From: Charlie Dirksen
11/15/95 Sundome, Tampa Fl Thanks to Mr. Bierman for these great tapes! Open segment wholly standard. Tramps jam
starts at 2:45, and, as usual for Fall '95, it sure doesn't sound like anyone hopped up on the tramps. Trey sustains a note at the
very beginning of this segment, and is screwing with the frets throughout this whole opening, which, at least in the past, was
territory reserved for Mike and Page. Not this time. Trey still doesn't try to take center stage or anything for about a minute...
and then he starts jamming more melodically above the others. Some nice clavinet-work from Page in here. At 4:40 or so, Trey
starts repetitively chording, as if to segue into some classic rock tune of some kind (Walk Away, Cannonball..) but doesn't. He
drops the chords and starts wailing in typical Fall '95 Mike's Song fashion (very impressively! these Fall Mike's Songs have
really kicked serious ass compared to most others, given that Trey isn't bouncing up and down..). Still, around 6:30, Trey's jam
turns frighteningly eerie and off-key, with some very screechy blood-curdling notes here and there (of which I am not that fond).
He straightens everything out by 7, and soars up and down the 'doc majestically, before darkly chording out around 7:30, and
then hitting us with the MikeS theme ending chords around 7:40. Post tramps mode at 7:59. First note sounds like it could begin
Simple, as do many versions of the post-tramps segment. Trey drops the 'doc (lets it sustain out, like he often did this Fall), and
jumps on the percussion kit almost immediately (he must have been jonesin for his percussion kit.. ;-). The jam around 9 minutes
is typical Fall '95 "Trey's on the percussion kit now, so everyone just groove" (sounds akin to many other percussion jams.. Fish
just keeps a steady beat, Mike goofs off, Trey just flails away, and Page screws around with effects, too..). I'm not terribly
thrilled by this jam, until about 10:15, when a glorious theme develops out of the hazy jam.. Trey is back on the 'doc. Is this a
tease-jam of something? It sounds slightly akin to Tweezer Reprise, but isn't it.. The jam just explodes into magnifiscent MikeS
wailing.. total Hose around 12 minutes. Everyone is just going nuts!! Fish gets back into the Mike's Song beat intermittently...
glorious fills!! Trey is melodically wailing and sustaining and using effects.. crazy! Page and Mike are also pretty excited.. severe
trills from Trey at 13:30, then, suddenly, within ten seconds, Fish drops the groove, Trey and Page sustain, Mike hits an
occasional note.. let the spacey jamming begin... Eerie effects from Trey around 14:20. Very Floyd-like in here... 'Careful with
that axe, Eugene'-esque... (it wasn't teased.. I'm just kiddin') This spacey jam gets even more spacey around 15 minutes or so.
Just effects, with a few notes from Mike, similar to other spacey Fall moments. This is very pretty, though. Not 'exciting' at all...
but no one is clashing. Sounds very comforting and, yes, watery... cool breeze... listening to the waves splash the rocks of the
lake... extremely gorgeous around 17:30. Trey is lightly jamming with the Leslie(?watery psychedelic guitar) effect in here, and
well, it is precious.. very pleasant. I usually dislike spacey jamming a lot, but this is refreshing. There are little bell sounds at one
point, too.. At 18:33 this jam drops out, then there's about a second of silence. And then, [HUGE GASP!!] Life On Mars
begins. Very bad call, in my opinion, after that spectacularly gorgeous jam (which, fwiw, could have segued nicely into Sea and
Sand, or Antelope.. Lifeboy maybe..). Life On Mars in here just ain't right. Standard version. Weekapaug starts up around 22
minutes, and guess what, Mike has an opening solo for about twenty seconds or so (shorter than usual), that's very repetitive
(but snappy and quick), similar to the other openings he's had in the Fall versions. Not that impressive, given what Mike is
capable of. Not giving him a solo in the opening of Weekapaug was apparently The Plan this past Fall.. or, he just never felt like
trying anything especially tricky or impressive, like he used to.. Oh well... The opening of this Weekapaug is similar to many
other Fall versions, in that Trey actually teases the Weekapaug theme at one point (which he didn't do that much in recent years)
in the opening few minutes of the jam segment. Trey's soloing in here is your standard, amazing Weekapaugian melodic soaring
and sustaining.. fantastic as usual. At around 26 mins, for about two seconds, he could have teased Auld Lang Syne.. ;-) but he
didn't. A very careful, well-crafted Weekapaug jam. Accompaniment is glorious, as always. At 27 minutes the "quiet mode"
(which is not quiet.. just relaxed.. the jam drops down a notch) begins, with Trey repetitively groovin' -- throwin' out those
SuzyGreenberg-esque jam segment chords that I love so much (I love it when Trey jams like this.. I know it is ridiculously
easy.. it just gets me pumped). This is a great segment in here.. not much to say, though. Just the usual quiet mode tooling
around.. very pleasant. Trey gets on the percussion kit a bit, it sounds like, and also plays with the 'doc (going back and forth
between the two). The closing Weekapaug jam begins at around 30:40 (they just explode, out of nothing.. no climax and lead in
up to it). Very psychotic closing jam... Trey goes crazy and repetitively chords and trills quite passionately. The close right
before the final verse, though, really isn't that impressive, which is kinda strange, given how exciting this closing jam was. Final
verse standard. Roughly 33:30 total time. B+/A- rating. I highly recommend the Mike's Song.. very pleasant. People who
enjoy Phish spacey moments **must** hear this.. it is some of the most interesting spamming I've ever heard Phish do in Mike's
Song.. two cents AllHailMarx,Lenin420