From: Charlie Dirksen
11/23/94 Fox Theater, St. Louis, MO A very curious Tweezer in this set, btw.. gorgeous space!! Some of the most beautiful
space I've heard Phish perform, and I'm not especially "big" on space. Thanks, Mark (PBM), for the substantial upgrade!! The
very opening is standard. Trey goes through some "Vibration of Life" narration in the pre-Nirvana section at 1:40. "... 7 beats
per second.. the glue that holds the universe together... We'll give you the deluxe vibration of life tonight -- we're gonna hit you
with the vibration of life and simultaneously with the deep blue light, which should re-adjust your aura. Here it comes now.
Chris, can you give me the deep blue light, please? Thank you. Turn off the other ones, please. Aaaaaaaaaaaah yes. CAN
YOU FEEL IT!? This is gonna charge you up for the rest of the set." It isn't as powerful as it could be, actually (yes, it does
work through the tapes sometimes, all you cynics out there; the most powerful Vibration of Life I own is 10/31/96-2 in the
Overload.. my whole room rattles when I play that damn daud-1 I got from Jim Raras (thanks to Craig's Schoeps!)). I don't
need no damn Blue Light to get the vibration.. ;) Nirvana at 4:36. Gorgeous Nirvana section.. aaaaaawwwww, Page played.
Mike's solo-section at 5:20 is extremely low on the 'doc and conveys a downright miserable mood (I wonder what he ate
before the gig.. ;). The pre-charge section is excellent (christ this daud is sooooo damn sweet, Mark!!!! one of my faves from
the akg461s). Trey's jamming around the first shot at the Note is standard, though, and the second shot the Note is not
sustained at all well, unfortunately. "Boy" at 7:57. WUDMTF segment fairly standard. No exceptional jamming between the
chants (fairly dull, actually). Tramps segment begins at 10:04. And Mike jams a little before giving the signals for the moves.
Page practically teases Mission Impossible around 10:45... and otherwise noodles lightly. Trey actually makes a few 'doc
noises, taboot. Page's jamming isn't that great, although he breaks out into the jam segment at 11:37 STRONGLY with a
vigorous & melodious effort. The jam proceeds to get very very quiet (Mike and Page drop out, and Fish accompanies Trey
very softly). Trey melodiously noodles extremely quietly, although he does not play unplugged as he did in the Spokane 10/7/95
Hood. Very precious, mellifluous noodling that is barely audible (boost that volume) for quite awhile... actually. Some frat-boy
D00D pleads "COME ON, TREY!" during this (naturally).. The jam starts to get a wee bit louder around 14 minutes (and Trey
starts going off on the frets.. just nailing them). At 14:45 Trey begins quoting Frankenstein, and builds a Frankenstinian groove
while still in a preciously quiet mode.. but the jam picks up steam!! Absolut Frankenstein at 15:25, but then a segue into a
more-YEM like jam!! =^] By 15:47 it is all YEM, and Trey starts charming everyone via the 'doc a la Carlos Santana (but
without teasing any Santana tunes!). Just fantastic jamming to close out this long jam segment!!! A truly orgasmic finale around
17:50, and then, as if on cue... Bass and drums at 18 minutes, but with some effects from Trey carrying over. And some
distortion. Mostly Fish.. hey, where's Mike!? Fish starts wailing away!! =^] (18:35) Some effects from Trey, it sounds like, but
no Mike. Just Henrietta strutting his stuff.... Mike comes in strongly around 19:15 funking low on his 'doc, but nothing
melodious, until about 19:33 when he begins an evil, ultra-dank, phaaaat but repetitive groove that Fish joins in on!!! YEAH!!!!!
Closing WUDMTF segment at 20:15 or so. Vocal jam shortly ensues, naturlich. Decent vocal jam (some fantastic mouth
clacking noises). Someone appears (Fish) to be saying something around 24:25 but I can't make out what he says. Wow!!!
After 25 minutes the vocal jam gets especially malicious and evil, and they appear to be saying something, but I just can't make
out any words. Fantastic spooky harmonizing towards the end that practically has a "vibration of life" effect!!!!! =^] They are
doing that harmonizing on "Go" or "Guhm" again!!!!!! Yes!!!!! This really ought to have a name in the damn setlists, given that
this has now occurred at least 4 times to my knowledge. See also 12/7/92, 12/30/92 and 2/19/93.. Beautiful ending!!! Total
time 27:46. Then Tweezer Reprise!! That was a LOOOOONG damn vocal jam, but it was excellent!!! A-/A for this YEM. An
especially great version. I don't fully understand why this didn't make it onto "A Live One," though. I guess it was too long. It is
profoundly superior to the 12/7/94 version on ALO, in my opinion. I highly recommend this set -- a monster Tweezer and a
monster YEM, which ALONE would be sufficient to warrant giving this show at least a "7" on the Scott Jordan Concert
Review Poll scale, in my opinion. Of course, these versions appear in the second set (I liquidated the first.. ;). two cents charlie