From: Charlie Dirksen
12/07/95 Convention Center, Niagara Falls, NY Spectacular quality DAUDs of this show are out there. I prefer the quality
of this DAUD-1 to the vast majority of Phish DSBDs I've heard. Opening segment is fairly upbeat, with Trey throwing out a lot
more chords and little fills than usual. Tramps segment still starts at the usual time (2:30 or so). No Trey in the opening.. leaves it
to Page and Mike for the first thirty seconds. (typical..) Trey begins on a groovy theme that, I'm not kidding, sounds like a
relation to Mind Left Body (it isn't Mind Left Body, but I swear to you, is quite similar in form). A great theme to open with!!
He tools on this for a little while, and then starts jamming more fiercely. He is still very theme-centered throughout this jam. For
a bit beginning around 4:30, Trey continues to jam strongly... I don't recognize any of these themes as teases of anything. Jam is
still hot around 6 minutes. At 6:25 or so, Trey chords low on the 'doc, Mike & Page start funking out severely, and then at 6:57
Trey cuts in with the tramps jam closing chords, and at 7:11, the post-tramps segment starts with what could have been the first
note of a Simple jam. But no Simple... Trey sustains... Mike jams something on the bass in here, around 7:40 or so.. I don't
recognize it, but he could be teasing the bass line of some tune... hmm.. maybe not. He keeps jamming on this melody. Very
cool! (oh, fwiw, Trey has begun to wail on his percussion kit in here 8:15) The jamming around 9 minutes is typical "Trey's on
the percussion kit" hose. Trey also hits chords on the 'doc and sustains those, occasionally. Page is jazzily funking out on the
Clav. Fish is fiercely keeping the groove, and well, Mike is melodically playing along (Mike is extraordinarily active in here,
fwiw). I should mention at this point that the jamming in here is akin to the Hershey Hose in MikeS. Very groovy jamming, but
nothing seriously quick and sick and insane, like in the 11/30 Tweezer or the 12/29 Gin or the 12/9 YEM and numerous
Weekapaugs. Just great funky jamming in here, that reminds me, frankly, of most of the "Trey's on his percussion kit, and is
hitting chords and sustaining them on his 'doc using all kinds of wild effects" sorts of jams from all over the fall. Trey gets serious
at 12:45, picking up his 'doc and throwin down serious chords (that could segue into 'Gloria'.. a really upbeat version, if he'd
wanted). Total hose in here. Mike is all over the place! Great to hear him in this mix. Very sweet chording, just no soloing in
here from Trey. Just rhythmic chords, which begin ever so steadily to sound like Weekapaug (page teases Weekapaug outright
at one point). Still in this same mode at 14:30... Trey is still just chording. He hasn't started melodiously soloing at all. At 14:40..
aaaaahhh.. there he goes.. YES!!!!!!! Water us down, brother Trey!!! Weeeee-haaaaaaa!!!!! At 15:07, Trey hits a high note on
the 'doc and sustains it, as if to open up the Weekapaug Groove jam's segment.. but he doesn't. He just isn't that active at this
point, and then at 15:30, he drops out completely.. until 15:50, when the jam goes reggae (more/less), but Trey is still hitting
these damn close to Weekapaug chords. He is just screwing around on these chords and choosing not to melodically wail.
These last few minutes have been pretty damn frustrating.. At 16:40 or so, Trey starts steadily picking up this jam, still chording
on these Weekapaugesque chords... but not really jamming. At 17:20 or so he really starts playing Weekapaug!! Yes!! Fish
kicks in the Weekapaug beat. An absolutely fantastic segue, probably one of the most drawn out ones I've ever heard... I mean,
he basically teases Weekapaug for minutes before finally getting into it. Mike doesn't have an opening solo per se in here, but
does funk out. At 18:25 or so they drop the groove into the appropriate key (not wanting to make The Hershey Mistake!!)...
they'd been jamming Weekapaug a bit higher than normal. Trey's jamming to open the Weekapaug jam segment is gorgeous.
He shortly finds an Essentially Weekapaugian sort of theme very quickly, and nearly teases NICU at 21:04 or so. At 21:20, he
trills a bit.. and then some more.. ;) DAMN!!! Around 23 minutes, Trey is ballistic.. oh no!!! ;-( At 23:22, the final Weekapaug
verse/segment kicks in. NO!!!! I want to cry. WAAAAAAHHHHH ... BUT WAIT!! This final segment opens up as it usually
would, but no one breaks into the final verse! At 24:38, the jam gets ultra quiet (everyone is still jamming as they typically would
in the Weekapaug final lyrics segment), and at 24:40, Trey starts up with the same digital delay loop sortof jam that opened up
the Providence Bowie set (and that may be found in the Bomb Factory and Bozeman Tweezers, the beginning of Maze at NYE
'94, the end of MikeS at NYE '95..). Oh my God.. this is wild. Trey is letting out these digital delay loop bits, and Fish doesn't
stop the weekapaug beat until about 26 minutes. Page and Mike are also on the effects at 26 minutes. Just a total spacey jam at
this point. Mike, too, does some digital delay loop stuff. Fish throws down a MAZE rhythm. Some very intense, spooky effects
around 28 minutes. I actually don't like this "jam".. it is not melodious. It is the FRIGHTENING sort of Phish spaciness.. At
28:49, Fish is playing Maze on the drums (bass pedal action as well as high hat/snare action). Meanwhile, there are all these
absolutely eerie effects from Trey. Very scary. Jazzy stuff from Page. Mike is repetitively hitting a note.. At 29:50 or so, Trey
starts chording out, climbing the scale.. ripping up the frets... everyone just goes nuts (akin to a Day in the Life or Theme from
the Bottom ending, only, if you can believe it, even more insane than that). Just bonkers. Trey actually sustains the same note as
he did, with the same effect, to end the Spokane Hood. Those of you familiar with the Spokane Hood's ending -- that was
much prettier than this madness. Total time about 31:17. I thought the MikeSGroove was fantastic, but this concluding spacey
jam was just too much. I honestly think my mind if effectively blown for the day. I'm going to bed. Christ. Oh yeah, a "rating."
Forget it. Sorry. For them to conclude this version with this spacey mayhem puts it into the "Experimental" category, and it just
doesn't belong on the same scale as other versions. Of course, this means that I shouldn't give a rating to the Weekapaug on
NYE '95, since that wasn't finished either.. only instead of seguing into some chaotic spacey stuff, that version jammed
melodiously into Sea and Sand. I'll give that an "A" rating in a heartbeat. I just don't feel justified in rating this version because it
is just soooo different from ALL MikeSGrooves, even NYE '95. This spacey jam of an ending.. nuts! I enjoy many
MikeSGrooves more than this one, because Trey didn't hose me down as much as he should have before Weekapaug segued
in (too much repetitive chording!!), and well, most of you know how I feel about spaciness. But hell, this Mike's Song is
arguably better than Hershey 12/1. This Weekapaug is, frankly, more typical of old versions (5 minute versions), but since it
segues into a spacey jam.. well, it was transformed into something Experimental and Bold, and so I can't rate this whole Mike's
Song -> Jam -> Weekapaug -> Jam. Just isn't right. This was to MikeSGroove as the FLeezer is to Tweezer. A very
interesting, carefree, experimental version.. N/R two cents