On Halloween night in Glen Falls,NY Phish played the first of what would become a Phish tradition of donning a musical "costume" but this time the fans voted on the album through the "Doniac Schvice".
© 2016 Grateful Music LLC
Fall tours have a tendency to be good ones. For some reason, Phish really brings the heat in the fall. Maybe because it's mostly indoor venues and not amphitheaters or stadiums but the fall tours of 94-98 all really smoked. This tour was no exception. In fall of 94, there was plenty of "Demand"s and "If I Could" with "Lifeboy" and "Dog-Faced Boy"s to go around. The whole tour, up to Halloween, was marked by gigantic Mike's Groove's and all the cuts off of "Hoist" and "Rift" that people are chasing now that were in steady rotation back then. I remember using "If I Could" for a pee break one night because they played it again. 1994 was a great year leading to a peak moment in 95' which culminated, after a monster Fall tour, in the mind-blowing NYE show of 1995. It was a great time to be a Phish fan. Tickets were 20-30 dollars and could be bought outside the venue or even at the box office still. Although they were starting to sell out regularly, if you wanted in you could get in for less than $50 bucks and that was a shady scalper top-dollar ticket. Unless, it was Halloween or NYE and those sold out quick and the scalpers were out in force. Why do you think it's a lottery instead of mail order? Ticketbastard sells out in one minute because in the middle-to-late nineties, Phish was becoming a powerhouse and was still kind of our little secret. Random townies would see the commotion in a parking lot and ask what's going on and when you said, "Phish is playing" all they said was,"Who?".
Soon enough, our little secret, got out. I know people who were there for Amy's Farm and the Arrowhead Ranch shows are rolling their eyes right now but I was on Grateful Dead tour as soon as I could drive. I started listening to Phish in 1991 on an,*excursion*, and Junta was in the CD player. It had a five-disc changer and Led Zeppelin IV and both discs of Phish's first proper album. Needless to say my mind was blown. So between shows on Dead tour, we would see Phish if they were close. Phish wasn't and to some degree still isn't the easiest band to follow. They would play one-night gigs in off-the-map places and then take off for another one-nighter in a faraway city. It was tough to make some of those drives. Needless to say, it was always a distressing sight to see a VW bus flipped in the median or down the right side of an embankment. You always had to check to find your friends on lot at the next show. No cell phones, remember?
Anyway, after a great tour, the circus landed in Glen Falls, NY. The buzz was of the charts because everyone had put in their vote for what the band would cover for Halloween. Not many people had a full conception of what that would entail. Would they play a few songs or would they dress as the members of the band? The possibilities were endless and speculation was high before the show. Then the word started to leak out: Phish was going to become The Beatles for the second set! There are rumors and then there are RUMORS. You couldn't check your phone or look at the voting on the internet. I get it. I'm old.
Set One from 10-31-94
It wasn't a sure thing on how they were going to do it and of course, Phish played the "Speak to Me" portion of Dark Side of the Moon through the PA, to mess with our heads, before the sound of Ed Sullivan's voice came out of the speakers with the sounds of screaming teenagers. After the exaltation of hearing DSOTM faded into disappointment, the audience slowly realized what that meant. The Beatles or "The White Album" as it is known, was a double-album full of classic songs and the band was going to play the whole thing! The Glen Falls Civic Center was going nuts that night. The only track the band didn't play was "Birthday". Instead they gave Brad Sands a cake while Brad came out dressed as Fishman. Many of you have heard the LivePhish 13 version and it was just one of the Halloween shows that have been released that way. Phish are incredible musicians, obviously, and they put a lot of effort into staging the shows but that came later as they got bigger and more money was available. This night was all about the music. The first set was off-the-chain smoking, with the "Frankenstein" opening the show and with a classic "Harpua" narration with the "Vibration of Life/Death". It's funny how many of those Beatles songs turned up in the early part of the 2016 summer tour. All except for "Piggies" was first played at the little auditorium in Nowheresville, NY. A couple had been teased before. You know what? Screw it, let's go to the tape:
Written by: Greg Heffelfinger
Phish 10-31-94 "The Beatles" aka the white album
OM PA PA OM PA PA, the "Harpua" with the Vibration of Life/Death" and Trey playing the theme from "Barney and Friends"
Soundcheck: The Old Home Place, Poor Heart, Dog Log > Funky Bitch, Jam
SET 1: Frankenstein, Sparkle > Simple > Divided Sky , Harpua -> The Vibration of Life -> Harpua[1], Julius > The Horse > Silent in the Morning > Reba , Golgi Apparatus
SET 2: Back in the U.S.S.R.[2] > Dear Prudence[2], Glass Onion[3] > Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da[2], Wild Honey Pie[2], The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill[2], While My Guitar Gently Weeps[2], Happiness Is a Warm Gun[2], Martha My Dear[2], I'm So Tired[2], Blackbird[2], Piggies, Rocky Raccoon[2] > Don't Pass Me By[2], Why Don't We Do It in the Road?[2], I Will[2], Julia[2], Birthday[4], Yer Blues[2], Mother Nature's Son[2], Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey[2], Sexy Sadie[2], Helter Skelter[5], Long Long Long[2], Revolution 1[2], Honey Pie[6],Savoy Truffle[2], Cry Baby Cry[7] -> Revolution 9[8]
SET 3: David Bowie, Bouncing Around the Room, Slave to the Traffic Light > Rift > Sleeping Monkey > Poor Heart,Run Like an Antelope
ENCORE: Amazing Grace, Costume Contest, The Squirming Coil
Harpua included the Vibrations of Life and Death. Jimmy decided to put on his favorite album Barney's Greatest Hits, but turned his turntable on the wrong way and started playing it backwards. Fish then proceeded to sing a verse of War Pigs. Trey subsequently quoted I Love You (a.k.a. the theme to Barney & Friends) before Harpua resumed. Poster was swallowed up into the earth by the Vibration of Death. "The Vibration of Death is gone" replaced the usual "The storm is gone." Prior to the Vibration of Life, Wilson was teased and quoted. A Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon tease (the heartbeats from Speak to Me) was pumped through the P.A. at the beginning of the second set. The second set "musical costume" was The Beatles' The Beatles (also known asThe White Album) and was selected via fan vote. All of the White Album songs, other than Piggies, were Phish debuts, although Ob La Di, Ob La Da had been jammed or teased on many occasions. Glass Onion's lyrics were changed to "I told you 'bout Guyute the pig." Piggies was played for the first time since November 14, 1985 (875 shows). HYHU was teased prior to Why Don't We Do It in the Road. Birthday wasn’t sung; Page and Mike noodled a bit while Fish presented a birthday cake to Brad Sands, who accepted it while wearing a Jon Fishman dress. Helter Skelter ended with the band singing "I've got blisters on my fingers" a cappella to the tune of Back In My Hometown. Honey Pie's lyrics were changed to reference "Cactus." Cry Baby Cry ended with Fish on vacuum with Revolution 9 segueing out of the vacuum solo. The background tape playing along with Revolution 9 was Mike’s composition He Ent to the Bog from Phish’s White Tape. The song ended with Fish stark naked and running around while the band blew bubbles and waved. Good Night was taped from the album and closed the second set. The third set began with a Custard Pie tease, while Bowie contained aGilligan's Island theme tease from Mike and Antelope's intro contained a Stash tease from Trey. The Costume Contest contained a "Charge!" tease from Page. This show was officially released as Live Phish 13. The soundcheck's Jam was released as an iTunes bonus track called "Glen Falls Soundcheck Jam" and contained a Frankenstein tease from Mike and a May The Force Be With You (The Force Theme from Star Wars) tease from Trey. The Poor Heart and Dog Log in the soundcheck were slow versions.
(setlist and notes courtesy of phish.net)
© 2016 Grateful Music LLC
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