Subject: *You Can Feel Good About 10/23/94 Hood*
Date: 5 Feb 1997 15:03:49 GMT
From: zachary.[...]@yale.edu (Zachary [...])
Hey there. This is the version of Harry Hood from "A Live One" and I thought it'd be a good one to review first for a couple of reasons. First, it's a version that EVERY one of you has heard and OWNS. (If you don't, and you have live Phish tapes, go out and buy "A Live One." Otherwise you're very, very naughty.) So, this will give you some idea as to how my opinions compare with yours. If I hate this version and you love it (or vice versa), you are entitled to ignore the rest of my reviews. The second reason is that, by reviewing this first, it will hopefully give me some perspective with which to judge earlier Harrys. I don't expect that the average pre-90 Harry will be better than the average 95/96 Harry, so it will help to know where the evolution is going while examining the ancestors. Here goes... 10/23/94 - The Band Shell - University of Florida, Gainesville (free show) I don't possess this show, although I've heard that the second set is pretty hot. The version I have is on "A Live One," so the quality is okay :-) 0:00 - Pretty typical opening, a bit sparser than usual. Very prominent Mike. 0:45 - All Mike for about ten seconds, kind of cool. 1:00 - Long sustained note from Trey that he turns into a kind of futuristic Jetsons' type noise with his digital effects. At 1:35, Trey plays with his effects some more to get a heavy automobile/pulsating machine gun type sound. Both noises sound like they're from a video game. Definitely more stuff from Trey here than the usual intro. When I first heard this version I didn't dig it that much, but now, and especially with the headphones on, it sounds great. Really textural. (Oh yeah, side note: I will review all Harry's with large headphones ON. I think this is the only way to make sure that I'm hearing everything possible that's going on.) 2:00 - Harry chorus. 2:30 - Composed part, beautiful. Some nice high bass work from Mike at 3:00, and again at 3:20. Boy do I wish Mike was this prominent on all of my tapes! (And all of my tapes sounded this good ;-) 4:44 - Thank you Mr. Minor. Oh yeah, and you too Mr. Hood. 5:48 - Jam begins, slowly as usual. Nice Mike to start off. 6:04 - Trey starts noodling standardly. Pretty as always. Page not doing too much here for awhile. Fishman light on the drums, some shimmering with the cymbals. 7:30 - Tempo and volume beginning to build. 7:40 - Great bass line from Mike! I love this! Keep playing it! Oh well, only about ten seconds. 8:10 - Nice interplay between Trey and Page. Page is on the organ mirroring Trey. 8:35 - Now Mike's mirroring Trey. 8:50 - Some heavy snare from Fishman, tries to speed it up a bit. 9:20 - A few runs from Trey, ending in feedback washed sounds. Starts cooking a bit about 10:00. Fishman starts pounding away. Now Page joins him. Nice. 10:25 - Now Trey joins them. He's soaring! Just beautiful. Looooong note from Trey at 10:45. All of them sound great at this point. 11:10 - Sounds like they're going into the ending. The best description of the music heading into the final verse of Harry is triumphant. Maybe majestic. No, triumphant. 11:25 - Trey starts to hold it up. Maybe they're not going to end it... perhaps an unfinished Hood? No! Everyone drops out around 11:45. What the HELL is going on here? They were about to end it, now what are they doing? No time to wonder... Some runs down the board and down the 'doc from Page and Trey. 12:20 - They start to bring it back up. 12:35 - Rock-star feedback and distortion from Trey. 13:00 - Very un-Harry sounding. Intense from all four, put they're playing underneath the notes, not on top of them (listen to "Trey Speaks" from a Guitar Workshop he gave in '92. It's on the Tank Talk Tapes. He talks about playing above and below notes in order to create or release tension. Very interesting.) Tension definitely building. Unusual for a Hood to build tension. I generally think of them as one long release... 13:30 - Tension RELEASED! Yes! Give it to me! These are the Phish moments I live for! When they take dense, coiled, tense ball of music that they've created and just LET GO, allowing the music to flow back through them, triumphantly. Not as long an ending jam as some Harry's, but perhaps sweeter because of the built up tension. 13:50 - Trey launches into the Harry ending _again_. Is it for real this time? Page seems to think so. He's pounding away. 14:25 - Final verse. You can feel good! Total time = 14:50 Grade: B. This is an awesome Harry. Trey's effects in the intro. are nice, as is Mike's early bass work. What really distinguishes this Harry though, is the false ending, followed by the tension build-up and release. If it ends there, this version gets a C, but they lower it down and bring it right back up again. That's the kicker. Imagine, if you were in Gainesville on 10/23/94, not only would you have heard this Harry, it would have been a free Harry! (No relation to Free Willy.) As I mentioned in my previous post, feel free to send me comments, suggestions, flames, requests for reviews, recipes for apple pie.... Look for another one soon. Zach 


10/23/94 The Band Shell, U. Fl, Gainesville, Fl

Free Hood!  (this is the A LIVE ONE version)  Great
opening segment, with some amazing shit from EVERY
band member.. just a great all around opening.  Some
weird effects from Trey, some unusually upbeat
jamming from Fishman.. somewhat funky stuff from Mike
and Page.  Jam segment starts at 5:43.  Damn.  I'm
not going to describe this amazing version.  Listen
to the CD (oh and btw, if you haven't bought the CD
yet, get it immediately... or, if you don't plan to
get it, preferring to milk Phish by simply acquiring
publicly available tapes, THEN F*CK YOU AS*HOLE.. I
HATE MAGGOTS LIKE YOU!  YOU SHOULD BE TAKEN OUT AND
SHOT YOU MOOCHIN BASTARD!!)  Sorry about that.. I
won't say anything about this version except that the
jam quiets down after a climax at around 11:45 or
so.. which is where many a version has ordinarily
ended with a plunge into the final Feel Good lines ..
but this one BUILDS YET AGAIN EVER SO STEADILY AND
MIGHTILY, FEIGNTING HERE AND THERE!!!!!  Incredible
version.  Truly magnificent... a great composition.
Ends at 14:47.  I'm not sure whether I like this one
more than 7/1/95.. tough call.

charlie dirksen