a Fool). This version is from 11/8/98 at the horseshoe shaped UIC Pavilion in Chicago. Mike "Cactus" Gordon takes the vocal lead for this Elvis cover. They've got some pretty decent background harmonies going on too. Lots of good closeups for all you Gordo fanatics out there.

Scent of a Mule>Blister in the Sun>Scent

Here's a hot one for ya... it's from 7-9-98 in Barcelona. Looks like a pretty steady cam shot from balcony or bar or something over on Page side. It's just kind of weird how they randomly go into Blister in the Sun (Violent Femmes). I was at the Austin show the year before when Phish played it and that was clearly precipitated by the obnoxiously hot weather. They were even driving around the parking lot in a golf carts handing out free water to keep the crowd hydrated in the Texas sun. I wasn't on the Europe tour in '98 so I wonder if this show was just as hot or if Phish just decided to play it for fun. Blister seems like the song that EVERYBODY plays when they start to learn guitar. And is it just me or did Scent seem to disappear post-hiatus? Enjoy:

Suzie Reprise with The Dude of Life

Here's an interesting one for ya... It's from 11-24-98 at the New Haven Coliseum. The venue was very strange, it's shaped like a giant plus instead of an oval- there are huge empty voids in the 4 corners and the 4 "lines" of the plus go up VERY high. This was the last Phish show ever at the NHC. Guaranteed. Reunion or not (and the rumors are flying these days). Guaranteed because in 2007 they imploded the place. Sort of an ok show, some good jams- DWD, Tweezer-but nothing spectacular. The first set was sort of blah.

The encore however was great! First off, you really can't go wrong with a Suzie Greenberg, Tweezer Reprise encore. Love the Reprise in the encore slot- might as well end the show dancing as hard as humanly possible (see Antelope too). This Suzie features the one and only Dude of Life, who wrote the song, singing it. The Dude, in typical DOL style, adds his own little flourishes to it. His lyrics are slightly different than what Trey typically sings and he ADDS A WHOLE NEW 2ND VERSE to it. And to top it off, he's adding in some lyrics to the opening of Tweprise. And he's dancing around, wearing stupid glasses atop his head, and having just a grand ol' time up there with Phish. So all in all, a solid and very fun encore. If anyone out there can understand anything he's actually singing in the 2nd verse or Reprise, maybe you could transcribe it in the comments section?! Thanks- Enjoy:

Sleep & Albuquerque 12/28/98 MSG ministage setup

Might as well keep the MSG theme going while the going's good. Here's a pair of quickies from 12/28/98. What's interesting about these is that Phish adopted a mini-stage setup to do a few acoustic songs. A really small stage was rolled out off to the right side of the main stage for a 3 song interlude. It reminded me of the acoustic sections they did during the summer of 1996. I'm pretty sure this is the only show of 1998 that the mini stage was used. Note Jon "Bob Weaver" Fishman in his Viking horns playing drums with brushes and Mike "Cactus" Gordon on acoustic guitar instead of his normal bass:

Here's Albuquerque, which is a Neil Young cover and extremely difficult to spell without using spellcheck... they followed this up with Driver (no video unfortunately):

12/29/98 Divided Sky Encore

At the time the Divided Sky encore just seemed like a great encore and nothing more. But when the stathounds got their hands on the setlist, it was revealed that this was the first Divided Sky encore since 1990 which just made it all the more special in retrospect. This was the 2nd show of Phish's 4 day run at Madison Square Garden. The playing is just spot on and very enthused and intense. The build towards the end makes it the perfect encore. Here ya go- a 2 part video today:

He is Legend: Gettin Jiggy Wit It 11/20/98

There is nothing like a full grown man in a tattered purple circle print dress and viking horns covering a Will Smith song complete with vacuum solo. Hampton (Coliseum aka the Mothership) really came alive this night, alive with laughter at the ridiculousness of this Jon Fishman spectacle. Fun times. I think we're beyond words really with this one... let's roll the videotape:

Phish & Neil Young: Down By the River 10-3-98

Carini and That Naked Dude: Prince Caspian 11-6-98

It was a cold day in Madison, WI when Phish played the Kohl Center. Of course inside the arena, it wasn't that cold, in fact it may have even been hot. Hot enough for someone to jump up onstage naked and dance around during Prince Caspian before being escorted off by Pete Carini. How he got past the overzealous "University Rent-A-Cops" (later quoted during the Makisupa), is unclear, but check out 2:42 into this video for the man who would be the inspiration for the lyric change of Carini to "I saw you with Carini and that naked dude; I couldn't eat my food". And stay tuned in after the naked man because Trey absolutely shreds up this Caspian.

Twist Jam 4-2-98 "Aliens Landing"

Let's start this off with the first Twist ever. Part of the 4 show Island Tour, this first Phish show ever at Nassau Coliseum was an easy ticket. In fact, extra tickets were so difficult to get rid of that people actually bubblegummed extras up to the tree in front of the gate, rather than walk in with an extra. The lights for this Twist have been described as "aliens landing" and are easily some of Chris Kuroda's finest work on the lightboard. Here's the jam- the beginning of the song is below it for those completists out there but the jam is where the visuals really get going.
The Jam (part II of the song):

Part I of the song: