From cdhoard@umich.edu Sat Sep 12 23:35:41 1998
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1998 23:08:11 -0400
From: Christian David Hoard 
Cc: dan@netspace.org
Newsgroups: rec.music.phish
Subject: 12/6/97 PIPER REVIEW

Hello there. After a few reviewing tips (thanks Charlie) and some
thought, I figured I'd try my hand at reviewing Piper. The Piper I'll be
reviewing is from my first ever show, 12/6/97. 

***12/6/97, Palace of Auburn Hills, Auburn Hills, MI, Set II:***

Tweezer->Izabella->Twist Around->Piper, Sleeping Monkey > Tweeprise.

INTRO: Piper emerges quietly as Twist fades. Page leads the way here,
lightly chording. Cheers from the crowd. Trey begins playing the main
Piper chord progression (G-Am-C-F-Em-F) righty away, although subtly
under Page, and the tune begins to take form. Very tasteful cymbal work
from Fish here. 

At 1:15, Trey employs some light rising/falling guitar effects in
between Page's quiet, moving lines. I love this quiet little intro jam
here - very sweet. At the 2 minute mark, Page fades a bit and starts
chording lightly with Trey, and as Mike and Fish kick in with a little
more moving rhythm section, Piper begins to build:

THE ASCENT: At 2:35, Trey and Page are chording the main Piper
progression solidly, building in volume nicely. Following the first fill
from Fish (2:54), the ascent continues. Page adds some nice piano
arpeggios behind Trey's chording. We're now ready for...

FIRST LYRICS SEGMENT: Perfect vocal fade-in from Trey here. Absolutely
seamless. Trey sings lead here with harmony from Page while Fish (or is
it Mike?) is backing with something like "Words I sailed on." The lyrics
(since this is the inaugural review) are: "Piper, Piper the red, red
worm, woke last night to the sound of the storm, the words are the words
I sailed upon." These are, I believe, Tom Marshall's work, and I think
they're absolutely perfect for the song. The constant repetition of the
the lyrics creates, for me, a "sailing" effect to the song; indeed, we
sail gently upon these words and this beautiful music here. I absolutely
love the lyric segment - it's the type of thing you'll find yourself
singing to yourself for days, unless you're a completely jaded human
being ;-). Anywsy, this lyric segment is standard (i.e. great), though
it fades a bit too abruptly at 4:40.

MIDDLE JAM: Whoa. As the first lyrics segment ends, the jam really takes
off. Big fill from Fish at 4:55 as he lets out some sort of vocal
worm-noise. This isn't really hose, just LOUD chording from trey. Page
jumps in here - gorgeous rhythmic piano work. Wow, very cool understated
Page. Trey is still just pounding out the big chords. He and Fish are
beginning to push the tempo, as Fish has gone from just cymbals to a
steadier snare drum beat. This section is loud, nothing spectacular,
just nicely flowing along. At 6:00, the jam fades and we have...

SECOND LYRICS SEGMENT:
Less of a fade in here than the first. The tempo is also faster and the
music louder than the first - the guys sound excited. This is really
intense and soulful. At about 7 minutes, Trey fades the vocals by
banging out the main Piper chords.

END JAM:

Trey really forces the tempo as the lyrics end. At 7:15, the tempo is
really popping as Trey continues to stamp out the chords. Big snare and
cymbal fill from Fish at 7:15 ushers in a Trey solo. He stomps on his
pedal at 7:20 and hits us with a big high chord, followed soon after by
a trill - very cool. At this point the Piper chords have gone away, Mike
has kicked in with a solid, moving bassline, and it's all improv. from
here on out. Rockstar Trey here, low sustain at around 8:00 as Page
moves things along lightly. Trey comes back in high on the 'doc around
8:15. 

I've seen some people label their setlist here as Piper->Izabella jam.
Indeed, this section is much like an Izabella jam, especially Trey's
playing. Trey leads the way here, though Fish is very active, too. GREAT
Trey/Fish interplay at 8:45 - amazing how often they hook up and seem to
know what the other is going to play. Trey kicks it into high gear at
9:00. He hits a climactic high chord around 9:15. WOW - as he hits this
chord, he and Fish manage to play the exact same rhythm - excellent.
Long 16th-note fill from Fish as Trey sustains a note. Wow, this is
smokin'! Roar from the crowd around 9:30. All Trey/Fish until the jam
fades a bit around 10:45, where Page jumps in nicely. The jam is dying
out here and Trey sends forth some feedback and Fish sticks to a quiet,
syncopated rhythm. Some modal soling from Trey around 11:40 as things
quiet down. 

But wait - what's this? The jam begins to pick back up around 12:15.
This part here sounds very much like the awesome segue from Tweezer into
Izabella earlier in the set. More rock star soling from Trey as Fish
picks things up again. More great Trey/Fish interplay around 13:00. Trey
quits soloing and Fish slows things down around 13:30. Page chords
things to a close around 13:45 as Trey sustains a low notes. One final
fill at 14:00 from fish and things fade. Cheers from the audience drown
out the band until Trey ushers in Sleeping Monkey at 14:30 (By the way,
despite what most setlists read, there is NO SEGUE here whatsoever).

THE BIG PICTURE:

Overall, this was a GREAT Piper, the version that made me fall in love
with the song. The jam following the second lyrics segment is absolutely
gorgeous, as were most of the (flawless) composed sections of the song.
Although there is no "definitive" Piper to rate against, I'd score this
Piper an 8.0 on a 10-point scale. Besides Piper, the Tweezer->Izabella,
as well as the Sleeping Monkey make this set a MUST-HAVE, in my humble
opinion.

Well, thanks for listening! Please CC: any feedback to me. 

Later,
CDH