------------------------------

From: roek@frith.egr.msu.edu
Subject: Chicago!!!

We just made the killer drive from Chicago to E. Lansing (probably the same
one the band made tonight...)

Anyway, first with the small bit of bad news.  The Cabaret Metro likes to
make money, so much that they decided to schedule 2 bands after Phish
(this was alluded to in the posting of the directions (thank you Jim!) but
not really described).  Because of this, they pushed the ARU show up to
6:00 and told Phish they had to be done at 10:00 at the latest!  Yea, Right.

So, anyway, ARU rocked the place, as is to be expected.  I'd love to see
these guys play 2 full sets of their own, the 40 minutes allotted to them
due to the extra bands just wasn't enough.

Then came Phish.

Cabaret Metro, Chicago, IL
5/2/92

They finished Cavern at 10 (almost exactly) and they came back out to do
a quick encore.  Then, they launched into BBFCFM, which took them to about
10:20.  The Metro was scrambling to get their stage torn down and a new one
up for the bands whose fans were already lining the street.

Quick Review:  Col. F. narritive was we were floating high and looked down
to see a mountain, bigger than any other we've ever seen.  Climbing up this was
a speck that turned out to be Col. F.....   Mike brought out a video camera
for the trampoline bit of YEM and was running it as he was jumping.  During
BBFC, Trey climbed up on his little stack (like the Sanity from Milwaukee)
to his right and pulled his mic. up with him.  Mike set his low and got down 
on his knees.  The Fish yelled 1-2-3-4 and Trey went airborn back onto stage 
and the strobe lights went nuts.  Mike brought the camera back out near the 
end.

That's about it.  E. Lansing tonight, without Alcohol!!

Dan

------------------------------
From: patricia chern 
Subject: Re: Cabaret Metro 5/2/92!!!!

Whew!  Great show at the Cabaret Metro last night!  Aquarian Rescue  
Unit opened, and that was the first time I'd heard them.  They were  
smokin'!!  Definitely an appropriate band to play with Phish.

So now, on to the show: Very hot, great audience, lots of highlights.   
During Col. Forb, when Trey went into narration, he set us on a very  
long, detailed, extremely descriptive, extremely effective (I swear,  
we really left the planet . . . :)  )journey through space, "Far away  
from all the rioting going on..." far away from this universe,  and  
finally, after this wonderful journey, we all came down to Gamehendge  
at last where we spotted Col. Forbin climbing the mountain.  I really  
hope someone taped the show cuz this narration could put anyone into  
another realm.  He then did an extensive intro to Icculus, screaming  
that we all had to read the HPB etc. etc.  "We gave the HPB to the  
Aquarian Rescue Unit, and they read it . . " The whole thing was  
beautiful.  This was the perfect thing for Trey to do so early in the  
show, because I think everyone had a little bit of "something else"  
on their minds when they came in, be it LA, finals, cars blowing up**  
. . . but leave it to Trey to take care of that.

The jam after the structured instrumental part of Reba was the best  
I've ever heard.  The audience was visibly blown away, and even those  
who knew the of whistling to come just went wild with appreciation  
after it.  You just had to.  Everyone around me was just looking at  
each other going "My God!" That was a pretty consistent thing for all  
jams that followed throughout the night.  Smoking.  Everything.

Trey made another reference to the LAPD trial during Stash, though I  
couldn't make out the words- did someone else hear exactly what he  
said?  He did the "Smegma" line, then "Police . . . " and changed the  
words to what I assume applied, with everyone in the band looking at  
him surprised, then sang "Laugh when they beat you, say please don't  
do that"        


Before David Bowie, they did this hilarious Wicked Witch of the West  
thing.  They'd break into that melody, when the Wicked Witch rides  
her broom by Dorothy's window, you know "Ne nene ne Nah Nah, Ne nene  
ne Nah Nah, over and over, falling down, playing 10 second jams, and  
being generally Phishy whacky in between, always coming back to it.   
It went on for quite some time (!) and the audience was REALLY into  
it.  The audience was really great last night and very responsive to  
their clowning around on stage.  And they did a lot of it.

The trampolines came out during YEM, and Mike pulled out a video  
camera and taped while bouncing, holding it out to his right while  
doing the spin around thing. Then he stopped and taped Trey bouncing,  
then put it down and bounced while Trey videoed.  Mike later picked  
it up again later and taped Trey and Page during the climax of the  
vocal jam.  They were definitely having a lot of fun out there.

Tela sure has been modified since the live at Nectar's days,eh?  


Have they done this Home the Train song before?  I don't recall  
reading about it.  It was very bizarre, very Phish.  A slow folk  
ballad of sorts with wierd lyrics about sleeping monkeys, eventually  
taken over acapella by Fish while Trey and Mike stood in homage to  
him, hand over heart.  Then it swung into jam with the same  
slow-ballad chord progression.  What is this song?  They took it very  
seriously, which was really funny because the lyrics were really  
whacked.

During BFFCFM, the band just went wild, which wasn't surprising  
considering how they'd been all night.  They really got into the  
strobes, as did the audidence.  I think Mike might have been filming  
then, too.  Mike really extended all his "Why am I" stuff, going on  
and on for a long time like that Spy Story he wrote a million  
newsletters back, saying the same thing a zillion different ways.   
"Why am I running?  Why do I seem like I'm running?  Why do I smell  
like I'm running away?" and so on and so on.  Mike was definitely at  
his finest last night.  He had an INCREDIBLE bass solo during YEM -  
Trey put down his guitar and just stopped and watched in awe, as did  
the rest of us while he went crazy.  It was definitely something I  
wish you all could hear.  


Overall, this show was incredible because they were as whacky as I've  
ever seen them live, but as tight musically as well.  It seems in the  
past when they get silly they lose their musicianship but that didn't  
happen ANYWHERE last night.  Everything was right on throughout the  
night.  I've become so impressed with Chris's light show that I think  
he should be considered the 5th member of the band.  he plays lights.   
Fish!  He got a voice!  The crowd totally ate up Cracklin Rose.  
ANYWAY, Overall, great venue, great show. No exceptions.  


** At last, a sad but very lucky story:  we had three carloads coming  
from ND and one of them blew up on the toll road.  Literally.   
Completely.  It was still completely in flames an hour later, with  
smoke to be seen a mile away.  God with them, they'd just pulled over  
and they all got out minutes before, and everyone was perfectly fine,  
just a little shaken.  BUT, all the tickets were in the car!!  Our  
cars all left at different times,  so two stayed back and sent the  
rest to pile into one of our other cars when it passed.  My car had  
gotten there first and we wondered where the hell everyone was for  
quite sometime but thought maybe they just skipped ARU to get  
something to eat and couldn't get close to the stage once the show  
started.  I finally spotted them and heard the news at intermission.   
Everyone was joking that the worst part of it all was the tickets  
burning, paid for and useless.  One must put things in perspective,  
of course . . .  they couldn't all find tickets outside once they  
arrived so close to showtime, but there were plenty of places nearby  
to hang out as it was a nice area.  


And Ahhhh, a clear mind for finals . . .

Peace,
Patti 
------------------------------
From: LAR HALFF 
Subject: 5/2 Cabaret Metro, Chicago

WOW! What a show.

This band was in a crazy mood for this and the show was outrageous! Highlights:
   -- Icculus Narrative was wondeful. Anybody catch in Trey's preaching the
      verbal pun "Read Icculus"? Say it to yourself quickly (Thanks,
      Ethan).
   -- Stash: "Police man in the corner gunning for you" two days after
      LAPD aquittal. This jam at the end of tis song was HOT. It was one
      of those jams you never forget. High point of the show for me.
   -- Coil: Signal tease. Page teased the band with a "through to next
      song signal," but the badn did not follow. This signal is a
      strange breakdown of the cords at the end of Coil. Listen to Coil ->
      Possum on 12-28-90.
   -- Sweet Glide. Birthday dedication to Sherry (?)
   -- Amazing Bowie Tease! Really freaked out. Try makes little devil hand
      sign to audience and they all laugh/scream in to reverbed mike.
   -- Band/Crew Football Theme Song: During a transition in Bowie, Trey
      walks over to Fishman and talks with him. A little while later they
      go into the Band Football Theme Song (which is the intro to Horn) and
      then the Crew Football Theme Song (they played it to short for me to
      tell what it was), and then back into Band Footbal Theme song, going
      on to finish Bowie. Only other time I've heard this is on 4-16-91.
   -- YEM: In the middle , when they are on tampolines, Mike picks up a
      camcorder and films the band and the audience bouncing around. Can't
      wait to hear what theydo with the footage! Trey does a Funky Bitch
      quote in the middle of a RIPPING solo.Mike also goes wild for days
      with his base solo.
   -- Crackalin' Rose: Phish switches to low technology: Two cymbals which
      when held up spell out "BAH" as instuctions for te audience to sing
      along during the "BAH BAH BAH BAH" part.
   -- BFFCM: They raise Trey's mike up so he is standing on Page's amp to
      sing and play, while they lower Mike's down so he is kneeling on the
      floor to play. Mike get more home movie action wit the camcorder.

All in all, as you can tell, this was just one mind-blowing show. I hope
they decide to make tapes avaliable. 2 days 'til Bogarts.

-- Lar

================================================================================
Lar Halff (LARRYH@Yang.Earlham.edu)                                    ______
                                                                       \    /
My views do not represent those of  Earlham college; but only reflect   \  /
current patterns of discourse found in contemporary U.S. culture.        \/
================================================================================

------------------------------
From: rlpnic@merle.acns.nwu.edu (Rosemary Powers)
Subject: Re: Show Review, 5/2/92, Chicago, IL
Date: 23 Jun 97 16:11:29 GMT

A few notes:

1) Forbin and Stash both mention the Rodney King/LA Riots.

Forbin: "We're floating up through the sky, away from the riots"
(paraphrased, though I just listened to this tape yesterday).

Stash: "Police in the corner " line changed to "Police pull you over, beat
the shit out of you"

2) ARU did open this show.

3) Glide was a birthday dedication to someone.

4) The Band Football theme was powerful grungy.  The Crew theme was wuss.

5) The Metro had Phish as the early show, and had a late show or DJ
cancelled, so there were serious time constraints (short Rosie, etc.)

6) The BBFCFM was one of the funniest I've seen.  I was un-psyched to hear
BBFCFM start up as the 2nd Encore.  But they won me over with on-stage
craziness.  The most vivid picture I have is, in strobe light, Trey climbing
up on his stack, getting the microphone all the way up there so he could
sing from there;  meanwhile, Mike got down on his knees, and lowered his mic
stand down so he could sing, and then the verse "I'm running, I'm running
from you" was so hilarious, with a midget Mike craning up to reach the
microphone and being so far from running anywhere...maybe you had to be
there (it doesn't read as funny).  Also, I remember Trey jumping off his
stack after the fast "1-2-3-4".  I'd agree, all in all, a fun 92 show, but
not blow-you-out-of-the-water from end to end.  I'd highly recommend the
previous nights show from Milwaukee!  Suweet!

My $.02.

Mike P.


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