(posted over 12 years ago, the morning after the show, to rec.music.phish)

12/5/97 Cleveland State University Convocation Center
Cleveland, OH

Times are in paranthesis.

Set I: Ghost (17) --> Wilson@ (5), Funky Bitch (6) Black-Eyed Katy (8),
Sparkle (4), Runaway Jim* (14) --> My Friend, My Friend+ (7), Ginseng
Sullivan (5), Limb by Limb (10), Character Zero (9)

Set II: %, Stash (13), Bouncnig Around the Room (3), Julius# (17), Slave
to the Traffic Light^ (16), Lizzards (11), Loving Cup (10), Chalkdust
Torture(8)

Encore: Axis: Bold as Love (7)

I: 85 min
II+E: 90 min

@ Someone held up a HUGE (12 foot) Wilson tennis ball flag during this
tune which Trey acknowledged.
* Runaway Jim included a Harry Hood Jam in the last minute and a half.
+ Trey motions to Fishman on "My friend, my friend, he's got a wife" and
Jon looks out at the crown with a big grin on his face.
% Fishman teased the opening drumbeat to Buffallo Bill, then he and Trey
shot each other a series ofdirty looks...all in jest of course.
# Makisupa-Like jam in the last 3-4 minutes of the Julius Jam.
^ Slave included a heavy-metal jam

I heard someone say that they heard 2 Camel Walk teases and a Mike's
teased in the first set. I think he was on crack... but the Hood tease
*is* there, though, I swear. If you happen to have the tapes already
check at about 12-13 minutes into the Jim Jam and please confirm my
sanity...

ROADTRIP:

We meant to leave Ann Arbor at noon, but it quickly became nearly 2 pm
before we got of town (you know how those things go...). The drive to
Cleveland went really quickly; I think we made it in just under 3 hours
listening to some Bela and the Flecktones. The stop for gas featured a
bizarre exit on US Route 420, and Reilly's Gatoraide and junk food purge
rang up to again the mysterious total of $4.20. Hmmmmm... We met up with
2 friends, Elizabeth and Elizabeth at their apartment in Cleveland.
Elizabeth #1 was an *excellent* cook, and made us a tasty dinner of beans
and rice and baked chicken. Elizabeth #2 had a pair of pet lizzards...was
this a sign?

PRESHOW:

It was butt-cold outside, but that didn't stop a good number of people
from setting up outside just across the street from the Convocation
Center. Snaps to whoever made that Meatball Sub...it was great! I met
Aaron outside of will call as I was waiting to drop off tickets to a
friend who never showed and I met Sauldude there, good to meet you
finally! But it was freezing and we had to get inside and warm up. The
Convocation Center itself is a really nice building, it seemed really
small but I overheard someone saying that it held 1,000 more than Assembly
Hall in Champaign. We found ourselves a good spot on the floor, about 20
feet directly in front of Fishman. We were sitting next to some nice
people from Notre Dame and, despite the rivalry, they were great people
after all. ;^) We chatted and listened to some nice Jazz and then
something with more of a clubby-bass feel to it. But at exactly 8:00 the
lights went down...

SET I:

GHOST: Bold opener, in the words of Steve Williams. I was happy to see
this right off the bat. No throw away here, just unadulterated jamming.
This Ghost was nice and funky, like they all are, a healthy 17 minutes.
Trey stareted doing the Digital Delay Loop stuff that he's been doing a
lot more of (see 8/9/97 Alpine Valley SOAMule and Mike's Jam) this
Summer/Fall and at about 14 minutes into the jam it turned really dark.
Like I said, it was a good jam. Nothing stellar, but a heckovalot nicer
than a lot of openers they could have done. This segued nicely into...

WILSON: Trey forgot to do the second verse right off, and went directly
into the "I must inquire..." section, but quickly recovered. Nothing
crazy here, but toward the end of the song Trey did acknowledge a couple
of people on the left side of the building that had one of those big
Wilson tennis ball flags that you would hang up at a baseball game or
something.

FUNKY BITCH: This tune was average at best. Mind you, average is a good,
rockin' Bitch, but having just heard this in Champaign and before at the
Went and before that at Darien, it didn't get me as pumped. No complaints
thus far, though...

BLACK-EYED KATY: This tune is as good as everyone has been saying. When
they first hit that rhythmic pattern of double stops, I got the famous
ear-to-ear show grin that happens when you just heard something you know
you liked. Katy is like a slice of a really good Ghost jam restructured
and given a better build and more room to experiment. Trey used the DDL
again here, and Page had a (new?) keyboard to the right of his Baby Grand
that he did some cool swells with. This might be (not counting Sampson,
which seems to have vanished like a Leprechaun) the first completely
instrumental funk jam tune. I think that this tune will be the one to
watch for the next, say Tweezer. Katy will go places...

SPARKLE: well, the lights were nice...

RUNAWAY JIM: This was a great first set Jim. Nothing like the 58 minute
Jim of a few days ago, I'm sure, but there was some solid playing
nonetheless. about 8 minutes into the jam it again turned really dark...I
was really conscious of the darm jamming today because on the way down
someone mentioned that Phish likes playing the dark, brooding jams more
that the happy, get-everyone-on-their-feet jams. Toward the end of the Jim
jam, though, it turned quickly back into a happy jam, and at about 12
minutes into Trey began the chording of the Hood jam. They played the
Hood jam for about 1.5 to two minutes before segueing (technically a > and
not a -->) into...

MY FRIEND, MY FRIEND: This is good tune to hear every once in a while.
Trey looked over at Fishman for the line "...he's got a wife" and Fish
kind of looked out at the audience and smiled. Fish was very active
tonight...a lot of little fills (more than usual, I think) and lots of
yelling (esp see Set II Julius) from him tonight. During the crazy build
section toward the end, Trey crouched down and played his guitar on the
mic stand. Trey was all over the place tonight, bopping and churning and
rocking hard. After MF^2 was done, they kind of hung back and talked for
a minute or so about what to do next. They ended up playing...

GINSENG SULLIVAN: well, the lights were kind of nice... Seriously, I
don't particularly care for this song anymore. It's a good blugrass tune,
but I think I've heard it too much. I could have used a My Soul, Beauty,
Uncle Pen, or Old Home Place. Oh well...

LIMB BY LIMB: This was a good version, not as good as Champaign, though.
I think they pulled out early at the end, and that they could have gone
elsewhere, but the jam stayed pretty basic. One *small* complaint as a
singer, though: when Fishman started his solo "Limb by Limb by limb by..."
on the outtro, he was a bit flat. Just an anal singer's thing, sorry.

CHARACTER ZERO: Our companion said it lacked the intensity of Hartford,
and it was definately not the most rocking version of Char0 I'd heard.
Chris did not seem "on," in sync with the band throughout most of the
first set. Of course it had it's moments, but the set was pretty weak,
IMO. There was too much "whatever" music...songs that you just say "huh?
Ok, whatever." when they start up. At setbreak Steve and I talked briefly
about being slightly dissapointed, but were were psyched to be hearing one
more set before going home.

Setbreak: 44 min

SET II:

Fish sat down and immediately played the opening beat to Buffallo Bill,
and Trey shot him a look-of-death (in jest, of course), to which Fishman
replied with his own look-of-death, and they went back and forth a couple
of time, it ended with both of them laughing and Trey saying "Stash" about
50 times.

STASH: Not bad for a second set opener, but it did not get very far out
there. This was a straightforward, good Stash.

BOUNCIN': Hmmm...the lights weren't even cool... ;^)

JULIUS: 17 minutes. This was a _very_ healthy Julius. Page had some
nice B-3 work throughout the song, in at least 2 different occasions.
About 15 minutes into the jam, everyone dropped out but Trey and he just
kept chording on the downbeats, while Fishman started screaming "yeah!"
with him. This jam had gone Makisupa-style a few minutes earlier, and I
was almost certain they were going to do it (even though they just did it
in Philly). This also had a nice segue into...

SLAVE: This was the highlight of Set II. This Slave was great. There
was a heavy metal jam starting at about 11 minutes in and lasting a good
5-6 minutes. Right at the end Trey again (for the fourth time??) used his
DDL to layer guitar effects, and the jam got a little spacy. But when
this jam was up, it was rocking. The spacey jam disolved into...

LIZARDS: Fun song, especially for the glitter laden twirler girls next to
us that decided that now would be a good time to flip their hair in my
face...actually, I was suprised and impressed that nobody screwed this
song up. Of course, they play it enough...

LOVING CUP: Yes. Now this song I'll take any day. Hard rocking and most
of the crowd gets into it. Trey was loving it up on stage, crouched over
his guitar and playing like a madman. I love this tune.

CHALKDUST: I was actually really impressed by this song this time around.
I had sarted to grow a little tired of it, but it had the energy of a '93
machine gun Trey, with the musical prowess of 1997. (aka Phish 2000 - for
Sauldude)

ENCORE: AXIS: Bold As Love: My first live, and I actually mistook it for
Amoreena from the 8/13/97 Pittsburg show...I don't know why. Oh, I forgot
to mention Page's beard...it's huge! I know know if anyone else has
mentioned it but he looks like a hippy now! Axis is a good tune. That's
about all I can say for it. It sort of seemed like they wanted us out of
there. Security was not very cool about letting us take our time getting
out...

Oh, one thing that was hysterical was when they were inbetween Set II and
the Encore, the guy infront of me said "Did you hear? Cleveland gets a
special treat of a really spectacular ending!" In case you didn't see,
Phish ran a series of "Phish destroys America" ads and for each city they
put a the bottom something like "A New show with a Spectacular ending in
[enter city] only!" Go Phish.

OVERALL:

I'm glad I went tonight, but I'm more glad that I am going to two more
shows this weekend. I would really have to give Set I a 4 on the Scott
Jordan Polls, I have heard much better from these guys. The Jim was
great, and I really liked Katy, but there was too much "whatever" music
like I said. Set II earns a good 6 from me. It was a decent set, and
solidly played. The Slave was just great, and will warrant (at least for
me) multiple listening when I get the tapes. The Julius is something
special, too, but nothing groundbreaking at this show. Hopefully,
tonight's show will be completely overshadowed by what's going to happen
in Detriot.

Take care, and I'll see you tomorrow!

- Mark