Search - Phish :: Live Phish Vol. 1: 12/14/95, Broome County Arena, Binghamton, New York

C[L] X (1/2 p V^2) X S > C[D] X (1/2 p V^2) X A

My Uncle Stu | Boston | 06/06/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"What a great show! I can see why the boys thought this date worthy of the first release in this series. The energy is high and the jams are great. It's one of those nights, you can hear it clearly, the band was getting it, hitting on all cylinders. But more than that, the crowd was great. They were listening and sending the energy back. The crowd knew they were getting a special show, and they were returning the love. The band knew that the crowd knew. The crowd knew the band knew that crowd knew, and so on, a positive feedback loop that spirals faster and faster, accelerating, torqued and twisted, achieving liftoff. You can tell it was one of those glorious nights where the trippers in the crowd outnumbered the drunks.



The ten-minute jam at the end of Split Open and Melt (one of the rare Phish tunes that could actually be described as sexy) is phenomenal. Everyone is jamming hard but also they are jamming together. Frankenstein is another great high energy instrumental to close out the first set. By the way, I loved it that Phish would give you a high-powered first set. Sometimes the first set would be the more intense set. Contrast that to the Grateful Dead who, at least by the time I was on the scene, had to sandbag through the first set because of limitations of stamina, effort, or both. The second set contains more intense jamming, including a great Tweezer > Timber > Tweezer, keyboard army (a good dose of Page on the keybaord is a good sign, he's far from the most charismatic of the band but he may well be the most talented musician), and then a nice jam on the infectious doo-wop Halley's Comet. Some of these releases from the live series seemed to have been picked for release because they played a lot of their popular tunes, or they are historic shows, such as the legendary Halloween shows or Live Phish Volume Four with some nice ambient jamming from their Japan tour, but this first volume is just an all-around fun, high energy show. Makes for good driving music."

A great way to kick off the live series

Moses Alexander | Alabama, USA | 12/12/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I'm an avid Phish fan, but I'm not one of those people that thinks my favorite band can do no wrong. I've seen them play bad shows and I've seen them play shows that made me forget other music even exists. I've listened to hundreds of shows on tape, and here's my humble assesment of this show.LIVE PHISH 01 is a wonderful way to start the long awaited series of live Phish concerts. Set 1: Page McConnell is all over the place right out of the gate. His solos in "Suzy" absolutely rock, I haven't heard page go off like that on "Suzy" in a long time, he follows with some rocket-fueled organ on "Llama" then on a smoother plane he absolutely tears "Foam" up. This is probably the best version of "Foam" I've ever heard. Set I also includes "Makisupa," "SOAM," "Tela" an earlier arrangement of "Taste" and closes with "Frankenstein" (yes, the Edgar Winter song.) A pretty rocking first set in my opinion.Set II: As usual in Phishdom, the second set is where things get out of hand (in a good way of course.) "The Curtain" opens things up and is always a pleasure to hear. The "Tweezer > Timber > Tweezer" section is untouchable, especially after the return to "Tweezer." This is Trey Anastasio's guitar on fire folks; Trey is having a severely good night here. For people that like to hear Trey wail, might I suggest coming here for that :) The rare "Keyboard Army" makes an appearance (interesting but not earth-shaking.) "Halley's Comet" comes next to the now blown minds of those in attendance (this is the best "Halley's Comet" I've ever heard...not to mention the fastest!) The set is almost over now but "Halley's" segues into "NICU," which eventually melts into a sparse spacey jam providing some much needed breathing room after some heavy jamming before flowing into show closer, "Slave to the Traffic Light." A good cover, Hendrix's "Bold as Love" is the encore. This show is on from the first note. I'm hurling tons of superlatives at this show, and its probably only the 3rd best in the LIVE PHISH series so far (Fukuoka, Japan & Worcester, MA are top two so far in my book.)All in all, this is an amazing show of Phish doing what they do best!"

Great Show, Average Recording

Brooks Williams | 09/20/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The first Live Phish release is a gem from 1995. As of this review, it is the only Live Phish release to fit onto two discs. Looking at the setlist alone, one can tell that it's a stellar show. The Halley's Comet > NICU > Slave to the Traffic Light is phenominal. The Tweezer > Timber > Tweezer > Keyboard Army is excellent as well. This release is packed with songs that have become concert rarities like Tela, The Curtain, Horn and the aforementioned Keyboard Army. The version of Taste played at this show predates the studio version and the difference is huge. This was back when Taste was called The Fog That Surrounds.

While the song choices are excellent, the sound is a bit lacking. As opposed to using the 32 track recordings used to create A Live One or Slip Stick and Pass, a matrix recording was used (soundboard mixed with an audience microphone). While this method captures the crowd noise better, it does hurt the clarity of the sound coming from the band. Overall, the sound is very good and better than most of the bootlegs you'll find being traded around. I would have to say that this release is definately worth the money.

Finally, the packaging. The discs come in a folded sleeve that (kind of) fits into a cardboard box. The sleves are meant to be put into a book. While this is fine for the rabid collector, I think it's no good for the average Joe, who won't want to shell out more money so that (s)he can put the sleeves in a book."