08-05-96 Red Rocks Ampitheater, Morrison, CO

Date: Fri, 19 May 2000 17:11:47 EDT
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Review of Red Rocks 8.5.96
 
08-05-96 Red Rocks Ampitheater, Morrison, CO
 
1: Wilson, Poor Heart, Guelah Papyrus, The Divided Sky*, Wolfman's Brother, Foam,
If I Could, Julius, The Squirming Coil
 
2: Also Sprach Zarathustra, Down With Disease-> It's Ice, Halley's Comet->
Somewhere Over the Rainbow**, Waste^, Talk^#, Train Song^, Strange Design^, Amazing
Grace, Mike's Song-> I Am Hydrogen-> Weekapaug Groove
 
E: Cavern
 
*During the silent part, everyone sat down by instruction of the "Group Crowd
Ideas at Red Rocks" flier. **Page, solo on Theremin. ^Page on a smaller piano,
Trey on acoustic guitar, Mike on acoustic bass, and Fishman on a smaller drum
set (the "acoustic mini-stage").  #First time
 
I have a very fond memory of this excellent show and when we left this 4 night
run at Red Rocks I pronounced this was as the best of the 4 nights. Since this
run of shows was general admission we had a hard time getting close to the
stage on all nights except this one. We managed to get to the scene a little
bit earlier than usual, but there was still a lot of heavy checking going on
at the gates. No vehicle could get onto the lot without each passenger in the
car having tickets. We arrive around 3-4 in the afternoon and hung out in the
lot shortly before going in.  After we got in we got down pretty close, maybe
10th row in the mid-right center not far from the tapers. We played chess in
our seating area while we waited for the band to come on for the night. I
remember someone passing out flyers attempting to get the whole venue to " sit
down " and remain quiert during the silent part of Divided Sky if they played
it. The flyer gave a little story about the band and how they said they would
or wouldn't play a certain song until they played Divided Sky and had an
entire audience follow those instructions of remaining silent. The first set
started off great..in my opinion the highlights where ! the Guelah Papyrus ( I
had never heard it live and it was growing into obscurity as phish had played
it heavily from 91-94 ) and Divided Sky.
 
The second set was one big highlight. The Zarathustra seemed to foreshaddow
everything exicitng that followed the rest of the evening. I remember at Chief
Hosa campground listening to the dats of this that some guy had and even the '
It's Ice ' was great. The small acoustic set was a great interlude for me
considering that we were hearing new songs. Trey spoke briefly onstage about
the new material being recorded for the BILLY BREATHES album and how they were
written in a barn or Farmhouse. I liked that. The intimacy of Red Rocks was a
nice thing that a few studpid Phish fans ruined for the rest of us. This 4
night run at red rocks was magic and I hate to think I will never experience
it again because the ticketless ( who had ill founded beliefs that they could
actually find extras for these highly sought after shows ) ruined it. I didn't
attend any phish shows in the year of 1998 because I was frustrated how the
scene and fans were in the lots and at the shows. But that's a whole different
story.  If you can find copies of this show it's well worth having on tape.
 
Reviewed by
John Meehan


click here to return to the 1996 reviews page


hits (many)