------------------------------

From: ra@asuvax.eas.asu.edu (Starcap'n Ra)
Subject: Starcap'n Ra Does Phish in Tempe 4-13-92


     Well April 13 finally rolled around, and as promised in this
newsgroup earlier,  I went to my first Phish show at After the
Gold Rush in Tempe.

     After the Gold Rush is a very nice little venue.  It's a night club
that includes a small section where alcohol is not served, making the show
in effect an all age show. There is quite a bit of room to dance by the
stage, and the floor levels continually rise as you go back from the
stage, giving every table a decent view of the stage.

     From what I gather from reading this newsgroup, I am lucky to have
been able to see the band in such an intimate setting, with waitresses
bringing me beers and such and plenty of room to dance between tables as
well as on the dance floor.  Tickets were $12, incidentally.

     The crowd was your basic deadhead crowd, with many people who were
very familiar with the band.  Actually, let me amend that to say it was
the better portion of your typical deadhead crowd.  Just the nice dancing
deadheads -- none of the drunk fuckups. I ran into one friend -- she said
kind of tounge in cheek, "Yeah, this is my third show," "so to
speak" implied but not said.  Kind of cute.

     So anyway, I promised I'd tell you all what I thought.  I went in
completely cold, deciding not to go out of my way to get a
listen to the band on cd first.

     From having read this group, I expected to have to develop a taste
for the music over some period of time.  This did not happen -- I just
said, "Hmm, what seems to be the problem?  This music is just fine."
On further reflection, I realized it's just the same old bullshit that you
go through with getting people to listen to Grateful Dead jams.  Fuck em,
most people are basically stupid anyway.  If you are so stupid you don't
like this music, then get away from me.

     Speaking of the Dead, everyone had said this band was not really like
them at all, but I was amazed at how similar to the dead they are when
jamming.  Sometimes it was uncanny.  Other times, the jams took on shades
of jazz, latin, and one time even reggae.


     I'm not much of a lyrics person, but voice plays a great role in the
Dead's music. I must say that with the exception of the vacuum cleaner
thing, I almost didn't even notice vocals with this band.  I found them
almost superfluous, and when they were there couldn't really hear them
anyway.  For the most part, this band seemed to be about plain good hot
home cookin.

     My only disappointment with the jams was that sometimes they'd start
something that really sounded like it was going to be hauntingly
interesting, but then the lead guitarist would come in and trivialize it
with some wimpy simplistic major chord thing. The jams lacked the haunting
quality of, say, some of the more psychedelic Major Lingo stuff.  Does
this band feel no angst at all? Is everything just bouncy peaches and
cream? Never a tear to one's eye, like when the Dead strike up Althea?

     But anyway, I had a really good time and am glad I made the effort to
see the show.

--Starcap'n Ra       {ames,gatech,husc6,rutgers}!ncar!noao!asuvax!kennedy
                        {allegra,decvax,ihnp4,oddjob}--
                                          ^---------------The Wrong Choice
                             internet: kennedy@asuvax.asu.edu

------------------------------