This was the first show for me after I ditched my Dad and just went with the flow. After Gainesville the guy I was driving with suggested we go to a Rainbow farm in Jeffersonville Georgia... This turned out to be a great suggestion. I had never been to a Rainbow gathering but this was the next best thing. When we showed up we ran into some familiar faces from tour and it was a very heady scene. I hate the word hippie but I can't think of any other way to describe the people. Just very accepting and open to anyone who showed respect.

The first night of my tour I got eaten alive by fire ants and I itched for a week. I wasn't the only one and when we told our hosts about it they told us about a pond that had clay that would cure our itches. I was very skeptical but figured it couldn't hurt. That stuff worked better than any calamine lotion I ever used. It cured me and I was most thankful....

So we got to the show the next day very early. So did most of the other travelers. At this point the touring scene consisted of 50 cars or so. I ran into a friend of mine from upstate NY which was pretty cool. He was the first guy I ever met who had multiple jars of dank. I also got to smoke out of great glass on that tour. Everyone seemed to have Bobs who was the heady blower. I had no idea about any of that stuff but the bowls were really cool... Jeff had one called the enterprise which was amazing...I met Mike in the parking lot at this one. He was just walking around chilling out. Very nice guy totally gracious. At this point I felt like we were just all one big family.

This show was great. It was a small theater and I'm pretty sure it sold out. But they didnt rip tickets so EVERYONE got in. It was fantastic. I remember the acoustics were exceptional. Melt and Lizards were the highlight of the first set but the Mike's Groove from the 2nd set was the highlight of my tour. It just flowed so nicely and then dropped into Glide which is my favorite Phish tune to see live. Fishman's song was totally perfect for my mindset. I had nothing to do in the world but see Phish every night. It was a great life.

I wouldn’t pick Fee as an opener for a show but it’s an interesting choice. The Llama that follows really sets the tone for the rest of the show. Horn is nice, but it’s quick. The band seems like they’re firing on all cylinders at this point of the tour, moving towards that momentous Halloween show only days away. A few songs later, they erupt into a monstrous Melt. This is a spectacular version with frenzied, chaotic energy that takes various twists and turns. This was an insta-re-listen for me and I’ll likely keep coming back to this one. The rest of the set is fine, with no complaints about getting Lizards before closing it out with Sample.

The Mike’s > Simple to open the second set is nice, and noteworthy as being the first time this tour they don’t return to Mike’s after the Simple. Instead we get
Mango Song, which is always welcome, leading into a phenomenal Weekapaug. This Weekapaug is the highlight of the set to me, which goes to several interesting places including a vocal-infused jam, before dropping nicely into Yerushalyim Shel Zahav and then Glide. I really love this set opening sequence.

Cruising through Axilla, the band drops into JJLC, which makes its tour debut after a 33 show gap. Things are just flowing smoothly at this point in the show and this version smokes. The set-closing Possum is another highlight, with this one including a fun Kashmir tease.

Overall this is really great show, with numerous highlights, especially the Melt and Weekapaug. The show in its entirety is worth checking out as the band is really rolling strong at this point of the tour.

My first show...was absolutely ecstatic the Fee opener...had been listening to Junta since the summer of 1993 & this was my first chance to see them, coming down from Young Harris College. A lot of folks call the first set a "standard" but it was full of energy & the place was absolutely rocking...The Horse> SITM was massive....inexplicably complex and wonderful, Maybe I'm bias, but DAMN, what a first set!

Second was just as satisfying... Yerushalayim Shel Zahav -> Glide, Axilla (Part II) -> Jesus Just Left Chicago. Fish stepped up to the microphone after a standard HYHU intro and belted out an "If I only had a Brain"...and promptly lost his goggles. Not only my first show but an epic 94 offering in my humble opinion. Golgi closer was high energy as well!! Find it, download it, & check it out. You won't be disappointed.

Chip

This is a neat little show with some cool interesting jams that really give this show some bite. The first set is pretty standard for the time period, but in this treasure chest, you want to look for the Melt to give it some value. The meat of the jam is chaotic, frantic, like a car out of control trying to find its way through one of those heavy Georgia thunderstorms, you think its let up, but it just keeps pounding you again and again. It does slow down and gets downright mean before they launch back into the Melt outro that still keeps the heavy, grungy theme. The Lizards that comes next is a great pickup that allows people to gather their thoughts and reattach their bottom jaw to their face.

Second set is an awesome segue fest and features another gem with an extended Weekapaug that also finds a dark and stormy spot similar to the Melt from the first set. With YEM-like vocals to accompany the soundscape, the boys sound as if they're on a roller coaster and they're worried about the inevitable peak at the top of it right before they dip over the edge.
Jesus Just Left Chicago is a welcomed treat that is played magnificently with some great Page/Trey action. Trey really can hit that soulful blues sound. Right out of serious-face blues, they switch gears to the fun, silliness of Big Ball Jam and continue onto Fishmanland where he wishes he had a brain (and his goggles), and Possum lets out some more fire before sending us off. The encore is fun and levels things off.

For what its worth, check out the Melt, Paug, and JJLC for three treats from another solid showing from the Phish.

Usually when a Phish tour comes to a close I try and stay away from the music that's just been created, at least for a little while. It's my way of distancing myself from the post-tour giddiness that inevitably occurs, especially after an All Time Tour like Summer 15' has proven itself to be.
So here we are, a mere half day after the closing notes of MagnaBall. For some reason it was 1994 that spoke out to me when I sat down at work. I won't argue, 1994 is a Hall of Fame year for Phish, chock full of gnarly jams and melodic explorations. It's really a wonderful summation of all that Phish had been working towards since the bands inception.
My usual method is to hit the Jam Chart here on the .Net and just randomly pick a show. So that's what I did and this show is what I got.
Talk about luck.
I've seen a lot of Phish shows in Atlanta. It's the city closest to me that Phish seems to play every year, even though it's still 6 hours from my home in Jacksonville,FL. And Phish always kills in Atlanta. Even the off nights give us great music.
I was a little surprised to see that the venue was the Atlanta Civic Center, I'd actually never heard of it. I busted my brother(a lifelong Hotlantian) a text to get a little background on the venue.
Built in 1967 and seating 4600 the venue was constructed in what was known as the Buttermilk Bottom Slum. Hmmm, ok.
It would be Phish's only show at the venue.
Lets get to the music.
The 1st Set is vintage mid-90's Phish.
Fee, Llama, Horn & Julius get the party started and are all played as well as expected. A Horse > Silent combo makes an appearance and does it's thing.
The SOAMelt that comes next is yet another in a long line of bad to the bone 94' Splits. 1994 has been called the Year of the Antelope, Year of the Hood & Year of the Melt. For my money each moniker works well. I love almost every Split I've heard from the year.
This one stays within normal Melt boundrys until about 10:35 when Mike and Page being a kind of duel with one another. This goes on for a few minutes until around the 12:50 mark when Trey decides to go Heavy Metal all over everyones ass.
Mike gets heavy, Trey turns on that gritty mid 90's tone and slows down the Melt riff, turning it into a faster Sabbath sort of thing. It's really really cool and Fishmans accompaniment is spot on. That leads Trey into a nice outro solo and the band takes the cue and proceeds to wrap up the song which leads into....
The Lizards!
One of my favorite Phish songs, without a doubt. Treys solo at the end is one of the most lovely things I've ever heard, really wish it got more play these days.
This version is executed nicely and all is well in the land of Gamehendge. Sample closes out the short set and we're off to Setbreak.
Mikes Song opens up Set 2. A short punchy version with no 2nd Jam. Instead we get Simple. I've got no beef with Simple and this one is also short and to the point. The call next is Mango and nobodies ever complained about that, I hope. Up until this point we've got a pretty standard 1994 Set 2. A pretty "standard" show really. But then Fish cues up 'Paug, Page throws down some chords on the baby grand, Mike starts slapping his bass like he's writing an acid rock version of the Seinfeld intro and the Race Is On!
A brief foray at around 5:15 leads into some heavy Mike/Page action. Trey steps in soon after with some sweet digital sounding licks. Mike and Page hammer away trying to find something that works. Trey settles in on some of that low tone 94' action, the stuff that Mike loved to lay bass lines over. All of sudden it sounds like we're in the middle of a Bowie Jam.
Sometimes in 94'-95' Treys virtuosity had a tendency to overwhelm the rest of the band, resulting in a lot of one sided jams. Not tonight. Everyone keeps up nicely. At about 8:35 we get some weird vocals thrown into the mix, further accenting the Bowie feel of the Jam.
Page and Fish are keeping everything of this Earth though.
Trey and Fish decide to pick up the speed around the 10min mark and now it sounds like we're in a Tweezer Jam. Love Love Love how fast these guys used to change gears. And then....Boom!
Right back into 'Paug, easy peasy.
The end of the Jam doesn't really pick. It actually gets deconstructed a little and then just sort of peters out with some nice Space and ->'s into.....
Yerushalayim Shal Zahav!
Most Excellent.
Phish doesn't do the Hebrew stuff much anymore, save for the recent Avenu bustout at MagnaBall.
Some nice Space at the end of Zahav gives way to Fishmans woodblocks which signals the start of...
Glide!
Love this 2nd Set.
A traditional reading of Glide comes to a full stop, the 1st of the set.
Next up is the always welcome Axilla. Noteworthy for slowing down at the end and producing an actual -> into Jesus Just Left Chicago.
Damn, this set is chock full of tunes that have all but been shelved for 3.0. I love this song and wish it would take the place of some of the more often played songs these days, cough cough, Wolfmans, Moma.
Every version of JJLC kicks ass and this one is no exception. The band finishes the song proper but at the end they keep it rolling and Fishman cues up Big Ball Jam!
The Big Ball would mostly disappear after 94' so it's nice to hear one of these final versions.
Fishman tomfoolery is up next in the form of HYHU. Notable for a quite funny take on If I Only Had a Brain the segment is vintage 90's Phish. No complaints here.
And really, it wouldn't be badass 90's Phish Set without that old road hog the Possum showing his teeth somewhere. He closes out the tonight and does so in fine form with teases of Zeppelins The Rover & Kashmir woven throughout the Jam. Magilla is also teased. I love when Phish teases things, it still happens nowadays but you have to really listen for it usually. Back in the day it happened nearly every show. Oftentimes the teases were a little forced but not in this Possum. All the teases/mini-jams are very organic and don't sound the least bit forced.
Bravo Possum, wish they would have more fun with this song now.
Foreplay/Long Time starts the Encore and it's always welcome.
Golgi closes the night out and send Atlantas grateful phans out into the hot southern night, full of phish and vinegar.
So in summation, while this show doesn't contain any of those big keynote 94' Jams it does feature precise song selection/placement, spot on delivery by the entire band and some really cool jams scattered throughout in the Melt, Paug & Possum.

SET 1: Fee: Cool effects to kick this one off, was Trey swinging the megaphone around to create that sound? >

Llama: Has a nice, little, minor chord/nasty edge to it.

Horn: Standard.

Julius: Face melter.

The Horse > Silent in the Morning: Standard.

Split Open and Melt: Goes completely Type II at about ten and a half. Lots of call and response (not sure if this is the correct, technical term?) from Page and Mike. Fun. They take this one way down to where it’s almost silent and then build it back up with feedback and a huge wall of evil noise. Intimidating. Mike crushing it here. Trey pulls everyone out of the abyss about a minute later and they take this to the finish line. A truly great version! Live Bait vol. 17.

The Lizards, Sample in a Jar: Standard.

First set summary: Very solid with SOAMelt – an all-timer – anchoring the first set. Good stuff!

SET 2: Mike's Song > Simple > The Mango Song > Tough to beat this segment to open up a second set!

Weekapaug Groove: This one gets super weird, super-fast. By 7 minutes in we are deep down a rabbit hole that sounds like Trey is playing his guitar almost backwards. Very heady stuff with Page’s accents to support. Really bizarre vocals almost akin to a YEM vocal jam that starts around 8.5 and the intensity gets ramped up, up, up. Back into Weekapaug proper territory at 11:10. I love how this drifts back into an ethereal space and segues quietly into ->

Yerushalayim Shel Zahav: Sneaky segue ->

Glide: Standard.

Axilla (Part II) Killer segue into… ->

Jesus Just Left Chicago -> Nailed! Great version.

Big Ball Jam, Hold Your Head Up > If I Only Had a Brain > Hold Your Head Up: Standard. Fishman loses glasses.

Possum: Face melter. The Rover teases in the intro are cool and then the whole band teases Kashmir and Magilla. They crush this Possum!

ENCORE: Foreplay/Long Time[3], Golgi Apparatus: Standard. Shushers were doing their best during Foreplay.

Second set summary: Tons of replay value, Weekapaug, JJLC, Possum. Tons of great segues throughout. A rocking set! This show is fantastic and borders on greatness. I would score this as a 4.2 out of 5.

A few really sweet jams in here. The second-set JJLC features some of this tune's best shredding. Biggest highlights by far though are the first-set SOAM and the Weekapaug Groove. Check out the SOAM SBD on Live Bait 17, this one dives deep in a whole bunch of directions. As the jam charts point out, the band interplay warps and evolves but the band never loses track of where they are, even when things decompose beyond all recognition. The final couple of minutes grow from a growling rumble, brooding and evil, to an upbeat finale.

The Weekapaug is even more fantastic, and is absolutely one of my new favorite renditions of the tune. The Type I jamming is spot on, reminiscent of some moments from 8/16/93 in St. Louis at times. But around five minutes in, we start to drift off for a subdued stint through space where the band members seem to disconnect for a bit, letting the tension settle in. Slowly we come back together for an anarchic groove with wild vocals and eventually give way to a more musical and ripping synchronism. The band continues to ascend, accumulating energy and leaving you on the edge of your seat for the dive into a ripping finale of Weekapaug proper. Trey, Mike, and Fish are fucking incredible here (unfortunately Page gets a little lost in the AUD). Can we pretty please get this one remastered, Shapiro?