PHISH: 12/1/95 Hersheypark Arena, Hershey, PA essay by Phish Archivist Kevin Shapiro (3/18/07)
Phish 12/1/95
By the time Phish arrived at Hersheypark Arena in Hershey, PA on December 1st,
1995, they had performed thirty shows in Pennsylvania over the years, from a 1988
gig at John & Peter's in New Hope to a sold-out 1994
Philadelphia Holiday show
. and most recently a two-night stand earlier that summer at Mann
Music Center
. The Hershey show fell in the middle of the second leg of fall tour and the previous
shows of the run contained too many high points to list. Some notable moments
of the late fall included a three-night stand in Atlanta and a blistering Orlando
show
. Other highlights included the debut of the full-band "Rotation Jam"
(a/k/a instrument-switch jam) at their first Hampton Coliseum show, Fish's loving
serenade of Col. Bruce Hampton in
Knoxville and Bela Fleck's semi-regular Nashville sit-in. The night before Hershey,
they nearly blew the roof off Dayton's Nutter Center during an exquisite second-set
Tweezer > Makisupa > Antelope that must be heard. After an overnight drive
of nearly 500 miles, the tour arrived in the mystical land of chocolate, conveniently
located just over an hour's ride from Wilson Drive in King of Prussia.
Hersheypark Arena is a hockey arena built during the Great Depression. It sits
in the center of Hersheypark
, a nearly 100 year-old amusement park set in the "sweetest place on earth"
originally built to entertain employees of Hershey's Chocolate. Phish's December
1st show there was sold out to a crowd of over 8,500 – tickets were sold
mail order through Phish
Tickets By Mail (begun in earnest that summer) and through the venue box
office. Despite cold temperatures in the venue, zealous security and the old
ice arena's imperfect acoustics, the band played a high-energy, well-paced show
with good flow and exceptional comic relief rooted in the location, the band's
penchant for The Simpsons and the universal human proclivity for "…mmm,
chocolate." During this tour Trey had begun playing a percussion setup
during jams and Page's Clavinet and synthesizers were becoming more prominent
in the band's sound especially when Trey focused on grooving percussion. These
changes in instrumentation helped open the jams up for the unofficial funk breakthrough
that crystallized around the 1996
Halloween show and matured around the 1997
Hamburg show immortalized on the live album Slip,
Stitch and Pass. Lighting Designer Chris
Kuroda had increased the size and functionality of his lighting rig and
crew and, for the first time in over three years, the Minkin
backdrops and scrims created by Mike's mom weren't used. While missed, the lack
of backdrops helped open the stage to the audience from more directions - 360
degrees at many venues - which helped energy flow more freely in the arenas.
All these factors alchemized to lead the band and a lucky capacity crowd in
Hershey to the sweet taste of high adventure.
Like nearly all shows that Fall, the Hershey show began with the band
chess move. As soon as the band took their places, they kicked into Buried
Alive to open the show. With Trey's first notes, the crowed exploded with waves
of unbridled energy that characterized the rest of the night. After the opener,
Mike dropped instantly into Down With Disease, deftly connecting club days gone
by to the arena rock era. The lights accompanied the last strains of Disease
softly into Theme From the Bottom, easing the transition into the latter's submarine
wisdom. As our hat-headed fearless leader coaxed slow leads through his Leslie
amplifier, the spirit began to take hold. Piano, drums and Languedoc custom
bass combined in exquisite counterpoint from the bottom and from the top building
to the final crescendo in one of the set's high points. Poor Heart was next,
played at a fast clip in contrast to some slower shuffle versions played earlier
on the tour. With scarcely a pause, Page set forth the opening piano notes to
Wolfman's Brother. Trey liked the "smooth atonal sound" line so much
he repeated it, lending to the carefree, relaxed feel of this set. The staggered
ending harmonies and extro of Wolfman's led Trey immediately into a rocking
Chalk Dust Torture.
For the first time in more than four years, Col. Forbin's Ascent > Fly Famous
Mockingbird followed Chalk Dust, coupling the tale of youthful frustration with
that of mid-life vision quest and divine connection. Trey's narration was another
high point of set one as he endeavored to explain "a brief history of this
planet" focusing on "the horrible split" between Western and
Eastern thought, the latter of which obviously led to the "mystical land
of chocolate…mmm chocolate." The story was that before the evil King
Wilson enslaved the Lizards, the only place remaining where science, philosophy
and religion were all unified was Gamehendge (which incidentally owed its peace
and harmony to the prophet Icculus' inspiring archival work in authoring the
Helping Friendly Book!). Answering fan inquires, Trey then revealed the alleged
location of The Rhombus in nearby King of Prussia before they finished Mockingbird.
Stash followed with a formidable jam that stretched out instrumentally, locking
into a dissonant theme that ignited the highest improvisation of the set. The
whole band linked up beautifully for this jam, evoking a Dave's Energy Guide-ish
vibe and at points recalling the expectation-smashing heights of the Orlando
Stash weeks before. After Stash returned to terra firma, Cavern closed the set,
leaving "15 minutes" of recovery and preparation before the even sweeter
second set that defined this show.
The audience chess move was made by an eleven year-old in attendance before
set two's music kicked off with the doo-wop intro to Halley's Comet. This was
a straightforward version compared to the extended madness of Halley's >
NICU > Slave two weeks later on December
14th but it was a great start featuring pronounced Clav work by Page and
a short guitar solo that dropped straight into Mike's Song. Before Mike even
began to sing, Trey was spinning little licks around the groove. Page's organ
fueled the jam as Mike and Trey began an improvised theme. The jam got deeper
and deeper until it eventually flew off a precipice as Fish switched to a more
syncopated feel while Trey and Page hammered around him on guitar and piano.
Trey then alluded back to the initial improvised theme, switched to a funkier
feel and some hard rocking chords before he moved to percussion. This allowed
Page to immerse himself in a long piano solo atop Mike and Fish's deep groove.
Page switched back to the funky wah-wah of the Clav, eventually locking into
a synth-inflected groove that stretched out over the driving drums and bass.
Trey picked his guitar back up amidst a changing beat that seemed to form the
basis for the first-ever transition directly from this legendary Mike's Song
into Weekapaug Groove (they repeated the combination the following week at Niagara
Falls). The band experimented with the rhythm of Weekapaug and a big guitar
swell preceded the melody and lyrics, which took a minute to lock in as if the
band was surprised that's where they landed. Perhaps they were. Weekapaug soared
with Mike slapping and Trey and Page trading licks for a minute until they developed
a beautiful, almost-harmonic theme. As the jam shifted dynamically and began
to deconstruct, the exuberant crowd started to clap along and the band sped
furthur out into hyperspace before resolving back into the end of Weekapaug.
They barely paused before diving into The Mango Song. The audience hung on
every line, reacting to the lyrics. Page's piano work trading licks with Trey
atop Fish's jazzy approach here transliterated the tranquil and serene moment.
The layered lyrics of the next verse were well executed and the jam out of the
last chorus was tight with everyone hooked up into the ending, which in turn,
was immediately transformed into Wilson. The crowd went crazy singing along,
and the band was obviously excited to finally present the story of Wilson, King
of Prussia so close to the namesake – causing Trey to giggle a as they
negotiated the changes. Trey even blurted out "King of Prussia" before
the blat-boom ending. The end of Wilson gave Fish and Trey the opportunity to
switch drummers without a pause as the band slid into Suspicious Minds - a tribute
to another King. Fish's vocals were especially zealous, distorting at times
as he drove the audience absolutely bonkers with his lit-up cape, the claw and
the windmill during the rave-up ending. As usual, the band poked fun at him
with Hold Your Head Up while he took his bows and sat back down to the serious
business of bending minds.
David Bowie began with the signature high-hat section quickly melting into
Catapult, which Trey sung accompanied by Mike's understated bass. With barely
time to process the song change, Catapult morphed back into Bowie's introduction,
which was peppered with more Homer-style references to the region's key export
and Simpson's
Phish language
thrown in for good measure before the lyrics. This was one of three Bowie >
Catapult > Bowie sandwiches in Phish history (the other two are the first
live Catapult
4/17/92 San Francisco and 2/16/03
Las Vegas). Similar to other big jams in this show, Trey began an improvised
melodic theme colored by the eerie sound of his Leslie as the other band members
swirled around him. Before long, the jam returned to more familiar Bowie territory
as they rocked their way to the triumphant end of the song and set.
The fun continued during the Suzy Greenberg encore, with some unusual string
scratching by Trey and an extended piano solo among its highlights. This show
is a classic and we can now experience it with re-mastered soundboard audio
synced to archival front-of-house video footage. It's worth noting that this
is the best possible quality this show's audio can ever be offered in because
the multi-track tapes are unplayable. This show, like Orlando before it and
others on-deck for future release, is another stop along the golden road to
the epic
year-end celebration
of this powerhouse year of Live Phish.
Enjoy!
--ks