Thirteen years ago today Phish’s much-beloved Island Tour came to as close in Providence, RI. Over the course of four shows, which were organized quickly to give the band a break from prepping the Story of the Ghost LP, Phish built on the funk-laden improvisational style it had honed in 1997 and debuted three new songs they were working on. All in all, the Island Tour stands out as one of the best four-night stands in the group’s history.
For this morning’s video post we’ve compiled playlists of all four Island Tour concerts made up of newly-ripped videos uploaded by YouTube user Duanebase. Back in 2005 Phish put out perfectly-mixed official recordings of each show that are must-haves if you don’t own them already. Let’s go to the videotape…
April 2, 1998 – Nassau Coliseum
Phish – April 2, 1998 [Entire Show]
READ ON for videos of the final three Island Tour gigs…
Chicago-based sextet Umphrey’s McGee kicked off UMBowl II last night at Park West around 8PM and by the time the band left the stage for the last time nearly five hours later, the audience had been treated to four “quarters” of music, each with a different theme, they had a hand in creating.
[When Harry Met Sally Parody]
During the first quarter, which was billed as a “Choose Your Own Adventure experience,” fan voting via text message determined the direction the band would go. The audience voted for guitarist Brendan Bayliss to sing the lyrics to In The Kitchen in Spanish, had the band embark on a “Daft Punk-esque” electronica jam out of a cover of Bonafide Lovin’ and even had Umphrey’s finish All In Time from last year’s UMBowl within Q1. The second quarter was a Stew Art event that featured Umphrey’s jamming on descriptions provided by the crowd including “Classical Regulate,” “Tool Meets Umphrey’s” and “I’m In A Video Game.”
For the evening’s third set, Umphrey’s debuted a concept called the “Special Teams Quarter” that saw different lineups on each song performed. While most of the formations stuck to current members of the band, former drummer Mike Mirro replaced current drummer Kris Myers and Jake Cinninger sat out for Much Obliged as done by the group’s 1998 lineup and stuck around to augment the current lineup on the rarely played In Violation of Yes that ended the set. READ ON for more on UMBowl II including the setlist…
