8/11/98 - Star Lake Ampitheatre, Burgettstown, PA



Just to let you know Starlake was my first show of the summer...26th
overall...lots on tape..blah,blah,blah...just got home from Boston after
Lemonwheel...still on a high over the past week (but exhausted
nonetheless)

8/11/98 Star Lake Ampitheatre, Burgettstown, PA 
I:  Trenchtown Rock*  Julius  Wolfman's Brother, Time Loves A Hero**,
    Bittersweet Motel, Reba, The Sloth, Ginseng Sullivan, Fee, Maze,
    Sample In A Jar (90 minutes)
II: Runaway Jim***  Meat, Limb By Limb, When The Circus Comes, Down With
Disease
E:  Wilson, Golgi Apparatus* Bob Marley cover (1st time played?)
** Little Feat Cover (Last Played 11/5/88 [840 shows])
*** w/ extended Jam, over 30 minutes!

Lot scene was pretty cool....saw a few undercovers bust a kid for underage
drinking...he tried to get away, but was tackled.....couldn't have been
that bad, though, cause I saw the same guy walking around about half hour
later....Talking to some heads in the lot I found out they had played
Terrapin at VA Beach....couldn't believe it.  Had an extra and couldn't
get rid of it for the life of me for face....one reply...honest to god
was..."I wouldn't pay more than five dollars to see Phish" (In a very
condescending tone)....what the hell are you doing at a PHish concert
then?  Anyways, on to the show.

Great seats....15th row Fishman side....nice view, good sound.  Pre-show,
I saw Mike, Page, and some girl riding around in a golf cart by where all
the concessions were on Fish's side, stop to talk to the ticket checker by
my entrance and then take off....saw them a few minutes later on the other
side..when I went to get a drink I was talking to the ticket checker...she
had no clue who they were, and when I told her it wasthe bassist and
keyboardist, she was like, "Oh, that explains why they wanted to know how
to get backstage..."  Apparently, they were lost.

Trenchtown Rock - great opener....continues with the "We can play anything
and surprise the fuck out of you" attitude that the boys seem to have
now. Solid, I was psyched to hear it.  It would make a great opener if put
into the rotation (Just as Soul Shakedown would..oh well) Nice, anyways

Julius - nice placement...standard, kick-ass Julius...Trey was getting
into it...nice soloing, nothing too special.  Wolfman's started out out
Julius...unexpected....the jam again wasn't anything too special standard
Wolfman's slow funk.  Can't really remember it being too
significant...nice segue, though into

Time Loves a Hero - didn't know what this was, but I assumed it was a
bustout, because people were going crazy and it didn't seem like crazy
placement for one of those one-time covers...nice tune, thought it was
Rush for a bit.  Nic esong...

Bittersweet Motel - nice, chill ballad, not the best placement, but it was
nice to hear.  three out of four songs that I haven't heard before.  IMO,
though, Phish has to lay off the ballds and start rocking out more with
the new stuff...but I do like the ballads....at the end of this one, Trey
and Page started commenting how they were waiting "All tour" to play that
one....then Trey starts talking and asks how many people are from
Erie...big cheers...

Reba - YES!!!!! Composed part played well...hadn't caught  Reba since last
summer....jam was extremely chill...standard, awesome Reba...with
whistling...heard some guy say 'this is still the same song?!!"

Sloth - nice choice, I lovethis song, but it's extremely hard to dance in
5/4....love it anyways, though it would be one more then end of set...

Ginseng - again good placement, Ginseng was Ginseng....more comments on
this song in my upcoming Wheel review...

Fee - more??!!This set was getting pretty damn long for a first set...Fee
sans megaphone, but nice anyways...Trey nailed all the chorusses down, I
believe.  Short jam at the end with Trey playing around harmonics a bit
like in the Champagin version last fall.  segued into..

Maze - nice maze, Page did some nice work, as did Trey....nice soloing... 
I figured they wouldn't close with this, so I guessed a Zero, Bithc, or 
Sample or something along those lines would follow.

Sample - not too surprising, but fun to hear...my first since last years
Starlake.  High energy, it's a good song to hear just as long as its not
every other show....I think Sample's found a good niche.

Long set...started out strong, then fizzled a bit near the end, great
placement for songs, though.  I'll give it a 6.5 on the SJ scale.

SECOND SET
Runaway Jim - same opener they played last year, only this time Trey
didn't mess up the lyrics...maybe he wanted to show the locals he could
get this right.  Anyways, this Jim is SICK!!! Around 30-35 minutes long,
I'd say.  Jam did start kind of directionless and it took them about five
or so minutes to find a solid theme, but once they did...it took off...Get
the tapes at all costs...this Jim is ridiculous.  I'm not going to compare
it Worcester until I hear the tapes, but althoughshorter, I think this Jim
probably beats it out..There were definite Close Encounters of the 3rd
Kind teases in there, which is particularly fitting, considereing Chris's
new lighting setup looks like a spaceship from that movie kind of....or at
least some kind of spaceship (BTW, Chris's playing has gotten MUCH
better...he truly is the fifth member...I'm still waiting for Trey to give
the "CHRIS KURODA...LIGHTS" after a sick 2001)  Anyways, the jam sort of
mellowed out with Trey apparently teasing a song from West Side
Story...then completely quieted down to nothing, after which Trey busted
back into Jim...ridiculous.

Meat - This is some FUNK....kind of repetitive, but definitely cool, there
is one interlude that reminds me of Buster by moe., but more comments will
have to be made upon tape listening

LxL - interesting new arrangement...can't say whether or not I like the
new arrangement, although I definitely loved howthe jlyrics segment sort
of dissolved into the jam segment in the old version...now it's just a
stop on a dime turn after a short Fishman solo.  Nice noodling by Trey
here...no Fishman solo at the end.  

Cirucs - as much as I used to dislike this song...not listening to it for
awhile has caused it to be a pleasant surprise...good placement in the
set, some nice lights by Chris.  

Down w/Disease - Nice!!!...god placement, well-played jam.. nothing too
experimental, just straight rock-out Disease jamming...around ten-tfifteen
minutes before the Disease theme kicked backed into high gerar...I was
hoping for another song after this, but since the first set was so long I
wasn't really expecting it.

Overall solid set, a little short, but nice jamming.  Jim sis a keeper,
while the Disease and the Meat makes the whole set worth getting....I'll
it a 8.0

Encore - after Trenchtown and TLaH I wasn't expecting anything...didn't
get anything either...iWilson was ok, not heavy metal jam, nothing really
too exciting,as far as Wilson's goes...trey signaled for another song and
Golgi started up....well played, at least it wasn't Rocky Top....

There's part one...reviews of Vernon and the Wheel to come later on this
week...and if anyone wants to trfade summers, I have Ventura and would
like to get any other summers, especially August shows....and what the
hell, I'lll spin Ventura for the first person who e-mails me with an
interesting summer tour experience...take it easy 

-Mark







The Scene.

Pretty laid back, alot of shakin' goin' on in the parking lot, drinking and
such, didn't see anyone get messed with.  It was a beautiful clear day, no
clouds in the sky, perfect weather for Phish.

Set I

Trenchtown Rock -  WOW.  Great opener, probably the best opener I've seen.
Everyone around was lovin' it.  Trey sounded great on vocals.  I'll officailly
say it now, "Phish is the world's greatest cover band."  Loved it.

Julius -  I'm a fan of Julius so I dug this alot.  Pretty standard up until
the jam part and then Trey went nuts. (As did the crowd)  Really good Julius.

Wolfman's Brother -  Happy to see this here, it really kept things flowing.
Nice funky version.  Then they started into the jam Craziness.  Really long
jam, kinda spaced out but it was allright, went right into...

Time Loves A Hero -  Wow.  Another one out of nowhere.  I don't know this song
that well but I thought it was really cool.

Bittersweet Motel -  I was expecting to hear this one because of the lyrics
"half way between Erie and Pittsburgh."   I really wish they would stop
playing this song.  Trey said something to the crowd about the lyrics after it
was over, I don't remember exactly what he said because I was so glad
Bittersweet was over.

REBA -  NICE.  Really good Reba.  Really long with a wild jam before going
into the final verse.  Always love to see Reba.

The Sloth -  Yeeeaaaahhhhhaaaaa.  Awesome.  I love gamehenge songs and the
Sloth rocks.  

Ginseng Sullivan -  Well done.  One of my favorite bluegrass numbers.  Played
to perfection. 

Fee -  I won't say much because I'm not a big fan of this one, but Trey was
doing some weird harmonics thing at the end that was kind of cool.

Maze - YES!!!   I love Maze, and this version didn't disappoint.  Great
jamming, almost got to spaced out but then they brought it back into a nice
tight jam.  Maze is awesome.

Sample in a Jar -  I thought Maze was going to close the set, but here comes
Sample. Good set closer, played with alot of energy.  Good job boys.

Set I overall:   Really nice and long set.  The opener was something special.
Really fun, I was wondering what they were going to open set II with......

Set II

Runaway Jim -  Unexpected by myself.  The beginning was fairly normal but when
they started to jam, wow.  The jam started slow kinda country sounding then
morphed into a major Rock'n'Roll jam.  Trey was playing a really screaming
solo...
Then Morphed into the FUNK.  Crazy Funk, loved it.  The total jam was about 30
mins. long, but didn't seem like it because they kept mixing it up. Awesome.
Then they went back into Runaway Jim and finished her off. SWEET JIM.

Meat. -  I was hoping to hear this one (I heard it at Deer Creek).  FUNK
RULES.  Nobody around me was getting down to this one at first, but when they
settled in to the groove everyone in the place was lovin' it.  Great Song.

Limb By Limb -  Good version, I really like how they changed the ending up
from last years Limb by Limb's, more of a jam. 

When The Circus Comes to Town -  I can't believe they played this song here. I
was kinda disappointed, I was hoping for another bluegrass song here but they
went into this sappy song.  Oh well, it was pretty short and Trey's guitar
work sounded good on the slow solo part. 

Down With Disease -  Allright, after that almost unbearable slow song they
went right into MAJOR JAM MODE.  Great DWD.  Good tight jamming by the whole
band. 

Set II overall:  Short set, but the Runaway Jim Jam, Meat, and DWD were
awesome.  Nice set.

Encore:

WILSON -  SWEET JESUS WILSON ROCKS.  I have now seen Wilson in every possible
position in a show. Opener, middle set, second set opener, and now Encore.
Awesome Wilson, People screaming Wilson like crazy, brought a big smile to my
face.  The heavy metal jam was amusing and not to long. GREAT WILSON.

Golgi Apparatus -  Golgi is such a good song.  Really well played, great
ending for the night.

OVERALL:   The show was really good with some nice tight jams, some funk, some
Rock, some country, some bluegrass. This show was all over the place.  Really
good time.

Peace,
Cory Tressler



I went to the Starlake show last summer and Trey did the infamous screw up in
the second set opener Runaway Jim and then pronounced.....Oohps!!!   I think
the boys were remembering that little mess-up from last year and made it up to
the crowd w/ a 35 min second set opener of none other than ............
Runaway Jim.  Trey and Page were really on for this version.......they didn't
miss a beat!!!  I was in phan heaven.  I think they really did a great job and
it was real treat to get a 35 min Runaway.  Thanks guys!!!!!

Dan Burford