From [email protected] Sat Sep 12 23:35:41 1998
Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1998 17:53:58 EDT
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Kaz's Prague II review Modified

Phish - Monday, July 6, 1998
Lucerna Theatre
Prague, Czech Republic

Set 1:

Buried Alive             8:26pm
AC/DC Bag ->
Jam ->
Ghost ->                   8:38pm
Jam!! ->
Delay Loop Jam 
Cities                      8:50pm
Limb by Limb
Train Song
Roget                      9:10pm
Maze
Golgi Apparatus      9:30pm
                               9:36pm


set 2:
Julius                       10:16pm
?Meat?
Piper ->                    10:30pm
Jam ->
Makisupa Policeman 10:50pm
David Bowie             10:58pm
Lovin' Cup                 11:09pm
                                11:18pm
Encore:
Possum
                               11:33pm


 Second night in Prague and the theatre seems a lot less crowded and a lot
less smoky, still very hot however!  Beer price was raised 5 Czech Crowns from
last night, which is about 6 cents, they could've raised a full 30 crowns
(about $1) and people would still have payed it, you were getting .5 liters,
and when the beer ran out the vodka and whiskey was flowing.  The crowd was
smaller then last night, maybe a lot of people got a head start on to
Barcelona, and there seemed to be a lot more Europeans.  Prague was an empty
city this weekend accept for the tourists since it was long weekend.  Monday
was a national holiday, Jan Hus Day.  A comment on the fans overseas.
Phishheads on the streets of Prague tried to keep a low profile.  I wore a
Phish shirt while sightseeing during both concert days, and whenever I came
upon another phishfan I would offer a small greeting by saying "hey", I
received very little in return, I wasn't hoping for a hug, but didn't even get
a smile, a small shy glance was what I got at best.  I guess I should be happy
nobody asked me to shower or crash at my hotel room, but I was disappointed at
the slight lack of camaraderie. I don't know if the fans were shy, or didn't
want to attract attention to themselves as being American or whatever...  Both
nights allowed cameras into the theatre, or should I say the search at the
entrance didn't look hard for cameras, so the amount of cameras at the second
night was triple of that for night one, flashes going off everywhere!  There
should be many pictures on the net (and a lot of tape covers), from these past
two shows, if there aren't already.  Finally, tonight the energy level of the
band was off the scale, the jams tonight were STRONG and HARD (I will use
these words throughout the review since they seem to be the best fit
adjectives for describing them).  The jams out of Ghost and Piper were
complete all out, driving, hard, strong jams.  Trey was in the lead with the
bands full support on both.  Definitely the better show of the two nights.

     Set One opened with a rough, edgy Buried Alive with Trey offering a very
harsh solo.  AC/DC Bag was standard followed by a slight delay loop thing, and
a little funky jam which went into the monster that was....

    Ghost!  The jam out of Ghost was amazing.  It was driving and powerful,
all out HARD!  All out Rock and Roll!  Trey was going bonkers!  Trey once
claimed that he is taking a "back seat", not anymore, this was all out Trey
and the band filling in perfectly behind his lead, perfectly!!!!!!!  Such a
Backing of support from Mike, Fish and Page I have yet not seen.  This, for me
was a level which I have not yet seen from this band, it was a stronger more
professional side then I have ever witnessed.  It was Trey leading the charge,
not sitting back, and the band doing the best job of complementing him that I
have ever seen.  This jam finished with a delay loop jam that just stopped on
a dime.  Trey pumps fist in the air a couple of times, and then the same ghost
jam continues as an introduction into...

    Cities, which actually was a little disappoiting, the playing was flawed
by the whole band and the song was just poor in general.  Trey solos to end
the song, which may have been it's only saving moment, but all and all not
that good in any aspect.  

    Limb by Limb had more of a Crazy Fingers feel to it then I ever remember
it having, from start to finish.  The pickless Trey on the Trainsong solo was
well played and the song itself was also well sung by Mike.

      I am unsure of the next song, some say it was Roget (the new one, not
Relax the world will spin) and some say it was Ficus, others said it was
Shafty.  They never said Ficus in the lyrics. Nor was it the oblivious fool
lyrics. So it is safe to say that it was Roget.  All members of the band
contributed to the singing, but I really couldn't get a feel for this one, I
was concentrating on all the lyrics.  However this song needs a lot of work,
especially getting together all the lyrics into some type of harmony or order.
Sorry for the confusion on the title and on the lack of content.  Not really
much there however.

       Maze came next and featured a nice organ solo from Page and a stampede
like introduction to his solo from Trey.  Trey stops before his Release and
awkwardly thanks the crowd for the past two nights. Fishman giving him a
confused "what are you talking about look". Then the jam continues.

      Golgi Apparatus was played poorly, with even Trey shaking his head at
the attempt, then he buckles down hard, concentrates and gives it another
couple of tries, and gets something good out of it towards the end.


  Set Two began well with a danceable Julius and that's exactly what everybody
was doing, spinning on the sides and alcoves, bopping and grooving on the
floor, a good way to begin a set.

    The next song had the lyrics "ghost on my street" so I am assuming it was
Meat.  Somebody told me that this song was about Trey's experience on heroine,
this however could be a complete tour rumor so please take it very lightly.
The same goes for this song as for the previous new song, I was concentrating
on getting the lyrics, and both songs seem to need work.  Not much sticking
out in my mind as extraordinary, sorry.  The song had a good flowing jam out
of it which the band stop/started 2-3x's at the end.  

     Then came Piper!!!!  The lead in was very fast paced.  Man, I wish they
would slow it down and let it melodically build and build and build, but it
went into the hardest Piper jam I have heard.  The band once again strong
behind Trey, the 5000 horsepower engine behind the steady but aggressive
driver.  Once again all out rock and roll like the Ghost jam in set 1, not as
good however, that one could not be topped, but this one definitely did not
disappoint either.  The jam then went into a softer, slower jam with Page on
the right side of the keyboard playing the piano high.  All of a sudden the
reggae beat emerges and we surprisingly get Makisupa Policeman.

    The Makisupa was an older version, with no one liners from Trey (like
"Dank" or "4:20") just the regular lyrics with "state police came to my house"
substituted in for policeman, if I heard him correctly.  The Makisupa included
a Page solo and a Fish solo, in which Trey said there is a band rule to
whistle whenever Fish begins to ramble on when talking, so if this solo gets
to long people should began to whistle.  However the crowd was kind and was
never able to get up a loud enough whistle to cut Fish short, so the band just
went on it's own way after Fish's short all high hat, snare drum solo
finishing Makisupa.

      David Bowie had a nice but quick soft intro, and the crowd seemed to go
nuts upon hearing the first chords. Nothing spectacular in the Bowie or the
Lovin' Cup to follow.  The Lovin' Cup was well played and a fun song as
always.

      The Possum encore was solid, Mike serious on the lyrics, Page laboring
on the back keyboard and actually snarling at crowd at one point?!?!? What's
wrong with Page? 


Highlights:
Ghost ->
Jam!!!!  (first star)
Maze
Julius
Piper ->
Jam
Makisupa Policeman
Lovin' Cup

Tourist highlights included:
Wenceslas Square (Dubcek's and Havel's balcony at No. 36)
Church of Our Lady of the Snows
Tyl Theatre (Mozart's Don Giovanni premiered)
Josefov
Parizka Trida
Metronome (former site of a Stalin statue, now a huge metronome)
Convent of St. Agnes

Thanks for the time,
Peace,
Kaz

[email protected]

Date:    Tue, 2 Mar 1999 17:48:41 -0500
From:    Jeremy Welsh [email protected]
Subject: The Praha Piper, 6 July 1998

(I don't know if there has been a Piper "file" started, or if this one has
been reviewed extensively, but I will give it a shot.)
     I knew that night that this Piper was pretty amazing as I was grooving
away, sweating, in that under-ground theater in Prague.  But I am still blown
away, eight months later, as I listen to the second set of that night.
     The first night of this run was pretty good.  A fun show, with a nice Gin
opener for the second set, Hood, and McGrupp, and the flub->jam by Trey in Fee.
 But things made a turn for the better the second night and the boys really
showed what they can do.  This was the sort of show I was expecting when I
traveled to Europe.
     The first set was highlighted by a great AC/DC
Bag->Ghost->reprise->Cities.  Great jamming and communication by the band
this early into the show, with super clean segues.  The first verse of
Cities was also played to the tune of Ghost, which is kind of cool.
Roggae was a nice first for me.  And the communication continued in Maze,
when the band stopped on a dime to let Trey say a few words, only to pick
the jam back up where it stopped!  Absolutely amazing.
     The second set opened with a nice Julius, jammed out a bit.  This was
my second Julius in three shows, the first being from Cleveland of 97, and
both were rocking versions. (surprising, eh?)  Meat was a neat first, I
guess. But it was with the opening sounds of Piper that things were
completely turned up a notch.
     This version starts out pretty standard, with the first batch of
lyrics coming at about 2 minutes.  The song then quickly starts speeding
up only 4 minutes in, acknowledged by some cheering in the crowd.  This
speeding up is marked at 4:30 or so by Fishman banging away on a cymbal
and with Mike starting to "bomb" away on his bass.  At 5 minutes, the
chorus picks back up again, faster to match the music, with more cymbal
crashes.  Around 5:30, Trey starts a little "machine-gunning".  7 minutes
in, Trey hits some notes repetitively, with a couple quick blitzkrieg
solos. (I am sorry for all these weaponry adjectives, but is hard to
describe how fast and intensely they are jamming right here.  Nothing like
other Pipers, that start to jam and become beautiful - they are just
ripping this up.) For a quick 10 seconds or so around 9:00, Mike moves to
the front to do a little solo, with more Trey quickly following.  All this
while, Page is banging away on his piano, playing chords.  Not like
Medeski banging, but Page moving up and down the keys, playing fitting
chords.  This continues through 10:30 with more bombs by Mike.  At around
13, Trey starts to play a pairing of five notes that sound like the
beginning five notes to Gimme Some Lovin', but in a
darker way if that makes sense.
     The song seems to slow down a lot at around 14 minutes, as Page plays
around a little on piano.  There really is no resemblance to Piper left.
At 15 minutes, the jam just about stops, when a delay loop kicks in.  Trey
is playing
a little staccato above the loop.  It sounds as though around 18:00 that
Mike and Fishman start playing this slow hip-hop sort of beat (in 4/4?).     
     And then boom, right into Makisupa Policeman at 19:00 (give or take a
bit).  19:30 - "Woke up this morning, stink kind in my head / woke up this
morning, there was stink kind all over my bed."  Later in this loose
Makisupa, Trey has Fishman solo until all of the crowd starts to whistle.
Kind of funny.
     The set continues, with a hot David Bowie and a great Loving Cup
(they can't seem to go wrong with that song, IMO) to close.  And a nice
surprise of Possum as the encore.
     I hope the review made sense.  Definitely worth a listen or two.  I
mean, this Piper just rocks - they never even go into the pretty little
piece at the end, the part they added in Nassau if my memory serves me
right.  Thanks for reading, and I am willing to entertain some trade
offers if anyone wants this show.
     Spread the music.

jeremy                                 

"The sun never knew how great it is
     until it struck the side of a building."

-Louis Kahn

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