From: Steve Weinberg 
Subject: Reviews of Amsterdam 7-12-96

Hey Dan,
I attended the London and Amsterdam shows a few weeks ago. I'm European, 
I live in Belgium. It would be nice if you could add my reviews to your 
page. Here they are:


Amsterdam 07/12/96. 

This is probably the greatest show of Phish. First of all it was a 3 set  
show. They played for about 3 HOURS. There is not 1 song in this show that
has ever had a better jam. They started with WILSON who jammed amazingly
into DIVIDED SKY. This Divided Sky is defenetaly the best one I have ever
heard. Trey was incredible on it and it just wouldn^Òt stop. They then 
played HORN to prepare themselves for the BIGGEST SPLIT OPEN AND MELT ever
played. From now on I knew this show was going to be CRAZY. I never heard
such a jam on Split Open And Melt. And it^Òs just the beginning. It  was
followed by YA MAR. Again Page couldn^Òt be stopped. He just kept playing.
YA MAR jammed into what is the biggest FUNKY BITCH ever played. As I told
you, every song was nuts, every song had a jam. Trey then confirmed that
TASTE is TASTE and not the Fog that surrounds anymore. It was followed by
a good jam and an very good THEME FROM THE BOTTOM. To end the first set
again something that has never happened before.  TWEEZER was great and
jammed into LLAMA. This was incredible, they were in the middle of a
tweezer jam and they managed to jam into Llama like it was nothing. The 
audience didn^Òt get how they did this. This was the end of the first set  
that lasted 1 Hour and 20 minutes. Before leaving Trey said: WE ARE JUST
GETTING WARMED UP.  THERE WILL BE LOTS LOTS MORE!!!!!!! 

Set 2 began with IT^ÒS ICE. It was not finished. It was played very well.  
Instead of the usual jam we had a vey slow jam which ended beautifully
into PRINCE CASPIAN. This is also the biggest Prince Caspian ever. The
song was as usual but then it continued into a jam on the theme of Prince
Caspian which was incredible. The jam continued and jammed into MIKE^ÒS
SONG wich for me is better than the one on Portland 12/30/93. Very long, 
magnificent. Mike^Òs Song then jammed into RUN LIKE AN ANTELOPE. Antelope  
never had an intro like this one---> SIMPLY AMAZING. Antelope wasn^Òt
finished and jammed into PURPLE RAIN. Yes it was sung by FISH. He sung in
London AND Amsterdam.  Trey then asked the audience to give him some keys
and the band just jammed with the keys that were given by the audience.
Another big moment was SLAVE TO THE TRAFFIC LIGHT. It ended very CALM with
Page on the piano. I have never heard such a Slave. The band ended the set
with SUZIE GREENBERG after it was requested by the crowd. This Suzie
contained an incredible jam for this song. Set 2 was 1 Hour. Trey than 
announced the crowd they would play a third set. 

HANG ON. The third set started with DAVID BOWIE who was not finished but  
lasted 15-20 minutes. It jammed INCREDIBLY into FREE. This is not the
longest Free but defenately the most beautiful Free I have ever heard.
They ended the set again with HELLO MY BABAY. Same as in London. The
encore was great. They began with BATHTUB GIN wich was very good. As Trey
was going away the crowd wanted so much another song that they added
JOHNNY B. GOODE. This is also the biggest JOHNNY B GOODE I ever heard. Set
3 + E were 40 minutes. That^Òs it. This is defenately one of the greatest
shows they have ever played. Everybody should have those tapes.  We should
ask everyone who has it not to be to hard and try to spread those tapes  
everywhere. The guys are back and I can tell you that they^Òre still
sharin^Ò the groove. 

*Trey said at the end of the first set that there will be no curfew. 
Between the second and the third set Fish continued to play even that the
lights were already on. 

Thanks,

                            Steve
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "J. Adam Tizel" 
Subject: review of 7/12/96, Amsterdam

    Let me start by saying that this was one of the greatest experiences
of my life.  This was my first show since late 94.  I had spent a year in
Israel at the Hebrew University and on my way home I was going to travel
through Europe for a few weeks.  To my delight, Phish had similar plans.
Unforunately this was the only show that I got to see, and it was unreal.
the Melkweg is a tiny club near Led Zeppelin Square(That's what everybody
calls it, I think it's actually Liedsplein sq.).  It holds maybe 500
people. the crowd was mostly American.  Lots of dissapointed people
outside.  I think that i even saw 1 Dutch guy.  The only problem that I
had was lack of breathable air.  You see drugs are tolerated in Amsterdam,
and well hey, everybody(including the band it seems) came equipped with
all of the right substances.  They really packed us in tight.  Not much
room to dance, but I was only 15 feet from the stage, so who was I to
complain.  The atmosphere was amazing.  I have heard a lot of people say
that this show was sloppy, but hey, i think that they are jealous.  It was
sloppy, I think due to the fact that the band was baked.  In fact at one
point Trey took a bong hit from some guy in the crowd.  OK, on to the
music...3 sets!!

The boys came on stage at 10:30 and played until 2:45!!!!

set 1:   Wilson, Divided Sky, Horn, SOAMelt, Ya Mar, Funky Bitch, Taste,
Theme from the Bottom, Tweezer>Llama

buh duh, buh duh...WILSON.....nice opener, good jam.  I might just of been
me but a lot of the songs here seemed like they were going in slow motion,
the jams I mean.  i made it a point, because I was so close to the stage
to watch the band very carefully as they jammed.  Next was DIVIDED SKY
which was great, and really long.  Many people in the crowd seemed
preoccupied wit smoking the 3 or 4 joints that each of them brought in to
the show.  HORN was really pretty, the solo in that song is truely a work
of art. SOAMelt was huge, a crazy jam and a quiet ending. YA MAR  was
great fun, nice and long, every song had a big long jam.  When they
started FUNKY BITCH, I thought they might have brought Carlos Santana
out(they were opening for him in Europe) for a reprise of 7/25/92, but he
wasn't to be seen. Nevertheless this bitch was smokin'!  after this song,
Trey announced that there was no curfew....oh baby, I knew at that point
that we were in for a treat.  Next were 2 new songs, TASTE and THEME FROM
THE BOTTOM, then we got a first set TWEEZER....wow, it was pretty short
with a king of fusiony-type jam with everybody playing differnt things.
It only lasted 10 minutes and somehow jammed into LLAMA, how the heck did
they do that, unbelievable.  That was the set ender.  Trey announced that
they were just getting started.  Not the tightest set, but a great
songlist with great jamming.

set 2:  It's Ice>Prince Caspian>Mike's>Antelope>Purple Rain>HYHU,
GDEAminor ska groove, NICU, Slave, Suzie G.              

This set was had amazing segueing(is that a word?).  they were doing stuff
that I didn't think was possible, but was witnessing with my own eyes.
Once again it wasn't tight, but just amazing.  IT'S ICE was not finished
and jammed into CASPIAN which went into MIKE"S(my first).  the intro to
Mike's song is soooooo great, it just filled the club up with it's
goodness. Mike's was long and slowed down into....what's that, an ANTELOPE
tease? pretty cool, actually it was Antelope itself.  Has there ever been
a Mikes>Antelope, it was pretty special.  the intro was phantastic.
Unfortunately they didn't jam it out but segued into PURPLE RAIN!!! what
craziness.  Nice vacuum solo by Fish.  I even got a couple of photos cause
I snuck my camera in.  then some HYHU.  At this point I didn't know what
to expect.  Trey yelled out to the crowd to give him a chord and a type of
music and they would jam on that for a while.  that didn't work to well so
they went into NICU which was great with a cool, long jam.....seemed to be
the theme of the night.  At the end of NICU I'm pretty sure I saw some guy
offer Trey a hit from his bong, and he gladly accepted.  Then came an
interesting SLAVE, it didn't jam out at the end, just slow and long with
Page doing most of the soloing.  Then a SUZIE GREENBERG.  I knew that they
were pretty stoned at this point.  Trey forgot a verse and just sang Suzie
Suzie over and over.  Also Trey seemed to be getting a kick out of the
feedback that he was getting by plugging his patchcord into his 'Doc.

Set 3!:  Bowie>Free, Hello Ma baby

encore:  Bathtub Gin, Johnny B. Goode.

BOWIE was nice to hear, but at this point I think that everbody in the
place was exhausted, it jammed wonderfully into FREE and then the a
capella number.  They all had strange looks on their faces....hard to
explain. Gin was a nice encore and Johnny B. Goode wailed.  I thought that
they pulled it out of their asses but apparently they had been playing it
quite a bit.

sorry about the intense rambling, but it was such a special show, quite an 
experience.  If anybody has the tapes please, please contact me.  Thanks
for reading!

jettizel@terraport.net