From: Charlie Dirksen
8/3/93 Bayfront Park Arena, Miami, FL This is another very good Phish
show (and very rare, still; I think only about 2 or 3
people of the 70 or so I dubbed for pursuant to the Aug 93 tape offer
actually requested this, fwiw). Thanks again, Peter B., for
the fantastic AUDs of this rare show! YEM opening is quite standard.
The pre-Nirvana section is mystical and enchanting, as it
should be, and even has some 12/29/94 Bowie-esque whistling (see 6/16/95
Jim as well, I think.. there's whistling in that one,
too, I believe). Anyway, the whistling in here is very akin to the
12/29/94 Bowie whistling, but it is over this gorgeous, flowing,
pre-Nirvana segment. No "Vibration of Life" effect, though. "Nirvana"
at 3:39, and Page's piano is delightful. Trey isn't accurate,
unfortunately, though, particularly.. definitely a sub-par performance
from him in this segment. Page is great, though. Yuck..
Trey's guitar seemed pretty out of tune just before Mike's solo section.
Mike's solo section is fairly pleasant, but he does nothing
unusually stellar or noteworthy. The pre-charge is strong, as usual.
Everything else is ok.. nothing grabs my attention particularly,
though. (Ok, I spaced out..) "Boy" at 7:08. The BMGS/WUDMTF segment
is very powerful! They seem to want to punish the
audience in here.. there's even a scream of some sort (or feedback
that sounded almost human!) before one of the WUDMTF
"verses." Tramps jam at 9:17 or so.. Mike's signaling the turns, Page
is chording viciously on the Hammond, Fish is keeping the
typical tramps groove steady. Nothing unusually impressive, although
this really is a STRONG groove (Mike is captured really
damn well on these tapes, fwiw.. these are **GREAT** audience tapes!!).
Jam segment at 11:05 basically, but after some nice
noodling from Page to close out the tramps jam, Trey's pretty quiet
in here.. Noodling very patiently and gently.. Jam quiets
WAAAAY down around 11:25ish, and then Trey starts up this repetitive
& melodious little lick that Page mimics.. he's still on
this lick at 12 mins, but then starts climbing the whole damn length
of the 'doc, and starts picking away at the highest reaches of
the 'doc around 12:30!! Quite the climb.. and then the jam blasts back
into a typical YEM jam segment a few seconds later!
Niiiiice!! Trey's on that nice little repetitive lick again, that he
was into around 11:45, but this time he's really jamming it out, into
A Spectacular, but Brief, Conclusion, and then bass and drums around
14:45 or so. AND DAMN, what an AWESOME B&D
segment!! Mike is just smokin' that damn 'doc of his!!!! He's melodiously
and quickly soloing all over the place in this one,
folks.. and Fish is complementing him well.. and then at around 15:45
Trey plays along with him on this one note.. very upbeat,
unusually strong B&D segment! Final WUDMTF segment at 15:59. Wow.
This vocal jam is Something, too.. there's a really
nice rhythm to it, which Mike seems primarily to be keeping.. Makisupa
teasing around 17:40 or so, too (just the rhythm.. they
are humming the theme, sortof). This doesn't last more than 25 seconds
or so, though, when the jam changes direction, and
launches into a more ska/NICU-like mode. An exceptionally dimensioned
vocal jam! All sorts of wackiness in this lengthy vocal
jam.. screaming conclusion, taboot!!!! =^] (serious audience at the
end, too) Then Lizards. Total time about 20:49. B+ rating
easily.. this is an excellent all-around version of YEM. two cents
charlie