From: dsteinbe@nmsu.edu (David Steinberg)
Subject: 5/6/90
Date: 12 Feb 93 11:04:05

I've been meaning to post this for some time.  Not the best show I've
ever seen, but one of the most fun...

           5/6/90 Toad's Place New Haven, Ct.  David "ZZYZX" Steinberg

Ah, for a more innocent time...  I arrived for this show during
Widespread Panic's soundcheck.  I went inside to check it out and hang
out with the tapers.  So not only did I get to play ocarina on the
stage while Widespread was checking (only their percussionist could
hear me and he didn't think that it was totally horrible :@), but
since they never kicked us out we all got to see the show for free.

The show itself was during the Sunday of finals week at Yale.  So the
turnout was abysmal.  Only about 50 people bothered to show.  So
during Widespread's set, Trey was just hanging out.  No one really
harassed him either.  WSp played for about 45 minutes and then Phish
came on.

The show opened with Possum.  It was a ripping version.  The
introduction was much shorter than it is nowadays, but the peak in the
jam was much higher.  Finally it ended and they went into Bouncing.
They had changed a line since my last show.  All of a sudden they were
singing about the "Sweet sound bouncing 'round."  I wasn't expecting
that.  Neither was I expecting Uncle Pen; this was the first time I
heard the "bouncing duo" as I nicknamed this pairing.  After a Reba
dedicated to Widespread, I got another first, my first Tweezer.  Of
course, it would have been hard for me to have seen many Tweezers, as
this was only the second one according to the HFB.  During the jam,
Trey did a lot of really sinister style laughing.  I enjoyed the song
but was not blown away; little did I know how important this song
would become.  They brought the set to a close with Mike's Song.  By
the time Weekapuagh had ended, I had three exclamation points by it.

During the break I went to talk to Claw Me Down.  He was offering to
give away Junta with every purchase of Space Wrangler.  He also gave
me a rainbow Phish shirt for "Going above and beyond the call of a
fan."  (I would prove this next week buy driving 120 in a torrental
downpour to see a show at Pearl St.)

Second set started with my first Fee in a while.  Then came my first
Harry Hood.  I had one on tape at the time, but this version was much
better.  After it ended, Trey called it, "A little ditty about milk."
and played Esther.  Then came Bowie.

The David Bowie that was played this night is still probably my
favorite version.  Mike played a bass line in the beginning of the jam
that was to become the theme of the song.  Both Mike and Trey came
back to play it quite a few times.  When they had played with that as
much as they felt like, they shifted gears and went for the energy.
They got it.  I was grinning ear to ear when during the closing chords
Henrietta was introduced.  While the Terrapin that was played was
nice- I've never seen Trey so into playing drums- it was when it was
over that the show started to get seriously weird.

After leaving the drum kit, Trey stepped up to the microphone to thank
us.  He then said, "We're going to do one more number now.  And we'd
like to thank Widespread Panice one more time.  Let's just hope that
they don't ply us with Jagermeister like they did the last time we
played with [them] after the gig."  Fish interrupted with, "Yeah, just
to get us drunk."  They played a very brief Bolero jam then "Thank you.
We'll see you next time."  

Well, no one belived them, so they tried another way to play their
"one more number."  Mike started playing a funky bass line.  The
others soon joined in.  While I was busy trying to figure out what
they were playing, they started to sing.  It went like:

Gimme some Jagermeister
Gimme some Jagermeister
Gimme some Jagermeister
Gimme some Jagermeister
Gimme some Jagermeister?
Jagermeister all night long.

Gimme some Jagermeister
Gimme some Jagermeister
Gimme some Jagermeister
Gimme some Jagermeister
Gimme some Jagermeister?
Jagermeister all night long.

They then started jamming.  Someone (Trey?) continued to sing the
verse until the song came to sudden end.  Fish said, "That could go on
forever."  The crowd cheered and started singing the verse, inspiring
a brief Jagermeister reprise...  

Then we finally got the "one more number"- You Enjoy Myself.  But the
weirdness wasn't over yet.  While on the trampolines, Trey literally
jumped off the side of the stage.  When I asked him about that after
the show, he said that he had been trying to do that for a while, but
we all thought that he had hurt himself.  

Because it was a Sunday, Toad's Place had to close at 1 AM.  Phish had
given themselves enough time to finish the set, but they got
sidetracked a bit there towards the end.  So in the middle of the
 jam, the manager goes up to Page and tells him to stop.  After
another minute of jamming, Page finally gets Trey's attention.  So
this Y.E.M. has a unique ending; they sing the mystery line one time
and stop.  No vocal jam at all.  It was just one more piece of
weirdness in an odd night...

-David "ZZYZX" Steinberg- King of the ellipses
       (dsteinbe@emmy.nmsu.edu)
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*"Swim with the cactus and      *"I can't believe I'm a junior and a *
* Float with the stone.         * film major, when all I really      *
* I try to convey what          * wanted in this life was to marry a *
* She's trying to condone."     * lobsterman and cook fish."         *
* -Phish                        * -a letter from Christie Searing    *
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