From: jxr1092@ritvax.isc.rit.edu (Jens Rodenberg)
Subject: NYE comments
Reply-To: jxr1092@ritvax.isc.rit.edu
Organization: Rochester Institute of Technology
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1993 00:50:12 GMT


   Wow, what a great show!  It was nice meeting everybody at the Fort
gathering and at the NYE show, and hope to see everybody during Spring
Tour...

   There were a few times during the show when I thought that everybody in
the band was quite proficient at their instruments with the exception of
Trey, who learned how to play guitar by watching Headbanger's Ball on MTV,
and the concept of the whole band is just one big joke on us phans, sort of
like Spinal Tap (sorry, can't get the umlaut over the n).  That was only a
few short moments though... then of course there's the other end of the
spectrum, during improvisational sections, where the whole band can see
into the future (or another dimension) and determine where the jam is going
to go, then base the actual jam around the jam that would have happened...
(does that make sense?)

   Someone mentioned poor sound quality, but I thought it was excellent for
a hockey arena.  The only times it was marginal was during Trey's
narrations when there was lots of echo, but usually it was too loud for
that... I was quite satisfied with the sound during most of the show.  I
was in the net.section, which was in the Page Zone, pretty close to the
stage, first row of seats.

   That totally uncoordinated mockingbird (it looked almost like a skinny
Big Bird) was very funny- I haven't laughed that hard in quite a while.  To
me it seemed like a complete mockery of other bands who do stunts like that
while thinking that they're coolest thing to happen since frozen yogurt.
The Dude of Life singing Diamond Girl was pretty funny too, mainly because
of the cheesiness, but also because he's (IMHO, of course) a pretty bad
singer.  I think that tune ranks up there with the Bob Weir and Rob
Wasserman version of Misty.

   I thought the audience was very good... I didn't see/hear any yahoos
(the idiots who go to a show to get drunk and scream WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
throughout the entire show)... it seemed like everyone was there for the
same reason, which was to enjoy the music (and humor) of a very cool band. 
It seemed pretty amazing that the whole place was quiet during Carolina. 
Unfortunately, something like that doesn't happen very often.  Too many
bands are plagued with a popularity that seems to attract assholes to
shows.  I've been to Dead shows where only one yahoo hampered the
experience for hundreds of people in the general vicinity, and at the
Allman Brothers show I saw over the summer, there only seemed to be a few
people who were there to *listen* to the music.  That's what I get for
going to a weekend show, I guess.  While I wish plenty of success for
Phish, I'm glad that they're getting very little radio airplay (and
especially no eMpTyV videos) which of course keeps show attendance down and
limits it (in the most part) to true phans, but I can't help but think that
Phish will eventually have a mystique very similar to the Dead's which will
draw tons of people to shows whether or not they like, or are there to
listen to, the music.


Steve Franklin writes:

>lastly, shouldn't "fluffhead" be "PHLUFFHEAD"?! ;*)

   Of course not, it should be phluphphhead!

						Jens

EGGPLANT!!!

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