Subject: Pittsburgh Incident
From: "Sheridan, Chris" 

I went to see Pittsburgh on Friday and it sucked my mind down into a 
vortex, particularly the Maze, Taste, Yem and Stash, not to mention the 
Julius. As my friends and I left the Arena we were happy and quite blown 
out, and unfortunately there was an incident that I feel is important to 
bring up. 

Like most Arenas, when you exit your seating section you usually have to 
go down the ramps or stairs to ground level before you can get out of the 
building. As we filed en mass into the lobby and toward the nearest ramp, 
I noticed three young men, standing by the now deserted beer concession. 
They were CLEAN CUT and of college age. (I'm not looking to stereotype, 
here, just relaying what I saw) One of the three  grabbed a big "Light 
Beer from Miller" plastic tub left behind by the beer sellers and 
attempted to remove it from the platform/cart on which it sat. The other 
two were laughing and he was trying to get them to take it home for the 
dorm or whatever. We laughed too as we passed these guys, I was thinking, 
yeah that's pretty foolish, but probably a prank I would've tried to pull 
10 years ago. 

I kept watching them as we started down the ramp to ground level, I 
noticed that they were not able to separate the tub from the platform and 
were now pushing the entire Beer tub toward the ramp. I was about halfway 
down the ramp and I began to smell disaster as I could determine from the 
pitch of the rumble that the tub was quite heavy and probably had a 
cement base. 

Needless to say, once the tub got on the incline the guys either couldn't 
hold it or just let it go, but anyone who's familiar with physics will 
know what happened. The thing started down the long cement ramp gaining 
speed exponentially, we managed to just make it out of the way. When it 
passed us (the halfway point on the ramp) it was moving at least 10 mph!  
It picked up speed all the way down and a few people at the bottom were 
not lucky. There was a guy laying on his side in shock, unable to move, 
quite obviously in a bad way. In addition I saw a girl who appeared to 
have a broken ankle. I was infuriated and tried to find these 3 jerks but 
they undoubtable ran back and away up top.

In his classic psychological work THE CROWD, Gustav LeBon attributes many 
qualities to crowd behavior. His main contention (for our purposes) is 
that personal responsibility is often flushed down the toilet and "the 
horde Instinct" takes over. I for one want the phish community to be just 
that - a community, and the concert should be our church, a place for our 
spiritual renewal, not an anonymous crowd where the horde instinct is 
allowed to reign supreme. 

I urge everyone to be on their toes (moreso than I was when this started 
to unfold) from this point forward. If you see someone contributing 
negatively to our scene speak up, don't be afraid to be the lone voice in 
the wilderness. This error in judgement could easily have led to a death, 
and prison terms for fellow fans.  

peace,

chris
-------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 10/18/96 setlist, short review
From: "Eric M. David" 

For informations sake, this was my 10th show, so I have some authority.  I 
saw the first three nights of Red Rox this summer, and this show topped
all but the third night there.

Jim -- predictable opener, but they still really jammed it out for a first
song.  The sound was clearly going to be stellar all night.  CLear, with
good delineation between instruments.

Guelah -- standard

Old Home Place -- my first time, so I am not truly informed here, but I
love the bluegrass, and this was fun.

CTB -- also predictable, and also excellent.  It was here that I noticed
Page had his piano and keyboards facing the back rather than the front,
which is his normal alignment.  New setup -- i don't know.

Stash -- sweet, but standard

Strange Design -- typical velveeta

Divided Sky -- a pleasant surprise - seemed nearly flawless, with perfect
sustains, and crystal clear notes.  Topped first night at Red Rox for
sure.

Billy Breathes -- I like it.  Thought for sure first set was over since we
were approaching an hour but ...

Taste -- Very album-like, but it was my first and I enjoyed it.  I will
bet , though, that this song is the Sample of BB.  Finally...

Sample --- yada yada yada

II.
Suzie -- high energy, but fairly typical

Maze -- Oh boy, we're cooking now.  this began the highlight of the show.
Treey seemed to really get into it here, with a more intense and invol;ved
solo than I have ever seen.  It seemed like Trey just decided to get it
moving here.  Wow.

YEM -- I have seen several YEM's, and this belong up there.  But it does
not match Walnut Creek 6/16.  The best part was Mike's solo before the
vocal jam, which really took 
the song beyond the norm.  Excellent.

Reba -- they're cooking now...

Waste -- wow.  I like the new album and have been trying to convince my
friends of its merits, but that task is over, because this Waste was
unreal.  The part where Trey fills in with his lilting guitar riffs just
blew my mind.  I saw this acoustic at Red Rox, and the electric version
is simply superior.  The peak just keeps rising.

Hood -- Again standard and excellent -- there may have been a few new
touches, but i was disappointed to see that the response "Hood" has been
dropped from the audience repertoire from RR.

E: Julius -- smoke, but not mush new turf.  a rocking end to a good show.


-------------------------------------
Subject: Pittsburgh 10/18/96 setlist and review and doughnuts
From: hagst3+@pitt.edu (Herschel A Gelman)

First, greetings to Matt, whom I met tonight.  Also to Drew and Cheri, who
I wasn't planning on meeting but ran into anyways.  And greetings to
Gordon and Laura even though I couldn't find either of you...  :(

Oh, and greetings to Lisa...  :)

Based just on the reviews of the first 2 shows, I'll go and call this the
best of the tour so far.  I may be wrong, but I don't think so. 
Everything clicked.  (And only 3 Billy Breathes songs, for those keeping
score). 

I:  Runaway Jim, Geulah Papyrus, My Old Home Place, Cars Trucks Buses,
    Stash, Strange Design, Divided Sky, Billy Breathes, Taste, Sample
    in a Jar

II: Suzie Greenberg, Maze, You Enjoy Myself, Reba, Waste, Harry Hood

E:  Julius

Times:

Set 1: 67 minutes  [7:53 to 8:59]
Set break: 39 minutes
Set 2 + encore: 81 minutes [9:38 to 10:59]

(Longer than the last two shows.)

Medium drizzle and kind of chilly before the show.  Pittsburgh had 3 days
of beautiful weather, and then turns ugly just for Phish.  Oh well.

The "Weekend" section of today's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette had a photo of
some extra-freaky people from Plattsburgh dancing on the cover.  Inside
was an article with an interview with Page in which the interviewer kept
asking Dead-related questions, often with long pauses from Page, until
Page finally asked if they could talk about something else.  And then an
article about Deadheads becoming Phisheads.  Ack.  Not the best Phish
articles I've ever read.  And the interviewer for the first had written a
really good review of the 11/24 Pittsburgh show without a single Dead
mention.  Strange.  I'm guessing he read some other articles about Phish
since then, and realized, "oh, wait, I'm supposed to be comparing them to
the Grateful Dead?  D'oh!  Why didn't anyone tell me??"

Anyways...  the show...

Mike was wearing that flourescent yellow/green top and green pants.  Nice
effect for certain lighting setups, where the stage is pretty much dark
except for a glowing shirt.

Teases/Quotes:

CTB had a short "Tequila" tease from Page

YEM had a "Do you feel...  like I do" Frampton-style line from Trey, and
with the guitar underneath (with some wah-wah), it sounded very close to
Frampton...

Other notes:

This show continues my "streak" of having seen Stash, Reba, and Julius at
every show I've been to (a whopping four).  If there are songs to see at
every show, these 3 aren't bad choices at all...

Jim was pretty short and conservative, and not nearly as jammed-out as
some other recent ones had been.  But being the first set opener, I wasn't
expecting it to reach any special level of insanity.

Trey got on the percussion kit in CTB.  I don't remember him doing that
before, but I might just be remembering badly.  Anyone?

Stash was really nice, got pretty dissonant.  I love this song.

Page's voice seemed a little off in Strange Design, especially those high
notes.  Nothing too obvious or too off, though.

Divided Sky didn't stand out.  Cool stuff, but pretty average as far as
they go.  IMHO.

Billy was basically like the album version, even down to part of the Trey
solo at the end.

Taste was EXCELLENT.  I haven't heard any live version of this since
summer '95, thought I've heard people say that it doesn't jam as much.
This had a Page solo at the end (which I loved) followed by a Trey solo
(which I also loved).  Both were very atypical solos, nothing like you
usually hear from them.  Excellent.


Maze was insane.  Page's solo was pretty good, but Trey was just doing
some evil moaning on the guitar, and swaying back and forth.  Nice.

YEM.  Cool.  The audience was clapping along near the beginning of the
jam, and, though I usually can't stand that, this worked well.  Page and
Fish dropped out, so it was just Trey and Mike and the audience clapping
for a little bit, which was a cool effect.  Then Fish came back in
slowly...  The Frampton quote I mentioned before.  (Oh yeah;  Trey was
doing some funky wah-wah strumming during the boymangodshit WUDMTF
portion).  It was a pretty mellow jam for a little while, but Fish brought
the level back up pretty quickly, and the rest of the YEM was mostly Trey
wailing away (anyone complaining that Trey's solos are too textural with
not enough wailing lately should have been at tonight's show.  Tons of
wailing from him throughout).  The bass/drums segment seemed a bit longer
than usual, but I could just be imagining things -- Trey went right to the
percussion kit as soon as it started, and Page was doing a bit of Clav
playing during it as well.  (Meaning it wasn't really just bass & drums). 

The YEM vocal jam was incredible as well.  At one point I thought there
were some actual words from someone, but I couldn't identify what they
were saying or who it was.  Great vocal jam, amazing lights.  The only
other YEM I'd seen was Hershey this summer, and the lights were nice, but
the effect in the Civic Arena was much better than Chris could do at an
open-air stadium.  I went to tonight's show with a friend of mine who was
seeing her first show, and the part that impressed her the most was this
vocal jam.  Funny, that usually scares people away...  :)

Figured we'd get a slower, "break" song next, but nope.  Reba.  Big thumbs
up.

The break song was Waste, which was next.  I took this opportunity to sit
down and rest for a bit, which I definitely needed.  Waste was played
well, but there's not much to say about it.

I stood up after Waste, just in time for the opening drums to Harry. 
Woohoo!  The Trey and Mike lines at the very beginning of the song were
very cool, and more interesting than they usually are (as far as I can
remember).  A few people were yelling "Hood" after Harry, but not too
many.  If I didn't know what they were saying, I wouldn't have been able
to figure it out;  it sounded more like "Harry aah! Harry ahh!"  And the
jam section was insane, of course. You know all the boxes they have around
the top of the Arena?  (No?  Well, imagine them.)  The people in one along
the right-hand side started quickly flashing the light inside their box. 
Other people in other boxes noticed it, and by the climax of the song
there were 7 or 8 quickly-flashing lights around the top of the Civic
Arena.  That looked great...

Ending was stretched out a little bit so Trey could thank us and say
goodnight, and he said some other things that I couldn't make out.  The
only word I caught was "Mario", so I guess it was some Lemieux comment (he
dedicated Blue & Lonesome to Mario at last year's Civic Arena show...) 

Julius encore.  I know Mr. Dirksen says that everyone always thinks that
the Julius they're hearing is the best ever, but this really was.  :)
Well, ok, not the best ever maybe, but definitely above-average.  Trust
me.  Much more interesting and atypical Trey soloing than this song
usually has.

I saw a local TV station (WPXI channel 11, NBC affiliate) with a live
broadcast van set up a block away right after the show.  I don't know what
they did with it, though.  Probably said some stuff about the Grateful
Dead. 

Well, that's my show for this tour.  For anyone worried by the Placid
setlist and reviews, trust me, there's absolutely nothing to be worried
about.

-- 
Herschel "Well, except all those other things going on in the world.
          There *is* a lot of good stuff to worry about out there.  I
          guess you shouldn't believe anything I say..." Gelman

-------------------------------------------------
Subject: Re: pittsburgh
From: maallen@freenet.columbus.oh.us (Mark Allen)

We left Columbus Ohio at 4:00, knowing that we were cutting it close, and
hit traffic trouble right away; DRAT! Then, more traffic in Pittsburgh as
we rolled up 79...DOUBLE DRAT! So despite these troubles, everything
seemed to fall in place when we walked in on the middle of the Divided
Sky--

But Set II was really a gem...The Reba went places, and the Maze was truly
inspired... Someone jumped up on the stage during Maze and darted back and
forth a few times, looking around as if he were thinking "Gotta get outta
this Maze..." Antway, he dove off right before security had the chance to
grab him... Not a recommended procedure, but this guy didn't run into
anything, and was actually very timely with his little manuever...
Billy Breathes is a nice new tune, though I wasn't familiar with it prior
to hearing it at the Civic Arena. And Waste is a perfect lilt for
providing a chill between orbits... Really enjoy that one...

I wore my John Lennon T-shirt, hoping for the Day In the Life encore, but
I must say I was not a bit disappointed by "Julius"...what a solid,
hard-drivng tune!

Overall, all the jams went places with seemingly intentional direction,
without losing the feel of freeform jamming...I guess I'm trying to say
that the band was TIGHT! After all the rough reviews of Lake PlACID, I was
concerned a bit, but now it seems that there must have been something to
the "First Show of Tour Jitters" theory, as by Pittsburgh, the guyz seem
to be in fine form...

-- 
maallen@freenet.columbus.oh.us

"Can't find a ride like that no more..." --Hunter/Garcia
-------------------------------------------------------------
From: Kevin P Fox 
Subject: 10/18/96 Pittsburgh Civic Arena

I just wanted to say that I was at the show that night and had an
unfortunate incident in between sets.  My friend passed out as a result
of dehydration and I spent the whole second set in the lobby outside of
the medical room.  I'm pleased to hear that all of the reviews that this
show got were good(not just good, but excellent) I just got the tapes to
this show and I agree with everyone.Email me with any comments
kpfox@erie.net  peace           

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

From: Darius.Zelkha@oberlin.edu
Subject: The Aftershow
Date: 16 Jun 1997 23:03:32 GMT

Ever wonder what it's like to be backstage at a Phish show?  I was lucky 
enough to go backstage at one of the fall '96 shows, and though it's long 
overdue, I thought some people on Lamehendge would like to know what it's 
all about.

After the 10/18/96 Pittsburgh show, a wonderful 
person-that-will-remain-unnamed asked me if I'd like to go to the 
aftershow party with them.  Of course, I was incredibly excited, never 
having been backstage but always wanting to go, and accepted gleefully.  
I received an aftershow pass -- those stickers that are about the size 
of a t-shirt pocket and read "Phish", then have a funky graphic, and then 
a series of handwritten letters (I'm sure you've all seen them) -- and 
sat with about 30 other people waiting to head back.

By this time, most of the crowd had filed out of the place, and the 30 or 
so folks that were waiting to go back were just chilling, waiting for the 
call.  My friend that provided the pass was a regular backstage, and took 
the time to introduce me to the other people that frequent the 
after-party.  Also waiting with the crowd was Mike Gordon, who was just 
chatting with folks he knew as we waited to head back.

Finally, security opened the barrier and, after very carefully checking 
each person's pass, led us through the various corridors of the arena and 
into a room with tables and chairs.  There was a bowl of salsa and chips 
on each table, and a cooler with beer and mineral water near the 
entrance.  Each person that came in took a beverage (there were almost 
enough to go around) and sat at the tables.

What really stood out to me was the atmosphere back there.  It was really, 
really mellow.  It seemed like most of the people knew 
each other, and it was more of a gathering than a special occasion.  I 
was, it seemed, the youngest person there (i'm 20); most folks were 
around the same age as the band.  Everyone was really, really friendly, 
and my friend took the time to introduce me to several people that were 
all very cordial. If there is any kind of a Phish "community," it's found 
in these circles, it seems to me.  I heard one person comment that though 
Phish has grown exponentially since their beginnings in VT, the scene backstage 
has not, remaining about the same size as when the band was still playing 
small clubs and theaters.

My friend mentioned that the band usually doesn't attend these anymore, 
but the person sitting next to us mentioned that they were indeed going 
to hang out tonight.  And, sure enough, as I looked around the room, I 
saw Page and Fish sitting with people, and Mike cruising in and out. 
(There was no sign of Trey, unfortunately.)  

As I said, most of the people seemed to know each other, and this 
included the band.  As I went up and said hello to Page and Fish, they 
were just as cordial as everyone else (I had actually met page before, 
twice, though only briefly), and were taking the time to chat with people 
and sign the (very) occasional autograph. I chatted with Fish about his 
new drums, and talked to Page about jazz, Bill Evans, and the Screaming 
Headless Torsos.

After about 20 min. of hanging out, I had to get back to my friends that 
I had come to the show with, who 
were in the parking lot waiting for me (I didn't have a chance to tell 
them where I had gone, so I was a little worried they were looking for 
me).  I thanked my friend again for being such a gracious host, 
finished my beer, said goodbye to everyone I had met, and was led by a 
very nice usher to the appropriate exit.  

Of course, when I met up with my friends in the lot, they were 
dumbfounded to see an aftershow pass adorning my shirt and were really 
interested to hear what happened, what it was like, etc..  I, of course, was 
still really psyched to have gotten to attend the aftershow, and was blown 
away by how nice and mellow everyone was.

So, that's the deal with the aftershow.  It's fun, it's mellow, it's a 
nice place to meet people, but honestly, don't expect it to be THAT 
amazing.  I always chuckle now when I hear people drool from the idea of 
getting backstage; it's fun, but not nearly as much fun as the show itself. ;-)

Darius

PS: I forgot to mention: while we were chilling back there, drinking beer 
and eating chips and salsa, Phish brought out their instruments and 
played a mini-show.  The setlist was:

Alumni Blues, Destiny Unbound, No Dogs Allowed, Leprechaun, Sneakin' 
Sally, Freebird

THAT was when I realized how cool it was to be backstage.  I hear that 
happens every night back there.

;-)

| -- 
darius.zelkha@oberlin.edu
http://www.oberlin.edu/~dzelkha/

==============================