http://myspace.com/phisharchives blog entry 25
(Posted 03/24/06 6:18p EST)

the number 25 is significant for many reasons. in my microcosmic blog world, 25 flew by quickly between last november and now. six minutes is the new six months. following the stream of consciousness from the murat opens many doors, but one that's wedged open for the rest of my days is the memory of phish's 6/18/94 performance at chicago's uic pavilion.

there's the obvious appeal of the show itself, with life altering renditions of david bowie, tweezer and yem. this show also has near-perfect flow and incredible combinations like wilson > rift opener, mango song > down with disease, tweezer > lifeboy (another tie to the murat beyond my midwest theory) and the show-capping bouncing > tweezer reprise encore. divided sky during which trey communed with the light creatures is another ultra-high moment. the most heralded combination of the show and indeed a high moment in all of phish history is the set II opener - peaches en regalia > "mind left body" jam > david bowie. this show is a real beauty and the bowie must be heard again and again.

like august '93, summer '94 is legendary among phishheads for good reason. the phrase "you snooze you lose" was our mantra and truer words have never been spoken. as a strapping 25 year-old law student, i was able to catch two runs of shows that summer. the first started with uic the night after the "oj show" (ouch) and ended in cleveland the night before the "game-hoist" show (double ouch). during that week, we celebrated the solstice in fire-prone cincinnati, read the book and saved our lives in columbus, got poured on at the phoenix plaza (a/k/a roof of parking garage - where tickets were so plentiful they were littered around the entrance at showtime), returned to the murat for another stunning performance and landed back at nautica stage for the second time in less than a year. it was a once in a lifetime chance to see the band at their most creative in extremely variable venues with a growing circle of fans touring so as not to miss a note of it.

being a fairly responsible guy, i left my peeps on the road to return to my summer internship at canada's house of commons in beautiful ottawa after the 6/25 cleveland show. no regrets, right? thanks to a visionary professor and an outstanding sponsor and staff from the fine province of nova scotia, my experience was excellent. in addition to researching the timely separation issue, i spent countless hours in the house chamber during question period, rode with my dad along the rideau canal where he'd skated as a kid and generally made the most of being a stranger in (my native) strange land. as icing on the cake, i was conveniently living at u. of ottawa when the band caught back up with me at the congress center a couple weeks later. after a night with sandsio "clubbing" in the bizarre community of hull across the bridge and an epic show the next day (don't miss the 7/5 ottawa gin > lifeboy and curtain > letter to jimmy page, among other great moments) my friend emily and i bid adieu to ottawa u, packed my summer belongings into my trusty toyota with taping gear on top and caught the rest of the tour. but july is a subject for another blog or three.

starting with laguna seca days (what would blog 25 be without a nod to this event's acronym?) and ending with sugarbush, this tour cemented the band's place as a live powerhouse before the public took notice. the entire tour is worth close attention. luckily, excellent tapes exist of most of it with credit to a developing gang of dedicated tapers, the advent of dat and a couple helpful crew members who kept soundboards flowing to the people. if you don't have them, you should check out the two livephish releases from this tour LP10 (columbus 6/22/94) and LP02 (7/16/94 tour closer at sugarbush) along with uic and so many others. LP02 is currently sold out but we expect it back in stock sometime this spring along with other missing livephish titles.

the gin-that-broke-the-mold made way for mike's > lifeboy in an extended and much-deserved myspace nod to the '93 murat. now mike's > lifeboy yields to the smoking "mind left" > bowie from 6/18/94 at uic that has been blowing great minds since its inception.

have a great weekend. Enjoy!

--ks

p.s. don't forget to vote for the jammy awards. phish "new year's eve 1995" is nominated for best archival album (as are some other excellent releases including monk/coltrane and gd fillmore west). mike is also nominated for best studio album with leo and tour of the year with the duo. voting is underway now at jammys.com.