Date: Mon, 24 Mar 1997 15:48:47 -0500 (EST) From: "Matthew J. King" Subject: Flynn Review (Parts 1&2, LONG) (fwd) Here, figured you could use one more MatthewKing Wow pholks, What a crazy show! Totally bizarre, unexpected, surreal experience. I guess I'll go through this like a typical phish review ROADTRIP> What a crazy walk down from College st to the Flynn. A total of 3 blocks took about ten minutes to get there, not counting stops for bathroom breaks and gas;-). LOTSCENE> None to speak of really...We tried to avoid it as much as possible, maybe it's just the fact that I still remember post-cliffordball Burlington as being flooded with the dregs of tour. Everywhere you went all you heard was,"Kick down?," "Got any change, dOOd?" etc...So maybe I was a bit hostile, but who cares, because after waiting in line outside the theater for about 2 seconds, we walked in and exchanged those lovely pink vouchers for Tickets. Row Q...15th row, the closest I've been in Years. The first thing we noticed was the free ice cream. Phree Phish Phood Phor ALL! Munchies right there! Security was way cool, most of them seemed like old heads from the 80's. Lots of older faces in the crowd. Everyone around me seemed like they were in their 30's. Except for these two Beautiful women who's seats split our group up.. but that's another story.. after what seemed like an eternity, the lights went down and... D'OH, Ben & Jerry make a little speech, but I can't remember what... All I can remember is Ben saying " this is really wonderful" over and over again. then fifteen minutes later..... BOOM! CINNAMON GIRL: What? Wow! total surprise. They did it really well too! Verses were tight and the guitar solo was even pretty cool. Not too much to say about this one except that it's very tight and laid back at the same time. You've probably heard Neil Young do it on the radio a million times. then... NICU: This was great. What an awesome selection! Got everybody's head bobbing. Nice slinky feel to it. Shot some energy into the band for a while until... SAMPLE IN A JAR: the guy who reviewed it in the Free Press said that it seemed lackluster, and I agree. It was like the Zero on Letterman. Kind of just going througth the motions.. PUNCH YOU IN THE EYE: was much better. This one was great. Fishman, who wore pants and a t-shirt, was great on the drums, moving away from the 4/4 and concentrating on the off-beats to produce some interesting ideosyncracies. Trey and Mike did the ol' Landlady Shuffle... MY SOUL: Phat! new tune. Sounds a lot like Roadhouse Blues at first. Straightforward Blues. MYMYMYMYMYMYMYMYMY SOUL IS MY SOUL! I dug this one a lot! This definatly belongs in the Zero/Sample/Julius category. BEAUTY OF MY DREAMS: Nice, another new tune. This happy bluegrass cover is kind of a mix between Uncle Pen and Old Home Place if that makes any sense. I thought the Cologne version was alot tighter, but it was still cool to hear. HARRY HOOD: Wow, they're not fucking around here. The older people around me got real emotional at this point. Trey and Fish were playing off of eachother during the intro. At one point Fish started doing this double-time rhythm and Trey picked it up and they did this heavymetal thing for a few seconds before going back into the normal slinky reggae. The Jam was incredible. Trey was definatly taking his time with this one. Slowly building intensity, carefully adding each brick slowly into this wall of intense emotion. It was like he was building this massive house of cards, and he was right near the top and then this asshole screams out of nowhere and Trey looked up and lost his concentration. D'Oh, it was still a good Harry. He recovered it and brought it back solidly. You can feel Good! CARS TRUCKS AND BUSES: When they brought out the extra monitor and two mic stands, I lost my shit. Last time at the Phlynn, they brought out the Giant Country Horns and this was almost as cool. Dave Grippo on Alto Sax and James Harvey on Trombone. Real Loooooong CTB. I thought Dave was hogging the spotlight at first. He took his solo and Trey hit his percussion kit. Then Trey went back to his Guitar and James Hit the Bone! wow, that guy's really good. What a great CTB! SUZY GREENBERG: I saw this one coming a mile away. IT was still a treat. They even substituted a few lines as: "Bet she's already forgotten Steve's Name" which I took to be a reference to the Dude of Life, former boyfriend of said Suzie Greenberg. Once you hear Suzy with Horns, there's no going back. If they ever put this on on an album, they'd better do it with Dave. I love the horn part during the chorus! Then in the Jam, Dave and James did this p-funk/Cosmic Krewe horn part that blew me away. Damn, I wish they'd been playing as a section all along instead of just taking solos. You've gotta hear this! Funky groove and the set's over, right? Nope... CHARACTOR ZERO: (WITH HORNS?!?!?!?) Wow. This one was really cool. Nice surprise. Made up for that letterman shit. The horns really added to it. Playing the vocal jam at the end. Trey even extended the jam a bit to make some more room for the horns. Superb! Anyway, SETBREAK> Wow, already we were knee deep in the stuff. New Tunes, Harry, Horns... What more could you ask for (Besides Destiny Unbound)? Free Ice cream in the lobby perhaps? Yeah, it was really cool (The ice cream too) but on to set 2: TASTE: Personally, I thought this was a great choice for an opener. I really like the way this tune is evolving. It sure has come a long way since I first heard it at Great Woods in '95. I like the way they kept the 'Step into Space' lines...especially after all the nifty stickers my buddy made up for summer tour ( to view sticker: http://www.uvm.edu/~rmaurizi) But anyway, I really dig the arabian-style jam thatÕs been popping up at the end of Taste's lately. DROWNED: During the end of Taste, I was silently wishing for some Talking Heads or some Who and low and behold, they play Drowned! I was psyched for this one... hadn't heard it since Halloween '95 in Chicago. And I had no idea that Mike sang this one. The really funny thing is that I finally got around to listening to the NYE95 tapes the day before the show and had never realized that it was such a strong tune by itself. By the way, Charlie, after having listened to the Drowned Jam in NYE95 over and over again, I have come to the firm conclusion that the FOTM tease is a hallucination. Anyway, Drowned was fantastic! The Jam nicely segued into... PRINCE CASPIAN: This tune has come such a long way! I remember the first time I heard it in Great Woods, I thought it would make a great chorus, but the tune itself was a bit sparse. The Phlynn version was amazing! There was even a guitar SOLO in the end jam, and yes, it was a Jam. Very uplifting. This song has "anthem" written all over it. DAVID BOWIE: This was a treat. I've never really gone to a show not knowing what to expect in recent years. Even the last Phlynn show wasn't nearly as surprising. Hoist had just come out so we expected new tunes and we'd also heard rumors that they were practicing with a horn section beforehand. But back to Bowie. This one didn't go out too far. The boys were content to sit back and relax on this one. It was a stripped-down Bowie for a stripped-down gig. Chris was having some fun playing lights at the end. Other than that, it was nothing really special, the jam built up the same way Harry did, slowly and without a sense of being rushed. LOVE ME: I think that they've been spending a bit too much time in Vegas lately. This one was fun to watch. Phish really hams this one up and MikeÕs voice is just great. Elvis tunes always make you wonder if they're just doing it as a joke or if they're serious about it. But that's Phish for ya! I TOLD YOU SO: After Bowie, Trey was looking down in the Audience and picked out Tammy Fletcher who sings with the Disciples, a local bar band. I heard that Phish held onto 500 tickets for friends and family who dislike large venues and events. I guess she was one of them and after a "Tiny" amount of coaxing, she came up on stage, a giant woman, but wow could she belt it out! Slow blues in C. How could you go wrong. The funny thing is that before the song began, she was hugging Trey A LOT. Then she goes to the front of the stage and says: "Don't worry Greg, IÕm a safe date, BAY-BEE!" Got the crowd to chuckle. LOVE ME LIKE A MAN: After the first song, Tammy was about to get down and they talked a little bit and decided to do another number. All I can say is that it was great hearing Phish play a tune called "Love Me Like A Man". It sounded much like the first song, it even was in the same key (C). But it was fun. It was so mellow and relaxed. It was as if the show should have been in NectarÕs instead of the Phlynn. It was that same kind of vibe. Very spontaneous and relaxed. WASTE: I thought it was going to be over after the fat lady sang but I guess I was wrong. This was cool to hear because I was with my girlfriend who really likes Waste. Mike came in on the wrong note and made the funniest face. It was the same face one would make if they farted in a car and it smelled really bad, but he recovered nicely. Trey flubbed a chord a little later but when they hit the trilling part, none of it mattered. This tune is really emotional when it comes down to it, even if it is Beatle-esque. CHALK DUST TORTURE: I like this song best late in the second set, like AC/DC Bag. I think thatÕs when the full engergy hits the best. Nothing really much to say about this one except it was really fat and full. Great solos, Trey seemed to be having fun playing it. SLAVE TO THE TRAFFIC LIGHT: Call me jaded, but I was hoping for something else. I mean don't get me wrong, I LOVE Slave, but I've just been hearing it a lot lately. I guess the great Irony is this little story. Don Wright, Hardcore taper, they guy who got hit by a car in Paris. The band dedicated Slave to him at that show. DonÕs taping the Phlynn. He's running his deck, and about ten other decks are patched into his mics. He's running his whole rig through a Honda motorcycle battery. He's running all sorts of stuff out of it. His light was on the whole time,etc.. Anyway, his battery dies during Slave. All in all it was a great show. ENCORES: HELLO MY BABY: Acoustic without mics. Way cool! They flubbed the first line, they weren't in harmony at all. So they started over and it was typical Hello My Baby all the way. FUNKY BITCH: They brought back the extra monitor and the mic stands so we knew that Dave and James were on their way back out. And this Bitch was FUNKY!!!! The Horns really added to it! Dave's solos and Mike's Bass just made this the shit! I have to admit, I was getting tired of Blues progressions by the end of the night. But it was still way fun. The show was definatly satisfying! On the way out they handed us pint upon pint of PHISH FOOD. We ended up with 8 pints the freezer. A Phat show that keeps on giving you Phatness for days. All in all, I thought the show was just a cool way for the band to have fun and have a good time in a hometown gig! ---------------------------------------------- From: [email protected] (Dean Budnick) Subject: Tri-annual Flynn Theater review (and tape offer) Date: 19 Mar 1997 17:26:05 GMT Well, I've done this before (and it's been a while, so what the hell...) First off, can you believe that it's been three years? As I was kicking back during the set break (with admittedly one too many Magic Hats in me...mmmmm, Magic Hat) I was getting sort of sentimental about the whole thing. Three years on one hand it seems like such a long while ago (in Phish terms, let alone from a less fanboyesque perspective) and sitting there in that beautiful theater surrounded by so many familiar faces... Let's see what else...oh yeah, thanks to m.f. for the assistance in getting in. I was real surprised how easy the whole process was. I expected a crazed backlog as showtime approached (due a mook on my part we headed in late) but it was real chill. Kudos to Dionysian, the Flynn and phans for making the whole situation very bearable (even as I stood in the lobby and heard the first notes of Cinnamon Girl)... Oh yeah which leads me to the tape part (I suppose I haven't gotten to the show review yet but cut me some slack I'm working on little sleep and too much sugar/caffeine). Due to aforementioned mook (a misunderstanding regarding a meeting place- thanks m.f. for waiting) I walked in late which intially left me VERY stressed. IMAGINE ATTENDING A SHOW AND NOT RUNNING YOUR DECK? Frankly I'm sure plenty of you can imagine that and you're all the better for it. Anyhow, after a few moments of freaking out (no doubt influenced by the Brew) I decided to lay low and take it all in, the way I used to, some ten years back when I first saw this amazing band... So in many ways this was a mind warp for me. Many old faces, no encumberances caused by Taper Stress (no matter how easy it's become with a DAT and a seven pin to seven pin) and a fine venue (my third time through, after the 94 Benefit and the day after Page's birthday in 1992...) I'm really rambling I know, my apologies (see above coffee and doughnuts),.Oh yeah tapes, so I didn't tape but a friend DID tape the show from a nice tuner onto a D-8 so I have the FM and I'd be happy to spin it, D>A or D>D if you're interested (more on that in a bit). All in all, to use some precise technical language, it was a swell night. It was not a seemless-segue-melting-jam-from-hell night but it was a fine homecoming show in a wonderful venue in front of many phans, old and new. Highlights and thoughts (a la Larry King in USA Today)... Cinnamon Girl, fine opener, I wish I had been inside two minutes earlier to see everyone's faces, band members included, when they went into this)...NICU with bonus "Leo!" call for those of you scoring at home...decent transition from Sample to PYITE..Beauty of My Dream with some nice Page...Harry with Barracuda quote (at least that's how it sounded to me) also, fwiw, the person next to me thought the jam sounded a bit like Sammy Davis Jr.'s Mr. Bojangles?!?...the end of Harry lingers with much clutter leading to CTB, and what a version, with the Truth going nuts, and then a solid counterpoint by James Harvey- I enjoyed this much more than the Jazz Fest CTB (which is a real fine version as well)...Suzie, with special bonus adlibs as Trey replaced "my name" with "Steve's name" in honor of the tune's author who was sitting before him, the Dude himself and also a hello to "Ben and Jen" sitting home drinking beer and listening on the radio (which again reinforced the local feel of the whole thing)...Character Zero was pretty cool but I thought the horns were a litte lost...SECOND SET...solid Taste...Drowned featured some more fine Page but no FOTm Tease ;(....okay, I have to run so I'll speed this up...the two songs with Tammy Fletcher, which looked to me to be real darn spur of the moment were nicely done, I'm always happy to hear Trey work through the blues progressions (and Treat Me Like A Fool is a classic of the genre)...I thought that they might walk after Waste and I was convinced they would after Chalkdust so Slave was a nice bonus...solid horned Funky Bitch encore closer..... Well, now I'm late...so let me just thanks everyone (especially you, m.f.) for a great night and I'll see you all at the next meeting :) Oh yeah, if you're interested in the FMs just mail me and we'll trade Dean ------------------------------ From: Paul Cullity Subject: ***FLYNN REVIEW*** Date: Thu, 20 Mar 1997 11:20:18 -0400 Hey all, first off I'd like to thank everyone for not showing up in Burlington for the "scene". There was really no scene, and the small amount of ticketless that were there pretty much obeyed security and there was no mad rush for the doors. Now, to describe the Flynn for those of you who haven't been. It's basically the bigger brother of the Colonial Theatre in Keene, same layout, maybe 500 more seats...your basic vintage movie theater/playhouse. The whole ticket exchange was very well set up, no line, I was in my seat a few minutes after entering the building. Oh, btw, everyone received free sample dishes of Phish Food in the lobby before entering, tasty mmmmm. I don't know the time, maybe around 7:30 Ben + Jerry came out, seemingly enhanced by something or other, and babbled a few lines about what a great night this was and how special a gathering and all that jazz...they basically put the key in the engine and got us started on an amazing ride. About 10 minutes later, the guys strolled out on stage, the only strange sight was Fishman without the dress and without goggles or glasses....he looked like he was squinting the whole show. And then it was time to begin. A little confusion on my part at first, as to what they were playing, but I finally figured out that it was Neil Young's Cinnamon Girl, a pleasant unexpected surprise. NICU was next, always a fun tune. Then, Sample, again, but they could play anything this night and I'd still be all smiles, nothing was bringing me down. Sample segued into PYITE which had an extended lead-in...excellent version. My Soul was one of the Europe tunes I hadn't heard, and I think will quickly become a fav of many...I love it. Beauty, is well a simple slow ballady type.....well I can't explain it you'll have to hear it for yourself. Harry Hood, very nice, with a strange, metal type jam in the intro, also with some lame shout during the quiet/mellow part from a person in the crowd who must have felt that he was entitled to be a part of the live broadcast:( Hood led into probably, imo the best Cars Trucks Buses ever!! Now, I'm not a big fan of this tune, it just doesn't usually do much for me, but it was jammmed. James Harvey on trombone and Dave Grippo on alto sax joined the boys on stage for CTB and each had a solo. This CTB probably lasted a good ten minutes...I can't remember 2 CTB's that could combine to top this one. WOW. Then, I knew it was coming as trey mouthed 1,2,3,4 Little Suzie Greenberg....YEAH. I'm sorry to all members of the Suzie haters club, but suzie always puts a charge into me, and with the horns (my first time seeing any horns at a show) it just jammed, which is word I overuse, but hey if the word fits use it. During the forgot my name, fishman instead said "forgot steve's name, forgot steve's name, Ahhhhhhh", which I was told was in reference to a writer for the Burlington Free Press named steve something who has writting scathingly about Phish on more than one occasion. The next verse, fishman said "sing it, sing it, sing it" which was pretty damn funny. Character Zero, though I was kinda down on it after Letterman, rocked. (aha a word to use instead of jammmed) The horns were also present for this one, though with less focus, more in the background. Let me tell you, as the first set came to a close, and sweat dripped from my forehead, I was ready for a break. That's how I judge the greatness of a set. If when they end a set, I need a break also, then it was a pretty awesome set. I just slumped into my chair and sat in amazement at what I had just witnessed. The second set was just icing on the cake, they had already done the night justice. Taste started things off, decente version, nothing special except for Fish's vocals were a little clearer. Then came another surprise. Drowned, which is a beautiful rocking tune, that takes you all over the musical spectrum. They really jammed on this Who cover and segued into Caspian, which had some spacy effects courtesy of Mr. Mike Gordon...cool. Bowie just kicked me in the ass, insane version. Treat Me Like a Fool, an Elvis cover was sung by Mike and was hilarious. Trey was yucking it up on stage with facial expressions and body movements to mimick the song. I was rolling. Then, trey walks to the side of the stage, and brings up this, well, not very little woman. For those of you who listened to the radio broadcast, she probably sounded pretty loud, I don't think that mics were necessary for her. The funny thing is that this lady was about 4 rows in front of me before the show, and I saw her talking to someone on the sound crew and then hand them a note, which they then wrote on, at first I was thinking why is she asking for the autograph of someone on the soundcrew, but when she walked on stage and gave trey a big bear hug (you couldn't see much of trey) it all came together. She sang a song that I called I told You so and then a song I called Love me like a man, which I guess were both the correct titles. The first song was a bluesy jam that was pretty decent, but not Phish, funny little moment though. Then Trey,this lady, and Mike huddled up and after they broke from the huddle trey made some hand gestures to Page who did not look very happy. The look Page gave Trey was like, alright we gave her a song, is there really any need to do another one... he looked downright pissed. The second song, basically sounded exactly like the first one, but I felt it was overkill. The lady then gave trey another huge bear hug and exited the stage. ^×Time for some more Phish now. Waste was next, which trey flubbed maybe 5 times, so it was not the most beautiful version, but still ok. Chalk Dust was standard, meaning above average, and was followed by a very nice Slave, save for another scream from a person in the crowd that broke into my zone. The crowd was not really that loud after the second set ended, but the boys came out quickly for an acapella without mics Ragtime Gal (Hello Ma Baby...whatever you call it).They started it off "tell me that I'm" then stopped "no, no, no" which I thought meant that they were gonna do somethinh different. Well, they just started it over, nothing special. Then the horns came back out for a jamming Funky Bitch which had us all moving, and left us with a bang. This show, was by far the best I have ever been to and will ever go to, probably. I was pleasantly surprised at the lack of masses outside the show, and my feelin going in was that this was just a test. Are we too big to do these kinda of things or is it still possible to get back to our beginnings. The answer was that, if other venues can be as well organized as the Flynn, then surprise/benefit shows are still possible every once in a while. I'm not saying they can do a whole tour of places like this, just maybe once a year. Btw, this show was being filmed, and there was a camera or two outside when leaving...Oh yeah, everyone got a free pint of Phish Food upon exiting the show. All in all it was a lot of fun, THANK YOU PHISH, THANK YOU BEN + JERRY and THANK YOU FLYNN. paul P.s. you know what goes here, the required grovel. If you have the time or the inclination I'd love the tapes....If not, hey its still fresh in my head. ---------------------------------------------- From: [email protected] Subject: Night at Flynn Date: 20 Mar 1997 01:03:22 GMT Hi there, Trying to sort out my thoughts and feelings on last nights concert and figured I'd share my attempt. Some of you know me from my post I made a while back on losing my heart and soul, not to mention my mind, to Phish. Some time later I scored big time and got tickets to the Flynn!! So we get there last night at 6:00, wait a few minutes before they start letting us in, not a huge crowd of people yet going to the concert, but twice as many people across the street at city hall park hanging out. They sort of hustle us in, tell us we have to have our vouchers, picture id and partner with us to get in, then we go through 2 more check points and finally show the voucher to someone who goes through a file, verifies the information and hands us our tickets. We are now on our way down a familiar aisle at a familiar and lovely theatre to see PHISH!!! We still have not grasped this thought. We go to our seats. Front row!!! Right in front of Fishman. Very nice. The scene has lots of staff people making sure people keep their distance from the stage but basically a mellow scene. We watch the theatre fill up, people we met in line that lucky February day start showing up, we are a happy group. A little after 7:30 Ben and Jerry come out and try to make a little speech about the lake and stuff and people are yelping and cheering and hollering and they start laughing and realize they shouldn't bother trying too hard and they head off and about 15 minutes later out comes Phish. Starting off with Cinnamon girl made me happy cause I've always loved Neil Young and they rocked the song. For the next I don't know how long they rocked and we danced and it was a great night. I'm not one to go down the set list and describe everything. Someone else will do that for you. I do know that I think the Harry Hood was or almost was a great Harry. A couple of times during the show, (and Harry in particular) the feeling came over me that the band would have loved to go into a nice long quiet jam, the quiet ones the build up to the big ones, the ones that make you crazy and beg for more, but the crowd just somehow wouldn't let them do it, or something was off, people just had to express themselves loudly at moments that could have been precious had things been quieter. That is my only complaint. And maybe it was me. But before the 2nd set an acoustic guitar was brought out and never got played and I may be wrong and I don't mean to be critical, but I think if the crowd had been different we might have gotten those wild quiet jams or that acoustic set. But I simply can't complain, because as far as Phish goes, they were hot. Page in particular I thought was just out of his mind, he played so great. The whole night was simply a treat, with the horns and Tammy Fletcher, it was just very special. The band seemed very relaxed and maybe rested, I'm not sure, but they seemed to be having a good time, Trey in particular. Witnessing such talent leaves me feeling just too darn good. It was over early for a Phish show I thought and someone behind me I heard commenting on the time as only 11:10 or so. I think we all felt pretty full but also that we wanted more. I know there were more songs I wanted to hear. There are just too many good Phish songs : ) So, all in all, another happy Phish moment. Just sharin............... Peace, Ellen ---------------------------------------------------------- From: Tom Gardner
Subject: Flynn Theater? The whole state heard them and smiled.... Date: 3 Apr 1997 18:11:07 GMT I was one of the thousands of Vermont Phish fans who didn't get a ticket to the show. And as an editor for my college newspaper, I missed getting the press tickets by one day, so I won't be so lazy next time. And to think, we normally get excited when they come as close as Lake Placid or Plattsburgh. There is nothing like a homecrowd advantage, and for a night, the whole city was listening. Seriously, there were hundreds of fans across the street on the city hall steps, and there was no shortage of boom boxes tuned ton 106.7 WIZN, the station that helped launch Phish back in the day. It was cold out, about 20 degrees, so we walked to a couple bars, the Pub & Brewery, Finnegan's, Nectars, and every bar had Phish on. In the parking garages and parking lots throughout not just Burlington, but Colchester, Winooski, Essex, Williston, all the car radios were tuned in and countless fans were noodle dancing in the lots. Up and down Church Street, tape-traders were making contacts, vendors were selling hot apple cider and burritos. Silvermine North brought out their new Phish-shaped pyrex bowls. No, we didn't have tickets, and never had a dream of getting any. There was one guy, came all the way from Colorado, had five-hundred dollars moments of Cinnamon Girl through the last licks of Funky Bitch, Burlington got down and celebrated. It was as if a family member had returned from a war. Basically a stroke of luck got people their tickets. A stroke of love saw all the worthy radio stations in the north country simulcasting the concert. I spoke with Tammy Fletcher on the phone this morning (she's my neighbor in Eden, Vermont) and she said that she had no idea that she would sing. She said Trey just saw her in the audience and plucked her out. (Plug: if you want to see her, and you live in the area, she's going to be a Banditos in Jeffersonville, across from Smuggler's Notch on April 15) Of the experience, she said "Remember what it was like when you first had sex? Can't compare to Tuesday night." My friends and I danced in the snow until midnight. I mean, who knows the next time they'll be home again? Tom --------------------------------------------