PHISH, FRIDAY 07/31/1998
POLARIS AMPHITHEATER
Columbus, OH

SET 1:

My Friend, My Friend: Standard. >

Ya Mar: Nice Trey led chill jam through about 9:27. Things shift at this point and a little tension building exercise happens albeit briefly. After that Trey continues to lead but things remain mellow. At 10:44 a beautiful passage comes into play, led by Trey. This is suddenly ended at 11:18. Good version, would recommend.

Roggae: Jamcharts version. To my ear, nothing really out of the ordinary.

Rift: Standard.

Cities: Exceptionally consistent jam. Focused and intentional. The last few minutes feature Trey breaking out of that mold they created and firing off some great, peaking runs. They crush this version. Easy all timer and highly recommended! It’s one for the ages for sure.

Water in the Sky: Standard.

Stash: At about the 7 minute mark this one briefly modulates into a major key, but this is just a blip on the radar and just as quickly they slip back into the darkness that is your typical Stash jam. Pretty cool. Things get quite crunchy towards the latter piece of this jam, if only briefly but it adds to the overall texture. Fishman is putting in excellent work towards the end of this one, impressive stuff. Decent climax – just one basically. Pretty good Stash, nothing to really write home about. Good way to end the set. Only 14 times out of 446 has Stash closed the first set.

SET 2:

The Curtain: Standard. >

Free: This is a jamcharts version. Not sure why though. It is totally straightforward and by the book. It has a bit of length to it. >

If I Could: Below average. Very little passion in this one if any. Cool transition into TMWSIY >

The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday > Avenu Malkenu:

Twist: Decent jam. Segue had good intentions but Fishman in particular seemed to struggle to get in time. ->

Izabella: Standard.

Julius: Standard. >

Cavern: Standard.

ENCORE:

Punch You in the Eye: Standard. >

Slave to the Traffic Light: Standard.

Summary: You would think that coming off that 7.29 barn burner that this show would have been more of the same. They had a night off before this show and it was Friday night. I am sure the fans were expecting and hoping for that. But that was not to be. Cities obviously is the anchor and Ya Mar is a solid jam that has some replay value, but the rest is seriously going through the motions with very little passion or energy seemingly. Not sure what happened here. But they would get back on track at Alpine on Saturday night. The current rating on Phish.net of 4.134/5 (127 ratings) seems awfully generous. My gut tells me this is a 3.5/5 but with an all timer (Cities) in here I guess 3.75/5 might be a better representation of what this show is.

Replay Value: Ya Mar, Cities

If I Could was played for the first time since August 5, 1996 (150 shows).
SHOW RATING
Your rating:
Overall: 4.134/5 (127 ratings)
JAM CHART VERSIONS
Ya Mar, Roggae, Cities, Free