Woot!

Just finished up 11/08/1990 Very nice show. I enjoyed it a lot. I really enjoyed John Popper on harmonica YEM through fire was great, especially on the BBFCFM that worked out quite interesting.
There is a SBD Flac version here http://bt.etree.org/details.php?id=549830 which worked out well because I downloaded it a few weeks ago and was planning on listening to this show next and @Lemuria posts it here.
Give this show a listen other than the hiss it sounds pretty good. 1 of the better sounding early shows.
I'd like to give it a 3.7 I'll bump it to a 4 I know someone will adjust it.

11/9/89 - This whole show is played at a pretty slow tempo, which is not bad in and of itself, but it's also pretty sloppy. On the plus side is an I Didn't Know opener with Fish introduced as "J. Edgar Hoover" (add yet another Fishman nickname to the list) and a Take the A Train that has really nice Page and Mike solos and a Frankenstein tease (which I found hilarious). But even in A Train, Trey stops to tune a string at the beginning, which sounds bad. The Golgi is terrible, and in The Curtain, at one point, I swear I hear Trey groan in dismay. GTBT, McGrupp, Lizards...all shaky at best, bordering on sloppy. I do approve of the McGrupp > Who Do, We Do! > PYITE transitions, but beyond that and the A Train, I don't find much to get excited about. Almost all of the YEM jam is missing, cutting from tramps section to vocal jam, but it would have had to have been one the great all-time YEMs in order to pull another star out of me. I'm going to go two stars, and I think that may be generous.

Last, but not least, I am constantly reminded when listening to these shows that People for a Louder Mike should receive a Nobel prize. Mike is almost inaudible on his opening Weekapaug solo! Grrr!

I turned 3 years old the day Phish played this show. Almost Twenty Years Later and I'm just now hearing it.

12/6/1991
False start from Fish on Foam - someone forgot to turn on his snares. Cool vocal effects that I'm assuming must be effects and not just acoustics since this is a SBD and I've heard similar stuff for Foam, among others, around this time period. Everything here is good, though I have one complaint: Trey is way higher than everyone else in the mix (go figure), and it makes for an unbalanced sound. Reba A little sloppiness from Trey during the "chase" scene, but not too bad - I've definitely heard much worse. Jam isn't great and rather short, but it's about what I'd expect from a '91 first set second song Reba jam. Uncle Pen is good; solos are all pretty well played, though Page ends kind of awkwardly. Vocal effects are back in Coil, trippier this time. Short Page outro, I haven't heard any other Coil's from this age, but I'm guessing this is characteristic. Jazzin' it up with Magilla - the Chairman puts one down for you; still waiting for this bust out. This is a good Landlady, not the best, but good nonetheless. Guelah but no Asse. Something happens to Trey's guitar, but it leads to what is probably one of my favorite Trey banter lines now - "Cut it Fish, cut the shit". I Didn't Know a little fast - probably a representation of Trey's frustration/pissed-off-ness. Short vacuum solo, but good. Finish up and end set short.

It's Ice is a tad bit slow for my tastes, but it's decent. Pre tick-tock Ice as well? I didn't know those existed - different but not necessarily in a bad way. A nice little break with Eliza - what a bust out this would be for NYE run - I'm thinking early second set 12/30, maybe after a four-song rage-fest that opens the set, segued to an appropriate ballad. They pick up the pace again with Sparkle. This one gets up pretty close to the tempo I like but still not at the "reality melting" speed I look for (see 4/5/98). Early second set YEM - where I like it best. Apparently there's an alligator in the audience - strange, I wouldn't think you'd see many of those in VT. PAGE RAGE - I mean, he really gets down, pitch bending and all, but Trey doesn't carry over the momentum, which I find slightly disappointing, even though he picks it back up shortly after. However, a nice Oom Pa Pa signal kind of makes up for it. BnD is good, but not as exciting as some others. Short, just-okay vocal jam goes straight onto Horn. This is the first pre-baby grand Horn I've heard and I don't like it nearly as much, though that's not to say that I don't like it. Trey has a few bad notes at the die down in Divided Sky, and starts to again in the solo, but he saves it and even has a little help from Page - it leads to some more atonal stuff that is interesting when juxtaposed with the major mode. A lot of times Tela seems to me to be kind of hit or miss, and this one definitely hits. Followed up by...yeah, that's right, LLAMA RAGE. Fish lays it down in Whipping Post, as does Page, and this is probably some of the best drumming I've ever heard out of Trey. Interesting Possum intro with "Wait", kind of a mind-f*ck, then there's a cut and we never get to actually hear Possum, or maybe that's the point? Anyone care to explain? Short but good Lawn Boy with a nice little solo from Trey aka "Lawn Boy" (-Page) and right on to a rockin' Rocky Top to close out this show.

This was an okay show, despite the problems with Trey's guitar that caused Guelah and subsequently the first set to get cut short. I think it deserves somewhere around 2.6-2.9 stars (again, despite the first set troubles), so I'm gonna go on the higher end with this one as well and give it 3 and maybe other votes can balance us back down.

@TheEmu said:

@PHiSHEAD22 said:

It's Ice is a tad bit slow for my tastes, but it's decent. Pre tick-tock Ice as well? I didn't know those existed - different but not necessarily in a bad way.

One of the many things I've enjoyed about doing these unrated shows is discovering little things like that I wasn't previously aware of. Isn't it great?

Yeah, it really is. I was surprised and intrigued when Fish just kept playing instead of going to the blocks.

@PHiSHHEAD22, @TheEmu you guys are machines this week. I'm done til Monday.
I got my tease from that 11/9/89
Dixie in Weekapaug thanks to Scott. I'm reworking on that Yamar one though. he seems to think Universal theme. I hear a schilderens type theme going on around the 6:20 mark

By the way, this week's selections bring up an interesting question: Do you consider soundcheck material when rating shows? So far none of these soundchecks would cause me to change my rating, but what if it's a borderline show that has a really cool soundcheck jam? I was thinking about this yesterday and going back and forth quite a bit. On the one hand, I think many of us are rating shows just on the music, right? So why should it matter that it wasn't a part of the actual show? Then again, I would have a hard time downgrading a show because of a sloppy or boring soundcheck, so is it a double standard? I dunno. What say you?

Soundchecks are a bonus IMHO. They can make a show more memorable, but otherwise are forgotten.

11/9/89 is a bit of a dud. The word-of-mouth history a few years later was that the concert had been sparsely attended - unlike the keg parties on either side of the glass-paneled cafeteria where the concert took place. Those party rooms - also well-windowed - would have been readily visible from inside the "venue." I can't blame The Phish if they were kinda bummed-out and/or distracted...especially if they witnessed mass consumption of some truly awful off-brand beer like Knickerbocker.

12/5/91 - First set seems pretty average. Highlight I guess would be Possum (I was glad to see someone caught the "For Love of Money" tease). 2nd set, though, is pretty darn good, I think. Starts off with an excellent, ripping Tweezer. Really good Tube, too. There is some flubbage at the start of Foam, and then toward the end something really crazy ass happens with the vocals when Trey starts to sing, like an effect gone haywire. This sets Fish off with some crazy screaming and makes for quite the unusual Foam ending. Mike's is good, and I think Mike is doing the bassline from "Rapper's Delight" but I'll need to double check that. 'Paug is decent. Another weird vocal thing when Trey yells "ONZE!" in Sloth, I wonder what that is. Coil is pretty shaky, but the I Didn't Know should be heard! Extreme vocal wackiness, especially towards the end, and before Fish's vacuum solo, Trey goes "Henrietta, Henrietta, Henrietta yeah, yeah, yeah, suck that thing, suck that thing, brother!" Awesome. Crazy intro to MSO, too, and ya always gotta be glad for a Glide! Enjoyed this quite a bit, so I'm going 4 stars. Check out the I Didn't Know for a laff!

12/6/91 - First thing's first: The Dog Log in the soundcheck is pretty amusing. First, as is so often the case, they play it for Paul, and call it "Rude Log" and then Mike starts in with "Rude's Log, Stardate 12-6." Then there is a whole bunch of banter, especially from Trey to Marley, telling her that the song is about and for her. Finally, towards the end, there are Jeff Holdsworth references, and the last line is changed to "Where's Holdsworth gone?" As far as the show, I found it to be pretty much average. The shouts of "Alligator" in YEM appear to be in reference to the Shaggy Dog soundcheck from the day before (which itself included lots of shouts of "Alligator?!?!?!" . YEM is average, though, and the B&D segment is kind of lame (though the vocal jam is decent). The highlight for me is actually Fishman announcing "This is an audience that needs to be punished" before launching into Whipping Post and a brutal Henrietta guitar solo. There are few things more frightening than a Henrietta guitar solo, but judging from the other reviews of this gig, it was merited. I was ready to give this show two stars, because all of Possum except for the intro leading into "Wait" was cut, and I thought it would be terrible to end a set with that 5 minute "Wait" business. Alas, though, it was just cut, so I'll go three stars.

Oh I need to get back to this. I have had a lot going on this week and not the time.
Good job @TheEmu