Twenty Years Ago Today: Phish, 12/28/1994 Live at the Civic Center, Philadelphia, PA

      Hello everyone. I hope you are all enjoying this holiday season. I've been having a blast and am ready to watch all four nights of the NYE webcast. I don't always get to do that due to my work schedule. But my mind isn't on the future, it's in the past. Specifically, 20 years ago to the day, when I attended my first NYE run show by any band. I am of course talking about Phish, live at the Civic Center, in Philadelphia, PA Dec. 28^th, 1994.
      I had 3 Phish shows under my belt with the last being the unbelievable, ground breaking, Earth shaking Halloween performance. Check it out here http://kempepedia.blogspot.com/2010/10/phish-halloween-1994.html
     We got tickets through Ticketbastard and somehow found this old dilapidated basketball arena in the heart of old Philly, about 12 blocks from Independence Hall. It was ancient then and home to 5 local colleges basketball games. Just checked it out on Wikipedia and evidently it was demolished in 1996 and a newer convention hall was built. However, it also stated that the Beatles played there in 1964 so now the number of venues I have seen play where the Beatles also performed has grown to 3 (Hollywood Bowl, Boardwalk Hall, and Philly Civic Center) Super dope!
      My normal crew headed out with no GPS but pretty good directions because we made it there. It was A's first show so naturally he took a hit of LSD, well before we got to the venue. So we were sitting in the I-76's world famous stop and no go traffic with him tripping. Sigh. But it wasn't too bad.
Got to the venue with enough time to enjoy the Lot. Scored some balloons and Nad preceded to pass out face first into the concrete. He managed to do this at many shows in the mid 90's. He got nothing more than a black eye and we headed into the venue.

Wednesday, 12/28/1994
Civic Center, Philadelphia, PA

Set 1: Mound > Simple, Julius, Bathtub Gin, Bouncing Around the Room, Axilla (Part II), Reba^[1], Dog Faced Boy, It's Ice > Run Like an Antelope
Set 2: Suzy Greenberg > NICU > Mike's Song -> The Mango Song > Weekapaug Groove^[2], Contact, Llama, Hold Your Head Up > Love You > Hold Your Head Up, The Squirming Coil
Encore: Bold As Love
[1] No whistling.
[2] Vocal jam.
Teases:
· Auld Lang Syne, The Little Drummer Boy, and Cars Trucks Buses teases in Weekapaug Groove
· Buried Alive tease in Julius
Notes: Julius included a Buried Alive tease by Trey. Reba did not have the whistling ending. Weekapaug Groove contained Cars Trucks Buses, Auld Lang Syne, and Little Drummer Boy teases as well as a vocal jam.

You can stream it here

http://www.phishtracks.com/shows/1994-12-28

       Mound was definitely the highlight of the first set for me. Mike was doing the off beat clapping thing over his head. Best description I could come up with. Second set was just one amazing song after another. The Suzy and Mike's were insane. Weekapaug had this cool section where Trey and Fish were riffing off of each other right around the 8 minute mark. The Little Drummer Boy Jam in it at the 14:14 mark of Weekapaug is truly stunning. Trey then takes it down a key and makes it rather demented to say the least. I had no idea what to make out of the Love You song. Phish was still very weird to me.
      But there you have it, my first venture to a NYE run show. I've been blessed to hit quite a few over the years but as they say, you never forget your first.



Dave Kemp
BA American Studies
PhD Rock and Roll