All right people, let us do a little bit of time travel and let’s journey back to the early 90’s. The jamband scene was still in its infancy. Blues Traveler opened for Widespread Panic down South and switched places when Panic came to the MidAtlantic. Phish would open some shows outside their comfort zones and welcome the other bands to open for them in New England. None of the bands could hope to fill an ampitheatre by themselves. They joined forces in 1992 and 1993 and toured together has the H.O.R.D.E. festival. The only band that could fill any venue, any size for multiple nights was the good ole Grateful Dead.
The Dead were IT on the scene. Their shows were first on the priority list of most folks. But as the 90’s continued on, Phish slowly started moving up the ranks. By ’93, they were playing the smaller outdoor ampitheatres (the Mann Music Center, Wolf Trap) on the East Coast and in theatres in the rest of the country. As 1995 rolled around, the Dead will still playing stadiums but Phish was doing multiple nights at the Mann and even did a 2 day pseudo festival in Vermont on the side of a ski slope. I even skipped a Dead show at RFK to see Phish at the Mann on June 24th and then jetted down to DC for the show on the 25th.
After the Dead’s and Phish’s summer tours ended, a lot of people’s worlds were rocked by the passing of Jerry Garcia. With the future of the Grateful Dead in doubt, many people looked to see what band would replace them at the top of the touring band Mt. Olympus. Well it just so happened that Phish already had a 3-month, 53 show Fall Tour already booked. With all eyes in the music community on them, Phish strutted onto the biggest stage of their career and rose to the occasion.
A true test of endurance, they would have only a week off the whole tour, the week after the Halloween show. The tour went across the whole country, starting in California, and ending three month later in Lake Placid, NY. It had a chess tournament where the band and audience alternated making moves. The final score, 1-1. As the tour continued, the shows got stronger and reached a peak as they finally returned to their old stomping grounds in the Northeast and MidAtlantic states. I was fortunate enough to have caught four shows on this tour.
First up was 11/22 at the Cap Centre in Landover, MD. It was the Friday before Thanksgiving and on the biggest day of the year for bars, the smartest people on the East Coast were in a hockey arena whose search policy upon entering would make a current employee of the TSA blush. The highlight of the show was the aborted Rift second set opener, blamed on Fishman, that lead into the second ever version of any Phish song containing what would become known as Cowfunk jamming. This time the vehicle was Free. A day off to eat turkey with our family and then Friday after Thanksgiving saw the boys throwing it down in Pittsburgh at the Civic Arena. An Oh Ka Pa Ceremony>AC/DC Bag opener got things rocking. A solid show overall that would keep my new found lust for all things Phish in check until I saw them in Hershey, PA AKA The Land of Chocolate on Dec. 1st.
This show was absolutely mind-blowing. A lot of my friends from Penn State came down, as did everyone and anyone from the Hanover area. I met so many people from the local area. First time I began to think that maybe there was a scene in Hanover beyond my five or six friends that always went to shows. I had 5th row center seats and the whole night was just magical. Trey doing Narration during Famous Mockingbird; one of the last times he ever referred to the Rhombus and a huge clue as to where to find it. The girl in front of Nad being given a giant Hershey cookie from Mike. All the Christmas lights up and glowing, just an incredible festive mind blowing time.
The boys were kind enough to give me two weeks off until the Spectrum show in Philly on Dec. 15th. Trey claims he saw his first concert (Jethro Tull) here and he is a huge lifelong fan of the Flyers. So to be playing music on that stage must have been a personal highlight for him. We got Fishman doing his Elvis schitck and a Tweezer Reprise to open the second set and to end the show. Throw in a Mike Tyson joke (he was fighting here the next night) and you have a raging show in the City of Brotherly Love. Two more shows on the Fall Tour and a 4 night run to close out 1995, including their first of many NYE shows at Madison Square Garden capped off what might have been their most important year ever. Rolling Stone magazine called this NYE performance one of the best concerts of the 90’s.
Hemingway said the true measure of a man is his grace under pressure. With a scene of fans and fellow musicians looking on, Phish made the transformation from a regional band to America’s biggest cult band. While there would be higher points in their career, (the Clifford Ball in 1996, Big Cypruss NYE 1999, the 3.0 comeback in Hampton, March 2009) few tour could match up to the magnitude or importance of the Fall of 1995.
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