7/28/98 - Sandstone Pavillion, Bonner Springs, KS

As soon as I stepped on the parking lot and saw the venue, I knew it was going to be a great show. First I fucking met Mike! That was one of the highlights of the show. Once the show started I really knew it was going to be kickass. Trey was totally on. They kicked off with a Emotional rescue. Then the crowd really got into the DWD. Moma Dance is a cool new song. Then, wouldn't you know ot they break into this Tela, but the main lyrics never really started till far into the song. I t was really long and great! Then Robert Palmer's sneakin Sally through the alley, nice. It's Ice was really long, then they breakinto LENGTHWISE!!!!!!!! and back into It's Ice. A true highlight of the show. Sparkle kind of got the crowd going but the first set closer Funky Bitch with Jon on the vacuum solo. Very strong set! With all this great, but in the closet tunes, we didn't know what to expect. They opened the second det with The Wedge a great tune, then poorheart which really got the crowd going. Mango was a cool song and the crowd was pretty happy they played it. Then BBBBBBRRROOOOOTTTTTHHHHEEEEEEERRRRRRR!!!!!!!! Contact was cool with the Mexican love song and shit but Maze really and I mean really got the crowd going. Prince Caspian kind of let the crowd mellow out alot. But the YEM 2nd set closer with trampolines really hit the spot. The encore really got everyone going with Camel Walk nice encore. Squirming coil with Page's solo topped it all off! Over all a fucking kick ass show! I am so glad I went.
Set 1: Emotional>DwD->MOMA>Tela, Sneakin', Ice ->Lengthwise>Ice>Sparkle, Bitch Set 2: Wedge, Poor Heart, Mango, Brother, Contact, Maze, Caspian, YEM E: Camelwalk, Coil Well, this was my first time at Sandstone and I must say I was a little let down by the venue. Vending was in full swing, but the lot was dirt and I almost twisted my ankle about nine times walking around. When I actually got in the lawn was a dirt mound covered with hay and the reserved seats weren't even covered! It was a nice night, though, and i had 26th row seats on Page's side. They took the stage at 8:10 with Emotional Rescue. I'm really suprised they have Mike singing this and not Fish b/c of the falsetto vocals. There wasn't much special here. Up next was DwD, starting immediately with the bass, skipping the space. This went into a nice 10 min. Disease jam(NOT A FUNK JAM), then segued into a groovy Moma Dance. It has a good long funk intro, and it could definitely jam for hours if they wanted to do it. The vocals are a little weak, though. This kind of halfway segued into Tela. This was a beautiful version with stunning Trey and Page solos. Then omygod! SNEAKIN' SALLY! I haven't heard this one in a looooong time as I wasn't present when they broke it out or in Provedence. It jammed okay, but it wasn't very long. Up next was It's Ice! It was great to hear this one and it was played very crisply. Then, where the space usually is, Page started soloing and Fish took center stage with the ol' Electrolux. LENGTHWISE!? NO WAY! The first one since '94! It was really cool as Fish did the vocals and the solo at the same time. Page took another short solo out of this to lead back into Ice which finished well. Sparkle started up promptly after this. You all know Sparkle. Next up was Funky Bitch. WOOHOO! I was having a great time by now, and I was feeling kind of down that the set was almost over. Trey stepped up to the mic after Mike was done with most of the vocals except the closing "Every time I se her"s. He dedicated the song to someone who picked up the bar tab the night before. That closed the set. Overall I thought it was a great set and I had some high expectations for the second set. The second set started with Wedge, this really got me thinking that they were really going to be digging into some jams later. I was wrong, but it was great anyway. Next up was Poor Heart. It was ultrafast, but once again no jams to speak of. It was well played, though. Just so I don't need to repeat myself later, there weren't many jams to speak of, but everything was well played. After that was Mango, a real treat, and the person I was with is a huge Page fan so she loved it. Brother was up next. Short but sweet. Then Contact which was dedicated by Trey to two people who fell in love the night before. It was highlighted with Spanish style "Love Guitar" during Trey's solo. Maze was the first jam of the set and it held together very well. It reminded me of a shorter version of Shoreline '97. Next was Caspian. You know... After Caspian, Trey's trademark arpegiated licks started up YEM! It was excellent. It seemed like Trey was having some problems with his guitar in the prenote section, but they pulled out of it okay. Everything from there was pretty standard(ie excellent) until the vocal jam. The best I've ever heard. It teased at Kung twice and lasted a good 10 min.(Kung would come the next night, though). Overall, it was great, but it seemed like a first set. I think that if Phish ever wants to release a greatest hits set, this should be it. It was like they sat down during the setbreak and said "Hey, let's think of all the shit we don't play anymore, and let's play it." The encore was a smoking Camelwalk, Coil combo that blew my mind. Camelwalk was stretched nicely and Coil was highlighted by a breathtaking Page solo. It was a great encore to cap off a great show. Ryan
SET 1- Emotional Rescue, Down With Disease, Moma Dance, Tela, Sneaking Sally Through the Alley > It's Ice > Lengthwise* > It's Ice, Sparkle, Funky Bitch SET 2- Wedge, Poor Heart, Mango Song, Brother, Contact**, Maze, Prince Caspian You Enjoy Myself*** E- Camel Walk, Squirming Coil * w/ Vac during Page solo. Last played [10-20-94] [295 shows] ** dedicated to two people Trey had met the previous night. He told them he would play a love song for them, since they had recently fallen in love. Played mexican style. *** w/ Tramps and vocal jam A lot of the songs played have been shelved for at least 7 months last LENGTHWISE - 10/20/94 [295 shows] last MANGO SONG - 03/01/97 [91 shows] last IT'S ICE 08/08/97 [56 shows] last TELA - 08/14/97 [51 shows] Lemon Wheel last POOR HEART - 11/16/97 last WEDGE - 11/29/97 last CONTACT - 12/09/97 last CAMEL WALK - 12/12/97 Let me start off by saying, WOW!!! After the third song, I realized that phish is better now, then they ever have been. At least in my opinion. The scene was great, minus a few disturbances involving fighting. A few guys started freakin out, and shoving each other around. They were obviously trashed, so I just kept walking on. I wouldn't ever expect to see a fight at a phish show, but that figures. Almost every show I see in Kansas, has a fight, so it makes sense. I also saw a guy walk by a car which had a dog leashed to it, and his dog started attacking the other dog. Any ways, to make a long horrible experience short, the guy started kicking the other dog that was tied up to the car. I couldn't believe it. I wanted to kick that guys ass (but I'm a nice guy, and don't fight). I also took my paranoid schizophrenic friend to the show with me. He is severely sick, and has a problem with repeating things people say. He asked someone for the time, and kept saying 7:45 for about 20 minutes. Any ways, he told just about every person in the parking lot what time it was. Most people laughed, or gave us dirty looks, and honestly I didn't expect that from the phish crowd. When we were sitting on my car, a guy next to us was selling beer and yelling "Sammy Smith" constantly over and over again. After a while of this, my friend turned to the guy, and said "no thanks." It was very polite, and he doesn't know any better. Well, the guy came up to us, and with a dirty look said, "I wasn't talking to you any ways." How about some humanity folks? I understand they don't know he is mentally ill, but it sounded like my friend just joking. Sorry for rambling on. As far as the show goes, it was absolutely amazing! So many unexpected songs! Fishman in his dress, mike in neon green shirt. Mike passed by my car 2 times in a golf cart. I wonder if is bike is ok?? EMOTIONAL RESCUE- I saw this one out at the New Years shows this past year. I think it served it's purpose as the opener. Mike of course, sounded beautiful again on this one. It was fun to dance to though, and everyone dug it! A little more funky than the New Years Eve version. DOWN WITH DISEASE- This was a fairly normal version of the song. There was about a 5-7 minute jam before they ended with the last verse. The jam was tight, and I couldn't wait to see what they would journey into afterwards. I've always had good experiences with Down with Disease, so I just knew that the show was bound to get crazy! From where the band was sitting, all they can see is a huge hill, and some trees scattered out around it. Besides the hill and trees, all you can see is the sky. There was a beautiful sunset which the whole band watched during the 3rd or 4th song in the 1st set. MOMA DANCE- Aww yeeaah!! This new tune is incredibly funky. I've never danced so hard in my life. I had about 5 funk overloads during this one. Didn't care for the singing part of the song, but the 6 minute instrumental intro was smokin! Page was totally jammin out on his crazy little organ thing. I believe they've played this one almost every night on the tour, so I knew I'd hear it. Once you hear this song, you'll realize why they've played it every night! TELA- All right, this was my 20th show, and I've never heard this tune live! It's about time they played it for me! Unfortunately, there was this real annoying girl talking to me during the entire song. So, I basically missed out on it, minus the last minute or so. I hate being nice sometimes. heheh SNEAKIN SALLY- I also heard this one via New Years. I have to say, I love the new arrangement. Super nasty funk style! This song placed second on the most people dancing list of the night, next to Sparkle. This song automatically makes you groove. People I know who won't even dance were getting down. This was only the third time it's been played since 1989. I think they need to bring it back full-time! It sounded exactly like the MSG 12-30-97 version. IT'S ICE- I always love to hear this one. It was performed very well, and I knew they would do something out of the ordinary in the middle of the song. The jam before Lengthwise was normal/slow/tripped out. It was definitely a tight version though. LENGTHWISE- Trey walked over to Jon once the Page solo started in the middle of It's Ice, but Fish didn't grab his vacuum for at least 2-3 minutes. All the sudden I heard the vac roaring, and Mike(?) singing the lyrics. It was really short, but sweet. I never expected to hear this one ever at a show, but I got proved wrong. SPARKLE- Took the blue ribbon on the dance charts. I think every person in the whole pavilion was boogying down. If you saw the dancers with no music playing, you would of assumed the music was a super fast bluegrass breakdown. Normal as always. FUNKY BITCH- This was a fairly normal version. Page was playing a super funky organ on this one. I think it was his clavinet, but I could be wrong. Page had a ton of different organs. Slightly more funky than most. WEDGE- Another surprise for me! This is one of my favorite phish tunes, and they didn't let me down. I was hoping for a Makisupa > Ghost set 2 opener, but this did the trick. No jamming really, but that's fairly normal. POOR HEART- They always play this one in Kansas. I was hoping for a Ginseng Sullivan or an Uncle Penn, but they jammed out, so it was all good. Poor Heart is pretty much always the same, but Mike had a little bass solo this time (more or less everyone else just stopped playing, so it wasn't really a solo I guess). MANGO SONG- I knew they hadn't played this one in awhile. Why are they shelving all these GOOD songs? The crowd was incredibly happy when they pulled this one out. It seemed to last a good deal longer then most of the other songs, but that just could of been me. It was definitely fun, and well played. BROTHER- Each time they started the chorus part of the song again, it sounded completely different. Mainly the drum beats, dealing with the cymbals were changed each time. It kept it very interesting though, wondering each time what would sound different. I'll have to listen to the tapes to verify that one though. It seemed as if the tempo was varied a little too. CONTACT- Normal at first, then all the sudden Trey was talking, and the band was playing softly (i.e. Gamehendge stories). I thought for a second, he was going to tell a story. Any ways, Trey dedicated the song to two people he had met the previous night at a party. He said they had fallen in love, and that they had promised to play them a love song. Naturally, they played contact, and Trey said they would do it Mexican style for them (maybe their Mexican?). I personally don't like Contact all that well, but this version was an exception. It made me move in funny ways. MAZE- WOW! I've heard this at every show I've ever seen probably, and I don't care for it all that much. But WOW! This was one smokin maze, and everyone around me agreed. Trey's guitar solos sounded like an organ to me. Maybe he has some sort of organ/pedal thing? PRINCE CASPIAN- This version was better than the others I've seen live. Their voices were synched better, and they didn't ever sound like Donna in Egypt. Thank goodness, because I kinda like this one. YEM- Total funk jam during the boy-man-shit part of the song. This whole funk thing has made me happy. They jumped on the tramps for about a minute or so. Pretty short tramp session. The vocal jam at the end was the highlight of the evening for me. Talking about some impressive lights!! The lights almost vibrated to the tones of the vocal jam, spinning around in complete circles at the very end. Mike's neon green shirt looked especially cool! This YEM wasn't too long. I would guess around 11-13 minutes tops. CAMEL WALK- I didn't expect another rarely played tune for an encore. I expected some new cover song. I didn't care for this tune too much, but I was pretty damn tired, so I don't think I can give an honest opinion for this one. SQUIRMING COIL- I was on my way home.... * questions?? e-mail me at superfly@solar.sky.net

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