From: Charlie Dirksen
11/23/94 Fox Theater, St. Louis, MO Finally I hear this Tweezer. The
Tweezer that preceded the amazing Bozeman version!
Opening is pretty standard for the Fall 1994 versions.. some ch-ch
sounds.. no pre-Ebeneezer jamming at all, though. Oh well.
And they miss coming in on the Ebeenzer line at first. DOH.. Screaming
on Ebeneezer... with ch-ch sounds thrown in.. kinda
sloppy though. Sounds lost in here.. hmm.. for a second. Kinda strange..
Jam segment begins at precisely 4:30, as it usually
does. Trey immediately begins noodling on a Power of Soul (Hendrix)
riff, but Fish doesn't change the rhythm as I hoped he
would. Mike mimics this riff, too.. then Trey breaks out soloing for
a bit.. chording around 5:30, though.. Wow. This jam is very
sinister and moody.. lots of spooky improv. Very diverse drumming from
Fish.. and miscellaneous interlocking stuff from all...
until 7:45, when the Jam launches into SPPPPPPPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACCCCCEEEEEEEEE..
Total spacey noodling
and tinkering from everyone around 8 minutes. It's beautiful, though..
;) Very meditative and enchanting.. not at all harsh and
discombobulated as some of their spacey improv has been. Mike's noodling
is also very precious in here. Gentle, melodious..
Lizards could segue out of this. Very reminiscent in this sense of
the Orlando Stash (which you MUST hear), although that
wasn't really spacey.. I suppose. Page's tinkering is similarly soft
and meaningful. Trey lets out some sustain/feedback... for
awhile.. Fish comes in strongly .. everything steadily increases in
intensity (11:20 or so).. This would have been fun to witness in
concert! ;) CATHARSIS!!! COMING BACK TO EARTH!!! At 12:20, Fish starts
cranking a beat again, and Trey is
masterfully soloing. The best way to describe this jam: WELCOME HOME,
EVERYONE!! SMILES!!! This is GORGEOUS
in here.. in fact, so pleasant, that I am PISSED that no one has written
me about this before. This is incredible! How dare they
have put the Bangor Tweezer on ALO!!!! WHAT THE HELL!?!?!?!?!!!!!!
This is magnficent, must-hear Phish. One hell of a
glorious jam out of a melodious, very relaxing and beautiful (and BRIEF)
space.. this climaxing jam ends at 14 minutes, and Fish
is steadily keeping a jazzy, non-tweezeresque groove.. At 14:30 or
so, though, Trey starts jamming a little bit similar to
Weekapaug! But nothing.. he doesn't take off.. trying to find.. ACK!!!
WHAT'S HAPPENING!!! TOTAL CHAOS at around
15 minutes.. everyone is spiraling out of control and just wigging
out.. and disappearing..falls to pi e ce s.. now I know why this
didn't make the ALO cut.. The jamming around 15:40 is "What? But you
guys were just improvising beautifully.." Trey starts
teasing the Tweezer theme in this chaos, though.. not quite hitting
it.. until 16:28.. and then he's playing it quick. At 16:37, Fish
drops into Tweezer, and everyone opens up a Magnificent, truly Awe-Inspiring
closing Tweezer jam. All I can say is,
WHAT!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?!! This is one hell of a crazy Tweezer.. I recommend
it above most of the experimental versions. The
jamming in this close, and in the middle (where I got really excited
above) is spectacular. I'm still thinking that even with those
few minutes of crap.. the rather uncomfortable segue back into the
closing Tweezer groove.. I'd still put this over Bangor. The
glorious jam out of the space is just TOO MUCH!!! It is ALMIGHTY, for
Icculus' sake! The NOTE at 19:02, and then the
dying out of the Tweezer jam segment. It's fine.. You heard me talk
about this like it is in the Experimental category, and well, it
is in a lot of ways.. I just can't "rate" it. I think it is awesome
in parts, though, and definitely must-hear. 20:16 total time (then
Lifeboy..) two cents, puuuhhhhlllleeeazzze add your own..