The latest archival release from Phish reaches back nearly three decades to their March 8, 1993 show from the Sweeney Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico, a performance which was previously uncirculated amongst tapers according to LivePhish.
Featuring a setlist filled with Phish classics such as “Colonel Forbin’s Ascent”, “Glide”, “Lizards” and the Jon Fishman oddity “Kung”, this early 1993 show perfectly encapsulates the band’s sound at that time. This show is also bolstered by the recent addition of Page McConnell’s baby grand piano, which had made it’s initial appearance only a month prior.
Phish archivist Kevin Shapiro commented on this performance on the band’s website:
This show took place during a supermoon, at a ballroom inside the former Sweeney Convention Center with a capacity of about 1,200. ‘Wipe Out’ was teased during ‘Llama.’ Trey’s Gamehendge narration during ‘Fly Famous Mockingbird’ started with an explanation of a strange growth on Fish’s arm and building a human chain to the moon ‘until we all are standing on the moon’ and included teases of ‘Hold Your Head Up,’ the 1st performance (albeit partial within the narration) of ‘How High The Moon’ in nearly three years (since 5/28/90), and an ‘Iron Man’ tease. This was the only time the 3-song Ice Sequence of ‘Sparkle’ > ‘It’s Ice’ > ‘Glide’ was ever played. ‘David Bowie’s’ intro included another tease of ‘How High The Moon,’ which was woven subtly into the jam. As the band came on stage for set II, Trey asked ‘did everybody get an apple out there?’ Like most this tour, ‘Big Ball Jam’ ended with [Phish guitarist] Trey [Anastasio], [bassist] Mike [Gordon] and [former crew member] Brad [Sands] creating a human hoop onstage to collect the balls. After the Ball Jam, Trey introduced Brad Sands as “the third section of the basketball hoop.”
Trey played the beginning of ‘My Friend My Friend’ on acoustic guitar, which was mashed up and paired with ‘Kung’ for the first and only time. The ‘You Enjoy Myself’ vocal jam included a repeated supermoon magic word, ‘perigee.’ ‘Amazing Grace’ was performed without microphones. During ‘Love You,’ Fish thanked the crowd for coming out on ‘a beautiful perigee of a night’ and introduced the band and himself (‘I am a mutant’) before an extended vacuum solo. During ‘Hold Your Head Up,’ Fish wished a ‘happy perigee to you all!’ ‘Chalk Dust’ had a blues ending giving Trey a chance to say thanks and ‘go out and enjoy the full moon and we’ll see you this summer at that great outdoor place everybody keeps telling us about.’ This is one of few shows from this era for which no known audience recording circulates.
The previously unreleased show will be available for download/streaming this Friday, May 15 at LivePhish.com.
