From: Charlie Dirksen
11/14/94 Devos Hall, Grand Rapids, MI There's a very interesting Bowie in this set. 25 minutes long, with some weird
crowd chanting in the middle (the band is silent). Very strange. Would someone at this show fill everyone in on what happened
during this monster Bowie? There's also a lot of whistling from the band, before the final segment of the looong jam segment.
The concluding few minutes are excellent, fwiw, but I wasn't all that moved by this Bowie. I think 11/26 and 12/29/94 kick its
butt, and many other shorter, tighter, more siiiiick versions. The opening of this YEM is standard. When the pre-Nirvana section
starts, there's an obvious attempt at the Vibration from Mike, but it is brief. Strangely, there's no pre-Nirvana build and Trey
quietly begins the lead-in to the "Nirvana" section. Nirvana at 2:11. Trey farts around in this section as well, fading in and fading
out (well, crescendo/descendo) his licks in this section. It's different, but doesn't seem especially tight. He's also very dandy with
the notes before Mike's solo-section. Just sounds weak. Mike's solo-section is nothing special, but it is melodious and not
frightening and angry as it sometimes is. The pre-charge section is very strong and tight, but Trey's first shot at the Note isn't
very good. Certainly not as grand as expected based on the fire of this pre-charge. The second shot at the Note at 4:58 is hit
and sustained flawlessly by Trey... "Boy" at 5:31 after a great scream from Trey. Fish squawks "What?!" twice during the
BMGS segment. WUDMTF segment is groovy, with some especially funky licks from Mike, and some nice clav action from
Page. Love that clav! =^] Tramps jam at 7:37 with signals from Mike. Some of his signals are melodious & unusually
interesting, taboot. Page's key playing isn't that profound, though. In fact, Mike is more impressive in here, snappin dem damn
'doc strangs. Jam segment at 9:42, and Trey takes a few seconds before he comes in noodling (Mike funks out the intro! =^).
By 10:07 it is just Trey repetitively noodling on this 'lil theme and Fish accompanying lightly. Mike comes repeating one note on
the bass over and over, sticking with Fish, providing that bottom. Page comes in with brief clav stabs.. they also all stop
together after playing two measures or so (and start up again after a few beats). Makes for an interesting dance. At 11:27 the
jam picks up a bit more fire, but is still in that stop every few measures mode. Trey starts soloing more melodiously. "Whatcha
gotta say" from Fish in the break (in the "stop" section) at one point. "Watcha say watcha say WATCHA SAY!!!" from Fish,
and then at the next break there's some goofy vocal noises from Fish and Trey.. and they keep this up for a bit. "WOW!!!!"
Bwahaha.. Fish lets out a groan. Really awesome jamming in this YEM!! Well, jam dies out around 13:10.. gets very quiet.
Crowd starts clapping along. Mike is funking out by himself in here (13:40) and the crowd is clapping the rhythm. No Fish yet,
though. Mike is reasonably active in here, letting out some peculiarly melodious licks. You know, this is odd. No Fishman in this
segment.. so much for "bass and drums." This is Absolut Bass. Nice segment, but Mike doesn't really inspire, imo. Closing
segment at 14:53. Vocal jam starts up within 20 seconds as usual. Vocal jam is very good, but nothing so exceptionally weird
or awe-inspiring occurs, in my opinion. Hey, I take that back. At around 19 minutes, there's some harmonizing from the boys
that is well, not that grand, but different. At 19:30 or so, they start chanting on "Go" or "Guhm" ... harmonizing around it. This is
something they have done in other versions of YEM, sortof. Well, this isn't precisely the same melodious harmony that they did
on 12/7/92, 12/30/92 and 2/19/93 in those vocal jams, but it is similar enough to warrant mentioning it. I wonder if they actually
give this chant/harmonizing routine a name. Total time 20:31. I dunno.. this jam segment was really, really FUN and well
jammed, but all and all, I can't help but give this version only a typically awesome rating. There were no melodious theme jams
to speak of, Mike didn't really wail in the "bass" segment, the opening segment was painfully short and somewhat lame (see the
Nirvana section)... but again, the jam segment is pretty damn amusing, so I have to give this version a B. I highly recommend
this set of Phish, fwiw and btw. The slave isn't all that bad. But the Yerushalim is excellent, imo, and contains a little spacey
intro. (and the Bowie is a MONSTER) two cents GotTheTourCrud420